This week's startup news and trends will be the subject of a new weekly column. This will be in your inbox if you subscribe here.
Hey Jane is a digital health startup that scales access to abortion pills. It is a direct-to-consumer pharmacy that aims to meet consumers where they are, which is important as the Pandemic continues.
Jane's core product has a lot of red tape to deal with. It's main product, abortion pills, is banned or restricted in many states. Add in the fact that the world's future could be in conflict with the startup's mission to expand healthcare. Hey Jane shows the potential and promise of telehealth startups. It also operates at the center of an over-politicized issue.
I wrote about how digital health companies are preparing for a post-Roe world. The overturn makes abortion care via mail the most viable form of access for most of the country, according to Hey Jane co-founder Kiki Freedman. Most of the abortions performed in the U.S. are done via medication.
I want to do a follow-up to these reactions. Next week, I will interview Freedman for the Equity show and ask her about how to build a company when the mission may be irreversibly challenged by our government, as well as how they plan to pivot in the future. I want her to tell me what the world is doing wrong with the ability to answer the biggest questions in health right now, and where startups could fit into the solution going forward. Are they raising a growth round? If you want to know the answers, make sure to listen to the Equity episode wherever you get a podcasts.
In the rest of this newsletter, we will talk about another round of startup layoffs, why your MVP isn't the most valuable person in your life, and a company betting that it can make even your local credit card crave some chill time.
It was more where last week came from. Tech workers have had layoffs and hiring freezes from several startup companies. In one post, we rounded up some of the known workforce reductions.
Impact was felt across industries from education to security, as well as stages from a post-Series A startup to a recently SPAC business. That shows how pervasive this pull-back is, no matter what phase your company is in. It's not just the tech companies that are cutting staff, it's also the early stage companies.
I've been thinking about this headline for the past week because it challenges one of the preconceived startup notions that everyone else happily adopts. My weakness and my sweet spot. In the op-ed, Kamps talks about why the title of the piece is such a profound misnomer and what to focus on.
The new framework and questions that you should be asking your first product should make the complexity ofMVPs a little easier to understand. I will end with his kicker.
I don't have a suggestion for a better name for it, just don't fall into the trap of thinking of it as a product, being viable or simple. There are some things that are complex. The idea is to spend as little of your money as you can to get an answer to your questions.
A large hand controls a toy.
I chose Altro for the deal of the week that may have flown under your radar. The startup co-founded by Michael and Ayush Jain believes that credit access should be free, so it found an atypical way to help people build credit.
Altros, which raised an $18 million Series A this week, helps people build credit through recurring payment forms such as digital subscriptions. It stands out because a lot of banks targeted toward low-income, historically disenfranchised people want to circumvent credit scores altogether, while Altros wants to tinker with an established system. Mary Ann's story about the company's origins, fundraising journey and spotlight is a must read.
The images are from the same source.
There is a person seen on a website.
It was seen on the tech site.
Next time.
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