We just came back from ViVE in sunny LA, which was a pleasant respite from the snowpocalypse on the East Coast.

Conferences are a good pulse check for outlook - you can glean tone of meetings, mindsets, talk tracks, and overall attendance. The natural inclination, especially when you’re meeting someone new, is to paint a rosy picture. Revenue is in hockey stick growth mode. The team is like a unified bobsled crew. Zero false starts with tech and product. Competitors aren’t event on the podium! There are no half rotations over here - full quad axels only!! (We’ll stop).

In some of our conversations with CEOs and investors alike, a weary tone has emerged. Everyone still remains hopeful - after all, there are boundless opportunities to launch, accelerate, and grow a company. But it feels like many have been battle-scarred by the last few cycles - will 2026 be different? (Spoiler: We think so.) So much of today feels reminiscent of 2021’s boom cycle, though that was certainly not the first one. The noise from AI has gotten louder and it’s harder to break through. It’s simultaneously never been easier to build a company, and yet never more complex to do it in healthcare.

So here’s a quick note to the weary entrepreneur: Building a company can feel like rowing a boat toward the horizon - waters are choppy, you pull and pull, but the horizon never seems to get any closer. Inside the boat, progress rarely feels as fast as the captain and crew want it to be. But if you look back, the shoreline grows smaller. Capabilities that once felt exhausting are muscle memory. The horizon’s distance is your ambition pulling you forward.

To paraphrase a wise philosopher - just keep rowing, just keep rowing…

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• Tim Elliott joins Navvis, a value-based care enablement company, as Chief Executive Officer (Source)
• Experity, an urgent care software company, appoints Bobby Ghoshal as Chief Executive Officer (Source)
• ThoroughCare, an integrated care coordination solutions provider, appoints Bradley Hill as Chief Executive Officer and Sean O’Donnell as Chief Growth Officer (Source)
• PicnicHealth, a medical record company, appoints Luna Federici as President (Source)
• Mike Wirth joins Medaxion, an operating room improvement performance software company, as Chief Growth Officer (Source)
• Tingting Turski joins Candid Health, a healthcare revenue cycle automation software company, as Chief Financial Officer (Source)
• Joe Hand joins insitro, an AI therapeutics company, as Chief People Officer (Source)
• Sanjay Kumar joins XiFin, a revenue cycle management company, as Chief Technology Officer (Source)
• Daniel Litvak joins Karoo Health, a value-based care enablement company for cardiology, as Chief Technology Officer (Source)
• Stephanie Eken, MD, MBA joins LifeStance Health, a behavioral healthcare company, as Chief Medical Officer (Source)
• Sarah Chouinard, MD joins Matter Health, a preventative and primary care services, as Chief Medical Officer (Source)
• Gina Collins joins Autonomize AI, an AI solutions company, as Chief Regulatory Officer (Source)

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• Truepill, a virtual pharmacy company, is hiring a VP, Enterprise Sales - Fuze Services
• Kindbody, a fertility clinic network, is hiring a VP, Strategic Business Lines
• Headway, a mental health company, is hiring a Head of Total Rewards and People Ops
• b.well, a data integration and personalization company, is hiring a Senior Counsel, Health Interoperability & Privacy

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