# Paul Johnson

> Paul Johnson is a British-American entrepreneur, author, CEO coach, and General Partner at Flex Capital — a $200M+ venture fund backing 200+ category-defining companies including Perplexity, Vercel, Rippling, and Supabase. He founded Lemonaid Health in San Francisco in 2013, pioneering nationwide digital telehealth and prescription delivery, raised $60M+, scaled to nearly 200 employees, and sold the company to 23andMe for $400 million in 2021. Since then, he has written two Nobel laureate biographies, coaches high-growth CEOs, and invests in early-stage AI and fintech startups — while competing in professional-level pickleball tournaments.

- **Role:** General Partner at Flex Capital
- **Organizations:** Flex Capital, Lemonaid Health (founded, exited), 23andMe (post-acquisition), Artis Ventures (Operating Partner), Eko Health (board), Closed Loop Medicine (board), Embr Labs (board), Aware Health (board), Persimmon Health (board)
- **From:** Luton, England, United Kingdom
- **Nationality:** British-American
- **Education:** BSc Hons Computer Science and Business Management, University of Worcester, A-levels in Maths, Physics, Computer Science, and Geography, Pershore High School
- **Known for:** Founded and scaled Lemonaid Health from zero to $400M exit in 8 years, Pioneered the first U.S. nationwide telehealth app, Launched the first national digital mental health treatment service in the U.S.

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Born in Luton, England; family relocated to the Netherlands at age 8; attended British School there until age 16
- **1990s** — Returned to England, settled in Worcestershire countryside; taught himself PHP coding in high school
- **Late 1990s** — Founded first company from family garage at age 17 — stringing tennis rackets, then selling sports and computer equipment online
- **2000s** — Studied Computer Science and Business Management at University of Worcester
- **2000s** — Joined zooplus as Managing Director UK — ran the UK's largest online pet retailer
- **2000s** — Became Head of Online / CEO E-commerce at Dr. Max Pharmacy Chain / Lloyd's Pharmacy, one of the UK's largest drugstore chains
- **2013** — Founded Lemonaid Health in San Francisco, co-founding the first U.S. nationwide telehealth and prescription delivery app
- **2014** — Relocated from UK to San Francisco to build Lemonaid Health
- **2013-2021** — Led Lemonaid through 8 years of growth, raising $60M+ from Sierra Ventures, Health Velocity Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Hikma Ventures; scaled to ~200 employees
- **2021** — Lemonaid Health pioneered first national digital mental health service and fully digital hypertension treatment platform
- **2021** — Sold Lemonaid Health to 23andMe for $400 million (10x+ the Series A price) in November 2021
- **2021-2023** — Became Chief Operating Officer, Consumer (General Manager) at 23andMe, continuing to run Lemonaid Health services
- **2022-2024** — Served as Operating Partner at Artis Ventures; began CEO coaching practice; joined boards of Eko Health, Closed Loop Medicine, Embr Labs, and others
- **2024** — Published 'Move 37: The Life of Demis Hassabis' — biography of the DeepMind founder and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
- **2025** — Published 'Not Insects: The Life of Geoffrey Hinton' — biography of the Godfather of AI and Nobel Prize winner in Physics
- **2025** — Joined Flex Capital as General Partner (announced February 2025), a $200M+ venture fund backing 200+ companies

## Achievements

- Founded and scaled Lemonaid Health from zero to $400M exit in 8 years
- Pioneered the first U.S. nationwide telehealth app
- Launched the first national digital mental health treatment service in the U.S.
- Built the first fully digital hypertension treatment platform in the U.S.
- Sold Lemonaid Health to 23andMe for $400M, representing 10x+ the Series A valuation
- General Partner at Flex Capital, backing 200+ companies including Perplexity, Vercel, Rippling, Supabase, Chime, and Replit
- Authored two Nobel laureate biographies: 'Move 37' (Demis Hassabis) and 'Not Insects' (Geoffrey Hinton)
- Won gold medal in professional-level pickleball tournament at the 4.5 singles level
- Serves on boards of Eko Health, Closed Loop Medicine, Embr Labs, Aware Health, and Persimmon Health
- CEO coaching clients achieve 40% higher exit valuations and are 3.5x more likely to reach IPO

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Officially joined Flex Capital as General Partner, announced publicly via Flex Capital's website and social channels.
- **2025-01** — Published 'Not Insects: The Life of Geoffrey Hinton' — first definitive biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Godfather of AI.
- **2024-12** — Published 'Move 37: The Life of Demis Hassabis' — biography of the DeepMind co-founder and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry.
- **2025-05** — Flex Capital invested in Browser Use, Confident AI, and CopyCat AI in Q1 2025.
- **2024-05** — Appointed as Non-Executive Director at Closed Loop Medicine.

## Links

- Website: https://www.pauljohnson.ai/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldavidjohnson
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/pauldjohnson
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickleball.paul/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/paul-johnson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-17