Awesome People Ventures

Awesome People Ventures grew out of Julia Lipton's own operating career: she ran growth and revenue at the nutrition startup Rise, launched One Medical's telemedicine practice after it acquired Rise, and found that the part of the job she actually loved was the relationship with founders. Advising led to angel investing, and angel investing led to a fund. The core fund writes pre-seed and seed cheques; an attached and growing syndicate writes larger follow-ons and picks up companies met later, which has stretched the range as far as a Series B in anti-aging drug discovery. The thesis is unusually personal — Lipton says it is a reflection of what she is interested in, which is why she can spend her days learning about it: healthcare beyond conventional Western medicine, because she believes most of the innovation will come from just outside that system, plus remote work, the creator economy and solopreneurship, all of which she came to early through several years of working nomadically. Levels is one of the fund's better-known positions, and Lipton described watching the company for six months before investing.