Women in VC Healthcare Leadership Brunch
This event is Invite-Only.
*Please only register if you are a VC or have been invited to attend*
Co-hosted by:
Agenda
📍 11:30 PM - 11:45 PM | Welcome/Arrival
📍 11:45 PM - 12:45 PM | Brunch & Discussion
📍 12:45 PM - 1:00 PM | Networking & Farewell
The RISE UP for Breast Cancer Conference highlighted the urgent need to bring together like-minded, innovative leaders and investors to accelerate meaningful progress in women’s health, something that is now more important than ever. RISE UP was a really stimulating meeting with lots of new ideas about how we can either combine or rethink the types of products that we use for hormonal interventions across a woman’s lifetime for cycle control, birth control, IVF, postpartum weaning, and postmenopausal symptom management to think about how we can reduce the risk of breast cancer. This innovation has the potential to truly drive down the rate of breast cancer, while also addressing other health priorities such as cycle control, contraception, symptom management, IVF, fibroids, postpartum weaning, and symptom management after menopause. A tremendous opportunity exists for women entrepreneurs, investors, and VCs to play a critical leadership role in defining where we go with women’s health research and how it gets supported. The current climate has further deprioritized federal investment in women’s health – so it becomes especially critical to find a way forward.
Our inaugural meeting of RISE UP for Breast Cancer was in November 2024. Given the tremendous response, we are planning on having it annually! In 2026, our meeting will be February 19-21 (website: www.riseup.ucsf.edu).
A lot of interesting ideas came up in preparation for this meeting, and more at the meeting about how we can reframe our thinking and create new interventions that aim to reduce breast cancer incidence. Our final session of the meeting was devoted to a “Shark Tank” session where new ideas that were ready for initial testing were pitched. There were 4 SPARK awards in the final session that received funding with promise to move the field in this direction. This year, we would also like to see more mature ideas receive implementation awards for pivotal innovations as well as providing “spark funding” for promising early stage new ideas.
We want to hear your ideas to engage the community of women’s health investors and entrepreneurs to create opportunities to take promising ideas forward, especially those with preliminary data. There is so much important work to do. We look forward to welcoming you at our first Women’s Healthcare Leadership Brunch on June 24th and please RSVP by June 1st.
Cheers to moving women’s health forward!