Deepa Talwar

Finally a full-time manlet ... 👨‍🦲 beyond thrilled to join @heliuslabs on the BD team working with @deepatalwar1 @ShivanshuMadan and @mert Have been in Solana since 2021 and every year I get more convinced Helius will continue to widen the gap in powering the best teams. A few things that I've noticed over the years: - Every dev I talk to is blown away by the speed + support -- zero bad experiences - The pace this team ships at is actually absurd - After my first day and seeing what’s coming next, I’m like 20x more bullish (I was already turbo bullish) Absolutely fired up to shove internet capital markets onchain at lightspeed LFG

.@heliuslabs picked as 1 of the Future 50 startups in tech 🥳

feel so privileged to have a front row seat to everything being built on solana it’s a honor serving builders every day

beware of anyone who uses volume of doing something as a proxy for quality of doing something

this is the shit they are doing instead of buying their own token back or revenue sharing literally ZERO.

I'm taking my talents to Solana Thrilled to share I have joined @heliuslabs as Strategic Account Manager For the past 2 years I've noticed one pattern repeated countless number of times: → dev complains solana devex is painful → mert slides into the replies → dev reposts saying that the support from Helius was mind blowing This maniacal focus on building the best customer experience has been fantastic to observe and it shows in the numbers But, the job's not finished and I'm jumping onboard with @deepatalwar1 @mert and co to push this ship forward faster Accelerate.

Over the last eight years I've had self-employed health insurance in four states (NY, MA, CT, TX), been uninsured for multiple years, interacted with healthcare systems in Mexico, Taiwan, Spain, and Portugal, and have had multiple acute health issues I’ve had to figure out on my own after normal doctors would be too confused or not have answer. Since 2012, I’ve had ongoing chronic issues that haven’t gone away and I’ve since become obsessed with the healthcare system. I've learned quite a bit. I share this because many people's worst fears about being self-employed are not having health insurance. I think this is sort of an illusion - the feeling of safety without being safety. And our obsession with “insurance” keeps us from asking deeper questions about what's possible and what we want to solve Some things I've learned over the years about the system, hacks, and various other learnings Thoughts on the system 1. Unfortunately, most of my feelings of safety and comfort have come from getting through challenging health situations, such as overcoming tick borne infections in my late 20s, having a parasite in Mexico, and getting bitten by a dog in Taiwan, than I ever have from simply having health insurance. 2. These incidents have forced me to take ownership of my health on my own terms. Doctors because they're often confused about what's happening with me and so its forced a self-reliance and more deeply, an admission that there is just some risk that I will never be able to eliminate. This is true for everyone and it’s why we should have some way of protecting people from the worst downside risks. 3. Theoretically, this is what health insurance is supposed to do - limit catastrophic risk. But in practice, our health insurance system is a weird payments layer mess for entire healthcare. It is how the industry “works” and no one really knows how to transition out of it so everyone just continues maximizing their local gains. 5. Every president since Obama has promised price transparency, yet all have failed to deliver. The healthcare industry is optimized are price confusion, preventing consumers from price shopping and comparing costs as they would between retailers like Walmart and Macy's. The biggest hospital systems will do whatever possible to make sure you can’t do this. 6. Since Obamacare was passed, insurance plan subsidies have increased. They expanded even more under Biden. This is a feel-good policy - sounds great in speeches but has probably made the system worse off. This has meant that people with low incomes are getting "free" health care, but I think this has come at an enormous cost to the country. It has led to massively increasing prices without an increase in quality or value. 7. Many doctors are not entrepreneurs, even if they should be incentivized to behave like them. Unfortunately, many have been absorbed into giant healthcare systems and don't have much autonomy regarding prices and finances. They've been stripped of this power. You can ask doctors what certain procedures cost, but they often won't know. 8. People talk about how bad Obamacare is, and there are definitely issues, but many of these problems were already embedded in the system. Offering direct health insurance to individuals through exchanges was game-changing for people who work independently. Ask anyone who was self-employed before 2008 how they obtained health insurance - there are so many horror stories from when the system was even worse. Direct healthcare exchanges have been amazing for entrepreneurship, and we should consider more creative ways to encourage business development. SPECIFIC HACKS! 1. The limit for prescriptions with insurance is 90 days. This restriction is waived if you're not using insurance. This means you can request all your refills at once from CVS. 2. Most pharmacies have a policy against informing customers that prescription medications may be cheaper at the uninsured price. A CVS representative disclosed this information to me years ago. For many common prescriptions, the uninsured price is cheaper. This will surprise many people. You can always ask the pharmacy to run a discount card, or you can bring your own. Just search online for medication prices using services like GoodRx. 3. Many doctors' offices, hospitals, and medical centers offer a cash price. You can always inquire about this option. However, some offices may not know their exact costs. While you may need to contact multiple providers to determine the actual price, cash payments often amount to only 10% of what they would typically bill an insurance company. 4. Travel medicine is now a real and viable option for many people. They can look up cash prices for medical treatments abroad, which are often performed by highly qualified, English-speaking doctors and practitioners. The perceived quality gap between U.S. healthcare and medical care in other countries is far smaller than most people think. 5. Living abroad and interacting with multiple healthcare systems has given me confidence that if I really needed it, I would travel abroad for major medical issues. The US still maintains a competitive edge for cutting-edge treatments, but for 99.9% of medical procedures, many parts of the world can provide the same level of care. 6. There is no penalty against not having insurance anymore. This was removed in the US under Trump’s first term 7. Insurance programs vary radically from state to state. In 2017, I went from paying $550 a month in New York for a bare-bones, high-deductible plan to $250 a month in Massachusetts for a high-quality HMO plan. Massachusetts is one of the best states for health insurance because it implemented health care reform before other states and has a high concentration of high-quality hospitals. 8. Many people don't know how generous healthcare subsidies are right now. I don’t love what they do to the system, but they exist. If you have a low income, you might be able to get free healthcare insurance. If you're quitting your job and your salary will be around $50,000 for the next year, you likely won't pay much for healthcare premiums. This often surprises people. 9. COBRA is usually a scam. It offers an extremely inflated price for an employer-based insurance plan as an individual. The prices are so high because insurers can extract more money from employers, who are essentially required to offer these plans to employees. The value available on healthcare exchanges is almost always better than what you'll get on a COBRA plan. While there are some exceptions if you need specific access or benefits, nine times out of ten, you probably shouldn't pay for COBRA. It’s a legacy from when self-employed people couldn’t purchase plans. 10. There are alternatives to health insurance, such as “health sharing” groups and things like CrowdHealth. These options have been around for a while especially in religious communities - they essentially pool risk within a community of people. This approach can be an effective way to protect against catastrophic risk. I use this method because it allows me to shop for the healthcare I need on a cash basis while maintaining protection against major health risks. 11. Many doctors are becoming more entrepreneurial and opting out of the traditional healthcare system because it has become such a nightmare. They are starting alternative practices, such as direct primary care. This is what I use for my daughter. We pay a direct fee to a doctor's office, and they offer very high-quality services. While they still accept insurance, they also offer cash payment options with transparent pricing for many services. Pairing this with health sharing is often a pro move for self-employed entrepreneurs. 12. You can get health insurance for your children (which is often much cheaper than adults) without getting health insurance for yourself through the exchange. This is what we do now. 13. During the annual health insurance marketplace enrollment, you can modify your plans. Since we knew we were having a baby in 2023, we selected a low-deductible plan to reach the limit quickly. This strategy worked out well, even though we're still receiving occasional bills two years later. 14. If there were a real crisis, one option is to move between states in the U.S. Moving to a new address is a qualifying event that would immediately make you eligible for health insurance in the new state. If you faced a major crisis and needed insurance to avoid significant financial issues, this is something you could consider. There are also many other ways to qualify for insurance, such as leaving the country and returning. You could potentially qualify by booking a short trip, returning, and then applying. 15. You can get many prescriptions abroad by just going to a pharmacy and asking. As someone who’s lived in multiple countries, I like having things like prednisone and antibiotics on hand. I grabbed some last time I was in Mexico. 16. One thing I take regularly now is B12 injections due to some unexplained issues. In the US getting this is expensive. One hack I havent used is getting a prescription for a dog. You can get a 50mL vial of B12 from petco for $30 (this could cost $100-200 through insurance or direct through CVS). I usually just buy B12 abroad where it is not something you need a prescription for. 17. Many people buy prescriptions from Canada and other countries. I don’t advise this but it’s obviously something people do. 18. Dental insurance while self-employed is really bad. You can’t buy a good plan like you can with health insurance. You usually have extreme limits or a 1-2 year waiting period to submit major claims. This is why I almost always do dental work abroad. Dental care in the US is also extremely expensive and you can find great dentists almost everywhere globally these days. I’ve gotten cleanings and fillings in Portugal and Taiwan both for less than $75. US Dentists are becoming more corporatized and the upsells and misleading information about “required” work is out of hand.. Another option in the US is direct dental subscriptions which are becoming more popular which cover services and skip out on insurance.

for the new batch of solana startups: if I had to summarize one regret that nearly every founder has after bull market — it is that they overhired. stay lean and be fierce about a high performance culture. overhiring throws you off by years, not months.

Advice for Founders/BDs, if you want to negotiate a partnership: 1/ Don't come asking for 'a collaboration' and expect the other party to design it for you. 2/ Cut to the chase: ask for what you want. 3/ Back it up: provide data on why this deal is mutually beneficial.

i'm joining @heliuslabs to lead growth my purpose is to accelerate crypto and solana app devs if you're a marketer, dev rel, writer, etc — dm me it's time to go faster now back to work