August 3-7

Hi Gang,

It turns out 20 years of your life can fit into a pretty small box. I returned to San Francisco this weekend to visit my favorite places, get a sense for the atmosphere, and pack up important belongings. It has been five months (lest you stopped counting) since we started living this new existence. And while there are some positives to this life, I miss my old one a lot.

Twelve years in San Francisco, where I moved from the East Coast knowing no one. Woodstock was my sidekick then, a fearless tiger of an orange tabby who followed me from Music City to the Nation’s Capital to the City by the Bay. He met every friend I made along the way and outlasted every dude. A lot happens in 17 years – he was there for all of it.

Photos of Woodstock as a kitten, letters from old boyfriends, newspaper clips from my internship at The Florida Times-Union (I went by ‘Jacqueline’ that summer, thinking that byline sounded more ‘adult’) – all neatly packed up now, and like many of us, stuck in a box.

The dry cleaner on my corner is gone. Jenny, her American name, was there long before I arrived. She didn’t accept credit cards, didn’t have a website, and didn’t speak the best English. But she was always so happy to see me and greeted everyone by name. “Hi Jackie! Thank you! Next week OK? OK!” The space is now vacant. No more next week. My nail salon has been boarded up since March. It’s family-owned and run – mom, dad, son, his wife, the younger son. I saw the oldest children have children of their own. Will they be there when I get back? Will I get to say goodbye if not? Massimo, a compact, human tornado of a man runs my favorite Italian joint – the place hasn’t changed in 30 years. When I called, he knew my voice instantly and asked where I’ve been. “Jacqueline! I have a table for you! What time?!” Frenetic, boisterous, consistently inefficient, and incredibly authentic, Via Veneto is holding on. Don’t mess with Naples.

I’m back in the woods now, with my box of everything sitting here next to me. It’s not a big box, but it’s too much to unpack. So. I’m just going to sit with it for now. I’m glad I have all of this. I’ll always have all of this.

News & Resources

Business, Leadership & Self

Congrats on Your New CEO Job! Maybe One Day You’ll Get to Meet Your Employees
HBR: How CEOs Can Lead Selflessly Through a Crisis
RRA: Employee Well-Being – white paper from several colleagues detailing why and how to focus on the wellness of your team

News of Interest

Diversity & Inclusion

Alexion names Qadeer as first chief diversity officer
MedTech Color and MedTechWomen Virtual Event: Innovative Approaches to Driving Inclusion and Diversity – a candid, dynamic, and important conversation about innovative approaches to driving inclusion and diversity

From the Community

CymaBay flashes positive results from the trial they have to relaunch – way to stick it out, Sujal and team! Finally, good news for NASH!
Rich Heyman joins PMV Pharma, a p53 biotech, as it adds $70 million in Series D – because he had nothing else going on…
Deep tech, round 2: DCVC Bio bags $350M fund to chase the tip of the life science spear – amazing news for computational biology!
Mental health startup Ginger lands $50M backed by Cigna, Kaiser Permanente – digital health *finally* seeing traction… did you see this…
How Teladoc's blockbuster deal could impact the entire virtual care landscape – likely a game-changer

Food Fight – Send me yours!

This week’s winner is Deepa Pakianathan, General Partner at Dephi Ventures. Thanks for sending us your awesome creation!

Chef’s comments: “Garlicky chicken thighs with lime and soy!”

Point of View – What are you seeing out there? (Share anonymously if you prefer.)

This week’s photo from Brion Raymond, recent Chief Commercial Officer at Clearslide Biomedical, is right out of a nature documentary.

Brion’s perspective: “Here is a photo from one of our family adventures, camping in Oregon. On the way home, we passed a bald eagle on top of a deer, defending it from about a dozen vultures.”