Raising Health
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137 episodes
As any healthcare founder knows, it can be difficult to get into a room with the executives making purchase decisions for payors and providers—so we’re bringing the executives to you. This episode features interviews with payor and provider leaders about what they’re seeing and how they’re thinking about AI. Guided by Julie Yoo, general partner, and Jay Rughani, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health, you'll hear from the executives about how they're utilizing AI, the KPIs they use to gauge effectiveness, and what they consider a good partnership. Julie and Jay also authored an in-depth guide to commercializing AI in healthcare based on these interviews, available here https://a16z.com/commercializing-ai-in-healthcare-the-enterprise-buyer-perspective/. All of our go-to-market playbooks are available on our Digital Health Builders https://a16z.com/digital-health-builders/ page.
"There is a revolution unfolding in biotech. The confluence of new biological methods like CRISPR, virtually unlimited computational capacity, and machine learning has fundamentally transformed our ability to engineer biology for wide-ranging applications." Vijay Pande, founding general partner at a16z Bio + Health, joins the Software Engineering Daily podcast to talk about innovation in biotech and healthcare, the biotech startup landscape, the impact of AI, and much more. You can see a transcript of the episode and more information about Software Engineering Daily here https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2024/02/13/biotech-special-a16z-and-the-biotech-revolution-with-vijay-pande/.
Rosana Kapeller, CEO of Rome Therapeutics, and Marty Taylor, physician-scientist at Harvard Medical School, join Vineeta Agarwala, general partner, and Bryan Faust, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they discuss Rosana and Marty's recent publication regarding a virus-like element in our genome known as LINE-1. LINE-1, part of our "dark genome," was ignored as junk DNA for years, but is increasingly recognized to contribute to the pathology of autoimmunity, cancer, neurodegeneration, and aging. Rosana and Marty discuss how the discovery was made as well as how Rome Therapeutics is developing a platform to target LINE-1 and other factors that are part of the "dark genome" for the treatment of disease. ADDITIONAL READING: __ __
Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health, dives deep with a16z Podcast host Steph Smith into the potential of DNA as a data storage mechanism. This episode, a cross-post with the a16z Podcast, draws parallels between Moore's Law and the race for "Moore's Law for DNA." Vijay discusses the density, longevity, and ubiquity of DNA, and how this could be leveraged into a data storage solution. Vijay and Steph mix technical advancements with futuristic speculation as they talk about what the future of biotech might look like.
Julie Klapstein, founding CEO of Availity, long-time healthcare executive, and a16z Bio + Health's newest advisory partner, joins Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they delve into Julie Klapstein's rich career journey, which has spanned several decades of progress in healthcare. They also discussed building Availity, her time at MultiPlan, and the network effects undergirding both businesses. Finally, they talk about how AI could impact healthcare—for payors, providers, and the network businesses in between.
Scribe Therapeutics cofounder and CEO Benjamin Oakes, PhD, joins a16z Bio + Health founding general partner Vijay Pande. In this episode, Benjamin traces his journey from PhD student to pioneering CEO in genome editing. Benjamin discusses his early exposure to CRISPR technologies, his hands-on experience of transforming these bacterial immune systems into "genome editing scalpels," and the founding of Scribe. The conversation sheds light on the challenges of engineering these molecules, as well as the potential for life-changing therapeutics.
Josh Clemente, cofounder and president of Levels, joins Vijay Pande, founding general partner, and Daisy Wolf, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, engineer-turned-entrepreneur Josh charts his journey from SpaceX and Hyperloop to cofounding metabolic health-focused company Levels. With a relentless drive for data-led health monitoring, Josh highlights the potential of wearable tech for tracking various biomarkers. Josh, Vijay, and Daisy also discuss how AI can simplify complex wearables data into a comprehensible and actionable health profile, with the potential to democratize healthcare technology.
Former gymnast and current investor Aly Raisman joins general partner Julie Yoo and investment partner Daisy Wolf of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Aly Raisman shares her quest for healthier living—physically, mentally and financially—on her journey from gymnast to a business investor. Having herself transitioned from an intensely structured routine, Aly emphasizes the need for more open conversations about mental health and financial literacy. She speaks passionately about the gap in women’s health solutions and hopes to inspire entrepreneurs to create impactful businesses. Aly’s experiences as a patient, survivor, and global figure adds a unique dimension to her perspective as an investor. This candid conversation with both Aly and Julie Yoo sheds light on Aly’s passion for more education within the investment space offering invaluable insights for entrepreneurs, particularly in biotech and healthcare.
Max Cohen, cofounder and CEO of Sprinter Health, and Eren Bali, founder and CEO of Carbon Health, join Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they talk about becoming healthcare entrepreneurs despite non-healthcare backgrounds and what they had to learn along the way. They also discuss finding product-market fit, how they track PMF using KPIs, and the evolving investor landscape as the digital health space expands and matures. Additional reading: __ __
In this episode, Joe Grogan, a senior fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and a former senior government official, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health to discuss all things regulation. Together, they dive into Joe’s experience working in the early days of the Covid pandemic, how he thinks about the Inflation Reduction Act’s effect on pharmaceutical R&D, and the future of AI regulation. ADDITIONAL READING: Check out Joe's latest op-ed here https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ai-health-care-perils-bidens-executive-order, his own podcast here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dc-ekg/id1677424942, and his Twitter account here https://twitter.com/RealJoeGrogan.
Today's episode features the cofounders of Tome Biosciences, Rahul Kakkar, CEO of Tome, and John Finn, CSO. They are joined by Jorge Conde, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, the three of them discuss the technology undergirding Tome's work, known as PASTE, a genome editing technique. They also dive deep into how this technology could be applied to help patients, making cell therapy more accessible for more people.
Bio Eats World is now Raising Health! Vijay Pande, founding partner of Bio + Health, is joined by Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng, Aviv Regev, and Jakob Uszkoreit. Vijay leads us on a reflective journey through the monumental achievements in AI from the 1980s to today, with a focus on the progress in healthcare and life sciences. This episode is drawn from the episodes we recorded in 2023 with Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng, Aviv Regev, and Jakob Uszkoreit, which are linked below. This blend of expert commentary and firsthand insights explores the burgeoning impact of AI on healthcare innovation and how it's reshaping the future of health. __ __
Bio Eats World is now Raising Health! On this first episode of Raising Health, Sean Duffy, cofounder and CEO of Omada Health, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of Bio + Health. Sean and Vijay discuss the building and growth of Omada, from the early days to now. As the cofounder of one of the original digital health companies, Sean has unique insight into the growth of both the digital health field and the changing venture capital environment. They also talk about the future of AI, how Omada is leveraging AI, and the challenges that might arise with using a technology in a caregiving environment.
Pranav Rajpurkar, PhD, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Pranav and Vijay discuss a future with generalist medical AI. This is the idea of a medical AI that isn’t narrowly tailored to one specific task. As Pranav notes in the episode, the research and development process in medical AI development so far has been siloed by specialty, but generalist medical AI exists outside those siloes. If generalist medical AI is successful, it could act as a dynamic support system to a physician, almost like a medical resident.
Jordi Mata-Fink, PhD, cofounder of Gate Bioscience, joins Vineeta Agarwala and Ben Portney of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Jordi discusses how he and his cofounders are working to commercialize a novel class of therapeutics, termed 'molecular gates.' His company, Gate, is working to exploit a previously uncharted avenue in cell biology—the secretory translocon—for therapeutic intervention. This approach has the potential to combat diseases otherwise resistant to existing therapeutics. Jordi also imparts valuable insights on the power of platform-based problem-solving and team building.
Mario Schlosser, cofounder, former CEO, and current President of Technology at Oscar Health, joins Julie Yoo of Bio + Health. The conversation explores how AI advancements can revolutionize traditional healthcare models by enhancing efficiency, personalizing care journeys, and integrating real-time data insights. Mario also discusses "benefit-less" benefit designs, where healthcare plans learn from and adapt to individual consumer patterns, at least theoretically leading to the holy grail of better health outcomes and cost savings.
Miriam Vogel, President and CEO of EqualAI, cohost of the podcast In AI We Trust?, and Chair of the National AI Advisory Committee, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Miriam offers pragmatic insights for founders on ethical integration of AI. She also outlines concrete steps to build trustworthy AI. Finally, she discusses the regulatory landscape and the state of politics around AI today.
AI trailblazer Suchi Saria, in conversation with Vijay Pande, sheds light on the winding path that led her to launch Bayesian Health, a bold effort to infuse intelligence into clinical workflows. With infectious optimism, Suchi describes her vision to create "clinical copilots" that augment human capabilities and unburden care teams. Yet she acknowledges the delicate balancing act required to implement AI ethically, emphasizing the need for continuous monitoring and oversight to build trust. For founders navigating uncertain regulatory seas, Suchi offers a lifeline, suggesting that regulation done right may actually accelerate adoption by fostering confidence. Through candid reflections on lessons from the trenches, Suchi provides a rare glimpse into the mind of an innovator who has one foot planted in research rigor and the other striding towards real-world impact. Steeped in over 20 years of experience, her insights map guideposts for founders aspiring to positively disrupt healthcare with AI.
Fei-Fei Li, PhD, Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, joins Bio + Health founding partner Vijay Pande. In this candid conversation, Li unfolds her transformation from a young immigrant to an influential figure in AI. The conversation explores the birth of ImageNet, a pivotal step that bridged the gap between visual intelligence and accessible AI technology. They delve into the notion of a 'Dignity Economy,' hinting at a future where technology serves to elevate human experience rather than undermine it. Li also touches on the delicate balance between relentless innovation and life's humble pursuits. This episode peels back the layers on the human side of AI, offering a rare glimpse into the personal and professional realms of a pioneer shaping the AI landscape. Check out her new book, out November 7, 2023, here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250897930/theworldsisee
Evan Feinberg, PhD, founder and CEO at Genesis Therapeutics, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, they talk about how Evan’s work in the lab (ironically, Vijay's lab at Stanford!) translated to the creation of Genesis, which is tackling the problem of drug discovery through AI. They also discuss how the Genesis team is building specifically to carry on work at the intersection of ML, biotech, and chemistry.
Olga Troyanskaya, a professor in the department of computer science at Princeton and Deputy Director for Genomics at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Biology, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. Together, they talked about Olga's background and how she got involved in genomics, as well as how evolving biotechnologies have improved scientists’ ability to see different views of the cell. They also discussed social determinants of health, and how, in the future, studies of genomics and SDoH might pave the way to treatment options.
Peter Shalek, a Chief Product Officer, currently at Stellar Health and formerly at AbleTo, and Reena Pande, currently a strategic advisor and formerly the Chief Medical Officer of AbleTo, join Julie Yoo and Justin Larkin of a16z Bio + Health. As Julie mentions during the episode, there’s international relations, and then there’s CMO/CPO relations. Peter and Reena talked about working together to improve their relationship and the outcomes of their teams, and they get granular about what worked and what didn’t. Today’s podcast is for healthcare builders who are struggling to balance clinical with product. They talk through real examples and tactical advice.
Note that due to technical difficulties, the audio quality of this episode may vary. Surya Ganguli, PhD, an associate professor at Stanford University and a neural dynamics researcher, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, Surya and Vijay chatted about the interpretability of AI and how the AI black box could someday become a "clear box." They also talk through a future of AI-augmented humans, and where humans might excel compared with AI.
This episode is live from our recent AI Revolutionaries (AIR) conference. In this episode, Daphne Koller, founder and CEO at insitro and AI expert, chats with Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. You can check out the full conversation with video and transcript at https://a16z.com/digital-biology/.
Today's episode features Aviv Regev, PhD, the Head and Executive VP of Genentech Research and Early Development, and founding co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas. She is joined by Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, Aviv and Vijay talk about how Aviv's love of both abstractions and details led her to biology, how CRISPR really set the field into motion, and how AI could transform the process of biological and medical discovery.
Andrew Ng, PhD, a distinguished authority in the field of AI, is known for founding DeepLearning.AI and multiple other ventures. He also co-founded and led Google Brain and serves as an Adjunct Professor in Stanford University's Computer Science Department. In this episode, he is joined by Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. Andrew has thought deeply about the implications of integrating AI into many areas of our lives, going so far as to put out a public social media call for people who believe AI is dangerous to speak with him. He and Vijay discussed this, as well as how AI could become foundational to many industries — and what needs to happen to make that future a reality.
Carl June, MD, an immunologist and oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, joins Jorge Conde, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, Carl and Jorge talked about Carl's pioneering work in CAR T therapy — including the terrifying moment where he thought he had accelerated one of his patient's deaths, how he started working in human immunology, and his take on where cancer treatment is headed next.
Dan Nomura is a distinguished professor at UC Berkeley and an Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute, specializing in Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics. He serves as the Director of the Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute and founded Frontier Medicines and Vicinitas Therapeutics. He’s also a16z Bio+Health’s newest advisory partner. In this episode, Dan joins general partner Jorge Conde and investment partner Becky Pferdehirt to discuss how he got started working in chemical biology and chemoproteomics and his experience founding companies, along with leading lab and pharma collaborations.
In this exclusive conversation from the Bio + Health BUILD summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio and healthcare differs from other forms of technology.
