A decade ago, roughly 2% of venture capital funding went to all-women founding teams. Today, that number remains essentially unchanged. Despite overwhelming evidence that gender-diverse teams outperform, despite the rise of funds explicitly focused on women founders, and despite the fact that women make approximately 80% of healthcare and consumer purchase decisions, the capital flowing to women-led companies has barely moved.
Kerry Rupp, General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, has spent the last ten years building a firm designed to change that equation. In this episode of The Growth Layer, Kerry shares how True Wealth was founded, why the firm invests only in companies with at least one full-time woman in senior leadership, and what it takes to fund innovation that directly improves health outcomes—not just operates within the healthcare system.
We discuss the evolution from a consumer-first thesis to a broader aperture that includes B2B models, the tension between control and leverage in go-to-market strategy, and what founders need to know about raising capital in a market dominated by AI. Kerry also reflects on her personal growth as an investor, operator, and board member shaping the future of women's health beyond venture.
The Origin Story: A Partnership Born from Shared Conviction
True Wealth Ventures began with a three-hour lunch that neither Kerry nor her co-founder, Sarah Dusek, had planned to extend. They met as the only two women general partners in venture capital in Austin, Texas—a fact that sounds like hyperbole but was literally true at the time. For several years after, they remained the only two women GPs running a VC fund in the entire state.
Sarah's background was in engineering and semiconductors. She had spent most of her career in male-dominated environments, often as the only woman in the room. While at AMD, she was asked to serve as the executive sponsor of the company's women's forum—not because of her HR or marketing expertise, but because she was the only woman vice president with operating and engineering experience in a company where 80% of employees were engineers.
In that role, Sarah dug into the data and discovered something striking: companies with more women in senior leadership consistently outperformed their peers. Yet most companies struggled to move the needle on gender diversity at the executive level. Changing the C-suite doesn't happen overnight. But in venture capital, you can implement gender diversity immediately by choosing to invest in companies with women founders or executives.
Sarah also noticed that women tend to start and invest in companies aligned with solving problems they've personally experienced. That often means companies working on health, environmental sustainability, and social impact—areas where outcomes matter deeply.
Kerry, meanwhile, had been working at DreamIt Ventures, running programs focused on women-led companies and health startups. The overlap between what Sarah envisioned and what Kerry was already doing was so significant that collaboration felt inevitable.
They spent about nine months in what Kerry describes as a courtship. Kerry was initially advising Sarah, then considered a venture partner role, and eventually realized they should launch the fund together as co-general partners. In September 2014, they officially began fundraising for True Wealth Ventures Fund I.
The Thesis: Gender Diversity Plus Health and Environmental Outcomes
True Wealth's investment thesis rests on three pillars, and all three have remained consistent since the beginning.
First, gender diversity. The firm invests only in companies with at least one full-time woman founder or C-level executive. The emphasis on "full-time" matters because it's about being embedded in day-to-day operating decisions. That's where the outperformance data shows up—not in advisory roles or part-time involvement, but in leadership that shapes strategy and execution daily.
Second, direct impact on health or environmental outcomes. This is where True Wealth differs from many health-focused funds. The company has to be directly improving outcomes, not just operating within the healthcare or environmental sectors. An insurance payment optimization tool might be valuable and efficient, but it doesn't directly change health outcomes. True Wealth looks for innovations that measurably move the needle on human or environmental health.
Third, measurable results. The fund tracks performance not just in financial returns but in the outcomes their portfolio companies create. This dual lens—impact and economics—shapes every investment decision.
These pillars have held since Fund I, which raised close to $20 million between 2014 and 2018 and deployed capital into 19 portfolio companies. Fund II, raised in 2022 at $35 million, maintains the same core thesis with one important evolution.
The Evolution: From Consumer-First to Multi-Model
Fund I included an explicit consumer-facing strategy. The reasoning was sound: women make the majority of consumer purchase decisions and healthcare decisions (for themselves, their children, aging parents, and often their partners). If women are driving these choices, companies that reach them directly should have a built-in advantage.
But as Fund I progressed, Kerry and Sarah encountered companies that didn't fit the consumer-first mandate yet were clearly solving the right problems with the right teams. In some cases, the business model made more sense going B2B—partnering with pediatricians, integrating into insurance networks, or working through employer wellness programs—even though the end user was still a consumer.
It felt arbitrary to pass on strong companies simply because of who was paying for the product. So when they pitched Fund II to investors, they explained the shift: the aperture was widening. Companies could go B2B, but the mission remained the same. They had to improve health or environmental outcomes, and they had to have women in leadership.
This change reflects a broader truth in health innovation: distribution models are contextual. What matters is reaching patients and creating impact, not adhering to a rigid channel strategy.
The DTC vs. B2B Tension: Control, Leverage, and Data
The conversation about direct-to-consumer versus business-to-business models in health is rarely straightforward. Kerry frames it as a tension between control and leverage.
DTC gives you control. You own the customer relationship. You can iterate quickly, test messaging, adjust pricing, and respond to feedback in real time. If something isn't working, you can pivot without waiting for a hospital system or payer to approve changes. You also generate direct consumer data, which can be invaluable for product development and clinical validation.
But DTC is expensive. Customer acquisition costs have risen significantly, and building a consumer brand requires sustained marketing investment. For early-stage companies with limited capital, that can be prohibitive.
B2B gives you leverage. Partnerships with providers, payers, or employers offer access to large populations you couldn't reach on your own. You gain credibility through association with established institutions. And in some cases, you can get paid faster and more predictably through contracts rather than relying on individual consumer purchases.
The tradeoff is time and control. B2B timelines are notoriously unpredictable. A deal that seems close can stall for months—or years—due to internal priority shifts, compliance requirements, vendor approval processes, or leadership changes. Founders often underestimate these timelines by a factor of two or more, which can leave them financially exposed if they've raised capital based on optimistic projections.
Kerry's advice: It's not about choosing one path over the other. It's about understanding which model aligns with your product, your market, and your resources—and being strategic about how and when you pursue each.
Many successful health companies run parallel paths. They might launch a simpler, consumer-facing version of their product that doesn't require FDA approval while simultaneously working through the regulatory process for the full clinical solution. The consumer product generates revenue, builds brand awareness, and provides data. The clinical product unlocks larger contracts and deeper partnerships.
In other cases, companies go all-in on the long game, focusing exclusively on B2B because the distraction of consumer marketing would dilute their core efforts. There's no universal prescription.
What Founders Need to Know About Fundraising Right Now
The venture landscape has shifted significantly in the past few years, driven largely by the explosion of capital flowing into AI. That shift has downstream effects on every other sector, including digital health.
Kerry is candid: billions of dollars are pouring into foundational AI technology. That's shrinking the pool of capital available for companies in other categories, including women-led health startups. Founders are struggling to raise follow-on rounds. Timelines are stretching. The funding environment is tighter than it's been in years.
At the same time, AI is becoming an application layer in many health companies. True Wealth's portfolio includes companies using AI for diagnostics, treatment algorithms, and personalized care plans. But the base-layer AI infrastructure—where the biggest checks are being written—is happening elsewhere, often in companies led by technical founders who don't fit True Wealth's gender-diverse thesis.
This creates a strategic question for True Wealth as they plan Fund III: How should the fund evolve to stay relevant in a market being reshaped by AI? Should they invest in AI-enabled health applications? Should they focus on companies that leverage AI as a tool rather than companies building AI infrastructure? What pain points exist for women-led companies right now, and what tools can help them succeed?
Kerry approaches this the same way she advises founders: with customer discovery. True Wealth is talking to potential investors to understand what problems they want solved. They're talking to women founders to understand what challenges they face. The right answer might be Fund III. It might be something different. They're staying open to what the data reveals.
Building an 80% Women LP Base
When True Wealth began raising Fund I, they didn't explicitly target women investors. The focus was on where the money was going—into women-led companies—not where it was coming from. They had also heard conventional wisdom suggesting that wealthy women were more risk-averse, more focused on philanthropy, and less interested in venture capital.
That conventional wisdom turned out to be wrong.
At the first close of Fund I, 50% of investors were women. Kerry and Sarah didn't see it coming. But what happened next was revealing: those women investors became evangelists. They invited other women to see the opportunity. Many of these women had been successful executives, CEOs, or entrepreneurs themselves. They knew the women around them were capable and effective. They believed the investment thesis was sound.
And critically, most of them had never been invited to invest in a venture capital fund before.
Venture capital operates under strict regulations. You can't publicly market a fund or solicit investments broadly. You go person by person, through private networks and introductions. That structure means access is controlled by who you know and who invites you in. For decades, those networks excluded women.
True Wealth changed that. By the time Fund I closed, 80% of the limited partners were women decision-makers. According to a Wall Street Journal article at the time, that was unprecedented. While LP data isn't typically disclosed publicly, no one could find another fund with a comparable gender split.
For Fund II, Kerry and Sarah made a deliberate choice to maintain that 80% threshold—not because it's essential to who they invest in, but because they believe women should have access to venture capital as an asset class. They should be invited. They don't have to invest if they're not interested, but they deserve the opportunity.
The Future of Health Innovation and Kerry's Personal Growth
True Wealth is currently managing two funds. Fund I has 12 companies, a couple of which have exited. The rest are still operating, and Kerry and Sarah sit on several of their boards. Fund II has invested in nine of a planned 15 companies, which means they're actively sourcing and evaluating new opportunities.
Finding those six remaining companies requires seeing dozens of potential investments every week. True Wealth attends conferences focused on health, environment, and women-led companies. They prioritize diligence because they're only selecting 15 companies for this portfolio. Each one needs to fit the thesis, contribute to diversification, and have strong fundamentals.
They're also thinking ahead to Fund III, which requires grappling with how AI is reshaping the market. The current moment is messy. AI is absorbing capital that might otherwise flow to health companies. True Wealth's portfolio companies are navigating longer fundraising cycles and tighter investor expectations. Kerry describes it as a period of customer discovery—not just for founders, but for True Wealth itself.
Personally, Kerry is expanding her impact beyond venture. She's joining nonprofit boards that align with her expertise: the Texas 4000, a cancer charity connected to UT students who bike from Austin to Anchorage to raise funds and build student leaders; and Ascension Seton Foundation Central Texas, which is building a new women's hospital and has major initiatives around women's health.
These board roles allow Kerry to apply insights from her portfolio—companies working on doula care, lactation support, nutrition, and behavioral health—to shape healthcare delivery at an institutional level. The work feeds both directions: her venture experience informs her board service, and her board service deepens her understanding of where innovation is needed most.
Why This Matters
True Wealth Ventures operates at the intersection of capital, gender equity, and health outcomes. Their model challenges the assumption that venture capital is a closed system accessible only to those who already have access. By intentionally inviting women investors and funding women-led companies, they're creating new pathways in both directions.
For founders, Kerry's insights on DTC vs. B2B, the importance of data, and the realities of fundraising in a constrained market offer practical guidance. For investors, True Wealth demonstrates that thesis-driven investing aligned with values doesn't mean sacrificing returns.
The next decade of health innovation will be shaped by who gets funded, who gets access, and whose problems get solved. True Wealth is building toward a future where those answers include more women, more diverse perspectives, and more companies focused on outcomes that genuinely matter.
Key Takeaways for Operators
1. Gender-diverse teams outperform—but the data hasn't shifted behavior. Despite a decade of evidence, funding to women-led companies remains around 2%. Changing that requires intentional action, not just awareness.
2. Direct impact matters. Operating in healthcare isn't the same as improving health outcomes. Investors and founders should be clear about whether they're optimizing systems or actually moving the needle on health.
3. DTC and B2B aren't mutually exclusive. The best strategy depends on your product, market, and resources. Many successful companies run parallel paths, using consumer traction to inform B2B credibility.
4. B2B timelines are unpredictable. If you're building a business model that depends on partnerships with large institutions, plan for delays and build financial buffers accordingly.
5. Data is both proof and product. In algorithm-driven health solutions, user data doesn't just validate your approach—it improves your product. That shifts how you think about go-to-market strategy.
6. Access to capital is about networks. Venture funding is invitation-based. Changing who gets funded requires changing who gets invited, both as founders and as investors.
7. Founders and investors are both navigating uncertainty. The rise of AI, the tightening of capital markets, and the evolution of digital health mean everyone is in discovery mode. Flexibility and customer insight matter more than rigid plans.
True Wealth Ventures invests in women-led companies improving health and environmental outcomes. Learn more at truewealthventures.com.
If you're building a health company and need strategic support on positioning, fundraising, or go-to-market strategy, Future Digital partners with founders who are creating the next generation of health innovation. Let's connect.
