Alex Wang

🧩 One thing we've noticed with #VentureIQ technology is how well it can distill and communicate complex technical material 🧩 Whether it's a #deeptech venture, a novel #AI application, or even a patent submission, we can quickly distill the business and strategic implications for investors...and sometimes even the founders/PIs themselves! 🤯 Based on our work so far, the tech can handle a wide array of research areas and technological sectors -- anything from blockchain algorithms to vaccine development. It handles the nuance of the field, the specific terminology, and extracts the key concepts which matter for venture-building. 🤓 To demonstrate, I took a patent I helped write with Eric Laber on reinforcement learning. I ran it through #Ventureiq to build a commercial assessment (key differentiators, target markets). Then for fun I had #NotebookLM make a podcast out of it. I've uploaded the result it here (DM me if you'd like the actual report): https://lnkd.in/eiTejsny This is more than just automation or streamlining operations - it's about unlocking clarity and insight when it was previously unattainable, and the ability to do it over and over again no matter the sector or vertical. Interested in more info? DM me so we can chat.

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🌟 7 Crucial Elements for Scaling Startups to Successful Exits 🌟 Reflecting on my recent experience at the OPEN Silicon Valley Forum in Santa Clara, some of us engaged in a deep discussion on what repeatedly drives startups from inception to successful exits. Our collective experience pointed to these seven essential elements: 1️⃣ Timing is Everything: Ensure the market and technology are ready for your solution. Being too early or too late can hinder success. 2️⃣ Align with Your "Why": Success requires internal motivation. Knowing your “why” keeps you resilient and purpose-driven. 3️⃣ Master the Problem, Not Just the Product: Deep understanding of the problem is far more critical than focusing solely on a product or idea. 4️⃣ Define Culture from the Start: The first five hires set the tone. Invest in "A" players who embody the culture you envision. 5️⃣ Obsess Over User Experience: A relentless focus on user experience can make or break your product’s adoption. 6️⃣ Build for Scale from Day One: Architecting for growth is not optional—it’s essential for long-term success. 7️⃣ Map Out Your Go-to-Market Strategy Early: Before building, have a clear thesis on how to generate revenue and achieve product-market fit. These principles are tried and true across multiple industries. If you’re launching a startup or scaling a business, how do these resonate with your experience? What would you add to the list? #startups #entrepreneurship #growth #scaling #productmarketfit #OPENsiliconvalley #innovation #founders Tashfeen Suleman Amer Haider Umair Khan Junaid Qurashi Wardah Inam

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   AI System Developed to Identify Pathology in Tissues Engineers at Washington State University have developed an AI tool that uses images of human and animal tissue to detect abnormalities faster and more accurately than people. The AI algorithm was trained using images from past studies that involved kidney, testes, ovarian, prostate, breast and lymph node abnormalities. The new model detected disease in minutes—current processes take humans several hours and require specialized teams to check each other’s work. It was also found to be more accurate, sometimes detecting instances that humans had missed. The engineers designed the system to handle the processing load of the high-resolution gigapixel images by breaking them down into smaller tiles but still retaining the overall context of the tissue sample—akin to the zoom feature on a microscope or phone camera. Aside from getting diagnostic results more accurately and quickly, the new system also shows promise in epigenetics (the study of molecular processes that change gene behavior without changing underlying DNA). Epigenetic researchers can perform analyses and get results that used to take a year or more in just a couple of weeks. 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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Reimagining Healthcare Workforce Platfforms: Turning Capital Into Labor The future isn’t just about filling shifts. It’s about scaling labor intelligently, driving better outcomes for systems, staff, and patients alike. Andreessen Horowitz and Alastair (Alex) Rampell reinforced this Vision in a recent post and it applies to the next phase of healthcare workforce evolution. Healthcare workforce marketplaces plus AI are at the tipping point of transformation, evolving into systems of record that don’t just manage labor—they optimize it. Much like EHRs centralized patient care data, these marketplaces can centralize workforce operations, aligning talent supply with clinical demand. But there’s a bigger opportunity here: turning capital into labor. Here’s what I mean. Historically, industries (including healthcare) have focused on enterprise computing tasks—streamlining data entry, compliance, and back-office functions. While valuable, this approach often stops short of transforming the real-world, repetitive processes that make up the bulk of work in healthcare. Think beyond enterprise software. The next frontier lies in leveraging embodied AI and workforce marketplaces to automate and enhance labor-driven processes, transforming capital investments into productive labor outputs. For healthcare, this means turning staffing costs into scalable, dynamic systems that deliver value far beyond filling shifts: 1. Dynamic Labor Matching: Capital invested in marketplace platforms enables real-time matching of labor supply with patient demand, replacing outdated scheduling models with predictive, automated systems. 2. Workflow Automation: From credentialing to compliance and shift bidding, embodied AI can streamline traditionally manual tasks, freeing human resources for higher-value work. 3. Labor as a Strategic Asset: Workforce marketplaces shift the focus from static staffing budgets to proactive labor deployment, ensuring that every dollar invested in labor drives outcomes and efficiency. It is about the billions of repetitive, planned tasks that AI can improve. In healthcare, that means automating everything from staffing logistics to clinical task assignments, creating a horizontal system of engagement for labor (think Zendesk) that integrates seamlessly with vertical, workflow-specific platforms (think Toast for staffing operations). The result? Hundreds of billions in untapped market potential—and a healthcare workforce model that transforms how care is delivered. By turning capital into labor through smarter marketplaces and automation, we don’t just solve staffing challenges; we redefine what’s possible in healthcare operations and ShiftMed is leading the way with health systems moving beyond tired models. #capitalintolabor #systemsofrecord #healthworkforce #aiworkforce #healthsystems #hospitals #cno #hospitalceo #healthcareinnovation

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Excited for this one. Congrats to Alex Cohen and Hello Patient on their seed round announcement. Hello Patient stands to change the communication paradigm between patients and providers forever. Their generative AI call agent technology is tackling the tremendous admin burden of patient facing comms (scheduling, follow ups, referrals, prescription refills, etc). Massive opportunity and we think Alex and his team are expertly positioned to become market leaders. Max Ventures is thrilled to co-lead the seed round with 8VC and Bling Capital A great quote below from Alex highlighting the concept of "service as a software". Healthcare is a heavily service oriented industry - so the opportunity for step change is even more profound. The startup's approach is part of a paradigm shift where AI companies are offering service as software. "I'm a big believer that the right way to do this is through a managed services business. We're not building SaaS. I believe we can do this services as software where what was traditionally a services business now has software margins because I don't have to go employ a whole bunch of people to do the services under the hood," Cohen noted. https://lnkd.in/ehNN2AmW

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Join C10 Labs and their AI Venture Studio for a roundtable discussion on building AI-first ventures. This is an opportunity to meet founders from the 1st cohort, network with other applicants from the 2nd cohort, and connect with early-stage entrepreneurs in the AI community. Don't miss out on the chance to learn from the experts and build your own AI venture. Register now! #AI #entrepreneurship #C10Labs #CIC

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Intersection of AI and humanoid robotics presents one of the biggest opportunities for societal scale impact Perception, Sensors, and LLMs are merging. Looking out for break out ventures working at this intersection. ! #EmbodiedAI https://lnkd.in/emK-nVNx

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This is just incredible. Neal Ghosh's demonstration of how #VentureIQ takes deeply technical and complicated content across a range of industrial use cases and ages/stages through an AI-generated conversational podcast (a la #notebookLM) is really mind-blowing. Check out his post, below, and if you haven't seen VentureIQ, yet, let's get you set up to learn more. You can visit VentureIQ.ai or DM any of us over here to book a demo!

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Unique role in a unique company! *Board Chair position* for one of the leading teams in generative machine learning committed to designing proteins - https://www.dreamfold.ai/ If that's you or someone you know - please reach out! About the Company: * DreamFold’s mission is to find treatments for severe, life-threatening diseases.  * DreamFold originated from the labs of renowned AI experts Yoshua Bengio (Turing Award winner) and Michael Bronstein (co-founder & DeepMind professor at Oxford).  * DreamFold has established a strong publication record: FoldFlow and  FoldFlow-2 are state-of-the-art models for protein structure design.  * With initial funding from top-tier deep tech investors, DreamFold is now preparing for a funding round it aims to close in Q3 2025. Objective: Work closely with the founding team and investors to help position DreamFold as a leading company in generative protein design. Bring expertise, insight, and capabilities to build a biotech company with an innovative modality and platform. Year 1: Prepare DreamFold for fundraising by supporting the CEO and team in fine-tuning the value proposition.  Year 2: Complete the Series A funding round to help scale DreamFold and establish two or more significant partnerships. In addition to the usual responsibilities of a Chair of the Board, the candidate will:  * Work with the founding team and investors to establish and articulate a clear, investable vision, strategic roadmap, and plan for sustainable growth.  * Take a leading role in promoting DreamFold’s assets, people, and technologies to the stakeholder community (e.g., biopharma, investors).  * Help develop the skills and competency base by mentoring and recruiting the initial advisory board. Attributes: The founding DreamFold team and investors are ambitious and strongly believe they can contribute to developing new treatments. Chair candidates should possess the following attributes:  * Ideally, the candidate has been a founder of a biotech company that scaled through multiple rounds of funding and deployed innovative technologies in biologics or novel advanced modalities to the clinic.  * Has personally led a company through value-enhancing milestones and returned value to shareholders through a meaningful liquidity event.  * Enthusiastic about the potential of generative algorithms in protein/drug design and willing to collaborate closely with the technical team.  * Able to commit to one day a week initially. #ai #genai #board #recruiting #biotech #pharma

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118 VCs (one hundred eighteen!) are gathering in San Diego next week - to meet with 30 SD startups. But it's so MUCH bigger than just those 30 co's. It brings VCs back - when they see quality companies. It helps those who are next-in-line and adjacent. It enables us to send deal flow all year 'round. It attracts talent and other companies. It inspires entrepreneurship. Connect is working for SD. Together, we're building the best damn innovation ecosystem on the planet. Year over year. Five.Ten.Thirty.

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Is Epic the Apple of electronic health records? You can see some similarities: - dominance among a premier market segment - a "walled garden" style ecosystem with strong control over third-party plugin development - occupies a strategic and brand position focused on user data privacy HTD Health's Interoperability and Data Liquidity Practice Lead Brendan Keeler was quoted today in POLITICO on feisty dispute within the world of health data exchanges. Brendan Keeler, interoperability practice lead at HTD Health, said in the bigger picture, it doesn’t matter whether Epic, Particle and Intregritort are right or wrong. As long as data exchange is limited to treatment but workarounds are available, he said, people will use the workarounds to achieve business goals. “It’s so lucrative to do so today,” Keeler said. Under TEFCA, organizations that sign a data-sharing agreement and adopt the necessary infrastructure can become qualified networks permitted to share patient health data. Keeler said that TEFCA, which is run by the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s nonprofit partner, the Sequoia Project, is supposed to have stronger governance than Carequality and create a unified network pushing data to organizations in addition to groups pulling it from others. Full article here (warning paywall): https://lnkd.in/gkrQK6Fm

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Excited to announce Frist Cressey Ventures' investment in Qualified Health and privileged to partner w/ SignalFire, Healthier Capital, Town Hall Ventures and others!   Healthcare costs are increasing at a faster rate than ever before, with the US spending nearly twice as other wealthy countries and still ranking bottom in outcomes. It's a story you've all heard - - US healthcare is known for astronomical inefficiencies, waste, workforce supply constraints, fragmented access, appalling patient experiences, and driving patients and businesses into debt.   Yes these problems present opportunities. But opportunities are limited to the system's appetite for change, desire and incentive to try something new and the innovation available. At FCV we believe we've hit the trifecta with Generative AI. Generative AI has given us truly transformational tools in the toolkit and the healthcare ecosystem is demanding to absorb its benefits. This perfect collision of supply and demand means healthcare is poised for big change.   Generative AI is everywhere, it's buzzy, it dangles hope and opportunity. But many things need to be true for the Gen AI transformation in healthcare to take hold, such as but not limited to:   💡 Patient lives and data need to remain safe: We believe in a highly regulated and human life-touching sector such as healthcare we must ensure Gen AI can drive to unrivalled savings and improvements in the quality of care WHILE not putting patient lives or data at risk.   💡 Systems need to own their utilization of Gen AI: We believe systems will use some hybrid of external partners and homegrown solutions but importantly will want full control of data provisioning and utilization as well as the ability to solve an unlimited number of nuanced issues and not cookie cutter algorithms.   💡 Costs need to be looked at on an enterprise level: We believe the speed of innovation in Gen AI means costs will continue decreasing dramatically but at an enterprise level this will still not be a small detail. Systems will want the ability to understand costs and delegate as needed for the outcomes desired at the organizational level.   Enter Qualified.   We knew when we met Justin Norden, MD, MBA, MPhil and team we were standing in front of changemakers. These individuals have lived and breathed the true application and implementation of Generative AI far before we were asking ChatGPT to write our emails. In fact, if you’ve ever driven in a Waymo you’ve benefited from past products this team has built.   Qualified Health is on a mission to enforce governance in Gen AI, allow systems to rapidly build for their needs, monitor and make decisions for all GenAI (homegrown and external) and accelerate the value the sector can glean from these new technologies.   Huge shout out to William T., Tommaso Auerbach and Jamie Kuntz for their hard work!

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It's been 100 years since Hans Berger made the first EEG recording of the brain, but we still don't fully understand what those brainwaves are telling us. That's why I was so excited to talk with Dimitris Fotis Sakellariou and Kris Pahuja, the co-founders of Piramidal (YC W24), a Y Combinator company building an AI model to unlock the secrets of brainwaves. Dimitris, a neuroscientist with a PhD, and Kris, a tech executive, have a unique story. They've combined their expertise to turn their groundbreaking idea into a thriving startup. On this episode of Lobster Talks - Y Combinator Secrets, we talked about Piramidal's journey, including: - The challenges of building a groundbreaking AI model for brainwaves. - The importance of data access and the ethical considerations surrounding this sensitive technology. - How Y Combinator has accelerated their growth. - Their ambitious vision for the future of brainwave AI, including expanding beyond EEG to create personalized AI solutions. Listen to the full episode to learn about Piramidal's mission and their vision for a future where AI can unlock the secrets of the human brain: Listen to the full episode now: https://lnkd.in/eaJuUZ-Q #ycombinator #venturecapital #investing #startup #growth #neuroscience #ai #artificialintelligence #brainwaves #lobstercapital #piramidal

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AI is revolutionizing healthcare, and SoftBank Group Corp.'s latest move proves it. The tech giant's joint venture with Tempus in Japan aims to tackle cancer using AI-powered personalized medicine. SB Tempus plans to analyze genomic and clinical data to provide tailored treatment suggestions. What's striking is that only 1% of Japanese patients have had genomic testing, compared to 30% in the US. I think this venture could dramatically improve access to cutting-edge care. Masayoshi Son's vision of AI being 10,000 times smarter than humans in a decade might sound far-fetched, but initiatives like this show real-world applications. It's not just about cancer either they're eyeing expansion into neuropsychology, radiology, and cardiology. I'm cautiously optimistic about AI in healthcare. While it promises groundbreaking advancements, we must ensure patient privacy and ethical use of data. If SB Tempus can navigate these challenges, it could be a game changer for personalized medicine in Japan and beyond.

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Friends, Q2 was a quarter of progress and learning for us at HawkTower, where we invest in early-stage startups applying breakthrough computing technologies to maximize California's natural resource markets. Our focus is on technology-enabled interventions (e.g., AI-enabled geospatial radars for lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream) for critical, market-level imperatives (e.g., disaster prevention) that can drive rapid commercial adoption (e.g., placed on every recycling truck in the world). Our current investment priorities are: - Agricultural productivity and efficiency - Biomanufacturing - Labor and mobility automation - Waste stream optimization and decarbonization - Disaster prevention and management Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to: Milestones and Investments: - In late April, we officially launched our fund, filing with the SEC. Yay. - By June, we completed our first fund close ahead of schedule, with backing from family offices, foundations, high-net-worth individuals, and organizations aligned with California's future. - Our portfolio now includes three early-stage investments (Farm-ng, Agriful Software, and Nexstera Tech). Strategic Partnerships: - We believe that startups operating closer to their customers and resources, especially in agriculture and biomanufacturing, have a strategic advantage. For instance, the Salinas Valley, a major agricultural hub, is less than an hour from Silicon Valley and serves as a center of thought leadership in the convergence of agriculture and AI (from Western Growers, Taylor Farms, and others). - Similarly, the North San Joaquin Valley is emerging as a biotech and agtech innovation hub, and we are proud to support BEAM Circular, a startup hub for the circular bioeconomy. Key Relationships: - Karen Warner, CEO of BEAM Circular, joined HawkTower as a strategic advisor. - Jackie Cruz, Ed. D. Cruz, Hartnell College’s VP of Advancement, advises on Salinas Valley and workforce development. - Ben Palone from Western Growers, with his technical background in agriculture, became a trusted advisor. - Matthew Hoffman from Driscoll's Global R&D team provides insights on global agriculture, product positioning, and investment strategy. - We collaborated with Monterey Bay DART for workforce development and automation in agtech. - Dominic Milano and the Milano Technical Group from Merced collaborated on key initiatives and advised us on investments. - HawkTower is participating in Santa Cruz Works's accelerator cohort as a mentor and advisor. Thank you Doug Erickson. - We published an overview of entrepreneurship across the UC system with input from across the University of California system. Moving into the fall, we remain deeply committed to supporting founders shaping California's future natural resource markets. Stay tuned and be in touch! : ) Db

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🚀 Excited to partner with Noah Labs adesso ventures invests in the €3M round, led by Nina Capital and joined by DHZB Foundation as well as great angels. Current remote patient monitoring solutions often fall short, resulting in poor experiences for both patients and doctors due to inconsistent devices and software. Noah Labs aims to revolutionize this space with a patient-centric approach. Why we invested: 🫀 Team: The Noah Labs team is exceptionally strong, with deep connections to the medical field. Oliver brings invaluable founder experience from a previous MedTech venture. Marcus, the technical mind behind the AI-based voice analysis, has a research background at Harvard Medical School. Leonhard, with his medical expertise, has worked as a cardiovascular doctor and was previously head of medical at an RPM startup. 🎯 GTM: The team has developed an impressive GTM strategy and is executing it with precision. Monitoring of heart failure can be reimbursed through insurances in Germany, making it the optimal entry point for Noah Labs. Nevertheless, other diseases are already in demand and can easily be covered. 🏁 Vision: Besides using the existing RPM-tools such as ECGs and blood pressure monitors, Noah Labs follows a big vision of introducing voice-based detections of diseases using AI. Currently, several studies for their voice-based detection of heart failure are ongoing - among them a large study with reputable Mayo Clinic. This will set them apart from its competitors and create a unique value proposition. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dkR6iCWU

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💡 When we started Caresyntax over a decade ago, AI wasn’t the hot topic it is today. But even back then, we believed in its transformative potential. AI can be just a buzzword, or a powerful tool to drive measurable change in patient care. Fast forward to now, AI-focused healthcare companies now command 2-5x higher valuations than their non-AI counterparts, with some reaching EV/ARR multiples of 30-50x. These numbers show that beyond the hype, there are signals of the industry’s interest in embracing AI-driven solutions that deliver results. These innovations matter because healthcare’s $1 trillion administrative burden and growing labor shortages demand smarter, scalable solutions. Early benchmarks show that these AI-driven models are scaling 2-3x faster than traditional SaaS, with sales cycles shrinking to less than 6 months, compared to the typical 12-18 months in healthcare. But let’s not forget: AI is only as valuable as the outcomes it delivers. Whether it’s automating medical scribing, enabling back-office efficiency, or delivering real-time surgical insights, the goal remains the same: empowering healthcare teams and enhancing patient care. After all, it’s not about having AI in your name; it’s about the results you deliver. 🌐 The digital age is here - let’s make it count! #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareInnovation #FutureOfHealth #DataDrivenCare

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Some VC investors believe that brick and mortar - referring to a physical presence of some kind - should be avoided at all costs. Yet, the track record of clinic and hybrid care businesses in health care indicates otherwise. ==> One Medical (sold for $3.9 billion to Amazon), Oak Street (bought by CVS for $10.6 billion), Lifestance (IPO at $7.5 billion market cap), and PE-backed Premise Health (acquired by OMERS Private Equity for $1.1 billion) If a clinic is indicated as the optimal way to deliver care for that patient population, there are creative ways to build and operate them. Full article below with advice and strategies on how to build and operate hybrid clinics from my teammate Anarghya Vardhana from Maveron, Amir Dan Rubin from OneMedical Group, Steven Eidelman from Modern Animal and more!

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Language is powerful--but the first way we interact with and learn about the physical world is through spatial intelligence. Building AI capabilities that enable us to perceive, reason and create in a truly 3D world requires a team that is out of this world. Enter World Labs. Martin Casado and I are thrilled to partner with the brilliant and tireless Fei-Fei Li, Justin Johnson, Christoph Lassner and Ben Mildenhall as they expand the aperture of AI to real and virtual 3D worlds. We've only scratched the surface of what's possible with AI. The chance to back the pioneers of ImageNet, NeRF, Style Transfer, and Gaussian Splats while they tackle spatial intelligence to create generative worlds is why I joined Andreessen Horowitz.

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