As we approach the year’s end, I’m delighted to report that our funds are growing and changing. In particular, I wanted to let everyone know about plans for the next Social Starts fund, Social Starts Health and Happiness, which we call “SH2,” for short. SH2 is the only venture fund focused on the emerging science […]
Where We Are Investing Now: Our Current View on Health and Happiness Science
Since the initiation of Joyance Partners in 2016, our funds have pivoted forcefully toward the emerging science of health and happiness; our investments are now dominated by companies from those areas. We feel this is a shift dramatically in our and our investors’ interests. Health and happiness science is one of the most profound investment […]
Why Do We Invest In Health AND Happiness?
I am sometimes asked: Why do you invest in health and happiness? Why not just invest in health, or even health care, which is where other funds focus and where the impact of science is obvious?
Where We Are Investing Now: Next Gen Food and Drink
In a recent post, I talked about our focus on Digital Brands. Food, drink, and new ingredients certainly are part consumer goods and digital brands. But this area is unique enough to deserve its own explanation. That’s because food and drink are not only digital products, but also new expressions of the emerging science of health […]
Quotes to Entrepreneur By: Health and Happiness
From time to time I share quotes from my wanderings that seem useful to entrepreneurs. This latest collection, though, is a bit different.
Where We Are Investing Now: E-Sports and Digital News
Each year, our funds define specific areas of investment focus for the year. We then do a mid-year review of each of these and adjust our approach if necessary. Most often, this mid-year correction is modest, just a tweak or lane change. But this summer, we felt that changes in our immersive experiences and content […]
Where Are We Investing Now: Consumer Goods
Both of our fund families focus on consumer products. Social Starts takes the angle of commerce and focuses on Digitally Native Brands based purely on their market characteristics. Joyance focuses on consumer goods derived from deep science with high emotional content. Social Starts focuses on Digitally Native Brands with the potential to deliver a generational […]
Where We Are Investing Now: Digital Brands
Both of our fund families focus on consumer products. Social Starts takes the angle of commerce and focuses on Digitally Native Brands based purely on their market characteristics. Joyance focuses on consumer goods derived from deep science with high emotional content. For us, Digitally Native Brands must deliver a generational opportunity to invest in a […]
Where We Are Investing Now: Food and Drink
As funds that focus on health and happiness (Social Starts) and delightful moments (Joyance Partners), we see food and drink as fundamental. After all, health starts with food, not only in terms of survival and nutrition but increasingly as an active mediator of biological or microbiome processes that underpin proper body operation. And, food and […]
New Math Reveals the Roots of Innovation
How do new things occur? New ideas? New words? New choices? Scientists have been studying this question for years. And now, through the work of a team of mathematicians in Rome, they may have found equations for innovation that describe the emergence of the new in the real world for the first time. For a […]
Startup Lessons from the NBA Playoffs
I’ve been watching the games and realized that they hold valuable lessons for startups. This isn’t surprising, because championship sports, like entrepreneurship, is an activity at the human edge. It requires excellence, training, practice, drive, spirit, and so much more.