Stronger Together

StartUp Health founder letter #7

We have always believed that when it comes to great startup founders, 1+1=3. When people are united with purpose, passion and mindset, a magical fusion occurs that makes exponential progress possible. Whether it’s Ed and Todd Park, the brothers who founded Devoted Health; or Iyah Romm, Dr. Toyin Ajayi, and Bay Gross, who lead Cityblock; or our investors like Esther Dyson and Lee Shapiro; or any of the 1,000+ entrepreneurs and investors in our growing global army of Health Transformers, we are stronger together. For a decade we have shared a simple equation, core to our philosophy from inception at StartUp Health, to describe our unique model: Health Transformers (Mobilized to Achieve Health Moonshots) x The Network Effect = The Transformation of Global Health. We see that when a whole community of Health Transformers march together to solve common challenges, success is more likely – and exponential progress begins to add up to something more impactful. To us, that something is improving the health and wellbeing of billions of people by solving the world’s most challenging health goals we call health moonshots. People can achieve extraordinary feats on their own, but it’s rare. To go it alone is slow, and to be honest, doesn’t look very fun. We know from our own experience as business partners for nearly 25 years, through multiple ventures, that the entrepreneur’s journey is long, with constant ups and downs, often in the same day. It’s our partnership, and the relationships and communities around us, that accelerate us forward and give us energy. There’s great strength in numbers, and when organized meaningfully, the compounding effect is transformational. That is why we will never stop working to unite and mobilize all entrepreneurs, investors and collaborators from around the world, who care as much as we do about achieving health moonshots. We hope you will join us too.