Stephen Hays
Founder and Host @ Stigma Podcast
Frisco, United States
Stephen Hays is a seed investor at Stigma Podcast in Frisco focused on Health Care and Medical. Stephen Hays is the Founder and Managing Partner of What If Ventures, a VC firm investing in early stage mental health and addiction recovery related startups. What If Ventures was formed in the spring of 2019 and closed its first investment in January 2020. Since then, What If Ventures has invested in more than 80 startups and has deployed$100mm of capital.Stephen also founded and managed Deep Space Ventures from 2015 until 2018. During that time he invested in 25 seed and series-A stage startups in the B2B SaaS, esports and FinTech spaces. Personal struggles with addiction and mental health led Stephen to step away from Deep Space Ventures in late 2018 and begin to focus on addiction recovery and mental health both personally and professionally. The Deep Space portfolio has achieved outsized returns with approximately 3x TVPI just 4 years since inception with 5 exits and nearly a dozen series-A and later rounds within its portfolio companies.Prior to founding Deep Space Ventures, Stephen worked as an investment banker for 6+ years in both New York and Dallas. During this time, he executed a numerous capital markets and M&A transactions for Fortune 500 companies.Stephen is a a graduate of West Point and obtained his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt.
- Total investments:
- 61
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 10%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Stephen Hays invests in
Stages Stephen Hays invests in
Countries Stephen Hays invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Health Care 23 (38%)
- Medical 12 (20%)
- Software 10 (16%)
- Artificial Intelligence 9 (15%)
- Biotechnology 8 (13%)
Stage
- Seed 23 (38%)
- Series B 9 (15%)
- Series C 7 (11%)
- Series A 6 (10%)
- Series D 3 (5%)
Country
- United States 41 (67%)
- Canada 3 (5%)
- Germany 1 (2%)
- United Kingdom 1 (2%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Legacy
|
Legacy provides a service for at-home sperm testing and cryopreservation, allowing individuals to take control of their fertility health from the comfort of their homes. Their semen analysis is conducted in CLIA-certified labs, ensuring high-quality testing without the need for direct doctor involvement. As America's largest at-home fertilityclinic for men, Legacy empowers clients to understand their reproductive health and plan for the future effectively. | $10M / Venture - Series Unknown / Jul 18, 2025 | |
Firehawk Aerospace
|
Firehawk Aerospace is a defense technology company that replaces traditional propulsion production methods with additive manufacturing (3D printing) to produce solid rocket motors, hybrid rocket engines, and propellant. This proprietary process creates customized propellant grains and fuel structures, which allows for rapid manufacturing andincreased design flexibility for defense systems. | $60M / Series B / Jan 05, 2025 | |
|
Firehawk Aerospace
|
Firehawk Aerospace is a defense technology company that replaces traditional propulsion production methods with additive manufacturing (3D printing) to produce solid rocket motors, hybrid rocket engines, and propellant. This proprietary process creates customized propellant grains and fuel structures, which allows for rapid manufacturing andincreased design flexibility for defense systems. | $60M / Series C / Jan 05, 2025 | |
Alto Pharmacy
|
Alto is a full-service pharmacy powered by a team of experts dedicated to making your doctor's orders their own. From delivering prescriptions to coordinating with insurance, digging for discounts, and answering, Alto works behind-the-scenes to remove any obstacles standing in the way of your care.The company started in 2015 and isheadquartered in San Francisco, California. | Convertible Note / Nov 26, 2024 | |
Alto Pharmacy
|
Alto is America’s leading digital pharmacy, transforming a $500 billion industry. Founded in 2015, Alto’s better pharmacy model is centered on the critical role of pharmacists as the final link in a person’s health journey. Alto combines expert pharmacist care with purpose-built technology to deliver a more convenient and affordable experience forthose who need medication. To date, Alto has fulfilled more than three million prescriptions, expanded to twelve markets, and built a mobile app experience that makes it easier than ever to manage medications and chat with a pharmacist. As Alto continues its rapid growth, it remains customer obsessed, with an industry-leading NPS score of 86. | Convertible Note / Nov 26, 2024 | |
Terray Therapeutics
|
Terray Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that integrates experimentation and computation to enhance small molecule drug discovery. The platform generates extensive, precise data through a rapid design-make-test-analyze cycle, allowing for efficient exploration of chemical space. By focusing on both wet lab science and AI, the companyaddresses complex therapeutic challenges across various targets. | $120M / Series B / Oct 17, 2024 | |
Slingshot AI
|
Slingshot is an AI research company driven by our mission to exponentially increase global access to mental healthcare.We’re developing technology to help humans feel and perform better, be more connected, and adapt to the future in a time where the demand for mental health support far exceeds providers by 10,000:1, and the large-scale changesahead are unprecedented.By leveraging AI to delve deep into human psychology, we expect to learn something about human nature that no humans have before, in order to help people change their minds.Based in NYC and London, our cross-disciplinary team of researchers, engineers, and broader mental health experts is dedicated to building tools that empower individuals to take on any challenge that arises. | $30M / Seed / Aug 20, 2024 | |
Levels
|
Levels develops a health and wellness platform designed to monitor metabolic fitness. The platform tracks blood glucose in real-time, enabling users to optimize their diet and exercise. The company was founded in 2019 and is a remote-first company. | $10M / Series A / Aug 14, 2024 | |
Q Bio
|
Q Bio was founded in 2015 by Jeffrey Kaditz, serial entrepreneur and Founder of Affirm, Dr Michael Snyder, Chair of Genetics and Director of Personalized Medicine and Stanford University, and Dr Garry Choy, physician, radiologist, and former Chief Medical Information Officer at Mass General Hospital. Q Bio is fortunate to be backed by some of thebest venture groups in the world including: A16Z, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, SciFi VC, and Kevin Durant. This interdisciplinary team based in San Carlos, CA is comprised of pioneers in fields such applied math, computational physics, electrical engineering, genetics, and radiology, hail from a dizzying array of home countries and cultural backgrounds. | $27M / Venture - Series Unknown / Jul 18, 2024 | |
TMRW Life Sciences
|
TMRW is a life sciences technology company setting new standards for transparency, safety, and accountability in IVF and cell management. TMRW's platform, the world's first automated cryo-management for eggs and embryos, provides a complete digital chain of custody fully integrated with a robotic storage and monitoring solution. This isin contrast to the manual and analog methods that have gone unchanged throughout the history of IVF. With TMRW's platform, clinics significantly reduce the chances of potentially devastating errors. The TMRW team includes celebrated innovators in fertility, embryology, cryo-management, automation, software development, and robotics. TMRW is founded by Joshua Abram, Alan Murray, and Dr. Jeffrey Port in 2018 and is based in New York, New York. | $28.2M / Series D / Jul 12, 2024 | |
| See all 61 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Stigma Podcast
Stigma is the number 1 reason why people do not get help when they struggle with mental health issues, or addiction. A lot of people who need help, never get help.When we share our stories and experiences, a virtuous cycle begins. Others are encouraged to share their stories, and eventually, people hear these messages and feel comfortableasking for help.On this podcast, we will talk with entrepreneurs, leaders, founders, investors, doctors, and top performers about how mental health has impacted their lives. We will learn from their experiences and listen when they tell us how they proactively manage their mental well-being.We believe that by encouraging increased conversation, we are fighting against stigma and encouraging others to not only share, but seek help when they need it.
Stigma Podcast Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Stephen Hays
Founder and Host
|
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4 more contacts available
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FAQ
What does Stephen Hays invest in?
Stephen Hays invests primarily in Health Care, Medical and Software startups, most often at Seed and Series B stage. Most of the 61 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Stephen Hays last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Stephen Hays closed in Jul 2025. Shizune tracks 61 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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