Journey of a entrepreneur, one step at a time
When connecting with people, write a short fast fact snapshot of yourself. Your goal is to get someone’s attention genuinely and honestly while having a clear call to action. See here:
Listening to State of Edtech -
Me -- Serial social impact entrepreneur. Going through an exit with health tech startup now.
Edtech startup -- Accidental K12 startup started in 2019. Organic growth to 2500 users. FY21 $80k. Bootstrapped, seeking strategic capital Q2 23.
I would love to connect.I thought it was hard to find investors interested in healthcare and aging products, but I see not many focused edtech VCs or angels. It is a small tight group of folks.
This pushes me to think that having “edtech” or niche investors may not be the only path. Just having people who believe in your mission or believe in you can be enough to support you in your journey. You don’t need to have specific niche investors aligned with your business. I believe or think these folks provide strategic customers or expertise in the market beyond the capital, but I don’t think it has to be a limiting factor.
My list so far:
I started EW while I was doing CB. It was a side project to help my friend solve his problem, but it also allow me to jump from project to project when I got stuck or bored with one. I was able to reenergize myself and to learn faster and faster.
I am learning so much so fast. My brain is moving a mile a minute, trying to learn and process information. I want a place to put all this information that I can. It may not be the most organized or most dramatically correct log, but it will be a place for me to use to accomplish the following goals:
“Why didn’t you come to us? Why didn’t you tell us this two months ago? We could have helped.” Ron (one of my investors) said.
Last week, Sam (one of my advisors) and I discussed our strategic partner and the relationship’s challenges. Sam then shared a Sam-ism (a piece of wisdom Sam sometimes shares to explain something he has learned in his 40+ year career). He said, “In any new relationship, I readily expend trust. If you break my trust, I am more cautious and go to the thinking trust but verify. And, if you break it again, the relationship is over. Then I do not trust you any further until you acknowledge your failure and apologize. Rebuilding is then possible, but it is a long road.”
Ron and his organization have broken my trust more times than I could count in the past two years. They would promise to do or act on certain things, but then nothing would happen. When asked, it was like they forgot and just swept it under the rug, pretending like it never happened. And then, every quarter, they would ask for feedback through a survey. I was always honest in my responses, but it consistently came back to bite me. Ron and the organization’s members would either ignore the feedback or defend themselves instead of growing from it. This cycle caused me to lose trust in them repeatedly, with no acceptance on their part.
It made me feel bad like I was a terrible person. That this investor, this organization that supposedly believes in my company and me, disregards my feedback and defends themselves. I was frustrated, angry, and emotional from all of this. What was I to do? They were my investor, after all – they had a strong say in my company. How could I keep moving forward when I felt so conflicted?
…
I paused for a minute, considering how to answer Ron’s question. I could tell he wanted me to say that I was sorry and I should have come to him sooner, but the truth was, I wasn’t.
“I don’t trust you,” I said honestly. “I don’t trust your organization.”
Ron didn’t seem phased by my response. He kept talking like nothing had happened like he always does. But this time, I felt empowered by speaking the truth. No longer did I feel the anger and shame of this feeling. Instead, I felt the power of saying the truth face to face (well, zoom face to zoom face).
Ron explained how his organization had helped many other startups with this and that. He skipped right over what I said about trust and went straight into defensive mode. There was no acknowledgment, no ownership, no empathy, just attack. Pushing all the blame back to me; it was my fault.
Immediately as the call ended, I felt those strong emotions come on again. I was frustrated and angry from all of this. I took a deep breath and then another.
…
Without trust, all is loss. A relationship that is intended to support, grow, and develop falls apart under these conditions — especially one between an entrepreneur and investor. There is no room for growth and collaboration, only blame, defensive mechanisms, and a failed relationship.
This is not how trust is built. There is no self-awareness, vulnerability, or alignment in mutual respect – the foundations of a trusting relationship are entirely absent here.
As I continue to grow my company and attract new investors, I now realize that I need to seek relationships with those with a growth mindset. Investors who understood that they are not always right and who believe in mutual respect. This is another learning opportunity for me and a way for me to get better.
It’s been one of the hardest weeks of my startup journey thus far and concluded with a hard meeting. I had been anxiously waiting for this meeting for the past month. Every scenario of how it could play out occurred in my mind with all the anxiety-filled thoughts with each outcome I thought through. The actual meeting was just as hard and uncomfortable as I thought it would be. I spent so much time thinking about what to say in the meeting and how to get through the meeting that I didn’t prepare myself for how bad I would feel after the meeting.
Let me fill you in on the back story. As you have gathered, I am a technical founder and have learned to sell through my experience building this business. My process is based on all the blogs, books, and advice I have received. It also means my process is not standardized, efficient, or productive. I know that at some point, I would need extra help to accelerate the company’s growth. By the end of 2021, I knew that the time had come. So I sought a Sales and Business Development contractor to accelerate our deal volume and close additional partners. After months and months of interviewing, I finally found and hired a Sales/BD Contractor who I believed was the best fit.
This meeting I just had was the result of that contractor who had a bad breakup with the company. I will spare you (and the contractor) all the details about the relationship and how it unfolded, but I want to share my reflection on the situation and lessons learned.
Before I share, I want to reiterate that every decision I have ever made with the company is in the past. I repeatedly tell myself and believe that I made the best decision possible with the information I had at the time. This mantra clears my consciousness and gives me the space to reflect, learn, and grow, so ultimately I can become better because of it.
Lessons Learned
“Thank you. I am delighted and proud to have you involved. I feel like we’ve come full circle.” My old professor said in his closing remarks at our third meeting on Zoom. The first two meetings were to align the Committee on short and long-term goals and our processes. I was looking forward to the third meeting where we were going to get our hands dirty in the life-changing moments.
This afternoon I had a follow-up call with a prospective investor, Tom, to review our pitch deck. We were going through questions about our use of funds, exit strategy, market and sales plan, and milestones. As we were talking, I sensed that he was formulating an idea in his head. Then Tom asked me, “What is the scope of the problem you are trying to solve? What is the best opportunity to maximize investor capital? Is it to focus on the dementia and senior living market, or is the scope broader than that with applicability to drop the technology into 5 or 6 different verticals?”
What market is experiencing massive growth and has is the focus of only a handful of investors and VCs? I will make it even easier; 1 in 6 people in the US will be a part of this market by 2050. Easier than that, it is a $740 Billion market today: the answer… the senior care market.
Engage plastic manufacturers or full-service prototyping shops early in the process when going to production. Your mechanical engineer and industrial designer can only tell you so much about your product’s type of plastic and production method. Working directly with their business development or solution engineers at these manufacturers is the best option to minimize mistakes. They have a wealth of information in terms of material, lead time, cost, etc. They will tell you what to do and what not to do for your application. They are the experts on plastics.
Since March, I have been working with my team to adjust our existing dementia safety wearable to help organizations manage the risk of COVID-19. The goal was to convert the features focused around dementia monitoring to the general population focused on contact tracing, social distancing, and geofencing.