AI transcript
0:00:04 and you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lag or if I don’t feel well it’s
0:00:10 not like the judges care. So at eight years old it started to get really intense
0:00:14 and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I would train
0:00:19 somewhere between four to seven hours a day. When I was training for the Olympics
0:00:23 like if I was tired I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days
0:00:28 where I didn’t sleep well. It took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors
0:00:32 would say to me well you just have anxiety and depression and I’d say well
0:00:35 I didn’t mention anything to you about anxiety or depression why do you say
0:00:39 that and they say well you know I’ve read your story in the news. What if you
0:00:42 have an underlying issue that could have been fixed what if there’s an
0:00:47 underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years. Building a successful
0:00:51 business can feel like landing a backflip on a balance beam which
0:00:56 impressively enough some humans have figured out. One foot wrong and it all
0:01:02 comes tumbling down but get it right and you might just see gold. With the
0:01:06 greatest event in sports just weeks away we’re sharing an episode that bridges
0:01:11 these two worlds of elite athletics and elite entrepreneurship straight from a
0:01:16 two-time Olympic athlete herself. This episode originally published on our
0:01:21 sister podcast Raising Health features the one and only Allie Raceman. Allie
0:01:26 has six Olympic medals under her belt and she’s recently pivoted her pursuit
0:01:30 of excellence towards health in the many forms of it from women’s health and
0:01:35 fertility to mental health. Here Allie also discusses with a 16z general partner
0:01:40 Julie Yu and investing partner Daisy Wolfe the parallels of being a founder
0:01:45 and an Olympian both requiring consistent performance at an elite level but
0:01:49 also the intensity of being judged against the best in the world and
0:01:53 equally what is like to transition from that lifestyle to investing so that she
0:01:58 can scale her impact. Now for more episodes just like this don’t forget to
0:02:02 search Raising Health wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to look out
0:02:06 for future Olympic themed episodes in the weeks to come right here on the a 16z
0:02:13 podcast. But for now we bring you two-time Olympian Allie Raceman.
0:02:19 Hello and welcome to Raising Health where we explore the real challenges and
0:02:22 enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs for building the future of
0:02:28 health.
0:02:33 I’m Olivia and I’m Chris. Today’s episode is with Allie Raceman a two-time
0:02:38 Olympic gymnast investor and part of a 16z cultural leadership fund. She is
0:02:43 joined by Julie Yu and Daisy Wolfe of a 16z bio and health. Allie chats about her
0:02:46 background how she thinks about health and fitness now that she is no longer
0:02:50 competing and a few of her passion projects including financial literacy.
0:02:54 Allie also talks about her latest forays into investing in how she appreciates
0:02:58 and empathizes with founders tunnel vision and work ethic. And I just really
0:03:02 respect founders because they’re working so hard and I can’t imagine how
0:03:06 stressful it is and I think it’s cool that they’re seeing something that’s
0:03:09 lacking or seeing something they want to do differently and they’re solving a
0:03:14 problem and fixing it. You’re listening to Raising Health from a 16z bio and
0:03:21 health. Allie Raceman no introduction needed obviously you are a total star
0:03:26 and everyone obviously knows you as being one of the most decorated American
0:03:31 Olympic gymnasts of all time. And I personally believe that gymnastics is
0:03:36 just the extreme elite of elite of all professional sports. So first and foremost
0:03:39 congratulations on an amazing career and just inspiring so many folks including
0:03:43 ourselves and thank you for being with us here today. Well thank you so
0:03:47 much that’s so sweet. I am so excited to be here with both of you and thank you
0:03:52 both also for all of your support. You’ve been so helpful in my new
0:03:57 investing journeys. Absolutely you have really been campaigning for many many
0:04:01 things amongst which is health and you’ve been really a strong advocate for
0:04:06 everything from from mental health to physical health and body positivity for
0:04:11 women improving health care overall as a system and even something that’s near
0:04:15 and dear to our heart which is financial health for all consumers. And so what
0:04:18 we’re hoping to do today is just walk through some of these areas and really
0:04:22 just hear your perspective on all of these different flavors of health. Let’s
0:04:26 start with physical health. Allie as an Olympic athlete you’ve spent a lot of
0:04:32 time thinking about how to stay healthy and maintaining a sense of well-being and
0:04:36 we’re curious just how this carries over into your life now. What are wellness
0:04:42 strategies that you employ in your post gymnastics life. Yeah so I’ve learned a
0:04:47 lot in the last several years about my own mental health and also just my own
0:04:53 physical health. I think that mental health is much more of a conversation now
0:04:59 than it was when I was training and I was competing in gymnastics. However even
0:05:02 so there’s still such a stigma and there’s still so many people that are
0:05:07 suffering in silence. I do reflect a lot and wish that a lot of the tools that
0:05:12 I’ve learned now and I’m still learning I wish I had when I was younger. It’s
0:05:15 really interesting because when I was training and competing you know for
0:05:20 example if I had an ankle injury I would do whatever I could to heal my ankle I
0:05:25 would do recovery I would I said heat it whatever I needed and I also did a lot
0:05:29 of physical therapy for it but there just wasn’t that same emphasis on the
0:05:33 mental health aspect of it which I think was a huge problem and I didn’t know
0:05:38 that at the time but you know competing at such a high level I was obviously so
0:05:42 nervous and so stressed and it’s kind of crazy to look back I didn’t really have
0:05:49 any tools to help me calm down in those moments so I have been on this journey of
0:05:54 just really trying to figure out how to just be calm. I kind of let go of this
0:05:58 idea of like one day I’m gonna feel perfect I’m gonna feel happy all the
0:06:01 time I think that’s extremely unrealistic there’s so many things in life
0:06:05 that can happen and so I guess the way that I take care of my mental and
0:06:09 physical health today is that I see a therapist weekly which has been super
0:06:15 helpful and I plan to do that for a long time it’s so fascinating to me because
0:06:21 when I really take care of my nutrition and I feel like my mental health is so
0:06:24 much better even if something my friends make fun of me even if something
0:06:27 tastes disgusting but it’s really good for me it makes me feel good I’m gonna
0:06:31 eat it and I do wish that I had this when I was competing and when I was
0:06:36 training. What kind of exercise do you do in your post gymnastics life? I get asked
0:06:39 this a lot and I think people would be really shocked I think people think I’m
0:06:44 being like modest or I’m kidding but I honestly don’t work out that much so
0:06:49 first of all I spent most of my life in a gym I started gymnastics and I was two
0:06:54 years old and at the age of eight I was so busy with my gymnastics career that
0:06:57 my coach has said that if you want to go to the next level and you want to get
0:07:01 better you have to stop everything out so I eight years old it started to get
0:07:07 really intense and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I
0:07:11 would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day and it was like really
0:07:15 intensely training I still feel like I’m recovering from it because it was
0:07:20 exhausting so part of it is it’s nice now to be in control and to not have to
0:07:25 go to the gym every single day I will also say that I believe that working out
0:07:30 can be really good for our mental health so I’ve kind of had to learn how to
0:07:35 like re-enjoy working out because I feel like for so long it was so just intense
0:07:41 I did the same thing every single day and I felt like no matter what I did there
0:07:44 was always something that needed improvement which it never got boring
0:07:50 but it was just a lot of pressure my workouts mostly consist of walking a
0:07:54 lot and people always laugh when I speak at events because I say I walk on the
0:07:57 treadmill on an incline and people think that’s so funny because I think people
0:08:04 expect me to do more however I experience like such major burnout when I
0:08:08 finish competing you know I don’t have a goal of like looking a certain way when
0:08:13 I work out I just want to feel good and that was also challenging for me going
0:08:17 from working out seven hours to actually working on the mental side of that and
0:08:22 being okay with okay today I just walked for 20 minutes but I’m doing the best
0:08:25 that I can. Hey I think it’s super fun that we just learned that Allie Reisman
0:08:30 walks uphill on a treadmill so now that now when I go do that at the gym I’m
0:08:32 just gonna call that the Allie Reisman workout and we’re gonna make that a
0:08:36 thing so thank you for normalizing that. You mentioned you know the kind of the
0:08:39 change that from like being in such a high-pressure environment from a workout
0:08:42 perspective and then sort of the opposite of that the other thing we
0:08:46 sometimes hear from athletes after they retire is that the kind of motion of
0:08:50 having a day-to-day coaching regimen as well of just having so much structure in
0:08:53 your life and then going into an environment where you don’t have that
0:08:56 do you feel like there’s this void in your life of someone who is gonna you
0:08:59 know every day when you wake up tell you okay here are the ten things you need to
0:09:02 do. So it’s so funny it’s like if I’m in a yoga class like I don’t want the
0:09:06 teacher to tell me anything like I’ve had enough coaching in my life where I
0:09:13 think that it depends on what the coaching is when it comes to working out
0:09:17 like I don’t want any coaching if I’m like doing a cycling class or if I’m
0:09:21 doing yoga or something and the teacher corrects me or they try to push me I’m
0:09:26 like I’ve had enough of that in my life I love being able to just go to a class
0:09:31 and if I just feel tired or I don’t feel well I can just like sit there and
0:09:36 relax because when I was training for the Olympics like if I was tired I felt
0:09:40 like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn’t sleep well he’d
0:09:43 be like okay well too bad if you don’t sleep well the night before the Olympics
0:09:47 we need to push you more today so that you feel more prepared because when
0:09:51 you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lagged or if I don’t feel well it’s
0:09:55 not like the judges care if I’m like hey can I do this tomorrow instead it’s not
0:10:00 an option you’ve got you know your one opportunity so I actually feel the
0:10:04 opposite where I love sort of having the flexibility and I love being in
0:10:09 control of doing what feels right for my body yeah and what’s also so inspiring
0:10:12 hearing you talk Ali is that you could have done anything with your time once
0:10:15 you retired from gymnastics the fact that you’re putting so much energy into
0:10:18 multiple ways to make an impact at different levels is really incredible
0:10:23 and the fact that you also have time to invest is even more incredible because
0:10:26 we know how much work that is as well we all do investing for different reasons
0:10:30 folks like Daisy and myself we’ve been builders and companies before in a past
0:10:35 life and after building one company for a long period of time I think many of us
0:10:38 recognize that there’s this sort of horizontal opportunity to really build a
0:10:42 portfolio of opportunities to make an impact at the industry level versus that
0:10:45 just as one individual company can you share with us what was your inspiration
0:10:49 what’s the why behind your time that you’re spending on the investing side
0:10:53 and and what’s it been like it’s been so fun and I really love the experience of
0:10:58 learning about investing and meeting with founders I became really passionate
0:11:02 about financial literacy I think that financial literacy and mental health are
0:11:07 very correlated because I feel like I don’t know if I know anyone who like
0:11:12 doesn’t feel stressed about finances some capacity and our system is kind of set
0:11:18 up to make it really confusing and hard to understand I’m very very passionate
0:11:23 about pushing that conversation because I think that in schools as early as kids
0:11:28 can really understand I think that they should be taught about like finances and
0:11:31 the importance of speaking up and asking questions and I know sometimes when
0:11:34 you’re in a classroom it can be intimidating to ask questions and I
0:11:37 kind of just told myself that I’m gonna get into this like financial world or
0:11:42 this investing world I’m just gonna make a pact with myself that I’m not going to
0:11:45 be afraid to ask questions but I think that I found out really quickly when I
0:11:49 started to learn about my own finances I felt like I was like being put in this
0:11:55 box of a dumb athlete and so I just felt very overwhelmed and I also realized how
0:11:59 much anxiety it was giving me not understanding and I really believe that
0:12:03 like knowledge is power and I think why I say it’s correlated to mental health
0:12:07 because the more that I learned about finances the more confident I became
0:12:12 and there’s so much shame around talking about money and so I just became
0:12:15 really interested in that idea of like why is it so hard to talk about and if
0:12:20 it was more normalized would more people be able to understand how to better
0:12:24 save their money and if people felt less shame around asking questions I think
0:12:29 it could really make a big difference and I’ve been fortunate since I was about
0:12:33 17 years old getting to work with a lot of different companies and so it got me
0:12:36 really interested in learning more about like the behind the scenes of how these
0:12:41 companies operate and then I got excited about this idea of meeting with founders
0:12:44 where they’re seeing something that’s lacking or seeing something they want to
0:12:48 do differently and they’re solving a problem and fixing it. Similarly with my
0:12:52 gymnastics career it was like the same thing all the time you’re so focused you
0:12:56 have this like tunnel vision and I just really respect founders because they’re
0:13:00 working so hard and I can’t imagine how stressful it is and just like the whole
0:13:05 process of raising money and there’s probably so many different stressors
0:13:08 that I don’t even know the first thing about but I just really admire and
0:13:11 respect their work ethic and their passion. I’m sure the founders who are
0:13:14 listening to this will absolutely appreciate your last comments there and
0:13:18 perhaps on a future podcast we can debate whether it’s harder to raise
0:13:22 capital in this market or win a gold medal at the Olympic gymnastics
0:13:25 competition but actually that is what we hope to achieve with our health care
0:13:30 system at some point but we all know that the system fails every day in many
0:13:34 many ways to achieve anything close to that so curious what are some of the
0:13:39 areas that do inspire you to invest in from a health care lens? Yeah well it’s
0:13:44 interesting I mean I’m obviously a patient and so I have you know seen a
0:13:48 lot of different doctors over the years a couple of years ago one of my best
0:13:55 friends Abby had stage 4 cancer and she thankfully is in remission and she has a
0:13:59 beautiful healthy baby so I’m so thankful and just forever grateful to her
0:14:04 doctors for truly saving her life but her and I we’ve had a lot of
0:14:10 conversations around just watching her go through that horrific experience and
0:14:15 just the anxiety, the mental health side of having cancer and she talks about how
0:14:19 there are some doctors who are amazing and then there’s some that are not
0:14:22 amazing and you know when she was in the hospital she told me that there are
0:14:26 certain instances where like she could hear the doctors or nurses like making
0:14:32 fun of patients when she’s resting and laying in bed and I think that the
0:14:36 patient experience should be more front and center for doctors because you know
0:14:42 I obviously have the utmost respect for doctors but as a patient a lot of people
0:14:45 I don’t think are comfortable speaking up for themselves or advocating for
0:14:49 themselves and so you know while I talked about mental health a lot and how
0:14:54 it’s more normalized and there’s still a stigma I actually found it took me so
0:14:57 long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me well you just have
0:15:02 anxiety and depression and I’d say well I didn’t mention anything to you about
0:15:05 anxiety or depression what why do you say that and they say well you know I’ve
0:15:08 read your story in the news and I’m like okay well now I feel like you’re not
0:15:13 really paying attention to me as the patient and you’re like making an
0:15:16 assumption based off of what you saw in the news and so that was really
0:15:20 challenging for me and I find that incredibly unprofessional and even if
0:15:24 somebody is you know they are feeling sick from mental health I feel like the
0:15:28 doctors are just like oh just go to a therapist like see you next year but
0:15:33 there’s like no step to help somebody get the therapist but back to your
0:15:37 question about what I’m really interested in I find myself at the age of
0:15:42 29 I’m really interested in women’s health but particularly the fertility
0:15:46 space and at the age where some of my friends I’ve had babies some of them are
0:15:49 pregnant some of them are freezing their eggs we’re all kind of all in
0:15:55 different stages and I just find it very odd that so many women we don’t
0:15:59 realize if we’re gonna have trouble getting pregnant until we actually want
0:16:03 to start getting pregnant and I just think like if there was something that
0:16:08 when whatever age doctors think is appropriate whether it’s in your early
0:16:12 20s or in your late teenagers I don’t know I’m not a doctor but I think that
0:16:16 this idea of just what if you have an underlying issue that could have been
0:16:19 fixed what if there’s an underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years
0:16:24 and if you fix it 10 years ago from a blood test or something then it wouldn’t
0:16:28 have affected you and I think in this world where miscarriages and infertility
0:16:32 is so common and postpartum there’s so many things that women suffer and go
0:16:37 through and there’s just not good solutions and then also we get our
0:16:42 period every single month and I know a lot of women that like at least one day
0:16:46 to multiple days of the month we feel terrible I just don’t think there is
0:16:50 enough conversation and research into women’s health and I don’t think it’s
0:16:54 acceptable that it’s normalized that so many women have postpartum and there’s
0:16:59 not a solution to help women as they’re navigating that huge change in their
0:17:04 life yeah that’s incredible I mean you touched on like access issues referral
0:17:08 issues variants and care delivery across doctors and so much of you know when
0:17:12 you described as kind of the challenges of health care I’ll also boil down to be
0:17:15 payment model and kind of the payment incentive that drive all these are
0:17:19 rational behaviors that we we think are completely insane but are sort of like
0:17:23 the way the system was designed and so I would just say that you know we know
0:17:26 that the future is bright we get to meet with these amazing entrepreneurs who
0:17:29 are challenging the status quo every single day and so I think there’s a lot
0:17:32 to be excited about I had the chance to do a clinical rotation during grad school
0:17:36 and happen to get matched to the breast cancer radiology clinic at one of the
0:17:40 major hospitals in Boston and as I was doing my rotation saw all these
0:17:44 procedures being done a mammogram a biopsy etc we had to write a report
0:17:49 afterwards as kind of a thesis and mine was effectively it’s very clear that all
0:17:53 of these devices and machines were designed by men and not taking into
0:17:57 account at all what that user experience is as a female being subject to these
0:18:01 procedures so and there’s a ton of opportunity there yeah I’ve done a lot
0:18:04 of calls and worked with a lot of companies over the years where it might
0:18:08 be like a company that’s around women’s health but then a lot of the execs are
0:18:12 men and men are welcome I think there’s so many amazing men in my life and I’m
0:18:16 really grateful for that but if you’re doing a product that’s for women it’s
0:18:20 really important to also talk to women and have them be a huge part of the
0:18:25 conversation to make sure you’re making a product that is helpful and feels good
0:18:30 for them amen okay this is amazing Ellie because with my past entrepreneur hat on
0:18:32 and thinking about like you as a potential investor in my company you’ve
0:18:36 already shown that like you’re a patient and you can bring that perspective
0:18:39 you’re a survivor you can bring that perspective you’re a start athlete and
0:18:43 you can bring sort of that brand and start power to the table as well what
0:18:47 do you want entrepreneurs to know about your unique value proposition and and
0:18:49 maybe the broader set of value propositions that professional athletes
0:18:54 can bring to entrepreneurs when they invest in their companies yeah well
0:18:58 thank you sometimes my perspective as like being a survivor of abuse and how
0:19:04 that might be like less triggering or easier for someone to use I have sort
0:19:07 of brought that perspective if it’s in the health care space and then of course
0:19:12 as an athlete I’m very fortunate to have the platform that I have so I think
0:19:17 where it makes sense most of the companies I invest in I do it privately
0:19:20 but there are some that we decide together it makes sense to do a
0:19:25 partnership and to promote it the campaigns that I do publicly that are
0:19:30 just like pushing a product that don’t talk about like something philanthropic
0:19:35 whether it’s a beast prevention for me or mental health they don’t really do
0:19:38 well and I honestly frankly don’t do that anymore where it’s just like a
0:19:45 specific product like we always try to make it more of a conversation and how
0:19:48 is it authentic to me is it something that I really use is it something that
0:19:54 really aligns and fits in with my values and I’ve seen firsthand how my most
0:19:58 successful campaigns I’ve actually been able to be a part of the marketing side
0:20:03 of it where I can like meet with like the CMO or the CEO and there’s been many
0:20:06 campaigns I’ve been a part of where I’ve actually been able to be a part of
0:20:10 those like brainstorming marketing conversations which is just so fun this
0:20:14 generation really votes for their dollar and people really want to support
0:20:19 companies that they believe in that are doing good and aren’t just like trying
0:20:23 to sell a product they also have found the more honest I’ve been I’ve been so
0:20:28 surprised so many people can actually relate to what I’ve experienced well
0:20:31 Ali you are to use the technical term freaking amazing thank you so much for
0:20:35 spending your time with us today you’re a truly inspiration to everyone and on
0:20:38 behalf of everyone in health care we are just incredibly grateful that you are
0:20:41 bringing your energy to our space because we we definitely need it thank you
0:20:44 so much thank you both
0:20:53 thank you for listening to Raising Health Raising Health is hosted and
0:20:57 produced by me Chris Tatiosian and me Olivia Webb with the help of the bio
0:21:02 and health team at A16Z the show is edited by Phil Hegseth if you want to
0:21:06 suggest topics for future shows you can reach us at raisinghealth@a16z.com
0:21:12 finally please rate and subscribe to our show the content here is for
0:21:16 informational purposes only should not be taken as legal business tax or
0:21:20 investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security and is not
0:21:25 directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund please
0:21:28 note that A16Z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies
0:21:32 discussed in this podcast for more details including a link to our
0:21:37 investments please see A16Z.com/disclosures
0:21:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
0:00:10 not like the judges care. So at eight years old it started to get really intense
0:00:14 and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I would train
0:00:19 somewhere between four to seven hours a day. When I was training for the Olympics
0:00:23 like if I was tired I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days
0:00:28 where I didn’t sleep well. It took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors
0:00:32 would say to me well you just have anxiety and depression and I’d say well
0:00:35 I didn’t mention anything to you about anxiety or depression why do you say
0:00:39 that and they say well you know I’ve read your story in the news. What if you
0:00:42 have an underlying issue that could have been fixed what if there’s an
0:00:47 underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years. Building a successful
0:00:51 business can feel like landing a backflip on a balance beam which
0:00:56 impressively enough some humans have figured out. One foot wrong and it all
0:01:02 comes tumbling down but get it right and you might just see gold. With the
0:01:06 greatest event in sports just weeks away we’re sharing an episode that bridges
0:01:11 these two worlds of elite athletics and elite entrepreneurship straight from a
0:01:16 two-time Olympic athlete herself. This episode originally published on our
0:01:21 sister podcast Raising Health features the one and only Allie Raceman. Allie
0:01:26 has six Olympic medals under her belt and she’s recently pivoted her pursuit
0:01:30 of excellence towards health in the many forms of it from women’s health and
0:01:35 fertility to mental health. Here Allie also discusses with a 16z general partner
0:01:40 Julie Yu and investing partner Daisy Wolfe the parallels of being a founder
0:01:45 and an Olympian both requiring consistent performance at an elite level but
0:01:49 also the intensity of being judged against the best in the world and
0:01:53 equally what is like to transition from that lifestyle to investing so that she
0:01:58 can scale her impact. Now for more episodes just like this don’t forget to
0:02:02 search Raising Health wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to look out
0:02:06 for future Olympic themed episodes in the weeks to come right here on the a 16z
0:02:13 podcast. But for now we bring you two-time Olympian Allie Raceman.
0:02:19 Hello and welcome to Raising Health where we explore the real challenges and
0:02:22 enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs for building the future of
0:02:28 health.
0:02:33 I’m Olivia and I’m Chris. Today’s episode is with Allie Raceman a two-time
0:02:38 Olympic gymnast investor and part of a 16z cultural leadership fund. She is
0:02:43 joined by Julie Yu and Daisy Wolfe of a 16z bio and health. Allie chats about her
0:02:46 background how she thinks about health and fitness now that she is no longer
0:02:50 competing and a few of her passion projects including financial literacy.
0:02:54 Allie also talks about her latest forays into investing in how she appreciates
0:02:58 and empathizes with founders tunnel vision and work ethic. And I just really
0:03:02 respect founders because they’re working so hard and I can’t imagine how
0:03:06 stressful it is and I think it’s cool that they’re seeing something that’s
0:03:09 lacking or seeing something they want to do differently and they’re solving a
0:03:14 problem and fixing it. You’re listening to Raising Health from a 16z bio and
0:03:21 health. Allie Raceman no introduction needed obviously you are a total star
0:03:26 and everyone obviously knows you as being one of the most decorated American
0:03:31 Olympic gymnasts of all time. And I personally believe that gymnastics is
0:03:36 just the extreme elite of elite of all professional sports. So first and foremost
0:03:39 congratulations on an amazing career and just inspiring so many folks including
0:03:43 ourselves and thank you for being with us here today. Well thank you so
0:03:47 much that’s so sweet. I am so excited to be here with both of you and thank you
0:03:52 both also for all of your support. You’ve been so helpful in my new
0:03:57 investing journeys. Absolutely you have really been campaigning for many many
0:04:01 things amongst which is health and you’ve been really a strong advocate for
0:04:06 everything from from mental health to physical health and body positivity for
0:04:11 women improving health care overall as a system and even something that’s near
0:04:15 and dear to our heart which is financial health for all consumers. And so what
0:04:18 we’re hoping to do today is just walk through some of these areas and really
0:04:22 just hear your perspective on all of these different flavors of health. Let’s
0:04:26 start with physical health. Allie as an Olympic athlete you’ve spent a lot of
0:04:32 time thinking about how to stay healthy and maintaining a sense of well-being and
0:04:36 we’re curious just how this carries over into your life now. What are wellness
0:04:42 strategies that you employ in your post gymnastics life. Yeah so I’ve learned a
0:04:47 lot in the last several years about my own mental health and also just my own
0:04:53 physical health. I think that mental health is much more of a conversation now
0:04:59 than it was when I was training and I was competing in gymnastics. However even
0:05:02 so there’s still such a stigma and there’s still so many people that are
0:05:07 suffering in silence. I do reflect a lot and wish that a lot of the tools that
0:05:12 I’ve learned now and I’m still learning I wish I had when I was younger. It’s
0:05:15 really interesting because when I was training and competing you know for
0:05:20 example if I had an ankle injury I would do whatever I could to heal my ankle I
0:05:25 would do recovery I would I said heat it whatever I needed and I also did a lot
0:05:29 of physical therapy for it but there just wasn’t that same emphasis on the
0:05:33 mental health aspect of it which I think was a huge problem and I didn’t know
0:05:38 that at the time but you know competing at such a high level I was obviously so
0:05:42 nervous and so stressed and it’s kind of crazy to look back I didn’t really have
0:05:49 any tools to help me calm down in those moments so I have been on this journey of
0:05:54 just really trying to figure out how to just be calm. I kind of let go of this
0:05:58 idea of like one day I’m gonna feel perfect I’m gonna feel happy all the
0:06:01 time I think that’s extremely unrealistic there’s so many things in life
0:06:05 that can happen and so I guess the way that I take care of my mental and
0:06:09 physical health today is that I see a therapist weekly which has been super
0:06:15 helpful and I plan to do that for a long time it’s so fascinating to me because
0:06:21 when I really take care of my nutrition and I feel like my mental health is so
0:06:24 much better even if something my friends make fun of me even if something
0:06:27 tastes disgusting but it’s really good for me it makes me feel good I’m gonna
0:06:31 eat it and I do wish that I had this when I was competing and when I was
0:06:36 training. What kind of exercise do you do in your post gymnastics life? I get asked
0:06:39 this a lot and I think people would be really shocked I think people think I’m
0:06:44 being like modest or I’m kidding but I honestly don’t work out that much so
0:06:49 first of all I spent most of my life in a gym I started gymnastics and I was two
0:06:54 years old and at the age of eight I was so busy with my gymnastics career that
0:06:57 my coach has said that if you want to go to the next level and you want to get
0:07:01 better you have to stop everything out so I eight years old it started to get
0:07:07 really intense and I would spend six days in the gym I had Sundays off and I
0:07:11 would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day and it was like really
0:07:15 intensely training I still feel like I’m recovering from it because it was
0:07:20 exhausting so part of it is it’s nice now to be in control and to not have to
0:07:25 go to the gym every single day I will also say that I believe that working out
0:07:30 can be really good for our mental health so I’ve kind of had to learn how to
0:07:35 like re-enjoy working out because I feel like for so long it was so just intense
0:07:41 I did the same thing every single day and I felt like no matter what I did there
0:07:44 was always something that needed improvement which it never got boring
0:07:50 but it was just a lot of pressure my workouts mostly consist of walking a
0:07:54 lot and people always laugh when I speak at events because I say I walk on the
0:07:57 treadmill on an incline and people think that’s so funny because I think people
0:08:04 expect me to do more however I experience like such major burnout when I
0:08:08 finish competing you know I don’t have a goal of like looking a certain way when
0:08:13 I work out I just want to feel good and that was also challenging for me going
0:08:17 from working out seven hours to actually working on the mental side of that and
0:08:22 being okay with okay today I just walked for 20 minutes but I’m doing the best
0:08:25 that I can. Hey I think it’s super fun that we just learned that Allie Reisman
0:08:30 walks uphill on a treadmill so now that now when I go do that at the gym I’m
0:08:32 just gonna call that the Allie Reisman workout and we’re gonna make that a
0:08:36 thing so thank you for normalizing that. You mentioned you know the kind of the
0:08:39 change that from like being in such a high-pressure environment from a workout
0:08:42 perspective and then sort of the opposite of that the other thing we
0:08:46 sometimes hear from athletes after they retire is that the kind of motion of
0:08:50 having a day-to-day coaching regimen as well of just having so much structure in
0:08:53 your life and then going into an environment where you don’t have that
0:08:56 do you feel like there’s this void in your life of someone who is gonna you
0:08:59 know every day when you wake up tell you okay here are the ten things you need to
0:09:02 do. So it’s so funny it’s like if I’m in a yoga class like I don’t want the
0:09:06 teacher to tell me anything like I’ve had enough coaching in my life where I
0:09:13 think that it depends on what the coaching is when it comes to working out
0:09:17 like I don’t want any coaching if I’m like doing a cycling class or if I’m
0:09:21 doing yoga or something and the teacher corrects me or they try to push me I’m
0:09:26 like I’ve had enough of that in my life I love being able to just go to a class
0:09:31 and if I just feel tired or I don’t feel well I can just like sit there and
0:09:36 relax because when I was training for the Olympics like if I was tired I felt
0:09:40 like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn’t sleep well he’d
0:09:43 be like okay well too bad if you don’t sleep well the night before the Olympics
0:09:47 we need to push you more today so that you feel more prepared because when
0:09:51 you’re competing at the Olympics if I’m jet lagged or if I don’t feel well it’s
0:09:55 not like the judges care if I’m like hey can I do this tomorrow instead it’s not
0:10:00 an option you’ve got you know your one opportunity so I actually feel the
0:10:04 opposite where I love sort of having the flexibility and I love being in
0:10:09 control of doing what feels right for my body yeah and what’s also so inspiring
0:10:12 hearing you talk Ali is that you could have done anything with your time once
0:10:15 you retired from gymnastics the fact that you’re putting so much energy into
0:10:18 multiple ways to make an impact at different levels is really incredible
0:10:23 and the fact that you also have time to invest is even more incredible because
0:10:26 we know how much work that is as well we all do investing for different reasons
0:10:30 folks like Daisy and myself we’ve been builders and companies before in a past
0:10:35 life and after building one company for a long period of time I think many of us
0:10:38 recognize that there’s this sort of horizontal opportunity to really build a
0:10:42 portfolio of opportunities to make an impact at the industry level versus that
0:10:45 just as one individual company can you share with us what was your inspiration
0:10:49 what’s the why behind your time that you’re spending on the investing side
0:10:53 and and what’s it been like it’s been so fun and I really love the experience of
0:10:58 learning about investing and meeting with founders I became really passionate
0:11:02 about financial literacy I think that financial literacy and mental health are
0:11:07 very correlated because I feel like I don’t know if I know anyone who like
0:11:12 doesn’t feel stressed about finances some capacity and our system is kind of set
0:11:18 up to make it really confusing and hard to understand I’m very very passionate
0:11:23 about pushing that conversation because I think that in schools as early as kids
0:11:28 can really understand I think that they should be taught about like finances and
0:11:31 the importance of speaking up and asking questions and I know sometimes when
0:11:34 you’re in a classroom it can be intimidating to ask questions and I
0:11:37 kind of just told myself that I’m gonna get into this like financial world or
0:11:42 this investing world I’m just gonna make a pact with myself that I’m not going to
0:11:45 be afraid to ask questions but I think that I found out really quickly when I
0:11:49 started to learn about my own finances I felt like I was like being put in this
0:11:55 box of a dumb athlete and so I just felt very overwhelmed and I also realized how
0:11:59 much anxiety it was giving me not understanding and I really believe that
0:12:03 like knowledge is power and I think why I say it’s correlated to mental health
0:12:07 because the more that I learned about finances the more confident I became
0:12:12 and there’s so much shame around talking about money and so I just became
0:12:15 really interested in that idea of like why is it so hard to talk about and if
0:12:20 it was more normalized would more people be able to understand how to better
0:12:24 save their money and if people felt less shame around asking questions I think
0:12:29 it could really make a big difference and I’ve been fortunate since I was about
0:12:33 17 years old getting to work with a lot of different companies and so it got me
0:12:36 really interested in learning more about like the behind the scenes of how these
0:12:41 companies operate and then I got excited about this idea of meeting with founders
0:12:44 where they’re seeing something that’s lacking or seeing something they want to
0:12:48 do differently and they’re solving a problem and fixing it. Similarly with my
0:12:52 gymnastics career it was like the same thing all the time you’re so focused you
0:12:56 have this like tunnel vision and I just really respect founders because they’re
0:13:00 working so hard and I can’t imagine how stressful it is and just like the whole
0:13:05 process of raising money and there’s probably so many different stressors
0:13:08 that I don’t even know the first thing about but I just really admire and
0:13:11 respect their work ethic and their passion. I’m sure the founders who are
0:13:14 listening to this will absolutely appreciate your last comments there and
0:13:18 perhaps on a future podcast we can debate whether it’s harder to raise
0:13:22 capital in this market or win a gold medal at the Olympic gymnastics
0:13:25 competition but actually that is what we hope to achieve with our health care
0:13:30 system at some point but we all know that the system fails every day in many
0:13:34 many ways to achieve anything close to that so curious what are some of the
0:13:39 areas that do inspire you to invest in from a health care lens? Yeah well it’s
0:13:44 interesting I mean I’m obviously a patient and so I have you know seen a
0:13:48 lot of different doctors over the years a couple of years ago one of my best
0:13:55 friends Abby had stage 4 cancer and she thankfully is in remission and she has a
0:13:59 beautiful healthy baby so I’m so thankful and just forever grateful to her
0:14:04 doctors for truly saving her life but her and I we’ve had a lot of
0:14:10 conversations around just watching her go through that horrific experience and
0:14:15 just the anxiety, the mental health side of having cancer and she talks about how
0:14:19 there are some doctors who are amazing and then there’s some that are not
0:14:22 amazing and you know when she was in the hospital she told me that there are
0:14:26 certain instances where like she could hear the doctors or nurses like making
0:14:32 fun of patients when she’s resting and laying in bed and I think that the
0:14:36 patient experience should be more front and center for doctors because you know
0:14:42 I obviously have the utmost respect for doctors but as a patient a lot of people
0:14:45 I don’t think are comfortable speaking up for themselves or advocating for
0:14:49 themselves and so you know while I talked about mental health a lot and how
0:14:54 it’s more normalized and there’s still a stigma I actually found it took me so
0:14:57 long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me well you just have
0:15:02 anxiety and depression and I’d say well I didn’t mention anything to you about
0:15:05 anxiety or depression what why do you say that and they say well you know I’ve
0:15:08 read your story in the news and I’m like okay well now I feel like you’re not
0:15:13 really paying attention to me as the patient and you’re like making an
0:15:16 assumption based off of what you saw in the news and so that was really
0:15:20 challenging for me and I find that incredibly unprofessional and even if
0:15:24 somebody is you know they are feeling sick from mental health I feel like the
0:15:28 doctors are just like oh just go to a therapist like see you next year but
0:15:33 there’s like no step to help somebody get the therapist but back to your
0:15:37 question about what I’m really interested in I find myself at the age of
0:15:42 29 I’m really interested in women’s health but particularly the fertility
0:15:46 space and at the age where some of my friends I’ve had babies some of them are
0:15:49 pregnant some of them are freezing their eggs we’re all kind of all in
0:15:55 different stages and I just find it very odd that so many women we don’t
0:15:59 realize if we’re gonna have trouble getting pregnant until we actually want
0:16:03 to start getting pregnant and I just think like if there was something that
0:16:08 when whatever age doctors think is appropriate whether it’s in your early
0:16:12 20s or in your late teenagers I don’t know I’m not a doctor but I think that
0:16:16 this idea of just what if you have an underlying issue that could have been
0:16:19 fixed what if there’s an underlying issue that’s been a problem for 10 years
0:16:24 and if you fix it 10 years ago from a blood test or something then it wouldn’t
0:16:28 have affected you and I think in this world where miscarriages and infertility
0:16:32 is so common and postpartum there’s so many things that women suffer and go
0:16:37 through and there’s just not good solutions and then also we get our
0:16:42 period every single month and I know a lot of women that like at least one day
0:16:46 to multiple days of the month we feel terrible I just don’t think there is
0:16:50 enough conversation and research into women’s health and I don’t think it’s
0:16:54 acceptable that it’s normalized that so many women have postpartum and there’s
0:16:59 not a solution to help women as they’re navigating that huge change in their
0:17:04 life yeah that’s incredible I mean you touched on like access issues referral
0:17:08 issues variants and care delivery across doctors and so much of you know when
0:17:12 you described as kind of the challenges of health care I’ll also boil down to be
0:17:15 payment model and kind of the payment incentive that drive all these are
0:17:19 rational behaviors that we we think are completely insane but are sort of like
0:17:23 the way the system was designed and so I would just say that you know we know
0:17:26 that the future is bright we get to meet with these amazing entrepreneurs who
0:17:29 are challenging the status quo every single day and so I think there’s a lot
0:17:32 to be excited about I had the chance to do a clinical rotation during grad school
0:17:36 and happen to get matched to the breast cancer radiology clinic at one of the
0:17:40 major hospitals in Boston and as I was doing my rotation saw all these
0:17:44 procedures being done a mammogram a biopsy etc we had to write a report
0:17:49 afterwards as kind of a thesis and mine was effectively it’s very clear that all
0:17:53 of these devices and machines were designed by men and not taking into
0:17:57 account at all what that user experience is as a female being subject to these
0:18:01 procedures so and there’s a ton of opportunity there yeah I’ve done a lot
0:18:04 of calls and worked with a lot of companies over the years where it might
0:18:08 be like a company that’s around women’s health but then a lot of the execs are
0:18:12 men and men are welcome I think there’s so many amazing men in my life and I’m
0:18:16 really grateful for that but if you’re doing a product that’s for women it’s
0:18:20 really important to also talk to women and have them be a huge part of the
0:18:25 conversation to make sure you’re making a product that is helpful and feels good
0:18:30 for them amen okay this is amazing Ellie because with my past entrepreneur hat on
0:18:32 and thinking about like you as a potential investor in my company you’ve
0:18:36 already shown that like you’re a patient and you can bring that perspective
0:18:39 you’re a survivor you can bring that perspective you’re a start athlete and
0:18:43 you can bring sort of that brand and start power to the table as well what
0:18:47 do you want entrepreneurs to know about your unique value proposition and and
0:18:49 maybe the broader set of value propositions that professional athletes
0:18:54 can bring to entrepreneurs when they invest in their companies yeah well
0:18:58 thank you sometimes my perspective as like being a survivor of abuse and how
0:19:04 that might be like less triggering or easier for someone to use I have sort
0:19:07 of brought that perspective if it’s in the health care space and then of course
0:19:12 as an athlete I’m very fortunate to have the platform that I have so I think
0:19:17 where it makes sense most of the companies I invest in I do it privately
0:19:20 but there are some that we decide together it makes sense to do a
0:19:25 partnership and to promote it the campaigns that I do publicly that are
0:19:30 just like pushing a product that don’t talk about like something philanthropic
0:19:35 whether it’s a beast prevention for me or mental health they don’t really do
0:19:38 well and I honestly frankly don’t do that anymore where it’s just like a
0:19:45 specific product like we always try to make it more of a conversation and how
0:19:48 is it authentic to me is it something that I really use is it something that
0:19:54 really aligns and fits in with my values and I’ve seen firsthand how my most
0:19:58 successful campaigns I’ve actually been able to be a part of the marketing side
0:20:03 of it where I can like meet with like the CMO or the CEO and there’s been many
0:20:06 campaigns I’ve been a part of where I’ve actually been able to be a part of
0:20:10 those like brainstorming marketing conversations which is just so fun this
0:20:14 generation really votes for their dollar and people really want to support
0:20:19 companies that they believe in that are doing good and aren’t just like trying
0:20:23 to sell a product they also have found the more honest I’ve been I’ve been so
0:20:28 surprised so many people can actually relate to what I’ve experienced well
0:20:31 Ali you are to use the technical term freaking amazing thank you so much for
0:20:35 spending your time with us today you’re a truly inspiration to everyone and on
0:20:38 behalf of everyone in health care we are just incredibly grateful that you are
0:20:41 bringing your energy to our space because we we definitely need it thank you
0:20:44 so much thank you both
0:20:53 thank you for listening to Raising Health Raising Health is hosted and
0:20:57 produced by me Chris Tatiosian and me Olivia Webb with the help of the bio
0:21:02 and health team at A16Z the show is edited by Phil Hegseth if you want to
0:21:06 suggest topics for future shows you can reach us at raisinghealth@a16z.com
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0:21:32 discussed in this podcast for more details including a link to our
0:21:37 investments please see A16Z.com/disclosures
0:21:47 [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.