Hi, everyone. This is Anthony Diaz with the pop Hell show. And this show is for anyone in the world that is interested in making other people healthier in the world. People that have a passion for health. A passion for making a difference in the lives of others through the context of health and well being really enthused today, toe have Vincent you on the show. So Vincent is a partner at initialized Capital. They vote with their dollars. They've been investing in doing some really interesting things around health and well being. Vincent eyes really passionate about health. And so I'm excited that he has made time. I'm not going to steal his thunder. Venison. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Anthony. Great to have you are great to be on the

show with you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for making time and hopefully would love to hear about your story. Right? You're I'm obsessed with words and stories, but I guess, you know, tell us a little bit about the series of events that you've gone through throughout your life that have led you to where you're at today. Tell us a little bit about your origin story.

Yeah, I mean, I guess you know, I have a funny out of the way origin story around how I came to be in venture, but, um, you know, I think you know, for me actually have a very personal story around this, Um, right before my freshman year in college, I actually got sick. And, you know, I had to leave college on taken entire year off. And I think for a young person, that is a very difficult experience to go through.

You're sort of in some sense ready and, you know, starting to come out into the world and, you know, go to college and looking forward to sort of the next chapter in your life. And instead of doing that, I found myself getting dragged back home sitting, you know, more or less working a job and making a little bit of money, but doing a lot of reading and just kind of waiting that year out as I recovered and then having to go back and do a second college experience. A second freshman. How How you doing? Who are you? Kind of experience. And so, you know,

I think that, you know, started me off. I'm thinking a little more seriously about what I wanted to do with my own life. You know, I think I went to college, like, you know, many kids going, you know, I'm gonna be premed and be a doctor and actually began really pursuing other passions of mine, which, you know, at the time was physics and I switched majors and studied sort of some sense, a useless degree. I think even my parents asked me a little bit.

Well, you're you're not gonna be a lawyer. You're not going to be a doctor. You're not going to be an engineer. What are you gonna be? I'm a nice you know. I basically stand. I'll just figure it out, you know, And I, you know, after college is 20 years and has been consultant, which, you know, gave me a lot of exposure to different industries. But I think I came back to my true passion,

which was actually physics. You know, I spent, you know, five years after that in graduate school, getting my PhD, and, you know, But, you know, I found a way in graduate school to really combine sort of my love of physics with things that, you know, I think are useful to me today and investing in health care. Namely, you know, I focused primarily on biophysics,

which gave me a lot of exposure to genomics and genetics and biology as well as a lot of basic physics. So, you know, I have, you know, sort of a broad background of science and technology that I use every day in investing today and, you know, fast forward. After graduate school, I spent a few years as a software engineer actually working with Gary Tan, who was the founder and managing director of Initialized capital. He and I worked together on his first start up, and, you know, that's when we began working together and started sort of a professional end of friendship, professional relationship and our friendship that last today.

And, you know, when you know, when Gary was starting the fund, he actually asked me if I would be interested in kind of getting the band back together. I'm actually here now, investing and working with some of the best minds in in technology. And, you know, we've been I think, you know, very forward thinking funds in sort of understanding and thinking about how technology begins to change, not just sort of consumer APS or SAS, but really, how technology makes a broad impact on all of our lives through different products and service is in the healthcare space.

Yeah, I know, Vincent, this is This is really interesting and so so really interesting to hear about your background, what you went through in college and what you focused on. I think on the physics, and I'm actually really fast, and I wish I was would have gone a lot deeper on physics because it's almost like everything you do in business, Whether it's technology or business or funnels or sales, everything is all related physics. If you could just break down the map to it, right, you know, everything's funnels, right? Even the innovation and even the product development, even closing deals.

Um, you know, it's a it's a hope in physics, but, um, it's really exciting about, you know, hearing also about your background and how you collaborated with Gary and work within the paths now. Yeah, you guys were doing some phenomenal things that initialized love to hear about. Maybe some of the space is you guys are looking at have invested in why you're looking at these spaces. You know, anything that related is related to her touches Health. Just love to hear more about what you guys are up to.

Yeah, so I think you know, very broadly, um, I think what we're seeing is a lot of the tools and techniques that have been mastered in building consumer fixing. Apse, a lot of that discipline is now finding its way out into other fields and in particular in health care. And I think we're starting to see the rise of companies that are in some sense, you know, have half of their, you know, one foot in the technology world, they're the best product people with the best software engineers, you know, the really best in class when it comes to building software and the other half the other foot is kind of in the health care world where, you know, they're trying to figure out a different way to do to bring health care either to the masses or to reform in industry,

which I think traditionally has been, you know, really, really hard to change. And, you know, in a way, they're having a master to disciplines and, you know, very, very, very different cultures. Almost tech is about, you know, fasted oration, moving quickly,

shipping product very fast. It's almost like jazz. It's very improvisational, and health care is about it's It's a little more of a conservative field, and for good reason. I don't I don't You know, I don't mean this as a dig on on the health care industry at all, right? You're dealing with people's well being and with their lives. In some cases, you really have to be careful and considered. And I think very interesting is that we have a few companies in our own portfolio which are doing this. And, you know, for instance, one of them is body port,

you know, which is they're building a next generation, cellular enabled scale that detects the onset of cardiovascular failure and heart disease through sensors that can intelligently detect ejection volume and electrolyte balance. And I think you know the interesting thing about how they've gone to market is that there's been, you know, in the last several years, a great focus on sort of rather moving away from a traditional fee for service model where it almost in some senses incentivizes sickness because that's how doctors get paid toe a more holistic model where doctors air paid for things that they don't do. For instance, preventing the re admission of a patient with heart failure, heart failure into the hospital again. And I think the numbers here are staggering. Each readmission of a heart failure patient is, you know, gonna cost the health health system something like $16,000. Ah, just for that secondary readmission,

you know, heart failures. You know, heart disease is one of the most prevalent diseases in, you know, the United States and quite frankly, the world, you know, and every person that gets hard failure is very likely to be admitted into the hospital. So what body port is doing is the scale actually detects when a person is going to go into heart failure and hopefully at that point, because the scale is Internet connected has a direct line to their care team. They could be, you know, the care team confirm can take preventive action that ultimately actually results in the patient, not having to enter the hospital. And I think the impact patient well being there is immense.

You know, if you can prevent, you know, patients from going to the hospital from having another event, not only are they healthier, but they probably avoid all sorts of secondary things, like getting an infection in the hospital. We're getting even sicker in the hospital. Uh, we're having to just, you know, deal honestly with with the stress and the pain of having thio, you know, have their lives disrupted. That's it? Yeah, that's one of the companies that were really, really excited about,

and, you know, so you're all so Yeah, it's a really interesting company. Andi. I've been following a little bit, you know about them. Tell me a little bit about some other ones, you know, so that So you guys got some powerful gems in your portfolio? I just love to hear about a few more.

So there's we have another company called Data Driven Bioscience. Cancer Genomics Company. Um, the founder eyes this hematologist oncologist out of Duke University. He's a professor of medicine. His name is Sandeep. And this was actually built on a lot of the research that he did. He collected tons of patient samples from people who were suffering from lymphoma. Ah, he sequenced those cancers, and he has a very deep understanding of the cancers from a genetic basis. What specific mutations have happened in this particular subtype of lymphoma that causes thes patient outcomes? Does it make the doesn't make the patient more or less likely to survive? What sub types of cancer is it? What, what drugs can be used to treat it and when you know and what they've done is they've combined next generation sequencing and biopsy tissue so that any patient that has suspected cancer can get the same sequencing. And they'll go back into their data set and figure out what cohort of their of their patients have.

Cancers that are most similar to your patient and allow the physicians sort of greater insight into how that patient might progress and what their path might look like and what their treatment options should be. So they're really getting a very deep understanding of cancer at a genetic level, which is something that I think many people have talked about ever since the onset of of sort of the Human Genome Project. And ever since next generation sequencing began becoming more and more ubiquitous. But he's among the first entrepreneurs, and as a physician scientist, he's really well suited to tackle this

interesting, interesting, yeah, and super intricate work there. And I guess the interesting part is that there's an opportunity commercialized this work and kind of get it, Get it out. There s so it can really be solutions. You know, I don't know how many times you hear about breakthrough innovations and genomex or cancer or oncology, and it just it's still locked behind, you know, analysis or good idea stage. Right? And it doesn't really have legs behind it to get it out of the masses. So glad to see you guys supporting it, right? It's structuring. Um, you know, a structure that can get this out. I

think what's interesting there, actually, is that, um, you know, the tools to do next generation sequencing are becoming more and more ubiquitous. I think you know more and more pretty much every single, larger research oriented hospital in most every single major city. New York L. A San Francisco. Uh, the Mayo Clinic, Atlanta. All these, you know, sort of hospitals. That air,

maybe sort of in the top tier but still relatively common, will have a next generation sequencing machine. But what they won't have is a cancer biologist or violent from a Titian who is skilled at interpreting all this genomic data. So what? What next or what D d B is doing is they're essentially offering a violent for petition on the cloud. Mmm, genomic sequence to Juma. Genomic Data is actually sent to their servers, and they interpret it on the cloud and return clinical information back to the physician in a way that is actionable actionable to that to the physician in a language that he or she understands. It's not just raw reads. It's actually very actionable clinical information.

Uh huh, Yeah, No, absolutely. I think e think it's Yeah, it's super fascinating. I guess you know the opportunity to see this out to the masses and making an impact on society. Um, you know, it's it's happening. It's slated to happen, right? And so it's it's gotta be just super exciting and it's gonna be fulfilling, you know, to see innovations like this get out more. Um, I think there's some other companies,

right? You guys are doing like on the um, like, on demand. You know, pharmaceutical delivery side you guys, they're doing some interesting stuff with, like, capacity with like, um, like papa, right? Like elderly. And so just like to hear more about but but those faces as well. And how you guys were thinking about those spaces.

Yeah, I think, you know, obviously, in the last again. And just in the last several years, there's been a great focus on the social determinants of health. Thing is, ah, interesting idea that, you know, in some senses is very obvious. But how? How people feel health wise is far is a far greater question. And then then what are you acutely suffering from, right disease? Do you have?

And people's health actually have, you know, have a much broader, you know, set of of inputs. And a lot of them are actually just the basics. Like, how happy do you feel how connected to your community? Do you feel you know, the last time that that that someone came and talked to you are or how food insecure are you, right? You know, here, in this in this in this Ah, the segment we actually have, you know,

sort of a broad theme that we've been calling elder Tech, and we have a number of portfolio companies that are working in this field. Uh, oppa is a very interesting one. Uh, it's a company that focuses in some sense, on grandkids on demand. I'm really trying to fill the niche of How do you get companionship for for seniors and for for our elders, and how do you make them feel more connected? And I think you'll see that as they as they begin deploying. You know, that's really a way to deploy sort of one of the key he inputs into health into at scale. How do you match the elderly with, uh, you know, with college kids or people that have a little more free time that would like to spend more time with the elderly.

And, you know, this isn't just, I think, also a feel good story, either. I think, you know, with the broad based acceptance and recognition of the social determinants of health. You know, the the this is good business as well. Mmm. There's no you know, there's no doubt that if you can spend a dollar in terms of companionship, and save 5 to $10 in terms of an early hospitalization. Or,

you know, maybe being ableto observe somebody and prevent a fall by understanding how they walk before they even begin Thio deteriorate too far. I think you know, insurance companies are very, very interested in this and not just the insurance companies as well. I think you know, Medicare and CMS, um, you know are very forward thinking on this. They've made a lot of signs and signals that they are willing to reimburse for the for these kinds of service is it's a very, very enormous business case for this, uh, you know, Medicare. I believe the last, uh,

you know, accounted for, you know, some $600 million of spending in health care alone, which is an enormous part of spending in the United States. It's just a huge amount of our economy. Other portfolio companies Here we have another portfolio company called Voyage, which is actually just on autonomous taxi company in return in retirement communities. And again, that's it's It's on this theme of preserving mobility, preserving independence for seniors and allowing them to live longer on their own, get out at night, get out during the day, do some shopping, even if they can't drive. Or or they're feeling uncomfortable about their ability to drive Haugen years in their homes for longer and living more independently and sort of just delaying uh,

sort of their their their transition to a more managed care facility. And you know it. Sometimes it's not. It's not even about that. Sometimes you know, the seniors, you know, they just want to go out and get a drink with their friends, even if they can, even if they can, Happy to drive

them right?

I just don't want that. I want the hassle.

Yeah, yeah, you know what's interesting? Been So, um so it's exciting, right? You know, it's interesting that you guys is in investors. A lot of investors look at that segment through like, uh, and I know that it's not cool. It's not sexy, but I will tell you that I grew up in kind of like this nursing home right type setting where I didn't grow up necessarily in the nursing home. But my dad was a dietitian in the chef cooking for this nursing home in Brooklyn, right? And I just learned at a very early age. The the I saw my dad.

Hey, this is a population that, um they look like they can't do a lot, but they have so many stories and so he would bring me in and I listened to the elderly people in the nursing home tell these stories and, you know, a lot of very fragile. But they needed that companionship, and my dad would love to take me around with us. Let me hang out with these these people, just to kind of listen to their stories, bring them joy. Then he would tell me like, Hey, your presence there just is like the 78 year old kid, you know, bring them so much joy.

And it's just it's exciting to see that you guys were investing in these spaces obviously huge economic benefit, but just huge societal benefit and just, you know, locking. Um, like this bottom. Basil's hierarchy of needs, right that return to being elderly of companionship, of shelter, food and security, and just connection. And it's so important. These were people that were standing on their shoulders. Our society is standing on the shoulders of their hard work But yet somehow they're there for gotten. So anyway, I just wanted to add to that that,

you know, it's it's just exciting that you guys have these innovations. When I saw them, the news are popular with my wife and I had a dinner table, were just like, This is super cool. Like if I'm an elderly person like I want to be on Papa like I wantto give back and tell stories It's kids and help you help them out, you know? And it's

something I think that, you know, you know, maybe in an older older generations had the experience of living in a multi generational, uh, household, but is very difficult in our in our modern age. Just my family's heir smaller. These days they're more dispersed, and you know some of that you can argue was, you know, lost too early. But right now I think we're finding a new way through technology to help encourage a lot more of these interactions.

Grain, right? No, no, absolutely. I mean and stuff is that you guys are doing. It's paving the way for an interesting future. So the combinations off these these types of new service's are eventually going to start colliding, right Could be clustered or bundled in some interesting ways. Let me ask you about more future focus. Tell me your mission about how the way you see how manifesting over the over the next like, 10 20 years tell me the vision of health, the cortex events. Yeah,

well, I think first and foremost, I think you will see more and more of these technologies, whether it's, uh, connected devices in the home, whether it's next generation sequencing really coming out into the forefront. I think more and more of these technologies which were, you know, maybe science fiction 20 years ago, or sort of Long qi today becoming just a daily part of our lives on DDE that can vary whether or not it's, um you know, something like what DDB is doing, which is, you know, next generation sequencing of cancers or something as simple as a scale which can also measure different, uh,

cardiovascular outputs. I think you'll see these things come into the home. Um, I think you'll see a lot of pharma companies begin to develop drugs around the availability of connected devices. Um, they'll begin, for instance, you know, a diabetes. Ah, patients suffering from diabetes, You know, a drug that can like insulin that could be administered just basically based on real time data coming from a connected sensor or whether it's, you know, monitoring how you walk your gate in the, you know,

for for an elderly population and and using much more that data to inform the care team. I think you'll see that for sure. And I think, um, you know, Medicare is even opened up, uh, reimbursement for remote monitoring, and I think that will just become ubiquitous. Um, e I think, you know, we didn't get a chance to talk about this a lot. But, you know, we have companies like Ro who are doing telehealth.

I think you'll start seeing a lot of space. Um, opening up in the telehealth, uh, where you know, doctors and patients can interact independent of an in person visit. Maybe they'll be over the phone. Maybe the visit will be over video chat or something. A simple is texting back and forth. I think there's a lot of room for health care to be delivered in a in a broader set of settings and I think companies like Ro are poised to thio expand very rapidly in that field. Um, they're basically offering a lot of healthcare. Service is now, um, for both men and women, huh?

Setting. And I think after that you'll see things like True Pill, which is AP I based pharmacy arising to sort of serve the needs of a next generation of tele health providers. If everything sort of in a more tech, native way, you're going to need to see large segments of sort of the health care provider or the health care vendor space moving into a tech native way as well. And true pills. One of those companies that were really, really excited about

I love it. I love it. Yeah, no, it definitely, you know, seems like, you know, these these, uh, these areas and these innovations that you guys were investing in a really paving the way for some great possibilities in on the tech and a woman side logistics. I capturing, you know, removing waste also from the process. I think that's the big a common theme about all of these innovations and their respective barriers. Air cutting out so many extra. You know,

you know, to come back full circle. You know, just improving the physics of deliberate E and of the service is well and optimizing. So it's fascinating. And on the note of coming full circle, I got one more question for you. But I guess before I ask, it is what's a good way for our listeners to get in touch with you or interact with you online if you like them to do so.

Yeah, well, I have a Twitter account. Um, it is at Vincent chew on Twitter. Uh, the company itself is at initialized, and ah, we are, um we are also at initialized dot

com. Awesome. Awesome, Vince. And so we'll definitely linked to that in the show. Notes In my last question for you is more about personal well being, you know? So I appreciate your your story about at the beginning and intelligence of what happened in college and how you had to overcome that. But you see a lot in health and wellness. What's one or two things that really work for you these days from a morning routine or daily routine or weekly routine standpoint, that really keeps your engine going these days.

Well, I try to sleep, you know, generally about seven hours a night. Um, that was more, sometimes less. But I also try to get a lot of exercise, even if it's just, you know, jogging for taking a longer run on the weekends. I try to run several times a week. You know, stay active. Um, you know, I try to climb a lot of here in the gym,

but also out Yosemite and in the High Sierra, something that's been a passion of mine. It's high school. And, you know, I think that really helps keep me grounded. And that sort of been something that's been good for my own physical and mental health, I think just active.

I love it. I love it. I haven't tried to climbing, but I mean, you're inspiring me for sure.

There's There's a lot of great climbing in New York, uh, down the eastern seaboard. I missed it all the

time. I love it. I love it. Yeah, have toe toe look into him and get my wife's permission to do so. Of course so. But Vince So, first of all, thank you for making time. This was powerful was great free to Syria. Your story with us, our listeners out there. This is the populace show in the show's for anyone that has a strong passion for making people healthier in this world. Vince again, Thank you so much for sharing what you're excited about in this space. What's going on? What you guys have done really super fascinating to see these things come to fruition. And thank you for making time.

Thank you, Anthony. Appreciate it.

Thanks so much. Much appreciate it.