1. You began your career in finance, including as part of the founding team of Capital One, before running and founding Capital One Bank Europe. What inspired your pivot to health, longevity, and wellness-focused investing?
Initially, I moved on from banking because I wasn’t having any fun. I wanted to work in entrepreneurship, where creative thinkers were building businesses intended to change the world. While I didn’t have deep technical expertise in fields like genetics, oncology, or neurology, I brought a breadth of entrepreneurial experience and wanted to impart some of that.
My angel investments, which have always been consumer focused and impact driven, have become increasingly health and wellness focused. Decades later, and having become one of the most prominent angel investors in the UK, I met Paolo Pio (Co-founder and General Partner at Exceptional Ventures). We had a shared appetite for investment in businesses focused on improving people’s lives, so it felt natural to launch our own fund and take it from there.
Technology is enabling breakthroughs in health and wellness at a rate of knots; it’s an amazing space to be helping to shape.
2. Exceptional Ventures focusses on companies helping people live longer, healthier, and happier lives. What does that mission look like in practice when you’re evaluating a potential investment?
The mission is to improve the Joyspan® of people all over the world. Joyspan is a term we’ve coined ourselves; it encapsulates longevity, health, and happiness. So, firstly, investments need to align with that mission.
Secondly, we back entrepreneurs. Are they intellectually and interpersonally brilliant? Are they aiming to change the world, not just make money? Can they show leadership and pivot their businesses in the face of challenges? We want to invest in people with a longing to learn, even if they’re already smarter than us.
So the business or product is vital, but we’re also hugely focused on the business mission and the leaders themselves and the kinds of people they are. Our job is to back, mentor, inspire and advise the teams we invest in, to give them every possible opportunity at success.
3. You’ve said health and longevity tech are quietly reshaping how we live. What innovations are you most excited about right now, and what do you think people are underestimating?
AI is, of course, the standout technological advancement of the past few years. One area we are paying close attention to is where AI meets health care. The technology is already having an impact on the healthcare industry as a whole, due to the way it is able to automate and simplify processes which were formerly subject to human input and, inevitably, error. There are ways in which AI helps doctors to make better decisions and make earlier diagnoses.
Secondly, the screening, early detection, and wearable technology industry is growing at pace. Important, informative data about what is happening within our bodies is becoming more accessible than ever, helping people spot issues ahead of time and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. As these technologies improve, in terms of function, but also convenience and cost, the uptake will continue to explode.
4. From wearables to supplements, the wellness sector is booming, as you mention. What are some of the red flags or risks you’re seeing as an investor?
Unfortunately, what is known broadly as the ‘wellness’ industry has attracted a host of charlatans who have identified the lucrative nature of capitalising on the hopes and fears of the consumer.
Traditionally, when it comes to healthcare, we are reliant on doctors, who are guided by the Hippocratic oath. Entrepreneurs and business people are not held to account by any such oath, and therefore, false claims and outright lies have become a common occurrence.
Coupled with the nature of people to often focus on short-term gratification, miracle ‘quick fixes’ and ‘magic bullets’ have exploded in popularity. If it sounds too good to be true…
We make sure any and all claims are legitimately science-backed. If that backing isn’t there, it’s not for us.
5. There’s a lot of hype in the longevity space. How do you distinguish between a genuine breakthrough and pseudo-science when you’re reviewing early-stage companies?
There’s a lot of noise in this space – and frankly, quite a bit of nonsense. We’re now facing an avalanche of big promises, “quick fixes”, and misleading claims.
As touched on above, it’s about the quality of the science backing the claims being made. We surround ourselves with scientific advisors, clinicians, and researchers to help us separate science from pseudoscience. And we hold ourselves and our portfolio to a higher bar. That’s how we build long-term value and trust in a sector that desperately needs both.
We ask: Are they trying to truly improve human health or trying to sell something fast? Is the science robust? Is it peer-reviewed? Is this human breakthrough cherry-picked from mice studies? Are the founders honest about what they know – and what they don’t yet know?
Real breakthroughs usually come with caveats. And good founders are not afraid to say “We don’t know (yet)” and we actually like that. It tells us the founders are thoughtful, rigorous, and in it for the right reasons.
It’s an increasingly complex space, and over time, you get better and better at spotting what’s real and what’s not.
6. You’ve built and scaled companies across sectors. What lessons from the fintech world have proven most valuable, or least transferable, in the healthtech space?
I can’t build the products or invent new services like the founders we work with. But what I can probably do with the best of them is build and scale businesses. Those principles are the same whatever the industry you’re operating in.
Early-stage companies often face the same fundamental challenges that slow them down. My experiences in fintech and banking taught me how to help businesses discover and articulate what their mission is, build and scale as needed, hire successfully, develop strong company culture and long-term compensation structures, and much more. Those lessons are just as relevant in healthtech and any other sector.
I can’t promise you won’t face challenges. But I’ve learned that if we listen well, talk to the right people, and learn from those who’ve done it before, maybe we can avoid some of the most common pitfalls – and help you get where you’re going a little faster.
7. Wellness is often deeply personal. Has your own experience or health journey influenced the kinds of businesses you’re drawn to at Exceptional Ventures?
My experiences are similar to most people’s. You or your loved ones get sick, hopefully they recover, but they sometimes don’t – such is the nature of life.
It’s led me to focus on three main pillars, which inform the kinds of businesses we’re backing:
- Stay well as long as you can – e.g. preventative health measures, concentrating on sleep, exercise, nutrition, mental wellbeing, and purpose.
- However, you will get sick, so early detection and diagnosis is vital.
- At which point, effective, quality treatment and healthcare are required.
8. What advice do you have for founders building in the wellness or longevity space, especially when it comes to balancing scientific credibility with commercial viability?
Stay honest – with yourself, your science, and your customers. There’s enormous excitement around wellness and longevity, and rightly so. But that also means a lot of noise, hype, and shortcuts.
Communicate clearly what your product can do today, what it might do tomorrow, and what still needs to be proven.
Don’t lose sight of commercial reality. Even if your science is groundbreaking, you still need to build a business with a viable model, clear go-to-market strategy, and sustainable growth plan.
So surround yourself with people who’ll push you on both fronts. And don’t be afraid to say, ‘We don’t know yet.’
9. Looking ahead, how do you see Exceptional Ventures influencing the broader conversation around preventative health and sustainable wellbeing?
Our goal is to drive change at the government level. The lack of regulation in the health and well-being in space is frankly shocking. Considering it is people’s health we are talking about here, people are seemingly able to tell whatever lies they please to be able to sell their products and solutions.
The reality is, the amount of regulation in the financial industries dwarfs the level in the wellbeing space, as if our money is worth more than our health.
We want to operate differently from standard VC companies. We aim to become a trusted voice in the space – helping consumers separate fact from fiction, advocating for smarter policy, and supporting founders who are building with passion and evidence. We see ourselves not just as investors, but as entrepreneurs in our own right, using this platform to create change across the board to the betterment of the Joyspan® of people.
