In this episode of Billion Dollar Moves, I sit down with David Berry, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Averin Capital, for a conversation about building billion-dollar breakthroughs in healthcare.
David has founded more than 30 companies, including seven valued over $1B, and has helped shape companies across biotech, AI drug discovery, microbiome therapeutics, agriculture, and health infrastructure.
From losing a childhood friend to brain cancer, to asking why the hardest problems are worth pursuing, David shares how mission, science, and capital come together to create venture-scale healthcare companies.
For founders, funders, and family offices investing in the future of health, this is a conversation about conviction, ethics, and building for impact at scale.
Watch the full conversation and subscribe for more discussions at the intersection of capital, governance, and long-term wealth.
00:00 – Intro: Why go after the biggest problems?
01:12 – Truth vs. belief in science
03:00 – The myth that humans only use 10% of their brains
04:28 – Rethinking cancer and inherited assumptions
05:38 – How big ideas emerge from questioning “truth”
06:30 – Entrepreneur vs. investor: The N of one
08:10 – Building Seres Therapeutics and the microbiome frontier
11:00 – Turning strange science into a venture-scale company
12:20 – Why drug development does not always have to take 10–15 years
14:10 – Valo Health and AI-powered drug discovery
17:15 – Product-investor fit in biotech
20:30 – Why companies fail: Teams, resilience, and near-death moments
22:15 – Averin Capital and the transformation of health through technology
23:20 – BioLink and the future of continuous health monitoring
26:00 – Ozempic, access, and ethics in healthcare
31:10 – Women’s health, clinical trials, and bias in medical data
35:00 – David’s vision for Averin Capital
39:00 – How family offices should think about investing in health
40:00 – The next billion-dollar moves in healthcare
40:35 – Rapid fire
About David Berry
David is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Averin. As an innovator and a company builder, he has been driven by the power of technology to transform industries. David has been a founder of over 30 companies, including 7 that have been valued at over $1B.
David was previously a General Partner at Flagship Pioneering. He was also founder and CEO of Valo Health, where he raised over $500M and executed a transformative partnership with Novo Nordisk.
David received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. from MIT through the biological engineering division, where he worked with Professors Robert Langer and Ram Sasisekharan. David works closely with Biolinq amongst other Averin companies.
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Billion Dollar Moves Podcast | The Top Global Venture & Business Podcast for Founders & Funders | Backed by HubSpot Podcast Network
Conversations with billionaires, unicorn founders, and the world’s leading funders.
Hosted by Sarah Chen-Spellings, Billion Dollar Moves examines how enduring companies — and the capital behind them — are built.
Through long-form conversations, the show explores decision-making under uncertainty, capital allocation, and the inflection points that shape category-defining businesses. From early platform backstories to allocator frameworks used across private markets, the focus is on judgment, incentives, and long-term value creation — beyond headlines and hype.
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