Alex Ingram

Let's finally get rid off the "VC alphabet song" and redo the system to become more founder friendly. "The benchmarks set by funding stages are often arbitrary and not necessarily aligned with the actual development needs of individual startups." #vc #venturecapital #founder #fundraising #startups #fundingstages #funding #fundingrounds #pitchbook

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Great article from PitchBook on why domain expertise amongst VCs matters. TL;DR -- in verticals like healthcare, having investors with high amount of domain expertise can result in up to 40% higher odds of achieving an IPO, 20% higher chance of being acquired and 30% higher chance of an overall successful exit. Importantly, the marginal value of having investors with domain expertise varies by sector and stage, and is not uniform, so your mileage may vary, and generalist investors still have a very important role to play in the venture ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/dXpi8gzm Curious to hear from founders: Do you have examples of seeing specialist investors be helpful in unique ways that you can share? Or alternatively, do you have an experience with a generalist investor who has been more helpful than the specialists?

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Are digital health startups in a quiet struggle? They raised $5.7 billion in the first half of 2024, signaling a potential rebound. With AI driving investments, this year's totals might surpass last year's and challenge 2019's $8.2 billion record. This funding is crucial for driving healthcare innovations. Yet, startups struggle to deliver returns, with acquisitions dropping from 278 in 2021 to just 66 this year. Many startups face hurdles in gaining the momentum needed for liquid dollars, IPOs, and acquisitions. The healthcare market is difficult to crack, and there’s often a mismatch in valuations. One challenge on the customer end for virtual-care companies: consumers often can switch easily from one to the next (Charlotte Ross) Also - "AI-enabled" is constantly being pitched, and often missing a competitive advantage, like a proprietary data set. Everyone is calling themselves AI-first, and the traditional VC playbook doesn't apply to AI (most large incumbents have an AI strategy). Thoughts? #DigitalHealth #VentureCapital #AI https://lnkd.in/eHbhJNwF

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Today was a big win for consumer health, with Flo Health Inc.'s valuation at $1 billion. We're hearing talk about the market becoming frothy again, but I’d argue—without seeing the detailed financials—that this valuation could be entirely warranted. Flo has built an impressive business, with 5 million paid subscribers and 70 million monthly active users. At $60 per year for users to access the product, this business has hundreds of millions in revenue and plenty of room to grow. It's increasingly clear to me that innovators focused on healthcare have been wildly underestimating consumer business models for years, believing that patients would only opt for solutions covered by their health plans and prescribed or recommended by their doctors. That thesis needs updating, particularly given high deductible plans and soaring co-pays. Innovators building solutions that users genuinely love will win - even in healthcare. These businesses also have the potential to move into B2B channels, which is far easier to do when you have an engaged, loyal user base. I expect we’ll see many more consumer health businesses “pop” in the years to come, further proving that consumers are ready and willing to pay for such solutions. We're watching closely at Cherish Kudos to the team at Flo for this impressive milestone. Lainie Muller Charlotte Yeh Aashima Gupta Avanlee Christine Esther Dyson Alexandra Drane Jessica Kamada Vin Gupta, MD MPA Asheesh Saksena Paul Crnkovich Josh Kampel Steve Chazin Lee Wagner #agingwithattitude #independentliving #consumerdrivencare

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A recent monumental milestone for the femtech industry: Flo Health secured $200M in funding, achieving a valuation of over $1 billion as the world's first femtech unicorn. It’s important to acknowledge both the progress and the paradoxes within this achievement. Flo Health, a platform empowering women with vital health insights, was founded by two male cofounders. 🤔 This brings to light a critical discussion about representation and inclusivity in the femtech space. While their contribution is commendable, it underscores the necessity for more female founders and leaders in industries that primarily serve women. As the founder of BAD BITCH EMPIRE dedicated to breaking down barriers for women in business and investing, I see this as a call to action. We need more women at the helm of innovative solutions addressing our unique health needs. It's not just about creating products for women; it's about ensuring these products are driven by the voices and experiences of women themselves. This historic funding round proves that femtech is not only vital but also a lucrative market. Now, let's channel this momentum to elevate more female entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders who can drive the next wave of femtech innovations. #Femtech #WomenInTech #FemaleFounders #InvestInWomen https://lnkd.in/euwbhqVB

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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Someone broke down the estimated costs of a $15 Sweetgreen salad. We need these cost graphics for digital health to help future founders. Especially for tech enabled cos, the greatest cost is labor. Much of the "value created" is in curation and matching, which means the gross margins are reliant on labor arbitrage. Pay someone $X, but get paid $X+Y% per visit. The challenge with healthcare is that you often have to pick one of two business models: 1. specialized, low volume, high cost, low gross margin % 2. generalized, high volume, low cost, high gross margin % I'd argue founders should focus on gross dollars over the lifetime of the customer (like Jeff Bezos said) instead of gross margin %'s, but we'll leave that for another time. The challenge is that many tech enabled digital health cos have high cost of goods sold (labor) and moderately high product, design, and engineering budgets. We must build differentiated solutions for patients, clinicians, and clients to be out incumbents, however, we're realizing that companies are ultimately valued on the discounted value of future cash flows. And the high SG&A costs at most organizations might be inbalanced to the unit economics of the business. I'm not sure the math pencils out for everyone unfortunately. But I'm just a guy on the internet, would love to hear the thoughts from those smarter than I (you!). Comment below. --- p.s. I have no idea the accuracy of the graphic and not an investor in Sweetgreen. Cheers. Credit: David Crowther

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🔥Tune In to the Latest Fireside Chat with a VC in Healthech🔥 What percentage of VCs are former founders? 30% maybe more? I'd think a fair amount, yet how *exactly* does that transition happen and what perspectives change *radically* afterwards? Sigvards Krongorns shared exactly that - his journey from PwC consultant to Healtech founder, to a VC shaping the future of Healthtech startups. What we talked about: ✨ Sigvards' transition from a PwC consultant to founder to a VC ✨ What steps are necessary to bring innovative medical devices from concept to market ✨ How being a founder can prepare you for a role in venture capital ✨ What strategies help navigate the regulatory landscape in healthtech startups ✨ The right way to engage with VCs for startup funding ✨ What future trends in venture capital and Healthtech look like #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation #StartupJourney #HealthcareInnovation #Entrepreneurship #FiresideChat #VentureCapitalInsights Full conversation can be found here:

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Learn a bit more about our DNA and how we operate at Acurio Ventures from Kate Cornell

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One of my proudest moments as an investor occurred today as Alaffia Health announced its series A because it shows how the Aperture® Venture Capital vision of multi-level, multi-generational #impactinvesting is succeeding in the marketplace. Here’s the model in its most basic form : ✅As diverse fund managers with meaningful capital to allocate, we are changing the VC landscape every day just by doing our day jobs. ✅As Black/Brown investors with ~40 years experience collectively, Aperture GPs have access to talent /excellence that others do not, so our portfolio *organically* is more inclusive by race, gender and geography even while optimizing for financial outcomes (all about the alpha). ✅Our most successful portco’s are using financial #innovation to solve market problems that impact underrepresented demographics and underserved communities. Alaffia Health is a shining example of the impact portion of our overall fund thesis, and we couldn’t be prouder of TJ Ademiluyi and Adun Akanni, MPH, PMP - the dynamic brother-sister founder duo whose vision we have steadfastly supported on their journey. Congratulations to TJ and Adun from William Crowder and myself, as well as the whole Aperture team- Marjorie King Philip McKenzie Yves Louis-Jacques Tanvi Lal Michelle Dhansinghani Lisha Bell Katie Kelly Amy Chung Cindy Chong, CFA Brian Fernandes-Halloran Monroe France Jayden Pantel Darren Herman Evan Wladis Neal Triplett Thomas Scriven Peter Ammon Irina Bit-Babik Tim Milanich Rob Rahbari

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Should you sell your practice to a VC-Backed MSO Startup? tldr: - new VC-backed startups are forming MSOs to roll up independent practices - The pitch is physicians receive early liquidity from the roll up and are granted ESOP shares that can be used for retirement - Problem is the use of ESOPs with independent practices is not a new concept and has been used with large group practices since the 70's - ESOPs do not grant full ownership and in order for the shares to be valuable for retirement, the practice needs to run the same if not better post roll up - With VC-backed startups being primarily operated by non-physicians with zero clinical or medical practice experience, the likelihood of this happening is extremely low making the entire concept high risk However, there is a viable path for continued ownership + liquidity for independent practices. Check out the article to learn more. ⤵ https://lnkd.in/gmGvTYwP

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Couple of weeks ago had the pleasure of sharing my story to Alexander Benkendorf about starting CastPrint and later moving on to join Verge HealthTech Fund and the learning along the way. Some topics we discussed: 💡What does it take to bring innvation in healthcare 💡How did my startup background help me better prepare for VC work 💡How founders can better engage with VCs and what are the tips and tricks from the "other side" Thanks Alexander for having me!

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A little late, even though this process started in July.... Excited to share our latest investment in Heads Together Health!! We met Steve DeVrieze in October last year, and we think they are poised for impressive growth! Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ecYcqqkn #earlystagestartup #earlystageinvesting #VCinvestment #ncstartups #nctechstartups

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If you start down the path of #enterpriseimaging – which many health systems are doing (or considering) – "there have to be some objectives and a clear understanding of what you're attempting to do," said Joseph Marion during a recent discussion with Alex Towbin and Lenny Reznik. What you don't want is to go into it with "a false expectation or limited expectation." https://lnkd.in/gg3PkCim AGFA HealthCare #itimaging #healthcareit #enterpriseimagemanagement #patientsafety #patientexperience

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Awesome report from Rock Health (in the comments) about H124 digital health funding. 📈 Despite broader economic challenges, the digital health sector, including mental health, has shown resilience, raising $5.7B across 266 deals. There is a strong Series A pipeline, tapering off of unlabeled funding rounds and 3 public exits in Q2 2024 indicating a revival in the exit market and a return to more sustainable funding patterns​. Key insights about the mental health market: 🧠 Mental health continues to be the leading clinical indication in digital health funding, securing $682 million in H1 2024. This consistent top ranking highlights the ongoing investor interest and the market's recognition of the critical need for mental health solutions. 🤖 The focus on mental health is driven by a combination of increased awareness, the rising demand for accessible mental health services, and the integration of tech solutions...🙄 In fact, AI has become a significant factor in digital health investments, with 34% of the total sector funding going to AI-startups. This trend is also reflected in mental health, where AI is being utilised to enhance diagnosis, personalise treatment plans, and provide scalable, efficient care solutions. Let's go!

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The most talked about AI x Medical startup Abridge is working to rescue doctors from the never-ending admin grind (which causes burnout and less patient face-time). Abridge's AI listens to patient visits and generates precise medical notes, slashing the clerical workload. Now, doctors can focus on what truly matters: patient care. Major health systems like Yale and Emory are already on board and raving, calling it "life-changing" and "magical." 🔷 A big reason --> Payback of the scribe tool is easy to measure. It supports 14 languages including Haitian Creole, Brazilian Portuguese, and Punjabi. An ongoing criticism of generative AI is that it still has few substantive business applications. This seems to quash that. Question: is a dedicated medical LLM needed to be successful in the space? Or will the huge foundational models (GPT-4o, Google, and Meta) ingest a plethora of medical notes and kill the competition with performance? We're dealing with a fast and furious pace, and today's edge may not be relevant tomorrow. Competitors include Microsoft-owned Nuance Healthcare , Ambience Healthcare, Nabla and Suki. I'm excited to continue to see this field revolutionized. 🌟 #AI #MedTech #Abridge #HealthTech

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I recently sat down with Michael Batko, CEO at Startmate and Founder of Puddle Pod for Episode 11 of Insane Ambition. Startmate has invested in 230+ startups, much of it under Michael's leadership, and now has $3.5b in value across its portfolio companies. In this episode, we discussed: - Michael's journey from consulting, then living in the Amazon rainforest, to leading Australia's biggest startup accelerator - The future of Australia's startup ecosystem - The labour government's very stupid plan to make it harder for people to qualify as sophisticated investors (now thankfully shelved) - Startmate City! Startmate's plan to build Australia's first startup city. Probably the most ambitious idea I've ever heard from a startup accelerator. - The balance between visionary thinking and traditional startup advice (think Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars, vs Y Combinator's problem/customer obsession) - "The Courage to Be Disliked", and its influence on Michael's approach to life and business. Links in the description below 👇

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How do we design funding mechanisms that are regenerative and built to last? In the latest Rehash episode, Sophia Dew from Celo Foundation joins me to talk about what blockchain enables for public goods funding, frameworks for designing regenerative onchain funding apps, and what it takes to build and maintain a layer 2 blockchain. Tune into our full conversation at the links below:

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