As we approach the year’s end, I’m delighted to report that our funds are growing and changing.
In particular, I wanted to let everyone know about plans for the next Social Starts fund, Social Starts Health and Happiness, which we call “SH2,” for short.
SH2 is the only venture fund focused on the emerging science of individual health and the delivery of happiness. Previous Social Starts funds have migrated across many segments where we’ve seen strong value creation potential: from social networks in 2012 (Pinterest) through e-commerce (Boxed) and market-based education (Lambda School) to individual health in 2017.
Of all these, we feel Health, and its natural counterpart Happiness, presents the most robust and fast-growing early-stage investment opportunity we have seen in decades. It touches every part of our bodies and minds, and every person on earth.
The broad expanse of scientific breakthroughs we are seeing in health today are generating an unprecedented multi-faceted market. This market spans longevity, bioscience, microbiome, neuroscience, female tech, pets, and more. Every segment in this market delivers improvements in health.
Take longevity. Not just living longer - living healthier longer, retaining faculties and strength in old age. These are clear health benefits. But they also increase happiness for both that individual, and for the family that doesn’t have to manage an infirm elder. That is true in each segment in this market; each brings breakthroughs in health and generates new vectors toward happiness. Together they create a $15 Trillion market.
Not only is health and happiness science a huge opportunity, it is also entirely transforming core human experiences. That, in turn, is driving the health experience through fundamental change. Looking back, healthcare was all about disease, drugs, hospitals, and payers - monochrome and institutional. Today, we are already moving from disease toward prevention, from institutional toward individual focus. Health is becoming increasingly diverse and personal. And the future of health will look utterly different from the past. Every aspect of medicine and care is about to be overthrown by an army of new possibilities and choices.
Our strategy to extract value from this market centers first around our worldwide team. We locate our team wherever great companies might emerge so we can find the best new companies in the strongest investment segments worldwide. Our team includes two PhDs and an MD. We are men, women. Chinese, Japanese, American, Spanish, French, German, Swedish and Dutch. We are in our 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. We have hundreds of years of experience in every aspect of health science and investing.
This powerful team is supported by a suite of proprietary AI tools that can uncover new startups at birth. We have our own Internet spiders, social signaling platforms, research probes, and other unique software.
Together, our team and tools can find and evaluate far more companies than other funds. We are already on a path to see more than 6000 companies this year. We will dig in on nearly half of those. This builds rich context for us and helps us recognize which tech and teams stand out from the pack. And we back only those we feel have the best chance enormous success.
This strategy uncovers big breakthroughs. You see some of those here.
And each of these breakthroughs is a company we have already in our current portfolio.
SH2 will build, in particular, on the success of our current single-LP fund Joyance Partners.
Joyance focuses on Delightful Moments, the small but powerful separations from the daily humdrum when we feel stronger, calmer, more joyful, more in control, more distant from pain and anxiety. Breakthroughs in science and technology can now deliver these experiences at an individual scale. Science can help individuals be a bit happier, which can lead to greater health. Or a little healthier, which can lead to greater potential for happiness.
While Joyance focuses strictly on Delightful Moments, SH2 will invest in a broader range of transformative science for health and happiness. We will, for instance, go more deeply into diagnostics, new therapeutics, medical devices, and long-term amelioration of diseases and mental challenges.
We are excited by this new fund and new direction for Social Starts.
Have a great company in health and happiness? Reach out to us now! Interested in a new, strong investment opportunity? Please join us in this journey to have a big impact and produce big returns. I’m mike@socialstarts.com and I look forward to talking with anyone interested in how we can help make the world a healthier and happier place.
By Managing Partner Mike Edlelhart
@MikeEdelhart