The Data Minute Carta

Even in turbulent times, early-stage investing has held up in one particular area: Healthcare. In fact: Biotech, pharmaceutical, and digital therapeutic startups are receiving more capital now than before the pandemic, in 2018 - 2019.

In this week’s episode of The Data Minute, join Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) as he sits down with Marissa Bertorelli (Principal, Polaris Partners) for an illuminating conversation around trends they're seeing in early-stage healthcare investing.

In a wide-ranging discussion, they discuss how the pandemic changed investing in the sector, the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, the hurdles of early-stage healthtech startups, whether founders are wasting their time pitching "generalist funds," and much more.

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Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk: https://carta.com/data-desk/

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:29 Marissa’s background and Polaris Partners
03:16 The pandemic’s impact on healthtech
06:12 Early 2024 trends
07:23 AI and the hurdles of early-stage healthtech companies 
11:16 Investor specialization
12:57 Do healthtech founders waste time pitching generalist funds?
14:57 Is a cofounder needed?
18:10 Exit strategies and vision
21:32 Differences in the early-stage healthtech and SaSS founder experience
24:26 The Angel Investor community
25:40 Academia and entrepreneurship
29:00 Can you found a healthtech company without being a scientist?
32:42 Robots in healthtech?
33:51 Final thoughts

In the inaugural episode of The Data Minute podcast, Peter Walker (Head of Insights at Carta) sits down with Dave Anderson (GP at Beat Ventures) to discuss recent venture industry data around two key questions: 

• In today’s fundraising market, how many individual checks should the average founder plan to raise in their first SAFE round?

• Do early-stage companies from California tend to raise at higher valuation caps than companies in other states — and if so, why?

Along the way, Peter and Dave take detours into a number of emerging trends and perspectives, from founders returning to “cluster cities” like San Francisco and New York, to the premium that investors pay for companies in accelerator programs like Y Combinator, and much more.

Subscribe to Carta’s weekly Data Minute newsletter: https://z.carta.com/4cSucXw 

Explore interactive startup and VC data, with Carta’s Data Desk: https://z.carta.com/3vOwjuS 

Starting April 15th: Join Carta's Head of Insights, Peter Walker, as he breaks down the data that's fueling today's most fascinating trends in startups, VC, and the private market ecosystem. 

Featuring guests from across the venture industry — from founders to investors, and everyone in between — each new Data Minute is a bite-sized breakdown of the metrics, patterns, and important insights you need to navigate the ever-changing world of startups.