Investing in Digital Health Startups

Healthcare represents 18% of the U.S. economy, yet it is one of the last sectors to undergo technology-based transformation. Digital health represents the convergence of healthcare and technology, with the aim to improve access to care, reduce inefficiencies in healthcare delivery, lower costs, enhance the quality of patient care, make treatments more targeted and personalized, and empower consumers to better manage their own health and well-being.

In recent years there has been an explosion of new digital health startups focused on these key objectives. Digital health has become the bellwether of venture funding, outgrowing both traditional healthcare and technology sectors. Venture funding in this category exceeded $29 billion in 2021, double the previous year and a 2,325% increase from 2011.

This course analyzes the unique characteristics and strategies of digital health companies as students form groups to act as venture capitalists and develop investment memos for real companies that are pitched by their founders. Past companies that have been pitched in this course— Maven Clinic, Grand Rounds (Included Health), and Simple Health— have gone on to become high-growth, billion-dollar companies.

MBA and executive education students analyze key objectives of new businesses and determinants of success including unit economics, product differentiation, go-to market strategies, customer acquisition, marketing tactics, scale-up/growth opportunities, and other business optimization approaches. The course allows students to hone their investment skills including questions to ask during an entrepreneur’s pitch, developing an investment thesis, and how to structure and write an investment memo. This course addresses these issues through a mixture of lectures, case studies, and guest speakers (entrepreneurs and investors) from the digital health sector.

Since 2015, I have been teaching a course on digital health at Columbia Business School.

About the course

Reviews

  • The best professor at CBS for healthcare classes. Such a boss, effective teacher, an amazing network with phenomenal guest speakers we would never have access to and interactive class. Best elective I have taken.

  • Lectures were succinct, thorough and insightful. Guest speakers were phenomenal, Professor Tecco's network is amazing and we were fortunate to get top tier VC partners to attend and give us in person lectures. The interactive approach to class and style of teaching was similar to HBS and AMAZING. Columbia should have her teach more classes, she is phenomenal and the best professor I have had as an EMBA student at Columbia Business School.

  • Amazing block week class, it was definitely one of my favorites at CBS so far and I’m not just saying that 😉. The combination of internal class discussions, investor guest speakers, real founder pitches and the group memo work was a lot of fun. Knowing how busy your schedule is, we so appreciate you taking the time to share your insights on all things digital health & early stage investing.

  • One of the best classes I've taken as an EMBA. Thank you for bring us top VC investors in this space. It was really valuable and I truly enjoyed learning about these different companies! Please teach more classes at CBS!

  • I truly believe this is the best class I’ve taken in my grad school career (I graduate this semester). It was the perfect mix of lecture, team work, speakers and real world case analysis. Wonderful instructor & TA!!!

  • The Professor and guest speakers were all extraordinarily diligent and passionate about their work. This class was among the best classes I have taken to date.

  • I loved this course. The pace was great and we had a lot of experience valuing startups and writing memos.

  • VC has always seemed like a very unapproachable industry to me, and this is the first time that I have understood what to look for when evaluating a startup, and enjoyed doing so. Additionally, as someone who is pursuing a career in healthcare, hearing from the different founders has given me a new perspective on what to value when applying for jobs.

  • Loved the structure of this class. Great guest speakers, founder pitches. Group work was very real-world applicable.

  • Amazing course and a review of actual start-ups and their pitches was super helpful.

  • I love this course, one of my best courses ever taken at CBS. I like that we are listening to/directly asking questions to start-ups which are raising money now, instead of textbook cases, which we already know the result. Feedback on memo is also timely. Using the investment memo as assignment is a very good way of learning.

  • Honestly it was maybe the best class I’ve taken in business school!

  • Halle was an exceptional instructor and person. She went above and beyond in all aspects of this course. I appreciate her plan to carve out time to meet students before class on Friday.

  • Professor Tecco was extremely knowledgeable considering her extensive background in the field. Despite this, she made all technical and nuanced information quite accessible for those of us without a background in VC, technology, or healthcare. Her willingness to provide insight into person experiences and give real life examples of successes and failures was invaluable.

  • I really love Ms. Tecco for bringing in VC partners for some valuable investment insights sharing and networking opportunities!

  • Instructor was amazing - really understand the space and how VCs think. Professor had great delivery and conveyed clearly and precisely the concepts of the course. Absolutely great!

  • The instructor was extremely knowledgeable about the healthcare industry. She leveraged her experience to the class’s advantage, which made for a dynamic classroom environment.

  • I like the professor. Love the investment summary on what she likes/dislike the startup presented yesterday. Also very knowledgeable in the digital hc space. Great learning experience. Only pitfall I would say is it would be nice to have startup ppt, guest speaker ppt and her ppt on canvas before each session.

  • Summaries and framework for each class provided by Halle were relevant and illustrative, guest speakers were incredible, pitch orgs were super interesting to analyze and very relevant in digital health field today. The 24-hour memo format is also the best way to learn via real-life simulation. Pretty much a perfect class.

  • The most actionable investing class I've taken at CBS!

  • Professor Tecco made this class amazing - her experience came through in an impressive yet approachable manner, and hearing her opinions on companies was incredibly beneficial in validating or expounding on students thoughts.

  • I love Prof Tecco's ability to explain concepts and ask questions is a an extremely simplistic yet insightful manner!

  • Honestly it was so well done - easily best class I’ve had.