Cody Griffin

Platforms are in, point solutions are out as the healthcare AI category leaders come into focus this year. In conversation with Shelby Livingston at Endpoints News, I shared: 1. Why AI-first companies have the greatest platform potential and heuristics for identifying these opportunities at the earliest stages, 2. How companies are differentiating through co-development and distribution partnerships with leading healthcare institutions, and 3. Strategies for navigating anemic budgets and constrained market sizes through business model innovation such as AI-enabled services and pay for performance models Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dJWqv_zC Bessemer Venture Partners Abridge #healthcare #lifesciences #AI #generativeAI

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Here is the hard truth about building a health product: skipping early feedback from healthcare insiders and payers can cost you YEARs of time and MILLIONS of $$$. At MDisrupt we are seeing a powerful shift. More and more companies are finally prioritizing feedback from real healthcare stakeholders - a critical step in the rush to scale. This isn't a nice to have, its the difference between products that SCALE and products that FAIL. So what are we doing about it? Today we are helping clients to: 👉🏼 Get feedback from PAYERS early on, crafting a reimbursement strategy that sets the stage for growth. 👉🏼 Consult CLINICIANS ensure products align seamlessly with clinical workflows — no more “great product, but hard to use” feedback. 👉🏼 Engage HEALTH SYSTEM LEADERS to confirm that the product addresses real, pressing clinical needs. We are making it as easy as possible to find these valuable experts and engage them in hourly calls so companies can get feedback quickly. Please talk to me if we can help you with this.

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The (Healthcare) Ground Beneath Our Feet… This year it is likely that over $10 billion will be invested in the digital health sector – a robust amount, no doubt, but inconsequential when compared to the amount of capital tied up in healthcare real estate assets, which is estimated to be $1.2 trillion by Jones Lang Lasalle. Of that amount, approximately $790 billion is in the hospital sector while the remaining $490 billion is in medical office assets. It is estimated that there are 48.6k facilities with 3.4 billion square feet of healthcare real estate, 42% of which are owned by REITs and another 33% held by other private investment vehicles. Much of the digital health investment is meant to make the physical healthcare infrastructure more productive: greater operating efficiencies, greater patient throughput, more relevant personalized care models with better outcomes. As the healthcare system is being pushed to be more distributed to lower cost sites of care, accelerated now by the rapid proliferation of automation and AI capabilities, the potential impact on healthcare infrastructure assets will be profound. Thoughts on what that might look like... https://lnkd.in/eTfAdUbS #digitalhealth Flare Capital Partners

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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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This could be a big year for M&A. As a consumer health investor, I had a lot to say about the Walmart news last week. Thanks to Modern Retail and Modern Healthcare for featuring my perspective. The bottom line is that I expect to see more retailers learning their lesson and doing more “buy” than build. This could be a boon for the digital health sector, as I expect we’ll see a lot more buy-ups of high-quality clinic businesses with a loyal patient population already onboarded. This is not the end of retail health care, it’s just the end of a specific strategy that was never setup for success. https://lnkd.in/gbCQqYHi https://lnkd.in/guKNHUkE

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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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Hot take on a lot of early-stage digital health companies out there: You're not a tech company. Most tech-enabled care companies I've seen over the past two years are only tech-enabled in the sense that they use telehealth as their delivery mechanism for care. There are exceptions to this, of course - companies who build computer vision and applied AI tools to better the doctor-patient experience, companies who build tooling around risk scoring and stratification to enable more personalized medicine, companies who build truly novel intakes to better route patients to the appropriate care, etc. These companies have real technology chops and, if they sell it right to the market, can get credit for this from investors. But if you're truly a telehealth provider, you need to realize now that the goal post has shifted dramatically from 2021 and you're going to be valued at maturity at something like 3x EBITDA. That's profit. Not revenue. Throw a revenue multiple out the window. That's not the world we live in if you're a virtual doctor's office. Think of how that impacts venture math. If you're raising a seed round at $15M post-money (or $12M pre-money), it means you'll have to generate something like $150-200M in annual EBITDA to be a fund returner for your seed investors. Maybe even more with dilution, since telehealth businesses are not traditionally capital efficient and will likely need to raise material additional capital to reach that scale. You need to be ridiculously profitable (probably on $800M-$1B in annual revenue since you're likely going to be a 40% gross margin business). Here's the good news: you can set yourself up well (and probably be a contrarian founder relative to your peers), by talking about EBITDA growth and how you can grow into a fund-returning outcome based on realistic mature market comps. This will stand out for the investors you're pitching, even at the early stage. This is how you can beat the malaise of the tech-enabled care market. Focus on the right metrics and the right type of growth. You don't have to have all the answers (no founder does), but you need to make sure the ship is headed in the right direction. A focus on profitability for "tech-enabled care" (*ahem* telehealth) businesses is a good first step.

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This is the start of something transformative. Thrilled to announce that bitewell has partnered with Kroger Health to bring the FoodHealth Score to millions of Americans. This breakthrough partnership, led by Samantha Alexander and Kroger Health CCO James Kirby, PharmD, BCPS, FAPhA, was just unveiled at HLTH USA. As a VC, backing companies like bitewell isn’t just about funding innovation; it’s about supporting founders who can forge impactful partnerships that redefine industries. Sam and her team are a testament to what it takes to land game-changing partnerships: a clear vision, relentless drive, and the ability to demonstrate value to both consumers and strategic partners. For founders out there working to land partnerships of this magnitude, remember: 1️⃣ Deep Industry Insight: Know your partner’s pain points as well as your own. bitewell didn’t just bring a product—they offered a solution aligned with Kroger Health’s long-term goals. 2️⃣ Prove the Value Early: Do what you say you’re going to do - bitewell delivered early on and throughout discussions and proved their authentic commitment to impact nutrition. 3️⃣ Long-Term Vision: A partnership like this is only the beginning. Founders who align their goals with their partner’s future vision can set the stage for lasting collaboration. For Kroger shoppers, the FoodHealth Score is now live on Kroger.com and the Kroger app, making healthier choices easy. Plus, with the OptUp Nutrition Program, shoppers can now track their FoodHealth Score over time, empowering better habits with every purchase. #healthtech #startups #founders #vc

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Here’s the No. 1 way a smaller Health Tech startup can compete with companies that have raised $100M+ of VC funding 👇 Become the best subject matter experts on the problem you’re solving. Let me explain… It can seem daunting when you see competitors in your space put out big announcements about how they raised $100M from brand name VCs. Yes it’s gonna help them get meetings with your favourite health system Chief Digital Officers (who you struggle to meet). Yes overnight their team size is going to 10x compare to yours (while you feel like your team is at its limits) Yes lots of people are going to think they’re winning and you’re falling behind (and maybe even your team feels that way too) But here’s the thing… The team that wins is ultimately the company that solves the problems of health system’s the best. Money doesn’t solve this… and very often money makes things worse for startups. Money can be a great accelerant… IF your playbook is proven and working. But very often, Health Tech startups raise lots of money and wild valuations… before that playbook was proven out. So they get distracted with having to spend that money to show progress. To grow fast and justify that valuation. Except pouring accelerant on a model that doesn’t work yet… is a recipe for disaster. Sure it sounds scary if they have a team of 100+ who can meet with health systems… BUT if they don’t deeply understand the problems, clinical workflows and change management needs… it’s a recipe for disaster and unhappy health system customers. When health systems are in the room with you and don’t feel like you truly understand the complexity of their problems… they don't care how much money you raised or how big your team is. Ultimately health systems just want their problems solved by those with the most expertise. So how do you outcompete those companies that have 10x more money and people than you? You concentrate your talent into a smaller, higher performing group. A group that deeply empathizes with, obsesses with and understands the needs of health systems. You get knee deep in the clinical content, workflows and change management challenges customers have. You bring that expertise to all your meetings. You use your smaller size and nimbleness to your advantage because you can share learnings and iterate the product, workflows and change management approach more quickly. And watch as health systems eventually realize your smaller but mightier team delivers where the over-capitalized, over-sized companies that lack true subject matter expertise… just don’t. I know this first hand because over the years SeamlessMD competed with companies that raised 10x more money than us. And at first it spooked us. But then health systems would complain to us about how those highly capitalized companies… “just didn’t get it”. Didn’t truly understand the clinical needs. Didn’t understand how to tackle the crazy workflows. Now many of them have come and gone.

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Looking forward to discussing how changing demographics and culture norms are affecting investment opportunities in longevity, health and well-being at The Care Summit today Alongside Cake Ventures' Monique Woodard, Ziegler's Dan Hermann, Oak HC/FT's Billy Deitch and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jennifer Edwards, we’ll dive into the trends shaping how we are investing in the space: - Last year marked one of the most significant social and economic moments in modern times: The number of older adults—those aged 50 and over- surpassed the number of children under the age of 15 for the first time. - In 2020 the 50 plus population contributed $45 trillion to global GDP, or 34% of the total. That equates to about 3x the revenue of the world’s 100 highest- earning companies in 2020. - The U.S. population grew by 24.5 million from 2010 to 2022, and Hispanics accounted for 53% of this increase – a greater share than any other racial or ethnic group. - Women around the world and across all ages drive 64% of consumer spending

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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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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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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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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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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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On this week's Andreessen Horowitz Raising Health podcast, Vijay Pande, PhD and I interviewed Tom Hale, CEO of ŌURA. Our conversation spans lots of fun topics, including: -- Our love for our Oura rings, despite them being literal “buzz kills” in revealing the ruinous effect of alcohol on sleep  -- How the worlds of consumer and healthcare are merging, as consumers essentially now have access to clinical-grade wearable devices  -- How AI algorithms are deployed in wearable devices & what wearables might look like 20 years from now (implanted into our bodies and clothes)  -- How the sexiest people sleep in earplugs and eye masks Check it out! https://lnkd.in/eTAsX_sY

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I recently spoke with an executive from one of the largest healthcare companies in the country.   When I asked them what are the highest priority problems they're concentrating on right now, unsurprisingly, 1️⃣ controlling costs around GLP1s came up first. But surprisingly, 2️⃣ the intersection of health and climate change came up second! It is clear that more healthcare leaders are beginning to think about (and respond to!) the deep interdependence of human and environmental health.   🗣 While my climate friends have long emphasized that "climate is a horizontal," and "there's no such thing as a climate company; all companies will have to adapt to climate change", I'm energized to hear more of these conversations beginning in healthcare.   😷 We already know that wildfires and air pollution are driving increases in respiratory and chronic illnesses, that heat waves and natural disasters are putting more lives at risk, and that rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns are enabling the spread of infectious diseases.   As we invest in downstream solutions that support patients suffering from respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, anxiety, depression, and general gaps in gaps in health equity, we're also thinking about holistic, upstream factors, like the effects of climate change.   ⚕ 🤝 🌎 How should we evolve our traditional notions of preventive health to address these emerging challenges? ⚕ 🤝 🌎 How can health-first organizations play their part when it comes to the climate crisis? ⚕ 🤝 🌎 What are the innovative ideas you've seen around climate, sustainability, and human health?  💡 This is both a personal area of interest and something I'm hoping we get to explore more at Inflect! If this is something you've also been reflecting on and learning about, always happy to connect and trade notes!

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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 September 16, 1,245 new companies were added, resulting in just under 98,450 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. US AI Tech again saw the greatest percentage growth in new companies at 30%, vs. the vertical average of 13% for the period. AI Tech also led the group in transactions and news articles. US Med Tech led in SEC Filings. Mikal Ventures publishes these stats on a rolling 4-week basis 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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