Healthcare Investing, Simplified

Welcome!

Hey, I’m Wendell Su, GP at The Healthcare Syndicate

At The Healthcare Syndicate, we believe investing in healthcare startups is one of the most meaningful activities any investor can do. After all, what other investment activity both relieves human suffering, while at the same time has potential for huge financial return?

After all, even the most prolific software investor of our era has noticed and is calling for more action.

However, the most common comment we hear from prospective investors is despite their enthusiasm to invest, they’re held back by some variation of “healthcare is hard”, or “I don’t understand healthcare”.

I’m here to change that by following the Feynman Technique for learning anything in explaining important healthcare trends and topics so that you can start investing in compassionate healthcare founders that are 10Xing the standard of care, and help all of us live better, healthier lives.

Who is this newsletter for?

1. New investors looking to add healthcare to their investment thesis

2. Healthcare professionals looking to get into early stage healthcare investing

3. Experienced healthcare investors looking for more dealflow

4. Healthcare founders who want to support other awesome healthcare startups, and want more insight into how investors think.

What to expect from this newsletter

My goal is to help you acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to invest with 250+ (and growing!) angel investors at The Healthcare Syndicate and our institutional investor network. To that end, I provide weekly communications on Tuesdays that answer two of the most common question I get from prospective investors:

“I don’t understand the opportunity space the healthcare companies you’re syndicating are in”

Healthcare might be worth trillions of dollars, but it actually made up of multiple billion dollar markets of different specialties. Given that backdrop, it’s no surprise how often I hear that sentiment, even among professional healthcare investors in our network. To that end, I will provide:

1. Deeper, descriptive insights about the market opportunity our syndicated companies are in to better set the context for our deal memos. (Want access to our deal memos and investment opportunities? Please join our syndicate on AngelList!)

2. Share insights into the forefront of healthcare through my conversations with early stage companies so you know what’s happening at the ground level

“I would love to make a difference in [insert healthcare topic], but I don’t know where to begin evaluating early stage healthcare companies”

There’s no better teacher than actual investing experience, and our syndicate’s investment minimums are as low as $1,000, so it’s never been easier to get started! Regardless of whether you are just starting out on your investing journey or an experienced investor, I will help you establish and strengthen your early stage healthcare investment framework. I will do that by examining two topics:

• How do healthcare startups create something from nothing? I decode the startup journey so you understand why startups do what they do, ranging from product development, regulatory approval, to different aspects of commercialization.

• Is early stage investing the only high risk/reward industry? Absolutely not! I dive into different investment frameworks from other well known high risk/high reward activities so you can better understand what “risk” means.

In between, I’ll also share some personal insights from my favorite healthcare and early stage investing reads across the internet.

What I expect from you as a reader?

I love being at the intersection of healthcare and early stage investing, so I am constantly studying the latest information, and sharing what I’ve read through this newsletter. However, this content will get better faster with your input!

Always remember, there are no dumb questions.

If you really have a dumb question, chances are there are 10 other people that have the same question as well. So comment away on my posts!

If you’re really shy, reach out to me at [email protected]. The more interactive you are, the better this newsletter will get.

When you feel ready to start investing, join our syndicate on AngelList!

Who am I?

I’m Wendell Su, GP at The Healthcare Syndicate. I pride myself in operating The Healthcare Syndicate like a real fund: sector focused, rigorous in our diligence approach, and highly committed to companies we back.

Operationally, I’ve been in healthcare for 10+ years across organizational role from top to bottom, experienced in everything from product development to commercial development. To highlight a few roles:

• Current Board member at a Sleep Apnea Treatment Company

• Former CEO at a diagnostic startup, raised $2.4M from Digital Health arm of French Pharmaceutical company.

• First technical hire at a cancer diagnostic startup, built out the company’s diagnostic platform and helped raised $1M seed round.

Ready to start your journey with us?

If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll start your journey to invest in early stage healthcare startups by subscribing to our newsletter, and joining our syndicate on AngelList to back early stage healthcare startups!

If you enjoyed this analysis, share our newsletter with a friend, and stay tuned to our newsletter for more insights into healthcare innovation.