Joan DeGennaro

events & community @speedrun | formerly yc | mostly retweeting because I'm too verbose for Twitter
📍SF

[sujal @sujaldkl]

Today, I'm launching Vene: your AI advocate for healthcare.

I used to spend a dozen hours a week managing care for my dad, a disabled veteran, and my mom, who has a severe autoimmune disease. Healthcare was a full-time job for my family.

Our goal is to end the burden of care for every family:

When you're sick, or caring for someone who is, the hard part is everything after the hospital: the referral that never arrives, the test result nobody calls about, the bill that makes no sense, and everything in between.

For my dad, he spent hours on the phone to book an MRI. When he showed up, they told him to his face that insurance had stopped covering it. Then insurance told him to call a list of other offices and get the paperwork sent over himself, and he ended up giving up.

That’s why we’ve trained Vene to handle the toughest aspects of healthcare:
- Coordinating several specialists at once
- Challenging surprise bills and treatment denials
- Catching missed follow-ups and care gaps

My mom uses Vene to coordinate her primary care and endocrinologist, automatically refill and renew her prescriptions, and manage my little sister’s dental appointments.

They were my first users, and now over 5,000 families use Vene, and we're deploying it to another 50,000 patients across provider networks in the US.

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

Oct 20th is for a little pink goûter. IYKYK

[speedrun @speedrun]

NEW: INVESTOR ADVICE FOR APPLYING TO SPEEDRUN (SR008 EDITION)

Every cohort we sit down with our investors to hear what’s top of mind. This time @ndrewlee got in the booth with @kenanhsaleh, @emilybenn12, @seeamshahidnoor, and @tkexpress11 to talk about:

00:00 - what’s changed in apps this cycle
04:15 - team vs. market vs. traction: how we weigh them
08:14 - hot markets vs. ones that feel inevitable
10:36 - spotting the gaps the frontier models leave
13:35 - where speedrun fits in your founder journey
22:26 - how to make your application stand out
30:05 - common mistakes (AI is not your “why now”)
38:46 - the 10-min interview + co-founder dynamics
45:41 - what you get working with speedrun

SR008 apps close Nov 1. Watch the full roundtable here 👇

[Bella @nazzari]

speedrun is hosting a surprise pop up event tomorrow night in north beach!

come say hi!!
https://t.co/mR1qsmGN3B

[speedrun @speedrun]

only 2 weeks left to submit your @speedrun app

we’re hosting pop-ups to meet you IRL before the deadline:

SF - wed 10/21, 5:30-8:30pm in north beach
NY - wed 10/28, 11am-2pm in soho

+++ limited edition apparel drop at both (we added more pieces)

rsvp: https://t.co/6ZLgQgiqPF

[Lester @Chen]

50+ launches in <90 days.

it's not about virality, it's not about doing a video even.

the best @speedrun teams launched, and launched again, and again. articles, interviews, demos, and yes, occasionally something with higher production value.

we provide a fully kitted studio space, direct connects to the best production partners, and our own distribution channels for every single company.

a massive shout to some of our partners:
@osmo_studio, @nencreative, @chrislouie_, @marquilabs, @pushrecord, @ben_aguilera, and dozens of others who aren't here on X

Applications for SR008 close Nov 1st.

If you're interested in applying, check the link below.
If you're interested in plugging in as a partner, DM me!

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

@meientc @LAHacks @KatiaAmeri @filgran_ what?!!! serious fomo

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

@noyakremer ♥️♥️♥️ You are literally standing in front of my old apartment!!

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

They’re more of an instagram presence, obviously. https://t.co/gAORk9NHf0

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

Interrupting regularly scheduled programming to share a non-tech launch &amp; a non-tech event in SF!

&amp; a PSA to join ever dance fitness with me!!

[Anne Neuberger @AnneNeuberger]

Small cities, school districts and rural hospitals guard our most sensitive data with the fewest resources to defend it.

Today we’re launching Securing America’s Infrastructure Foundation, a new nonprofit, bringing AI-powered cyber defense to them at no cost.

SAIF starts with focused goals for on the ground impact and $25M in committed funding by a16z's founders. I’m joined by a founding board of Brian Barrios, @GoldsmithOnGov, Bob Lord, @vishalmisra and @philvenables.

If you lead a small city, rural school district or hospital system or want to join our team, please reach out: [email protected]

Read our full announcement here: https://t.co/Vb1WlpuQYV

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

@mlejva Office-warming party activity?? Get it up on a big screen!!

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

Never been an easier moment to recommend you ‘like &amp; subscribe’ !

[Amy Buechler 🦋 @amybue]

I’m launching a podcast. I'M LAUNCHING A PODCAST!!!! 🥳🎙️

It’s called Scaling Founders, and the first episode comes out in my newsletter this Sunday.

Before I joined YC, I wasn’t in tech. The only idea I had of startup founders came from the media: brilliant, relentless, going straight to the moon. Then I spent years building a program to support the world’s best founders, and what I found was different. Founders were deeply afraid - of screwing up, wasting their opportunity, disappointing people. And they were afraid even when their startup was working, because the challenges just get bigger and expectations grow too. Founders were also filled with joy, passion, creativity, hope, grief, and everything in-between.

Working at YC taught me that founders are people too. And their startup put their humanity on full blast. It was visible in their decisions, their products, and the cultures they built. They could see themselves clearly in what they were building - flaws and all - and so could everyone else.

I’ve had different versions of the same intimate, raw, and honest conversation thousands of times, with thousands of founders. Each story feels deeply individual - and it is. But the themes (feeling alone, uncertain, in despair, with no idea what to do) are universal. I’m tired of repeating myself in these conversations, and I’m tired of founders not knowing that what they’re experiencing is shared.

So this show is for them - for you. In each episode, one of my clients tells the real story of how they grew as their company scaled: from despair to hope, from self-doubt to confidence, from anxiety to trust. It’s often gritty and painful to run a startup, but it doesn’t have to be. You can scale your way out of that, by recreating.

Episode 1 is with Tom Brunskill, founder of Forage (YC W19), on growing the seed of self-confidence.

Subscribe to get it in your inbox on Sunday: https://t.co/5CwbcQBA4U

[speedrun @speedrun]

start anyway

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

@dakshgup Guys, don’t make me do it

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

Applications for @speedrun are now open! If you’re an ambitious, high agency founder - we want to meet you

We’ll bring the capital, customers, & talent - you bring yourself and your wildest ideas

Speedrun is an inception fund. We are your first believers - writing the first check and growing with you as your startup scales

Speedrun founders get up to $1M in funding and over $10M in startup credits across compute, cloud, marketing, and more

Speedrun is for founders with big ideas. We have teams creating new forms of datacenters, constructing orbital space platforms, disrupting 50yo vertical software incumbents, building novel AI doctors, and more

In a world where AI has made building easier than ever, the only cap on what a startup can achieve is the limit of their ambition. So we write the first check precisely on the ideas that sound a little crazy

apply at the link below before apps close on Nov 1st

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

@JitPackJoyride I will say, I appreciate the chocolate dip 👌🏼

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

Had an insane craving for Chinese food for dinner tonight.

Realized it was probably because I’ve had a fortune cookie nearly every day for the last week🥠

[Joan DeGennaro @TheRioDeGennaro]

Honestly thrilled that business driven to Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory is starting to rival AlphaGraphics during TechWeek

[noya kremer @noyakremer]

SR008 👀