Journey of a entrepreneur, one step at a time
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.
I cannot speak for all incubators or accelerators, but I can talk to the two that I have been apart of thus far in my startup journey. From my experience of working out of a co-working/incubator space, the single point of failure is consumerism. Yes, you read that correctly, but maybe not in the way you think.
My first employee fell into my lap. In August 2018, I had this crazy idea that there was all this “free” and “non-dilutive” money out there through foundation and government grants that we could take advantage of if we only knew how. I had too much on my plate and wasn’t going to have time to take this on, so I went looking for someone to help.
From my searching, I stumbled upon this article written by Rahul Vohra, the founder and CEO of Superhuman. He boldly states that “product/market fit drives startup success – and the lack thereof is what’s lucking behind almost every failure.” This point is well taken and very real to me. The quest to find and achieve true product/market fit is the single most worrisome milestone for founders. Until you hit this point, there is no clear way to drive growth, revenue, success of your company.
The investor call ended, and on cue, my partner called me to discuss.
“Sales 101, get a face to face meeting with them.” He forcefully said. “They have expertise in the industry, understand the problem, and have experience in startups. They check all the boxes.”
45 degrees, I’ll take it for Chicago spring weather.I thought as I left my apartment for work. It was the middle of the morning and I was heading to my office in downtown Chicago.
“You know, I’m 65 years old and I have a broken knee and replaced hip; I just can’t run anymore,” said the elderly woman, sporting a suit with salt and pepper hair. “I am thankful the bus driver waited for me to get on as I need to get to work pronto.”
MoreIn 1950, my Grandpa moved from his childhood hometown of Pittsburgh, PA to Wilmington, NC in search of a career. He was a trained optometrist who was seeking to open a new practice, yet he realized that his hometown already had its fill of optometrists and he needed to find a new home for his practice. He had a few characteristics of the ideal
I decided it was time to compile all my notes of learnings into a simple list. This list will be ongoing for my time in the startup world and will link to specific blog posts that connect the experience to the rule.
NOTE: There is no order of importance here.
MoreWhen I was starting my company 4 years ago, there were few resources available. Through meeting people, going to conferences, and talking to other startups in the aging space I discovered new conferences, new groups, and new competitions focused on senior care startups.
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