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Deena Shakir is an investor who is obsessed with expanding access to the basic health services people need and often can't access: pediatric care, community health and women's services. Her journey to investing passed through policymaking, journalism and big tech and her early techno optimism has given way to a much more nuanced and pragmatic view. She is able to see the big opportunities for impact hiding in plain sight.We discuss:The two obvious megatrends hitting healthcare: GLP1s and AIAnd the not so obvious opportunity: doing basic things betterHow Dobbs was an accelerant, not a deterrent, for investments in women's healthWhy Public Health is great training for healthcare foundersDeena is excited about “asset light” investments that combine new care models – like community health workers – and technology:“There are some things that won't change. And there are things that hopefully tech can help to navigate. And so these asset light models, these models that are leveraging under leveraged care workers – like community health workers that are providing culturally competent care – and at the end of the day, that are improving metrics and outcomes, are the ones that get me excited.”Relevant LinksLux CapitalJonathan Haidt article in The Atlantic titled “Why the past 10 years of American Life have been uniquely stupid”President Obama's Cairo speechARPA-H Sprint for Women's HealthHealth companies Deena mentions that she invests in:WaymarkSummer healthMaven Clinic About Our GuestDeena's investments span stages and sectors, and include women's health, digital health infrastructure, health equity, foodtech, and fintech. Above all, she seeks out extraordinary, often underdog, founders on a mission. Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), led product partnerships at Google for health, search, and AI/ML, and directed social impact investments at Google.org. Deena also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at The U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama's first Global Entrepreneurship...
Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow and Emily Chang sits down with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to discuss the company's earnings results. Deena Shakir of Lux Capital joins with her take on the state of venture capital investing. Plus, the CEO of Stocktwits look at Elon Musk's X Corp.'s ambitions to be an everything app. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Deena Shakir of Lux Capital joins Nick to discuss The Lux Capital Playbook, Deeptech and The Application Layer, and What the Future Holds for Digital Health. In this episode we cover: Investments in the fertility space. How do you think about the future of healthcare? Investing in healthcare companies. Innovation in healthcare. Guest Links: LinkedIn Twitter Lux Capital The host of The Full Ratchet is Nick Moran, General Partner of New Stack Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to investing in founders outside of the Bay Area. To learn more about New Stack Ventures by visiting our Website and LinkedIn and be sure to follow us on Twitter. Want to keep up to date with The Full Ratchet? Subscribe to our podcast and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Are you a founder looking for your next investor? Visit our free tool VC-Rank and we'll send a list of potential investors right to your inbox
Breakthrough health tech is useless if it fails to meet people where they are, especially when it comes to underserved populations. So, how do we encourage VCs to invest in culturally competent digital health solutions? How do we direct capital in a way that promotes health equity for women and communities of color? Deena Shakir is Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods. She is passionate about investing in women's health, digital health infrastructure, health equity and foodtech, and her portfolio includes notable startups like Maven Clinic, Everly Health and Gameto. On this episode of HLTH Matters, Deena joins host Dr. Jessica Shepherd to discuss the fertility and maternal health crises we face in the US and the $90 million Lux has invested to address these issues.Deena describes some of the category leading companies in the Lux health tech portfolio and explains how she thinks about putting women's health at the forefront of research, technology and innovation. Listen in for insight on building technologies that meet people where they are and get Deena's take on the future of the healthcare investment landscape. Topics CoveredDeena's journey to becoming a VC in health and wellness techThe $90M Lux has focused on investing in women's healthDeena's insight on the fertility and maternal health crises we face in the USThe category leading companies in integrated women's health in the Luxe portfolioPutting women's health at the forefront of research, technology and innovationHow the conversation around women's health is changing among VCsHow innovation has improved coming out of the pandemicWhy women in leadership serve as champions for cultural competency in healthcareHow time spent with her founders lifts Deena up on a bad day Connect with Deena ShakirDeena at Lux Capital Connect with Dr. Jessica ShepherdHLTHDr. Shepherd on TwitterDr. Shepherd on LinkedIn ResourcesGoogle HealthMaven ClinicEverly HealthAlife Health‘Temporal Trends in Sperm Count: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis of Samples Collected Globally in the 20th and 21st Centuries' in Human Reproduction UpdateGametoMiga HealthCityblock HealthWaymarkAnne Wojcicki
After explosive growth in the first year of the pandemic, the amount of VC funding flowing into digital health in 2022 was about half of what it was in 2021. Meanwhile, exit opportunities have seemingly dried up.In this episode, I talk to two of my favorite digital health investors about what the heck is happening and what we can expect in 2023.Mo Makhzoumi is Managing General Partner of Healthcare at NEA and Deena Shakir is a General Partner at Lux. Listen to the end to find out the answer to the question, if digital health was a party, what kind of party would it be?Not to give it away, but Mo insisted that I put the definition of rave in this description for anyone who is too young to know: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaveSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Welcome to “Securities” by Lux Capital, a podcast and newsletter devoted to science, technology, finance and the human condition. I'm your host, Danny Crichton, and today we're talking about the post-Roe world. Tomorrow, it'll be 30 days since the Supreme Court announced in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that there is no constitutional basis for the right to abortion, overthrowing several decades of precedent. It's a decision with huge implications for tech startups, which will now operate across 50 sets of state laws, covering everything from privacy and data governance to who gets to decide which patients receive women's health and who won't. Now that we've had a few weeks to digest the decision, I asked my Lux partner Deena Shakir to bring together a panel of guests to talk more about how startups are responding to Dobbs. Guests: Dr. Neel Shah is an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic. Halle Tecco is an entrepreneur and angel investor passionate about fixing our healthcare system. She is the founder of Natalist, which was acquired by Everly Health in October 2021, and she is also the host of The Heart of Healthcare podcast. Paxton Maeder-York is the CEO and founder at Alife Health.
On this episode of InsideOut, we welcome Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital for a fascinating discussion on her career leading transformative investments in healthcare and other sectors.
This week, Alexis gets non-technical with Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital. They talk about quarterly visits to Disneyland, long-distance AIM-ing, Paw Patrol LIVE!!!, stevia schlepping, and ironic skinny jeans. You can find Deena on Twitter at twitter.com/deenashakir and Alexis at twitter.com/yayalexisgay or instagram.com/yayalexisgay and twitter.com/NonTechnicalPod.This episode is sponsored by Betts Recruiting! If you're a high-performing professional looking for your next opportunity, it's time to become a Betts Connect Community member. Apply to join Betts' exclusive network, and if you're accepted, those tech startups will reach out to YOU. Apply now for your exclusive lifetime membership at bettsrecruiting.com/nontechnical
Deena Shakir is living proof that a “non-linear” extraordinary career. Deena is a Partner at Lux Capital, a top venture capital firm. There, she's received a lot of recognition for her work and her emphasis on diversity. She also sits on several boards, and contributes to Forbes — that is, when she's not being featured. But she actually started very near us in Mountain View, where her parents immigrated from Iraq. Her career has taken her pretty much everywhere, even through the White House. Do you have any thoughts? Please email us at hello@rosenmaninstitute.org. We post new episodes every Monday. “The Health Technology Podcast” is produced by Herminio Neto, hosted by Christine Winoto, and engineered by Andrew John Rojek.
I moved from San Francisco to New York, in February 2019, back before it was cool to turn tail on the tech mecca. Truth be told, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for San Francisco, but my girlfriend beckoned from Brooklyn.I’m writing this from my flight back to New York after over a week in SF. I spent much of it in an Airbnb next to Mr. Pickle’s on Van Ness Avenue and then a few days crashing at a fellow tech reporter’s apartment in the Outer Richmond. I ate Mission Chinese and La Taqueria, drank at Brass Tacks and The Monk’s Kettle, and made it up to Calistoga for a picturesque vineyard wedding.But did I spend any time working for you, dear reader? Yes, not to worry. I spent my days shuttling from South Park to the Presidio, catching up with venture capitalists, founders, tech media insiders, and senior tech executives. And I spent my nights getting drunk with them, eager for looser lips.Here are my key immediate takeaways:One source told me that even Insight Partners — which announced a $20 billion fund in February — has decided to seriously slow down big late stage private investments. Until recently, Insight looked like one of the last holdouts when it came to doing late stage deals even as the market unraveled. But now, like pretty much everyone else, it’s mostly focused on its existing portfolio.VC advice on the downturn — even Sequoia Capital’s presentation to founders — has felt too much like content marketing. For some startup CEOs it can feel a bit like you’re the goody two-shoes, “A” student in the classroom, when the teacher reprimands everyone. You think the rebuke applies to you, but really the message is meant for the troublemakers. But it’s the most diligent among us that take these admonitions personally. Founders need advice specific to their company. There’s a sense that there have been many software engineers who have been overpromoted in the bull cycle and that this downturn could force some coders to reset their expectations about their appropriate rank and pay.I spent much of my time asking sources what the overarching, thematic story of the downturn would be. One venture capitalist gave me my favorite answer: He argued that we’d look back on this downturn as a story of the perfect storm between retail and professional investor excesses. On the retail side, we saw the rise of Robinhood and Coinbase, and r/wallstreetbets trades on Kodak and GameStop. On the professional side, we saw firms like SoftBank and Tiger go so, so long without enough diligence to back it up.If I had to name a couple companies/firms that I think are most likely to represent this downturn, right now I’d name Instacart, Coinbase, Robinhood, GoPuff, Bird, Tesla, Tiger, and SoftBank. Though, right now, I think increasingly crypto is looking like it will be the category most associated with this cycle’s excesses.There’s been a lot of envy in traditional startup world of people who went over to the the crypto dark side. Now there’s all sorts of schadenfreude going on as crypto prices plummet. Some VCs are starting to admit (mostly in private) that they never really believed in crypto. Still, there’s so much money. Just as I was leaving the city, Coinbase announced that it was brutally laying off 18% of its staff, locking them out of their emails before they even had time to say goodbye.We’re overdue for a reckoning over who screwed over credulous investors with implausible SPAC deals. ~cough~ Chamath ~ cough ~ At least, Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter led the PIPE on its own terrible Grab SPAC deal. Andreessen Horowitz still remains, probably, the biggest nemesis of many firms in Silicon Valley. Sure, Tiger blew up the startup world. But what Tiger did was so unlike anything venture capital firms were doing, so there’s less professional jealousy. There are whispers that things aren’t as copacetic internally at a16z as might appear from their highly choreographed public communications. It would seem that part of the explanation for the explosion of funds at the firm has been the explosion of egos. Instead of resolving interpersonal conflicts on the consumer fund, let’s just create a gaming fund. In that light, it’s pretty amazing that the firm couldn’t figure out a way to keep Katie Haun. Consumer investing across the board seems challenged. What’s going on over at Popshop, Lunchclub, Cameo, and Clubhouse just to name a few? I guess investors simply wishing consumer investing into being without a strong new thesis wasn’t exactly an omen for the sector’s inevitable success. (I will say that Whatnot and BeReal remain two consumer plays that I’m still following.) What will it mean for this generation of consumer investors? Benchmark’s next generation consumer investor, Sarah Tavel, seems to have made her best investment in business-to-business company Chainalysis, last valued at $8.6 billion. Speaking of Benchmark, the firm deserves some credit for holding firm on its strategy as other venture firms’ fund sizes got crazy. Sure, Benchmark probably could have made way more money if it topped up its own investments — but then it might be taking the heat that Benchmark favorite Altimeter is getting right now over its overexuberance. There’s money and reputation to manage. Benchmark has always made enough money to value its reputation. (That’s something Travis Kalanick, Adam Neumann, Nirav Tolia, etc. surely gripe about.)Last year’s hype around venture capital firms indefinitely holding onto private companies long after they go public is looking like pure bubble thinking. Sequoia’s timing on its all-in-one, hold indefinitely “The Sequoia Capital Fund” looks a little more like one of the excesses from the bull market. But limited partners seem too afraid to do anything to unwind the strategy shift that seems designed to enrich the firm’s general partners. (Reach out to me if you have off-the-record intel on this.)Investors are dramatically slowing the pace of their investments. These funds are going to last years longer than they would have in bull times. Multi-stage investors seem more inclined to double-down on their existing portfolio companies than to make new bets. Bridge rounds are on everyone’s lips. Still, I heard from investors who had made secret Series B and C investments in companies this year. It’s a good time to make a bet on a company that got away for a hype-y Series A round.Startup founders think prospective employees want assurances that their company is really worth what the company says it is. Good private unicorns are in a bit of a bind. Prospective employees are now automatically giving their equity offers a mental haircut based on the market downturn. So good companies have an incentive to reaffirm their valuations with funding rounds during the downturn — even if it otherwise might be smarter to keep their valuations artificially low so as to maintain room to grow should conditions worsen. (I wish employees would get better at assessing companies based on fundamentals, rather than the last tick fundraising round. Employees are basically begging founders to maximize for valuation, which then minimizes employee upside.)Some small-to-medium sized companies are shopping themselves to their rival startups but it’s not always clear why the competitor would want to buy. Why take on additional burn and headcount when all you might end up getting is leads on some new customers? Sure, you might do some venture capital firm a favor, but what’s that really worth?There are some cracks in up-start media world. The most obvious tremor is at BuzzFeed where the stock has sunk 54% in a month. Reporters have been leaving in droves. Meanwhile, The Information lost one of its top editors — Martin Peers. He’s long been a central figure over there. The Information’s up-and-coming venture capital reporter Berber Jin departed to the Wall Street Journal, as did Sarah Krouse who will be covering Netflix for the Journal. Stephen Nellis returned to Reuters. Meanwhile spirits seem strong at my former employer, Bloomberg. The ascendance of the player-coach editor seems to have people upbeat. Sarah Frier is leading big tech coverage and Lucas Shaw (who has been a guest on Dead Cat) is running the show on Hollywood coverage. And somehow Bloomberg just lured back a former star reporter who had left to join the startup ranks: Alex Barinka — who left Bloomberg as a deals reporter to help launch Imran Khan’s Verishop before going over to Stitch Fix — is joining Frier’s team as a social media reporter based in LA. Next week I’m in Toronto for Collision where I’ll be interviewing Uncork Capital’s Andy McLoughlin, Real Ventures’ Janet Bannister, and Left Lane Capital’s Vinny Pujji on a panel Wednesday called “Survival of the leanest: The importance of being capital efficient.” Then, less than an hour later I’ll interview General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja about responsible innovation. On Thursday, I’ll ask “Has the tech bubble burst... again?!” in a panel with FirstMark’s Matt Turck, Lux’s Deena Shakir, and Neo Financial’s Andrew Chau. Expect the most interesting tidbits in this newsletter late next week.Talking about Chesa Boudin on Dead CatMy first meeting in San Francisco started with a tour of The San Francisco Standard, the Michael Moritz-funded local news enterprise. My old editor Jonathan Weber — once the editor of tech media dot-com icon The Industry Standard — is the editor-in-chief over at the SF Standard. Weber, Dead Cat co-host Tom Dotan, and I met up for a nice dinner at The Morris in the Mission. After spending the evening discussing San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s recall, Tom and I convinced Weber to come on the Dead Cat podcast and talk about the Standard and San Francisco politics.Tom thinks I’m going to get eviscerated by San Franciscans for my politics. This is something we’ve never seen before: a New Yorker opining on San Francisco local affairs. I did my best to offend conservatives and liberals alike, maligning the police while rooting for tech’s ascendant influence on San Francisco politics. Weber makes the case for objective, follow-the-reporting local news and outlines the real issues underpinning the recall. He explains how money is simultaneously to blame and not to blame for Boudin’s recall. And he defends the Standard against its critics for its influential story on Boudin’s refusal to make drug arrests. We interrogate what Boudin’s defeat means for the future of progressive politics and the city of San Francisco.Give it a listen.Read the automated transcript. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
Twenty Minute VC Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Don't shield your kids from the world. Kids understand fairness and inequity; they will be better off having exposure to varying perspectives and experiences.Due to overexposure to monoculture and struggle-free lifestyle, “we have a surplus of assholes coming down the pike right now” – Chris SaccaParenting forces work/life balance and efficiency on youIt taught Ann Wojcicki how to delegate; she realized she didn't need to be a part of every meetingIn the words of Deena Shakir, kids give you “ruthless prioritization”Kids value presence over everything.Presence isn't physical, it's mental. Presence is your attention.“Once you have children, the art of being a good parent and the art of being a good leader are the same”– Ian SiegelPatience & Listening: You must be able to suppress your first reaction and think about the outcome you want to createYou can learn a lot about negotiation by becoming a parentDeena Shakir actually recommendsHow to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Julie King as a business book more so than a parenting bookMicromanagement is a poor strategy in both leadership and parenting. You want to model behaviors rather than enforce behaviors.Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Why does Chris believe we have bred a generation of asshole kids? What is the right way to negotiate with children? How has that impacted how he manages his team? Anne Wojcicki is the Founder & CEO @ 23andMe, offering DNA testing with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more. How did having kids change Anne's approach to time allocation and risk? Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. Does Harley believe he has always been a good father? What changes has Harley made to be more present and there for his children? Why does Harley advise couples therapy as early in a relationship as possible? Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. What specific negotiation tactics from parenting can be applied to business? How can a parent show their children they listen, they understand and are there for them? Why does Deena believe children make you more productive and more efficient? Eric Liaw is a General Partner @ IVP, one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. What have been the biggest challenges for Eric of managing family and work? What have been some of Eric's biggest lessons in terms of how he communicates about his work to his family? Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company's CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. What can parents learn from nature programs? What core elements of parenting are directly transferrable to management?
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Why does Chris believe we have bred a generation of asshole kids? What is the right way to negotiate with children? How has that impacted how he manages his team? Anne Wojcicki is the Founder & CEO @ 23andMe, offering DNA testing with the most comprehensive ancestry breakdown, personalized health insights, and more. How did having kids change Anne's approach to time allocation and risk? Harley Finkelstein is the President of Shopify. Over the last 12 years, Harley has partnered with Tobi to the tune of building Shopify's revenue to over $4.6BN in 2021 and the team to over 10,000 employees. Does Harley believe he has always been a good father? What changes has Harley made to be more present and there for his children? Why does Harley advise couples therapy as early in a relationship as possible? Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. What specific negotiation tactics from parenting can be applied to business? How can a parent show their children they listen, they understand and are there for them? Why does Deena believe children make you more productive and more efficient? Eric Liaw is a General Partner @ IVP, one of the leading later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms of the last decade with $8.7 billion of committed capital and a 40-year IRR of 43.1%. What have been the biggest challenges for Eric of managing family and work? What have been some of Eric's biggest lessons in terms of how he communicates about his work to his family? Scott Dietzen is Vice Chairman of the Board of Pure Storage and served as the Company's CEO from 2010 to 2017. Under his leadership, Pure grew to thousands of employees and completed an IPO in 2015. What can parents learn from nature programs? What core elements of parenting are directly transferrable to management?
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, one of the leading firms investing in emerging science and technology ventures at the outermost edges of what is possible. Deena has led a number of investments including in Maven Clinic, Mos, Ramp, Alife and SteadyMD to name a few. Before joining Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV and previously led product partnerships at Google for early-stage products in healthcare, AI/ML and search at Google. Before tech and venture, Deena was an aspiring anthropologist, journalist, diplomat, aid worker and was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton. There Deena helped launch President Obama's first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010. In Today's Episode with Deena Shakir You Will Learn: 1.) Origins into Venture: How Deena made her way from journalism and the world of politics to rockstar healthcare investor? What were Deena's biggest takeaways from seeing her parents build a new life in the US? 2.) Competition in Venture: Why should founders not take multi-stage fund money at seed? What problems does it cause? How do VCs try and justify it? What red flags should founders look for? How does Deena advise her companies when it comes to pre-emptive rounds? When should they take them? When should they not take them? 3.) Deena Shakir: The Person How has becoming a parent changed Deena's operating mentality? Why does Deena believe she has never been better as an investor post becoming a mother? Why does Deena feel so many questions around parenting are wrong? In what ways would she like those questions of female operators and investors to change? 4.) Diversity and Inclusion: We Should Be Optimistic Why is Deena optimistic about the future of diversity and inclusion in tech and venture? What drives her optimism? What remains a cause for concern for Deena on this topic? What more can both companies and venture funds do to improve the landscape? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Deena Shakir Deena's Favourite Book: The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption Deena's Most Recent Investment: Mos: Banking for Students
Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Deena Shakir (@deenashakir), Partner at Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that makes long-term bets on contrarians and outsiders. At Lux, Deena invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods, and she is particularly interested in intersectional and underdog entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies to accelerate advances and equity in human and population health.Since joining Lux in late 2019, Deena has led a number of investments across stages and sectors, including in women's health (Maven Clinic, Alife, Adyn), digital health infrastructure (SteadyMD, H1), health equity (Waymark), and foodtech (Shiru), and fintech (Mos and Ramp). Prior to joining Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), previously led product partnerships at Google for early stage products in healthcare, AI/ML and search at Google, and directed social impact investments at Google.org.Before tech and venture, Deena had diverse partnership-centric experiences as an aspiring anthropologist, journalist, diplomat, aid worker and technologist. She was a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State under Secretary Clinton, where she helped launch President Obama's first Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2010. Her non-traditional path has cultivated Deena's deep conviction in the potential of breakthrough ventures to positively transform the future and garnered her unparalleled network to help them achieve it.Website: Lux CapitalLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/deenashakir/Twitter: @deenashakirShow Notes: Deena's background and how she ended up in VC How her experience across a variety of industries has led to a valuable diverse network How Deena views innovation opportunities in global markets How Deena evaluates the coachability and grittiness of founders Some founders with unique backgrounds that Deena is excited to be working with Deena's strategy around supporting founders The benefits of investing across different stages with Lux Supporting founders through a market downturn Emerging industries where Deena sees a lot of potential Why certain areas such as women's health are underinvested in How Deena began angel investing and breaking down barriers to entry for women Time management and work-life balance Deciding to write a children's book More about the show:The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. More about us:Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVCCaroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/
Today on the Soaked by Slush podcast, we're joined by Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital – the notoriously frontier tech focused fund. We cover topics ranging from recognizing iconic entrepreneurs early to Deena's efforts to write a children's book about a young girl who starts a company. Deena herself has the most fascinating of backgrounds. She is a first-generation daughter of Iraqi immigrants and she self-funded her way through Harvard and Georgetown. After kicking off her career in media, she moved to public service, working for Hillary Clinton's office during the Obama administration, and eventually ended up leading product partnerships at Google before jumping into venture– first at GV and later Lux. At Lux, Deena invests in transformative technologies improving lives – especially in women's health, digital health and the intersection of those. She has led investments in some exceptional companies from Maven Clinic to Ramp.
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital where she likes to invest in underdog entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies to accelerate advances and equity in human and population health. She's led investments into companies like Maven Health; a unicorn in women's and family health and SteadyMD; a telehealth company. She has a very interesting background. She studied at Harvard and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. She was then a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of State. She directed social impact investments at Google.Org. She was partner at GV (previously Google Ventures). She's been named a "top 30 under 40 in healthcare" by Business Insider and “top 9 women to watch in venture capital" by The Wall Street Journal. She is a member of Fortune's Most Powerful Women and a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. We talk about her story, how her network is one of her most important assets and how much VC fits into philanthropy and doing good. I hope you enjoy. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io
On this week’s Dead Cat, Tom Dotan and I reflect on this year’s SXSW. We take stock of the Austin tech scene and ponder what storylines emerged from the mega conference.At the 19:24 mark, VC Jeopardy starts. You can listen in as I host four venture capitalists in a fierce battle of startup-world trivia. Our contestants were Deena Shakir at Lux Capital, Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures, Julian Eison at Next Ventures, and Steve Brotman at Alpha Partners. You can also play along yourself:Here’s a link to the first round questionsHere’s a link to the second round questionsThanks to my dear friends, Max Child and James Wilsterman at Volley for hosting the SXSW event. Wilsterman wrote the Jeopardy questions with some light oversight from yours truly. Volley is a San Francisco-based startup that creates voice-controlled games. The company just announced a partnership with Sony Pictures Television to produce a Jeopardy! game for Amazon’s Alexa and for Google smart devices. Great to see everyone who made it out to the event. Let’s do it again next year!Give the episode a listen. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
In Episode 0 of “Securities” by Lux Capital, Danny Crichton and Chris Gates talk about why the world needs another podcast; Deena Shakir joins to discuss the future of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and a company she funded called Alife Health, and Danny discusses the global challenges that tech must confront in the 2020s. This is Episode 0 — named for the best movie in the Star Wars franchise and where it all begins.
On this week's Dead Cat, Tom Dotan and I reflect on this year's SXSW. We take stock of the Austin tech scene and ponder what storylines emerged from the mega conference.At the 19:24 mark, VC Jeopardy starts. You can listen in as I host four venture capitalists in a fierce battle of startup-world trivia. Our contestants were Deena Shakir at Lux Capital, Charles Hudson at Precursor Ventures, Julian Eison at Next Ventures, and Steve Brotman at Alpha Partners. You can also play along yourself:Here's a link to the first round questionsHere's a link to the second round questionsThanks to my dear friends, Max Child and James Wilsterman at Volley for hosting the SXSW event. Wilsterman wrote the Jeopardy questions with some light oversight from yours truly. Volley is a San Francisco-based startup that creates voice-controlled games. The company just announced a partnership with Sony Pictures Television to produce a Jeopardy! game for Amazon's Alexa and for Google smart devices. Great to see everyone who made it out to the event. Let's do it again next year!Give the episode a listen. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
Patreon CEO Jack Conte took the stage at my first ever SXSW event with a beer in hand. With Dead Cat co-host Tom Dotan, we discussed crowdfunding, OnlyFans, Substack, NFTs, Ukraine, and whether creators are brands.Speaking from the stage at the Volley Game Room at SXSW, Conte explained why his company wouldn’t compete with the likes of Twitter and YouTube to build audiences for the creators that it works with. “Patreon set out to solve a very specific problem. The specific problem we were solving was, there are creators who are getting millions of views, creators who have incredible reach, but they’re being undervalued by society,” Conte said. Conte said that he didn’t think Patreon could compete directly with large social media companies. “I actually don’t know that that’s a war that we would win. Those businesses are solid businesses. They have moats. They have network effects that make it very difficult to break into those worlds. I think Patreon’s best bet at solving this problem of creator payments is focusing very specifically on the problem of creator payments.”Conte seemed to be interested in exploring NFTs but was reticent to say that the company was specifically considering embracing them after receiving backlash on another podcast for even asking a question about NFTs.Toward the end of our conversation, Conte disagreed with journalist Taylor Lorenz’s stance that reporters should worry about their brands. Conte objected to the idea that creators of any sort should be thinking too much about their “brand.”For context, earlier this month, Insider quoted Lorenz in a much-discussed article.“When you think about the future of media, it’s much more distributed and about personalities," said Taylor Lorenz, a former Times tech reporter who recently left for The Washington Post. “Younger people recognize the power of having their own brand and audience, and the longer you stay at a job that restricts you from outside opportunities, the less relevant your brand becomes.”A bunch of political reporters — including the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany — seized on Lorenz’s comments to take issue with the notion that journalists should shape their “brand.”Conte seemed to agree with Lorenz that journalists can increasingly operate independently of newsrooms, but he took issue with the idea that journalists should mind their brands.“Can journalists develop independent followings?” Conte asked rhetorically. “Of course they can.” “Do journalists need to be a part of larger institutions and leverage those institution’s historical reach?”“No, obviously, that is changing.” “But the more interesting part of what you just said is the distinguishing characteristics between this concept of a brand and the concept of a creator,” Conte said.“What I would argue is that those are very f*****g different things. Very different.” “A brand is consistent. It has brand values. It builds trust. It has decks of like its style and its voice and what it sounds like. And if it were a person, what kind of jeans would it wear?”“Like that’s what brands are.”“Brands are not human beings,” he continued. “They’re not.”“Creators are f*****g people. They’re inconsistent. They’re human. They're beautiful. They’re frail. They’re smart. They’re stupid. They’re strategic. They’re impulsive. They’re human beings.” Conte said, “We’re all trying to behave like brands today. And brands are corporations. Like we don’t have to behave like brands.”“When you watch a Prince music video — that f*****g guy is just himself, no matter what. And I don’t want him to behave like Walmart. I want him to be Prince. And my favorite creators, I want them to be themselves and I want them to feel human and I want them to not feel trapped by their brand values. I think it’s a mistake for everybody to think, ‘I need a personal brand. I need to create a brand.’” “Just be yourself.”Next week, look forward to VC Jeopardy with Deena Shakir, Julian Eison, Charles Hudson, and Steve Brotman. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
Patreon CEO Jack Conte took the stage at my first ever SXSW event with a beer in hand. With Dead Cat co-host Tom Dotan, we discussed crowdfunding, OnlyFans, Substack, NFTs, Ukraine, and whether creators are brands.Speaking from the stage at the Volley Game Room at SXSW, Conte explained why his company wouldn't compete with the likes of Twitter and YouTube to build audiences for the creators that it works with. “Patreon set out to solve a very specific problem. The specific problem we were solving was, there are creators who are getting millions of views, creators who have incredible reach, but they're being undervalued by society,” Conte said. Conte said that he didn't think Patreon could compete directly with large social media companies. “I actually don't know that that's a war that we would win. Those businesses are solid businesses. They have moats. They have network effects that make it very difficult to break into those worlds. I think Patreon's best bet at solving this problem of creator payments is focusing very specifically on the problem of creator payments.”Conte seemed to be interested in exploring NFTs but was reticent to say that the company was specifically considering embracing them after receiving backlash on another podcast for even asking a question about NFTs.Toward the end of our conversation, Conte disagreed with journalist Taylor Lorenz's stance that reporters should worry about their brands. Conte objected to the idea that creators of any sort should be thinking too much about their “brand.”For context, earlier this month, Insider quoted Lorenz in a much-discussed article.“When you think about the future of media, it's much more distributed and about personalities," said Taylor Lorenz, a former Times tech reporter who recently left for The Washington Post. “Younger people recognize the power of having their own brand and audience, and the longer you stay at a job that restricts you from outside opportunities, the less relevant your brand becomes.”A bunch of political reporters — including the New York Times' Maggie Haberman and Washington Post reporter Jacqueline Alemany — seized on Lorenz's comments to take issue with the notion that journalists should shape their “brand.”Conte seemed to agree with Lorenz that journalists can increasingly operate independently of newsrooms, but he took issue with the idea that journalists should mind their brands.“Can journalists develop independent followings?” Conte asked rhetorically. “Of course they can.” “Do journalists need to be a part of larger institutions and leverage those institution's historical reach?”“No, obviously, that is changing.” “But the more interesting part of what you just said is the distinguishing characteristics between this concept of a brand and the concept of a creator,” Conte said.“What I would argue is that those are very f*****g different things. Very different.” “A brand is consistent. It has brand values. It builds trust. It has decks of like its style and its voice and what it sounds like. And if it were a person, what kind of jeans would it wear?”“Like that's what brands are.”“Brands are not human beings,” he continued. “They're not.”“Creators are f*****g people. They're inconsistent. They're human. They're beautiful. They're frail. They're smart. They're stupid. They're strategic. They're impulsive. They're human beings.” Conte said, “We're all trying to behave like brands today. And brands are corporations. Like we don't have to behave like brands.”“When you watch a Prince music video — that f*****g guy is just himself, no matter what. And I don't want him to behave like Walmart. I want him to be Prince. And my favorite creators, I want them to be themselves and I want them to feel human and I want them to not feel trapped by their brand values. I think it's a mistake for everybody to think, ‘I need a personal brand. I need to create a brand.'” “Just be yourself.”Next week, look forward to VC Jeopardy with Deena Shakir, Julian Eison, Charles Hudson, and Steve Brotman. Get full access to Newcomer at www.newcomer.co/subscribe
Continuing her series on women leading deep tech investments, VP at Boost VC, Maddie Callander, sat down with Lux Capital Partner, Deena Shakir, to discuss her journey to venture and how she approaches solving some of the world's biggest problems. Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies streamlining analog industries and improving lives and livelihoods. She is particularly interested in intersectional and polymath entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies and accelerating advances and equity in human and population health.
Her Story - Envisioning the Leadership Possibilities in Healthcare
Meet Deena Shakir:Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital and a Lecturer in Management at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She serves on the board of directors for multiple organizations including Maven Clinic, SteadyMD, Alife Health, H1, Adyn, Shiru, and AllStripes. Prior to Lux, Deena was a Partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures). She received a BA in Social Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University, and an MA in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Key Insights:Deena Shakir is an accomplished venture capitalist, and particularly interested in intersectional and underdog entrepreneurs.Non-Linear Path. Lots of different career paths or backgrounds can lead to venture capital. However, Deena discusses how building bridges and unexpected partnerships is a key component of her success. (11:48)Embracing Personal Experiences. Deena emphasizes the value of bringing personal experience to building and investing in firms. Her own life-threatening pregnancies exposed to Deena broken aspects of healthcare, and gave her the conviction to invest in women's health innovations. (14:23)Don't Put Yourself in a Box. Deena encourages young leaders to take risks earlier in their career, and not let yourself or other put you in a box. Having a combination of soft and technical skills is important for any field. (22:17)This episode is hosted by Sanjula Jain, Ph.D. She is a member of the Advisory Council for Her Story, co-founder of Think Medium, and SVP of Market Strategy and Chief Research Office at Trilliant Health.Relevant Links:Check out Deena's websiteFollow Deena on Twitter“Operators Are the New ‘It' VCs: 10 Lessons On Making The Transition” by Deena Shakir“Top health tech VC Deena Shakir likes underdogs — Why she says her Arab-American identity gives her an edge” from CNBC
It was a record year for female founders in 2021: Women raised roughly $40 billion, nearly doubling a record set in 2019. Women-led companies outperformed the market and found quicker "exits." What will 2022 bring? Barron's hosts a conversation with investors Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital and Stacie Olivares, a former member of the CalPERS Board.
Following Tech Bites tradition, the last show of the year is a look into the future of trends and innovations. What do some of the top women in food tech see for 2022? Tech Bites host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Dr. Jasmin Hume, Founder and CEO of Shiru, a biotechnology company addressing a critical need in the food industry by providing access to more sustainable and healthy ingredients. Shiru is fueled by data-driven discovery, combining machine learning and fermentation to uncover functional alternative proteins from nature. Joining the discussion are two of Shiru's board members: Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm with $4B under management, and Mary T. Clarke, Senior Vice President of Innovation for the Taste & Beyond division of Firmenich, the largest privately-owned company in the flavor and fragrance sector. This episode of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of Rt. 11 Potato Chips.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.
After news broke that meditation app Headspace and on-demand mental health care platform Ginger were merging, we couldn't resist hopping on the mics to do a bonus episode. And, because we were in the mood for hot takes, Natasha and Alex held the conversation on Twitter Spaces. The special guests we had on, who we'll get to down below, did not disappoint.It's a quick show, but the tl;dr is that you want to listen if you're curious why a meditation app would get into therapy, the precedent by Lyra Health and Calm, and how consolidation looks for the sector going forward.Here's who helped us understand and contextualize the news:Lux Capital partner Deena Shakir (who is also coming to Disrupt, incidentally)Chrissy Farr of OMERS Ventures (who you may also know as a former CNBC reporter in the healthech space)7WireVentures' Alyssa Jaffee (who needs her own podcast because she was shining during the Spaces)And, special shout out to Ginger CEO Russell Glass, who joined the Space but wasn't able to come up on stage due to technical difficulties. Twitter Spaces are fun, but the platform is still a bit nascent so goofs can bedevil live production.However, we managed to get some notes from him via email, so let's take a quick look at those:Glass said that he agreed with "what Chrissy Farr and others said about there simply not being enough therapists in the market today to meet the overwhelming demand," adding that there's "real global need today for what Headspace Health can offer - a scaled, comprehensive platform that can truly democratize mental healthcare."He also doubleclicked on the discussing regarding future "meaningful market consolidation," noting that he expects to see it "especially" happen in "areas that address higher acuity care for severe mental illness.”Make sure you are following the podcast on Twitter so that you catch us when we go live. These are meant to be spontaneous pop up shows, so your best bet is to turn on notifications to never miss our Spaces. Ok that's all. Thanks everyone!
After news broke that meditation app Headspace and on-demand mental health care platform Ginger were merging, we couldn't resist hopping on the mics to do a bonus episode. And, because we were in the mood for hot takes, Natasha and Alex held the conversation on Twitter Spaces. The special guests we had on, who we'll get to down below, did not disappoint.It's a quick show, but the tl;dr is that you want to listen if you're curious why a meditation app would get into therapy, the precedent by Lyra Health and Calm, and how consolidation looks for the sector going forward.Here's who helped us understand and contextualize the news:Lux Capital partner Deena Shakir (who is also coming to Disrupt, incidentally)Chrissy Farr of OMERS Ventures (who you may also know as a former CNBC reporter in the healthech space)7WireVentures' Alyssa Jaffee (who needs her own podcast because she was shining during the Spaces)And, special shout out to Ginger CEO Russell Glass, who joined the Space but wasn't able to come up on stage due to technical difficulties. Twitter Spaces are fun, but the platform is still a bit nascent so goofs can bedevil live production.However, we managed to get some notes from him via email, so let's take a quick look at those:Glass said that he agreed with "what Chrissy Farr and others said about there simply not being enough therapists in the market today to meet the overwhelming demand," adding that there's "real global need today for what Headspace Health can offer - a scaled, comprehensive platform that can truly democratize mental healthcare."He also doubleclicked on the discussing regarding future "meaningful market consolidation," noting that he expects to see it "especially" happen in "areas that address higher acuity care for severe mental illness.”Make sure you are following the podcast on Twitter so that you catch us when we go live. These are meant to be spontaneous pop up shows, so your best bet is to turn on notifications to never miss our Spaces. Ok that's all. Thanks everyone!
Deena Shakir always optimized her career for impact — though she could have never imagined that it would land her in venture capital. After a brief career in journalism, Deena served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. State Department under Secretary Clinton. Listen to Deena's unconventional (though very logical) journey from D.C., to Google.org, to a partner at LUX Capital where she invests in health tech startups today. Follow Deena on Twitter --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/laylool/message
Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a special Moms in VC episode featuring Aileen Lee, Founder & Managing Partner, Cowboy Ventures, Anarghya Vardhana, Partner, Maveron, and Deena Shakir, Partner, Lux Capital. Harlem Capital Principal, Kelly Goldstein leads the conversation with these power house VCs to learn from their experiences, perspective, and advice on VC and motherhood. Listen in to discover what it's like to be a mom in vc and how the broader investing and entrepreneurial ecosystem can foster a supportive and empowering workplace culture.
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital. She invests in transformative technologies streamlining analog industries and improving lives and livelihoods. She is particularly interested in intersectional and polymath entrepreneurs building breakthrough companies and accelerating advances and equity in human and population health. Shakir joined Lux Capital as a Partner in late 2019. She has led Lux's investments in Adyn, SteadyMD, H1, Shiru, Mos, and Neo.tax, among others. She is a founding VC member of the Valence Funding Network for Black entrepreneurs, and a public commentator on diversity and inclusion in venture capital and technology. Shakir's investment interests are mainly in emerging technologies with a focus on digital health and AI for analog industries. ————————————————————————— For podcast transcripts and show notes, visit *salt.org/talks* ( http://salt.org/talks ) Watch this video on YouTube: *https://youtu.be/k5np6XEVfmE* ( https://youtu.be/k5np6XEVfmE ) Developed, created and produced by SALT Venture Group, LLC. Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.
Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers.
Deena Shakir is a General Partner at Lux Capital, a firm founded in 2000 and has since raised $2.5 billion. Lux invests in emerging science and deep technology startups such as Auris Health, Cerulean, Zoox, and Bright Machines. Deena graduated from Harvard undergrad and began her career as a presidential management fellow at the US Department of State, where she built partnerships with tech companies and helped launch President Obama’s global entrepreneurship summit in 2010. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com