Vanna Health
In this episode, serial entrepreneur (3x exited) Dr. Giovanni Colella pitches his fifth healthcare startup — and this time it’s personal. Vanna Health is reimagining care and community for people with serious mental illness.
Focused on the most vulnerable and overlooked patients, Giovanni believes in the psychosocial rehabilitation model bringing together community inclusion and the social dimension of care.
We discuss:
What is the standard of care today for people with serious mental illness?
How their care model is differentiated (and how exactly they take on full risk)
Their rate limiter for scaling
How he’s thinking about his next round of funding, and the key milestones they need to achieve
Taking money from strategic investors, and what to look out for
Why you shouldn’t be afraid of warrants
Meet the founder
Giovanni Colella, MD is a five-time healthcare founder. Before co-founding Vanna Health, he was the co-founder of Brightline, OODA Health, Castlight (IPO), and RelayHealth (acquired by McKesson in 2006). He has also served in senior roles at Sapient and SAI, and was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Before beginning his business career, Gio practiced medicine in Manhattan and directed the Transitional Day Treatment Program at Roosevelt Hospital. Gio graduated with an M.D. from the University Degli Studi di Milano in Italy. He did his fellowship in public health at Columbia University, and earned his M.B.A from Columbia Business School.
About the Guest VC
Greg Yap is a partner at Menlo Ventures, where he invests in teams trying to solve major problems in life science and healthcare, with a special interest in novel therapeutic platforms, digital health, and transformative technologies. Since joining in 2017, Greg has led Menlo’s investments in Clear Labs, Delfi Diagnostics, Encoded Therapeutics, Epiodyne, Genesis Therapeutics, H1 Insights, Ophelia Health, Particle Health, Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PLRX), Senti Biosciences, Scribe Therapeutics and Riva Health. He has also been involved in investments in Benchling, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and Cofactor Genomics.
Previously, Greg was at Illumina Ventures as entrepreneur-in-residence, where he focused on new investments related to genomics. Prior to entering venture capital, Greg had 20 years of experience in senior executive and entrepreneurial roles in life science and digital health. He was CEO and co-founder of two startups: BlueLight Therapeutics (originally Biodesy), a structure- driven platform & therapeutics company, and PyrAmes, a digital health remote monitoring company. At Roche Diagnostics/Ventana, Greg led a global market-leading cancer diagnostic assay business, serving 20 million patients and delivering $500 million revenue per year. Greg’s operating experience also includes roles as the first healthcare entrepreneur-in-residence at GE; chief operating officer at Cellpoint Diagnostics, an early liquid biopsy startup; vice president and general manager for genetics and molecular diagnostics at Affymetrix, the microarray genomics pioneer; and consultant for McKinsey & Company.
Greg received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biology (summa cum laude) from Princeton University and his MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is an Aspen Health Innovators Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Greg is a Bay Area native and has lived in 11 cities in the area. Greg serves on the board of Outward Bound California and loves all manner of outdoor activities with his family, including backpacking and snowboarding. His favorite sport is basketball.