Kristina Saffran: Leveraging Lived Experience as a Healthcare Entrepreneur

Kristina Saffran is the Co-Founder and CEO of Equip. She has been recognized by Forbes, Business Insider, and Inc as a thought leader in healthcare, and Equip was named as one of 2023’s 100 most influential companies by Times. They raised $58M in Series B funding earlier this year from the Chernin Group, General Catalyst, Tiger Global, and Alex Morgan. 

We chatted about her path toward entrepreneurship, the industry inflections behind Equip, ethical considerations in venture-backed healthcare, and her advice for college students.

Check out the Seed Stage Stories medium page for an article with my key takeaways from this conversation.

1:00 - Kristina's personal experiences with Anorexia

3:00 - Industry inflection around the mental health parity act and private equity players entering the space

5:15 - Aligning incentives in healthcare

8:15 - The importance of bringing on healthcare investors

13:55 - Equip as a tech-enabled services company

19:55 - Grit as an entrepreneur

23:30 - Advice for college students

24:32 - Entrepreneurship vs. academia

27:50 - Navigating mental health in college

30:30 - Turning anxiety into adrenaline

34:20 - Kristina's closing advice for aspiring entrepreneurs