The Mayor's Martini Monday At Rock Health
Rock Health officially opened its doors last night in Mission Bay with a party and a panel, and we learned why the digital healthcare company uprooted from downtown. (And it wasn't for quicker access to Giants games.)
Halle Tecco is a wonder woman, having founded Rock Health--dubbed the first incubator for digital health startups--right out of Harvard biz school. Before the move to 455 Mission Bay Blvd. South, they were formerly sitting in Chinatown behind a scarf shop. It was an economic decision at the time, she said, to be in a safe and energetic area while being able to afford rent. She's since raised funds from VC bigwigs Kleiner Perkins and NEA, made Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, and was named one of CNN’s Entrepreneurs Reinventing Healthcare (and in our opinion got snubbed for a Golden Globe). It was clearly time for the company, which has had 10 million-plus people download or use a Rock Health company product, to expand. "What an upgrade this is," she said, looking around.
Mayor Edwin Lee sat on the panel with a martini by his side, explaining he needs to be more like other mayors ("not like the Toronto mayor," quipped moderator Wade Roush, S.F. editor at Xconomy). He was simultaneously supporting a local biz: Mission Bay's Distillery No. 209. Edwin says Rock Health is more like an enabler than incubator that hooks up companies with capital. That model should bleed into all other sectors, including hospitality, he says. He credits former mayor Willie Brown with the vision to transform Mission Bay from a tired railroad yard into a premiere biotech pool. He thinks digital health will help end threatening diseases one day.
Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus knew planting a flag years ago in Mission Bay--then a desolate land--was a gamble. (That's what they said about Vegas, now they get other people to go there and gamble.) Now the largest landlord there, Alexandria calls Bayer, Celgene, and Kaiser tenants. (Alexandria knows a thing or two about perseverance; 20 years ago the company was founded as a garage startup.) Edwin said Joel took a "lot of risk" with the city, not knowing from one mayor to the next whether the life sciences game plan for the area would change. When Joel met with Rock Health, he was "blown away" and knew they had to work together. The goal is to woo Rock Health portfolio companies into their buildings.
Moving to Mission Bay was a "no brainer," says Halle. It made sense to be plunked in the middle of a medical mecca at the intersection of health care and tech (SoMa is just steps away, Halle notes). The 210k SF building houses 500 employees, including Nektar and OrbiMed. Some Rock Health companies were dishing out demos on Monday night, like Lift Labs, which is developing a suite of home health hardware for those with Parkinson's and Essential Tremor (the Liftware spoon reduces shaking by over 70%). The company raised a $1M angel round in September.
Halle likes the fact Rock Health has exposure to the world by being on the first floor, encouraging a community feel with a rotating door. Doctors who want to be entrepreneurs, for example, hung out all day inside recently. The moving process took six months and was well thought out. Architect Studios helped create "exactly" what they wanted, she added. That pesky little thing called parking caused some to groan when commuting to its Financial District office. Now there's loads of parking and proximity to the freeway, which makes visitors--and that deep-pocketed investor dumping money into the next big thing--happy.
