Portfolio
Obatala manufactures human-derived hydrogels, stem cells, and functional fat-on-a-chip models for pre-clinical drug development for metabolic diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
Stage: Contracts with big pharma and AI drug discovery companies.
Invested: Co-led Series A with Ochsner Lafayette General Healthcare Innovation Fund II (2022); board seat; follow-on funding (2023, 2024).
How être added value: Co-led Obatala’s Series A and provided ongoing support, talent, investor introductions and follow-on funding.
Growth potential: être positioned itself ahead of National Institutes of Health (NIH) priorities for human-centered research and reduced animal testing, leveraging organs-on-chips, AI models, and the EU’s planned phaseout of animal testing.
Source: New Orleans BioInnovation Center.
Location: New Orleans, LA
Hexas Biomass Inc. is a biomaterials company focused on the production of plant-based fiber from its proprietary purpose-grown crops as a replacement for wood and fossil fuels.
Exit: Stock in Bioleum.
How être added value:
As one of two early investors in Hexas, être supported founder Wendy Owens to bring the company to market in a capital-efficient way, then guided acquisition efforts, resulting in an acquisition by Bioleum.
Invested: Led pre-seed round in 2022 to fund patents for propagation, production, harvesting, application in multiple end uses of XanoGrass/XanoFiber.
Growth potential: Hexas retained rights to the patent for use in sectors outside Bioleum’s scope and will regain full ownership if the IP is not utilized in three years.
Source: WET Center
Location: Olympia, WA
Portico is transforming U.S. health care access: Freeing providers from insurance control and giving patients transparent, upfront pricing to find, book, and pay.
Stage: MVP launched; onboarding clinicians and beta testing with patients.
Invested: Led pre-seed (2022), hold a board seat, and provided follow-on funding to support platform development.
How être added value: Recruited new CEO (formerly VP of Product at Yelp), clinicians, and facilitated introductions to hospital systems, investors, and advisors.
Growth potential: Market forces are creating an opportunity for Portico a to offer a broad network of vetted, high-quality whole-person care practitioners and tools.
Source: Network.
Location: Los Altos, California
Hampr connects small commercial customers (vacation rentals, gyms and spas) and busy people who don’t have time for laundry with stay-at-home-parents and retirees to do the wash.
Stage: Pivoted from B2C to B2B, with $600/month revenue per account vs. $72 B2C; improved margins from 65% to 70%.
Invested: Co-invested in the seed round led by co-invested BensonCapital Partners, Bonaventures & Boot64 (2023).
How être added value: Leveraged founder Laurel Hess’s expertise in building flywheels without pay-per-click advertising. Laurel actively advises other être portfolio companies, and être facilitates investor introductions and ongoing advisory support.
Growth potential: The laundry market is fragmented across B2B and B2C offerings, but no competitor is led by a founder obsessed with operational simplicity! This enables this company to define the category and pay future dividends.
Source: Co-investor network
Location: Lafayette, LA
AI-driven back-pain care across 100+ causal factors, integrates scanning, patient-reported symptoms, and clinical guidance to reduce reliance on surgeries that fail to eliminate pain in 60% of cases.
Stage: Created by a Stanford orthopedic surgeon, MyBackHub’s AI assessment and personalized treatment platform is live, with physician adoption across nine healthcare systems and patients being onboarded.
Invested: Co-invested in the seed round, led by Brook Byers (2025).
How être added value:
Connected co-investors, including California’s iBank, shared diligence, and made introductions to Tech Futures Group and Stanford Emergence
Growth potential: Medicare reimbursement, $100M+ revenue by 2031, IP, and $760M payer savings position My Back Hub as an strong acquisition target.
Source: Cold outreach
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Panel Tek ADU builds next-gen housing: Affordable homes built in 2–3 weeks with lightweight steel SIP panels—50% lower design-and-build costs.
Stage: 1 unit complete, 1 in plan-check, 6 home kits pending California ADU statewide pre-approval, 500 homes in pipeline.
Invested: In-kind investment from Managing Partner Hillary Talbot (2026)
How être added value: Introduced multi-family housing developers, early stage VCs, helped build investor pitch deck.
Growth potential: Launching in the epicenter of the U.S. housing crisis (SF Bay Area and Greater LA), Panel Tek needs just 0.18% of California’s ADU market to reach $200M in revenue and $85M in EBITDA by Year 5, positioning it as a compelling acquisition target.
Source: Institute for Innovation and Economic Development, California State University Monterey Bay
Location: Seaside, CA