My main man Simon Taylor released a nice analysis of the fintech companies in the YCombinator Winter 21 batch. Since imitation is the greatest form of flattery (his newsletter is legit the best fintech analysis you can read), let’s dive in on this cohort to look also at aspiring healthcare companies (36 in total).
You can check out the list here filtered down to the healthcare-specific companies. For the purposes of this post, we’ll abbreviate and/or exclude ones that I don’t have much to say about - (I love you, biotech and pharma, but I don’t know you):
Reshape Biotech - Robots instead of microbiologists. There’s an angle of something dystopian about increasingly white-collar jobs being replaced by robots.That said, having done menial work in a lab for a bit (interning in high school for some cardiologists at Penn), it is tedious as high hell and I am firmly for our grand robot microbiologists.
Pipe|bio - Antibody drug development. I know nothing of the competitive landscape, but the pipe hanging out in their name is a rare play and appealing to my HL7v2 past so I say fund them.
Kilobaser- “The Nespresso Machine for DNA” had me thinking the “add an extra shot of espresso / CBD / etc” is being taken to the extreme, but, perusing a bit more, an inexpensive DNA machine seems cool. €15,000 is like basically one NFT - would you rather have a GIF of a pixeled cat, or the ability to start spinning the fabric of life?.
Trinomics - Clinical trials SaaS for India. YC groups love to just take a good pre-existing idea and apply it to the unique circumstances and mega-TAM of our world’s most populous country.
Nuntius Therapeutics - Making DNA/RNA/CRISPR cell-specific. Way over my paygrade. The name is evocative of a Roman emperor and causing me to spontaneously conjugate in Latin.
Forcyte Biotechnologies- Drugs addressing how much your cells are squeezing. I, for one, didn’t know my cells were squeezing. The shit that biotech companies can focus on and raise absurd amounts is crazy. Let’s just throw darts against the wall and predict a $75 million Series A.
Entelexo Biotherapeutics - A new class of drugs to address incurable autoimmune diseases. Entelexo is one of those company names that is either a telecom in Abu Dhabi or a multinational pharmaceutical company. There’s no in-between. In any case, I’m supportive as I’m for new classes of drugs and curing the incurable. Full send.
LiliumX- Another antibodies platform. This must be the hot thing in biotech. Pipe has not only a better name but also (seemingly) a much more mature feature set. I think it’s sorta apples and oranges, though, as Pipe is more SaaS and this feels firmly bioprocess. As a semi-related aside, I was curious why they threw the X on the end - it turns out the name Lilium (which has a Devil May Cry boss vibe to it) is already taken by an unbelievably rad flying taxi company that’s about to SPAC:
Trestle Biotherapeutics - Bioengineered kidneys. This sounds incredible because kidney disease sucks and dialysis is expensive (1% of the federal budget goes to dialysis each year). So I’m into anything and everything we’re doing to help people there and reduce the need for dialysis.
With those 9 out of the way, let’s get to the semi-serious analysis. I’ll be categorizing these companies with the digital health categories from my post here, so check it out if you want to understand those distinctions better. I’ll also be including the patented and somewhat arbitrary Brendan Keeler Hot or Not Scale™, defined as the number of fire emojis equivalent to how interesting I find them.
Recover - Addiction treatment via telehealth
Type: Virtual first care / digital health provider organization
First thought: Virtual addiction treatment is getting increasingly crowded. WorkIt, Groups, Quit Genius, Monument, Pivot, Eleanor Health, Tempest, and Boulder Care are all similarly built and overlapping in the opioid, alcohol, and/or nicotine treatment space. In terms of disease-specific virtual care startups, I only have mental health surpassing it. Tough sledding ahead?
Second thought: Recover seems to tout the partnership with government and public health. Maybe that’s their differentiator
Third thought: It appears to be drchrono under the hood based on the patient portal, which is a solid choice for a digital health provider organization, as mentioned in my article here.
Fourth thought: No careers page or jobs I could find, so hard to predict hiring direction. So you’re betting on the McKinsey pedigree.
Rating: 🔥🔥
wOS - Virtual workout classes for LATAM
Type: Patient/consumer-facing application
First thought: Peleton et al have blown up in the pandemic. “Let’s do X in LATAM” is up there with “Let’s do X in India”, so seemingly viable.
Second thought: Free up until 100 minutes a month is fun
Third thought: What’s weird here is the pricing thereafter ($199 a month). Feature-wise, it seems more like budget Peleton (it only currently has prerecorded classes and nothing live) than Future (coaches), but is priced like the latter.
Fourth: Shakira is great workout music
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Rejoy Health - Virtual care for thyroid disorders
Type: Virtual first care / digital health provider organization
First thought: Typos bug the hell out of me and “Endocorniglist” is a doozy. There are other spelling and grammar mistakes on Y Combinator and the website.
Second thought: Thyroid care seems less busy than other diseases-specific niches, but there’s at least Paloma Health. Rejoy seems to be going for broader thyroid problems, though.
Third thought: I can’t get over the sloppiness. I’m supposed to regard this as the expert destination for my thyroid care, but these simple mistakes will undermine that. It might be good to source a technical writer for a bit.
Fourth thought: I like virtual first care companies, though, and think the space feels more open than most disease-oriented niches.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Zealth - Cancer RPM in India
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: RPM so hot right now
Second thought: India so hot right now
Third thought: Xealth homophone alert!
Fourth thought: Do the same industry tailwinds that we see making RPM so popular domestically apply in India? My guess is yes, but a deeper dive into Indian healthcare’s competitive landscape and regulatory policy is needed. A brief scan does show recent regulatory pushes around telemedicine services.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Biodock - AI for cell images
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Pentabytes of data, people. We’re talking scale that traditional measurements of information cannot even accommodate.
Second thought: It feels really, really easy to sign up and use, which seems to be appealing straight to the microbiologist.
Third thought: Sign-up kept bombing out for me, so perhaps not as easy as it seems (or demand is just too much)
Fourth thought: I feel like security details are light and notably missing HITRUST. Given the patient data that might be exchanged, it feels like that is or will be necessary as a business associate of the lab. It is fairly common with early-stage provider softwares to just claim compliance based on the inherent security of AWS and other tools in the stack for a bit, though. I wonder if they’ll address with some of that sweet a16z seed money.
Rating: 🔥🔥
Redcliffe Lifesciences - IVF clinics and associated DNA diagnostics in India
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: I’m getting serious Steve Buscemi vibes right now watching this company alongside the rest of the YC cohort
Second thought: They’re at a 100 headcount, which is roughly 10x the next largest of the healthcare participants.
Third thought: Spinning up IVF centers to drive demand to your DNA diagnostics company is some nice verticalization.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
InpharmD - Curated, evidence-based answers for doctors’ questions
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: WebMD for MDs
Second thought: If doctors do spend so much time trolling PubMed, outsourcing it so they can continue on with other tasks seems solid.
Third thought: Some nice names already on the customer list.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Veera Health - Polycystic Ovary Syndrome treatment in India
Type: Virtual first care / digital health provider organization
Second thought: Uvi Health seems to be doing this in India already
Third thought: Women’s health is really broad, so increasingly we’re seeing the growth of virtual first care targeting specific diseases like these, Elektra (menopause), Visana (endometriosis), etc. It’ll be interesting to see how those pan out compared with more generic women’s health plays like Tia or Maven.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Anima - Automated, always-on triage in the UK
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: It looks like a health chatbot with a provider dashboard and some “AI deep learning”
Second thought: That’s about it. I’m not super enthralled by this one, especially with bigger generic chatbot players circling in on healthcare.
Rating: 🔥
My NextDerma - Dermatology virtual care in LATAM
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: Apostrophe but in LATAM
Second thought: A way worse name than Apostrophe. Rebrand might be in order.
Third thought: I don’t know if the growing virtual first care stack exists in LATAM or even if there are underlying rails. The lack thereof could make things harder.
Fourth thought: As noted earlier, I am very bullish on virtual first care. Check out my webinar about it.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Dashlabs.ai - Lab software for emerging markets
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: I am very into their mission. Lab software in long-tail markets is underserved.
Second thought: Documentation looks nice but lots of “work-in-progress”
Third thought: Sparse details on integration approach, although they claim to be able to connect to any machine
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Prescribe - Whatsapp chatbot for India
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Yes, another chatbot and yes, another India focused startup, but there are significant advantages given the dominance of Whatsapp there
Second thought: No app installation is sweet. Low friction
Third thought: I wish Americans used Whatsapp instead of iMessage
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Juniper - Behavioral health practice management software
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Another ex-McKinsey founders startup.
Second thought: Seems to be just a new EHR, which I’m down with. Big players make big plays.
Third thought: Where’s the open API though?
Fourth thought: Behavioral health is a smart focus, given the increased need due to the stresses of the pandemic
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Terapify - Behavioral health virtual clinic for Spanish countries
Type: Digital health provider organization
Second thought: Pricing is per visit, whereas a lot of the pricing of the English equivalents is per week or month. I’m partial to the latter, encouraging heavier use.
Third thought: Virtual first care is eating the world
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Axle Health - API for home health
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: This is my favorite company on the list. I love the idea, I love the founding team, I love APIs.
Second thought: The explosion of virtual first care (as seen with no small number of companies on this list) will fuel Axle’s success.
Third thought: I want more virtual first tech stack companies. DM me if you’re involved or know of cool ones.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Gradia Health - Patient education app
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: I’m not sure how this is significantly different than other patient education tools like EMMI, Elsevier or Krames
Second thought: They seem to suggest that their pricing is tied to outcomes, so that’s sweet.
Third thought: Their Youtube video is weirdly low resolution, which is not sweet. I’m a sucker for aesthetics, but more than that, branding and marketing is how you project to the world your story of who you are. I for one do not want to project my message in 1990s quality frame rates.
Rating: 🔥🔥
BeWell Digital - Lightweight EHR for India
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Listed as “insurance regulatory compliance for India”, but sure seems like an EHR.
Second thought: EHRs hit scale in the US due to Meaningful Use accelerating adoption past the chasm (pictured below). That’s not the case worldwide, so there’s an opportunity in other countries to cross the chasm due to true value prop.
Third thought: Few things in this world that I dislike more than a “Pricing” button that goes to “Contact Sales”.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
CoVerified - Back to work COVID software
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Meh. I’d like more detail on the post-pandemic plans. I really think by this time next year, the current deluge of back-to-work apps and vaccine passports will need to pivot, so smart companies will start now.
Second thought: Solid team.
Third thought: Why is the advisory board larger than the company?
Rating: 🔥
Wyndly - Allergy meds delivered to you
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: The wave of teleprescribers riding behind the success of Hims and Roman continues
Second thought: I didn’t realize you could cure allergies. This seems like a cheat code.
Third thought: I guess the risk is that one of the big teleprescriber players does this too.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Moichor - Blood labs for veterinarians
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: “Launching in January 2020!” is not a good look
Second thought: Their differentiator appears to be AI overlaying the diagnostics. Admittedly, the exact lay of the land in “lab software for pets” is somewhat of an enigma to me, but need more detail on their moat there.
Third thought: Moichor has a Lord of the Rings villain vibe to it
Rating: 🔥🔥
Furmacy - PillPack for Pets
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: I love this name
Second thought: I’m now very curious about how prescriptions work in the pet world. Is there a Surescripts equivalent for e-prescribing?
Third thought: This, pawtient portals and other “copy-paste companies from human health to pet health” may not have astronomic TAM but I still love them
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
MedMe Health - Software for pharmacies
Type: Digital health provider software
First thought: Thought it was a pharmacy EHR of sorts at first, but they cite integration with Pharmacy Management Systems as their second feature, so maybe just patient-facing tools and scheduling
Second thought: Based in Canada but clearly looking at the US, given the mention of HIPAA.
Third thought: Totally random fun fact - The equivalent of ONC Cures patient access in the Netherlands is the Dutch translation of this (MedMij). The Dutch are to my knowledge the only other country with a regulatory push towards API-enabled patient access.
Rating: 🔥🔥
Quadrant Eye - Online eye exams for at-home eye care
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: Another teleprescriber, but ophthalmology
Second thought: “Cataract surgeon, occasional volcano climber” is absolutely badass, drop-the-mike level founder intro
Third thought: I want to do this service solely to understand how an online vision test works. This suggests that all the wild equipment in an ophthalmology clinic is replaceable with some software. Big if true.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Snazzy - Indian teledentistry
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: Smile Direct Club but for India. Undercut Invisalign and traditional orthodontists, ride the virtual first care wave, make money.
Second thought: That’s it. That’s the analysis.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥
Bristle - DTCoral biome testing
Type: Digital health provider organization
First thought: 23andMe or EverlyWell, but for oral health
Second thought: uBiome has me a bit spooked about DTC biome stuff, but people like this sort of thing.
Third thought: It feels like this has more reuse/upsell potential than DTC genetics, in that your oral biome changes over time, but ultimately comes down to whether people give a shit about oral biome.
Rating: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Quite the list. In review, thematically you see:
Lot of India copy-paste
Lot of LATAM copy-paste
Heavy virtual first care/digital health provider organizations
That last bullet is what causes me to be so bullish on Axle and place it a level above everything else on the list. I think a lot of the rest fall into “a nice little business” category, which probably means they’re due for a $25 million oversubscribed seed, seeing how my predictions typically correlate to success. This was fun, though! I'd love your thoughts, or other companies that you think are worth a look
Big thanks to Colin and Garrett for their suggestions and editing.
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