Extra Crunch Tuesday: Leading VCs discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the world of digital health

Extra Crunch Newsletter

Tuesday, March 31, 2020 • By Walter Thompson

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday In our latest Extra Crunch VC survey, we followed up with six top investors who responded to our December 2019 digital health survey to get their take on the current moment: Annie Case, Kleiner Perkins Kristin Baker Spohn, CRV Deena Shakir, Lux Capital Jennifer Hartt, Ben Franklin Technology Partners John Prendergass, Ben Franklin Technology Partners Bill Liao, SOSV Startups innovating in telemedicine, diagnostic testing and mental health services are rising to the challenge, but “the COVID-19 pandemic is emerging as a watershed moment for the sector,” says Shakir. Many digital health founders “are feeling energized and privileged to be in a position to take action and support the response,” adds Baker Spohn. Even as these startups seize opportunities, disruptions in funding have led some to take radical steps to conserve cash as they rush new products to market. To get a sense of how the novel coronavirus is reshaping the digital health investing landscape, read this morning’s survey. Also: read recaps of recent Zoom calls we’ve hosted with immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn and betaworks founder and CEO John Borthwick and partner Matt Hartman, or listen to the conversations in full. We’re doing more of these midday chats with notable names in tech, so watch this space for an invitation to join the conversation. Thanks for reading,   Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch @yourprotagonist

Venture capital isn't escaping the downward spiral of the global economy Image Credits: Mj Breiva/EyeEm / Getty Images “Because venture data is famously — and annoyingly — laggy,” we may not have a full picture of Q1 2020 venture results for months. Alex Wilhelm is an impatient fellow, so he used this morning’s column to make a deep dive into figures for U.S. equity-only rounds so far this year, and the general direction is “down and to the right.” Read more

Get 20% off premium plans for calendar app Woven Sponsored by Extra Crunch Annual and two-year Extra Crunch members can receive a 20% discount on premium plans for this powerful cross-platform calendar tool. Read more

When is it time to stop fundraising? Image Credits: Bernd Vogel / Getty Images (Image has been modified) There’s real fear, uncertainty and doubt swirling in the venture community, but the 2020 DocSend Startup Index found that interest in pitch decks last week dropped just 11.6% compared to the same time period in 2019. Opportunities still abound for some early-stage startups, so “there is still opportunity to come away with a term sheet.” Read more

Leading VCs discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the world of digital health Image Credits: TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images How is COVID-19 impacting digital health startups, and how can these companies best respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? Arman Tabatabai interviewed six top investors to get their insights regarding new opportunities for founders in healthcare and how health tech investing as a whole has changed in recent weeks. Read more

John Borthwick & Matt Hartman of betaworks talk coronavirus adaptation strategies Jordan Crook hosted a Zoom chat with betaworks founder and CEO John Borthwick and partner Matt Hartman that covered “the tech world's adaptation to this new locked-down world.” Read a rundown of their conversation or listen to the full audio. Read more

Anorak's Greg Castle on early-stage investing during a crisis “I think it's part of my job as a VC to remain calm, look at the numbers, look at the data, and — you know — my beliefs haven't changed for what the future is going to look like,” says Greg Castle, founder of small-seed fund Anorak Ventures. “It's going to change the timeline a little bit and it affects the questions that I'm asking, but I think it's part of my job to take that emotion out of it as much as I possibly can.” Read more

Attorney Sophie Alcorn answers readers' immigration questions If you missed our Zoom conference call with Silicon Valley attorney Sophie Alcorn, we talked about how COVID-19 is impacting immigration law, recent changes to H-1B visas and other top-of-mind issues for founders who are building teams. Read more

Rebecca Minkoff has some advice for e-commerce companies right now Image Credits: Rebecca Minkoff - Front Row & Backstage - Fall 2016 New York Fashion Week under a CC BY 2.0 license. Designer Rebecca Minkoff knows a thing or two about building a consumer brand, so Natasha Mascarenhas spoke with her to see what wisdom she had to share about the current e-commerce landscape, building direct relationships with customers and her problem with the “unicorn mentality.” Read more

Attract, engage and retain employees in the new remote-work era Image Credits: C.J. Burton / Getty Images Vacant positions can cost companies as much as $680/day, and given the rapid shift to remote work in recent weeks, recruiting just got a lot harder. Employers who integrate virtual hiring technologies into their continuity plans are more resilient; here are four steps to help make that happen inside your organization. Read more

This Week in Apps: Apple launches a COVID-19 app, the outbreak's impact on social and video apps and more Data suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is changing our relationship to our smartphones: social video apps are exploding, Facebook is seeing record usage and Disney+ saw 5M downloads on day one of its European launch. Read more

The second wave of unicorn layoffs is brutal Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch Events are moving quickly, which is why Alex Wilhelm took a moment to unpack the first wave of unicorn layoffs at Zume, Oyo and Uber to see how it compares to recent reductions in staff at ZipRecruiter, Bird and TripActions. Read more

Amid shift to remote work, application performance monitoring is IT's big moment Image Credits: CasarsaGuru / Getty Images IT departments are much like the CIA: you’re much more likely to hear about their failures than their successes. Now that remote workers are putting unheard-of strain on systems that support services like videoconferencing, e-commerce and online learning, application performance monitoring (APM) tools are the star of the show. Read more

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

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