AI transcript
and you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lag or if I don’t feel well it’s
not like the judges care. So at eight years old it started to get really intense
and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I would train
somewhere between four to seven hours a day. When I was training for the Olympics
like if I was tired I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days
where I didn’t sleep well. It took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors
would say to me well you just have anxiety and depression and I’d say well
I didn’t mention anything to you about anxiety or depression why do you say
that and they say well you know I’ve read your story in the news. What if you
have an underlying issue that could have been fixed what if there’s an
underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years. Building a successful
business can feel like landing a backflip on a balance beam which
impressively enough some humans have figured out. One foot wrong and it all
comes tumbling down but get it right and you might just see gold. With the
greatest event in sports just weeks away we’re sharing an episode that bridges
these two worlds of elite athletics and elite entrepreneurship straight from a
two-time Olympic athlete herself. This episode originally published on our
sister podcast Raising Health features the one and only Allie Raceman. Allie
has six Olympic medals under her belt and she’s recently pivoted her pursuit
of excellence towards health in the many forms of it from women’s health and
fertility to mental health. Here Allie also discusses with a 16z general partner
Julie Yu and investing partner Daisy Wolfe the parallels of being a founder
and an Olympian both requiring consistent performance at an elite level but
also the intensity of being judged against the best in the world and
equally what is like to transition from that lifestyle to investing so that she
can scale her impact. Now for more episodes just like this don’t forget to
search Raising Health wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to look out
for future Olympic themed episodes in the weeks to come right here on the a 16z
podcast. But for now we bring you two-time Olympian Allie Raceman.
Hello and welcome to Raising Health where we explore the real challenges and
enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs for building the future of
health.
I’m Olivia and I’m Chris. Today’s episode is with Allie Raceman a two-time
Olympic gymnast investor and part of a 16z cultural leadership fund. She is
joined by Julie Yu and Daisy Wolfe of a 16z bio and health. Allie chats about her
background how she thinks about health and fitness now that she is no longer
competing and a few of her passion projects including financial literacy.
Allie also talks about her latest forays into investing in how she appreciates
and empathizes with founders tunnel vision and work ethic. And I just really
respect founders because they’re working so hard and I can’t imagine how
stressful it is and I think it’s cool that they’re seeing something that’s
lacking or seeing something they want to do differently and they’re solving a
problem and fixing it. You’re listening to Raising Health from a 16z bio and
health. Allie Raceman no introduction needed obviously you are a total star
and everyone obviously knows you as being one of the most decorated American
Olympic gymnasts of all time. And I personally believe that gymnastics is
just the extreme elite of elite of all professional sports. So first and foremost
congratulations on an amazing career and just inspiring so many folks including
ourselves and thank you for being with us here today. Well thank you so
much that’s so sweet. I am so excited to be here with both of you and thank you
both also for all of your support. You’ve been so helpful in my new
investing journeys. Absolutely you have really been campaigning for many many
things amongst which is health and you’ve been really a strong advocate for
everything from from mental health to physical health and body positivity for
women improving health care overall as a system and even something that’s near
and dear to our heart which is financial health for all consumers. And so what
we’re hoping to do today is just walk through some of these areas and really
just hear your perspective on all of these different flavors of health. Let’s
start with physical health. Allie as an Olympic athlete you’ve spent a lot of
time thinking about how to stay healthy and maintaining a sense of well-being and
we’re curious just how this carries over into your life now. What are wellness
strategies that you employ in your post gymnastics life. Yeah so I’ve learned a
lot in the last several years about my own mental health and also just my own
physical health. I think that mental health is much more of a conversation now
than it was when I was training and I was competing in gymnastics. However even
so there’s still such a stigma and there’s still so many people that are
suffering in silence. I do reflect a lot and wish that a lot of the tools that
I’ve learned now and I’m still learning I wish I had when I was younger. It’s
really interesting because when I was training and competing you know for
example if I had an ankle injury I would do whatever I could to heal my ankle I
would do recovery I would I said heat it whatever I needed and I also did a lot
of physical therapy for it but there just wasn’t that same emphasis on the
mental health aspect of it which I think was a huge problem and I didn’t know
that at the time but you know competing at such a high level I was obviously so
nervous and so stressed and it’s kind of crazy to look back I didn’t really have
any tools to help me calm down in those moments so I have been on this journey of
just really trying to figure out how to just be calm. I kind of let go of this
idea of like one day I’m gonna feel perfect I’m gonna feel happy all the
time I think that’s extremely unrealistic there’s so many things in life
that can happen and so I guess the way that I take care of my mental and
physical health today is that I see a therapist weekly which has been super
helpful and I plan to do that for a long time it’s so fascinating to me because
when I really take care of my nutrition and I feel like my mental health is so
much better even if something my friends make fun of me even if something
tastes disgusting but it’s really good for me it makes me feel good I’m gonna
eat it and I do wish that I had this when I was competing and when I was
training. What kind of exercise do you do in your post gymnastics life? I get asked
this a lot and I think people would be really shocked I think people think I’m
being like modest or I’m kidding but I honestly don’t work out that much so
first of all I spent most of my life in a gym I started gymnastics and I was two
years old and at the age of eight I was so busy with my gymnastics career that
my coach has said that if you want to go to the next level and you want to get
better you have to stop everything out so I eight years old it started to get
really intense and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I
would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day and it was like really
intensely training I still feel like I’m recovering from it because it was
exhausting so part of it is it’s nice now to be in control and to not have to
go to the gym every single day I will also say that I believe that working out
can be really good for our mental health so I’ve kind of had to learn how to
like re-enjoy working out because I feel like for so long it was so just intense
I did the same thing every single day and I felt like no matter what I did there
was always something that needed improvement which it never got boring
but it was just a lot of pressure my workouts mostly consist of walking a
lot and people always laugh when I speak at events because I say I walk on the
treadmill on an incline and people think that’s so funny because I think people
expect me to do more however I experience like such major burnout when I
finish competing you know I don’t have a goal of like looking a certain way when
I work out I just want to feel good and that was also challenging for me going
from working out seven hours to actually working on the mental side of that and
being okay with okay today I just walked for 20 minutes but I’m doing the best
that I can. Hey I think it’s super fun that we just learned that Allie Reisman
walks uphill on a treadmill so now that now when I go do that at the gym I’m
just gonna call that the Allie Reisman workout and we’re gonna make that a
thing so thank you for normalizing that. You mentioned you know the kind of the
change that from like being in such a high-pressure environment from a workout
perspective and then sort of the opposite of that the other thing we
sometimes hear from athletes after they retire is that the kind of motion of
having a day-to-day coaching regimen as well of just having so much structure in
your life and then going into an environment where you don’t have that
do you feel like there’s this void in your life of someone who is gonna you
know every day when you wake up tell you okay here are the ten things you need to
do. So it’s so funny it’s like if I’m in a yoga class like I don’t want the
teacher to tell me anything like I’ve had enough coaching in my life where I
think that it depends on what the coaching is when it comes to working out
like I don’t want any coaching if I’m like doing a cycling class or if I’m
doing yoga or something and the teacher corrects me or they try to push me I’m
like I’ve had enough of that in my life I love being able to just go to a class
and if I just feel tired or I don’t feel well I can just like sit there and
relax because when I was training for the Olympics like if I was tired I felt
like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn’t sleep well he’d
be like okay well too bad if you don’t sleep well the night before the Olympics
we need to push you more today so that you feel more prepared because when
you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lagged or if I don’t feel well it’s
not like the judges care if I’m like hey can I do this tomorrow instead it’s not
an option you’ve got you know your one opportunity so I actually feel the
opposite where I love sort of having the flexibility and I love being in
control of doing what feels right for my body yeah and what’s also so inspiring
hearing you talk Ali is that you could have done anything with your time once
you retired from gymnastics the fact that you’re putting so much energy into
multiple ways to make an impact at different levels is really incredible
and the fact that you also have time to invest is even more incredible because
we know how much work that is as well we all do investing for different reasons
folks like Daisy and myself we’ve been builders and companies before in a past
life and after building one company for a long period of time I think many of us
recognize that there’s this sort of horizontal opportunity to really build a
portfolio of opportunities to make an impact at the industry level versus that
just as one individual company can you share with us what was your inspiration
what’s the why behind your time that you’re spending on the investing side
and and what’s it been like it’s been so fun and I really love the experience of
learning about investing and meeting with founders I became really passionate
about financial literacy I think that financial literacy and mental health are
very correlated because I feel like I don’t know if I know anyone who like
doesn’t feel stressed about finances some capacity and our system is kind of set
up to make it really confusing and hard to understand I’m very very passionate
about pushing that conversation because I think that in schools as early as kids
can really understand I think that they should be taught about like finances and
the importance of speaking up and asking questions and I know sometimes when
you’re in a classroom it can be intimidating to ask questions and I
kind of just told myself that I’m gonna get into this like financial world or
this investing world I’m just gonna make a pact with myself that I’m not going to
be afraid to ask questions but I think that I found out really quickly when I
started to learn about my own finances I felt like I was like being put in this
box of a dumb athlete and so I just felt very overwhelmed and I also realized how
much anxiety it was giving me not understanding and I really believe that
like knowledge is power and I think why I say it’s correlated to mental health
because the more that I learned about finances the more confident I became
and there’s so much shame around talking about money and so I just became
really interested in that idea of like why is it so hard to talk about and if
it was more normalized would more people be able to understand how to better
save their money and if people felt less shame around asking questions I think
it could really make a big difference and I’ve been fortunate since I was about
17 years old getting to work with a lot of different companies and so it got me
really interested in learning more about like the behind the scenes of how these
companies operate and then I got excited about this idea of meeting with founders
where they’re seeing something that’s lacking or seeing something they want to
do differently and they’re solving a problem and fixing it. Similarly with my
gymnastics career it was like the same thing all the time you’re so focused you
have this like tunnel vision and I just really respect founders because they’re
working so hard and I can’t imagine how stressful it is and just like the whole
process of raising money and there’s probably so many different stressors
that I don’t even know the first thing about but I just really admire and
respect their work ethic and their passion. I’m sure the founders who are
listening to this will absolutely appreciate your last comments there and
perhaps on a future podcast we can debate whether it’s harder to raise
capital in this market or win a gold medal at the Olympic gymnastics
competition but actually that is what we hope to achieve with our health care
system at some point but we all know that the system fails every day in many
many ways to achieve anything close to that so curious what are some of the
areas that do inspire you to invest in from a health care lens? Yeah well it’s
interesting I mean I’m obviously a patient and so I have you know seen a
lot of different doctors over the years a couple of years ago one of my best
friends Abby had stage 4 cancer and she thankfully is in remission and she has a
beautiful healthy baby so I’m so thankful and just forever grateful to her
doctors for truly saving her life but her and I we’ve had a lot of
conversations around just watching her go through that horrific experience and
just the anxiety, the mental health side of having cancer and she talks about how
there are some doctors who are amazing and then there’s some that are not
amazing and you know when she was in the hospital she told me that there are
certain instances where like she could hear the doctors or nurses like making
fun of patients when she’s resting and laying in bed and I think that the
patient experience should be more front and center for doctors because you know
I obviously have the utmost respect for doctors but as a patient a lot of people
I don’t think are comfortable speaking up for themselves or advocating for
themselves and so you know while I talked about mental health a lot and how
it’s more normalized and there’s still a stigma I actually found it took me so
long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me well you just have
anxiety and depression and I’d say well I didn’t mention anything to you about
anxiety or depression what why do you say that and they say well you know I’ve
read your story in the news and I’m like okay well now I feel like you’re not
really paying attention to me as the patient and you’re like making an
assumption based off of what you saw in the news and so that was really
challenging for me and I find that incredibly unprofessional and even if
somebody is you know they are feeling sick from mental health I feel like the
doctors are just like oh just go to a therapist like see you next year but
there’s like no step to help somebody get the therapist but back to your
question about what I’m really interested in I find myself at the age of
29 I’m really interested in women’s health but particularly the fertility
space and at the age where some of my friends I’ve had babies some of them are
pregnant some of them are freezing their eggs we’re all kind of all in
different stages and I just find it very odd that so many women we don’t
realize if we’re gonna have trouble getting pregnant until we actually want
to start getting pregnant and I just think like if there was something that
when whatever age doctors think is appropriate whether it’s in your early
20s or in your late teenagers I don’t know I’m not a doctor but I think that
this idea of just what if you have an underlying issue that could have been
fixed what if there’s an underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years
and if you fix it 10 years ago from a blood test or something then it wouldn’t
have affected you and I think in this world where miscarriages and infertility
is so common and postpartum there’s so many things that women suffer and go
through and there’s just not good solutions and then also we get our
period every single month and I know a lot of women that like at least one day
to multiple days of the month we feel terrible I just don’t think there is
enough conversation and research into women’s health and I don’t think it’s
acceptable that it’s normalized that so many women have postpartum and there’s
not a solution to help women as they’re navigating that huge change in their
life yeah that’s incredible I mean you touched on like access issues referral
issues variants and care delivery across doctors and so much of you know when
you described as kind of the challenges of health care I’ll also boil down to be
payment model and kind of the payment incentive that drive all these are
rational behaviors that we we think are completely insane but are sort of like
the way the system was designed and so I would just say that you know we know
that the future is bright we get to meet with these amazing entrepreneurs who
are challenging the status quo every single day and so I think there’s a lot
to be excited about I had the chance to do a clinical rotation during grad school
and happen to get matched to the breast cancer radiology clinic at one of the
major hospitals in Boston and as I was doing my rotation saw all these
procedures being done a mammogram a biopsy etc we had to write a report
afterwards as kind of a thesis and mine was effectively it’s very clear that all
of these devices and machines were designed by men and not taking into
account at all what that user experience is as a female being subject to these
procedures so and there’s a ton of opportunity there yeah I’ve done a lot
of calls and worked with a lot of companies over the years where it might
be like a company that’s around women’s health but then a lot of the execs are
men and men are welcome I think there’s so many amazing men in my life and I’m
really grateful for that but if you’re doing a product that’s for women it’s
really important to also talk to women and have them be a huge part of the
conversation to make sure you’re making a product that is helpful and feels good
for them amen okay this is amazing Ellie because with my past entrepreneur hat on
and thinking about like you as a potential investor in my company you’ve
already shown that like you’re a patient and you can bring that perspective
you’re a survivor you can bring that perspective you’re a start athlete and
you can bring sort of that brand and start power to the table as well what
do you want entrepreneurs to know about your unique value proposition and and
maybe the broader set of value propositions that professional athletes
can bring to entrepreneurs when they invest in their companies yeah well
thank you sometimes my perspective as like being a survivor of abuse and how
that might be like less triggering or easier for someone to use I have sort
of brought that perspective if it’s in the health care space and then of course
as an athlete I’m very fortunate to have the platform that I have so I think
where it makes sense most of the companies I invest in I do it privately
but there are some that we decide together it makes sense to do a
partnership and to promote it the campaigns that I do publicly that are
just like pushing a product that don’t talk about like something philanthropic
whether it’s a beast prevention for me or mental health they don’t really do
well and I honestly frankly don’t do that anymore where it’s just like a
specific product like we always try to make it more of a conversation and how
is it authentic to me is it something that I really use is it something that
really aligns and fits in with my values and I’ve seen firsthand how my most
successful campaigns I’ve actually been able to be a part of the marketing side
of it where I can like meet with like the CMO or the CEO and there’s been many
campaigns I’ve been a part of where I’ve actually been able to be a part of
those like brainstorming marketing conversations which is just so fun this
generation really votes for their dollar and people really want to support
companies that they believe in that are doing good and aren’t just like trying
to sell a product they also have found the more honest I’ve been I’ve been so
surprised so many people can actually relate to what I’ve experienced well
Ali you are to use the technical term freaking amazing thank you so much for
spending your time with us today you’re a truly inspiration to everyone and on
behalf of everyone in health care we are just incredibly grateful that you are
bringing your energy to our space because we we definitely need it thank you
so much thank you both
thank you for listening to Raising Health Raising Health is hosted and
produced by me Chris Tatiosian and me Olivia Webb with the help of the bio
and health team at A16Z the show is edited by Phil Hegseth if you want to
suggest topics for future shows you can reach us at raisinghealth@a16z.com
finally please rate and subscribe to our show the content here is for
informational purposes only should not be taken as legal business tax or
investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security and is not
directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund please
note that A16Z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies
discussed in this podcast for more details including a link to our
investments please see A16Z.com/disclosures
[BLANK_AUDIO]
not like the judges care. So at eight years old it started to get really intense
and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I would train
somewhere between four to seven hours a day. When I was training for the Olympics
like if I was tired I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days
where I didn’t sleep well. It took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors
would say to me well you just have anxiety and depression and I’d say well
I didn’t mention anything to you about anxiety or depression why do you say
that and they say well you know I’ve read your story in the news. What if you
have an underlying issue that could have been fixed what if there’s an
underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years. Building a successful
business can feel like landing a backflip on a balance beam which
impressively enough some humans have figured out. One foot wrong and it all
comes tumbling down but get it right and you might just see gold. With the
greatest event in sports just weeks away we’re sharing an episode that bridges
these two worlds of elite athletics and elite entrepreneurship straight from a
two-time Olympic athlete herself. This episode originally published on our
sister podcast Raising Health features the one and only Allie Raceman. Allie
has six Olympic medals under her belt and she’s recently pivoted her pursuit
of excellence towards health in the many forms of it from women’s health and
fertility to mental health. Here Allie also discusses with a 16z general partner
Julie Yu and investing partner Daisy Wolfe the parallels of being a founder
and an Olympian both requiring consistent performance at an elite level but
also the intensity of being judged against the best in the world and
equally what is like to transition from that lifestyle to investing so that she
can scale her impact. Now for more episodes just like this don’t forget to
search Raising Health wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to look out
for future Olympic themed episodes in the weeks to come right here on the a 16z
podcast. But for now we bring you two-time Olympian Allie Raceman.
Hello and welcome to Raising Health where we explore the real challenges and
enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs for building the future of
health.
I’m Olivia and I’m Chris. Today’s episode is with Allie Raceman a two-time
Olympic gymnast investor and part of a 16z cultural leadership fund. She is
joined by Julie Yu and Daisy Wolfe of a 16z bio and health. Allie chats about her
background how she thinks about health and fitness now that she is no longer
competing and a few of her passion projects including financial literacy.
Allie also talks about her latest forays into investing in how she appreciates
and empathizes with founders tunnel vision and work ethic. And I just really
respect founders because they’re working so hard and I can’t imagine how
stressful it is and I think it’s cool that they’re seeing something that’s
lacking or seeing something they want to do differently and they’re solving a
problem and fixing it. You’re listening to Raising Health from a 16z bio and
health. Allie Raceman no introduction needed obviously you are a total star
and everyone obviously knows you as being one of the most decorated American
Olympic gymnasts of all time. And I personally believe that gymnastics is
just the extreme elite of elite of all professional sports. So first and foremost
congratulations on an amazing career and just inspiring so many folks including
ourselves and thank you for being with us here today. Well thank you so
much that’s so sweet. I am so excited to be here with both of you and thank you
both also for all of your support. You’ve been so helpful in my new
investing journeys. Absolutely you have really been campaigning for many many
things amongst which is health and you’ve been really a strong advocate for
everything from from mental health to physical health and body positivity for
women improving health care overall as a system and even something that’s near
and dear to our heart which is financial health for all consumers. And so what
we’re hoping to do today is just walk through some of these areas and really
just hear your perspective on all of these different flavors of health. Let’s
start with physical health. Allie as an Olympic athlete you’ve spent a lot of
time thinking about how to stay healthy and maintaining a sense of well-being and
we’re curious just how this carries over into your life now. What are wellness
strategies that you employ in your post gymnastics life. Yeah so I’ve learned a
lot in the last several years about my own mental health and also just my own
physical health. I think that mental health is much more of a conversation now
than it was when I was training and I was competing in gymnastics. However even
so there’s still such a stigma and there’s still so many people that are
suffering in silence. I do reflect a lot and wish that a lot of the tools that
I’ve learned now and I’m still learning I wish I had when I was younger. It’s
really interesting because when I was training and competing you know for
example if I had an ankle injury I would do whatever I could to heal my ankle I
would do recovery I would I said heat it whatever I needed and I also did a lot
of physical therapy for it but there just wasn’t that same emphasis on the
mental health aspect of it which I think was a huge problem and I didn’t know
that at the time but you know competing at such a high level I was obviously so
nervous and so stressed and it’s kind of crazy to look back I didn’t really have
any tools to help me calm down in those moments so I have been on this journey of
just really trying to figure out how to just be calm. I kind of let go of this
idea of like one day I’m gonna feel perfect I’m gonna feel happy all the
time I think that’s extremely unrealistic there’s so many things in life
that can happen and so I guess the way that I take care of my mental and
physical health today is that I see a therapist weekly which has been super
helpful and I plan to do that for a long time it’s so fascinating to me because
when I really take care of my nutrition and I feel like my mental health is so
much better even if something my friends make fun of me even if something
tastes disgusting but it’s really good for me it makes me feel good I’m gonna
eat it and I do wish that I had this when I was competing and when I was
training. What kind of exercise do you do in your post gymnastics life? I get asked
this a lot and I think people would be really shocked I think people think I’m
being like modest or I’m kidding but I honestly don’t work out that much so
first of all I spent most of my life in a gym I started gymnastics and I was two
years old and at the age of eight I was so busy with my gymnastics career that
my coach has said that if you want to go to the next level and you want to get
better you have to stop everything out so I eight years old it started to get
really intense and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I
would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day and it was like really
intensely training I still feel like I’m recovering from it because it was
exhausting so part of it is it’s nice now to be in control and to not have to
go to the gym every single day I will also say that I believe that working out
can be really good for our mental health so I’ve kind of had to learn how to
like re-enjoy working out because I feel like for so long it was so just intense
I did the same thing every single day and I felt like no matter what I did there
was always something that needed improvement which it never got boring
but it was just a lot of pressure my workouts mostly consist of walking a
lot and people always laugh when I speak at events because I say I walk on the
treadmill on an incline and people think that’s so funny because I think people
expect me to do more however I experience like such major burnout when I
finish competing you know I don’t have a goal of like looking a certain way when
I work out I just want to feel good and that was also challenging for me going
from working out seven hours to actually working on the mental side of that and
being okay with okay today I just walked for 20 minutes but I’m doing the best
that I can. Hey I think it’s super fun that we just learned that Allie Reisman
walks uphill on a treadmill so now that now when I go do that at the gym I’m
just gonna call that the Allie Reisman workout and we’re gonna make that a
thing so thank you for normalizing that. You mentioned you know the kind of the
change that from like being in such a high-pressure environment from a workout
perspective and then sort of the opposite of that the other thing we
sometimes hear from athletes after they retire is that the kind of motion of
having a day-to-day coaching regimen as well of just having so much structure in
your life and then going into an environment where you don’t have that
do you feel like there’s this void in your life of someone who is gonna you
know every day when you wake up tell you okay here are the ten things you need to
do. So it’s so funny it’s like if I’m in a yoga class like I don’t want the
teacher to tell me anything like I’ve had enough coaching in my life where I
think that it depends on what the coaching is when it comes to working out
like I don’t want any coaching if I’m like doing a cycling class or if I’m
doing yoga or something and the teacher corrects me or they try to push me I’m
like I’ve had enough of that in my life I love being able to just go to a class
and if I just feel tired or I don’t feel well I can just like sit there and
relax because when I was training for the Olympics like if I was tired I felt
like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn’t sleep well he’d
be like okay well too bad if you don’t sleep well the night before the Olympics
we need to push you more today so that you feel more prepared because when
you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lagged or if I don’t feel well it’s
not like the judges care if I’m like hey can I do this tomorrow instead it’s not
an option you’ve got you know your one opportunity so I actually feel the
opposite where I love sort of having the flexibility and I love being in
control of doing what feels right for my body yeah and what’s also so inspiring
hearing you talk Ali is that you could have done anything with your time once
you retired from gymnastics the fact that you’re putting so much energy into
multiple ways to make an impact at different levels is really incredible
and the fact that you also have time to invest is even more incredible because
we know how much work that is as well we all do investing for different reasons
folks like Daisy and myself we’ve been builders and companies before in a past
life and after building one company for a long period of time I think many of us
recognize that there’s this sort of horizontal opportunity to really build a
portfolio of opportunities to make an impact at the industry level versus that
just as one individual company can you share with us what was your inspiration
what’s the why behind your time that you’re spending on the investing side
and and what’s it been like it’s been so fun and I really love the experience of
learning about investing and meeting with founders I became really passionate
about financial literacy I think that financial literacy and mental health are
very correlated because I feel like I don’t know if I know anyone who like
doesn’t feel stressed about finances some capacity and our system is kind of set
up to make it really confusing and hard to understand I’m very very passionate
about pushing that conversation because I think that in schools as early as kids
can really understand I think that they should be taught about like finances and
the importance of speaking up and asking questions and I know sometimes when
you’re in a classroom it can be intimidating to ask questions and I
kind of just told myself that I’m gonna get into this like financial world or
this investing world I’m just gonna make a pact with myself that I’m not going to
be afraid to ask questions but I think that I found out really quickly when I
started to learn about my own finances I felt like I was like being put in this
box of a dumb athlete and so I just felt very overwhelmed and I also realized how
much anxiety it was giving me not understanding and I really believe that
like knowledge is power and I think why I say it’s correlated to mental health
because the more that I learned about finances the more confident I became
and there’s so much shame around talking about money and so I just became
really interested in that idea of like why is it so hard to talk about and if
it was more normalized would more people be able to understand how to better
save their money and if people felt less shame around asking questions I think
it could really make a big difference and I’ve been fortunate since I was about
17 years old getting to work with a lot of different companies and so it got me
really interested in learning more about like the behind the scenes of how these
companies operate and then I got excited about this idea of meeting with founders
where they’re seeing something that’s lacking or seeing something they want to
do differently and they’re solving a problem and fixing it. Similarly with my
gymnastics career it was like the same thing all the time you’re so focused you
have this like tunnel vision and I just really respect founders because they’re
working so hard and I can’t imagine how stressful it is and just like the whole
process of raising money and there’s probably so many different stressors
that I don’t even know the first thing about but I just really admire and
respect their work ethic and their passion. I’m sure the founders who are
listening to this will absolutely appreciate your last comments there and
perhaps on a future podcast we can debate whether it’s harder to raise
capital in this market or win a gold medal at the Olympic gymnastics
competition but actually that is what we hope to achieve with our health care
system at some point but we all know that the system fails every day in many
many ways to achieve anything close to that so curious what are some of the
areas that do inspire you to invest in from a health care lens? Yeah well it’s
interesting I mean I’m obviously a patient and so I have you know seen a
lot of different doctors over the years a couple of years ago one of my best
friends Abby had stage 4 cancer and she thankfully is in remission and she has a
beautiful healthy baby so I’m so thankful and just forever grateful to her
doctors for truly saving her life but her and I we’ve had a lot of
conversations around just watching her go through that horrific experience and
just the anxiety, the mental health side of having cancer and she talks about how
there are some doctors who are amazing and then there’s some that are not
amazing and you know when she was in the hospital she told me that there are
certain instances where like she could hear the doctors or nurses like making
fun of patients when she’s resting and laying in bed and I think that the
patient experience should be more front and center for doctors because you know
I obviously have the utmost respect for doctors but as a patient a lot of people
I don’t think are comfortable speaking up for themselves or advocating for
themselves and so you know while I talked about mental health a lot and how
it’s more normalized and there’s still a stigma I actually found it took me so
long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me well you just have
anxiety and depression and I’d say well I didn’t mention anything to you about
anxiety or depression what why do you say that and they say well you know I’ve
read your story in the news and I’m like okay well now I feel like you’re not
really paying attention to me as the patient and you’re like making an
assumption based off of what you saw in the news and so that was really
challenging for me and I find that incredibly unprofessional and even if
somebody is you know they are feeling sick from mental health I feel like the
doctors are just like oh just go to a therapist like see you next year but
there’s like no step to help somebody get the therapist but back to your
question about what I’m really interested in I find myself at the age of
29 I’m really interested in women’s health but particularly the fertility
space and at the age where some of my friends I’ve had babies some of them are
pregnant some of them are freezing their eggs we’re all kind of all in
different stages and I just find it very odd that so many women we don’t
realize if we’re gonna have trouble getting pregnant until we actually want
to start getting pregnant and I just think like if there was something that
when whatever age doctors think is appropriate whether it’s in your early
20s or in your late teenagers I don’t know I’m not a doctor but I think that
this idea of just what if you have an underlying issue that could have been
fixed what if there’s an underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years
and if you fix it 10 years ago from a blood test or something then it wouldn’t
have affected you and I think in this world where miscarriages and infertility
is so common and postpartum there’s so many things that women suffer and go
through and there’s just not good solutions and then also we get our
period every single month and I know a lot of women that like at least one day
to multiple days of the month we feel terrible I just don’t think there is
enough conversation and research into women’s health and I don’t think it’s
acceptable that it’s normalized that so many women have postpartum and there’s
not a solution to help women as they’re navigating that huge change in their
life yeah that’s incredible I mean you touched on like access issues referral
issues variants and care delivery across doctors and so much of you know when
you described as kind of the challenges of health care I’ll also boil down to be
payment model and kind of the payment incentive that drive all these are
rational behaviors that we we think are completely insane but are sort of like
the way the system was designed and so I would just say that you know we know
that the future is bright we get to meet with these amazing entrepreneurs who
are challenging the status quo every single day and so I think there’s a lot
to be excited about I had the chance to do a clinical rotation during grad school
and happen to get matched to the breast cancer radiology clinic at one of the
major hospitals in Boston and as I was doing my rotation saw all these
procedures being done a mammogram a biopsy etc we had to write a report
afterwards as kind of a thesis and mine was effectively it’s very clear that all
of these devices and machines were designed by men and not taking into
account at all what that user experience is as a female being subject to these
procedures so and there’s a ton of opportunity there yeah I’ve done a lot
of calls and worked with a lot of companies over the years where it might
be like a company that’s around women’s health but then a lot of the execs are
men and men are welcome I think there’s so many amazing men in my life and I’m
really grateful for that but if you’re doing a product that’s for women it’s
really important to also talk to women and have them be a huge part of the
conversation to make sure you’re making a product that is helpful and feels good
for them amen okay this is amazing Ellie because with my past entrepreneur hat on
and thinking about like you as a potential investor in my company you’ve
already shown that like you’re a patient and you can bring that perspective
you’re a survivor you can bring that perspective you’re a start athlete and
you can bring sort of that brand and start power to the table as well what
do you want entrepreneurs to know about your unique value proposition and and
maybe the broader set of value propositions that professional athletes
can bring to entrepreneurs when they invest in their companies yeah well
thank you sometimes my perspective as like being a survivor of abuse and how
that might be like less triggering or easier for someone to use I have sort
of brought that perspective if it’s in the health care space and then of course
as an athlete I’m very fortunate to have the platform that I have so I think
where it makes sense most of the companies I invest in I do it privately
but there are some that we decide together it makes sense to do a
partnership and to promote it the campaigns that I do publicly that are
just like pushing a product that don’t talk about like something philanthropic
whether it’s a beast prevention for me or mental health they don’t really do
well and I honestly frankly don’t do that anymore where it’s just like a
specific product like we always try to make it more of a conversation and how
is it authentic to me is it something that I really use is it something that
really aligns and fits in with my values and I’ve seen firsthand how my most
successful campaigns I’ve actually been able to be a part of the marketing side
of it where I can like meet with like the CMO or the CEO and there’s been many
campaigns I’ve been a part of where I’ve actually been able to be a part of
those like brainstorming marketing conversations which is just so fun this
generation really votes for their dollar and people really want to support
companies that they believe in that are doing good and aren’t just like trying
to sell a product they also have found the more honest I’ve been I’ve been so
surprised so many people can actually relate to what I’ve experienced well
Ali you are to use the technical term freaking amazing thank you so much for
spending your time with us today you’re a truly inspiration to everyone and on
behalf of everyone in health care we are just incredibly grateful that you are
bringing your energy to our space because we we definitely need it thank you
so much thank you both
thank you for listening to Raising Health Raising Health is hosted and
produced by me Chris Tatiosian and me Olivia Webb with the help of the bio
and health team at A16Z the show is edited by Phil Hegseth if you want to
suggest topics for future shows you can reach us at raisinghealth@a16z.com
finally please rate and subscribe to our show the content here is for
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directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund please
note that A16Z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies
discussed in this podcast for more details including a link to our
investments please see A16Z.com/disclosures
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Former gymnast and current investor Aly Raisman joins general partner Julie Yoo and investment partner Daisy Wolf of a16z Bio + Health.
In this episode, Aly Raisman shares her quest for healthier living—physically, mentally, and financially—on her journey from gymnast to a business investor. Having transitioned from an intensely structured routine, Aly emphasizes the need for more open conversations about mental health and financial literacy. She speaks passionately about the gap in women’s health solutions and hopes to inspire entrepreneurs to create impactful businesses. Aly’s experiences as a patient, survivor, and global figure adds a unique dimension to her perspective as an investor. This candid conversation with Aly and Julie Yoo sheds light on Aly’s passion for more education within the investment space, offering invaluable insights for entrepreneurs, particularly in biotech and healthcare.
Resources:
Find Aly on Twitter: https://x.com/aly_raisman
Find Julie on Twitter: https://x.com/julesyoo
Find Daisy on Twitter: https://x.com/daisydwolf
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
