a cryptocurrency or as an asset class, but more around blockchain as a technology. We think about using identity and identity validation in new and novel ways—that has a whole host of areas for application, everything from our financial services industry to our healthcare system.
X: When you say identity—is that for security?
JF: Well, it doesn’t have to be security. Security is one category, but there are other areas, specifically around identity and identity management. Once you validate identity, how can you use that information in new ways or deliver different services around that in a new, novel way? Take title insurance, for example. There’s an entire industry that’s grown up around the notion of validating title insurance. Well, if you can manage security around validating your identity around what you own, then you can actually eliminate that entire industry. It’s a legal process that people are trying to validate—verify who you are. And then verify that specific property, which is sitting in records right how, in every town and county around the country. That information can be all managed through blockchain.
X: How about the future of work—what is your approach to that?
JF: That’s really driven by a number of startups that have begun imagining the world beyond the W-2—and how you think about your career and the services that you’re expecting as a next-generation worker. We’ve invested in companies like The Muse, which is based in New York and is one of the top sites for millennials to use for career management. They want to identify new job opportunities, and there’s a high degree of content. Then employers use that to present themselves and their culture and the types of work that they perform. It’s effectively like the next generation LinkedIn, where you may not be looking for a job but you’re actively thinking about your career and you’re learning about what the other careers are out there. Another example is Troops.ai, which basically works within Slack to enable you to update your Salesforce system, or any other system of record, and then enables your boss to aggregate that all. So you’re running from meeting to meeting, not sitting on your laptop—you’re on your phone. You can use the typing function, but you can also speak into the phone. This type of on-the-fly system is really understanding how workers of today and tomorrow will be working and then providing tools to enable them to do their jobs more seamlessly.
X: What about digital health? That’s something you’re personally interested in.
JF: That’s right. So digital health is another area where we see mobile devices accessing and using data in new and novel ways that will really change the way we are served healthcare and think about healthcare. Modern medicine is really only about 120 years old. The first medical schools were in, like, the 1890s—and how we’ve thought about our relationship with our own medical care and our doctors, and who’s been paying for those services, has rapidly been changing.
We think about digital health as being the next catalyst to change how that works. One investment we have—Khosla Ventures is also an investor—is Vida Health. They use a coaching platform as a means of managing chronic care. But they integrate in with your data collection devices, like a Fitbit. And then you as an individual have ongoing access to content and manage your own health with the help of your coach and your medical team.
X: Are you in the camp that says doctors aren’t going to be needed? (Editor’s note: Many believe Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, is in this camp. But as my interview with him a few months ago indicates, it’s not quite that simple.)
JF: There’s a whole host of chronic conditions where your doctor is still a critical part of the protocol that you should be following, but doctors don’t necessarily have to be driving each day, each week. And yet having someone who cares about your health has actually been shown to be the number one driver of behavioral change. That’s where having a coach and having a medical team available through your device has proven to be most important for healthcare action.
X: As you pursue these areas, what do you feel is different from other venture firms about what Aspect brings to the table?
JF: Aspect’s a little different in that we are very focused on Series A and very much focused on classic company building. There’s a lot of folks that say they do Series A, but it tends to be a small percentage of what they do. And there’s a lot of groups that do seed, but then as they get to Series A, they’re looking for another group to take that on. So that’s our singular focus. We work very collaboratively with seed funds and seed investors as well as with the bulge bracket funds. We think that for the entrepreneur the best syndicate is a syndicate that has at least two
