Excited to announce investment in the $1.7M seed of Beaming Health alongside NextGen Venture Partners, Divergent Investments, Designer Fund and MedMountain Ventures. Beaming is a platform marketplace for autism and other neurodivergent individuals, connecting providers to families and patients. Tau Ventures is an AI-first fund in Silicon Valley investing primarily in seed and US but we occasionally take later bets and/or in countries we know very well, when we see immense promise. Beaming was founded in 2021 and impressed us with (1) a strong need, (2) building an execution-focused team, and (3) creating a targeted product.
1) The Need
“Why autism rates have skyrocketed in the NYC metro area: study” is a headline today itself as we are writing this article. Developmental differences among children, including autism, have historically been severely underdiagnosed. That notwithstanding, experts agree the prevalence is increasing perhaps due to known environmental factors such as rising parents’ age. In other words, waiting longer to have kids is very likely contributing to intellectual differences, in what is a worldwide phenomenon. An incredible amount of time, energy and money is being spent today to diagnose and manage these conditions – we believe there is a better way.
2) The Team
At Tau we believe team is always the single most important attribute. Cofounders Marissa “Missy” Pittard and Chris Olmanson met doing their MBA at Stanford, where they incubated the company. Previously, Missy trained as a chemical and biomedical engineer at Georgia Tech and worked for several years at McKinsey, focusing especially on behavioral health and social determinants of health. Chris did international studies and economics at Boston College and worked for several years at United Health Group. We value the combination of their growth and product mindsets, alongside the core group around Beaming of early hires, contractors, consultants and advisors.
3) The Product
Beaming’s platform enables community support for patients with autism and provides a network of provider access without long term trial and error search for good fits. Providers can collaborate through a subscription or a sponsored placement. Today Beaming has facilitated care in over 200 communities across the US, is partnered with major centers like UCSF, Stanford’s Children’s Health and Sutter, and has been growing 100% month over month since launching in Mar 2022.
We are honored and excited to be part of Beaming’s journey, using technology to solve a big problem. More at http://beaminghealth.com.
Originally published on “Data Driven Investor,” am happy to syndicate on other platforms. I am the Managing Partner and Cofounder of Tau Ventures with 20 years in Silicon Valley across corporates, own startup, and VC funds. These are purposely short articles focused on practical insights (I call it gl;dr — good length; did read). Many of my writings are at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amgarg/detail/recent-activity/posts and I would be stoked if they get people interested enough in a topic to explore in further depth. If this article had useful insights for you comment away and/or give a like on the article and on the Tau Ventures’ LinkedIn page, with due thanks for supporting our work. All opinions expressed here are my own.
