Jill Beck (Consor)

The (Healthcare) Ground Beneath Our Feet… This year it is likely that over $10 billion will be invested in the digital health sector – a robust amount, no doubt, but inconsequential when compared to the amount of capital tied up in healthcare real estate assets, which is estimated to be $1.2 trillion by Jones Lang Lasalle. Of that amount, approximately $790 billion is in the hospital sector while the remaining $490 billion is in medical office assets. It is estimated that there are 48.6k facilities with 3.4 billion square feet of healthcare real estate, 42% of which are owned by REITs and another 33% held by other private investment vehicles. Much of the digital health investment is meant to make the physical healthcare infrastructure more productive: greater operating efficiencies, greater patient throughput, more relevant personalized care models with better outcomes. As the healthcare system is being pushed to be more distributed to lower cost sites of care, accelerated now by the rapid proliferation of automation and AI capabilities, the potential impact on healthcare infrastructure assets will be profound. Thoughts on what that might look like... https://lnkd.in/eTfAdUbS #digitalhealth Flare Capital Partners

113

6 Comments

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.

26

3 Comments

Should we prioritize people, or tech innovation in our large-scale development projects? The strategy's slowly shifting to people. And that’s exactly how California Forever CEO Jan Sramek wins over skeptics like Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. Not bad. “There’s a lot of baggage that tech has created in building new cities that, unfortunately, we are at the receiving end of”, explains Sramek. So smart cities and tech libertarian network states aren't the focus here. Quite the contrary. He calls the project (in this context) “really, really boring.” The focus: ∙ More housing ∙ Walkable cities ∙ Affordable by design* ∙ Improving the country for residents *(housing prices to start at $400k) I recently covered California Forever, dubbing it a future ‘Tech Utopia’ given its massive Silicon Valley backing. So it’s exciting to see Sramek's positioning and skillful handling of the grilling. Is the era of the smart city over due to its 'baggage'? Time will tell. More on California Forever and other visionaries designing new cities from scratch here: https://lnkd.in/e9-i386q Full interview: https://lnkd.in/eMnT8QhU #futureofcities #urbandevelopment

1

1 Comment

I've been seeing way more front desk AI automation startups that are targeting private practices. Some are founded by physicians and others by non physicians. Here's what they're both getting wrong about private practice SMB as a customer. 1. The persona willing to adopt AI automation is rarely looking to scale into a traditional private practice model with the traditional panel of patients. Their willingness to adopt is not related to their willingness to pay. Meaning you will not hit venture revenue scale with this customer. 2. The persona that is willing to scale into the traditional private practice model is not willing to adopt AI automation. Once they do scale they most likely will do so using traditional staff or traditional managed services, NOT AI AUTOMATION. Instead the staff or managed services will use AI, but not the practice itself. Meaning the TAM is a lot smaller if your only value is just an AI tool. I've seen startup after startup over the last 6+ years struggle with this issue. They'll encounter a few early adopters and get convinced that their excitement applies to the entire TAM of physicians when in reality, they are the outliers and the market consists ONLY of one of the two options listed above. #PrivatePractice

11

4 Comments

For #MemberMonday, please meet Kristen Berman, CEO & Co-Founder of Irrational Labs. Her team specializes in behavioral economics, driving engagement in HealthTech. Plus, she has an awesome product teardown Substack, and started a compound featured in The New York Times, Vox, and The Atlantic 🚀 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 I’m CEO & Co-Founder of Irrational Labs. We’re a behavioral economics and design consulting shop that works on behavior change; we co-founded Google's behavioral economics group.  I also have a popular Substack where I do product teardowns (link in comment) Fun fact: I started a 20-person compound in Oakland called Radish, featured in The New York Times, Vox, and The Atlantic (link in comment) 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 At Irrational Labs, we are experts at behavior change, focused on driving engagement for patients, members, and providers. We give you psychology insights about your users and translate those into behavior-change strategies and designs. Sample projects include: • One Medical's onboarding flow, driving a 20% lift in bookings\ • Optum's and other payers’ product launches, telehealth adoption, and mobile app design • Behavior change strategy and design for Roche, Belong Health, Talkspace, TytoCare, and Aetna, a CVS Health Company • Partner regularly with the biggest names in the Valley (LinkedIn, Intuit, PayPal) If you need to understand and build for your user’s psychology -- hit us up! We’d love to talk with you. You can send me (Kristen Berman) a DM or email at kristen@irrationallabs.com. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗮𝘀 HealthTech Hang 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁? I went to a HealthTech Hang dinner and made a friend AND got a warm intro to a potential client!  #MemberMonday #HealthTech #BehaviorChange

25

2 Comments

In this weeks newsletter I share my thoughts on who will win the AI scribe war. Here are my key takeaways: 1. Usability is more important than accuracy. 2. Transcription/ translation is a commodity, there is no IP here. 3. There is room for creativity in the note format. SOAP note is the past, the future format is still to be determined. 4. The winner will pull data from the patient chart to clearly and succinctly elucidate their past history and incorporate new data/ clinical encounter to update their plan/ prognosis. Don't forget to register for our fireside chat tomorrow! #AIscribe #healthcare #clinicalscribe

47

11 Comments

Many of you in my network lead product delivery teams. We've all shared the challenge of gaining insights to align the priorities of the company with the work, efficiency and health of our teams. Having remote teams can make this even more complicated. I'm sharing this post from NextPeak Studio. Please join the conversation and share your thoughts. If you're interested in hearing more about what Uplevel is doing, I'd be happy to make an introduction. #productdelivery #engineeringleadership #cpo

10

1 Comment

Leveraging proven frameworks helps founders accelerate their technology, culture, sales, and operations. Frameworks help founders for us in action instead of struggling to figure it out. Join Julie Penner, Jim Franklin, Larson Stair, and myself as we delve into how frameworks have been game changers for us in this Denver Startup Week panel. Tuesday, September 17, 10am Techstars Denver #FrameworksForFounders #startups #DSW2024 #CTO CTO Levels

31

2 Comments

Next one up, Flagler Health! In an attempt to demystify some of the non-obvious elements we found when we first met the founders of our fastest growing portfolio companies at 186 Ventures, here is the third edition of the "idiosyncratic phenomenon". This highlight will be on Albert Katz, Leon Anijar, and Will Hu and their journey building Flagler Health to bring unprecedented AI enabled patient care to the world of musculoskeletal (MsK) providers. As the healthcare industry shifts to a value based care paradigm, there will be increased pressure on the entire industry to ensure patient outcomes improve, all the while helping providers generate more revenue / become more cost efficient. Since we co-led their March, 2024 seed round with Streamlined, the company has rolled out some of their newest remote therapeutic and chronic condition management features to many patients and providers alike, experiencing high revenue growth in such a short period of time. The company continues to face unmet customer demand as it continues to scale its expansion into 2025. https://lnkd.in/exesTcmC

51

1 Comment

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

44

4 Comments

$40M isn’t just a win for TailorMed—it’s a seismic shift for healthcare’s affordability game. Out of New York City, co-founders Israel (Srulik) Dvorsky (the vision guy) and Adam Siton (the tech genius) are taking a broken system and building something that actually works. Their play? Smashing the financial barriers that leave patients stranded, one automated solution at a time. Here’s the magic: TailorMed’s platform doesn’t just identify funding gaps—it connects the dots. Think 750+ hospitals, 1,300 clinics, and 600 pharmacies using their tech to access 6,000+ financial resources with zero friction. Real-time API connections? Check. Insurance coverage analysis? Check. Automated enrollment that actually works? You get the idea. It’s seamless, it’s scalable, and it’s changing the way healthcare providers and patients approach affordability. This latest round—$27.5M in equity and $12.5M in debt led by Poalim Tech —brings their total funding to $69M, and the backers read like a who’s who of impact-driven investors. Windham Capital Partners is leading the charge, with Samsung Next, BrightEdge - American Cancer Society , Citi (Impact Fund), and a slew of hospital investment arms doubling down. The faith is justified—TailorMed’s already a key player for healthcare giants like Providence Health & Services, UnityPoint Health, and Yale New Haven Health. And let’s not miss the real story: TailorMed’s not just building tools—they’re driving a movement. They’ve been named to the 2024 New York Digital Health Innovation Lab 100, and they’re only heating up. The goal? Scale harder, expand partnerships, and keep sharpening the tech that’s making “unaffordable care” an outdated concept. When Srulik says, “We’re creating a healthcare system where affordability is the standard,” it’s not just words—it’s a battle cry. TailorMed’s smashing walls, rewriting the rules, and proving that the future of healthcare isn’t just hopeful—it’s inevitable. #Startups #HealthCare #HealthTech #Innovation #PatientFinancing #AffordableHealthCare #Technology #NYCTech #NYCTechEcosystem #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #VentureCapital #StartupFunding

31

4 Comments

If you're interested in how AI can improve healthcare operations check out Synthpop - Healthcare AI and the podcast below. They are on a tear! 🚀

13

There's one thing that truly differentiates great healthtech companies from the ones who fizzle out. Distribution. There's so much red tape in this industry - if you have incredible distribution, it's so much easier to build and iterate on your product. Working with customers isn't hidden behind a 5-year bureaucratic process anymore. Without great distribution, everything becomes 10x harder and takes 10x longer.

10

Triangle startup ecosystem - first thanks for the incredible generosity that you showed over the last 2wks to help folks impacted by Helene. Here's a last update on our Hurricane Helene relief efforts with a final 'how can you help' ask. The TL;DR - our nascent effort has matured and morphed into the WCEN. The most urgent need has moved from supplies to funding the teams out on the ground that need specialty items like gas, oxygen tanks, starlinks, etc. There's a gofundme, this is a certified 501(c)(3) here-> https://lnkd.in/e4NdxuW8 What is the WCEN you ask?!.... o There were several operating groups that were able to grassroots consolidate efforts under the Western Carolina Emergency Network (WCEN) umbrella and they have a website up that is improving every day: https://lnkd.in/ePYP6_JJ o WCEN's goal is to provide services to survivors until temporary infrastructure can be re-built. There are over 1m people in Western NC without shelter and basic necessities. o WCEN is providing: -> Reconnaissance -> Search + Rescue ( + Recovery) -> Rapid Supply Response / Air Support -> Medical Care o WCEN has these network partners: -> Operation Airdrop Inc- Air support including planes and helicopters -> Carolina Calvary - Coordinator for Operation Airdrop -> Razor Nation - ATV support -> Restoration Church @restoration church - Josh Brown and Ryan Honeycutt- supply collection sites and delivery -> Apex Defense - Search and Rescue, Security -> Lincoln County Airport - Pilot coordinator -> AJ - Heavy Lift Drone support -> GSDF team - C&C logistics, Special Forces team coordinator -> Reagan Madison Inc. team- Back office, infrastructure, and fundraising,FOB coordination (Crystal Suazo, CPA - who looped this together and we connected with here on LI!) -> WRTE, Inc - Legal, tax, fiduciary support -> Christina Marie Noel - Christina Noel + volunteers - Strategic marketing & communications -> United National Weather Team - Medical support with ATV abilities if anyone, especially corps would like to donate $, volunteers, trucks, etc. please contact William McGuire (on the ground items), Rebecca Ross / Jess Porta (Triangle-based corp donations/logistics). We're getting the last truck of items at Raleigh Founded out and future donations should be made at: Electric Supply Co 207 Bickett Blvd Raleigh NC, 27608 Want more ideas on how to have an impact? https://lnkd.in/euNxS8kd Thanks again everyone!

87

5 Comments

I recently talked with Paz Yanover, VP of Product at Amplication, about creating and managing effective docs. Here is his developer docs success formula (check 1st comment): In this interview, Paz shares his formula to creating developer docs that drive product adoption. You'll learn: - The important role docs plays in support and attracting devs - Tips for balancing technical accuracy with user-friendliness in your docs - Strategies for effective collaboration between technical writers and product teams Check the first comment for the full interview. --- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Derick Ruiz for more.

19

1 Comment

Of note: Your health records are coming to new apps This in an interesting change, and a somewhat Epic change. All puns intended. If you don’t know, the leading medical record storage solution in the US is operated by Epic. A rather critical problem is that if you walk (well drive) between two hospital in the US, the medical records tend not to follow you, unless you carry a large Manila envelope. Having Epic (and others) via TEFCA allow export of records arguably allows you to only carry your phone, which is a very siginificant change. This also (arguably) opens up a huge new innovation sector. Epic is one of the organizations that has been helping the US federal government establish the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. The goal being to iron out both the legal and technical requirements for sharing patients' data at scale. Health-care data in the U.S. has historically been siloed and difficult to move around. Clinics, hospitals and health systems can store their information in a variety of formats across dozens of different vendors, and there hasn't been a trusted nationwide mechanism in place for transporting it securely. This means if a patient moves to a different state or visits a new hospital, their medical records tend not follow. PS. If you want appreciate how profitable the US medical sector is, Epic HQ has a restantant designed to look like Kings Cross from the Harry Potter movies. https://lnkd.in/g8NaWza8

1

3 Comments

Outcome-Based Pricing, AgentOS, and User Simulators: 3 takeaways from Sequoia Capital's Pat Grady & Ravi Gupta's chat with Sierra's co-founder Clay Bavor 🧠 1. Outcome-Based Pricing for High-Value AI Tasks: Charge based on the value delivered, not just usage 💰 2. AgentsOS: A powerful concept for coordinating and managing multiple AI agents 🤖 3. User Simulators: Testing AI agents with simulated users to accelerate user alignment and build a moat 🤯 User simulators could be a game-changer, providing a massive dataset of simulated customer behavior to train and refine AI agents. This could lead to a powerful "simulated customer data flywheel," offering a unique competitive advantage. What are your thoughts on these AI agent trends? 🤔 #AI #Agents #Sequoia #Sierra #Innovation #TechTrends Link to the original interview: https://lnkd.in/eK6MG6wx

6

Some midweek wisdom from Y Combinator founder, Paul Graham, on why startups shouldn't stress over competitors. According to Graham, based on Y Combinator's extensive data set, few of their startups are actually killed by competitors. He compares the protection a startup has against competitors to the vastness of space, emphasising that the market is large enough for multiple players to thrive. Graham's analogy likens encountering a competitor to suddenly finding another runner in your race lane - the best course of action? “It’s sort of like if you’re running the hundred meters and suddenly a lane appears with another runner in it. What should you do? Run as fast as you can, just like you presumably were.” #Startups #Competition #Entrepreneurship #wearehiring

5

1 Comment

I recently sat down with Michael Batko, CEO at Startmate and Founder of Puddle Pod for Episode 11 of Insane Ambition. Startmate has invested in 230+ startups, much of it under Michael's leadership, and now has $3.5b in value across its portfolio companies. In this episode, we discussed: - Michael's journey from consulting, then living in the Amazon rainforest, to leading Australia's biggest startup accelerator - The future of Australia's startup ecosystem - The labour government's very stupid plan to make it harder for people to qualify as sophisticated investors (now thankfully shelved) - Startmate City! Startmate's plan to build Australia's first startup city. Probably the most ambitious idea I've ever heard from a startup accelerator. - The balance between visionary thinking and traditional startup advice (think Elon Musk's plan to colonise Mars, vs Y Combinator's problem/customer obsession) - "The Courage to Be Disliked", and its influence on Michael's approach to life and business. Links in the description below 👇

61

4 Comments