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36 hours in San Francisco |
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| I kicked off this week with an early-morning flight to San Francisco, where I attended the Rock Health Top 50 in Digital Health Awards and the summit Rock Health hosted the next day. In between events, I ran around town meeting with folks in what felt like a tour of SF’s best coffee spots. |
| Here were six thoughts I took away from my quick trip: |
- Covering this beat over the past decade, there have been cycles of optimism and pessimism. This time, I found a fair amount of pragmatism, about what health tech ideas might actually start to bring down healthcare costs, as well as some expectation-setting that health tech can’t just take the healthcare industry and make it more online — it has to do something better.
- It feels like — at least for generalist investors — the shine is still off. Those that bought into overvalued companies during the pandemic boom are still recovering, even after the public markets opened up for Hinge Health and Omada Health this summer.
- But there’s still a fair amount of expectation that another wave of IPOs is coming — and early 2026 may be when I might be able to scan through an S-1 filing again.
- For all the times AI came up in conversations and panels, I came away with one question I’ll be asking a fair amount this fall: What did people wish AI could do in healthcare that it can’t yet?
- SF has some of the best pastries I’ve had in a while — sorry, Denver. And yes, I did take a loaf of bread home with me.
- I might need to update my Linkedin headshot from 2018
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