Raising Health

What if we stopped trying to cure disease and started preventing it instead? In this episode, Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and a cardiologist, scientist, and author, joins a16z general partner Vijay Pande to unpack the future of aging, prevention, and precision health—as explored in Eric's new book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity.

Together, they discuss AI-dri...

Arif Nathoo, cofounder and CEO of Komodo Health, joins Jorge Conde and Jay Rughani to explore the transformative potential of healthcare data in reshaping biotech and healthcare innovation. Arif reflects on a decade-long journey of unlocking the power of fragmented healthcare data, delving into Komodo Health’s “full-stack thesis” — a strategy that combines rich datasets, advanced analytics, and AI to enable life sciences companies,...

Join a16z general partners Marc Andreessen, Julie Yoo, and Vijay Pande for an incisive exploration of what's driving—and stalling—transformation in healthcare. With the industry now consuming nearly 20% of U.S. GDP yet delivering poor outcomes relative to other developed countries, is technology the remedy or a red herring?

This episode, cross-posted with the a16z podcast, dissects the inertia holding healthcare back, from regulator...

Seth Hain, SVP of R&D at Epic, joins a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore technology in healthcare. Reflecting on over two decades of industry shifts, Seth shares how Epic has transitioned from enabling integrated systems within health systems to driving cross-ecosystem collaboration and rapid innovations like generative AI.

They also discuss orchestration of patient care across diverse settings, the transformative...

Elliot Cohen, cofounder of PillPack, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner. Together, they discuss Elliot's experience designing and building a consumer-first pharmacy alongside TJ Parker.

Elliot's journey with PillPack began when he noticed his father struggling with a mail-order pharmacy that couldn’t get the simplest thing right: the correct version of a pill.

Elliot shares the nitty-gritty of building a consumer-cent...

In this episode, Slingshot AI cofounders Daniel Cahn and Neil Parikh join a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore how their mission to transform mental health care with AI took shape. Drawing from their unique journeys—Daniel as the son of a psychologist and Neil as a former medical student-turned-entrepreneur—they discuss the challenges and opportunities of building AI models to model psychological processes and how...

Dr. Muthu Alagappan, MD, founder and CEO of Counsel Health, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to dive deep into the company's vision for revolutionizing healthcare through AI-powered asynchronous care. Together, they unpack how Counsel enables on-demand access to real doctors for instant medical guidance, lessening patient reliance on Google and alleviating system inefficiencies and physician burn-out. Dr. Alagapp...

Ankit Jain, CEO and cofounder of Infinitus Systems, Inc, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to discuss Infinitus's work in solving one of healthcare's most pressing challenges: workforce shortages. Leveraging LLMs and AI voice agents, Infinitus automates repetitive tasks, such as benefits verification and prior authorization, freeing up human talent for higher-value roles. Ankit reflects on the company’s journey—fr...

Alexander Saint-Amand, cofounder and CEO of Topography, reflects on his journey from leading Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), a pioneer in expert networks, to tackling systemic barriers in clinical trials at his current company, Topography. Inspired by personal experiences, Alexander’s mission centers on democratizing access to clinical research by transforming community-based practices into thriving hubs for trials. Alongside a16z Bio ...

Rajaie Batniji, MD, PhD, Afia Asamoah, JD, and Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, cofounders of Waymark, join Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to discuss their transformative approach to Medicaid care delivery. This episode dives into their rising risk signal prediction framework, where cutting-edge machine learning predicts patient needs and enables community-based care teams to reduce preventable ER visits and imp...

Hippocratic AI cofounder and CEO Munjal Shah joins a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo to explore the incredible potential of generative AI in transforming healthcare delivery. Together, they discuss the emerging "voice renaissance" in healthcare, the nuances of designing safe and empathetic AI interactions, and how Hippocratic AI is addressing safety concerns with innovations like multi-LLM architecture and rigorous traini...

Jeff Margolis, founder of TriZetto, joins Julie Yoo, a16z Bio + Health general partner, to share the journey of building an iconic company in healthcare infrastructure. From the early days of managed care to creating a three-pronged platform uniting computing power, software, and data analytics, Jeff reflects on TriZetto’s groundbreaking model that reshaped payer-provider transactions and set industry standards. Together, they also...

In this episode, Matt Wilsey joins Jorge Conde to share the profound personal story of his daughter Grace's diagnosis with NGLY1 deficiency and how it catalyzed his journey to founding a biotech startup, Grace Science, aimed at developing a cure for his daughter’s condition.

Matt emphasizes the importance of strategic partnerships, like his collaboration with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, and sheds light on the search for gene th...

Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi joins Jorge Conde to unravel the concept of bioorthogonal chemistry. 

Carolyn traces her pioneering path from early studies in carbohydrate chemistry to how her lab developed the revolutionary ability to manipulate chemical reactions inside the human body. 

Together, they highlight the intersection of cutting-edge academic research and the challenges of translating discoveries into market-ready solutio...

In this episode, a16z partners Jorge Conde and Jay Rughani sit down with Sajith Wickramasekara, CEO and cofounder of Benchling, to unpack the evolution of Benchling from idea to transformative software platform. Saji discusses his journey from software engineer to building Benchling and digitizing biotech workflows for industry giants like Sanofi. Together, they also talk about the increasing complexity of biology, the expanding ro...

Join healthcare expert Dan Rosenthal and a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo in a deep dive into the evolution of provider networks and their strategic importance in the health insurance ecosystem. 

Dan discusses how networks are built, managed, and optimized for both cost and quality—including the complexities of payor-provider contracts, the future impact of transparency laws, and opportunities for digital health startups ...

Chris Ellis, CEO and Adam Stevenson, president, both cofounders of Thatch, join Julie Yoo and Jay Rughani of a16z Bio + Health.

In early 2020, a new policy called ICHRA altered the insurance market, which had remained largely unchanged for decades. As you’ll hear in the episode, it’s been slow to catch on — but the cofounders of Thatch think it’s a game changer. Together, they discuss these key takeaways:

Consumers as a growing class...

Jonathan Lim is the CEO of Erasca, but his career path took him on a fascinating journey from practicing as a surgeon to leading life science companies. In a recent conversation, Lim shared valuable insights about his transition to the biotech world, his leadership experiences, and the lessons he's learned while founding and guiding organizations through high-stakes decision making. 

Reflecting on a personal trip to the Galapagos Is...

In this episode, Vijay Pande and Daisy Wolf of a16z Bio + Health join a16z Podcast host Steph Smith to make a provocative case for why technologists—not just medical professionals—are key to reinventing healthcare. They argue that to transform a sector representing 20% of U.S. GDP, innovation must move beyond curing diseases toward tackling healthcare’s broken systems. 

By likening the healthcare industry to a logistics challenge, V...