Ed Manzi

As I said right at the start of this week's The Heart of Healthcare Podcast, Shivdev Rao is one of the most exceptional founders I have ever worked with. He is also a great human being. In this week's episode he shares what is it like leading the 🚀 that is Abridge and some awesome life lessons. IMHO this is a great listen for founders building in both the AI and healthcare fields!

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Over the last few weekends, I’ve had a ton of fun building a new tool alongside some Ro’ers. The Ro GLP-1 Supply Tracker helps patients find GLP-1 supply, report shortages to the FDA, and track which drugs are currently in shortage. Here’s how it works: https://lnkd.in/eKUfQ9j9 This free tracker does four 4 things: 1) It shows which GLP-1s are in shortage by individual drug and dose. This automatically pulls from the FDA’s website, plus crowd-sourced shortage reports. 2) It makes it easy for everyone to share where and when they find GLP-1 supply (which will notify patients who need supply nearby) or share what drug and dose they are looking for (which will automatically report a shortage to the FDA). Patients can pay it forward to help other patients find the medications that they need. 3) It let’s anyone get on our ‘Supply List’ which means we’ll send them real-time, localized email alerts when GLP-1s are found in-stock near them, including the drug + dose, and pharmacy name, address, and phone number. 4) It enables patients and providers to sign up to receive automated notifications as soon as a GLP-1s status changes on the FDA’s list. This up-to-date information helps them better work together to align on the best possible care plan. The first principle at Ro is to fight for patients. Navigating the shortage is hard. But finding GLP-1s shouldn’t be. Patients deserve better. They deserve easy access to the most effective healthcare. Ro will fight for that every single day.

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To my amazing network - I am thrilled to announce the launch of Pave Health Ventures, an early-stage venture fund dedicated to broadening access to healthcare and improving the overall well-being of our communities. I’ve been very fortunate in my healthcare career. As the Founder & CEO of MedPilot, we capped off a seven-year journey with a successful exit when we were acquired by Vytalize Health. For the last three years, serving as Chief Innovation Officer, I’ve had the honor to contribute to the remarkable growth at Vytalize, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients by enhancing the quality of care they receive. I am immensely grateful to Matt Buder Shapiro, not only for being the perfect partner and co-founder but also for being an incredible friend. Additionally, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to Faris Ghawi, Amer Alnajar, and Jordan Brown for their outstanding leadership and for broadening my perspective on the significance of value-based care. This journey has not only provided me with industry expertise but has allowed me to cultivate invaluable relationships and an incredible network. As I embark on this new chapter, I am profoundly grateful to be supported by top executives and thought leaders in the investment, wellness, and healthcare industries. Within the healthcare ecosystem, we are represented by key stakeholders from health systems, insurers, governmental organizations, retail health businesses, provider groups, and value-based care organizations. At Pave Health Ventures, we believe the timing couldn't be more opportune to help support health-focused startups. With the growing prevalence of illness and chronic health conditions impacting our communities, consumers and key Healthcare Stakeholders are increasingly prioritizing proactive and preventative care. This shift in focus is fueling demand for technology, products, and services aimed at improving health outcomes, unlocking trillions of dollars in growth potential within the healthcare landscape. Pave Health Ventures is all-in. We are actively seeking solutions that tackle the root causes of illness, manage chronic conditions, and optimize care and care teams. Please support us in our mission by opening your networks and introducing us to amazing founders and entrepreneurs. Together, let's help pave the way to a healthier tomorrow. Jacob Myers

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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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Exciting news from Monica Chopra, Jeffrey De Flavio, MD, Samantha Adelberg, and the rest of the Auxa Health team as they officially announce their $5.2M Seed round. The team's deep industry expertise and drive for change have led them to solve critical infrastructural friction to providing quality healthcare and adoption of value-based care. Auxa's AI benefit navigation platform is simplifying the complexities of healthcare by streamlining all of the fragmented and siloed data and information to make it actionable in real-time for healthcare organizations. For the 70% of Americans who aren't getting access to the health and social care benefits they deserve, Auxa's solution will be pivotal in enabling equitable care. We're thrilled to partner with co-investors Zeal Capital Partners, AlleyCorp, Laconia, and Chaac Ventures on this journey and look to share many more milestones ahead. Cc K50 Ventures, Ryan Bloomer, Daniel Vásquez, Nick Talwar, Stefanie Ng https://lnkd.in/dPDY7-Db

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Had a blast diving into Amir Dan Rubin's extensive healthcare career on Vital Signs. Amir previously served as the CEO of One Medical and Stanford Health Care, was an EVP at United/Optum and is now the Founding Managing Partner at Healthier Capital. Our conversation spanned payer-provider integrations, lessons learned from leading One Medical, applications of generative AI, and more. Some highlights: ⚡Combining care models We talked a lot about the One Medical/Iora combination. Amir argues that just because two care delivery approaches may occupy the same physical location (e.g., a clinic), that doesn’t mean they necessarily need to conform to the same economic model. For instance, One Medical and Iora were able to combine effectively despite the former being a membership model and the latter being global capitation. Amir emphasizes that much of the overhead resources (e.g., front desk staff, phlebotomy) can be shared across models. ⚡How One Medical uses generative AI to improve efficiency One Medical allows members to message the care team, and then uses NLP to read the message, figure out its content, and triage it to the appropriate team member. Amir is excited about leveraging internal knowledge graphs to get around hallucinations. This approach can point to relevant internal data in helping compose responses, creating more trust and accuracy in the outputs. ⚡Behind the Amazon acquisition One Medical was interested in expanding its direct to consumer offering. However, they recognized that customer acquisition was costly, which is why partnering with Amazon Prime’s existing membership base made sense for them. Amir explains how at their core, both Amazon and One Medical are all about using technology and logistics to create an excellent customer experience. An awesome conversation ranging from health system innovation to startup strategy to health tech investing! Listen to our full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wrbnol Apple: https://apple.co/3XWOomb

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"Boy this would be great if you could do this in Hindi." an Investor said on a call with Bud during a Demo. "Angela, our product manager was sitting in the background listening to the call and we went through all the details, and by the end of our call we had a Hindi version of it. AND She invested. Immediately." Healthcare AI is a huge part of the future, what does that look like? Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast brings you episode 53 with Bud Flagstad, CEO of EmpowerHealth. Bud shares his journey from a young tech enthusiast to a leader in healthcare technology, detailing his extensive experience at UnitedHealth Group and the innovations he spearheaded. He discusses the challenges of working in large organizations versus startups, the role of AI in healthcare, and how Empower Health is leveraging technology to improve patient engagement and reduce costs. Bud also opens up about his personal health journey, stress management techniques, and the importance of healthy living. Now in a whopping- 72 languages. Saved $72 million in readmission reduction across 847,000 members in a 12-month period for a company- of which $59 million was readmission fees, and $13 million in work force. They even can handle faxes, if people are still stuck in the dark ages. So much more efficient. "You won't realize what a solution like Angel can do, until you feel it." The industry is ripe for a big change. Learn about Angel, Empower Health, and the future of Healthcare and AI! 3️⃣🗝Points 🤖 Empower Health focuses on AI-driven solutions to enhance patient engagement. 🩺 AI can help reduce clinician burnout and improve care delivery efficiency. 🌐 The platform developed by Empower Health supports multiple languages and modalities. 🎧https://lnkd.in/dVxSFFQB https://lnkd.in/d6D6deJM

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Abby Levy talks about venture's role in US healthcare and what we can expect to see as technology impacts the space on TFR. Check out the rest of the conversation with Abby & Alan Patricof of Primetime Partners on Episode 433.

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NEW: Healthcare deals are finally picking up again after a funding slump. And those deals — to the relief of many VCs — don't look like they did before the downturn. In 2021, some healthcare startups getting funded had little to no revenue, minimal market traction, or hadn't proved their ability to significantly help patients. Investors have higher standards now, and they're writing smaller checks at lower valuation multiples. But there's one area of healthcare that's making an exception — artificial intelligence. In my latest for Business Insider, here's how healthcare AI deals are bucking the industry's new normal, and what types of healthcare AI startups are bound to get more VC cash: https://lnkd.in/euBSHf4u (Thanks so much to Scott Barclay, Nina Achadjian, Todd Cozzens, Garheng Kong, and Andrew Arruda for these great insights!!)

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If you begin with a grand vision and avoid playing "small ball," you can win in DTC in healthcare and allied health industries. In fact, I'd like to propose that eventually "all healthcare will be DTC." DTC means different things to different companies across different industries. In home security, one of my DTC heroes Jamie Siminoff proved that a category could be created or at least massively disrupted and morphed. Marc Benioff began his SFDC journey one salesperson at a time via direct marketing of a sales automation solution in a DTC way. How did they successfully disrupt stale low-margin, small-ball markets and gain scale and momentum? They built trust, leveraged user validation and word of mouth, and then went wide and deep with an ecosystem and a flywheel. And yes, they had a crackerjack, fresh and innovative product/service that worked, to earn trust, excitement and WOM virality. But that was the appetizer, not the main course. Healthcare has even more of this, as it involves risk reduction and building trust via personal-use validation and word of mouth with "reputational risk." This is one of the hallmarks of premier brand DTC product-led-growth. If you think about healthcare like a premier, aspirational brand, it begins to make more sense. It's expensive, it reflects your perceived social status (when/if you share it) and it is important to you to have value and trust in the brand. What if a healthcare brand could engender the same kind of connection and trust as, say: LVMH, Hermès, Apple, JLR, Zabar's, The MICHELIN Guide, and more. If you can build a large enterprise that can move from DTC and product-led-growth and early adoption, to scaled GTM via partners and leveraging or assembling an ecosystem to support it and build a flywheel to shift the unit economics and LCV (lifetime customer value), then you win. In fact, as we move further into outright recognition that so many Americans are essentially self-funding their healthcare via high-deductible plans.... "all healthcare will be DTC" in the sense that via price transparency, provider discovery and competition, trust and quality, all of healthcare will eventually need to be accountable to the same kinds of brand value, trust and reputational pressures as we see today in classic DTC businesses. Every consumer wants trust, value, brand reflection and quality. Especially in a high-spend, high emotional category like healthcare. #trust #value #wordofmouth #GTM #productledgrowth #Ecosystemledgrowth

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We're absolutely thrilled to announce a monumental milestone for Flo Health Inc.! After years of dedication to women's health, Flo, a long-standing member of the Target Global family, has secured over $200 million in Series C funding led by General Atlantic.This incredible investment propels Flo's valuation beyond $1 billion, officially making it a unicorn – a rare and remarkable feat in the femtech space. This accomplishment isn't just about numbers. It's a testament to the power of prioritizing women's health. Flo has seen phenomenal growth over eight years, becoming the #1 downloaded app in the Health & Fitness category. Today, Flo empowers nearly 70 million monthly active users (MAUs) and boasts close to 5 million paid subscribers. Notably, 1 in 4 US women trust Flo, solidifying its position as a leader in the global movement for women's health. But this is just the beginning! This investment fuels Flo's mission to revolutionize female healthcare experiences worldwide. By directing resources towards areas of critical yet unmet needs (which, let's be honest, encompasses a vast majority of women's health!), Flo will continue to be a driving force for positive change. Congratulations Dmitry Gurski,Yuri Gurski, and the entire Flo Health Inc. team! More in the Financial Times here ---->https://lnkd.in/dJZdajM4

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We have another publicly traded #behavioralhealth business to track... Sort of... I breakdown how UpHealth continues to unwind a $1.35 billion #SPAC merger meant to build an international technology and #telehealth company. Now, the company is trying to push through several bankruptcies, international business disputes and huge financial loss to become a facility-based #addictiontreatment business. #mentalhealth #bankruptcy https://lnkd.in/eunfgUpK

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Thank you, Sumit Nagpal, for shining a light on two incredibly important movements in what can often feel like a challenging healthcare startup environment. This is a huge win for women's health and signals the dawn of a new era for consumer health. I firmly believe in moving away from a one-size-fits-all solution for men and women, and recognizing the need for a completely different approach – sometimes in obvious ways, and sometimes not. People have access to more knowledge and data about their health than ever before, enabling them to make informed decisions about their well-being. Consumer health is ripe for a comeback! #consumerhealth #digitalhealth #menshealth

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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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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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I have to say, whenever I read fertility investment stories like this recent one in PitchBook, it gives me pause. Scarcity of opportunity and private equity looking for a new fertility platform to scale?   While it’s true that private equity has been enthusiastic about fertility, some argue the strategy of investing in operators who perform IVF as a manual, artisanal, concierge service is akin to betting on flip phones after Apple launched the smartphone—or riding a dinosaur in the age of innovation. Now I know I’m biased, but the fact is Conceivable Life Sciences clearly sees the future of fertility—and it revolves around the end-to-end automation of the IVF lab. One way to make a billion dollars is by serving hundreds of millions of people—and in the coming decades, that’s where demand for IVF is heading. The urgency will only grow as countries confront declining birth rates and recognize that a key solution lies with the millions of hopeful parents who want children but can’t afford or access IVF. At Conceivable were building the next wave platform for IVF by automating the lab in a way that improves results, increases scale, and becomes a more affordable population health treatment that is accessible to whoever can benefit from it. In the process, Conceivable and our investors will do good and do well. #IVF #IVFAutomation #innovation #biotechnology #populationhealth Janelle Bradley

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The opioid crisis was a sad hallmark of my years working for the Baker Administration. In a time of extreme partisanship at the federal level, this was one area where public policy, civil discourse, and private enterprise seemed aligned and sufficiently motivated to find a solution. What we learned, however, is that dollars and access only go so far in combatting a disease that knows no so specific demographic. Instead, it's apparent that a battery of tools is needed to combat and prevent addiction--ranging from strong safety nets, to novel non-addictive pain therapies, and better technology. Introducing Marigold Health. Shrenik Jain, Ravi Shah, Tracey Cohen, MD, FASAM and team have built a proprietary NLP-based platform that--most significantly--improves the lives of those suffering from SUD/SMI. One customer we spoke with noted, "We needed a unique treatment intervention that had supportive research, fit into a CMS established model with a recognized service code, and that would provide positive clinical outcomes in an efficacious and fiscally responsible manner”. Another plainly said: "Marigold is our best hope to reach into the lives and help those who many have already given up on." Honored to join Bill Evans, Sean Day, and the entire syndicate in doing our part to scale a tool we believe will become essential in the fight against addiction. Marigold Health Innospark Ventures Rock Health KdT Ventures Matt Fates Lily Zarrella Venkat Srinivasan

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This week Mikal Ventures brings you a 4-week breakdown of the US capital market with an emphasis on the Mikal verticals. Over the 4-week period ending June 10, just over 590 new companies were added, resulting in 95,661 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. AI Tech maintained its most active status, seeing the greatest percentage of growth in both new companies and transactions. The US Fin Tech vertical led the way in SEC Filings and news articles. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats to provide a perspective on how the verticals and new startups move through time. We hope you find them informative and thought-provoking. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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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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