Treehub is betting on scientists, clinicians, and researchers to build the next generation of innovative healthcare companies. As a Stanford-adjacent boutique residency program backed by the AI Health Fund , it was built to scout and back early-stage founders emerging from academic ecosystems. Founding Partner and Google Alumn, Mary Minno, sees Treehub as filling a critical gap in the healthcare innovation pipeline, supporting the moment between breakthrough ideation and a fundable company, where the most promising founders have historically been without capital, support, or a path forward, and where ideas are left behind.

The program, backed by billionaire Tim Draper and 23andMe founder Anne Wojcick i , was built on the conviction that healthcare has not lacked innovation; it lacked investment in the right places. The breakthroughs most likely to transform patient outcomes are not only emerging from incremental software layers. They are also coming from university labs, built by scientists and researchers who have spent years at the frontier of biology, genomics, and AI. Treehub targets investments in three domains, which include precision outcomes, care efficiency, and frontier science.

“Through a personal experience, I didn’t like that we didn’t have a default keep people alive state. I found how difficult it was to get to a specialist for people who are critically ill to have the care they need. I watched the system wait on diagnosis that should’ve been treated faster. I saw how challenging it is to get to the right people. I watched doctors and nurses who wanted to help the patient, but were unable to do so because of the policies, procedures, and technology that they had access to. It’s only when people go outside of that system and break the rules that things could happen. I realize that we need more startups that are going to challenge the status quo,” shared Minno on why she started Treehub. “We look for founders who have a unique insight into how the world needs to change, the more nuanced and detailed the better. Many of our top founders have a personal reason driving their world, whether that be a family member’s experience in the health system or perhaps an obsession with a certain type of technology that fueled years of graduate-level research. We like to invest in founders that teach us about the industries they are operating in and have the grit and drive to get there.”

Each cohort runs quarterly over a six-month period. The first half of the programming is sprinting towards product market fit, meetings with partners, and Friday founder lunches. The second half of the program focuses on graduation, which looks at what is the best next step for the company? Some will need to raise more money, some will join an incubator, and others will deploy across hospital systems. Founders get an initial $100,000 check from AI Health Fund, often before formal company formation, which removes the biggest early barrier. At the same time, they’re plugged into curated programming that connects them directly with buyers, payers, and healthcare systems, so ideas are shaped against real market needs, not just academic promise. Layer in hands-on guidance from operators who’ve actually built and exited companies, and the result is that teams move from research to a fundable business much faster, with clearer validation and a stronger story for downstream investors.

“Treehub is designed to support founders at the exact moment most academic ideas stall, before there’s a company, a pitch, or even a clear path to market. The cohort programming brings together three things that are usually fragmented: early capital, real-world healthcare access, and experienced operators,” added Minno. “Diggy is a great example. Dennis Wall is the leading expert on pediatric autism, and his clinically validated approach significantly reduces the prevalence of autism in an at-risk cohort. We partnered with him earlier than any other investor, helping to expand the product scope to provide an end-to-end behavioral development platform.”

Clair Health , developing the first continuous hormone monitor, Nestwell, the first platform that gives people a complete picture of their home's impact on their health, and Korda, a technology that simulates how patient states evolve longitudinally, surfacing disease risk, are also new startups that Treehub has invested in.

The goal is to fundamentally shift where and how healthcare innovation gets funded. Right now, many of the most meaningful breakthroughs are happening inside labs, but the people behind them often don’t have access to early capital or venture infrastructure. Treehub and the AI Health Fund are built to change that by backing scientists at the very beginning, before traditional ventures would typically step in. The hope is to make it repeatable to turn academic breakthroughs into real companies that improve patient outcomes, not just incremental products.