Founder Leadership

Andy Chen

Over two decades in Silicon Valley, Andy Chen, co-founder and managing partner of Outcast Ventures, learned how to spot a bad founder team from the very first pitch.

“They break up because you can see that they’re talking over each other or they have too much of a similar background. Is that really the best thing for the company?” Chen recalled to Founder Brew.

After studying common factors held by successful founder teams, Chen and his Outcast Ventures co-founder Amy Lin launched Catalyst earlier this year. The first cohort of founders finished up the program this spring, and the second cohort begins in September.

Catalyst is an eight-week incubator in San Francisco that brings together 40 to 50 aspiring founders biannually and tries to put them into perfect teams. Founders who don’t know each other meet, work together, and decide to combine forces or find new partners throughout the process.

If you think it sounds a little bit like a reality dating show, Chen’s already heard that. He broke down how the whole thing works for Founder Brew.

The program runs for eight weeks. What should those selected expect?

The first few days are what we call “the shuffle.” It’s like co-founder dating…15 minutes of shuffling around, meeting different people, highly orchestrated, and then we go into presentations and small groups where the founders share the ideas that they’re looking to build or projects that they’re interested in.

The last five weeks are all three-day to one-week work trials, where it’s double opt in. Every single week—and actually every midweek we do check-ins—they rank the 10 people they want to do work trials with. Then on the other side, 10 people rank the 10 people they want to do work trials with, and when there’s a match, we actually match them up for a week.

Do you watch Love Island? Because this sounds very familiar.

I have never seen Love Island, but 1,000 people have said that I should…We honestly didn’t want to watch it because of this reason, because we didn’t want to take everything from it.

Read more about Andy Chen’s Catalyst program to introduce co-founders.—DL

      

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Founder Guidance

Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Jeremy Gurewitz

Even doctors can get lost in the healthcare system.

Jeremy Gurewitz learned that firsthand when his mother, a radiologist, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016. Despite her medical expertise, she struggled to navigate treatment options, insurance hurdles, and the complexity of coordinating care. And her experience isn’t unique.

A 2021 study published in Healthcare Services Research found that 73% of insured, nonelderly US adults had completed at least one healthcare-related administrative task in the prior year, and roughly one in three reported delayed or foregone care because of administrative burdens.

Gurewitz’s mother passed away in 2018. The experience inspired him to build and in 2022 launch Solace with co-founder Sara Sargent. The company connects patients with advocates who help them navigate medical decisions, insurance challenges, and care coordination.

“We connect folks with a healthcare advocate powered by AI,” Gurewitz explained to Founder Brew. “It’s a real human being, so it’s a real advocate. We have AI that enables them to be highly effective for people, do whatever you need for them to do, and it’s all covered by insurance.”

In a conversation with Founder Brew, Gurewitz discussed the gaps his mother’s experience exposed, why navigating care remains difficult, and what he underestimated about building Solace.

Your mother was a radiologist and deeply familiar with medicine. What did her experience reveal about the healthcare system that even medical professionals struggle with?

Medicine can be complicated, and that’s why we have physicians, but having the interactions of clarity of, “What is the diagnosis? What are the treatment options? What are the different pathways I might be able to go down?” All that is oftentimes not clearly stated, or even if it is, the follow-ups or additional questions are often very difficult to have answered.

US healthcare sucks…It’s difficult to schedule an appointment. It’s difficult to get your notes. It’s difficult to find the treatments. It’s difficult to get the pharmaceuticals…When you’re sick and going through it, that’s the last thing you’re really able to do.

Read more about why Jeremy Gurewitz built Solace.—JH

      

John Peyton thought Applebee’s ‘Survivor’ tie-in was ‘the dumbest thing’ he had ever heard. He was wrong (Marketing Brew)

The Dine Brands CEO was convinced the partnership would miss the mark. Instead, it became a reminder that leaders don’t always have the best marketing instincts—and that knowing when to trust your team matters.

Startup aims to keep your employees healthy at a lower cost (CFO Brew)

Founded in 2018, Twin Health wants to help employers keep employees healthier while lowering healthcare costs. The company uses AI and wearables to create “digital twins” that track metrics like blood sugar, weight, and activity levels for employees with metabolic conditions.

Inside 260 Sample Sale’s new store concept (Retail Brew)

After building a following through cult-favorite sample sales, sibling founders Assaf and Ariel Azani are rebranding the concept into a permanent boutique called Store260.

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Stat: $2 million. That’s the maximum amount the SBA is offering in low-interest federal disaster loans to eligible businesses and nonprofits impacted by recent severe weather in Pennsylvania to repair or replace damaged property, equipment, inventory, and other assets. (ROI-NJ)

Quote: “Every entrepreneur has this brave moment when you realize you have to quit your day job and do it yourself. That was mine.”—Rushika Fernandopulle, founder of Renaissance Health, on leaving traditional healthcare roles to build a new model of primary care (American Medical Association)

Read: Are you sweaty, GOATed, or insanely cracked? Over the last few years, a new vocabulary has emerged to describe just how exceptional a founder is. Here’s a field guide to the tech bro dictionary. (Sifted)

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