After 15 consecutive years of angel investing, I hit pause in 2024. It's now been a full 12 months without writing a check, marking the longest hiatus in my angel "career." There isn't enough transparency in angel investing, and my past posts on the topic have been reader favorites. So I decided to share why I stepped back from angel investing after backing 54 companies and what I'm doing instead.…
After 15 years and 53 angel investments, I hit pause —and then pulled back the curtain on how my portfolio really performed (ironically, right before my first portco IPO). The TL;DR? Angel investing is overly romanticized, usually opaque, and often stacked against early believers. So I called up my podcast co-host, Michael Esquivel—partner at Fenwick & West, Stanford professor, angel investor, and…
This piece is a collaboration between me and Carolyn Witte, the founder of Tia and a relentless advocate for women’s health. Carolyn just launched her women’s health newsletter, the XX Factor . Together, we wanted to dig deeper into something we’ve both witnessed firsthand: a funding cliff women’s health companies face when they “grow up” and hit a wall. It is no secret that women’s health…
In 2020, I agreed to be an advisor to a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a company whose sole purpose was to go public, raise money, and acquire an actual company. This SPAC was specifically targeting the digital health space, and I thought I could help connect them with potential targets. In return, I could learn more about this hot area of innovation financing and get a piece of the…
Disclaimer: I’m an investor in several companies in this cohort, including Cityblock, Kindbody, Omada Health, Everly Health, and Viz.ai. 2020-2022 were exceptional years for venture funding, with healthcare founders raising at generous valuations. During this period, often referred to as ZIRP (zero-interest rate period, which was technically from March 2020 to March 2022), cash was both cheap and…
The following is a snippet from my upcoming book that was ultimately cut. The profitable world of paywalled research The majority of academic research is published in journals controlled by a few commercial publishers, which make up a $19 billion global industry. Journals profit immensely from tax-payer funded research, and usually charge exorbitant fees for access to articles that most tax-payers…
Ali and I on a panel together at the Rock Health Summit in 2018 I first met Ali Diab and the Collective Health team a decade ago when Rock Health made an early investment in the company. Over the past decade, I've watched Collective Health grow from a promising, scrappy startup to a leader in the digital health space, consistently delivering on its promise to make health benefits work better for…
One of the hardest things every founder and manager has to do in their job is letting people go. Whether it's due to poor performance or a restructuring, there are right and wrong ways to handle it. Below is an edited transcript from a Closing Time podcast episode on the topic, with my friend and co-host Michael Esquivel, and special guest employment lawyer Sheeva Ghassemi. We cover: Common…
A 2023 recap.
Digital health has been the subject of much attention… But the stock performance of publicly traded digital health companies tells a somewhat disappointing tale.
BMI cut-offs for egg freezing perpetuate reproductive health inequities.
A list of articles I’ve written to help you navigate this journey.
The top 15 podcasts on healthcare and digital health.
If you’re looking for a database of digital health companies, look no farther.
There is no doubt that women face more significant scrutiny and expectation to fulfill the role of motherhood in a specific way
A call to get more women on cap tables
A look at food, sleep, stress, inequality, and more
Comparing the healthcare systems of Spain, Italy, Iceland, Japan, and Switzerland
Part III: The Unicorns
Part II: The Framework