Othman Laraki

Co-Founder & CEO, Color Health at color

Reviewed Updated Jul 31, 2026

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Location San Francisco, CA
Check Size ~$130K (syndicate)
Last Verified Investment Uncovr (Seed ($7M)) — ~2026
Social @othman LinkedIn
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed series-a
Sector Focus
healthcare digital-health consumer-internet developer-tools infrastructure ai

Background

Othman Laraki is co-founder and CEO of Color Health, the healthcare company he started in 2015 alongside Elad Gil, Nish Bhat, and Taylor Sittler 12. A Casablanca native based in San Francisco, he holds degrees in computer science and management from Stanford University and MIT 34.

Laraki began his career at Google, where he managed products including Google Toolbar, Google Gears, early Firefox extensions, and FastNet — a real-time fetching and caching infrastructure 45. He left Google to co-found MixerLabs, a geolocation infrastructure company (creator of GeoAPI) that Twitter acquired in December 2009 456. At Twitter, he served as Vice President of Product for Growth, Revenue and International, and by his own account helped grow the user base from roughly 15 million to nearly a quarter billion users 45.

After leaving Twitter around 2013, Laraki and Elad Gil began exploring how to apply data science and software methods to human genomics — the seed of what became Color Genomics, which launched publicly in 2015 with $9M in funding led by Khosla Ventures and Formation 8 12. Gil initially served as CEO; Laraki became CEO in December 2016 when Gil moved to the chairman role 7. Color pivoted from consumer genetic testing to population health and COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, then refocused again in 2023 as a Virtual Cancer Clinic providing end-to-end cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and survivorship care 28.

Alongside his operating role, Laraki has been an active angel investor and advisor for more than a decade. He was an advisor to Pinterest from 2013 to 2017 and describes himself as a long-time investor in and advisor to companies including AngelList, Slack, Instacart, Airtable, and Pinterest 39. He also runs a syndicate on AngelList 10.

Stated Thesis

On his AngelList syndicate page, Laraki describes his focus in three areas: “consumer products that he enjoys using or have impressive metrics,” “infrastructure companies with strong technological backing,” and “health-related companies” 10. He runs the syndicate as a way to share his personal deals — “This syndicate will be following my personal investments” — and notes he expects roughly five deals per year and typical check sizes around $131.5K 10.

Laraki has publicly framed his healthcare investing around access rather than productivity. On X in 2024 he wrote about Color’s bet that “the GenAI revolution is the biggest opportunity to improve access and immediacy to critical health information & services” 11.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 12 verified angel investments, plus documented advisory relationships. Sources indicate Laraki has made 41+ investments on Signal/NFX and up to 66 on other aggregators 912; this analysis covers roughly a quarter of his estimated total, so patterns should be read as directional rather than definitive.

Stage distribution (verified rounds with confirmed stage): Predominantly pre-seed and seed, with occasional Series A follow-on. Laraki himself states he invests “in the pre-seed, seed, and series A funding rounds” 3.

Sector distribution (12 verified investments): - Consumer / SaaS / productivity: 4 of 12 (Airtable, Pinterest advisory, Slack, Detail) - Healthcare / life sciences: 3 of 12 (Evernow, Bluenote, Earli — the last per aggregators only) - Infrastructure / developer tools: 3 of 12 (MODE, Laminar, AngelList/Instacart advisory-era investments per syndicate page) - AI / consumer AI: 2 of 12 (Yupp, Uncovr)

The three focus areas Laraki names publicly — consumer, infrastructure, healthcare — are visible in his verified portfolio, and healthcare weight has grown post-Color. Sample size is too small to attach precise percentages.

Check size: NFX/AngelList data indicates ~$131.5K typical check via the syndicate 10. Laraki has told founders he expects to be able to sustain a total loss on any given deal without complaint 10.

Geographic concentration: Overwhelmingly Bay Area / San Francisco, consistent with his operating base 9.

Co-investor patterns: Recurring co-investors named by NFX include Diana Hu (Y Combinator), Florian Leibert (468 Capital), and Anand Rajaraman (rocketship.vc); on healthcare deals he frequently appears alongside Color co-founder Elad Gil, NEA, and Lux Capital 91314.

Notable pattern: Several recent healthcare investments (Bluenote, Evernow) are led by or include Color alumni or ex-colleagues from Twitter/Google. This suggests a network-driven deal flow rather than a broad thesis-driven scan.

Portfolio

This table includes 12 verified investments and advisory roles. Sources indicate Laraki may have made 41–66 total investments 912; this represents roughly 18–29% of the estimated total.

Company Year Stage Source
Uncovr 2026 Seed ($7M) 9
Laminar 2025 Seed ($7M) 9
Yupp 2025 Seed ($33M) 9
Bluenote 2024-12-20 Seed ($10M, Lux Capital led) 13
YardStream 2023 Pre-Seed ($500K) 9
YO Protocol 2022 Seed ($14M) 9
Evernow 2022-04-08 Series A ($28.5M, NEA led) 14
Detail 2021-03 Pre-Seed ($2M, Connect Ventures led) 15
MODE 2015-05-12 Seed ($775K) 16
Airtable ~2013 Seed (via syndicate portfolio disclosure) 1017
Pinterest 2013–2017 Advisor (not equity round; per NFX aggregator) 9
~unknown Slack Advisor / early investor (per syndicate portfolio) Advisor
~unknown Instacart Advisor / early investor (per syndicate portfolio) Advisor
~unknown AngelList Advisor / early investor (per syndicate portfolio) Advisor

Airtable is listed on Laraki’s AngelList syndicate portfolio panel; specific round is not disclosed. Pinterest, Slack, Instacart, and AngelList are listed by Laraki’s own syndicate page as portfolio/advisor relationships; per-round investment details are not independently confirmed.

In Their Own Words

On learning a new market as an outsider:

“When you enter a new space, it’s important to be willing to question the status quo, but also have a lot of humility.” 18

“You’re going to be naive at the beginning, and that naivete is excused if you show up with humility.” 18

On decision-making:

“Many ‘good’ plans fail. You need to be willing and able to assess and adjust.” 18

“I realized over time that when I saw people behaving in ways that I thought made no sense, it was actually because I just didn’t understand their incentive structure.” 18

On product-market fit and go-to-market:

“Who influences, who decides, who sets the price, who sets the terms, how the transaction actually occurs and how you get paid — this is what you have to untangle.” 18

“Make sure you’re not trying to sell a steering wheel to someone who wants to buy a car.” 18

On founding rigor:

“The rigor you establish at the beginning will last for the entire life of the company, for better or worse.” 18

On MixerLabs’ acquisition by Twitter:

“joining Twitter gave us the kind of resources to really scale this up.” 6

“Twitter’s view on geolocation was extremely aligned with how we saw the industry evolving.” 6

On Twitter’s geo product strategy:

“at the end of the day the business model is not going to be around owning the geo data.” 6

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found.

Sources

  1. Color Health, Wikipedia entry, accessed July 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Health↩↩

  2. Recode, “Genetic testing startup Color Genomics is switching CEOs,” December 22, 2016, accessed July 2026. https://www.recode.net/2016/12/22/14056474/color-genomics-ceo-elad-gil-othman-laraki↩↩↩

  3. AskForFunding, “Othman Laraki, Angel Investor — San Francisco, California,” accessed July 2026. https://askforfunding.com/investor/othman-laraki-angel-investor↩↩↩

  4. Mucker Capital, “Othman Laraki — Mentor,” accessed July 2026. https://mucker.com/mentor/othman-laraki/↩↩↩↩

  5. Berkeley I-School, “Analyzing Big Data with Twitter — Instructor Bios,” accessed July 2026. https://blogs.ischool.berkeley.edu/i290-abdt-s12/syllabus-2/24-2/↩↩↩

  6. TheNextWeb, “Exclusive: Twitter’s Director of Geolocation, Othman Laraki, Discusses Geo’s Business Model,” accessed July 2026. https://thenextweb.com/news/othman-laraki-twitter-director-of-geo-interview↩↩↩↩

  7. Color Health leadership page, accessed July 2026. https://www.color.com/leadership/↩

  8. Alejandro Cremades, “Othman Laraki On Raising $350 Million To Build The First Virtual Cancer Clinic,” accessed July 2026. https://alejandrocremades.com/othman-laraki/↩

  9. NFX Signal, “Othman Laraki’s Investing Profile,” accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/othman-laraki↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  10. AngelList Ventures, “Invest with Othman Laraki’s Syndicate,” accessed July 2026. https://venture.angellist.com/othman/syndicate↩↩↩↩↩↩

  11. Othman Laraki on X, June 17, 2024, accessed July 2026 (via web-search summary; direct fetch blocked by paywall). https://x.com/othman/status/1802670147414700279↩

  12. Tracxn, “Othman Laraki — 2026 Portfolio & Founded Companies,” accessed July 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/othman-laraki/__Ss1jI0ERpWyxxdd2ZJFlRTZT2-Hjz69gF00isuI8FDI↩↩

  13. PR Newswire, “Bluenote Raises $10M from Lux Capital & Elad Gil to Transform Life Sciences Workflows with AI,” December 20, 2024, accessed July 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluenote-raises-10m-from-lux-capital–elad-gil-to-transform-life-sciences-workflows-with-ai-302337118.html↩↩

  14. Foley & Lardner LLP, “Foley Represents NEA as Lead Investor in Evernow’s $28.5M Series A Financing,” April 8, 2022, accessed July 2026. https://www.foley.com/news/2022/04/foley-nea-lead-investor-evernow-series-a-financing/↩↩

  15. TechCrunch, “Detail wants to turn your phone into a software-optimized camera app for live video,” March 9, 2021, accessed July 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/09/detail-wants-to-turn-your-phone-into-a-software-optimized-camera-app-for-live-video/↩

  16. VC News Daily, “MODE raises $775K in Seed Round,” May 12, 2015, accessed July 2026. https://vcnewsdaily.com/mode/venture-capital-funding/mqjssywwxg↩

  17. Signal by NFX / Tracxn aggregator listings confirming Airtable seed participation. Note: exact seed round participation could not be verified via primary source (Airtable’s original blog post has been retired/redirected). ↩

  18. First Round Review, “To Learn a New Market, Start by Building Your Product — Tactics From a Twitter PM Turned Healthcare Founder,” accessed July 2026. https://review.firstround.com/to-learn-a-new-market-start-by-building-your-product/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩