Gaurav Jain

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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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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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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Someone has to say it - if creating an D2C shopping experience isn’t top of mind, your growth potential is at risk. Ravi Kurani gets it. He learned this concept by launching Sutro, a sleek testing robot that monitors your pool or spa water, giving you instant status right to your smartphone. Right now, they complete 95% of their business DTC through Shopify, but are actively working on equipping retailers with their software in-house. This way, consumers can bring pool samples directly to the experts for further testing and full visibility. The lesson here? Once you’ve found your lane in one channel, don’t stop. Taking this a step further, he also mentioned they are looking to find ways to integrate their data with home automation platforms. Always ahead, he likes to continuously figure out how to work with the interfaces of today AND tomorrow. While not every plan will pan out, that’s not the point. His final words of wisdom were this, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” Be open to new opportunities, and don’t be afraid to flop at first - it will make you, and your product better. To me, that’s the difference between smart growth and stagnancy.  Tune in: https://lnkd.in/e5Bn35zW

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We're excited to announce our partnership with Kunal and Arunram (former Co-Founder and CTO of Blockdaemon) in leading a $4.0M seed round into Arya. Arya is building an AI-native human capital management system for healthcare workforces. By automating key skills across scheduling, payroll, compliance and employee onboarding, Arya's product allows healthcare services organizations to let their teams focus on care while removing considerable human intervention. We believe healthcare is one of the most compelling markets for agentic solutions, tackling a market measured in payroll instead of technology spend. Most critically, we believe solutions like Arya increase the surface area between clinicians and patients to drive better outcomes, while reducing massive costs and time delays. Since growing ARR 6x yoy, we believe Kunal and Arun represent the types of founders we are lucky to back at Twelve Below: ambitious, humble, technically-oriented and first principle thinkers. https://www.aryahealth.ai/

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Last night at a fabulous dinner for consumer VC's curated by Arjun Dev Arora, Andrew Lee posed a great question: what will we look back on as crazy / obsolete in 100 years? Here were our answers: 1. Obesity. With the rise of GLP-1's , obesity will become obsolete and those are aren't "taking the pill/shot" will be further ostracized. 2. Meat. The way to raise, slaughter, and consume animals will be seen as crazy and replaced by meat alternatives. 3. Single use plastics. Using virgin materials for use cases where they are not needed (like medical) will be considered crazy. Do you agree? What would you add to the list?

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Today, I’m excited to share a pivotal moment in Lissun’s journey. We’ve successfully raised $2.5 million in our Pre-Series A funding round, led by RPSG Capital Ventures , with support from our new partners, Multiply Ventures and Atrium Angels, and continued backing from IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited, Rainmatter by Zerodha, and SucSEED Ventures. Especial thanks to Sambit Dash, Abhishek Goenka, Vikram Gupta, Aashish Gupta, Raveen Sastry Dilip Kumar, Nithin Kamath and Vikrant Varshney. You are not just investors behind these names—you are individuals who believe in the power of mental health and its transformative impact on society even more than we do. I’m also deeply grateful to everyone who has supported us since our inception on August 15, 2021. Your belief in our vision continues to drive us forward Rest, for me, this milestone is more than just numbers—it’s about our mission to make a meaningful impact in mental health care. When we started LISSUN, Tarun Gupta's and mine Mission was clear: Solve Mental Health at Scale. Solving for these Six Syndromes—Awareness, Acceptance, Anonymity, Access, Affordability, and Assurance—have guided us every step of the way. And our unique phygital model, combining physical and digital mental health support, has been crucial in reaching people where they are—whether they’re dealing with workplace stress, exam anxiety, or more complex issues like chronic illness. One area that’s close to my heart is our work with children through Sunshine by LISSUN. Our child development and care centers (CDCs) are built with care and compassion, designed to provide comprehensive support under one roof for children with neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders such as Autism, ADHD, and learning challenges. But Sunshine is more than just a network of centers—it’s a lifeline for families, offering them the care they need, exactly when they need it most. This new round of funding is not just a financial boost; it empowers us to go further in our mission. We’re planning to expand our services & centers, grow our team, and dive deeper into technology—especially AI—to enhance how we deliver care. At LISSUN, we’ve always believed in the power of data-driven solutions, and with our physical centers and partnerships, we’re ready to create AI-driven products that will truly make a difference. Reflecting on where we’ve come from, I’m filled with gratitude. We’ve already partnered with over 300+ B2B Clients, opened 4 SUnshine Centers and impacted 75,000 lives across 20+ cities. But I know this is just the beginning. We’re ready to scale up, reach more people, and set new standards in mental health care.. #upwards #onwards #mentalhealth https://lnkd.in/gyk8HCns

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AI Podcast today with the brilliant Serena Yu. We will discuss how the past Internet, Mobile, and Cloud revolutions are shaping this AI era. And how AI will accelerate and transform every aspect of our lives in the coming year, decade, century 😎. Got questions? Please post below. #AIDecade #InvestorDecade

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👩‍🔬 Ayble Health is building an end-to-end care platform for digestive health, utilizing technology like predictive AI to help more than 70M Americans who live with gut discomfort. 👨‍🔬 It's W6 / Q2 / 2024 & this week in our MGMT Boston startup series we’ve got Ayble Health, a Seed stage healthtech startup building a platform for digestive health, increasing access to nutrition and behavioral therapy for millions who live with gut discomfort to make care better, faster, and more personalized. Sam Jactel had a problem. He had lived with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) for 10 years. It even runs in his family. Lucky enough to have the privilege of incredible access to care, he was treated at Harvard training hospitals like Brigham & Women’s. But Sam never got the help he needed to use nutrition and psychology as tools to tackle his condition. He would go to the doctor, take drugs, and was still sick. In and out of the hospital with flare ups frustrated by this Grand Canyon wide gap in care. Who was treating the whole patient? And where? There are not enough GI dieticians or psychologists to treat patients. Up to 40% of Americans' daily lives are being disrupted by digestive troubles and some 70M Americans suffer from GI diseases. There are 150 licensed GI psychologists nationwide... By comparison, it would be harder to get into ANY Ivy League university than see a GI psychologist. Like, 1000x harder to see a GI psychologist than get into Harvard statistically speaking. Are you starting to see the problem? What started as an Excel spreadsheet has now been transformed into an end-to-end care platform built to scale access to specialized nutrition and psychology therapy and make GI therapy better, faster, and more personalized. Using advanced nutrition techniques, powered by AI, their team helps patients find and remove trigger foods to live better lives. Their core differentiator? This stuff works. After years doing research backed by 14 clinical studies, they’re going commercial. The proof is in the 💩 , I mean pudding. 2023 was a critical year of validation as their first year “out in the wild”. They’re already working with multiple large state based health plans, 75% of the Top 10 academic medical centers in the country, and several F500 type employers. Next year they hope to widen access to 10s of millions. Sam & the team are hiring across the board, investing in core platform differentiators and wanting to be in every conversation related to GI with the patient at the center. Operators to Know: -Susan Aman, Director of Engineering -Lance Laughlin, Senior Software Engineer -Stefania Patinella, M.A., NBC-HWC, Founding Health Coach -Jessica Russo, Director of Customer Success & Partnerships If you're interested in learning more, including the key roles Ayble is hiring for, the full post is linked in the comments! And sign up for the newsletter to see who we bring you next week, will you?? #bostontech #startups #healthtech

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2017: Why investors gave Varun Dua $30 million even before he launched his startup?? The journey that is answering..... Acko acquired OneCare in All-Cash deal! One Care backed by Better Capital and QED Innovation Labs has omni-channel model for chronic conditions Interestingly, Acko earlier acquired Parentlane (Acquired by ACKO) in March 23 - A digital health platform for Mother-Child. Expanding its presence in the retail health insurance segment Going Back in 2017, Acko revolutionised segment adopting 'Digital Only' approach with laser sharp focus on 'Deep Questions, More Data Sets for every customer'. Filling up very important gaps. I continue to vouch on rooted things making bigger impact! It's been a buzzing week for startups with news on funding, acquisitions, and happiness around Angel Tax and LTCG. #Innovation #Acquisition #angeltax #ltcg #startups

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I’m thrilled to be announcing that Notion Capital is leading the $15m Series A investment in Cogna today. In the industry, we like to think that software has been eating the world. But when you look at the data a better description would be more of a nibble. Depending on what source you look at the software industry represents between 5-8% of global GDP. Contrast that with the services industry that represents between 60-70% of GDP and worth around $25 trillion on a global basis. Most services have been out of reach for the software industry. They have either been too complex or too specialized for off the shelf software to access in any economically viable way. But that’s beginnning to change with GenAI leading to the emergence of ‘service as a software.’ Cogna is at the forefront of this opportunity - building precision software at scale and delivering huge productivity gains for traditional industries. We know Ben Peters & Lars Mennen well having backed their previous company Five AI that was acquired by Bosch in 2022. And we’re very excited to be backing them again together with Hoxton Ventures & Chalfen Ventures Read my full blog post on why we invested here. Radu Bozga Ben Peters Lars Mennen Bryan Gartner Mike Chalfen Hussein Kanji Kirsten Connell https://lnkd.in/eh8mhcJb

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💡Benchmarks in the investment industry serve as a standard for measuring the performance of securities, mutual funds, or investment managers. They provide a reference point for analyzing allocation, risk, and return of a portfolio, enabling investors to make informed decisions. Thanks Peter Walker for keeping us all informed!! Can’t wait for this!! Follow and get on the waitlist for this one! #benchmarks #fundraising #Capitalraise #founders #womenshealth #femhealth #medtech #wellness

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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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"Digital health is no longer the future; it is the present, reshaping our healthcare landscape in real-time." Excited to be part of the UCSF Digital Health Hub Foundation's Quarterfinalist Party! As a past board member, I'm honored to celebrate the outstanding quarterfinalists. As we reflect on the state of digital health in 2024, it's evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally transformed healthcare delivery. The rapid adoption of telemedicine during the crisis has become a permanent fixture, with over 60% of physicians continuing to utilize this technology. The sprint towards smarter healthcare, catalyzed by necessity, has shattered preconceptions about digital-first health experiences. Virtual care is no longer a stopgap but an integral part of a seamless, anytime, anywhere health ecosystem. 🌍 We're witnessing the rise of B2B2C models in remote consultations, with companies like Teladoc Health and Amwell partnering with insurance providers to integrate their services into health plans. Public sector collaborations, like eConsult Health 's partnership with the NHS in the #UK, underscore the potential for remote consultations to enhance efficiency and accessibility at a national level. The digital health landscape is evolving rapidly, with advancements in remote consultations, mental health support, at-home diagnostics, and patient monitoring. AI and generative AI transform care delivery, making it more efficient, personalized, and patient-centric. 🤖 Yet, challenges remain. While venture capital funding for digital health has stabilized after the pandemic boom, it remains below its 2021 peak. Sectors like digital therapeutics face reimbursement hurdles, and we've seen major players like Walmart and Optum close telehealth businesses. Looking ahead, we anticipate further consolidation in digital health, driven by acquisitions to create broader ecosystems encompass telemedicine, mental health, and other specialized services. As healthcare leaders, we must leverage these digital advancements to improve access, enhance patient outcomes, and drive efficiency in our healthcare systems. The future of healthcare is digital, and the time to embrace this transformation is now. Congratulations to all the finalists! 🎉 Looking forward to the grand finale at #HLTH2024 in #LasVegas! 🙌 By the way, the pink drink that we were holding was delicious—and nonalcoholic! The Digital Health Hub Foundation - Digital Health Awards #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #UCSFHealthHub #Networking #HealthTech #Entrepreneurship #LasVegasFinale Walter Greenleaf, PhD Daniel Kraft, MD Unity Stoakes StartUp Health University of California, San Francisco UCSF Innovation Ventures American Association for Precision Medicine (AAPM) WISE World Investors & Entrepreneurs Society #AAPMhealth #aapm_health

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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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Will we need websites at all? How can you compare the current AI boom with the age of oil exploration? What does it mean when we say in the world of AI, compute vs. data will have gravity? During the Antler India Residency 4 that concluded recently, we had our good friend Hemant Mohapatra stop by to chat with founders re: his and Lightspeed's take on AI, and especially AI for India, incl. one of their marquee investments Sarvam AI. Sharing our interaction w/ Ishavasyam Dash

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At some point, we all hope our startup goes from launch phase to momentum phase. But, as I learned, that phase requires a new set of skills 👇 In 2007, my co-founder and I launched our first startup. The first two (2) years were tough, but looking back it was really fun "building" something new. The leadership challenges started when the business went through a rapid growth phase in 2010, 2011, and 2012.  We went from 1 employee to 70+ employees... We went from $2 million in revenue to $12.5 million in revenue... We were still doing cash flow on an excel spreadsheet...  We didn't have the systems, playbooks, or processes in place to scale the business to $25M, $50M, or $100M.  We had a great Purpose. We had amazing People. We had some rockstar Partners. We had Profit. But, we were missing a "P". How's your 5P equation looking? Purpose + People + Partnerships + Playbooks = Profits

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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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