WTH is a Med Student Doing in VC?
A summer internship in Venture Capital.
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For as long as I can remember, it’s been my dream to study medicine. A dream so strong that I knew if I didn’t give it a shot I’d regret it on my deathbed.
So why have I spent my summer as an investment intern at a venture capital fund?
It all started when I was on exchange in the US at Boston College where an entrepreneurship subject blew my mind…
As a curious person I’m drawn to variability and ongoing, active learning.
I applied to study medicine with a goal to learn everything about the body known to science. However, after entering clinical years in my 2nd year of postgraduate medical studies, I realised that this goal came true a bit too early — I had gathered most of the technical knowledge of how the human body worked.
I eventually learned that being a Doctor is about applying frameworks of diagnosis and treatment, rather than the accumulation of knowledge of how the body functioned, and lacked the level of variability that I seem to need in my life. Sitting in consults with cardiologists, surgeons, and gastroenterologists, I’ve realised waiting for me after of years of study is the task of treating patients with similar conditions, on similar (if not the same) medications.
The reality of being a specialist is pattern recognition and repetition. For someone like me who is fascinated by novel ideas, the thought of settling into a daily routine of protocol driven problem solving didn’t excite me. Furthermore, in medicine the status quo rules. Any breakthroughs take years to implement.
No wonder walking into that entrepreneurship class in Boston blew my medically oriented mind.
Why entrepreneurship? Generating huge impact by formulating novel solutions
I fell in love with the start-ups working to creatively problem-solve and build something from the ground up. From making the daily grocery shop more efficient, to revolutionising workforce scheduling, to helping doctors make less diagnostic errors. It fascinated me how small teams of people with ambitious visions can make a dent in the way we live. Being successful in startups also involves an aspect of science that I love — psychology. It takes talent and effort to study and understand human behaviour, in order to make a product that many would love and use. Hence, working in the entrepreneurship field means many skills in one — not just business acumen, but also a deep understanding of the world and of people, the ability to build great relationships, to problem solve on-the-go, and most importantly having a curious mind. This is understandably challenging, but it’s this challenge that I absolutely love and crave.
So I dove straight in
After briefly working in a startup, I applied for an internship at Rampersand — being a naturally analytical thinker and always curious about many things in tandem — the role of working at a seed stage VC was simply a perfect fit. No two days are the same. One day I could be studying how the data analytics world works, then switch gears to understanding a consumer facing app, then learning about the music industry’s economics. This level of context switching and the breadth of learning is the exact intellectual stimulation that I am looking for in a career. Furthermore, by definition, a start-up is something that’s aiming to disrupt and break through the status quo. Hence, even within a familiar industry like health tech I am still fascinated by the new ideas I see.
So where to now? Medicine or Venture Capital?
Coming back to my childhood dream of being a doctor — that stays. I still love medicine and don’t ever plan to quit. I still love the science behind it all, and importantly I love the human aspect. There’s just something so beautifully raw about helping a patient through what’s possibly the most challenging times of their lives, which is harder to experience in the fast-paced business world.
What I’ve observed is that the combination of venture, tech, and medicine can be powerful. Where medicine is protocol driven and pattern recognition based, introducing tech can make processes much more effective and efficient. The world of rapidly maturing AI/ML technology, in my humble opinion, is positioned to make the patient experience hundreds if not thousands of times better.
So will I stay in medicine or quit to become a venture investor?
Answer: I’m going to do both.
Helena Li
