Health2047 Managing Director Dr. Chris Stock interviewed Maria Toler, founding partner at SteelSky Ventures, about how she evaluates early-stage healthcare companies.

Chris Stock: Can you tell us more about SteelSky and why you founded it?

Maria Toler: I’m a lifelong entrepreneur and a healthcare advocate. I was working as head of marketing at a dermatology clinic that had rolled up over 50 locations. That gave me an inside look at how hospitals and health systems work.

From the inside, I saw a group of people being overlooked and underserved: women and people of color. Women are 50% of the population, yet very little was being innovated for them. People of color were being denied services because of insurance or Medicaid status.

I thought there was something bigger I could do. That’s why I started SteelSky. I wanted to create a system where everyone could access quality care.

Chris Stock: Does SteelSky focus primarily on women’s health?

Maria Toler: We take a broad view. Women’s health goes beyond fertility and reproductive care. We invest in infrastructure, services, and clinical care models that need to evolve.

A lot of devices and procedures for women haven’t changed since the 1800s. Even the speculum hasn’t really been innovated. That shows how little investment there’s been.

Because I’m a woman and a person of color, I was uniquely positioned to start this fund. What some see as weaknesses, I see as strengths.

Chris Stock: How should founders think about fundraising and finding the right investors?

Maria Toler: First, understand your space and your stage. If you’re at the idea-on-a-napkin stage, it’s not time to call A16Z, Sequoia, or SteelSky.

Early on, you go to friends and family, then angels, then seed. After product-market fit and early traction, you go to Series A.

It’s very important to research funds and understand what they invest in. Approaching the wrong investor is a fast way to get a no.

If you can’t research who to reach out to, how can I trust you to build a billion-dollar company?

Chris Stock: Have milestones changed over the past few years?

Maria Toler: Completely. After the ZIRP (Zero Interest-Rate Policy) era, valuations were too high. Companies couldn’t grow into them.

Now investors are focused on cash management, margins, and paths to profitability. It’s no longer growth at all costs. There’s a flight to quality and fundamentals.

Chris Stock: How important is fit between founders and investors?

Maria Toler: Very important. Product-market fit matters. But product founder fit, to me, matters even more. I want to make sure the founder is the right person to lead the company.

Sometimes, a doctor who may have been a gynecologist… she’s been working with the same system for a long time, and she sees a gap that can be fixed. She starts a company to address and fix that gap… because she understands the problem, and she can find the solution.

She’s not a business person. She probably doesn’t understand finance. So while she has the product idea, she’ll need to align herself with somebody who can run tech, somebody for marketing, and somebody for overall business strategy.

Chris Stock: How crowded is the market right now?

Maria Toler: We see about 3,000 companies a year.

You may think that you’re the one and only, but I’ve seen 25 maybe in that same day who are doing the exact same thing, with the exact same business model.

When business models are similar, the only thing to differentiate them is the team. It’s about the execution.

Chris Stock: What else do you look for when evaluating companies?

Maria Toler: We look at market size, impact, and team. We’re looking for pain pills, not vitamins. We want to solve big problems—maternal mortality, better mammograms, postpartum depression, rural access.

We look for scalable, accessible, culturally competent models that take insurance and serve broad populations.

Chris Stock: Are there red flags you watch for?

Maria Toler: Lack of product-founder fit.

A lot of people build companies around personal experiences, but they’re not uniquely positioned to succeed. Unfortunately, I’m in the business of crushing dreams. Ninety-nine percent of companies we see, we don’t invest in.

We have to trust founders with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and with people’s lives. Being a CEO isn’t just having a good idea. You’re running a company. Some founders only iterate on product and never sell. Others focus on marketing and neglect product. The best leaders know how to delegate and balance.

Chris Stock: What about family-led teams?

Maria Toler: That’s a red flag. Number one red flag. We need leaders who put the company before family. It can get messy. Some couples can make it work, but we’ve learned from experience. If you want VC funding, it’s usually not the best structure.

Chris Stock: Do you take board seats?

Maria Toler: Yes, especially in our second fund. We bring operational experience. My partner and I are former founders. Our CFO has M&A experience. We’ve helped run over 20 companies. We’ve seen a lot. We try to help founders avoid wasting time learning hard lessons.

Our LPs include corporations, banks, health systems, and insurers. That ecosystem helps companies scale. Anybody can bring a check. What else are they bringing?

Chris Stock: Has AI changed what you’re seeing?

Maria Toler: Everyone’s adding “.ai” now. The big players dominate pure AI. What we like is when founders integrate AI intentionally to improve operations and systems—not just as a trend.

Chris Stock: Where do you see SteelSky in the next few years?

Maria Toler: Straight to IPO. We want to change the landscape of women’s healthcare. We don’t want to still be having the same conversations in 10 years. We want strong returns, but also outsized impact.