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The future of the public digital health market currently hinges on one company: Hinge Health. 

What they're watching: "Everyone's waiting with bated breath for Hinge to go out and set the stage," Andreessen Horowitz general partner Julie Yoo tells Axios, as digital health faces a major test in the company's forthcoming IPO.

Context: Axios spoke with Yoo about gut-checking health tech CEOs, new areas of investment for the firm (hint: bespoke health plans), and what she thinks could be the next-generation electronic health record. 

This Axios Expert Voices interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How do your VCs expect to garner returns with public markets in the unfriendly state they're in? What's your exit outlook for health tech?

"The last cohort of companies that went out were not digital health native businesses, many of them. Teladoc [is] the canonical example of a fairly legacy call center business that happened to evolve into the virtual care space much later. The bones of how that company was built [are] fundamentally different than the true tech-native companies of this current era.

Hinge has fundamentally different fundamentals than the prior cohort of companies: high gross margin, growth rate, line of sight to profitability, scale of revenue."

As far as Hinge, AI companies providing [virtual services like] PT will have to be cost-competitive to appeal to employers. Can they do it?

"That's the promise of AI. The Holy Grail for any of these companies is to become an anointed benefit within the plan construct. Plans care deeply about ROI and cost savings.

What those companies need to demonstrate [next] is: Can you play that game at scale with plans and leverage AI to engage members in a deeper way?"

Startup CEOs are often the best salespeople — or the only salespeople — at their companies. How do you ensure your CEOs aren't overselling the company beyond its real capabilities?

"Part of it is filtering out for founders who have a deep understanding of how they're going to commercialize their products that are based in reality.

Another part is "anointing our companies with access to networks and know-how that would otherwise take them years to build from Day One, so they're not making the same mistakes as previous cohorts."

A company's potential versus its actual output is a delicate line to walk — there have been entire movies about this (see Theranos). What do you do when a founder starts showing signs of overpromising?

"What we're seeing now, especially with the new-gen AI products, is that because the products just work — they do a job right out of the box — the speed with which companies are able to actually get customers, even at the seed stage, the bar has gone way up.

You don't have to be theoretical about it. It's like, it either works or it doesn't.

You learn pretty quickly whether you have a dog that's going to hunt, and the best founders are the ones who have the velocity to iterate quickly based on that feedback."

One generative AI company in your portfolio is Hippocratic AI. Tell me about their 2025 roadmap or milestones associated with the funding they raised in January. 

"They're in scaling mode. It's more of an infrastructure play than an app play, in some ways. It's an AI staffing platform — that's kind of the way they view it. Anyone who is trying to hire 50 nurses and can't is a viable [Hippocratic] customer.

This year is mainly a year of taking the hard work that they did for the first 2.5 years being heads down, pre-commercial, and tightening the safety profile of their products and scaling."

What are some new areas of health care investment for the firm?

"It is the year of what's called the alternative health plan. AHP is becoming an acronym, like a term of art.

We're seeing three baskets of activity. One is the enablement of self-funding. ICHRA is another big, hot area. Then there's a resurgence of interest around a next-generation TPA-type play. AI-native, building infrastructure to power these new health plans."

One area we didn't get to talk much about is AI scribes.

"My thesis for those — just the headline teaser is — I think that the winner will be the next-generation EHR."

Do you think it'll be the same companies playing in the space today, or a different set?

"Everyone's converging. These AI scribe companies, if you squint your eyes, they're becoming revenue cycle companies."

A16z's Julie Yoo talks digital health IPOs, CEOs and AI

"Everyone's waiting with bated breath for Hinge to go out and set the stage."

Photo illustration of Julie Yoo surrounded by abstract shapes. 

Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Andreessen Horowitz

Expert Voices

The future of the public digital health market currently hinges on one company: <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Hinge Health" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/10/hinge-health-ipo" data-vars-content-id="4db63a3b-9dc3-43a8-b733-1686e24bb535" data-vars-headline="A16z&#x27;s Julie Yoo talks digital health IPOs, CEOs and AI" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2025/03/10/hinge-health-ipo" target="_self">Hinge Health</a>. What they&#x27;re watching: &quot;Everyone&#x27;s waiting with bated breath for Hinge to go out and set the stage,&quot; Andreessen Horowitz general partner Julie Yoo tells Axios, as digital health faces a major test in the company&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="forthcoming IPO" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/03/10/hinge-health-reportedly-weighing-ipo-as-soon-as-next-week" data-vars-content-id="4db63a3b-9dc3-43a8-b733-1686e24bb535" data-vars-headline="A16z&#x27;s Julie Yoo talks digital health IPOs, CEOs and AI" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2025/03/10/hinge-health-reportedly-weighing-ipo-as-soon-as-next-week" target="_self">forthcoming IPO</a>.

A16z's Julie Yoo talks digital health IPOs, CEOs and AI

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