The Healthtech VC

A computer scientist fascinated by the genetic code and its application to rare disease, Rudy Benfredj moved into healthtech and cofounded Mendelian. Mendelscan, their core technology helps identify patients at risk of developing a rare disease early. We touch on the patient’s diagnostic odyssey on their way to being diagnosed with a rare disease, the stats around rare diseases and how being diagnosed earlier can help patient lives. Previously siloed into multiple niches, rare diseases are now a major field with rapidly evolving rare disease patient communities and large research funding allocations. 

I used to a be a radiologist in the NHS and rare diseases are an interest to me too. From Fabry’s disease to Tuberous Sclerosis and Lymphangioleimyomatosis, radiologists are trained over years to seek out multi-system patterns of these rare diseases. But how if an algorithm could do this at the level of the electronic patient record? This is a really fascinating dive into the world of rare diseases. I hope you enjoy this episode.

Ultra-marathoner, ice-swimmer and surfer Hélène Guillame founded Wild.AI to help women to train, eat and recover across all stages of their menstrual cycle and through all stages of life. A former quant in a Hedge fund and a data scientist, Hélène is bringing finance, data and AI skills to healthtech. In this podcast, we discuss how women are not represented equally in sports and scientific research. We touch on how women and not small men and how Wild.AI were the first company to spearhead research into the impact of covid19 vaccines on women’s menstrual cycles.  We hear how Hélène famously pitched on Dragon’s Den (UK equivalent of shark tank) and turned down 2 investment offers from the dragons. Hélène is an incredible female founder and I’m a proud angel investor in Wild.AI.

This week’s guest is Mimi Billing, a Swedish healthtech journalist, covering pan-European Healthtech for Sifted, a Financial Times backed media outlet. We discuss the state of European healthtech, how it differs across the Nordics, Germany and the UK and the important role that journalists play in the healthtech ecosystem. We also touch on cultural differences across Europe, how that plays into go to market strategies and what healthtech founders should think about before pitching their startup to a journalist.

Get in touch with Mimi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimibilling/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

This week’s guest is Emil Larsson, a global executive search specialist in the medical imaging space. Emil regularly places talent into many post series A startups and as I’ve got to know him, I’ve always been struck by how much insider knowledge he has of the whole medical imaging space. As global medical imaging AI landscapes develops and startups become scaleups, specialist recruiters are a key part of this bustling ecosystem. CM Medical and other specialist recruiters are moving beyond ‘just’ hiring and now provide a whole suite of market intelligence and market insights to their clients. Emil and I touch upon startup culture, how to get senior hires from big corporates, personality tests for potential hires, the skills that healthtech startups are looking for and how diversity of skills is just as important as gender-based diversity in the startup world.

Get in touch with Emil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emil-larsson-75a46277/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

This week’s guest is Victoria Engelhardt, Founder of Keleya, an app that supports pregnant women in their journey to being new parents. Keleya is the latest addition to the Crista Galli Ventures portfolio. The Keleya app has so far been downloaded over 200,000 times and Victoria has been the Apple face of Germany 2020, recently being interviewed by Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Victoria touches on her career from Rocket Internet in Berlin to management consulting at Boston Consulting Group to founding Keleya. Now employing 18 people based in Germany, Keleya is building an ecosystem by not only bringing pregnant women online but also their midwives online. Victoria touches on working with health insurers, the challenges of bringing midwives online, Germany’s new DIGA digital health policy and advice for founders on resilience and hiring.

Get in touch with Victoria: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-engelhardt-00a43365/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

This week’s guest is Dr Ben Evans, Managing Partner at InHealth Ventures. InHealth Ventures is an early stage healthtech fund investing at seed and series A, both in the US and Europe. Ben discusses his career from medicine to venture capital via management consulting at McKinsey, a stint at a startup and being an operations manager in the NHS. He also touches on what makes a successful founding team, go to market strategies in healthcare and the differences in early-stage innovation between the US and UK health systems. We also discuss how small healthtech startups can survive and walk alongside the big internet giants who are increasingly moving into the healthtech space.

Get in touch with Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-benedict-evans/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

This week’s guest is Stine Mølgaard Sørensen who is cofounder and COO of Radiobotics, an award-winning deep tech radiology AI startup based in Copenhagen in Denmark. As one of the newest companies in the Crista Galli Ventures portfolio, we are excited to have Stine on the show to share all things Radiobotics.  Stine discusses her background in global digital transformation and communication, how she exited a previous startup and just how important storytelling is to a startup. She also touches on the Nordic healthtech ecosystem, how Radiobotics have been successful in raising over £2m in grant funding, their experience on the US TMC accelerator and their plans for expansion starting with their recent incorporation in the US.

Get in touch with Stine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stinesorensen/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

Dr Neha Tanna is a VC Investment Partner at Social Starts and Joyance Partners. Neha has had a very diverse portfolio career, starting off in medicine as a GP before moving into pharmaceutical medicine and biotech investing and then onto entrepreneurship and VC via an MBA at London Business School.

Neha talks about why she joined Social Starts and Joyance Partners and discusses their really interesting investment thesis on health and happiness. She also touches on her experience of Venture Capital, how she wants to shape the investment world and provides tips for doctors looking to explore career options outside medicine.

Get in touch with Neha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehatanna/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

Haris Shuaib is the AI Transformation lead at the London AI Centre which is a hub of innovation in healthcare in the UK, recently receiving £16m in funding to scale up AI work in the NHS and being appointed a preferred partner for NVIDIA’s proposed £40m healthcare supercomputer. With a background in theoretical physics, Haris trained as a medical physicist prior to moving into a leadership role in AI in the NHS.

Haris discusses the variety of healthcare AI projects the London AI centre are running, how they select which areas to prioritise, the challenges of healthcare AI on the ground and how as a medical physicist, Haris is paving the way for clinician scientists to take a role in leadership in the rapidly developing AI scene in the NHS.

The lively chat also covers ethics and bias in healthcare AI, conflict resolution between AI and doctor, the role of patients in codesigning AI and whether there is a role for the doctor in the new information age where AI will play a central role.

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/

Pam Garside is one of the most well-connected people in UK healthcare. A healthcare management consultant with extensive trans-Atlantic experience, Pam manages a wide-ranging portfolio career. She is a fellow at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and a member of the investment committee of Cambridge Enterprise, the Tech Transfer component of Cambridge University.

Pam founded the Cambridge Health Network, a membership group of senior health leaders in the UK. A well-known, successful healthtech angel investor, Pam has a portfolio of 18 healthtech companies and she is on the board of Cambridge Angels, one of the UK’s most prestigious angel investor networks.

If you’re an entrepreneur, operator or investor, Pam’s podcast is packed with useful ideas and tips and knowledge gleaned from 30 years in healthcare in the US and UK.

Get in touch with Pam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pam-garside-9018b55/

Get in touch with Fiona: https://twitter.com/dr_fiona

Get in touch with Crista Galli Ventures: https://twitter.com/CristaGalliVC

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crista-galli-ventures/