Hemant Taneja

Hemant Taneja is an Indian-born American venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and author. He is a managing director at General Catalyst, a venture capital firm that invests in companies from Seed stage through growth stage and beyond.[1] He has authored two books and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review.[2]

Hemant Taneja
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BA, BS, MA, MS)
OccupationVenture capitalist
Spouse(s)Jessica Taneja

Early life and education

Hemant Taneja was born in India and moved to Boston, Massachusetts with his family while Taneja was in high school. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he initially intended to pursue a career in education.[3]

Taneja ultimately graduated with three undergraduate and two graduate degrees from the Institute in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (BS and MS), Operations Research (MS), Mathematics (BS), Biology & Biomedical Engineering (BS).[3][4]

Taneja lives in San Francisco with his wife and three children.[3]

Career

In 1999, prior to joining General Catalyst, Taneja founded and became the chief executive officer of Isovia Inc., a mobile software company.[5][6] Isovia was acquired by JP Mobile Inc. in 2001, after which Taneja assumed the role of senior vice president of field operations for the acquiring company.[7] JP Mobile was subsequently acquired by Good Technology in 2005.[8]

General Catalyst

Taneja joined General Catalyst in 2002.[9] In 2011, he moved from Boston to help open the firm's Silicon Valley office in Palo Alto, California.[10] At General Catalyst, Taneja has focused on investing in energy, education, media, healthcare, and fintech.[3][4]

As a managing director at General Catalyst, Taneja invested in Stripe in 2011,[11] Snap in 2013,[12][13] and Grammarly in 2017 and 2019.[14][15]

Taneja was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations task force that produced The Work Ahead, a 2018 report that assessed how technology and globalization will impact the United States workforce. The task force was chaired by former United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and former Governor of Michigan John Engler.[16]

Taneja has appeared on CB Insights' list of the Top 100 Venture Capitalists, produced in conjunction with the The New York Times each year since the inaugural list was published in 2016. He ranked 67th on 2016 list and was most recently ranked 30th.[17] He was named to the Forbes Midas List of Top Tech Investors in 2017, and has remained on the list through 2020.[18][19][20][21]

Healthcare

In 2014, Taneja co-founded, invested in, and joined the board of directors of Livongo, a digital health company that helps individuals with diabetes track and share their blood glucose records, with former Allscripts executive Glen Tullman. Taneja and General Catalyst also invested in the enterprise and joined the firm's board of directors.[22] Livongo went public in 2019.[23] It merged with Teladoc Health in August 2020, a transaction that Taneja helped to facilitate.[24] Taneja joined the Teladoc Health Board of Directors in November 2020.[25]

In 2017, Taneja co-founded Commure, a San Francisco-based technology company that develops healthcare software.[26][27]

In 2019, Taneja joined Jefferson Health CEO Stephen K. Klasko to launch a new, Philadelphia-based company aimed at leading the digital transformation of the healthcare industry.[28]

Taneja is currently the chief executive officer of Health Assurance Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) focused on healthcare technology. The company announced its $500 million IPO in November 2020 and commenced trading of its Class A common stock and warrants in January 2021.[29][30]

Taneja is a member of the Board of Fellows at the Stanford University School of Medicine.[31]

Energy

Taneja co-founded the New England Clean Energy Council in 2007 and became a member of the Council's executive committee.[10][32] The Council, which resulted from the merger of the Clean Energy Council and the New England Energy Innovation Collaborative, was formed to support the development of clean energy companies in New England.[33]

In 2011, Taneja co-founded the Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) with Tom Steyer, an American asset manager and philanthropist.[34] Taneja and Steyer have stated that AEE's mission is to promote the growth of American alternative energy and provide a unified industry voice about the economic opportunities that alternative energy and technologies can bring to the United States.[35]

Published Work

In 2013, Taneja published an article in the Harvard Business Review, "The Economies of Unscale." The article outlined the process of "unscaling," which Taneja defines as, "an entrepreneur's ability to rent instead of building [...] services."[36]

The paper laid the groundwork for Taneja's two full-length books, which focus on the unscaling of the technology and healthcare industries. Taneja's first book, Unscaled, published in 2018, expanded on the original HBR paper to explore how start-up companies are changing the traditional way they expand through unscaling and artificial intelligence to "learn more and iterate faster to create better products and solutions for smaller, more qualified markets."[37][38]

Taneja's second book, UnHealthcare, co-authored with Stephen K. Klasko, was published in 2020.[39] The book expanded on Taneja's idea of unscaling and discussed how technology and artificial intelligence can be used to create a new category of healthcare called "health assurance," which would help individuals stay healthier at less cost.[40]

Taneja is a frequent contributor to HBR, where he has written about venture capital, technology and healthcare.[2] He also has had his writing featured in the MIT Sloan Management Review,[41] TechCrunch,[42] and Fortune.[43]

Bibliography
Title Publication Year Notes
Unscaled 2017 With Kevin Maney
UnHealthcare 2020 Co-authored with Stephen K. Klasko, with Kevin Maney

Teaching and Philanthropy

Taneja is a passionate supporter of education and innovation.[3] In 2009, he co-founded Technology Underwriting Greater Good, a Boston-based nonprofit that helps tech entrepreneurs support nonprofits in the New England area that serve local, under-resourced youth.[44]

In 2014 Taneja, a member of the Board of Directors of the Khan Academy,[45] helped Sal Khan found the Khan Lab School, an independent laboratory school in Mountain View, California. The school focuses on research-based instruction in a laboratory environment.[46][47] A founding trustee of the school, Taneja served on the Board of Trustees for six years before stepping down in 2020.[48]

Along with his wife Jessica, Taneja started the Taneja Family Foundation in 2014 to support their philanthropic interests.[3][49] The Foundation has supported causes including New Story, which builds homes and communities in the developing world using 3D printing, CAF America Urban Housing Rights Initiative, and the Desai Foundation, which "empowers women and children through community programs to elevate health and livelihood in India and in the U.S."[50]

Taneja has remained connected to MIT, returning to meet with faculty and students and guest lecturing. Through their foundation, Taneja and his wife supported the construction of MIT.nano, a laboratory on the MIT campus dedicated to helping the MIT community conduct research in nanoscience and nanotechnology.[3]

Currently, Taneja teaches a course at Stanford called "Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurship and Society in the 21st Century," that explores how artificial intelligence has created new opportunities for entrepreneurs.[51][52]

References
  1. "Strategy". General Catalyst. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  2. "Hemant Taneja Author Page". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  3. Downey, Katy (Winter 2018). "Education Meets Innovation". MIT Spectrum. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  4. "Hemant Taneja". General Catalyst. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  5. "Isovia - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  6. Sahay, Praveen (Feb 17, 2011). "Xconomy: Cleantech VC Hemant Taneja Moves to Bay Area, Talks Investment Strategy at General Catalyst". Xconomy. Retrieved Jan 15, 2021.
  7. Resende, Patricia (Dec 17, 2001). "Boston's Isovia acquired by JP Mobile". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved Jan 15, 2021.
  8. Mullins, Robert (Jul 11, 2005). "Good Buys Assets of J.P. Mobile". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  9. "Hemant Taneja - Managing Director @ General Catalyst - Crunchbase Person Profile". Crunchbase. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  10. Huang, Gregory (Feb 17, 2011). "Cleantech VC Hemant Taneja Moves to Bay Area, Talks Investment Strategy at General Catalyst". Xconomy. Retrieved Jan 15, 2021.
  11. Truong, Alice (Sep 30, 2014). "General Catalyst Invests $10 Million In Stripe's Ecosystem". Fast Company. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  12. Konrad, Alex (Feb 2, 2017). "Snap's IPO Means A Huge Windfall For These VC Investors". Forbes. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  13. Benner, Katie; Maheshwari, Sapna (Sep 24, 2019). "Snapchat, Known for Ephemera, Proves Its Staying Power With Videos (Published 2016)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  14. Geron, Tomio (May 8, 2017). "Grammarly, With $110 Million, Brings Artificial Intelligence to Writing". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  15. Lunden, Ingrid (Oct 10, 2019). "Grammarly raises $90M at over $1B+ valuation for its AI-based grammar and writing tools". TechCrunch. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  16. "The Work Ahead". Council on Foreign Relations. April 2018. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  17. "The Top 100 Venture Capital Partners & Firms". CB Insights. Mar 31, 2019. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  18. Albanese, Giovanni (May 16, 2017). "Indian American VCs with the Golden Touch Make Forbes 'Midas List' of Top 100 Investors". India West. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  19. "Top 10 Companies Behind The 2018 Midas List: Exits And Unicorns That Helped Their Investors The Most". Forbes. Apr 3, 2018. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  20. "Top 10 Companies Behind The 2019 Midas List: Exits And Unicorns That Helped Their Investors The Most". Forbes. Apr 2, 2019. Retrieved Jan 18, 2019.
  21. "Forbes Releases 2020 Midas List". FinSMEs. Apr 14, 2020. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  22. Shieber, Jonathan (Sep 10, 2014). "Allscripts Ex-CEO Glen Tullman Launches Livongo Health At Disrupt, Backed By General Catalyst". TechCrunch. Retrieved Jan 16, 2014.
  23. Farrell, Maureen; Evans, Melanie (July 25, 2019). "Two Health-Tech Companies Join Parade of IPOs With Strong Debuts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  24. Farr, Christina (Aug 5, 2020). "How Livongo and Teladoc closed an $18.5 billion deal during a pandemic". CNBC. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  25. "Meet Our Board | Teladoc Health". www.teladochealth.com. Retrieved Jan 22, 2021.
  26. "Announcing Commure: A System of Innovation for Healthcare". Medium. February 6, 2020. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  27. "Commure - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding". Crunchbase. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  28. George, John (Nov 13, 2020). "Jefferson Health, General Catalyst launch stealth company to lead health care's digital transformation". Philadelphia Business Journal. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  29. Landi, Heather (Oct 28, 2020). "Former Livongo execs start new company and prepare for $500M IPO". FierceHealthcare. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  30. "Health Assurance Acquisition Corp. Announces the Separate Trading of its shares of Class A Common Stock and Warrants Commencing". Bloomberg.com. December 30, 2020. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  31. "Board of Fellows". School of Medicine. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  32. "Clean, green and bubbling over?". The International Herald Tribune. May 28, 2008. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  33. "New England Clean Energy Council launches". Boston Business Journal. Oct 22, 2007. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  34. Baker, David R. (Nov 7, 2011). "Alternative energy companies form united front". SFGATE. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  35. Jaffe, Mark (Nov 7, 2011). "Alternative-energy "chamber of commerce" launched in Denver". The Denver Post. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  36. Taneja, Hemant (Oct 1, 2013). "Economies of Unscale: Why Business Has Never Been Easier for the Little Guy". Harvard Business Review. ISSN 0017-8012. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  37. Unscaled. Public Affairs Books. 2018.
  38. Linders, Ben (Jun 2, 2018). "Q&A on the Book Unscaled". InfoQ. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  39. Klasko, Stephen; Taneja, Hemant; Maney, Kevin (Dec 8, 2020). ""Unhealthcare" offers innovative ideas to reinvent health care | EXCERPT". The Philadelphia Citizen. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  40. Taneja, Hemant (Jul 17, 2020). "Announcing UnHealthcare". Medium. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  41. Taneja, Hemant (Nov 19, 2008). "The Clean Energy Economy: A New Industrial Revolution Rising From Challenging Times". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  42. "Author: Hemant Taneja". TechCrunch. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  43. Taneja, Hemant (Apr 2, 2018). "Commentary: It's Time for Washington to Take on the Tech Monopolies". Fortune. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  44. Moore, Galen (Dec 28, 2009). "VCs join forces to advance tech-based philanthropy". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved Jan 16, 2021.
  45. "Meet The Top 100 Investors On Forbes Midas List". Inc42. Apr 22, 2017. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  46. Harris, Ainsley (Sep 11, 2019). "Can Techie Parents Reinvent School For Everyone–Or Just Their Rich Kids?". Fast Company. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  47. Westervelt, Eric (Jan 5, 2016). "'A Bit Of A Montessori 2.0': Khan Academy Opens A Lab School". NPR.org. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  48. "Thank You to Retiring Founding Trustees & Announcing New Members". Board of Trustees Updates | Khan Lab School. July 23, 2020. Retrieved Jan 18, 2021.
  49. "TANEJA FAMILY FOUNDATION CO HEMANT TANEJA DIRECTOR". Grantmakers.io. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  50. "Hemant and Jessica Taneja". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved Jan 17, 2021.
  51. "ETL with Hemant Taneja". Stanford eCorner. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
  52. "CS 28: Artificial Intelligence, Entrepreneurship and Society in the 21st Century and Beyond". Stanford University Bulletin. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
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