What Would Lisa Suennen Say?
I’m currently winging my way on the friendly skies to Washington DC to act as a judge in the MedTech Innovator East Coast Pitch Event. Between this and teaching my UC Berkeley healthcare venture capital class and a few other discussions I’ve had lately about how investors think (really, they do…mostly), I’ve had numerous opportunities […]
Last night I went to see a show called Your Favorite Woman: The Joy of Sex Education. It’s a one woman show featuring the profoundly smart and funny Samantha Bee and it’s touring the U.S. If you are a) female, b) male or c) any or all of the above, you should run, not walk, […]
I was recently asked by a terrific group, the Women Alumnae of Mercer, to explain equity, stock options and related concepts to a group of people interested in entrepreneurship, startups, venture capital and the related pile of stuff. Jodi Hubler, a super cool healthcare expert and friend, also participated in this program as we explained […]
You know how you accumulate stuff in your office until it feels like a time capsule? Well, that was my office until last week. I decided it was high time to dig a trench between the door and the desk and, in the process, to move whatever was in there taking up space to that […]
I had the pleasure of keynoting the recent UCLA Medtech Partnering Conference, where they asked me to speak on digital health,* and particularly its current state and where I see the opportunities and challenges over the next few years. I was happy to speak at this conference in part because it creates a forum to […]
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard A few blogs back I wrote about valuations, how they are determined and how crazy they have been. In that piece, called Unraveling the Magical Mystery of Valuation Math, I talked about how valuations of private companies are derived and, […]
In the venture capital class I teach at Haas, the one topic that never fails to confuse is valuation, or how a private company is valued in an investment transaction. I’m not sure if it’s because math is hard, because valuation is based largely on not exactly math, or because it’s hard to keep track […]
Like half of America and, no doubt, all of the inhabitants of Wakanda (given their affiliation with Disney), I watched the musical Hamilton on July 3rd on my newly acquired Disney+ streaming account. It wasn’t my first Hamilton rodeo. I have been very fortunate to have seen the musical a few times in both New […]
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. That Dickensian construct is a perfect one for thinking about digital health before and after the advent of the coronavirus. As late as March, the runaway train that has been investment in digital health had been running along at Bullet Train speed. 2019 […]
Note: This article was authored by a trio consisting of me and my colleagues Nancy Nan and Rich McDerby in the Manatt Emerging Companies/Venture Capital Group; it originally ran on Manatt.com’s COVID resource website, found HERE. Thought I might pass it along here to my startup friends. As has become clear to all of us, […]
Lisa Suennen is a venture capital investor and the managing partner of Venture Valkyrie, LLC, which publishes the Venture Valkyrie blog and co-produces the Tech Tonics podcast. She is also co-founder of CSweetener, a women's healthcare mentoring organization.