By MATTHEW HOLT
It’s JPM week. Meaning a ton of startup bros wandering round San Francisco questioning who all of the biotech guys and funding banker greyhairs are and why they’re nonetheless carrying fits.
Unlikely to be carrying fits are the digital well being youngsters and the VCs they’re making an attempt to search out. The glory days are lengthy gone. Athenahealth and Venrock are now not having competing events (or events in any respect) and a lot of the ravenous startup youngsters on the lookout for free booze and meals are attempting to scrounge invitations to legislation corporations who’re nonetheless charging $1500 an hour for affiliate time earlier than their shoppers discover that ChatGPT will do the identical for $20 a month.
However enterprise in digital well being continues on, even when a lot of it’s subtexting cramdown M&A, resembling final week’s General Catalyst deal funding Transcarent’s takeover of Accolade. However I’m probably not right here to speak concerning the digital well being VC market per se.
What I do wish to discuss is who’s getting VC. This was prompted (to my sluggish Small Language Mannequin) by a feminine good friend who has been a CEO and was as soon as a star at a quick rising digital well being firm. She instructed me that being feminine was now an lively hindrance to elevating cash. Each time some tech bro on LinkedIn says how they raised $XXm in 12 minutes with no pitch deck, you’ll see numerous feminine CEOs explode in anger.
You don’t want me to repeat the numbers. Girls & minorities discover it exhausting to lift cash. First time founders get an enormous run round. Even when issues have been loopy in 2020-2022 the survey of startups I ran confirmed that it was very exhausting for early stage firms to lift cash. Now it’s the apocalypse.
That’s to not say some feminine CEOs aren’t elevating. Simply final week Nema Well being run by former Well being 2.0 star intern (and now training Psychiatrist–which can be extra related!) Sofia Noori raised $14m Collection A to expand its amazing PTSD cure program. Maven’s Kate Ryder raised another $125m late final yr to maintain increasing their ladies’s well being program, and have to be viewing that elusive IPO in the end. And at a JPM celebration I bumped into a few of Joanna Strober’s workforce, reminding me that I assumed Midi Well being had maybe raised an excessive amount of cash when it pulled down another $60m last year–however apparently it’s going gangbusters. There’s additionally Equip for consuming issues with Kristina Saffran & Erin Parks on the helm (over $95m in so far) and likely a couple of extra I’m forgetting. However generally they’re the exceptions.
What’s not the exception is the tech bros elevating for AI. Clearly the large gamers listed below are OpenAI, Anthropic et al flattening billions to construct their AI infrastructure. Anybody with a 401K might be hoping that every one works out given how a lot of the worth of Nvidia, Tesla, Google, Meta, Microsoft & Apple appears to be primarily based on a maybe legendary AI plentiful future. However there’s loads in well being care. Simply this week Innovaccer ($275m), Qventus ($105m) & Truveta ($320m) all backed up the truck, all to mix information, AI and hope it should clear up a few of well being care’s troubles.These CEOs are males. However that’s not what I’m complaining about.
You may also be a person and get away with much more. Hippocratic AI’s CEO Manjul Shah ran his final firm HealthIQ into the bottom. He screwed over suppliers, staff and clients to at least the tune of $17m in unpaid bills in line with Katie Jennings at Forbes, then took another $170k personally out of the bankrupt company after he’d left. Was he a pariah to the buyers who’s misplaced over $200m? Not within the least. The identical buyers A16Z and Normal Catalyst gave him one other $50m instantly to construct an AI nurse chatbot firm, and apparently well being techniques are lining as much as purchase it in line with a podcast he was on with Julie Yoo of A16Z final week. This week Kleiner Perkins (and more) kicked in another $141m.
You may additionally have observed that Ali Parsa who went via over $1 billion and crucified all his public market buyers too when Babylon Well being cratered can be again. His new firm – an AI assistant launched with some well-known medical doctors together with Shafi Ahmed – known as Quadrivia AI. Funding isn’t clear however Sifted found some filings that indicate a Swedish VC is behind it.There’s additionally greater than a little bit controversy about whether or not Babylon’s demise was only a collection of dangerous enterprise choices or Parsa was mendacity concerning the tech. (I had Parsa on a few panels and at all times discovered him deferential and charming, however you may google Sergei Polevikov’s opinion!)
Look, not like Lisa Bari at The Well being Tech Discuss Present, I like the thought of getting AI to reply sufferers’ questions, name them with data and customarily use bots so as to add “abundance” to the well being care workforce. I imply it’s simply an extension of what Alex Drane and Eliza (and Silverlink & others) have been doing 15 years in the past. And there’s large chance in utilizing AI to really diagnose and deal with. I’m positive Parsa’s new AI bot additionally has the potential to enhance doctor care.
However ought to or not it’s that simple for guys like Shah and Parsa to right away get again within the sport given the chaos they left of their wake? Shouldn’t VCs have some qualms about anointing as saviours the very individuals who simply screwed over their earlier clients, companions, staff and buyers?
However I suppose now we have our reply already. Adrian Aoun took a giant swing with Ahead and closed it after losing $650m and leaving patients in the lurch with no notice and 200 individuals unemployed. He was again on a podcast days later saying his buyers needed to provide him extra to start out once more. And the largest loser, chaos agent and conman of latest years, Adam Nuemann of WeWork infamy, was again very quickly after with one other $350m for yet another real estate startup.
Neumann’s benefactor within the newest spherical was A16Z’s Mark Andreesen. Andreesen additionally famously helped fund Trump’s election in 2024. That’s the largest comeback of somebody with no morals, ethics or competence ever.
So I suppose a minimum of some VCs have determined, there’s no disgrace.
(Should you’re questioning about this piece’s title, I’m riffing off this blues classic)
