Jonathan Metrick

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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The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by advancements in technology and a deeper understanding of patient care. I had the pleasure of speaking with Ambar Bhattacharyya, Co-Managing Partner at Maverick Ventures, on the latest episode of The Full Ratchet. Ambar has partnered with numerous billion-dollar companies like hims & hers, Cityblock Health, Devoted Health, and ConcertAI. His unique journey from rural America to becoming a prominent figure in venture capital offers invaluable insights into the future of healthcare and technology. We discuss his investment strategy at Maverick Ventures, the megatrends shaping healthcare, the impact of AI on the industry, and the importance of integrated care. Ambar also shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities in healthcare investment, offering a comprehensive view of what lies ahead. Check out TFR Episode 438 to catch our conversation. You'll be glad you listened.

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

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NY friends! Please come see me at Tech Day on my panel discussing the future of the NY tech ecosystem and what I hope to bring to it!

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The latest isssue of HPC Today is published by the great tks | publisher, event organiser, media agency. Here's the surfactants insights column. "Will LAS be Replaced?" This is a really easily readable online magazine format. Check it out. Many peer reviewed articles in here also (not my opinion pieces, I hasten to add) #surfactants #alkybenzene

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A really interesting and powerful performance management practice. "Use the “30-day test” to maintain a high-performance team. Create a reminder to ask yourself this question 30 days after someone joins the team: “Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person?” If the answer is yes, tell the person you’re excited about them and give them more equity—you’ll gain a lot of loyalty. If the answer is no, you need to fire them immediately, to avoid the inevitable damage they will cause to you, your team, and themselves." from Uri Levine Founder of Waze, via Lenny's podcast. https://lnkd.in/gyS2HzZP

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Last week I had the pleasure of being on The Exit, which is hosted by Steve McGarry and presented by Flippa.com. In this episode, I talk about my exits from MeMD and NextCare. At the end of the episode, I discuss how I time my ventures and how I live life as a serial entrepreneur. #businessexit #exitstrategy #entrepreneur #businesstips #healthcareleadership

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 📣Join Our Mission: Women's Health! Despite recent growth in the women’s health space, there is still unmet demand for products and services. Menopause has been a particularly overlooked segment of the market: only 5 percent of FemTech start-ups address menopause needs globally (McKinsey & Company, 2024). Nevertheless, the acceleration of advances in women’s healthcare holds considerable implications for investors and stakeholders across the value chain and beyond. At KRING, we're pioneering innovative solutions in women's health, focusing on cognitive health, sleep management, menopause, fertility, and more - with Menopause, an active health challenge we are currently exploring. While diving into Validation, our concept has garnered significant interest across the health innovation ecosystem, corporate partners, and investors. ✅ Chief Commercial Officer (Co-founder) We're seeking dynamic Commercial Co-founders with robust entrepreneurial backgrounds with experience of scratch to commercialization, and exceptional leadership skills. Experience in negotiating complex agreements is advantageous, but a passion for women's health is essential. https://lnkd.in/dVRwJ6i8 ✅ Menopause Expert: Chief Product Officer (Co-founder) We're looking for a scientific expert with a deep understanding of medical science, clinical research, and regulatory requirements, to lead the development of innovative healthcare solutions for women's health. https://lnkd.in/dXX3RWQY 🧠 The Concept: Building a Digital Platform for Women's Health Our digital platform helps women tackle midlife challenges, including menopause, by enhancing sleep quality, addressing weight gain, and boosting self-confidence. Components include data gathering, tailored recommendations, personalized wellness programs, and a supportive community. 📍Join Us in Copenhagen Our team is headquartered in Copenhagen, offering an exciting opportunity for individuals based in these cities or open to relocation. If you're intrigued by this opportunity, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Marina Miteva and Agnes A. to learn more. Join Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Investors like Britt Meelby Jensen, Kristine Leerbeck, Christina Høgh Selmer Kirk, Anne Mette Bang, Benjamin Suhr, Anja Monrad, Sonal Pendharkar Kulkarni, Ella Smoraczewska Harris, Fanny Hauterat, Sumeya Hassan, Rosemarie Wedell-Wedellsborg, Jane Kudsk, Susanne Brønnum, Pernille Foss, Sara Maria Franch-Mærkedahl, Gitte Nipper, Jenny-Ann Axson Johnson, and more in revolutionizing healthcare and shaping the future of women's health. Apply now.

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I’ve had some thought provoking discussions with #founders, investors and fellow advisors recently on #marketing efficiency, channel mix, measurement and incrementality. As someone who’s recently transitioned from leading in enterprise environments (Google) to advising scrappier setups, I know it’s not easy. Be that as it may, here are a few observations & rules of thumb worth considering: 1️⃣𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 & 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗲𝘁: ✔️Spend more time on decisions where implications cascade down vs. silo-ed ones that have less surface area impact. ✔️Therefore, when it comes to high-level channel strategy (or that eternal brand vs performance question), it's better to be directionally on track vs. obsessing with precision at a narrower level. ✔️There is no silver bullet that will solve everything overnight. Yes, some channels could give you clear signs of success early on, others give you a proxy or lagging indicator. That has no bearing on effectiveness. 2️⃣𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 (𝗖𝗔𝗖): ✔️I’m not sure how many founders or investors truly understand 'demand creation’ vs. 'demand capture’ or how to evaluate certain channels over a longer time frame. ✔️The oft quoted #CAC metric is, more often than not, a garbage in - garbage out situation. It’s the easiest metric to game in the short term. 3️⃣𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (+ 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆) 𝗳𝗼𝗿 #𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀: ✔️You could argue that at an early stage, any marketing is likely to be more 'incremental’ than not. I agree that the benefit of better measurement (better channel allocation & forecasting) should be > the cost to implement it (analytics resources, dashboards). ✔️However, when you expand to 3+ channels, it is worth knowing what channel is in the driving seat [causing your car to move] vs. tagging along [pun intended] for the ride. ✔️It’s interesting that MMMs, the stalwarts of econometric measurement, are witnessing a comeback as marketers look for a future-proof solution in light of cookie deprecation and cross-channel tracking issues. There’s likely to be more innovation here courtesy LLMs, particularly solutions that are open source, lightweight or more actionable. ✔️ While modelling & experiments are the collective holy grail, there are tactics that can improve the chances of your marketing being more incremental as you scale. a) If you’re running acquisition campaigns, exclude your existing customers from being targeted with paid ads. Sounds basic, but this often gets overlooked. b) Avoid over-indexing on brand SEM or retargeting campaigns. The last click ROI may look great, but you’re just using paid ads for use cases that your owned touch points should address efficiently.

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

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

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To all #founders and #entrepreneurs out there, our intro meetings are conversational and easy going. Feel free to message me to setup a call. Learn what Pioneera Ventures can do for you!

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Such an excellent conversation this week. For those in venture capital, this is a must listen. https://lnkd.in/gQUgM8q9

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Is private equity owned healthcare a positive or a negative in regard to real health outcomes for patients? I asked Ambar Bhattacharyya of Maverick Ventures this question and more on Episode 438 of The Full Ratchet. Tune into the show to catch our discussion.

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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 April 15, just over 900 new companies were added, with 94,109 companies included in the US Health Tech, Med Tech, Fin Tech, AI Tech, and Ed Tech verticals. AI Tech again saw the greatest percentage of growth in new companies and transactions, weighing in at over double the vertical averages for the period. The US Fin Tech vertical again led the way in SEC Filings and news articles. 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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👩‍🔬 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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Here’s a question investors are often asked: When evaluating early stage companies, how much time do you spend on due diligence around future exits? It’s not surprising we hear this question a lot. Also not surprising: it’s got a wide range of answers depending on the firm. Some don’t spend much time here at all. Others make it a point to put meaningful time in as part of their process. Our current thinking: take the time to do the work on public market comps. At Alpaca VC, we spend significant time understanding how public market investors will  realistically value a business based on margin profile, product, business model & TAM. In short, we want to know: how will this company be valued at scale when we get taken out? Yes, we can acknowledge that the journey toward exit is a windy road and that there may be pivots along the way, but there are still public market companies that have a business model similar to the early stage company you're evaluating. And you can always look at gross profit multiples if you think the margin profile will change over time. So we still do the work on the comps. Quantitative metrics we look at when making the comparison to public market comps include EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, Gross Profit multiple or all of the above. As part of this process, it’s also important to factor in the public market company’s year-over-year revenue growth as this will also significantly impact the multiple it trades at. Simple example: if you have two public market companies with similar business models and similar margin profiles, but one's growing 100% year over year, and one's growing 50% year over year, then obviously the DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis is going to spit out a very different valuation for the one that's growing faster. Why this matters: When you take all of that information into account as you evaluate an early stage business, you can begin to create a realistic picture of how this company will be valued in the public markets at exit - or how an acquirer will value the company for an acquisition. Strategic acquirers may, of course, pay a premium, but we won’t underwrite for that. This allows us, for example, to form conviction around valuation based on revenue and gross profit predictions. If we think they can do $100M of revenue five years from now, we use this diligence process to form a thesis about whether the characteristics above (product, margin, business model, etc.) will cause the company to be valued at $200M vs. $500M vs. $1B at exit. Curious how other early stage investors think about underwriting an exit and how much time they’re spending on public market comps even though these companies are in their infancy.

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In this episode, I speak with corporate punk rocker, Greg Larkin, known as the "Anthony Bourdain of Business" and founder and CEO of Punks and Pinstripes. Like Anthony Bourdain, Greg keeps it real as he authentically shares his story about moving up the career ladder while worrying about losing his true punk rock self. Greg talks about his belief in the importance of "business punks" in driving change, especially during crucial moments of disruption or organizational crisis. He shares how his amazing track record of success was based partly on the ability to pitch outcomes rather than ideas or visions. He explores strategies for navigating and overcoming the corporate immune response system, based on some hard learned lessons. Greg outlines exit strategies for those who find themselves as catalysts in environments resistant to change, including walled gardens, bear hugs, spin-offs, leaving, and transforming from within. He critiques "state-sanctioned" innovation efforts as often being mere lip service and stresses the importance of genuine empowerment and support for Catalysts. You won't want to miss this real, raw conversation: https://lnkd.in/dvs9if2A

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Last year I put together as comprehensive of a list as I could of every single active venture backed startup in Boston over the last 5+ years. Very useful exercise! ...very difficult to maintain. Friends of LinkedIn - do you know of a tool that can automatically & publicly update this table for me weekly to keep the people of Boston informed of their venture backed population? I will highlight the tool on the page to the hundreds (soon thousands) of people that view it every month! Link to the manual version here: https://lnkd.in/ek9wSfUD The AI should also be able to answer this question: Which weighs more? A pound of bricks or a pound of feathers? Happy Friday to you!

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