Jay Z.

TheFounderVC has a truly compelling team - entrepreneurs and operators that have scaled from 0-1 and to exits across a variety of markets - some of whom are fellow classmates. They have built strong founder and VC networks over the last 25 years in tech and are now leveraging that access and experience on behalf of their portfolio. It clearly resonates with founders, as their early portfolio is truly compelling.

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I’m so proud that Hyphen Capital has been a backer of Tim Hwang and Jonathan Chen since the beginning of Nitra. They had big ambitions to modernize the archaic back office of healthcare practices from fax machines to AI. It’s been amazing to see their growth from processing zero transactions to over a billion dollars and they’re just getting started.

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Former Drawbridge Health CEO Launches Manifold Health AI at JPM to Build the First Digital Health Index Twin for Chronic Disease. SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Manifold Health AI today announced its launch at JPM Healthcare Week and the GMT MedTech Symposium, unveiling a first-to-market platform that combines a novel, precision-designed blood test with an AI-driven Digital Health Index Twin to translate biological data into financial risk intelligence for healthcare infrastructure. The announcement was delivered by Manifold's Founder and CEO, Jerome Scelza. This will fundamentally change health risk management, improve health outcomes, and make healthcare affordable again. For the complete press release: https://lnkd.in/e9NsnRiT Message me if you would like to know more!

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Premiering now on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I have a conversation with the co founder and CEO of Bonfire Analytics Vinay Nagaraj! One great moment was when Vinay says that while business moves at the speed of trust, so does sales. I could not agree more. It requires a huge level of authenticity, being able to connect with a person, as a person. Building deeper relationships. There is a lot to learn on this weeks episode. Vinay shares his journey from biomedical engineering to healthcare sales, discussing the challenges and successes he faced while scaling revenue at Roundtrip. He emphasizes the importance of authentic relationships in sales, the role of data in healthcare, and the key traits he looks for in salespeople. Vinay also discusses the inspiration behind Bonfire Analytics, its mission to accelerate healthcare technology adoption, and the common mistakes healthcare companies make in sales. He provides insights into market opportunities, the importance of making data actionable, and offers advice for founders seeking funding. I always love asking my guests the 3 things they look for when hiring for sales roles, Vinay shares three traits he likes to seek out: 1. Hunger to LEARN, someone always focusing on learning, growing, improving themselves personally, and professionally. 2. Taking Initiative- startups are all the hats, building the plane while you're flying it. So if you see a process that needs fixing, fix it. 3. Strong Communicators- communications that is clear, direct, and easy to understand. I would add radical transparency to this list, but I did only give him 3 traits to distill. Check in to learn if you're a vitamin, or a pain killer, emerging markets, and of course all about Bonfire's impact, and goals, and more! Check out our key takeaways: 🎯 Salespeople should focus on understanding customer pain points to be effective. 📊 Bonfire Analytics aims to provide actionable insights to healthcare companies to improve sales efficiency. 🌍 Vinay's global upbringing fostered adaptability and resilience, essential traits for a startup founder. 🏥 Healthcare companies often make the mistake of relying too heavily on large health systems for sales. 🔑 Data must be actionable; Bonfire helps clients leverage data effectively for their sales strategies. Check it all out here: https://lnkd.in/dnvucCrF

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Investors from Breyer Capital, MBX Capital, and Mercury just dropped some wisdom: Three focus zones: - Upstream drivers of health outcomes - AI-powered health tech that actually improves care - Biotech/diagnostics/therapeutics tools - Specialized AI applications outperform generic platforms and address specific healthcare problems - Precision medicine is the name of the game. Funders want startups at the intersection of AI and personalized care. Bonus insight from Ben Kromnick at Mercury: He’s building with big clinical datasets and EHR-first strategies. Because if your AI can’t handle real-world mess, it’s useless. Bottom line: Investors aren’t just throwing money at flashy tech; they're backing startups with surgical precision: focused use-cases that improve care, data infrastructure that scales, and deep science to match. If you're launching in the health tech sector, pick your lane and own it. #Healthcare #Startups #AI

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Check out the latest from Limbic - their breakthrough study in Nature Portfolio, shows how Limbic turns frontier language models into behavioral health specialists. In their pre-registered, double-blind randomized trial they showed that: 1️⃣ Adding the Limbic Layer improves AI-led therapy performance by 43% 2️⃣ Clinicians preferred Limbic over general-purpose LLMs 83% of the time 3️⃣ 74% of Limbic's AI sessions ranked among the top 10% of therapists 4️⃣ Patients rate the Limbic experience as comparable to clinician-led sessions Amazing stuff from Ross Harper and Sebastiaan de Vries - delighted to have them in the Entrepreneurs First portfolio.

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AI and Health Tech in Focus   AI Tool Used to Help Predict Postpartum Depression Researchers at Harvard University’s Massachusetts General Hospital have developed an AI tool that helps predict the risk of postpartum depression (PPD) before discharge from the hospital. Approximately 15% of women suffer from PPD which is responsible for suicide and self-harm and about 10% of all pregnancy related deaths. The researchers trained the algorithm based on about 29,000 mothers using electronic health records data including medical history, medication data, age, race, ethnicity, education, marital status, insurance type, number of births, mode of delivery, number of prenatal visits, length of delivery stay as well as an existing but more modest predictability score for PPD called EPDS. Incorporating this data resulted in an ability to predict more than three times the baseline risk of PPD. Using this model can help care teams identify those at risk for PPD and provide resources and support services such as referral to social workers, psychotherapy, psychiatry or medical therapy before they have an impact on the mother, child and their families. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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