Raising Health

Dan Nomura, distinguished professor at UC Berkeley and advisory partner at a16z Bio+Health, discusses his work in chemical biology and drug discovery. He shares his experience starting companies, collaborating with pharmaceutical companies, and the challenges of developing therapeutics. The podcast also explores the definition of chemical biology, the future of chemoproteomics, and the benefits of academic-pharma collaborations.

In this exclusive conversation from the Bio + Health BUILD summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio and healthcare differs from other forms of technology.

Lloyd B. Minor, Dean of Stanford Medical School, discusses the potential of AI in medicine and its impact on medical education. They cover the integration of medicine with science and technology, AI in healthcare delivery, advice for undergrads interested in medicine, and maintaining resilience for mental health.

Margaret McKenna, Healthtech CTO, talks about her journey into tech and healthcare industries, challenges of building from scratch vs using external vendors, difficulties faced by CTOs in healthcare sector, and the need for innovation in healthcare product companies. They also discuss addressing consumer engagement and risk delegation in healthcare.

Together, Vijay and Zak talked about having been through AI winters and hype cycles before, and why they think this time could be different. They also talked about how AI could revolutionize the healthcare model — what Zak calls the “flipped clinic.”Join Zak and Vijay as they talk about how AI could flip the clinic, how foundation models could quickly transform the discovery and development of drugs, and how Zak thinks about the future.

Dan Rosenthal, a provider network expert and the newest advisory partner for a16z Bio + Health, joins Julie Yoo, general partner.Together, they talk about the 101 and 201 of provider networks, tactical advice for digital health builders, and how AI could theoretically change the way networks are constructed.

The holy grail of company building is finding product-market fit. But what most people don’t tell you is that once you’ve found it, product-market fit brings its own set of challenges, particularly when it comes to scaling rapidly and hiring the right executives at the right time.Drawing from their extensive experiences, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks cofounder and CEO Ali Ghodsi sit down with Steph Smith of the a16z podcast to talk about the hardest things about executive hiring and firing, and what is at stake.They dive into the common reasons an exec fails, why sometimes micromanagement is a good idea, and the difference between someone who has written a playbook and someone who has only run one.

When Greg started out in science, he heard other researchers referring to certain targets as “undruggable.” In response, he’s devoted his life to drugging the undruggable, cofounding the field of chemical biology along the way. After a robust career founding multiple biotechs and serving as the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of FogPharma, he is the newest venture partner at a16z Bio + Health.Join Greg, Vineeta, and Jorge as they talk about Greg's upbringing and career, and how he thinks about the field today.

After his own health scare, Jeffrey got obsessed with how MRIs work—and decided that they were too unscientific to really track human health over time. In response, he built a new kind of imaging, creating a “digital twin” that can be tracked over time. And if health can be tracked over time, in theory it could eventually become as forecastable as the weather.Join Jeffrey and Vijay as they talk about human imaging, health forecasting, and how a digital twin could change healthcare.

AI has the potential to save the world — that’s the thesis of Marc’s most recent article, linked below. This episode was recorded right after Marc published his article, live from a16z Bio + Health’s first summit.Join Marc and Vijay as they talk about how AI can save the world, and where it can go wrong.Additional reading:Why AI Will Save the World