Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / Alyssa Jaffee of 7wireVentures on Finding Balance, Authenticity, and Founder-Market Fit

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Alyssa Jaffee of 7wireVentures on Finding Balance, Authenticity, and Founder-Market Fit · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] It's incredibly hard to build a company in healthcare. There are much easier ways to make money in this life. And we are mission-driven.
• 0:17
  We care about what we're doing. But there's a lot of people trying to solve these problems. Like, they're not, um, they're not new problems.
• 0:23
  Most people aren't-- I don't usually need to spend a ton of time on the problem side because I get it, right? We get it. And it's really about why are you all the right people to be doing what you're doing.
• 0:34
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Startup Health NOW, the podcast where we celebrate the entrepreneurs and innovators reimagining the future of health. I'm Logan Plaster.
• 0:46
  This week's episode is pulled from a recent fireside chat we held with investor Alyssa Jaffe, who's a partner at Seven Wire Ventures and focuses on digital health.
• 0:56
  Alyssa sits on the board of Ayogo Health and works with five health companies as a board observer, so she's got a very hands-on understanding of what's working and what's not in the market today.
• 1:07
  In the interview, Alyssa shares some best practices for breaking through the noise and landing a meeting with an investor.
• 1:13
  She talks through the importance of founder-market fit, why passion is particularly important in healthcare today, and why she's so bullish on the health innovation market as a whole.
• 1:24
  We hold these candid conversations in front of a live audience of founders from the Startup Health portfolio, so you'll get to learn from their questions as well. Stick around.
• 1:32
  [upbeat music] I don't know, what makes Seven Wire a great partner for a startup? A-absolutely.
• 1:42
  So for us, we are quite thematically driven, and our investment thesis is what we call the informed, connected health consumer.
• 1:52
  So as Logan mentioned, everything that we do is all about empowering people to become better stewards of their own health and really thinking about healthcare technology and services, meeting people where they are.
• 2:03
  And I, I'm happy to double-click on that, but it's really the cornerstone of the world that we're trying to build as we think about health plus care. And there's a couple other things that make us unique.
• 2:13
  We are what we call an operator-driven model. So we do less deals. We're a more concentrated portfolio strategy, and we really focus on driving value throughout our portfolio companies.
• 2:24
  We spend a lot of time with our companies. We meet with our CEOs weekly, bi-weekly, sometimes daily. We talk to them depending on what's going on, and we really get in the weeds to help drive growth.
• 2:36
  Our network, um, across plans, providers, pharma, self-insured employers, and really thinking through what our companies need, uh, in order to succeed. And because of this, we actually can be pretty creative.
• 2:51
  So we both invest in companies, and we do start companies. Um, most notably, we started a business called Livongo, which many of you may know.
• 2:59
  Uh, took that company public in twenty-twenty, and then in twenty-twenty-one, we merged with Teladoc Health, uh, in an eighteen and a half billion dollar transaction. And for us,
• 3:12
  uh, we started about-- We just actually launched our fourth hatch, of which I'm, I'm also on the board of, um, it still hasn't been disclosed, but another company we're pretty excited about.
• 3:22
  And our money, about sixty percent of it comes from strategic investors. And so I mentioned a lot of those, um, the incumbents, potential customers for many of you.
• 3:33
  Um, we have plans like Cigna and Blue Cross Blue Shield. We have providers like Rush and Memorial Hermann. We have, um, pharma companies.
• 3:44
  We have employers who really work with us and work with our companies as these are their customers, as co-investors, or sometimes as lead investors.
• 3:52
  And so, uh, Logan, you ask what, what do you get from us and, and when you partner with Seven Wire? And, um, the answer is a, it's a real partner, and you have to want it, and you have to want...
• 4:02
  We're not the type of people who are just gonna show up once a quarter, attend the board meeting, check the box, and say, "Thank you so much."
• 4:08
  Um, we're not just gonna, you know, maybe once in a while shoot an email introduction. If I'm gonna introduce you to a big health plan, I will join you on that call. I will get on that airplane.
• 4:17
  I will join you in that meeting, and we will close that business with you. Um, at the end of the day, we just-- we are builders, and we are operators.
• 4:24
  And for us, it-- we-- our philosophy is it takes a lot of [chuckles] smart people around the table to be successful in healthcare, and we wanna do whatever we can do in order to make sure our companies are successful.
• 4:37
  You know, this, this call represents a lot of founders, uh, really tackling health innovation in very different ways.
• 4:43
  So maybe it's helpful to get beneath the sort of top-line thesis, uh, understanding, uh, about, you know, being consumer, uh, driven and, um, empowering patients and talk about maybe some examples of what that looks like and maybe just as importantly, what it doesn't look like, uh, what doesn't fall under that rubric for you.
• 5:02
  Sure. Sure. So, um, I'll give sort of a, um, subpart B to our main thesis and then maybe a couple of swim lanes of things we're talking to that we're looking at.
• 5:11
  So really how we think about the informed, connected health consumer is, you know, if, Logan, if you and I aren't getting access to our own information, if we're not getting connected into the system to improve our own health outcomes, it's not a fit for us.
• 5:25
  So there's amazing solutions out there in healthcare, um, you know, work, work process automation, um, or workflow efficiencies, um, rev cycle management, even pr- working on provider efficiencies, all of which need to be available and exist, but that's not our true north.
• 5:43
  That's really not what we're trying to build. We're trying to focus on how can we all partner together to empower people given that most of health actually comes outside of the care of a provider's office.
• 5:56
  And we work very closely. Most of our companies will fall B2B2C, or I think the new en vogue way to say it sometimes is, uh, D2C2B.
• 6:06
  [laughs] Um, and so we have a number of companies, again, that work very, very closely with the incumbents but are always delivering value to the end consumer.
• 6:15
  Um, what this means in terms of sub swim lanes are just a couple of things.
• 6:18
  This is not, um, mu- fully exhaustive of a list, but things that we really like, obviously given what we've built with, with a company like LivongoWe do like verticalized solutions for chronic condition management.
• 6:33
  We have a number of others in this space. Example, a business called Zorigo, which we can talk about for people with chronic skin conditions. We look at, um, behavioral health and mental health.
• 6:43
  Um, particularly I spend a lot of time in the SMI, severe mental illness category, so the higher acuity space. Uh, we have an investment in a business called NOCD, N-O-C-D, for people with obsessive compulsive disorder.
• 6:56
  We look at women's health.
• 6:57
  Um, I spend a ton of time there, have angel invested in a number of companies, and we actually just hatched a company in women's health that hopefully we can share a little bit more down the road.
• 7:06
  We look at what I call health events, so things that happen, um, whether that be, think, um, oncology, a business called Jasper, MSK, we have a business called Recovery One.
• 7:16
  So a number of things that happen throughout the course of your life. And we look at vulnerable populations.
• 7:22
  So we'll look at, um, we have an investment, a business that used to be called Consejosano, it's now called Same Sky Health, communications platform for multicultural populations. And then finally, aging in place.
• 7:33
  We did hatch a company called Home Thrive, really focused on helping family caregivers support their aging loved ones. So those are, um, six or so categories that- Yeah... that, um, we do spend a lot of time in.
• 7:45
  Again, it's not, um, fully comprehensive, but we tend to be thematic investors. So our process is we actually take a step back. We do market mapping work.
• 7:54
  We spend a lot of time looking in a specific landscape, really where we think that there's an opportunity to place a bet, um, and where there's white space.
• 8:01
  And we either find a company that solves that white space, and if we can't, we'll go out and start a company. So a great example of that process, we invest in a business called Brightline, which many of you may know.
• 8:10
  They just raised a round of financing, uh, focused on pediatric behavioral health. We did a ton of work in peds.
• 8:16
  Really had known Naomi forever, uh, made an investment in, in her business because of where we really saw an opportunity. So you've mentioned some, some broader categories for the company.
• 8:27
  I'm curious if you have, uh, personal areas of passion when it comes to investing. I'm sure if folks on this call were to think about pitching you, they'd wanna know really, really where is Alyssa's mind, uh, this year?
• 8:39
  Uh, where does she want to invest? Yeah. All of those are areas that, that I personally feel passionate about.
• 8:44
  So, so, you know, we are, um, because we're a dedicated fund in, in terms of our focus, we tend to think about areas, um, collectively that are really interesting that we all, um, spend time.
• 8:57
  Now, obviously there's things as consumers, um, we, we were all-- the benefit of, I think, why everybody's in this room today is 'cause you're a consumer of health, and you're incredibly frustrated, I imagine, with the process that you experience, and you, you were banging your head against a wall and, and needing to fix that.
• 9:12
  And I'm no exception. I'm expecting with my third child in a matter of weeks.
• 9:17
  Like, I've gone through, um, many challenges in my journey in healthcare, like many of you have gone through in your, in your healthcare journeys. And so those are things obviously that I feel passionate about.
• 9:27
  But part of being an investor is also our ability to step outside ourselves. I, I hope to never have some of the challenges or conditions for the companies that we service because they're incredibly debilitating.
• 9:38
  But understanding them, having empathy for them, empathy for a severe mental illness, and what's required, and the cost pressure it puts on the system, um, are, are areas that I, I, I care a lot about.
• 9:49
  But for me, um, I, I have a personal passion towards underrepresented, uh, markets, underrepresented founders.
• 9:55
  Um, it's, you know, where I, I spend a lot of personal time, where the fund spends a lot of time just thinking about what we can do to, to continue to, to improve health equity and, and the status quo. Awesome.
• 10:09
  Uh, before I get into the next question, just a reminder to everybody that we'll be moving into Q&A at one point.
• 10:13
  So, uh, be thinking about questions you'd like to ask, and at any point you can drop them, uh, in the chat and I'll call on you when the time's right.
• 10:22
  Alyssa, I wanna change direction briefly and talk about how you vet founders, how you think about founders when you're, when you're looking at opportunities.
• 10:30
  Um, I wrote-- I read a piece that you wrote in Fortune recently about work-life balance and how it's, it's a bit of a myth.
• 10:38
  Uh, you write that, quote, "Our whole idea of balance is unrealistic," and you go on to say that, "Every day is about making trade-offs and finding comfort in the fact the decision was made.
• 10:46
  It's okay to not have all the answers." And I think, you know, you get a lot of nodding heads to that, uh, that sentiment.
• 10:53
  But I also imagine that when founders pitch to you, um, there's a desire to present like they've got it all figured out.
• 11:01
  And I, and I-- so I wonder if by, you know, sharing this, this idea about, about balance, if that has shaped the way that you think about founders that you're thinking about investing in and what you're looking for.
• 11:14
  Uh, have those revelations sort of impacted how you assess the folks that you invest in? Yes. I just-- I posted the article in the chat. I would love everybody's feedback.
• 11:23
  I actually wrote it at two in the morning when I couldn't sleep because I'd had a week of panels of people asking, like, wanting me to give the,
• 11:33
  like, the, the holy grail of what is, you know, perfection in, in this life that we have. And I think you all, I mean, you all feel it, such, such high acuity every day that [laughs] there's no such thing.
• 11:45
  Um, and it's okay. It's okay that we can be, um, out of balance. That actually is being in, in balance.
• 11:51
  It's, it's just the constant teetering and choices, and my philosophy is just having comfort in those choices, um, and, and the decisions that we make.
• 12:01
  So your question, Logan, though, is more about what do I look for and, and how do I think about evaluating CEOs. So first for me, I, I'm a, I'm a really big believer in us as a fund. Um, we care about founder-market fit.
• 12:15
  Why are you and your team the right people to do something and build it? It's incredibly hard to build a company in healthcare. There are much easier ways to make money in this life. And we are mission-driven.
• 12:29
  We care about what we're doing. But there's a lot of people trying to solve these problems. Like, they're not, um, they're not new problems. Most people aren't...
• 12:36
  You know, I, I usually when I get a pitch-I don't usually need to spend a ton of time on the problem side 'cause I get it, right? We get it.
• 12:42
  And, and it's really about why are you all the right people to be doing what you're doing. Why are you... And I, and I mentioned it, our company Know OCD, Stephen Smith has OCD, right? He has an SMI.
• 12:55
  It was horrible in his life and what it did to him and how challenging it was, and he, he swore he would never let anybody experience that again.
• 13:05
  And Glenn Tolman, when he started Livongo, and his son was diagnosed with diabetes and said, "I'm gonna fix this." Like, "I, I'm gonna build something that, that solves this problem."
• 13:16
  And again, we're never perfect, but we really, we care, and I think you all are doing this for, for a material reason.
• 13:23
  So that, that to me is true north of, of being the right team and why it is that you're, you're there because it's really hard, and building any company is hard. Building a company in healthcare is exponentially hard.
• 13:37
  Other things, I don't actually... You know, Logan and I push back in that we expect you to have all the answers. I don't think that's true. Yeah. Um, this is, this is not-- I'm not a customer.
• 13:48
  I'm not getting, you know, the pitch of, of, you know, the one time and we're, we're trying to, like, show you that we're maybe a little bigger than we are or whatever it is. This is a marriage.
• 13:58
  I'm on your board [laughs] for the next five, seven plus years of your life and, um, I'm gonna talk to you all the time, and I want you to be able to sell me on a vision, but I want you to be honest, and I wanna know there's honesty.
• 14:10
  And frankly, venture, we're gonna get access to every piece of data you've ever produced if that's something that we want. And so we'll figure it out eventually.
• 14:20
  And if we feel like there was a disconnect between what was told and what's real, it can be quite frustrating. If you say you're at a run rate that you're not at, if you say there's a signed contract that there isn't.
• 14:31
  Again, it, it doesn't mean that there isn't the power of storytelling, but there has to be a foundation of honesty. Yeah. And what I, I push for founders is
• 14:42
  if, you know, the best pitches I think are ones that are great storytellers, are great time managers, which we can talk about that piece, and are honest.
• 14:53
  And those three things are-- it's a hard balance to do all three of those things at the same time in the thirty-minute spot that you're given in an initial pitch.
• 15:02
  Uh, and I'm happy to share more about some of the tips and tricks and things that I've seen. And I, I don't know how much you all know about my background. I, I did raise-- I started a company.
• 15:10
  I raised venture financing, but, you know, small. I raised a million bucks for that business, so. But I have, I have been in your shoes and, and learned a little bit of, of just what I saw.
• 15:19
  Um, and ultimately- I wanna-... trying to translate that to this side of, of, one, just having the empathy for you, you all.
• 15:26
  You think about your business every second of every day, and we don't, and all we have is the benefit of pattern recognition.
• 15:33
  So the questions that we're gonna ask are gonna be ones that we ask because of all the things that we've seen, but we should be asking, and DC should be asking in a way that respect and acknowledge how much work and time and effort you've put into the company that you've built.
• 15:48
  That's great.
• 15:49
  I wanna ask you more about that time manager's piece 'cause that's really interesting, but I wanna pause for a minute and ask and, and let a couple people ask questions because it relates to what you just talked about.
• 15:58
  So, uh, Satya from Aidar Health, he has, he has a question, um, about how you vet founders. So Satya, go ahead and come off mute and ask it. Hi, Alyssa. Great to have you here.
• 16:10
  Uh, I've seen you in many forums, and I'm excited that you're here talking to Logan. Uh, I'm the founder and CEO of Aidar Health. It's a digital medicine company.
• 16:19
  Like Glenn, who started the company, like Livongo to help his son, uh, we started Aidar to help my mom.
• 16:26
  She also started with diabetes, but, um, unfortunately, I took it for granted, and after a couple of years she developed four other, other chronic conditions, which, uh, was really brutal to be a caregiver.
• 16:39
  So that's why we built, uh, this company, and we built a device. It's a single integrated device that measures more than ten health parameters in just, uh, thirty seconds non-invasively.
• 16:50
  Uh, and it's an FDA cleared, CE mark approved solution. So, uh, not to pitch too much about the company, but it essentially kind of integrates into from, for example, Jasper to Transcare into Livongo to others.
• 17:02
  Um, but my main thing is, uh, a lot of people really talk about, uh, founding CEOs versus, uh, professional CEOs, right?
• 17:11
  So, uh, as a first time CEO, I was, I was able to get the company this far with just three point five million dollars raised till date, which is kind of unheard of.
• 17:21
  Uh, but, um, a lot of times investors talk about professional CEOs, right? So what do you, what do you think about it?
• 17:28
  And, and most of your pro-- uh, portfolio has pretty much like founding CEOs, I believe, uh, still now. So how do you view that?
• 17:36
  And, uh, sorry for the long question, but I think, uh, I'd love to hear your feedback on that. Well, thank you for, for sharing. Thank you for the mission. Uh, I'm sorry that you keep hearing my voice all the time.
• 17:48
  My mother tells me I have a nasally voice, so [laughs]. Uh, appreciate it. And to, to answer your question, I-- look, we--
• 18:00
  there are situations that require different types of leaders, and s- it's hard to say,
• 18:08
  uh, uh, my, my original statement about founder-market fit still stands, that you have to have passion to do something, particularly at the early stages.
• 18:15
  I think it's incredibly challenging to build a business and not feel that. Um, at some point, sometimes the businesses outgrow people, and that happens, and that's okay.
• 18:27
  Um, and that's often when maybe a more experienced operator will come on board who still cares about the mission but, um, has a bit more alignment around the operational excellence that's needed, um, to, to grow.
• 18:43
  And frankly, most companies, every time they triple, they break.So you think about the, the growth trajectory of scale and how quickly many of these companies scale.
• 18:56
  Many of my companies started with, you know, just where you were, raised a small round, and now they've raised mega rounds and have hundreds of employees. And so a lot of our CEOs have really grown with it.
• 19:09
  And, and a lot of them have brought in people alongside them to help, and sometimes that's leadership team members that can help scale, and they retain the CEO position because they are truly the evangelists of that business.
• 19:22
  And sometimes they say, "You know what? The time is now. It's time for me to actually take us to-- a step aside, and, um, you know, while I love this business and what I've built, it, it really could use
• 19:34
  a, a someone who, who has that, that operational experience a little bit more deeply." So it's a very personal decision. It often comes after a long, long, long dialogue with the board and the team.
• 19:46
  It's usually the founder. Like, frankly, we rarely really have contentious, um, replacements because it's usually the founder recognizing, and maybe somebody surfaces it, like, "Do you think that this is right for you?"
• 19:58
  But, um, it's really hard to sometimes feel... You know, everyone wants to feel successful. Everybody wants to be utilizing their superpower.
• 20:05
  And what your superpower is in a seed stage business is very different than, like, a Series C business or Ser-- you know, a growth stage business or a public company.
• 20:14
  You know, Glenn will say all the time, he's run public companies, he's done them. He doesn't like doing public companies anymore.
• 20:18
  So when we were gearing up to take Livongo public, we brought in Zane Burke because Zane had done it, and Glenn didn't want to do it anymore.
• 20:25
  And Glenn was at his highest and best use, was actually shifting to be exec chair of the board. Awesome. Thank you so much, Alyssa. Thanks for the question, Satya. Uh, let's go to a question from, uh, Brad Helfand.
• 20:35
  Brad, you can come off mute. Hi, Alyssa. Uh, good to meet you. Uh, my name is Brad Helfand.
• 20:41
  I'm the CEO of a company called Vu Vitamin, which is a personalized vitamin company based in Highland Park, Illinois, which I think you're probably familiar with. Um- I am, Brad. I grew up in Deerfield. Yeah, yeah.
• 20:53
  No, I, I'm aware.
• 20:55
  Um, hey, my question for you is, really, you mentioned that you do a little angel investing on the side, and I'm just curious about, uh, approaching people who work in the PE venture world around being potential angel investors.
• 21:07
  Are there restrictions that you have because of your, your fund restrictions and what you could personally invest in?
• 21:13
  And, uh, do you use a different criteria to screen angel investments than your typical venture screening criteria? And just eager to hear more. Yeah. So, um, fund-- uh, every fund is different in terms of...
• 21:27
  A lot of funds say n-like nothing that the fund could do. Some funds say it's case by case. Some funds have, you know, less restriction. It, it really just depends on the fund dynamic and how it's set up. Um,
• 21:41
  your other two questions, one is, um, can you pitch them? How do you pitch them? And two is, is the screening process different?
• 21:48
  Um, so, um, I think the answer is yes, you can pitch them, but I wouldn't pitch them as leads, future leads.
• 21:58
  Like, you really-- your angels should be treated as the people who can open doors for you, make connections for you, be really, really, really supportive of what you're building, um,
• 22:09
  n-not as much as an institutionalized way. And so the way I work as an angel with some companies is, is, is a little bit different, right? Um, a lot of it is personal passion. Um, some of it is healthcare.
• 22:25
  S-um, a little bit of it isn't. It's supporting people in my life that I know and I care a lot about, and I can just be a sounding board about more general, like,
• 22:35
  you know, pitch practice or th-things that, that, you know, they're, they're a bit more, um, novices on. I'd say, like, I wouldn't make it a personalized...
• 22:45
  Angel investors are usually people that you know or people that you get connected to, again, that care a lot about the personal problem. So I wouldn't make a, a [chuckles]
• 22:54
  um, targeted outreach list of all the VCs and try and get into the fund investing through, through that channel. It just seems a little bit more muddled.
• 23:04
  Um, but, but look, in terms of the evaluation, of course, it's different. Like, I am-- and we, we as fund investors, we are, we are swinging for the fences, right? We are trying to do multi-billion dollar exits here.
• 23:19
  Um, we are... I-if, if someone came to, uh, many of you, and I imagine offered to buy your company for twenty million or fifty million dollars, like, that's life-changing money.
• 23:31
  At least for me, [chuckles] life-changing money, and I, I imagine for many of you. It's a different... If the-- and the-- my fund hat is on, I'm, I'm not happy with that outcome.
• 23:43
  That outcome most likely will not happen under-- unless it-- unle-and that-- if it does, it's no one's celebrating that outcome.
• 23:52
  Versus, you know, in a bootstrap business or just an angel-backed business, right, it's very different. So the, the type of return that you're thinking about at the different stages is very different.
• 24:03
  So the evaluation, the criteria is very different. Angel investing is the market, the person or people, and the ideas.
• 24:13
  And the things that I've signed up for, and I'm not a cra-- you know, I'm-- I still have young kids and, um, you know, I'm, I'm quite selective with, with how I think about it. But ultimately, it's about
• 24:27
  the people that I believe in and, and some I could invest in, in the fund down the road. Hopefully, some are not a fit at all.
• 24:35
  And it's just really about being supportive of people and their mission, um, which is a criteria of venture, but not the only criteria. Awesome. Thanks so much. I don't know, Logan, if you feel differently.
• 24:46
  [laughs] I'd love other folks to chime in here.Yeah. Um, well, Brad, I appreciate the question. Yeah, if anybody else, uh, does have thoughts, uh, feel free to drop it into the chat.
• 24:57
  Um, Alyssa, I wanted to return back to something you said about, you know, vetting founders and, and really understanding the, the strengths of a founding team, you know, should I invest in this team?
• 25:08
  You talked about honesty, and we could have a discussion about kind of how honest, like sort of how vulnerable, at what stage. Uh, but you mentioned, uh, time managers.
• 25:17
  You're looking for time managers, and I wonder if you could unpack that a little bit for us. Yeah. Let, let me clarify. That was a comment on, on how to pitch to a VC- Okay...
• 25:26
  um, not a, a quality or skill set, um, more generally. So I can- I, I think there's pros and cons to being a time manager. Um, I guess, I don't know if I'd say, like, that's my top three quality.
• 25:38
  Um, but my, my comment was more around, and you'll get in a first pitch, all of you know this, thirty minutes. Um, the first five minutes is spent
• 25:48
  a combination of everybody trying to figure out the technology that they're Zooming into or Teamsing into or, God forbid, using, you know, WebEx. And, uh, and then
• 26:00
  small talk, what's going on, what people are up to, right?
• 26:02
  So you really have, you know, twenty, twenty-five minutes, and you're expected to tell a really powerful story, and the challenge is you've spent your whole life thinking about this problem most likely, or a lot of your life.
• 26:14
  You've spent the last X number of months or years every single day thinking about this problem, and now you're expected to distill all of that down into a twenty-minute discussion.
• 26:26
  And it's interesting, sometimes we joke that we can pitch our companies better than, [laughs] than they can in the beginning because I don't know as much, right?
• 26:33
  And you know so much, and it's very hard to take a step back and only give the nuggets of information that are most impactful and leave the rest for later follow-up discussions, and it takes a lot of discipline.
• 26:48
  And what we typically find is most companies will come, and they will pitch for twenty-three minutes straight,
• 26:57
  and it's very hard to have a real engaged dialogue if you, you haven't even gotten to the second half of your pitch deck and we're twenty minutes into the meeting and we have three minutes left.
• 27:09
  Um, folks who don't actually save time at the end to ask about next steps, to talk about the process, to ask for, you know, the financing, to, you know, the prep work up front, um, really understanding who you're meeting with, what kind of checks they write, what deals they're in, what they like.
• 27:25
  Um, I'm super active on social channels, particularly, um, have recently gotten very active on Twitter. I'm happy I can put my, um, I can put my handle in here. But it...
• 27:37
  What I like, what I care about, what I read, it's very public. So you know, it's not, it's not very hard to find.
• 27:44
  Um, and there's very easy ways to make early connections to confirm that this is a mutual fit for, for this type of discussion.
• 27:53
  And so I, I often, I think, I get a lot of head nods when I say this, like, "Yeah, no, like I get it. We know we have to pitch, and we have this much time." But then you get into it, and you're so...
• 28:03
  I mean, look, I, I understand we, we've, this Hatch company we just built, I spent a year of my life trying to get this company up. Like,
• 28:12
  it, it so- required so much discipline to take a step back and, like, how I tell the story of what we're building in two minutes.
• 28:20
  You know, I'm meeting our RLPs, and I'm trying to sell this so- this company that we built and, and I'm like, "What, what's my actual ele- thirty-second elevator pitch?"
• 28:29
  And there's not, maybe not as much discipline that comes around. I think there's a lot with the thirty seconds.
• 28:35
  Um, there's less with, like, the five to eight minutes, and I think that's kind of what you're, what you're aiming for a little bit, is telling your story in a powerful and concise way so that most of the discussion is led around questions.
• 28:48
  And, like, this is not rocket science. VCs are not rocket scientists either. Like, we tend to follow as- quite a similar process, and the more questions we ask, the more engaged we are. And we all feel this on Zoom.
• 29:00
  Like, especially not being in person, being talked at for twenty-five minutes, like I'm doing [laughs] to you all today, is hard. And, and this, like, you know, I, I love these questions coming through the chat.
• 29:11
  I want... I'm, I'm watching it and reading it, like, this is your time, and, um, I think everybody wants to feel like you're having an engaged conversation. And, and you're the owner of that. You're the driver of that.
• 29:22
  And by the way, when VCs go off the rails, it's your job to bring them back, you know? Mm. Same with customers.
• 29:29
  Like, it's, it's a similar type of process in which you're going back to make sure you hit the key points to get into the next step. That's good stuff. That's good practical wisdom there, Alyssa.
• 29:42
  To that end, let's go to a question in the chat, as you alluded, and Jamie from StartUp Health, from our team, c- uh, go ahead and come off mute. Hey, Alyssa. Thank you so much for being with us today.
• 29:53
  Um, we're in the business of helping our health transformers really be able to take control of their entrepreneurial journey, and one of the biggest parts of that is obviously fundraising.
• 30:04
  Um, what advice can you provide for these, you know, health transformers that are on the line today so that they can take control of their fundraising process as opposed to it controlling them?
• 30:15
  I feel like a lot of times as entrepreneurs, we're takers of terms. We are...
• 30:20
  You know, we'll go and we'll speak to one of the health transformers, like, "Oh, I had 100 meetings, and I got five, you know, five, you know, term sheets," or, "I got..."
• 30:28
  You know, it's not about the number of meetings or kissing a lot of frogs, it's about kissing the right frogs, right?
• 30:32
  So what can you speak to about that preparation and, you know, making sure that the fundraising process int- isn't a huge distraction from them actually running their business at the same time? Yeah.
• 30:43
  Um, thank you, Jamie. Thank you for the work that you guys all do. I, I love... I'm such a big StartUp Health fan. Um-I don't know.
• 30:51
  I'll give you my macro level answer that I don't think anyone's gonna like, and then I will give you my tactical answer that hopefully is a little bit more helpful.
• 30:58
  Um, my macro level answer is, uh, the market dictates your terms better than anything else. Five term sheets will get you a better price than one term sheet. There's no way around that. VCs love FOMO.
• 31:12
  They always have, they always will. They wanna feel like there's a sense of urgency, and the best urgency you can possibly create is real urgency. Bar none. And for those who...
• 31:23
  You know, I, I used-- was a healthcare operator for a long time. I worked for these guys for a long time and launched new technologies for them, and, like,
• 31:30
  this, you know, this, this is, this is also sales one on one, right? I think many of you who, who ha-- come from a commercial background know that. Um, the second piece is, it is gonna eat up a ton of your time.
• 31:42
  It is gonna take you away from the business.
• 31:44
  And that is one of the most frustrating things that founders have a really hard time with because fundraising is frustrating, and it is hard, and it is challenging to navigate.
• 31:55
  And there are ways, there are hacks, and there are ways to make it faster. There are ways to make it easier. There are ways to make it more efficient.
• 32:02
  But you have to expect three to six months it will take you to raise a Series A. And if you're CEO of the business, it's probably in the throes of it gonna be almost seventy-five percent of your time.
• 32:16
  I'm like, isn't that nuts? Everyone wants you to build this amazing business, and you're like, "I'm trying here, but I'm spending all my time fundraising." So, um, h-here's, here's my tactical advice.
• 32:30
  One, prep work goes a long way. I mentioned this. All of us as VCs, not only just funds, but people. We are all people. We all have interests, we all have backgrounds, we all have stories.
• 32:39
  We all-- Like, most of us are public about it. Most of us, you can read... I write a ton of contributed pieces.
• 32:46
  You mentioned my Fortune one, which was, like, a little bit more personal in nature, but I do a ton of, of content-specific ones. Like, it is, it is pretty quick to figure out if there's something that we do or don't do.
• 32:59
  If you look on our website and you look at our portfolio and there's no company that looks even remotely like you, and you go through the partners and maybe it's a generalist fund and there's one healthcare person, and that healthcare person has never done or never spoken about your topic ever,
• 33:15
  maybe that's not gonna be your highest target. Right? Now, there's ways to be opportunistic. Typically, we're, we're more transparent than that, right?
• 33:24
  Typically-- So look, I'll get pitched, like, total life science deals, like drug development, and we, we don't do that.
• 33:32
  And we're clear about that, and we say that on panels, and we say that in print, and we say that on, on our website. We have nothing that's analogous, and yet still get pitched for it.
• 33:41
  Um, which is fine in that we just quickly say, "Thanks, but that's not a fit for us." But it's still, you're still spending cycles. And so trying to figure out your narrowed list of cycles is important,
• 33:53
  and relationships are important. You know, meeting people, meeting them outside of a fundraise. I like to say to CEOs, ten to twenty percent of your time always should be spent doing this.
• 34:03
  That when you're in a city, if you're in Chicago and we've had-- you think Seventh Vent is the best fit, like, come see us, right? Come meet with us. You're here for customers anyway. Let's get a... Grab a coffee.
• 34:14
  Um, you know, now's not the best time for me because I'm about to give birth in a couple of weeks, but I have a great team here who can, who, who can cover for me.
• 34:23
  Um, but it's really about getting to know people and then setting the expectation, "Hey, I'm gonna do this next year." And, and we remember, right?
• 34:34
  We save your materials, we take notes, we keep your decks, and, and then you come back to me and say, "Hey, I did that." MetaRise is a great example. We invested in Dan's. We actually passed on his seed.
• 34:45
  We just felt like we-- it was too early. We, we don't, we don't wanna do that, and there's a lot he had to prove. And then he came back, and he had doubled the number of enterprise customers he told us he was gonna sell.
• 34:57
  And he, he did it, right? And that is, I think one-- a great and very, very powerful way to prove many investors often can be multi-stage.
• 35:07
  Um, other tactical things which I'm happy to go through, but again, I know you guys have awesome programming. Uh, you know, warm introductions are always helpful. I think everybody knows that.
• 35:15
  Um, we always will take calls from trusted sources. Nu-number one is always gonna be our CEOs. If my CEO says talk to somebody, I will no matter what because they trust them. Um, LPs is probably number two.
• 35:27
  Um, so that's a little bit harder for you to know who our LPs are necessarily unless it's published. Um, and then obviously folks in network. Um, there are hacks on process.
• 35:40
  Um, VCs consume information the exact same way every time. They don't consume it through executive summaries. They consume it through a ten to twelve-page pitch deck.
• 35:49
  I know you wanna write an executive summary because it reads beautifully and looks beautiful, but a pitch deck is just much easier.
• 35:55
  It's-- It-- You, you wanna just create as le-least amount of friction as possible that someone can, can consume the information the same way they consume all information, and that the friction to take a call or to take the next step or to take the meeting is, is very little.
• 36:10
  That you-- I get a pitch deck from one of my CEOs asking for an intro, and then you send me an email and say, "Alyssa, I saw you wrote this piece. This is why we relate.
• 36:19
  You know, uh, John Shellhorn at Thrivo told me to talk to you, and here's our deck. Can we, you know, spend some time?" Right? Tho-those are the easiest ways. And I hear you, Jamie.
• 36:31
  Like, we don't wanna kiss a lot of frogs, but we do kiss a lot of frogs. I know. It's just-- It's a little bit of the nature of the game. And a lot of it can be it's, it's not, uh, [chuckles] it's not you, it's me.
• 36:41
  Like, it can be timing, it can be, um, it, it can be situational.
• 36:46
  The deals that we're al-- like, we may be already heads down on a deal trying to close another deal, and it's just we like you, but we're-Sort of committed our time already to something else that we're working on.
• 36:56
  Um, it could be potentially competitive. Like, you don't see it as competitive, one of our companies, but our other company's not totally feeling great about it, and, you know, we have to sort of lean on what they say.
• 37:07
  Um, and, and it's per-- it can be person specific. It's especially generalist funds.
• 37:13
  Like, generalist funds I think are probably the ones that have the most, um, you know, getting to the right person, which is, which is important. Is that helpful? Yes. It's g- that's good stuff, Alyssa.
• 37:25
  Y-you know, you've packed so much in there that I think everyone is-is-- has a lot to process, so- [laughs] Fair... I, I appreciate that.
• 37:32
  Um, talk to us a bit about kinda how you view this moment in time in terms of, uh, the market as a whole.
• 37:39
  Jamie mentioned it a-in another comment here, talking about kinda are we in the early in-innings of digital transformation, sort of thinking about the effect of COVID on virtual health.
• 37:50
  And maybe it'd be helpful to talk about some of those market trends in twenty twenty-two through the lens of a couple of your recent investments as, as case studies, kind of, um, what you're seeing as opportunities now that might have been different a year or two ago.
• 38:05
  Got it.
• 38:06
  So just to play that back to you, Logan, question one is how do I see the market overall, and two is maybe what are trends that-- what are things that used to not be true that are true today that allow for companies to create more value?
• 38:19
  Exactly. Great. Um, piece one, super bullish. Like, L-Livongo, Teladoc was the tip of the iceberg. I think that the-- we, we work and build companies in a multi-trillion dollar business.
• 38:34
  There is no reason we cannot have more and more and more of those companies that are exiting for billions of dollars. Transcarent should be a fifty billion dollar business, like, n-hands down. And can be, right?
• 38:48
  Now we have a lot of execution and things we have to build, but we feel really bullish about the opportunity and, and where that lies, and I hope many of you do too.
• 38:57
  Now, that doesn't mean all of you are-- are-- should be building a multi-billion dollar business, right? That's, that's another question. But I, I feel, I feel quite bullish.
• 39:06
  And the public markets are, are tough right now. The private markets have, um, pros and cons to them too. But I'm a believer in, in, you know, I'm a, I'm a long-run player. Like, this is-- healthcare isn't going away.
• 39:19
  It's only our population is aging.
• 39:22
  We have more and more ailments and challenges, the number of chronic conditions we have, the mental health, um, of our population is rapidly declining, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.
• 39:32
  And we finally have started to see the, the, the light the pandemic has provided, which is kind of weird. It's, it's such a devastating situation to be am-amidst COVID-19.
• 39:44
  That said, there's real light about what many of you have seen around some of the relaxants on reimbursement strategies, the regulation, um, how we think about care delivery, and there's a long way to go.
• 39:56
  It's just I think we're, we're exponential, not incremental, but sometimes it can feel incremental, and so it does, it does take time. My, my perspective on what-- maybe I'll give two examples of companies that have
• 40:11
  confirmed thinking and changed my thinking as we think about opportunities, if that's helpful, Logan. Uh, one is on confirmed thinking. There's a real notion of ROI in healthcare.
• 40:21
  Um, I wrote a piece once about how early-stage companies can think about ROI for TechCrunch. I can try and find it, uh, and put it in the chat. But, um, it's, it's, it's a little bit of the holy grail, right?
• 40:32
  When you're pitching, especially to health plans, they want ROI, they want the data, and you're sort of sitting there saying like, "Wait, but I don't have access to your claims data."
• 40:40
  So that's, that's the real way to think about, you know, closing, closing the loop.
• 40:45
  And we're invested in a business called Zorygo, which I mentioned for people with chronic skin conditions, and this was very much a, an analog to Livongo.
• 40:53
  When we saw this business, it was a very different kind of business. We actually pivoted it to focus on, um, a platform strategy similar to what we did with Livongo.
• 41:03
  It has a connected device for UVV light therapy, and it's really focused on people with chronic skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and vitiligo.
• 41:13
  Um, and for those maybe who have or know of loved ones that have chronic skin conditions, um, many people, particularly with sur- with, uh, psoriasis, will eventually go on biologics, uh, Humira, Cosentyx.
• 41:24
  Biologics spend is outrageous in this country.
• 41:27
  A biological typically costs a health plan about fifty thousand dollars a year per person, and things like light therapy and other treatments are much, much lower costs and, and actually the appropriate clinical protocol to be followed before somebody goes on a biologic.
• 41:43
  So this company came in and basically very clearly outlined a path to ROI and a path to extreme savings for many of the plans, uh, and self-insured employers. And so for us, that was quite confirmatory.
• 41:57
  That it's, it's, it's probably the best example of like hard ROI that, that a lot of my companies don't have that.
• 42:05
  But it is one when you ha-- and that's your space, it's so, so, so powerful, um, particularly when you talk to, you know, they're working with one of the biggest health plans in the country and also one of the biggest PBMs, and they said, "Psoriasis are-- is our top three priority right now."
• 42:21
  Like that one condition because of how much drug spend they have on the biologic side.
• 42:25
  So think about do you have an analog there because of how powerful that is and how frankly from just a, if you are going to some of the incumbents, that's just such a strong narrative to be telling.
• 42:38
  On the flip side, um, companies have changed my thinking. So I mentioned OCD, um, again, severe mental illness platform starting with obsessive compulsive disorder.
• 42:49
  And typically what VCs, what we do is we look at cl- we say, what's like-- what are the big markets, right?
• 42:54
  We say like, let's pull up the claims data, you know, oncology, MSK, cardiology, whatever.If you pulled the claims in and you said, "How, how big is your spend in OCD?" A plan would be like, "None. We have three people."
• 43:09
  And what in reality was happening is, is people were actually landing in the claim as something else. Misdiagnosed, undiagnosed depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, right?
• 43:20
  They, they weren't actually being treated for what the underlying condition that they had. And so what NoCD did is they started doing direct-to-consumer acquisition. They started...
• 43:30
  They had created a really interesting SEO SEM strategy on long tail around intrusive thoughts. And I don't know if anybody knows what, uh, OCD is, but it's not like don't step on the cracks.
• 43:41
  It's you have these debilitating intrusive thoughts that are just completely disrupt your life. They're often, um, very taboo thoughts and things that you are very uncomfortable sharing with anybody else in your life.
• 43:52
  [lips smack] There's also a provider shortage, extreme provider shortage in SMI, which many of you may know.
• 43:58
  And so they started finding these people, and these people were so desperate for treatment, and they developed, um, you know, they took E-ERP therapy. Exposure response prevention is very effective with OCD. And, um,
• 44:10
  and they started delivering teletherapy to these people and had unbelievable outcomes and started getting the data. And then they went to the health op plans and they said, "Hey, look at what we're doing over here.
• 44:22
  We're doing a really good job. You guys should pay us now."
• 44:24
  And so now what they do is they still do D2C acquisition, but they actually monetize through the health plans, and they get plan reimbursement on either fee for service, or they also have case rate contracts.
• 44:33
  And they have a really, really strong reimbursement plan. So I tell this story of, like, if I just-- if my strategy as a VC was just like, the problem lies in the claim, right?
• 44:46
  Claims are lagging indicators, not leading indicators. And so I-- that would be a business that we wouldn't have invested in, right? Yeah.
• 44:52
  And there's a number of other companies where if people say, "Well, is this market really big enough?" I feel like I go to some women's health all the time.
• 44:59
  It's like, ugh, okay, well, if fifty percent of the population, and just because the claims don't populate it, doesn't mean it isn't a problem.
• 45:07
  And so what kind of creativity can you bring to that process to think about servicing that population and solving real problems? That's great. That's great.
• 45:16
  Um, we're getting towards the top of the hour, so I wanna let everybody know if you want to squeeze in one last question, now would be the time.
• 45:23
  Also, we'll give folks a chance to drop into the chat, um, just a, something they're taking away from this, uh, an insight that they've heard as a way to sort of reflect back to Alyssa and the group, uh, a lesson learned.
• 45:36
  So something that I'm thinking about is here we have this panel, this, this audience of founders, uh, really looking at health from a lot of unique di- a lot of unique angles, a lot of very creative founders.
• 45:49
  And, uh, and you have this, um, important vantage point looking at health, uh, from Seven Wire side.
• 45:56
  And I wonder if, and this could be a difficult question for you to answer, if you could wave a magic wand, is there a challenge in health, could be a point solution, could be something really big, that you wish someone would solve that, that frustrates you right now?
• 46:11
  Um, [lips smack] great question. I actually-- I just did this exercise with a company that we hatched. So it's, um, we're going-- uh, it's, it's in women's health, but a bit more earlier in the, the journey.
• 46:21
  My, my other problem that I've been-- that I want somebody to solve and solve really well that I don't feel like I've seen quite yet is, um, um, [lips smack] managed Medicaid business and maternal health.
• 46:33
  Um, I just don't think-- I think most maternal health focuses on commercial.
• 46:38
  Um, it's purpose-built for women like me who, um, you know, of course, have our own challenges, but not nearly the same, um, if you think about being on a Medicaid plan. And, um, [lips smack] the-- most
• 46:53
  of the companies I've seen either do like a provider acquisition strategy, which I don't love, um, do more of a one piece of it, um, [lips smack] like just the doula component of it- Yeah...
• 47:09
  and don't really think of-- And it's hard.
• 47:11
  And then for a number of reasons I, you know, I, I understand why building a more comprehensive platform here is really challenging, but I wanna see someone raise like a boatload of money and solve that problem.
• 47:22
  I love it. Let's go to a quick question from Jeffrey Gluck in the, uh, chat. So, Jeffrey, go ahead and come off mute. Uh, sure. Um, thanks.
• 47:33
  Uh, I noted that, uh, Seven Wire recently invested in a company in GI space called Vivante.
• 47:38
  Um, and I wonder-- and given what you were talking about in terms of the payer presentation and what you called, I think, uh, B to B to C. No, it was like D to C to B, you said.
• 47:50
  Um, how, how do you think about the GI space in the same way that you discussed psoriasis and some of these others in terms of whether payers recognize it and, and see it as, uh, or see it properly in the claims data?
• 48:03
  And when could you define that, uh, uh, you know, D to C to B comment that you made early on? Sure, sure. So, um, I'll start with the latter and I'll end with the former, um, on the, the comment made. So, so
• 48:17
  I'd say it probably falls in the middle of a NoCD and Azariq- Azariqo, right? Like, Zariqo is like the most clear-cut ROI. NoCD had no, like, claims data whatsoever.
• 48:27
  GI is probably in the middle, mostly because the employers actually start to care a lot about it. The employers are hearing a lot about it from their employees.
• 48:33
  And so while the plans are seeing some of like the higher acuity cases and the cost, um, the employers are the ones really pushing for solutions.
• 48:43
  And so we've actually-- Vivante's done a really nice job of getting a number of employer contracts, and now that's actually leading them to get introduced to health plans.
• 48:50
  So, so probably if that helps answer the question about specific conditions somewhere in the middle.
• 48:55
  Um, my comment, and so, uh, they're a bit more B to B to C, so Vivante will sell to an employerAnd then, you know, do the second sell to the consumer. My, uh, D2C to B common is an OCD, right?
• 49:08
  We're gonna do c- direct to consumer acquisition, and then we're gonna monetize through the health plan. And so we've a couple of companies on that D2C to B route. We've a number of companies on B2B2C.
• 49:18
  Um, we do nothing B- straight B2B. Again, our thesis is around consumer-directed healthcare and empowering consumers to be better stewards of their health.
• 49:27
  And so it, it's, it's been interesting to watch some of the creativity. We've probably pivoted four or five businesses at this point from straight direct to consumer into B2B2C. Um,
• 49:37
  there's challenges associated with that. We have a certain philosophy around doing that, but ultimately think that it can be successful.
• 49:46
  But that the, the, the bulk of the dollars, particularly with a lot of these conditions that are high-cost conditions like a psoriasis, you know, a severe mental illness, et cetera, y- it's, it's really, really hard to build a full cash pay business off of that.
• 50:02
  Appreciate the question, Jeffrey.
• 50:04
  Um, Alyssa, when you are in the position of advising a, an early stage company, [laughs] is, is there a piece of advice that you find yourself giving the most often that makes you think, "Oh, I might be becoming a broken record here," that you just always come back to a central, um, theme when you're advising?
• 50:22
  I love that question. Um, I th- so, so I'm really big on storytelling. Um, the power of storytelling is so influential in everything that you do as a founder. It's how you raise capital.
• 50:38
  It's how you acquire talent. It's how you get customers. And I don't think enough reps are, are placed around how to crisply tell the best story. And often,
• 50:56
  I like to play back a story to somebody and refi- help refine that story so it can be the most impactful story possible. So I, I wanna say that's-
• 51:07
  When you say, when you say you play it back to somebody, kind of walk me through some of the mechanics of that process. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I... This is, like, what I love.
• 51:16
  So y- you s- you pitch to me, and I'm gonna pitch right back to you, and I'm gonna tell you a story right back to you of how I heard your story, right?
• 51:25
  And we're gonna do it together and think about the language and the messaging that's gonna be the most powerful, um, to really hone in on exactly where the proof points are, but where the vision is, too.
• 51:37
  And it's just, it's so influential in everything that a founder does and everything a company does that and it's, it's very hard to put discipline around it. Um- Mm-hmm...
• 51:50
  because often we're, we're burning, you know, we're putting out a thousand fires, playing a whack-a-mole game every single day.
• 51:58
  It, it sometimes falls by the wayside when, in fact, it becomes one of the most important things that, that somebody could do. Are there common, uh, red flags in terms of someone's narrative that you've identified?
• 52:12
  Pattern recognition. [laughs] Time management. [laughs] Um- Go- going too long. Yeah. S- i- being crisp and concise. Yeah. Um, then there's probably the b- ends of the spectrum.
• 52:27
  You're either too detailed or you're too vague. Like, if you just say buzzwords, nobody knows what you do. If you're so, so, so detailed and so on the we, it's like nobody sees the vision.
• 52:37
  And so probably, you know, making, creating a balance of where you're telling a story. You're telling the problem.
• 52:44
  You're telling why there's a solution to it, where the business is today, and where the business is going. Um, it's- How, how essential is the naturalness, the genuineness of the presentation?
• 52:57
  Uh, so those are two different things. Sometimes someone has the g- has the, the right narrative, but it's, it's not particularly natural coming out of their mouths. Uh, and is that teachable? So
• 53:12
  what we used to do, um, when I, I ran c- commercial teams is the philosophy is we all, we have a structure for the story that we're telling, right?
• 53:23
  Especially, like, at some point you have to translate that story from founder to a salesperson, and that's a really, really hard transition. It's very easy... Like, s- I mentioned Steven Smith.
• 53:32
  Steven Smith can tell his story about having OCD, but someone who doesn't have OCD has to s- have that same power impact but, but doesn't have it, right? So they have to tell it in a different way.
• 53:43
  And so it's, that transition becomes quite mechanical if you, if you can do it correctly. And what we like to say and what we used to do when I ran commercial teams was, um,
• 53:55
  was to actually create the framework and the story. And you memorize it, and then you forget it, right? And what does that mean?
• 54:02
  You know all the pieces of how that narrative flows, but then you put it into your own words and your own ability to tell that story. I'm a huge fan of authenticity.
• 54:11
  It's incre- incredibly difficult to try and be somebody else. I work with some amazing, amazing people. Glenn Tolman doesn't sleep. I sleep. I cannot emulate that behavior.
• 54:23
  I will never be successful emulating [laughs] that behavior. I will be a tortured soul for the rest of my life.
• 54:29
  And so we have to recognize our own boundaries, our own strengths, and our own superpowers and lead with that.
• 54:37
  Um, because the more you can take that same message and translate it into the words that are powerful for you, you have to believe that message, you know? And your team has to believe that message.
• 54:48
  And your team's gonna believe it in a, maybe a slightly different way than you believe it. Beautiful. Alyssa, that takes us to the top of the hour.
• 54:57
  I, I think I speak for everybody when, A, I, I say we could probably talk a lot longer. Um, you're full of wisdom.
• 55:04
  And, uh, and, a- and B, we really appreciate you taking the time a- and sharing your wisdom with us today. Always. So fun. Like, this is my, the most fun part of my day.
• 55:14
  So, um, always happy to have a dialogue and be helpful how I can. You all are doing the real hard work. And look, we, VCs, we always have opinions. So
• 55:25
  when asked, we shall deliver, but take what you like, leave what you don't. Um, do this a lot.
• 55:31
  Talk to a lot of different people, and formulate your own thoughts on, you know, what, what it means to be a founder and a builder for you. [upbeat music] Thanks for listening to StartUp Health NOW.
• 55:42
  StartUp Health invests in health transformers from around the world who are committed to achieving audacious health moonshots.
• 55:48
  If you wanna learn how you can join this community of entrepreneurs, or if you want to connect with one of our 380 companies, go to startuphealth.com.
• 55:56
  If you'd like to learn how you can invest in our Health Moonshot Impact Fund in collaboration with AngelList, go to healthmoonshots.com. Thanks for listening to StartUp Health NOW. We'll be back next week. [upbeat music]