.406 Ventures

Welcome (back) to the team, Marin Lang! We’re beyond excited to have Marin join .406 Ventures as a Senior Associate—but, fun fact: this isn’t her first rodeo with us! Marin was part of the .406 family years ago, interning with us and our portfolio companies during college. Now, after building a strong foundation in healthcare investing on Morgan Stanley’s Healthcare Investment Banking team and at Arsenal Capital, she’s coming back home to Boston. Marin’s passion for healthcare runs deep — she even centered her Harvard College studies around access to healthcare. When she’s not diving into the world of healthcare investing, you can find her reading WWII historical fiction, soaking up Nantucket vibes, or revisiting The Hunger Games. Get to know more about Marin, including how she hopes to be a go-to resource for entrepreneurs, on our website: https://bit.ly/3DQuilG

Two weeks ago, we welcomed our second child. As I navigate life with a newborn and his energetic 3.5-year-old brother, pediatric care has never felt more personal. That’s why I’m especially excited to share the news of our latest healthcare investment in Bluebird Kids Health (BBK). In this post, Liam Donohue and I discuss why BBK’s mission—ensuring every child has access to exceptional pediatric care—makes it a perfect addition to the .406 Ventures portfolio. And while welcoming my son has been the highlight of the past couple of weeks, I’m also thrilled to welcome Chris Johnson and the entire BBK team to the .406 Ventures family! https://lnkd.in/dt5rFFHz

It’s a great day for children’s health in the U.S.  Today, Bluebird Kids Health  announced the closing of a $31.5M Series A. We co-led the fundraise with F-Prime, with participation from new investor AIF and previous investor Juxtapose. Bluebird’s innovative approach prioritizes whole-child health, reduces barriers to care, and delivers better long-term outcomes for families. With this financing, Bluebird will have the fuel to expand into new cities and bring their exceptional care to more families. With one in 10 children in the U.S. not having access to a primary care doctor, this is life-changing work. Building on .406’s commitment to finding healthcare solutions that benefit vulnerable populations, we could not be more thrilled to partner with Bluebird to address pediatrics. To learn more, read the Fierce Healthcare article below. Congratulations to Chris Johnson and team! Kathryn Taylor Reddy, Liam Donohue, Trip Hofer #PediatricCare #Healthcare #ValueBasedCare #HealthTech #ChildrensHealth

It’s always a great day in the office when the .406 Student Fellows are in town, bringing their curiosity, smarts, optimism, and updates on their incredible startups. ☀️ Last week, we welcomed classes XV and XVI to the second of our two annual onsites. We are so grateful to our speakers who shared their energy, deep experience, and lessons learned with the group. Big thanks to founder and CEO Manish Sood and CRO Eric Cross from .406 portfolio company Reltio, Kevin C. Wang from .406, Christopher Warren from Gunderson Dettmer, Jimmy McDermott (alum from class X!) founder + CEO of Rubie, and Reed Sturtevant from Engine Ventures. Launched in 2008 for undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs, this two-year program now boasts a network of 120+ alumni. Daniela Andrade, Jack Blair, Angela Busheska, Sean Cai, Payal Chandak, Macdonald Chirara, Neha Desaraju, Manasi Gajjalapurna, Rayan Garg, Anshal Gupta, Sheryl Hsu, Rishab Kumar Jain, Nicole Jiam, MD, Geoffrey Jing, Grace Anne McCooey, Kabir Moghe, Truman Pierson, Ava Poole, Vienna Sparks, Maxx Yung, Edward Zhang, Aaron Z. Graham Brooks, Joanna Skoler Gilman, Rebecca Redfield, Austin Kwoun, Kelci Horan

Last Friday marked my final onsite with .406 Ventures, closing out two transformative years as a Student Fellow. This experience has been nothing short of incredible, and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to have learned from and worked alongside such an inspiring community. At the heart of this fellowship were the people—from the .406 investment team and my fellow student fellows to the portfolio founders, investors, and legal experts who generously shared their time and insights. Some of the highlights I’m most grateful for: • Access to Top Digital Health Investors: Given my deep interest in women’s health and digital healthcare, having direct access to Rebecca Redfield, an exceptional digital healthcare investor on the .406 healthcare team, was invaluable. Her insights on the evolving healthcare landscape and her willingness to mentor me and other fellows were instrumental in shaping my understanding of the space. • Conversations with Founders: The healthcare founders in .406’s portfolio were incredibly generous with their time, making space in their busy schedules for 15-minute calls to share their journeys, lessons learned, and perspectives on building a digital health company. • A Network of Exceptional Women: As Co-President of Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship, building a female student founder community beyond Harvard has been a top priority. Being surrounded by brilliant, ambitious female student founders in the fellowship—many of who are already making contributions in their industries—has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my experience. I’m beyond grateful for the .406 Ventures Fellowship, and while this chapter is closing, I know the relationships and lessons learned will stay with me for years to come. Thank you so much, Graham Brooks, Joanna Skoler Gilman, Kelci Horan, and the rest of the .406 team for making this fellowship possible and for all your support in running it! I'm looking forward to giving back in any way I can to support future cohorts of .406 student fellows!

🚀 Big congratulations to .406 portfolio company RAD Security on its Series A! Rad Security has developed an AI-driven defense platform that improves operational efficiency for security teams, and enables the safe and secure use of cloud and AI workloads within an organization. We are excited to support RAD as they scale their impact—looking forward to what’s ahead! 👏 Go, Brooke M., Jimmy Mesta 🤙, and team! You can read more (and see RAD's new website!) here: https://bit.ly/4ktoNdt #CyberSecurity #AI #StartupGrowth #SeriesA #AIsecurity #cloudsec🚀 Greg Dracon

Exciting News for Friday! 🎉 We’re thrilled that .406 Ventures has been recognized as one of five VC firms to watch by Laura Lovett in Behavioral Health Business! At .406, we are deeply committed to radically improving behavioral health by backing innovative companies that drive real impact. We’re proud to support incredible teams bringing innovative, evidence-based, and insurance-reimbursable care options to the most pressing mental health challenges including pediatric OCD and severe anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, autism, substance use disorder, and beyond. A special shout-out to our portfolio companies that were highlighted: o  AbleTo Inc. (acquired by Optum) o  Cortica (recently named one of 43 startups to bet your career on by Business Insider) o  Equip o  InStride Health o  Nema Health o  Wayspring o  FamilyWell Health o  Better Life Partners Onwards! Liam Donohue, Trip Hofer, Payal Agrawal Divakaran, Kathryn Taylor Reddy, Rebecca Redfield

Startup fundraising is never easy—but having the right insights can make all the difference. Last week, .406 Partner Greg Dracon joined an investor panel at the VentureFizz Startup Fundraising Conference 2025 to talk all things capital raising. Huge thanks to Keith Cline for putting together such an engaging event! Greg was in great company alongside: 🔹 Maia Heymann – Converge VC 🔹 Vivjan Myrto – Hyperplane 🔹Matthew Bellows – Grit Capital Partners 🎤 Moderated by Thara Pillai– Harvard Innovation Labs Among other topics, they covered: 💡 The right time to raise capital (Hint: Live on bootstrapping and revenue as long as you can). ⚠️ Pitfalls of fundraising—especially why it’s crucial to find investors who truly understand your space. 🎯 What VCs look for in a CEO— self-awareness, resilience, ability to sell, and a whole lot more. One of Greg’s top suggestions? Don't build to sell - build something with enduring value and there are always opportunities to exit.🔥

🎧 🫀 To celebrate Heart Health Month, .406 Partner (and guest host!) Payal Agrawal Divakaran speaks with founder and CEO of .406 portfolio company Heartbeat Health, Jeffrey Wessler, on this year’s first episode of Breaking Health podcast. They discuss virtual cardiovascular healthcare, how Heartbeat cracked the code on telemedicine-based treatment, and the power alley for physician entrepreneurs in VC-backed companies. Listen now and enjoy: https://bit.ly/4i0we9K

Last week .406 Partner Graham Brooks (The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, 2002) spent time on the Dartmouth College campus, sharing insights with graduate students in both business and engineering. At Tuck’s annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference, Graham joined Betsabeh Madani-Hermann (T’13) and former classmate Matt Fates (T’02) for a panel moderated by MBA candidate Larissa Marten (T’25) on Navigating Venture Capital, discussing different fund strategies and the risks of overfunding that arise when large funds need to put capital to work. Over at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, he led a session for Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a graduate-level course taught by Professor Trent Staats. He walked PhD and master’s students through the fundraising process, fundraising strategies, and the Student Fellows Program he leads at .406 for student entrepreneurs at the undergraduate and graduate school levels. It’s always great to see Graham back at his alma mater (Go, Green!) sharing his expertise with the next gen.