Heather Hartnett, Ceo & General Partner at Human Ventures, joins ChedHer to discuss the mission behind Human Ventures and why she's investing and backing female founders in the health and wellness space.

chedHER

Finding the Next Generation of Consumer Wellness Companies

joining us now is heather Hartnett Ceo and general partner at Human Ventures heather. Glad to have you on this morning. What is the mission and the story behind human Ventures? Thank you so much for having me. This is a great segment. So yeah, as you said, Human Ventures is a um an early stage venture fund. So that just means we're one of the first checks into these companies and we partner with founders who are innovating around human needs and we invest in in some areas, you know, we call the human needs economy and that's health and wellness. That's a big, clearly a big area of human needs. Also with categories around the way that we work where we spend our time and attention and how we connect, connect with our communities. Why are you investing in and what are the benefits to backing female founders building in the wellness and and and health space? Yeah. You know, we partnered with talented founders early in their process and we never set out to invest in only female companies, but it happens to be where some of the biggest opportunities are for investment and return on your investment. You know, decision makers at venture capital firms are traditionally male. More than um, you know, any, any fund that's more than $25 million, we have about 88% of those partners are male. So, you know, when a, when a founder is pitching a venture capitalist, there's a big chance that their mail that, that there are male. And so, you know, we want to have definitely more women in the seat of investing and relating with founders of of both genders and many more, you know, industries that have opportunities. It's so interesting that you point out just happens to be that the biggest opportunities are there, because part of what we do on this show, and what has been pointed out over and over on this show is sometimes a lot of these female led companies feel undervalued when their growth numbers and they're just fundamental numbers are comparable or even better to see some of their male counterparts. So fascinating that you point out saying that the greatest opportunities there, I wonder just getting into some of the companies that you guys back, what are some of the female founded companies that you invest in? Yeah. You know, and I and I think we're trying to not only prove everyone wrong that, um, that that women can't build these billion dollar businesses, we're starting to see at a rapid rate, uh, you know, these, these businesses growing. So we invested in a company called TIA Health, which is kind of a primary care for women and there really is a new paradigm for the modern female healthcare. And we invested in a company called tiny organics, which is early childhood nutrition and wellness, baby food. You know, they're they're really changing the game with offering the 1st 100 flavors to, to a baby. We have a company called electra health and that's the next generation women's platform with a mission to really smash the the taboo around menopause. Right? So health and wellness is definitely being pioneered by these incredible female founders and their building products, you know, for women by women. Obviously we've been talking about here, you know, you are on a mission to fund this next generation of consumer wellness companies with that and in the context that you have kind of being on this mission. What's the next big thing you think in wellness? Yeah. You know, I think we just experienced a great kind of human recession. So the the opportunity and healthcare is continuing to to rise the infrastructure layers for digital health is really another layer, you know, virtual care, adoption completely was accelerated through covid. And so opportunities for standardization that are now appearing and and being able to have autonomy over your data. Another trend really that we're faced with is um, you know, the founders who are building these spaces, do they, do they build the technology themselves or do they use white labeled products? Uh, so companies that are offering um care, uh you know, virtual care and you know, companies that are really thinking more about um building with the whole human in mind whether it's sexual health or it's um, you know, Building for these large markets that haven't been fulfilled, you know, from, from the employer's standpoint, creating benefits for the worker. I think these are big areas that will start to see unfold. You know, the fertility industry alone is expected to hit over 30 billion, you know, for in the next, in the next five years. And we're very underfunded in a lot of these areas. Before I have to let you go here earlier, you touched on, you know, the VC world just being so heavily male dominated. I wonder really quickly, what advice do you have for women in this space? For women looking to enter this space, Continue to build, continue to network. You know, traditionally 2%, we've always talked about 2% of venture financing, those two female founded companies. However, 14% of the the unicorns are built by women, so we're starting to see uh proof is in the pudding here that backing women. Um it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of business sense. So you know, keep building and keep finding opportunities where other people haven't been building great advice. They really appreciate your time and insight and that advice Heather Hartnett Ceo and general partner at Human Ventures