Journey of a entrepreneur, one step at a time
Sitting here on the airplane flying back from Las Vegas, all I can think; am I dreaming? I just had a crazy week in Vegas. Not the kind of crazy you see in movies, with all the gambling, drinking, and shows, but with insane meetings with multi-billion dollar corporations, press from the show organizers, and interest from around the world.
A long time ago, I learned that it is important to take advantage of everything that comes your way because you just don’t know where it could lead. Last month, I received an email from Next Gen email list about upcoming opportunities for speaking, funding, and startup marketing. On the email was an opportunity to apply to talk on a panel about entrepreneurship at Johnson and Wales University’s Under 25 and Ready to Thrive Conference. The conference intrigued me, essentially the premise was that many alumni 40+ come back to the university to speak, yet students don’t often hear from the younger alumni or people to learn from. The organizer of this conference wanted to change that and give students an opportunity to see and hear from young successful entrepreneurs who were around their own age.
The other day I was having a conversation with my sister’s friend who is about to graduate from college. She was explaining to me how for the entirety of college she had studied marketing and international business without knowing what she wanted to do with her life. At the beginning of her senior year, she had decided, with the support from her family, that law school was the “right thing” for her. She proceeded to spend hours on hours studying for the LSAT and took the exam in September. Yet upon reviewing her score, she was not happy and felt uneasy. It wasn’t what she wanted, it wasn’t the score she had trained for, and now she was stuck trying to figure out what her true passions are and where she fits into this world. More
Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to raise money for my startup. As with most startups, raising money is one of the most difficult parts of starting a startup. If you aren’t a B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup with recurring revenue in the millions then you have to work much harder to raise capital and convince potential investors that you have a novel, profitable, and sustainable venture.
Beyond the challenges of building a hardware company, building a hardware company in a city that is traditionally known for SaaS startups is challenging. Additionally, having a healthcare focus is challenging as well. So far, I have faced a number of specific roadblocks as they relate to this journey of fundraising. Each roadblock presents a unique set of challenges that I have to face, yet I believe that each challenge provides the perfect grounds to learn from it.
There is no true manual for starting a company, let alone a hardware company. With the Apples and Samsungs of the world, most would say that hardware is hard. That you have to have deep expertise to even start or know where to start.
As for me, I am an idealistic visionary. I believe that with hard work anything is possible, even though deemed as hard. Initially, when I started this venture I thought what resources do I have that I could leverage to build a hardware product. More
Business:
Over the past year, I have pitched at 5 different events to audiences totaling over 2000 people. I have spoken to many clinicians from top hospital systems and investors from leading venture organizations. I am not looking to brag nor ask for sympathy, simply I am looking to ask why haven’t I received more financial backing. Why are organizations not more willing to fight for what they believe in and put money where their mouth is. I simply have to wonder.
From the numerous events, conversations and news articles that my company has been featured in, I know that I have struck a true pain point that exists in so many people’s lives. This problem of dementia and caring for loved ones touches so many, yet we are still in the same place as we began this discussion with. I have been toying with this question for the past week, what is the missing link or links that I am not getting. Or is this just the way it works you pitch thousands of people and get no capital interest regardless of how real the problem is to those thousands.
As a designer, developer, and an entrepreneur, I am a detail-oriented, perfectionist. I obsess over the details of every design, line of code, or product. It is almost like I have an itch that I have to itch and if I don’t then it just bothers me beyond belief. This “perfect” vision that I have in my head drives me to keep pushing until I can accomplish it. By staying up all night or not shipping a product till every feature is working, I work till the last minute. With all this said, I still manage to stay level headed and focused on putting the pieces together, but it can be challenging.
Over the past few days, I have been faced with this challenge. Next week, I have a big investor pitch presentation and I have been reviewing each slide and its content for “perfection.” Additionally, not only have I been reviewing the deck I have had an investor also review it with me. He sees things differently than I do (as expected) and therefore picks and prods at certain elements. This has been challenging because I have already picked it apart myself to the last degree, then to have him do it again is quite frustrating. As with many presentations, its good to have a second eye and in this case is self inflicted as I asked him to help, but it is making me go crazy.