Introducing the Spring Cohort of Humans in the Wild
Meet the 12 founders building the future of Health & Wellness
Humans in the Wild is a program for experienced entrepreneurs looking to build their next big endeavor. The name “In the Wild” stems from a pivotal point in a founder’s career when they’re about to build their next venture — and we’ve created an environment for them to have the community to do that. The 100-day, no-equity program provides the founders with a rich peer community, expert strategic advice and Human Ventures support services.
“Out of hundreds of applicants, we’re thrilled to welcome this group of 12 established entrepreneurs to our inaugural Humans in the Wild program focusing on the category of Health & Wellness,” said Evan Cohen, Venture Partner at Human Ventures. “These founders have worked at companies like Salesforce, Goldman Sachs, Product Hunt, Munchery and Google, on presidential campaigns, as physicians, lawyers, professors and journalists. They have been part of all aspects of company building including launching, fundraising, scaling and acquisitions. We are excited to bring them into the Human Ventures studio and network.”
Transformational changes in technology, consumer attitudes, and cultural values are driving profound shifts in behaviors around healthy lifestyles, fitness, nutrition, food & beverage, and mental health. We sought out entrepreneurs who are passionate about bringing innovation and vision to these broad areas. The entrepreneurs in this program will be building solutions in a wide range of categories including physical health, mental health, women’s health, skin care, nutrition, and sleep. The last 10 years of startup growth have been about building and investing in “nice to haves.” The next 10 years will be focused on building and investing in “need to haves.” Companies have to take humanity into account as they build and scale in this new paradigm, and we’re confident that the founders we’ve selected for this program are poised to lead the way.
Meet the Founders
Michelle Park has over a decade of experience in consumer retail. Her brand building expertise spans from consumer insights and brand management at Procter & Gamble, to launching a French beauty start-up, to serving as the CMO to a portfolio of PE-backed beauty brands. Michelle studied Finance and English at The University of Texas in Austin and received her MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business.
Martin Strutz is the co-founder of AND.CO (acquired by Fiverr). The NYC-based startup offers business management software for freelancers. Prior to this, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Prehype, a venture development firm specializing in co-creating startups with leading corporations. Before entering the startup-world, Martin worked as a creative. As a digital creative and designer, he worked with top agencies on brands like Google, Netflix, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Dow Jones. Martin holds an Executive MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, a BASc in Software Engineering, and a Diploma in Multimedia Design.
Janine Silvera specializes in enabling both B2C and B2B companies to develop their brand, tell their story and acquire new customers. As the co-founder of the independent brand and marketing consultancy Chief Marketing Partners, she served as an outsourced CMO to high-growth seed through Series C companies. Earlier in her career, she held senior posts at The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and at Conde Nast’s marketing agency providing digital, social and content marketing solutions for global brands including Walmart, P&G, General Motors, Versace and Ralph Lauren among others. She graduated from Boston University.
Rania Nasis is a physician entrepreneur and seasoned operator with a passion for building companies to address unmet needs in healthcare. She is the founder of Starlings, an advisory firm that works with early stage healthcare startups on strategy, operations and product-market fit. She is also a Director of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE), a non-profit global biomedical and healthcare innovation network. She has a wide breadth and depth of experience across a multitude of areas in healthcare, including digital health, aging tech, biotech, life sciences, devices, and diagnostics. She received her MD from New Jersey Medical School, MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at University of California at Irvine and BS from Drexel University.
Chening Duker is a software engineer who has worked across the consumer and security industries. He has specialized in payments at Google, worked in cybersecurity at Duo Security, and worked to build serverless cloud infrastructure at Structure.sh. Chening graduated from the University of Michigan and recently served as a Global Entrepreneur in Residence at the university’s Economic Growth Institute.
Osman Khan is an operator with multiple experiences launching, scaling, and exiting digital consumer businesses. One of his more prominent successes is launching, scaling and selling Paddle 8 — one of the largest online auction houses and marketplace for art & luxury collectibles.Osman started his career in professional services at Perella Weinberg and Towers Perrin. Osman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters of Industrial Engineering and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University.
Taylor Majewski has worked at the intersection of technology and media throughout her career. She previously led editorial at Product Hunt and, before that, focused on audience growth and marketing at The Information. She got her start in media as a reporter covering the New York City tech scene and her writing has since appeared in The New York Times, Vox and The Outline. In 2019, Taylor founded Gigi the Robot, a weekly newsletter and website that broke down the gendered impact of emerging technologies. She holds a BA from Occidental College.
Michael Blank is a start-up operations specialist with 15 years experience launching new businesses, scaling operations and fundraising. Mike is currently COO of Residently, a UK-based, venture-backed residential rental platform where he oversees global growth. Prior to this role, he was Vice President Operations at Maisonette, a venture-backed online marketplace for children's goods. Previously, he was the East Coast General Manager for Munchery, a venture-backed national meal-delivery service. Mike began his career as a financial analyst at Bear Stearns and did conflict management and negotiation consulting at Insight Partners in Boston before getting into start-ups. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Alex Gould spent the last three years as founder and CEO of ViewX, an AI-driven recommendation platform for companies to steer content to viewers that was recently acquired. Prior to this start-up, he was a Consultant at Bain and Co. Alex graduated from the University of Canterbury and received his MBA from Columbia Business School.
Dan Miller is a designer, author, and serial entrepreneur in the digital health space. Before starting companies, he worked at SurveyMonkey as a Project Manager and in Market Research at Salesforce and Forrester Research in addition to other companies. Dan studied economics, entrepreneurship, and innovation at Hofstra and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Hillary Lin is a physician who has an extensive background founding and working with early-stage digital health and wellness companies. Currently, she is practicing primary and urgent care with the telemedicine startup, Plushcare, and is published in peer-reviewed journals on cancer medicine, epidemiology, and medical education. Hillary received both her BS and MD from Stanford.
Radhia Houidi started her career in finance; first as an Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs and then in the Consumer and Retail M&A team at JP Morgan. There, she developed a passion for consumer products and impactful brands. She went on to co-found Blackink, a tech/media startup offering a payment solution for digital newspapers. Radhia holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University and a Corporate Finance / LLM degree from University of Pennsylvania and Sciences Po Paris.
About Human Ventures
Human Ventures is a business creation platform. We go beyond the business model and seek opportunities to build Model Businesses with ambitious founders who are innovating around human needs. By unlocking access to a powerful network of founders, investors and corporate partners, we are creating a blueprint for the future of business to be built on purpose.
If you have any questions, reach out to Elise King, the Program Director who will be leading the program alongside Evan Cohen and the Human Ventures team.
