Dror Berman

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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At Two Bear Capital our definition of value-add, lead, early-stage investing is to form a true partnership with the founders we back. We believe that only a small fraction of our return potential comes from us “picking right” when we make our first investment into a company – the vast majority comes from how effectively we can actively help our brilliant founders over the ensuing 3-7 years in achieving the passionate, ambitious, and positive-impact goals that drive them.

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#hiring If anyone knows an awesome engineer that would be interested in joining an emerging #AI company doing important work in #healthcare, please drop me a line! Andy AI is backed by General Catalyst, YCombinator, Greater Ventures, and others, and they’re looking to hire a full stack engineer (US based) who's excited about using AI to improve healthcare and reduce nurse burnout. Andy is AI software that automates clinical documentation for nurses who do home visits. A nurse makes an audio recording of the visit and Andy automatically generates a form that usually takes nurses 90 minutes to complete. Nurses love the product because it potentially saves them 15 hours of charting a week! The founders previously built healthcare AI at Google Health and Apple, and are now building their vision to transform home health. More about Andy AI: https://with-andy.com/ Nurses love it: https://lnkd.in/g9XqZrUq #GenAI #digitalhealth #hiring #engineers #healthtech

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🔥 Thrilled to see Hydrolix crushing it with a $35M Series B! 🔥 Data is the new oil, but too much gets discarded due to prohibitive storage costs. Hydrolix cracks this with its streaming #datalake platform that leverages object storage, decoupled compute, indexing, & compression. As Marty Kagan puts it: 'We’re cheaper than cold storage and faster than hot storage' Hydrolix’s streaming data lake platform is a game-changer for #AI, #observability, & #security workloads. 💥 Real-time query performance at terabyte scale 💰75%+ savings on log mgmt & 4x more data retained  ☁️ Stateless & containerized for seamless scaling with Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3, Google Cloud GCS, Microsoft Azure Blob 💡 Had the early conviction (first investor) that data is key to unlocking AI & enterprise workloads. It's proving right. Huge thanks to Marty Kagan Hasan Alayli for letting me early on their journey to build an impessive company 🙏 Super pumped to have awesome Aaron Perman at S3 Ventures leading this round along with other strong existing investors - Nava Ventures (Manish Patel) Wing Venture Capital (Peter Wagner) Oregon Venture Fund (Matt Compton Scott Grout) and others 💪 Onwards! 🚀🚀🚀 #cloud #data #ai #ml #llm #largelanguagemodels #analytics #security #loganalytics #datalake #datawarehouse https://lnkd.in/g5i6afP5

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#Longevity Tech is on the rise ✌️ -Endeavor BioMedicines raised $135M at a $795M valuation in April 2024. -Humanaut Health secured an $8.7M Seed round, valued at $52M in May. -Superpower raised $4M, reaching a $24M valuation in May as well. These are just 3 of the 90+ #longevity startups highlighted in Dealroom.co's latest report (Link in the comments). In this newsletter, I dive into the Longevity Technology Market and the emerging trends shaping the future of health! 👉 https://lnkd.in/e3EZrAPH #Longevity #HealthTech #StartupFunding #Innovation

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🚀 Biggest Startup Funding Rounds Last Week🚀 #1: Metsera 💼 Sector: Biotech 💰 Funding: $290M 📝 Details: New York-based Metsera emerged from stealth mode with a whopping $290 million funding round led by Arch Venture Partners. Specializing in medicines for obesity and metabolic diseases, Metsera offers a range of oral and injectable therapies. #2: Rivos Inc. 💼 Sector: Semiconductor 💰 Funding: $250M 📝 Details: Santa Clara's Rivos secured over $250 million in a Series A-3 funding round, spearheaded by Matrix Capital Management. Their expertise lies in power-optimized chips tailored for data analytics and generative AI markets. #3: Ramp 💼 Sector: Fintech 💰 Funding: $150M 📝 Details: New York-based Ramp raised $150 million in their latest funding round led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. With a valuation spike to $7.65 billion, Ramp focuses on streamlining corporate card and expense automation solutions. #4: Two Chairs 💼 Sector: Healthcare 💰 Funding: $72M 📝 Details: San Francisco's Two Chairs closed a $72 million Series C round, enhancing their behavioral health platform. Utilizing a proprietary algorithm, they match patients with suitable therapists, boasting a team of over 500 clinicians. #5: Cape 💼 Sector: Mobile 💰 Funding: $61M 📝 Details: Arlington-based Cape raised $61 million in their debut round led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz. Their focus on developing a privacy-first mobile network addresses prevalent security concerns in the telecom industry. #6: Avive Solutions Inc. 💼 Sector: Healthcare 💰 Funding: $57M 📝 Details: SF's Avive Solutions secured $56.5 million in growth equity financing led by Catalyst Health Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, and Questa Capital Management. They specialize in connected automated external defibrillators. #7: Asher Biotherapeutics 💼 Sector: Biotech 💰 Funding: $55M 📝 Details: South San Francisco's Asher Biotherapeutics closed a $55 million Series C round led by RA Capital Management. Their focus on targeted immunotherapies for various diseases shows promising potential. #8: Corner Therapeutics 💼 Sector: Biotech 💰 Funding: $54M 📝 Details: Watertown's Corner Therapeutics raised $54 million in funding led by Ziff Capital Partners. Specializing in immunotherapy, they're dedicated to developing innovative treatments. #9: Kontakt.io 💼 Sector: Artificial Intelligence 💰 Funding: $48M 📝 Details: New York-based Kontakt raised $47.5 million in funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. They provide health systems with analytics on staff and patient movement within facilities. #10: Anvilogic 💼 Sector: Cybersecurity 💰 Funding: $45M 📝 Details: Palo Alto's Anvilogic closed a $45 million Series C round led by Evolution Equity Partners. Focusing on security information and event management, they strive to protect organizations from cyber threats. #startups #funding #startupfunding ---- Subscribe to my newsletter: newsletter.foundersbay.com

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AI is revolutionizing healthcare, and SoftBank Group Corp.'s latest move proves it. The tech giant's joint venture with Tempus in Japan aims to tackle cancer using AI-powered personalized medicine. SB Tempus plans to analyze genomic and clinical data to provide tailored treatment suggestions. What's striking is that only 1% of Japanese patients have had genomic testing, compared to 30% in the US. I think this venture could dramatically improve access to cutting-edge care. Masayoshi Son's vision of AI being 10,000 times smarter than humans in a decade might sound far-fetched, but initiatives like this show real-world applications. It's not just about cancer either they're eyeing expansion into neuropsychology, radiology, and cardiology. I'm cautiously optimistic about AI in healthcare. While it promises groundbreaking advancements, we must ensure patient privacy and ethical use of data. If SB Tempus can navigate these challenges, it could be a game changer for personalized medicine in Japan and beyond.

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What do you do when a radical new technology puts your main product right in the crosshairs of disruption? Listen to David Okuniev — co-founder of Typeform | Ask awesomely — discuss the challenges of innovation within existing structures. David shared a game-changing insight: Radical innovation is really, really difficult to do inside your own product. He emphasized the need to break free from the constraints of familiarity and embrace change from outside the box. Henrik Werdelin and I have both seen our fair share of this in our respective careers. What struck us most was how David leveraged structure to overcome the innovator’s dilemma. By creating a culture of experimentation and providing space for bold ideas, he propelled Typeform beyond incremental improvements. What other hacks have you seen or employed to help your organization overcome the innovator’s dilemma? Share your stories below! 👇 And if you want to dive deeper into our conversation, click the link in the comments to catch the full podcast episode!

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I used to spend 2-3 hours daily on clinic notes, skeptical of AI scribe technology. However, I've been impressed with RevMaxx, a generative AI company transforming clinical note creation by listening to physician-patient conversations and automatically generating comprehensive notes. This platform accurately captures crucial ICD-10 codes, saving valuable time ⏰. 👉 Why This Matters: - **Reducing Physician Burnout:** Administrative tasks are a significant contributor to physician burnout. Innovations like RevMaxx alleviate this burden effectively. #HealthcareInnovation #AI #PhysicianBurnout #MedicalDocumentation #HealthTech #RevMaxx

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I'm not sure why when I post this YouTube video it doesn't auto play on LinkedIn, but if anyone wants a peak at what we were up to in South Korea, here it is: https://lnkd.in/eecUeRH2 And if you know how to correctly post YouTube videos on LinkedIn, that would be helpful too #founders #venturecapital Antler

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Open-source models can be a strong lever for increasing gross margins at AI companies, especially those that have hefty cost structures (e.g., enterprise sales orgs that require significant customer success or implementation resources, as well forward-deployed AI services models common in healthcare and life sciences). One of many reasons to maintain a modular and flexible stack with minimal dependencies when building an AI company. More on the importance of flexibility in the AI stack: https://lnkd.in/eA2XATRk h/t Delip Rao #ai #artificialintelligence #generativeai #healthcare

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At Innosphere Ventures, we’ve assessed 50+ Life Sciences startups, and we’ve noticed a trend among founders: to successfully solicit funding from investors, they need to create balance in their go-to-market strategies to be investor ready. This isn’t a surprising finding, given the majority of our founders’ status as first-time founders and academic entrepreneurs. We have amazing university partners, so the companies that they refer to us are excellent at their product and the science, they often have the foundation of a really great team, and they are on their way to a strong intellectual property strategy. But they tend to underbake the less academic parts of their investor-ready story. That’s where our Incubator comes in: to help founders balance their commercial model and story so that they’re ready to approach potential investors with an airtight business plan. With the right development, regulatory, clinical, and financial plans in hand, they’ll be able to convincingly pitch to investors how they plan to get revenue and traction, how they plan to get investors’ money back, and how they’ll generate growth… all music to investors’ ears. Our Incubator takes talented, knowledgeable founders, identifies any investor-readiness needs in their skill sets, and fills them in with critical go-to-market knowledge. That way, when they approach investors, they’ll have the full suite of product, science, and GTM know-how to successfully win funding.

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Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batchの採択企業を紹介第2弾は、「Healthcare」で分類されている、病院向けAIエージェント（2社）、臨床記録×AI（2社）、個別化医療×診断（1社）、神経疾患の診断技術を開発（1社）のスタートアップについてそれぞれまとめました。ぜひnoteをご覧ください。 また、Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batchの採択企業とは別に、脳卒中の早期検知する医療機器を開発しているスタートアップとして、Hike Venturesのポートフォリオ企業の「Zeit Medical」もご紹介しています。ご興味のある方はぜひご連絡ください。 Zeit Medical：睡眠中でも脳卒中の兆候をAIを活用して。検出するスマートヘッドバンドを開発しています。再発リスクもある脳卒中のモニタリングをすることで、早期発見につながります。現在、臨床試験を実施中です Zeit Medical https://lnkd.in/gF_zdUpv ブログ記事はこちら（Here is the blog post）↓ https://lnkd.in/gqQegw2Y   *Although the articles are in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. I would like to introduce companies from the Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batch. Part 2 summarizes each of the startups categorized under "Healthcare": Two in AI agents for hospitals, Two in clinical records combined with AI, one personalized medicine and diagnostics, and one developing diagnostic technologies for neurological disorders. Apart from the selected companies from the Y Combinator Winter 2024 Batch, I'm also featuring Zeit Medical, a startup in Hike Ventures' portfolio, which is developing medical devices for early detection of strokes. If you are interested in "Zeit Medical", please let me know. Zeit Medical is developing a smart headband that uses AI to detect signs of stroke even during sleep. This device monitors strokes, including those with a risk of recurrence, facilitating early detection. Currently, clinical trials are underway.

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While there are numerous pros and cons to consider when raising a seed round, I generally agree with Gary Tan’s assessment: companies succeed when they create products that solve problems and meet customer needs, not because of the size of the check VCs write. I understand the frustration for VCs who have been raising larger seed-stage funds and need to deploy more capital per deal, but I support the founder’s decision to limit dilution early on. My advice to founders is to stay strong, be bold, hustle and take a chance on yourself, if you can solve customer problems, the same VCs who are upset about your decision to raise and dilute less during the seed round will come knocking on your door. #startups #founders #dilution #believeinyourself #venturecapital https://lnkd.in/gdmKsUje

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Ross Haleliuk posted the fantastic article below. This is the world where I live day-to-day. At TechOperators, we invest mostly in early-stage cyber, but we do things a little differently, and we believe there are ways to invest successfully outside of pure Power Law math. The article argues that many security problems are too small for VC. I agree. I often try to convince bootstrapped founders not to raise venture because doing so can turn a successful, slow-growing bootstrapped company into a failed venture-backed company because, despite a large infusion of capital, it couldn't double every year. VC is not monolithic--not by stage, strategy, or style. Venture is often equated with "Tier 1 Venture". Ross argues that VC is not always great for early-stage cyber--and he is right. Bootstrapping AND VC work when incentives are aligned. Does it work for an early-stage VC with a <$200M fund to invest in several early companies at reasonable valuations, setting up the conditions for reasonable exits that pay off for both investors and founders? Yes. Does it work for $800M funds investing in seed stage at $100M+ valuations? Well, that depends! Power law says it does (for VC), but the unfortunate externality is that these rounds destroy companies and founder equity more often than not. There is a role for patient capital in this ecosystem to fuel successful companies that retain exit optionality as they scale--driving exit value for both founders and investors.

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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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Still feeling energized from last week's roundtable on building successful relationships with hospitals. We invited 7 portfolio companies and health system leaders from Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai and UCLA Health. The founders shared their questions ranging from the strategic to the nuts and bolts of closing partnerships. For example, how do you determine what measures of effectiveness help drive alignment? And how do you get all the stakeholders together to actually drive a decision. Answer: put them all in a room for half a day! “I think we're in a pivotal moment regarding how we assess AI. There are numerous risks currently dominating AI discussions, particularly those concerning bias and other associated risks. However, there's a notable absence of focus on evaluating the proactive value of AI. We need to consider what AI actually offers and what we want it to offer. It's not solely about determining whether it will cause harm; people are apprehensive about how this technology will be implemented. One perspective gaining traction involves ensuring the product's validation process is robust enough to prevent risks to various populations.” -Vladimir Manuel, Medical Director at UCLA Health From Vlad's comments above to perspectives others shared, we heard a sense of excitement for the promise of #AI and other new technologies. But we're also in a unique moment where the risks are not well understood. Still much to do here.

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This analysis, at least anecdotally makes sense to me. In many situations, infringe and holdout is the least painful option for large infringers. The system enables it. - The plaintiff must allocate the time and $$ to assert, taking time and $$ away from selling and developing products. Even if they engage litigation financiers they are limiting their upside potential. - The infringer continues to infringe while employing stall tactics or simply relying on the painfully slow, overburdened legal system. - The cost benefit analysis for infringers - "infringe and pay lawyers" typically outweighs the cost of design around or license. - Enhanced damages and injunctions are rare. - Litigation insurance products reduce risk all around. "The Marcum report shows that there is indeed something wrong with the patent system in the United States but it’s not excessive litigation or patent trolls. The real problem is the inability of patent owners to enforce their rights against infringers. Given the difficulty of obtaining injunctive relief and the limited enhancement of damages, it is unsurprising that predatory infringement has become a standard business practice when, at worst, all an infringer can be expected to pay is a reasonable royalty and, at best, nothing at all."

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🚀DEMO DAY is coming soon! Want to come see what our founders are working on?🎉 Cohort 10 of the What If Fellowship is coming to an end May 17th! We will be showcasing 21 #digitalhealth startups at the earliest stages during demo day! We would love for you to attend. If you'd like to receive an invite, just fill out the typeform below. Who should attend❓ 1) Investors - those looking to invest in healthcare startups 2) Strategic partners / advisors - those who want to advise, help, or partner with digital health startups Demo Day will take place on May 17th at Noon ET remotely via Zoom webinar. We have limited spots, so please sign-up soon if you want to see what our #founders have been working on for the last 2 months! Attendees will see 21 healthcare #startups pitch for 3 minutes each and answer a few investor questions live in front of our audience. This is a great chance to find investment opportunities, and learn more about what the earliest of companies in our space are working on. This is about more than money - some of our founders need advice, advisors, Board members, co-founders and more. So come look for your opportunity to get plugged into the mental health hashtag #startup ecosystem with one of these early stage companies. One thing to point out - we highly encourage investors to attend, and pursue investing directly in these companies. We will NOT stand in the way nor require anyone to invest through What If Ventures to get access to any of these companies. So, please don't feel like we're trying to recruit you to give us money! Sign-up to attend demo day: https://lnkd.in/gEFt5YrY

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