Paul Kogan

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

37

18 Comments

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

48

2 Comments

Wendy Xiao, Molly Alter, Aaron Liu, and I recently hosted a dinner with CMIO / CIOs from top NY health systems and execs from startups who are building solutions across the care delivery and back-office billing stack. A few takeaways: - Delivering value-based care at scale changes the incentives for health systems in such a way that they require unique point solutions that can help them triage and manage at-risk patients. - While scribing platforms are certainly powerful in the administrative burden they can take off of doctors, their full value may not be unleashed until they can convert notes into the appropriate fields / codes for billing. - More attention needs to be paid to social determinants of health. For example, certain types of new addiction treatment, like gambling, may soon be covered by insurance if data continues to show that there are serious negative health implications for people affected. Treatments like Ozempic are also showing promise in the field of addiction. In the coming years there will an increasing acknowledgment of how interconnected social factors and medical health are across all patient populations. If you’re a healthcare exec looking to learn more about what the next generation of healthcare IT startups are building, or a healthcare startup looking to get involved, please reach out. cc Northzone

46

4 Comments

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

48

1 Comment

Couple of weeks ago had the pleasure of sharing my story to Alexander Benkendorf about starting CastPrint and later moving on to join Verge HealthTech Fund and the learning along the way. Some topics we discussed: 💡What does it take to bring innvation in healthcare 💡How did my startup background help me better prepare for VC work 💡How founders can better engage with VCs and what are the tips and tricks from the "other side" Thanks Alexander for having me!

15

1 Comment

Great take on the the fallacy that open source is not just a miraculous business model that lowers your CPL (Cost per Lead). If you want to go in this direction it mainly impacts trust, hopefully your lead conversion rate and thus might have a marginal impact on your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). What #metrics do your open source marketing team use?

25

2 Comments

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!

16

6 Comments

It turns out, the Long Island Sound IS water. For these and other insights, check out this post about our seed funding round. 😬 #startups #fundraising #newyork

25

4 Comments

The Care Summit was an incredible conference, made up of world class speakers, mission driven founders and top tier VC’s. To top it off- it was hosted in San Francisco (don’t bet against SF!). I feel really fortunate I was invited to attend. Most people don’t realize the care economy is now a 6 trillion dollar industry, and only growing. Every opportunistic industry gets a lot of attention when capitalist are at work, but oddly Care- something that will impact every human- gets a fraction of the attention it deserves. Why is this? Why at a conference that’s focused on caregiving, longevity, child care and human health was there only a handful of men? On one discussion, one of the moderators asked the panelist in 5 words what they want to see happen between now and next year. If I was given the opportunity to answer, I would have said, “more male participation”. I think it’s critical more women lead, enter venture, build companies and hold executive roles- we need more voices not few- but I am baffled by the absence of men, and the lack of effort on the huge problems at home, at work and in our policies. We must participate and create positive impact, and not sit silent because you feel you are not impacted (news flash: you are). I am leaving San Francisco inspired by conversations I had. I am eager to dig in deeper at Maple as a founder in this space, and at home as a husband, brother, son and father. A big thank you to FamTech.org , Magnify Ventures , Pivotal Ventures , The Holding Co. And every person involved. I look forward to attending next year, and hope more men join in.

23

5 Comments

Someone broke down the estimated costs of a $15 Sweetgreen salad. We need these cost graphics for digital health to help future founders. Especially for tech enabled cos, the greatest cost is labor. Much of the "value created" is in curation and matching, which means the gross margins are reliant on labor arbitrage. Pay someone $X, but get paid $X+Y% per visit. The challenge with healthcare is that you often have to pick one of two business models: 1. specialized, low volume, high cost, low gross margin % 2. generalized, high volume, low cost, high gross margin % I'd argue founders should focus on gross dollars over the lifetime of the customer (like Jeff Bezos said) instead of gross margin %'s, but we'll leave that for another time. The challenge is that many tech enabled digital health cos have high cost of goods sold (labor) and moderately high product, design, and engineering budgets. We must build differentiated solutions for patients, clinicians, and clients to be out incumbents, however, we're realizing that companies are ultimately valued on the discounted value of future cash flows. And the high SG&A costs at most organizations might be inbalanced to the unit economics of the business. I'm not sure the math pencils out for everyone unfortunately. But I'm just a guy on the internet, would love to hear the thoughts from those smarter than I (you!). Comment below. --- p.s. I have no idea the accuracy of the graphic and not an investor in Sweetgreen. Cheers. Credit: David Crowther

113

27 Comments

👩‍🔬 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

57

2 Comments

If you're connected with me, you know I scream about how necessary integrations are. Check out this piece where I explain more for insideBIGDATA!

21

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!

72

5 Comments

🔥Tune In to the Latest Fireside Chat with a VC in Healthech🔥 What percentage of VCs are former founders? 30% maybe more? I'd think a fair amount, yet how *exactly* does that transition happen and what perspectives change *radically* afterwards? Sigvards Krongorns shared exactly that - his journey from PwC consultant to Healtech founder, to a VC shaping the future of Healthtech startups. What we talked about: ✨ Sigvards' transition from a PwC consultant to founder to a VC ✨ What steps are necessary to bring innovative medical devices from concept to market ✨ How being a founder can prepare you for a role in venture capital ✨ What strategies help navigate the regulatory landscape in healthtech startups ✨ The right way to engage with VCs for startup funding ✨ What future trends in venture capital and Healthtech look like #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation #StartupJourney #HealthcareInnovation #Entrepreneurship #FiresideChat #VentureCapitalInsights Full conversation can be found here:

32

5 Comments

𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 $𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒., 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. I recently sat down with Liat, Co-founder and CEO of FeelBetter, a Boston startup that’s creating solutions for polypharmacy, a widespread problem impacting millions of Americans. Polypharmacy is the use of multiple medications by a single individual to manage complicated health conditions. Simply put, polypharmacy causes: ✅ increased risk of bad drug interactions ✅ side effects ✅ medication errors ✅ lower adherence Before FeelBetter, Liat worked at Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest producer of generics, as VP of Global Portfolio for Generic Medicines. During her time there, Liat saw patients struggling to juggle large bags of medications, a challenge she personally faced when dealing with her own health issues. She knew there had to be a way to use tech to help healthcare workers reduce the downsides of polypharmacy, and she searched for solutions but found nothing. But her search led to cofounder Yoram Hordan, CTO and COO of FeelBetter, and together they launched the company. 𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 $𝟏𝟎.𝟓 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝟏𝟕 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐳𝐞: 🔍 pharmacology data 🔍 health status 🔍 medical history 🔍 clinical guidelines 🔍 evidence-based medicine. FeelBetter uses AI to analyze all this data and give clinicians actionable insights to reduce negative effects of polypharmacy. FeelBetter also identifies at-risk patients and gaps in care in order to enhance well-being and outcomes. A study conducted with Mass General Brigham showed that FeelBetter could predict which patients would require hospitalization based on medication combinations, highlighting the platform's potential to impact care and outcomes. The company was started in Israel where there is comprehensive access to patient data, and it's now expanding across the US and collaborating closely with Medicare Advantage programs, Mass General, Atlantic Health, and senior care facilities nationwide. Connect with Liat Primor to learn more. And be sure to subscribe to Tribe newsletter for the full story. #innovation #management #technology

78

7 Comments

Nic Poulos and I wrote an essay for Euclid Ventures, "An Era for Vertical Software." The TL;DR is that vertical SaaS is a distinct, enduring discipline that we believe is poised to dominate the software landscape over the next decade.   "2024 will represent a turning point, perhaps even a new era for venture capital. While the fog feels like it’s lifting, the path forward isn’t yet clear. One includes a soft landing for the US economy and the continuing recovery of software multiples, with ZIRP-era behaviors continuing around hot themes. Another sees a recessionary period in which VC capital inflows remain stagnant and startup funding the year dips below $100B. Either way, a more measured VC market in 2024 is a certainty. For many investors, that will come with a rude awakening as their strategy becomes more difficult to execute or their thesis of choice is negatively impacted by tightening markets.    We see this reversion of the venture ecosystem to its mean as a strong tailwind for Euclid and vertical software. As a category, Vertical SaaS is uniquely well suited to thrive in volatile market conditions and produce fund-returning outcomes. The sections below aim to answer the question: why is vertical software different? Our answer discusses the factors driving the natural market resilience we see in vertical software as a category–resilience that will help them thrive in 2024 and beyond."

117

16 Comments

Are you working with #Llama3 in #Healthcare? Today John Snow Labs open-sourced this fine-tuned model, which is now the #1 #OpenSource model on the #Medical #LLM leaderboard: https://lnkd.in/gtwXeACW #healthcareai #healthai #ai #generativeai #datascience #largelanguagemodels #research

126

6 Comments

I invested early in AI, recognizing its potential to improve how industries address major market challenges. And the companies I've backed personify AI’s impact: → Arcade helps teams streamline product demonstrations through content management and delivery. → Tennr (YC W23) enables healthcare practices of all sizes to optimize their back-office operations with enterprise quality automations. → Tonkean helps organizations achieve peak efficiency by using data to suggest ways to work productively and profitably. → SafelyYou saves lives by predicting when a fall risk is high, preventing incidents before they occur. The common denominator? AI has a real-world impact on each startup, whether that's: ✓ Uprooting inefficiencies ✓ Automating repetitive tasks ✓ Mitigating risks ✓ Making better decisions AI is the catalyst transforming industries, and startups that embrace it will come out on top.

95

7 Comments