By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Rock Health hosted the 2012 Health Innovation Summit in San Francisco this week, showcasing a remarkably gender-balanced set of interdisciplinary innovators in the burgeoning health/tech space.
As keynote speaker Mitch Kapor stated, “It is possible to go up the learning curve yourself without the basics of the domain you’re in.” The health tech space is still very new, he reminded the audience, and recommended for early entrepreneurs to educate yourself of the ecosystem, overcome your fears and find a way to “dive in” – find advisors that know about the space, can help you learn, and figure out how to build the right partnerships.
10 female founders to watch from this week’s Health Innovation Summit:
Amy Sheng (Co-Founder, CellScope)
A mechanical engineer, Amy co-founded CellScope for at-home disease diagnosis using smartphone cameras connected to a web platform. Follow her on Twitter at @amysheng.
Anne DeGheest (Co-Founder & Managing Director, HealthTech Capital)
In addition to co-founding HealthTech Capital, Anne is Managing Director at Concept Ventures. Follow her on Twitter at @adegheest.
Halle Tecco (Co-Founder & Managing Director, Rock Health)
Halle co-founded Rock Health, the first seed-accelerator exclusively for health startups, providing capital, mentorship and more. Follow her on Twitter at @halletecco.
Jen McCabe (Co-Founder & CEO, Habit Labs)
Science and genetics geek Jen co-founded Habit Labs, building Health Month and Budge to help people meet their health goals. Follow her on Twitter at @jensmccabe.
Jennifer Wong (Founder & CEO, Alt12 Apps)
Jennifer founded Alt12 Apps, building cross-platform community and lifestyle apps for women. Follow her products at @BabyBumpApp and @PinkPadApp.
Julia Hu (Founder & CEO, LARK)
Julia dropped out of business school to take her invention to the next level: LARK was produced thru PCH Accelerator’s pilot and is now in stores. Follow her on Twitter at @ourlark.
Kyna Fong (Co-Founder, Elation)
Kyna co-founded Elation, a startup harnessing web technology to reshape the delivery of health care, and invested in by Ron Conway and founders of Facebook and Quora.
Linda Avey (Co-Founder & CEO, Curious)
23andMe co-founder Linda is now working on a personal data tracking and analytics platform named Curious. Follow her on Twitter at @lindaavey.
Maria Ly (Co-Founder, Skimble)
A computer engineer by training, Maria co-founded mobile health & fitness startup Skimble which celebrated 2 million downloads this month! Follow her on Twitter at @marialy.
Monisha Perkash (Co-Founder & CEO, LUMOback)
Monisha co-founded LUMOback, a mobile solution to help keep your back strong and healthy. Follow her on Twitter at @mperkash.
Ready to jump into the health innovation space? Rock Health offers a five month program and seed accelerator targeting health-related mobile and web applications and the entrepreneurs who are interested in building them.
About the guest blogger: Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006 with Shaherose Charania. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management, web UI design, and entrepreneurship. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1” for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.
