startup funding

Episode 88-The benefits of a customer and patient centric approach in women's health care innovation with Kerry Rupp of True Wealth Ventures

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Terri talks with Kerry Rupp of True Wealth Ventures about how True Wealth Ventures views women’s health, the opportunities and challenges in the space, and how innovators need to have a more customer-centric approach earlier in the innovation cycle.

Who is Kerry Rupp?

 

Kerry Rupp is General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in women-led businesses in consumer health and sustainability. She teaches for the NSF I-Corps program, mentors startups, and consults on innovation and strategy. Kerry was previously CEO at DreamIt, a Top Ten US startup accelerator and VC fund. She founded Holiday Golightly, a group travel service for women.  Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Duke.
 

Show Highlights

·      Kerry shares why women’s health is interesting to her from an innovation and a funding perspective, her path into venture capital, and what True Wealth Ventures is all about

·      Kerry talks about True Wealth Venture’s focus on the broad definition of women’s health and how little research and emphasis has been on women and women’s bodies and brains

·      Kerry and Terri share the view that awareness, research and innovation in women’s health are critical right now

·      Kerry shares what she is excited about in women’s health and both Terri and Kerry talk about the difficulty in choosing the ones to invest in

·      Terri and Kerry talk about the gap between the startup innovation and the healthcare providers and how to bridge the gap

·      Kerry shares how to connect with her and Sara at True Wealth Ventures if you have a startup within their investment thesis

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

We need to be doing more to bring together the healthcare providers and healthcare innovators earlier in the process. 

 

References in the Podcast

·      DreamIt Ventures:  https://www.dreamit.com

·      True Wealth Ventures: https://truewealthvc.com/

·      Sara Brand: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saratbrand/

·      Lisa Health:  https://www.lisahealth.com/

·      Genneve:  https://genneve.com/

·      Mighty Menopause: https://www.mighty-menopause.com/

·      Pandia: https://www.pandiahealth.com/

·      Lemonaid Health: https://www.lemonaidhealth.com/

·      Braincheck:  https://braincheck.com/

·      Katie McMillan:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-donohue-mcmillan-mph/

·      Springboard: https://sb.co/

 

Contact

Kerry can be reached through LinkedIn  www.linkedin.com/in/kerryrupp or her website www.kerryrupp.com.   

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead. 

Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Episode 73 - How To Survive The Turbulence As A Founder Of A Small Company In A Big Market

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Terri talks to Laura Fleet about how a personal experience gave her the idea and inspiration to start SendaRide and that she is both loving the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship and challenged every day.   

Who is Laura Fleet?  

 

Laura Fleet is a leading expert in health care and regulatory law, having represented health insurers, providers and hospital systems for more than twenty years. Her professional career as legal counsel, lobbyist and Executive Director for numerous non-profit Associations in the health care sector has given her a unique perspective into our health care delivery system. Having successfully identified an opportunity to bridge one of the many gaps, she launched and Co-Founded SendaRide. 
 
During her career she has continually been at the frontline of our ever-evolving healthcare delivery system, shaping and interpreting the laws that providers, insurers and hospitals operate within. She is identified as an industry expert and thrives on solving the many problems the healthcare industry faces – whether regulatory, legal, legislative or implementation.  

Show Highlights 

  • Laura talks about her company, SendaRide, and why she started the company.   

  • Laura continues to talk about being a smaller player in a bigger market, her go to market strategy and differentiating factors.  

  • Laura has become very comfortable with the word ‘pivot’ and being uncomfortable.   SendaRide started as a B2C LLC and is now a B2B Delaware Corp.  

  • Laura has become comfortable with being the face and brand of SendaRide.   

  • Laura’s favorite founder resource is her network of female founders who have gone before her, and investor resources who are willing to make introductions and be available to answer questions and bounce around ideas.   

  • Laura was accepted into Springboard and shared what she is looking to get out of the time with her advisory group.   

  • Laura has been surprised by how much she is enjoying being a founder of a startup and the variety of skillsets she has developed over her time as CEO.   

  •  If Laura had a magic wand, she would make chocolate and champagne have no calories and carbs.  She would also have people stop in their tracks and not make judgments and not look at stereotypes when they make decisions.   

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Don’t become a founder because it’s cool; you have to be 100% committed.   

References in the Podcast 

 

 Contact 

Laura can be reached through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-brookins-fleet-49aa9a54/ and via email at Laura.Fleet@SendaRide.com.   

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.  

Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. 

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife. 

Episode 72 - How to improve funding for women entrepreneurs as an angel investor

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Terri talks to Nancy Hayes about how she operates as an angel investor, her advisory style, and why she is focused on female led businesses.

Who is Nancy Hayes?


Nancy Hayes is an active angel investor focused on women-led companies. She has invested in 22 companies and serves as advisor to entrepreneurs and as a management consultant and coach to executives in for-profit and nonprofit corporations.

Nancy left the IBM Corporation, where she was a senior executive, to become CEO of the STARBRIGHT Foundation, an innovative nonprofit organization that used technology and media to help seriously ill children and subsequently was President and CEO of WISE Senior Services, a social services agency which served frail elderly and disabled adults.

Nancy was named Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University in 2005 and after six years in that role, was CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of the university for 2 years.

In 2013, Nancy cofounded MoolaHoop, a rewards-based crowdfunding site for women with small businesses.

She was Managing Director of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, a national angel group that invests in women-led companies, for over 3 years.

Nancy has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago and resides in San Francisco.

Show Highlights

  • Nancy shares her journey into angel investing after helping women with small businesses and seeing the funding challenges.

  • Nancy talks about various financing options available including revenue-based financing and the statistics around the number of companies started each day.

  • Angels join groups to minimize risk.

  • Terri and Nancy talk about the ways in which women can (and should) become active angel investors. Spoiler: just jump in and do it.

  • Nancy talks about her value in advising startups and her favorite investments.

  • Nancy would wave a magic wand to get advice and mentorship to more female founders earlier.


Terri’s Key Takeaway

As women, we think we need to take one more class or get one more degree but with angel investing, we just need to get started.


References in the Podcast


Contact

Nancy can be reached by email at nancy@nkhgroup.com, via Twitter at @nancyhayes and through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/nancyhayes2.

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead

Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Episode 71- An unusual and circuitous path to becoming an angel investor with Alicia Castillo Holley

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Terri talks to Alicia Castillo about her circuitous path into angel investing that started in a rural town in Venezuela that has landed her in Silicon Valley and how her global experience has made her realize how important it is for us to acknowledge that we, as people, are more similar than we are different.

Who is Alicia Castillo?


Alicia Castillo Holley is an international expert in creating wealth and is passionate about prosperity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She is an active angel investor and the creator of the 10-week online program called Women Get Funded.

Alicia’s career started as a young scientist and professor on Agronomy before becoming involved in product development for a Bayer-Shell joint venture and eventually turning into an entrepreneur and angel investor.

As an entrepreneur, she has started nine companies -successfully exiting from five of them- and two non-for-profit. She played a pivotal role in the development of the entrepreneurial curriculum and the Venture Capital industry in Chile, where she lived between 1996 and 2002. She has also consulted, mentored, or coached hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide, is a prolific author and speaker, and pushes academic institutions to reinvent business education.

Philanthropically, she supports organizations that foster education, social entrepreneurship and prevent and turn domestic violence into harmony. A global trotter, she has visited over 100 countries, and has lived in Venezuela, Chile, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and the US and currently resides in Menlo Park.

Show Highlights

  • Alicia shares her journey into angel investing. Her journey started in a socialist household in a rural town in Venezuela and took her to all parts of the world.

  • Terri and Alicia talk about bias and chemistry in decision making.

  • Alicia talks about how she operates as an angel investor, what areas she focuses on and the characteristics of the founders she looks to back.

  • Alicia talks about her 10-week, online program called Women Get Funded to educate women on how to get their companies funded.

  • If Alicia could wave a magic wand to change something in the world, she would change war. She would get people to realize that we are more similar than different.

  • Alicia’s favorite founder resources include two of her books How to Fund Your Million Dollar Idea, The Ten Unwealthy Habits and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.


Terri’s Key Takeaway

It’s important to build channels of trust regardless of gender.


References in the Podcast



Contact

Alicia can be reached on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciacastilloholley/ or through her website http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/.

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead

Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.