Venture capitalists work hard to identify, fund, and, hopefully, profit from promising early-stage startups. Venture capital has become an integral part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem and is closely associated with the success of the world’s greatest companies. We will discuss what has led to the increase in attention and funding of digital health companies, how digital health VCs decide which companies to invest in, and future directions for the field of digital health.
Featuring: Lisa Suennen of Venture Valkyrie, Ruchita Sinha of GE Ventures, and Julie Papenek of Canaan Partners. Moderated by Ryan Luginbuhl '03.
Lisa Suennen is a venture capital investor and healthcare industry consultant. She is the Managing Partner of Venture Valkyrie Consulting, LLC. She holds an MA in political science, a BA in political science and a BA in mass communications, all from the University of California, Berkeley. She is on faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business where, together with Dr. Jeff Rideout, she teaches MBA courses on healthcare venture capital and the changing healthcare economy.
Ruchita Sinha is a Director on the GE Ventures team based in Menlo Park, CA. In this role, Ruchita leads investments and partnerships with healthcare startups. She specializes in innovative partnership models that enable startups to scale and drive growth for GE. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS in Biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College.
Julie Papanek is a Principal at Canaan Partners who brings operational experience from biotechnology and healthIT. Prior to Canaan, Julie worked at Genentech in a variety of positions spanning marketing, development, and business development. Julie holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and earned an MPhil from Cambridge University in BioScience Enterprise and a B.S. from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.
Dr. Ryan Luginbuhl is a physician and digital health entrepreneur. His career in digital health began with creating some of the first medical podcasts and a web-based educational network while a medical student. Today he is the Manager of Medical Content for Acupera, where he helps to build out the population health and care coordination platform, as well as works with venture capitalists in the funding process. He also serves as Director of Events for Cornell NorCal and focuses on creating tech and entrepreneurial-related events. Ryan holds an MD from Washington University, a BA from Cornell University, and trained in general surgery at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Join us for hors d’oeuvres, drinks, the San Francisco skyline and a panel discussion at the Avalon at Mission Bay North Penthouse.
6:30 - 7:30 pm Reception
7:30 - 8:30 pm Panel Discussion
8:30 - 9:30 pm Networking
Venue: Avalon at Mission Bay North Penthouse (19th floor) [located diagonally across the intersection from the San Francisco Caltrain station.] 255 King Street, SF
Cost: $35 per person. (includes food & hosted bar)
Please register for this event through Cornell Silicon Valley.
Event Contact: Francine Darling, Coordinator, Cornell Silicon Valley, francine.darling@cornell.edu, 607-254-7147
Nancy Abrams Dreier ’86, P ’12, ’15
Director, Cornell Silicon Valley (CSV)
nancy.dreier@cornell.edu
