Animish Sivaramakrishnan

I had a lot of fun recording a podcast episode with Shiva Singh Sangwan. We discussed the evolution of Humba Ventures & Susa Ventures; tips for raising and building a fund; how to improve investment sourcing & picking; the role of luck in investing, and so on. https://lnkd.in/eiqsStej

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Summary: The article discusses tech mogul Vinod Khosla and his recent success as a prominent investor. Khosla's main focus is on AI and its potential impact on various industries. He also addresses concerns regarding AI regulation and competition with Chinese AI. Key takeaways: Khosla's recent $50 million investment in OpenAI has garnered attention and success. He is passionate about the potential for AI to disrupt and improve various industries. Khosla's focus on AI regulation and concerns about Chinese AI competition. Counter arguments: Some may argue that Khosla's intense focus on AI may overshadow other important areas of technology. Critics may question the sustainability of AI in certain industries and its potential negative effects on job displacement. #ai #artificialintelligence #tech #venturecapital #vc #startups

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On the latest Vital Signs, Nikhil Krishnan and I had a ton of fun chatting with Dr. Atul Butte. Dr. Butte is a professor at UCSF, Chief Data Scientist of the UC Health System, and a co-founder of numerous healthcare startups. In our conversation, Dr. Butte shared his takes on healthcare AI opportunities, challenges, hype, and more. A few highlights: ⚡LLM use cases, data, and growth LLMs are already helping to solve the “drudgery” aspects of medicine, such as automatically drafting SOAP notes and patient messages. Dr. Butte is excited about future applications of LLMs that can help with the “cognitive” aspects: with difficult medical problems an LLM might be able to stitch together disparate pieces of information to generate a potentially novel solution. He also highlights that prompt engineering will become the next “coding language” as so much of leveraging LLMs is knowing how to ask them the right questions. Additionally, Dr. Butte discusses how since 2016, UCSF has been working to deidentify its patient notes so that it can query them to answer clinical questions and ultimately enhance patient care. ⚡The need for patient-facing AI As patients are increasingly able to access their own personal health data in nicely structured formats (e.g., EHRs, wearables), they desperately need more tools to help them interpret and make decisions using that data. Dr. Butte understands that these patient-facing solutions are challenging to get funded but he emphasizes that patients need to receive the benefits of AI sooner. ⚡Evaluating healthcare AI solutions In order to evaluate AI solutions, we often put human specialists – such as medical professionals – on the same tasks. Understanding that specialists often disagree with each other, a significant challenge arises in figuring out how we can evaluate AI considering we can’t just “average” all the specialist opinions. Dr. Butte points out that there still remains a massive gap in AI evaluation tools. Additionally, there are so many organizations that want to have a say in how healthcare AI is regulated that the landscape is uncertain. An awesome conversation with an expert on all things AI meets healthcare. Listen to the full episode below: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wr3643 Apple: https://apple.co/4acwgan

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Are you trying #Gemini for trip planning? How goes it? Several companies are now integrating Google's AI into their travel services: 🌍 Alaska Airlines is testing a trip planner with OpenAI tech, with another version coming soon using Google's AI. 🏨 IHG Hotels & Resorts will release a trip planning tool in their One Rewards app, focusing on the "dreaming phase" of travel and future integrations for events and bookings. ✈️ Sabre Corporation introduced SabreMosaic, an AI-powered retail platform for airlines, offering personalized retail experiences, real-time airfare tools, delay management, and market analytics. Anyone played with this? #AI #traveltech #googleAI #innovation #travelplanning https://lnkd.in/e96zwDsu

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As part of Forum Ventures’ investment thesis in healthcare, Naomi Goez and I spent a lot of time looking at the healthtech landscape to find the fastest-growing early-stage (Pre-Seed to Series A) startups building in three categories:    1. Healthcare staff management  2. Evolution of digital health 3. Operational productivity in healthcare systems Our objective is to gain a deep understanding of the market dynamics: who is building what, what companies are having success and why, where the gaps and opportunities are, and determining the optimal investment areas for achieving maximum impact and returns. We built a market map based on this research and shared it a few months ago. We’ve since had a number of startups request to be added – too many to add to our static visual. So the team built a new online version that can house hundreds of companies easily and continually be updated live as more companies are discovered. Our new market map is easy to view, sort, and filter, and links to each company website. In a nutshell, same startups, same value, but a way better experience. Check it out https://lnkd.in/ePR8vHiV Forward to a VC or founder who would find this valuable! #healthcare #startups #healthtech #marketmap #VC #B2BSaaS #B2B

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Did you catch my appearance on VC10X with @Prashant Choubey? We took a deep dive into everything private equity and how PE firms and founders can work together when considering exit options. Thanks again, Prashant!

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Back in Bangalore, but an exciting few days in Boston and NYC with the Citizen Stack team as they take the India Stack on the road, including at the UN.   What was built in India, for India, is a monumental achievement in showing what is possible when imagination, will, and dedicated group of spirited volunteers (ProductNation/iSPIRT) combine the best of technology, public policy, legal frameworks, and private sector participation to create the rails for citizen inclusion and the delivery of public goods.   This is such a significant story for world that few outside understand for myriad reasons—including complacency and complexity—and so large and difficult to grasp (at least in the west) that when one looks at what India has achieved in such a short time it feels like the stuff of science fiction.   Having seen this story unfold, from the early days of Aadhaar, the well-worn assumptions about how India consumes, transacts, travels, saves, and invests, have been rewritten and will evolve with new stacks in health, agriculture, and data protections. Given India’s average age is 28, there is a whole generation that is going to experience a vastly different set of public goods and services that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.   For starters, India has: ·     Authenticated 1.4 billion people with a digital identity ·     $230 billion of monthly UPI transactions and on track to hit 1 billion transactions per day in the next 2 years ·     Reduced the time to open a bank account from 6 days to 1 hour ·     Efficiently administered 2 billion covid vaccination doses over 18 months, without adding an additional clinic   Having set a benchmark for inclusive growth, low cost delivery, consent, and data privacy, the story has now gone global. It was inspiring to hear directly from numerous UN participants (France, Philippines, Ethiopia, among them) on implementing elements of what India has open-sourced to the world. Specifically, the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), which was developed at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore provides a flexible and scalable identity platform that caters directly to the needs of diverse populations, including those in remote and underserved areas. Already implemented by 18 countries, representing 110 million people, MOSIP-based systems are on track to providing a legal and verifiable ID for the remaining billion world citizens that still lack one. Thank you Sharad Sharma and Jasminder Singh Gulati, and your teams for including me on what I hope is the beginning of many Citizen Stack events around the globe. What a time to be proud of what India has given the world. #ExportQuality #IndiaStack #Aadhaar #UPI #DPI Amie Patel Pankaj Jain Vaibhav Parikh Anurag Saxena Digital Public Goods Alliance Ravi Tyagi

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Excited to share with the community that we at Healome have hit a few major milestones. Check out the detailed report https://healome.one/one to learn about the product, all our research and open-source innovations powering our AI copilot to slow down your biological aging. tl;dr Peer-reviewed papers often contradict each other. The more you read, the more contradictions! Some research suggests a high-protein diet to prevent muscle loss as we age, while other papers suggest a less-protein diet to turn on longevity genes. Clinical trials are often done on a tiny subset of people. They exclude people with multiple conditions and those who use alcohol, other drugs, or medications. So you often see the drugs don't work as well in the real world as they did in the trials. so, how do we solve this? You need to collect all your health data in one place, track each and every habit, and every vital metric, and get all biomarkers measured. Billionaires like Bryan Jhonson do all of that for himself, but there's no necessity that his protocol will work for you too. Check out https://lnkd.in/gtpXzc6Q why? But you don't need to spend 2M USD each year to screen 1000s of markers if you 1)carefully curate what you measure, 2) assess the "causal" link across the diet/supplements/drugs/habits on those markers. No doctor or LLM does/has the capacity to do this *causal reasoning* for you We have been building solutions to solve all these with Healome AI. Just upload your blood reports, connect any health wearable you use, track habits, & curate your personalized blueprint most optimal for you, you can download the app from https://lnkd.in/g7ewVqui Thanks to volunteers contributing anonymized data, we have also been partnering with universities across the USA, UK, and India to study various hypotheses on aging & chronic illnesses through opensource FDA-AI https://github.com/FDA-AI/ Stay tuned!

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The Council's first SPV of 2024 is down in the books and oversubscribed. Running SPVs where we have pro rata or extra allocation in fund deals is a muscle we are building pretty late in the game as a firm. As a solo GP with a tiny team, it's crippling to think of the extra work required and risk of not meeting platform minimums to run an SPV. But 7 of our port co's have recently raised follow on funding where we had pro rata. These are awesome deals for our LPs, angel members, and syndicate community. We simply can't afford to let them slip through the cracks. These allocations are only becoming more valuable as our firm grows, so we must start NOW! Proud to say this one went off without a hitch and our syndicate community is small but THRIVING. Wish us luck as we keep building. Note our SPVs are now on Sydecar. The best way to get access is to know someone on The Council Fund team and be on our SPV email list. **What's an SPV?** An SPV is a Special Purpose Vehicle. It allows multiple angel investors to pool together into one larger investment into a company. This helps the founder keep paperwork and investor relations to a minimum (less names on the cap table = simplicity!). When people say they're investing with a "syndicate" or they are "syndicating a deal," SPV is the entity and process by which they do that. A "syndicate" is like a community of people that invest via SPVs together.

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Founder to VC transition as a mother of two super active kids has been an incredibly amazing journey for me. Has it been demanding? Yes. But it’s been equally rewarding in terms of learnings, growth and new fun challenges. Thus, thought I would share my experiences and insights on balancing these dual roles and what I've learned along the way. .. First up, managing time effectively has been crucial. Balancing investor meetings, due diligence processes, and strategic discussions with school runs, homework help, and playtime requires meticulous planning and prioritization. I've learned to be present in the moment, whether I’m at a pitch meeting or attending my kids’ PTMs. .. Also, raising young kids, especially a teenager and a young child, teaches you patience and empathy. Especially because children are unpredictable. But, so is the startup world. The ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances has been a valuable skill in both my personal and professional life. Flexibility and resilience are key to navigating the ups and downs of both parenting and investing. Thus, as they say, I’m exploiting synergies :) .. But, most important thing of all? Setting clear boundaries and priorities. Knowing when to step back from work to focus on family and vice versa ensures that neither role suffers. This balance is a continuous process and requires constant adjustment. And here, having a strong support system has been invaluable. My husband, family, and a network of supportive friends have played a critical role in helping me manage my responsibilities. .. However, my biggest motivation has been my kids. Being a role model for my children is important to me. Demonstrating that it’s possible to pursue a demanding career while being there for them sends a powerful message. It’s about showing them the value of hard work, dedication, and the importance of pursuing one’s passions. .. No doubt, there’s immense joy in watching my daughter navigate her teenage years and my son’s boundless energy. Similarly, there’s a unique satisfaction in helping startups grow and succeed. Embracing and finding joy in both aspects of my life has been incredibly fulfilling. And, the transition from founder to VC has been a transformative journey, enriched by my role as a mother. .. All of that said, we at Dexter Ventures ($50k-$500k early-stage investments) and Dexter Capital Advisors (advise $3MM-$100MM) are always eager to work with like-minded founders, angels and other members of the PE/VC/Family Office ecosystem. Do reach out to us at deals@dexter[dot]ventures keeping anuradha@dexter[dot]ventures in CC if there is anything we can help you with :) Best, Anuradha Tags: Devendra, Jayant

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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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Generative AI is definitely in a hype cycle but has that hype translated into real-world consequences? According to a recent Harvard Business School report the answer is a resounding yes. The HBS report indicates that the demand for freelancers in writing and coding has plummeted by 21% since ChatGPT's launch in November 2022. To put this into perspective, a drop of over 20% in a stock index is considered a full-blown stock market crash. This is no minor correction for the digital freelancer market. ChatGPT and other AI technologies are already having transformative effects across industries and the technology will only continue to improve. My bet is that current AI is at least as transformative as the rise of email (which had massive impacts on the corporate landscape) with the potential for even greater effects. What are your thoughts on the impact of AI? How is it affecting your industry?

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Loved chatting all things investing in the next wave of AI with Prateek Joshi on the Infinite Machine Learning Podcast! At March Capital we've been investing in AI for a decade and view it as a fundamental technology driving enterprise value. Check out the episode link below to hear us chat more about metrics that matter, finding the signal through the noise in an AI crazed world, and AI's future impact on both business and our daily lives!

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SaaS is a hotbed of opportunities for founders and investors to create disproportionate returns on capital. Amidst this growing landscape of Indian SaaS startups, a critical component often gets shadowed by the immediate goals of growth and market capture — the exit strategy. Accounting for exit outcomes over the longer term should start early so founders can optimize for the success of themselves, their employees and their investors. We at Matrix Partners India spent some time speaking with founders, corp dev professionals, investment bankers and other leaders in the space to understand the exit scenarios including M&As, PE acquisitions and IPOs (India and US) and have compiled our learnings. Link to the article in comments. Would love to hear from you if you have insights on the topic / further questions :) Avnish | Ashwin | Pranay | Vikram #SaaS #IPO #ExitStrategy

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Great panel at CAASA Start-Up Round-Up 2024 with Prathna Ramesh, Michael Branco and Ricky Mehra on the Gold Rush in #AI! Here's a summary of their talk: 🎲 Role of VCs in AI: Mike and Rick agreed that VCs are critical in sifting through the noise to find valuable investments. This involves rigorous due diligence, understanding the customer problems, and focusing on practical use cases of AI. VCs then derisk the ventures, for example, by introducing tier 1 customers, supporting the back office that the founders might not have cared about, and figuring out the right team to scale. Mike pointed out that founders might overlook business operations, particularly those from technical backgrounds. ⏳ Time Horizon and Growth Rate:  The panellists discussed the speeding up of investment horizons in recent years, even for traditional long-tail industries like telecommunications. They also emphasized the need for investors to stay ahead of emerging trends, focusing on what's coming in the next 12 to 18 months and how the future will roll out in 3 to 5 years. 📊 Data & Distribution: Prathna emphasized that data and distribution advantages are key to getting to market better, faster, and cheaper than competitors. It’s about being really good at execution and leveraging these strengths effectively. Rick discussed the challenge of proprietary data in healthcare, highlighting the potential of having a single dataset of longitudinal patient data to revolutionize the industry. The challenge is the outdated HIPAA and GDPR regulations, which must be updated to keep up with digital health advancements. 🏗️ Build vs. Use Existing Models: Mike discussed the efficiency of using existing models, such as Meta's published model with base datasets, to solve previously too challenging problems. He gave an example of using AI for weather forecasting for big events and how the amount of data needed to process was too big to handle before AI. ⚠️ Risks and Concerns:  Rick raised concerns about the potential existential risks posed by AI and the need to carefully consider its impact on humanity, especially in his space in healthcare. For example, misdiagnosing due to AI's black-box nature can be more problematic and cause more deaths than human error. It is crucial to evaluate if the AI system you're building is the right solution for the problem and at what risk. AI is the first time something more intelligent than humans might be created, so linear projections from past technologies like phones or the internet are inadequate. Rick stressed the importance of slowing down and spending time thinking about how AI will impact humanity. Very insightful panel! Thanks CAASA - Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets for the event! #investing #startup #tech

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Few moments feel as good as watching our founders crush it out in the world. Seeing Harshal Chokhawala speak at SynBioBeta about building ZymoChem was one of those times. Our job as investors is to support the entrepreneurs who are ready to change the world. At Breakout Ventures, this means partnering with creative bioscience founders who are determined to overcome the biggest challenges in human and climate health. When Harshal launched ZymoChem to develop bio-based versions of chemicals and materials, he knew the height of the challenge he was taking on. Over the last few years, we’ve seen him grow his team, scale his tech, win strategic partnerships, and gain crucial funding to keep climbing. He’s taken the stage time and again to show the world how biomanufacturing will help us reach a fossil-free future. SynBioBeta reminds us that we are surrounded by people who believe in biotech's potential for solving our planet’s most pressing problems. Playing a role in this community of scientists and innovators is one of the highlights of my work. And - it was awesome to end the week on a enthusiastic and fun panel packed with folks fighting to make the future of synbio bright Taehong Huh (GS Futures),Kelsey Weimer (Synonym), Kristen McCarthy Barton, CFA (Mango Materials), and Richard Kenny (Hawkwood Biotech Partners). You can read more about ZymoChem’s success and how founders can follow in Harshal’s footsteps in our recent Medium article: https://lnkd.in/ggUiiv9k #SynBioBeta2024 #Biomanufacturing #ClimateTech #Biotech #SyntheticBiology #IndustrialBiotech

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During yesterday's LibreQoS APNIC webinar, I posed the question: won't more bandwidth solve these problems? As Herbert Wolverson said, yes, more bandwidth is good, but, still these problems remain if queueing is done incorrectly. Here's my take on why bandwidth alone is not as good as bandwidth + good queueing policies: Generally it was believed that 'data is important, so don't throw it away; hang on to it and send it later'. In practice, this has proven to be suboptimal as two issues may emerge: 1) latency increases for some flows due to heavy demand from other flows using the same bottleneck link, 2) even a single flow can have excessive latency due to aspects of typical TCP behavior (referred to bufferbloat) when the buffers grew large enough that the data being buffered was retransmitted anyway. It turns out that not all data is equally important. Active Queue Management is the art of deciding priorities, both in deciding what data to throw away, but also in allowing some later arriving data to be transmitted ahead of data in another connection that arrived before it. These problems have been studied, and good solutions have been found by using certain queueing policies in routers and switches, referred to as “fq_codel’ and “cake”. These track the different flows not by classifying the data, but by watching the behavior. Flows that send relatively little data (DNS lookups), or at a measured pace (video chat) have priority over flows that send a lot of data as quickly as possible (App and System updates, Video and ISO downloads).

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Severe mental illness remains one of the most underserved areas in mental health, possibly because it is difficult to address with the type of virtual, easy-to-scale models that VCs love to back. We're so excited that Sonia Priscilla García and Stas Sokolin at Amae Health have been able to break the mold, bringing better in-person solutions for patients and families dealing with SMI, and attracting strong venture partners to do so cc: Lisa Jacobs Blau, Alison Ryu, Claire Akkan Quiet Capital, Healthier Capital, Jan Ellison Baszucki, Karin Kissane, Mike Volpi

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I'm looking forward to speaking at this conference on the confluence of law, tech, advocacy and policy and how new innovation centers like the Berkeley Space Center can reinvent the way we tackle hard problems. Berkeley Center for Law and Business, #gobears

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