Pod Insights a16z Podcast Transitioning From Gymnast to Investor with Aly Raisman About this episode Former gymnast and current investor Aly Raisman joins general partner Julie Yoo and investment partner Daisy Wolf of a16z Bio + Health.
In this episode, Aly Raisman shares her quest for healthier living—physically, mentally, and financially—on her journey from gymnast to a business investor. Having transitioned from an intensely structured routine, Aly emphasizes the need for more open conversations about mental health and financial literacy. She speaks passionately about the gap in women’s health solutions and hopes to inspire entrepreneurs to create impactful businesses. Aly’s experiences as a patient, survivor, and global figure adds a unique dimension to her perspective as an investor. This candid conversation with Aly and Julie Yoo sheds light on Aly’s passion for more education within the investment space, offering invaluable insights for entrepreneurs, particularly in biotech and healthcare.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 When you're competing at the Olympics, if I'm jet lagged or if I don't feel well, it's not like the judges care. So at eight years old, it started to get really intense. And I would spend six days in the gym. I had Sundays off and I would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day. When I was training for the Olympics, like if I was tired, I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn't sleep well. It took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me, well, you just have anxiety and depression. And I'd say, well, I didn't mention anything to you about anxiety or depression. Why do you say that? And they say, well, you know, I've read your story in the news. What if you have an underlying issue that could have been fixed? What if there's an underlying issue that's been a problem for 10 years?
0:46 Steph Smith? Building a successful business can feel like landing a backflip on a balance beam, which impressively enough, some humans have figured out. One foot wrong and it all comes tumbling down. But get it right and you might just see gold. With the greatest event in sports just weeks away, we're sharing an episode that bridges these two worlds of elite athletics and elite entrepreneurship, straight from a two-time Olympic athlete herself. This episode, originally published on our sister podcast, Raising Health, features the one and only Ali Raisman. Ali has six Olympic medals under her belt and she's recently pivoted her pursuit of excellence towards health in the many forms of it, from women's health and fertility to mental health.
1:32 Steph Smith? Here, Ali also discusses with A16Z general partner, Julie Yu, and investing partner, Daisy Wolf, the parallels of being a founder and an Olympian, both requiring consistent performance at an elite level, but also the intensity of being judged against the best in the world. And equally, what it's like to transition from that lifestyle to investing so that she can scale her impact. Now for more episodes just like this, don't forget to search Raising Health wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to look out for future Olympic-themed episodes in the weeks to come, right here on the A16Z podcast. But for now, we bring you two-time Olympian, Ali Raisman.
2:15 Speaker 02 Hello and welcome to Raising Health, where we explore the real challenges and enormous opportunities facing entrepreneurs who are building the future of health.
2:29 Speaker 02 I'm Olivia.
2:30 Speaker 03 And I'm Chris. Today's episode is with Aly Raisman, a two-time Olympic gymnast, investor, and part of A16Z's Cultural Leadership Fund. She is joined by Julie Yu and Daisy Wolf of A16Z Bio and Health.
2:42 Speaker 02 Ally chats about her background, how she thinks about health and fitness now that she is no longer competing, and a few of her passion projects, including financial literacy.
2:50 Speaker 03 Ally also talks about her latest forays into investing and how she appreciates and empathizes with founders' tunnel vision and work ethic.
2:57 Speaker 00 And I just really respect founders because they're working so hard and I can't imagine how stressful it is. I think it's cool that they're seeing something that's lacking or seeing something they want to do differently and they're solving a problem and fixing it.
3:11 Speaker 03 You're listening to Raising Health from A16Z Bio and Health.
3:18 Julie Yoo? Aly Raisman, no introduction needed, obviously. You are a total star and everyone obviously knows you as being one of the most decorated American Olympic gymnasts of all time. And I personally believe that gymnastics is just the extreme elite of elite of all professional sports. So first and foremost, congratulations on an amazing career and just inspiring so many folks, including ourselves, and thank you for being with us here today.
3:42 Speaker 00 Oh, well, thank you so much. That's so sweet. I am so excited to be here with both of you and thank you both also for all of your support. You've been so helpful in my new investing journeys.
3:53 Julie Yoo? Absolutely. You have really been campaigning for many, many things, amongst which is health. And you've been really a strong advocate for everything from for mental health to physical health and body positivity for women, improving healthcare overall as a system, and even something that's near and dear to our heart, which is financial health for all consumers. And so what we're hoping to do today is just walk through some of these areas and really just hear your perspective on all of these different flavors of health.
4:22 Speaker 05 Let's start with physical health. Ally, as an Olympic athlete, you've spent a lot of time thinking about how to stay healthy and maintaining a sense of well-being. And we're curious just how this carries over into your life now. What are wellness strategies that you employ in your post-gymnastics life?
4:40 Speaker 00 Yeah, so I've learned a lot last several years about my own mental health and also just my own physical health. I think that mental health is
4:52 Speaker 00 Much more of a conversation now than it was when I was training and I was competing in gymnastics. However, even so, there's still such a stigma and there's still so many people that are suffering in silence. I do reflect a lot and wish that a lot of the tools that I've learned now and am still learning, I wish I had when I was younger. It's really interesting because when I was training and competing, you know, for example, if I had an ankle injury, I would do whatever I could to heal my ankle, I would do recovery, I would ice it, heat it, whatever I needed. And I also did a lot of physical therapy for it, but there just wasn't that same emphasis on the mental health aspect of it, which I think was a huge problem and I didn't know that at the time.
5:34 Speaker 00 But, you know, competing at such a high level, I was obviously so nervous and so stressed and it's kind of crazy to look back. I didn't really have any tools to help me calm down in those moments. So I have been on this journey of just really trying to figure out how to just be calm. I kind of let go of this idea of like, one day I'm gonna feel perfect, I'm gonna feel happy all the time. I think that's extremely unrealistic. There's so many things in life that can happen. And so I guess the way that I take care of my mental and physical health today is that I see a therapist weekly, which has been super helpful and I plan to do that for a long time. It's so fascinating to me because when I really take care of my nutrition, I feel
6:19 Speaker 00 like my mental health is so much better. Even if something, my friends make fun of me, even if something tastes disgusting, but it's really good for me and makes me feel good, I'm gonna eat it. And I do wish that I had this when I was competing and when I was training.
6:32 Speaker 05 What kind of exercise do you do in your post-gymnastics life?
6:35 Speaker 00 I get asked this a lot and I think people would be really shocked. I think people think I'm being like modest or I'm kidding, but I honestly... Don't work out that much. So first of all, I spent most of my life in a gym. I started gymnastics when I was two years old. And at the age of eight, I was so busy with my gymnastics career that my coaches said that if you want to go to the next level and you want to get better, you have to stop everything out. So at eight years old, it started to get really intense and I would spend six days in the gym. I had Sundays off and I would train somewhere between four to seven hours a day. And it was like really intensely training. I still feel like I'm recovering from it because it was exhausting. So I think part of it is
7:17 Speaker 00 it's nice now to be in control and to not have to go to the gym every single day. I will also say that I believe that working out can be really good for our mental health. So I've kind of had to learn how to like re- enjoy working out because I feel like for so long it was so just intense. I did the same thing every single day. And I felt like no matter what I did, there was always something that needed improvement, which it never got boring, but it was just a lot of pressure. My workouts mostly consist of walking a lot and people always laugh when I speak at events because I say I walk on the treadmill on an incline and people think that's so funny because I think people expect me to do more. However,
8:00 Speaker 00 I experienced like such major burnout when I finished competing. You know, I don't have a goal of like looking a certain way when I work out. I just want to feel good and that was also challenging for me going from working out seven hours to actually working on the mental side of that and being okay with, okay, today I just walked for 20 minutes, but I'm doing the best that I can.
8:23 Julie Yoo? Hey, I think it's super fun that we just learned that Ally Raisman walks uphill on a treadmill. So now that now when I go do that at the gym, I'm just going to call that the Ally Raisman workout and we're going to make that a thing. So thank you for normalizing that. You mentioned, you know, the kind of the change that from like being in such a high pressure environment from a workout perspective and then sort of the opposite of that. The other thing we sometimes hear from athletes after they retire is that that the kind of motion of having a day-to-day coaching regimen as well, of just having so much structure in your life and then going into an environment where you don't have that. Do you feel like there's this void in your life of someone who is gonna, you know, every day when you wake up, tell you, okay, here are the 10 things you need to do?
8:59 Speaker 00 So it's so funny. It's like if I'm in a yoga class, like I don't want the teacher to tell me anything. Like I've had enough coaching in my life where I think that
9:09 Speaker 00 It depends on what the coaching is. When it comes to working out, like I don't want any coaching. If I'm like doing a cycling class or if I'm doing yoga or something and the teacher corrects me or they try to push me, I'm like, I've had enough of that in my life. I love being able to just go to a class. And if I just feel tired or I don't feel well, I can just like sit there and relax. Because when I was training for the Olympics, like if I was tired, I felt like almost my coach was harder on me on the days where I didn't sleep well. He'd be like, okay, well, too bad. If you don't sleep well the night before the Olympics, we need to push you more today so that you feel more prepared. Because when you're competing at the Olympics, if I'm jet lagged or if I don't feel well, it's not like the judges care. If I'm like, hey, can I do this tomorrow instead?
9:55 Speaker 00 It's not an option. You've got, you know, your one opportunity. So I actually feel the opposite where I love sort of having the flexibility and I love being in control of doing what feels right for my body.
10:07 Julie Yoo? Yeah, and what's also so inspiring, hearing you talk, Ali, is that you could have done anything with your time once you retired from gymnastics. The fact that you're putting so much energy into multiple ways to make an impact at different levels is really incredible. And the fact that you also have time to invest is even more incredible because we know how much work that is as well. We all do investing for different reasons. Folks like Daisy and myself, we've been builders in companies before in a past life. And after building one company for a long period of time, I think many of us recognize that there's this sort of horizontal opportunity to really build a portfolio of opportunities to make an impact at the industry level versus just as one individual company. Can you share with us, what was your inspiration? What's the why behind your time that you're spending on the investing side? And what's it been like?
10:50 Speaker 00 It's been so fun and I really love the experience of learning about investing and meeting with founders. I became really passionate about financial literacy. I think that financial literacy and mental health are very correlated because I feel like, I don't know if I know anyone who like doesn't feel stressed about finances in some capacity. And our system is kind of set up to make it really confusing and hard to understand. I'm very, very passionate about pushing that conversation because I think that in schools, as early as kids can really understand, I think that they should be taught about like finances and the importance of speaking up and asking questions. And I know sometimes when you're in a classroom, it can be intimidating to ask questions. And I kind of just told myself,
11:35 Speaker 00 if I'm gonna get into this like financial world or this investing world, I'm just gonna make a pact with myself that I'm not going to be afraid to ask questions. But I think that I found out really quickly when I started to learn about my own finances. I felt like I was like being put in this box of a dumb athlete. And so I just felt very overwhelmed. And I also realized how much anxiety it was giving me not understanding. And I really believe that like knowledge is power. And I think why I say it's correlated to mental health, because the more that I learned about finances, the more confident I became. And there's so much shame around talking about money. And so I just became really interested in that idea of like, why is it so hard to talk about? And if it was more normalized,
12:17 Speaker 00 would more people be able to understand how to better save their money? And if people felt less shame around asking questions, I think it could really make a big difference. And I've been fortunate since I was about 17 years old, getting to work with a lot of different companies. And so it got me really interested in learning more about like the behind the scenes of how these companies operate. And then I got excited about this idea of meeting with founders where they're seeing something that's lacking or seeing something they want to do differently, and they're solving a problem and fixing it. Similarly, with my gymnastics career, it was like the same thing all the time. You're so focused, you have this like tunnel vision. And I just really respect founders because they're working so hard. And I can't imagine how stressful it is and just like the whole
13:00 Speaker 00 process of raising money. And there's probably so many. Different stressors that I don't even know the first thing about, but I just really admire and respect their work ethic and their passion.
13:10 Julie Yoo? I'm sure the founders who are listening to this will absolutely appreciate your last comments there. And perhaps on a future podcast, we can debate whether it's harder to raise capital in this market or win a gold medal at the Olympic gymnastics competition. But actually, that is what we hope to achieve with our healthcare system at some point. But we all know that the system fails every day in many, many ways to achieve anything close to that. So curious, what are some of the areas that do inspire you to invest in from a healthcare lens?
13:38 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, it's interesting. I mean, I'm obviously a patient, and so I have, you know, seen a lot of different doctors over the years. A couple of years ago, one of my best friends, Abby, had stage four cancer, and she thankfully is in remission and she has a beautiful, healthy baby. So I'm so thankful and just forever grateful to her doctors for truly saving her life. But her and I, we've had a lot of conversations around just watching her go through that horrific experience and just the anxiety, the mental health side of having cancer. And she talks about how there are some doctors who are amazing, and then there's some that are not amazing. And, you know, when she was in the
14:21 Speaker 00 hospital, she told me that there are certain instances where like she could hear the doctors or nurses like making fun of patients when she's resting and laying in bed. And I think that the patient experience should be more front and center for doctors because, you know, I obviously have the utmost respect for doctors. But as a patient, a lot of people I don't think are comfortable speaking up for themselves or advocating for themselves. And so, you know, while I talked about mental health a lot and how it's more normalized and there's still stigma, I actually found it took me so long to get diagnosed because doctors would say to me, well, you just have anxiety. And depression. And I'd say, well, I didn't mention anything to you about anxiety or depression. What, why do you say that? And they say, well, you know, I've read your story in the news.
15:07 Speaker 00 And I'm like, okay, well, now I feel like you're not really paying attention to me as the patient. And you're like, making an assumption based off of what you saw in the news. And so that was really challenging for me, and I find that incredibly unprofessional. And even if somebody is, you know, they are feeling sick from mental health. I feel like the doctors are just like, oh, just go to a therapist, like, see you next year. But there's like no step to help somebody get the therapist. But back to your question about what I'm really interested in, I find myself at the age of 29, I'm really interested in women's health, but particularly the fertility space. And at the age where some of my friends have had babies, some of them are pregnant, some of them are freezing their eggs, we're kind of all in different stages.
15:50 Speaker 00 And I just find it very odd that so many women, we don't realize if we're gonna have trouble getting pregnant until we actually want to start getting pregnant. And I just think like, if there was something that when whatever age doctors think is appropriate, whether it's in your early twenties or in your late teenagers, I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But I think that this idea of just what if you have an underlying issue that could have been fixed? What if there's an underlying issue that's been a problem for 10 years? And if you fix it 10 years ago from a blood test or something, then it wouldn't have affected you. And I think in this world where miscarriages and infertility is so common and postpartum,
16:30 Speaker 00 there's so many things that women suffer and go through, and there's just not good solutions. And then also, we get our period every single month. And I know a lot of women that like, at least one day to multiple days of the month, we feel terrible. I just don't think there is enough conversation and research into women's health. And I don't think it's acceptable that it's normalized that so many women have postpartum, and there's not a solution to help women as they're navigating that huge change in their life.
17:00 Julie Yoo? Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, you touched on like access issues, referral issues, variance in care delivery across doctors, and so much of, you know, what you described as kind of the challenges of healthcare all also boil down to the payment model and kind of the payment incentive that drive all these irrational behaviors. That we we think are are completely insane, but are sort of like the way the system was designed. And so I would just say that, you know, we know that the future is bright. We get to meet with these amazing entrepreneurs who are challenging the status quo every single day. And so I think there's a lot to be excited about. I had the chance to do a clinical rotation during grad school and happened to get matched to the breast cancer radiology clinic at one of the major hospitals in Boston. And as I was doing my rotation, saw all these procedures being done, a mammogram, a biopsy, etc. We had
17:43 Julie Yoo? to write a report afterwards as kind of a thesis. And mine was effectively, it's very clear that all of these devices and machines were designed by men. And not taking into account at all what that user experience is as a female being subject to these procedures. So I think there's a ton of opportunity there.
17:59 Speaker 00 Yeah, I've done a lot of calls and worked with a lot of companies over the years where it might be like a company that's around women's health, but then a lot of the execs are men and men are welcome. I think there's so many amazing men in my life and I'm really grateful for that. But if you're doing a product that's for women, it's really important to also talk to women and have them be a huge part of the conversation to make sure you're making a product that is helpful and feels good for them.
18:26 Julie Yoo? Amen. Okay, so this is amazing, Ellie, because with my past entrepreneur hat on and thinking about like you as a potential investor in my company, you've already shown that like you're a patient and you can bring that perspective. You're a survivor, you can bring that perspective. You're a star athlete and you can bring sort of that brand and star power to the to the table as well. What do you want entrepreneurs to know about your unique value proposition? And and maybe the broader set of value propositions that professional athletes can bring to entrepreneurs when they invest in their companies?
18:53 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, thank you. As soon as my perspective as like being a survivor of abuse and how that might be like less triggering or easier for someone to use, I have sort of brought that perspective if it's in the healthcare space. And then, of course, as an athlete, I'm very fortunate to have the platform that I have. So I think where it makes sense, most of the companies I invest in, I do it. Privately, but there are some that we decide together it makes sense to do a partnership and to promote it. The campaigns that I do publicly that are just like pushing a product that don't talk about like something philanthropic, whether it's obese prevention for me or mental health, they don't really do well.
19:35 Speaker 00 And I honestly, frankly, don't do that anymore where it's just like a specific product. Like, we always try to make it more of a conversation and how is it authentic to me? Is it something that I really use? Is it something that really aligns and fits in with my values? And I've seen firsthand how my most successful campaigns, I've actually been able to be a part of the marketing side of it where I can like meet with like the CMO or the CEO. And there's been many campaigns I've been a part of where I've actually been able to be a part of those like brainstorming, marketing conversations, which is just so fun. This generation really votes with their dollar and people really want to support companies that they believe in, that are doing good and aren't just like trying to sell a product.
20:20 Speaker 00 I also have found the more honest I've been, I've been so surprised so many people can actually relate to what I've experienced.
20:27 Julie Yoo? Well, Ellie, you are, to use the technical term, freaking amazing. Thank you so much for spending your time with us today. You're a truly an inspiration to everyone. And on behalf of everyone in healthcare, we are just incredibly grateful that you are bringing your energy to our space because we definitely need it.
20:40 Speaker 00 Thank you so much. Thank you both.
20:50 Speaker 03 Thank you for listening to Raising Health. Raising Health is hosted and produced by me, Chris Tatiosian.
20:55 Speaker 02 And me, Olivia Webb.
20:56 Speaker 03 With the help of the Bio and Health team at A16Z. The show is edited by Phil Hegseth.
21:01 Speaker 02 If you want to suggest topics for future shows, you can reach us at [email protected] . Finally, please rate and subscribe to our show. The content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund. Please note that A16Z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed in this podcast. For more details, including a link to our investments, please see as16z.com/disclosures.
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