AJonStartups

AJonStartups

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Conversations with innovative early-stage founders.

06/11/2025

Denise Bronner, PhD, CEO of Empactful Ventures: Clinical Trial Best Practices and The Importance of Patient Representation

As CEO of Empactful Ventures, Denise Bronner leverages a data-driven approach and over 15 years of industry expertise to empower organizations to redefine their strategies and implement innovative solutions. Drawing on insights from real-world data, she helps companies uncover hidden potential, adapt to evolving landscapes, and position themselves as industry leaders. Prior to founding Empactful Ventures, Denise earned her PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Michigan in 2015. Most recently, she held roles at Johnson & Johnson as Director, Senior Global Feasibility Lead, and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Clinical Trials for their Immunology portfolio. During our conversation, Denise shared her best practices for designing clinical trials and her perspectives on the importance of diverse patient representation within these trials. She emphasized involving all key stakeholders—patients, clinicians, advisory boards, and trial site staff—in the design phase because their input can help identify potential design flaws, improve patient recruitment, and create a more robust, patient-centric trial that is also more likely to satisfy regulatory considerations from the FDA. 00:30:20 - Best Practices for Clinical Trials 13:19:08 - Patient Representation in Clinical Trials 27:35:02 - The Benefits, Costs, and Value of Diverse Patient Data 31:27:58 - Clinical Trial Outcomes 34:51:57 - Empactful Ventures 38:14:05- Conclusion

38 min
06/04/2025

Kwame Ulmer, Managing Partner at MedTech Impact Partners: Perspectives on The FDA and The Importance of Regulatory Experts and Strategy

As Managing Partner at MedTech Impact Partners, Kwame Ulmer leverages over twenty years of experience evaluating medical technologies in the government and private sector to answer regulatory questions, develop comprehensive regulatory strategies, and support complex submissions (e.g., de novo, PMA, 510(k)) for companies working with the FDA. He has personally evaluated more than 1,000 medical technologies in his career, and he spent 12 years at the FDA in progressive leadership roles, including Deputy Director and Branch Chief. In addition to his work at MedTech Impact Partners, Kwame is a venture partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health - the leading Southern-California based, early stage venture capital firm (Seed and Series A) focused on the healthcare industry - and is a lecturer and researcher in MedTech Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles. During our conversation, Kwame shared his perspectives on the recent and significant changes at the FDA, particularly regarding staffing cuts, operational disruptions, and their impact on medical device companies, investors, and the broader medtech ecosystem. The FDA is experiencing a period of disruption and these disruptions are not business as usual, affecting all stakeholders across stages. As a result, FDA-risk has increased, demanding a greater allocation of time and resources from companies and founders. With continued turnover in the organization, companies should anticipate and budget for possible delays for different application types. Despite regulatory uncertainty, Kwame believes investors will continue to fund medtech companies, with longer timelines and greater emphasis on de-risked regulatory pathways. 00:06:21 - The Current State of The FDA 09:07:10 - Investor Perspectives on FDA Changes 14:51:19 - MedTech Impact Partners 18:11:18 - Perspectives for Founders Navigating Changes at The FDA 37:05:14 - Conclusion

37 min
05/28/2025

Matthew West, Founder and CEO of Boom AI: An AI-powered Mental Health App for College Students

Matthew West, Founder and CEO of Boom AI, has experienced periods of severe anxiety throughout his life. As a child, he never seemed to seamlessly integrate with peers from similar ethnic backgrounds. His independent mindset and love for soccer acted as barriers to connection within his proximal environment, but he developed a strong sense of self through academic and athletic accomplishments, maintaining an ambition to play at the highest levels. Unfortunately, an injury during his junior year of high school reduced his chances of playing professional soccer to zero and led to his first battle with debilitating anxiety. Matt was able to overcome his initial experience with severe anxiety, but challenges in college and, later, a divorce catalyzed recurring battles with anxiety over time. After earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, Matt began working with college students to help them manage anxiety and depression during the school year. Personally, he discovered mindful journaling and introduced the practice to the students he served. Students immediately shared overwhelmingly positive feedback about the effects of mindful journaling on their mental health. Once Matt saw how transformative mental health tools could be for these students, he and his co-founder decided to launch Boom AI to expand the resources available for students to manage their mental well-being. Boom AI is building an AI-powered mental health app specifically designed for Gen Z college students, where users can track their moods, connect with peers, and access personalized insights and resources. Through mood tracking, mindfulness exercises, and goal setting, users can proactively manage their mental well-being. The app fosters a supportive community atmosphere, promoting empathy, understanding, and solidarity among its users as they navigate the challenges of college life. With Boom AI, technology becomes a catalyst for emotional resilience and balance, empowering young adults to prioritize their mental health and thrive. 00:00:00 - Matthew's Mental Health Story 18:26:13 - Mindfulness and Mindful Journaling 22:21:05 - Converting from Islam to Christianity 30:15:08 - Boom AI 41:54:10 - Millennials v. Gen-Z 50:00:13 - Boom AI for Universities 57:00:26 - Conclusion

1 hr
05/21/2025

Chelcie Taylor, Investor at Notable Capital: Investing in AI and Vertical Voice Agents

As a multi-stage investor at Notable Capital, Chelcie Taylor spends her time thinking about a future transformed by AI-native and AI-enabled software. She focuses specifically on vertical AI applications, as well as B2B and enterprise software, evaluating deals from inception through later-stage opportunities. Additionally, she co-created the annual SMBTech 50—a list showcasing the most promising private companies building for SMBs. Her journey to venture capital has been highly decorated: she earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton, her MBA from Harvard Business School, and held strategic and operating roles at Google, CBS, and MediaLink before joining Notable Capital in 2021. In addition to her work as an investor, she contributes to organizations supporting underrepresented investors, including AllRaise and BLCKVC. In 2024, Chelcie was selected as one of five recipients of the National Venture Capital Association’s Rising Star Award. During our conversation, Chelcie shared her belief in AI as a transformational technology and offered her perspective on the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. She identified the biggest change in the last 18–24 months as the increased velocity of top-line growth for AI companies. As time to milestones have compressed to unprecedented levels, AI-native startups that are going from zero to five or ten million in ARR are adapting their capital allocation and fundraising strategies. As a result, Chelcie and other investors are re-underwriting how they assess these businesses across different stages. In particular, Chelcie is very bullish on the AI voice agent space, and she spent a meaningful portion of our conversation deep-diving into the nuances and potential impacts of these agents across verticals such as banking, healthcare, and SMBs. You can read her blog post, “Vertical Voice Agents Are Taking Off: Here’s Why,” for a detailed exploration of the key factors driving their adoption and growth: https://www.notablecap.com/blog/vertical-voice-agents-are-taking-off-heres-why During our conversation, Chelcie and I discussed: 00:00:54 - Chelcie's Observations, Perspectives, and Thesis on AI Markets 00:05:19 - AI-Native Startup's Shifting Capital Needs 00:12:05- Vertical Specific AI Tools and Voice Agents 00:27:34 - Competition and Differentiation for AI-native Companies 00:30:16 - Conclusion

30 min
05/14/2025

Eldrick Millares, Co-Founder and CEO of Illuminant Surgical: The First Real-time Anatomical Projection System for Spine Surgery and Interventional Access

Illuminant Surgical (YC S22) is building the world’s first real-time anatomical projection system for spine surgery and interventional access-displaying imaging directly onto the patient to give surgeons a view of what’s beneath the skin. It uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, and dynamic projection mapping to make image-guided procedures seamless and accessible for all care settings and specialties. Led by Co-Founder and CEO Eldrick Millares, the company is safely and swiftly developing the system to improve patient outcomes in spinal fusion procedures, its initial beachhead indication. Spinal fusion has a relatively elevated revision rate, meaning patients often require additional surgeries due to misplacement or other consequences of imprecision. By projecting real-time imaging, instrument tracking, and anatomical mapping directly onto the patient with sub-two millimeter accuracy, surgeons gain enhanced visibility during procedures, improving precision and reducing the likelihood of revision surgeries. Eldrick was incredibly gracious in providing us with an in-person demo after our conversation at their office in Culver City, and I was absolutely blown away by their transformational technology. 00:00:00 - Eldrick's Background 17:18:11 - Founding Illuminant Surgical 27:25:14 - The World's First Anatomical Projection System 37:27:17 - Potential Applications Beyond Spine Surgery 42:42:27 - Near-Term Roadmap 46:03:21 - Conclusion

46 min
04/30/2025

Ariel Ganz, GP at Arben Ventures: Early-stage Investing, Precision Medicine, & The Future of Health

Arben Ventures is one of the most active pre-seed investors in deep tech health. Led by General Partner Ariel Ganz, the firm has invested in 63 startups over the last 14 months. In this conversation, Ariel and I discuss the following topics: 00:00:06 Ariel's Journey 00:09:25 Arben Ventures 00:20:37 Insights from Starting a Venture Fund 00:23:54 Personalized and Precision Medicine 00:28:12 AI, and Patient Empowerment 00:43:37 Conclusion

44 min
04/23/2025

Collin Wallace, Partner at Lobby Capital: Perishable Knowledge & The Implications of AI

For the first time in human history, the brain’s monopoly on intelligence is being challenged, with LLMs emerging as a disruptive force and quickly gaining computational share. Intelligence is a function of acquisition and application. It’s the ability to acquire knowledge (input data) and to apply it to produce a particular result (output data). LLMs, trained on input data from a meaningful set of humanity’s collective knowledge, provoke the idea that our intelligence is computational, and expected outputs reinforce our emotional resonance with intelligence. As many types of human intelligence are rapidly depreciating in value, Collin Wallace believes there are particular types of knowledge that are inversely appreciating in value. These areas of knowledge can be categorically referred to as Perishable Knowledge, undocumented and empirical insights based on real-world connections, experiences, and observations. If AI accelerates society towards a world in which the role of human intelligence is eliminated or reduced severely, then the ability to acquire, apply, and protect Perishable Knowledge will be the essential skill of the future to create and sustain value for individuals and families. 00:00:00 - Attention 00:05:18 - Building in the 2010’s v. Today 00:14:24 - Collin’s Background 00:16:43 - Diversity 00:20:17 - Services-as-a-Software 00:29:42 - Static & Perishable Knowledge 00:36:17 - Societal Implications of AI 01:19:10 - Malleable Software & Comparative Advantage 01:36:20- Utopian Perspective on AI-enabled Prosperity 01:42:10 - Conclusion

1h 42m
02/04/2025

Alexander Cooper, Founder and CEO of Relief Cardiovascular: Reimagining Heart Failure Treatment

More than 6 million Americans have had their life expectancy reduced by 10 years due to congestive heart failure. For many of these patients, heart failure management is incredibly burdensome and minimally effective, and, in some cases, surgical treatments are necessary to extend their life and to make modest gains in quality of life. While at Edwards Life Sciences and CardiAQ, Alexander Cooper spent his time leading development teams to aiming to treat heart failure in the valves. During his tenure, he and his teams contributed to the development of the world’s first transcatheter mitral valve replacement system and the world’s first transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement system. After a few years of traveling domestically and internationally to help clinicians implant devices in patients, Alex observed that many of these patients were returning to the hospital with significant congestion (fluid buildup) and difficulty breathing, indicating additional causes of congestion beyond the heart valves. Emotionally rocked by this revelation, Alex began intense research and he discovered medical literature that pointed to pressure in the renal veins as significant factor in the fluid buildup. Armed with this insight, Alex founded Relief Cardiovascular in 2022 with a mission to reimagine the way we treat congestive heart failure. Relief Cardiovascular’s smart transcatheter implant is designed to modulate and to monitor renal vein pressure, providing a new approach to heart failure fluid management. Recently, I visited Alex and his team at their offices in Orange County, and 30 mins prior to our conversation, he successfully closed their $12M Series A round co-led by Broadview Ventures and Advent Life Sciences! It’s my honor and privilege to share my conversation with Alexander Cooper, Founder and CEO of Relief Cardiovascular. During our full conversation, Alex and I discussed: 00:00:00 - Alex’s Background 00:09:08 - Heart Failure and Fluid Buildup 00:12:22 - The Gap in Current Solutions 00:19:35 - Relief Cardiovascular’s Smart Transcatheter Implant 00:24:56 - Why Cardiologists Are Excited About Relief Cardiovascular 00:27:10 - Data and Artificial Intelligence 00:31:55 - Relief Cardiovascular’s Team 00:36:48 - Near-Term Roadmap 00:38:07 - Alex’s Vision for Relief Cardiovascular 00:41:40 - Conclusion

42 min

Conversations with innovative early-stage founders.

Creator

AJonStartups
Years Active

2024 - 2025
Episodes

16
Rating

Clean
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