Congratulations to Jess Lee on her participation in the White House’s Conference on Women’s Health Research. We appreciate your support of Natera and were honored to be recognized alongside such inspiring companies in the Women’s Health space. Thank you for sharing insights on this thoughtful discussion!
It was such a cool life experience to have been invited to speak at The White House’s Conference on Women’s Health Research, hosted by Dr. Jill Biden and President Joe Biden. The White House convened an incredible group of people across industry, academia, policy and non-profits to talk about the future of women’s health. The energy in the room was electric. On our panel about the business of investing in women's health, I shared how women’s health is surprisingly underhyped given its market size: half of humanity. Women’s health is a market that hides in plain sight, in the blind spot of VC demographics. People invest in what they know, and since venture is 17% women, the category has been been historically underfunded. Other markets that had blind spots due to lack of personal experience by VCs were defense tech and consumer social circa 2004-2008. Over the years, Sequoia has had the privilege of partnering with several great companies touching women’s and family health, including: - Natera was founded by Matthew Rabinowitz to develop better technologies to detect prenatal genetic conditions. Today, Natera’s non-invasive prenatal test is ordered by half of all OB/GYNs in the US, and under the leadership of CEO Steve Chapman has also expanded into oncology. Roelof Botha led their seed and has been on their board for 18 years. The company is now worth $22B. - Maven Clinic was founded by Kate Ryder and today is the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health, spanning maternity, fertility, pediatrics, parenting, and menopause. It’s an employee benefit used by half the Fortune 15, including Amazon, Google, JP Morgan, Microsoft, and UnitedHealth Group. Kate is a force of nature and it’s been a huge honor serving on her board. Maven announced new funding at a $1.7B valuation a few months ago. - Roon tackles misinformation in healthcare by offering answers directly from world-class health experts and doctors. Co-founded by Vikram Bhaskaran, Rohan Ramakrishna, MD, and Arun Ranganathan, their video Q&A platform has 16K short-form videos from doctors in women's and reproductive health, ALS, and dementia. - Summer Health is a 24/7 pediatrics and parenting hotline co-founded by Ellen D. and Matthew Woo. It’s a lifesaver in those emergency situations. When pioneering founders build enormous businesses in these “blind spot” categories, that success breeds more success. We need first believers – including investors and policymakers – to help move money, shift power, and change culture (h/t All Raise). Thank you to The White House for hosting such a wonderful gathering, to our moderator Trish Stroman and my fellow panelists Jyoti Gupta, Stephanie Sassman and Johanna Grossman, PhD for a thoughtful discussion, and to Alex Friedman (a former women's health founder herself, of LOLA - mylola.com) for inviting me! You can watch the event here: https://lnkd.in/e6j5P8wf