Breaking into Finance

Emily Zhen is an investor at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the world's largest venture capital firms with $25+ billion in cumulative capital and over 500 active portfolio companies. Emily is on the Healthcare team focused on making early stage to growth investments in healthcare services and IT, biopharma, and medical devices companies.

Prior to joining NEA, Emily was a member of the healthcare investment banking team at Goldman Sachs in New York City, where she worked on M&A and equity and debt financing transactions. She has also worked at the U.S. Department of Treasury, PwC, and several digital health startups.

Emily graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania’s Vagelos Program in Life Sciences & Management, where she earned a B.S. in Finance from Wharton, a B.A. in Biology, and a certificate in healthcare policy as a Public Policy Research Scholar.

In our conversation, we discuss 1) Her advice to those interested in both medicine and business, 2) The decision points in her life from starting a company, getting a dual degree at Penn, working at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, and joining the venture capital industry, 3) Having an impact, 4) How to build a broad knowledge base in investing, and so much more!

One favorite quote: "Venture [capital] is super interesting because you get to learn something new every day, I truly mean that. You are always meeting with new founders who are mission driven, so dedicated to solving a problem that they're willing to take the leap to make it happen. Getting to invest in these companies, build them, and grow them to a place where not only are you helping that founder and their family achieve the dream they set out to have, but also making a huge impact to society on a broad basis, is really exciting."

Welcome to Breaking into Finance! Introducing your hosts, Aimun Malik and Paul Yun, and sharing what we hope to accomplish in our journey together.