The first pivot: 'You dropped your PhD?!'
For the last 10 years, I have been passionate about optimizing wellness by integrating preventative primary health care and research. This journey began in an isolated mountain village in the Dominican Republic. A small girl’s grateful smile as I passed her a toothbrush still highlights my memory of that mission trip myself and eight other students undertook to provide hygienic supplies. After being exposed to these children lacking basic resources necessary to prevent chronic complications, I made it my mission to take a lifelong passion for preventative medicine and interrupt the development of similar conditions as a Nurse Practitioner (protocol implementing) and Scientist (protocol shaping).
I say lifelong, because growing up and witnessing the complications that my mother experienced as a single parent raising two children on welfare ignited the passion I have for improving quality and access to care. I distinctly recall the feeling of walking into free clinics as a nine-year-old, where you would hope the focus would be primary, preventative services and education. Quite differently, we were unhappily greeted by understandably burnt out providers who did not have enough time in a fifteen minute session to discuss lifestyle modifications, assessed baseline physical activity or diet- two crucial modifiable factors that actually prevent and/or reverse the 10 causes of 74% of death in the U.S. and the billions of healthcare dollars associated with them. The lack of empathy, or maybe curiosity, left me feeling disconcerted and wanting to change our current healthcare system.
Fast forward twenty years from that nine-year-old girl with a big dream. Somehow, I had successfully graduated from my master’s as a Nurse Practitioner with Magna Cum Laude honors while simultaneously juggling a full time, dual degree PhD in psychoneuroimmunology, undergoing two significantly traumatic events, helping support my family, working clinically on a Nationally funded research study, patenting an U.S. government agency backed infant feeding innovation from my research, and starting a company (The Natural Nipple) that had scaled to a team of seven- and was gaining significant traction after the intellectual property was evaluated & preferred by health insurance companies + Fortune 500 international industry giants- all in the last three years.
The inception of The Natural Nipple began with listening to a mesmerizing, passionate, intelligent, scientist talk about the immunobiology of human milk as the most preventative, dynamic biological substance that has enabled us to evolve on this planet. Not only is it the first, free life vaccine, to set the next generation on the path for lifelong health- breastmilk is the most effective way to optimize the signature gut microbiome during the critical first three years of life. While studying the gut microbiome (the 100 trillion bacteria that influence the way we eat, think, and function on a molecular level) as a PhD student at the University of South Florida, I learned that babies that weren't getting mother's milk were suffering fatal complications. This research identified how prolonging breastfeeding and skin to skin contact enables breastmilk to continually act in establishing immunity, enabling protective neurological development and genetic optimization through microbiome establishment, thus preventing the long-term detrimental effects of gut bacterial dysbiosis.
Consequently, the one thing we can control to prevent dysbiosis related deaths is increase the volume of breastmilk these babies get. I was curious what the barrier was, and applied to The National Science Foundation grant to identify what was preventing breast-feeding in the hospitals and for moms after discharge. After over 300 interviews of moms, neonatologists, nurses, hospital supply managers, and other key stake holders-the findings were shocking. As a result, to address the gap in industry causing the problem, I invented the 1st bottle modeled after real mom's nipple shapes and flow rates designed to promote prolonged breastfeeding.
One scary day, I remember walking into a lactation class with babies screaming, confused dads, and my handheld 3d scanner asking moms if I could scan their breasts. It was their desperate response: “Yes, please if it will help design a product that will eliminate these latching problems” that motivates me to overcome entrepreneurial barriers everyday. I never thought after being 10 years in and a semester away from 'Dr. Wright' I would consider putting graduating on hold to be a dedicated founder. Realizing how powerful the health-tech, bio-tech, fem-tech, and pharma companies are has shifted my paradigm from frustration with the state of care- to a solution oriented hypothesis: be a better industry player. I am inspired to drive marketing budgets to innovations that focus on empowering the population to optimize their wellness with preventative tools and services while providing the data to help fund companies founded by the individuals who have identified gaps in industry and generated a business model that addresses their target market’s specific pain points.
In July 2018, I was the first student to have been selected as the Principal Investigator for a prestigious National Science Foundation $53,000 grant to research product-market fit of my invention. In October 2018, The Natural Nipple pitched at the Florida Blue insurance pitch competition and won the Most Innovative Healthcare Solution. In December 2018, we took an investment valuing the company at $1.75 million pre-product, pre-revenue. In May 2019, we won the first Clinical Quickfire Challenge and investment by Johnson & Johnson for $50,000 and lifelong mentorship with J-Labs access. In June 2018, we were selected as one of eight companies in Tampa Bay to pitch for Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest Tour given our traction in a little over a year- receiving over $220k in grants and investments. In August 2018 we were selected to recieve a $100,000 investment from the Brandery- statistically more difficult to be selected for than Harvard. At this point, I felt incredibly close to burnout and decided I can’t ride three horses and win. I chose to drop the PhD program, after completing all coursework and preparing my defense with only two semesters left to graduate, and left my job as a Forensic Nurse Practitioner to move to Cincinatti- taking the risk to be a dedicated founder. In November 2018, I was the first recipient to ever decline the Brandery investment after a third attorney revealed what the term structure would do to our valuation.
Commence a cascade of rather ego-unraveling events that have left me with a desire to share the nature of startup uncertainty and how that feels as a founder, because in real life- you cannot control for a <.05 probability. This is a stark contrast to the worshipped 95% confidence interval used in research methodology to measure hypothesis to outcome prediction, while leaving learnings that were not originally considered by the wayside as 'failures', unpublished, and for the future to repeat.
This journey from clinician to researcher and now entrepreneur has been the ultimate unlearning. Any singular decision is the result of Confident Uncertainty, while I'm pretty sure the remainder of the ride spent in indecision and evaluation, is actually not-so-confident certainty that dresses up as 'safe'...but sometimes results in stuck. Sharing my vulnerable un-learnings with people definitely feels scary, but I have a gut feeling bits of this messy adventure will resonate along the way to potentiate hope.
I say lifelong, because growing up and witnessing the complications that my mother experienced as a single parent raising two children on welfare ignited the passion I have for improving quality and access to care. I distinctly recall the feeling of walking into free clinics as a nine-year-old, where you would hope the focus would be primary, preventative services and education. Quite differently, we were unhappily greeted by understandably burnt out providers who did not have enough time in a fifteen minute session to discuss lifestyle modifications, assessed baseline physical activity or diet- two crucial modifiable factors that actually prevent and/or reverse the 10 causes of 74% of death in the U.S. and the billions of healthcare dollars associated with them. The lack of empathy, or maybe curiosity, left me feeling disconcerted and wanting to change our current healthcare system.
Fast forward twenty years from that nine-year-old girl with a big dream. Somehow, I had successfully graduated from my master’s as a Nurse Practitioner with Magna Cum Laude honors while simultaneously juggling a full time, dual degree PhD in psychoneuroimmunology, undergoing two significantly traumatic events, helping support my family, working clinically on a Nationally funded research study, patenting an U.S. government agency backed infant feeding innovation from my research, and starting a company (The Natural Nipple) that had scaled to a team of seven- and was gaining significant traction after the intellectual property was evaluated & preferred by health insurance companies + Fortune 500 international industry giants- all in the last three years.
The inception of The Natural Nipple began with listening to a mesmerizing, passionate, intelligent, scientist talk about the immunobiology of human milk as the most preventative, dynamic biological substance that has enabled us to evolve on this planet. Not only is it the first, free life vaccine, to set the next generation on the path for lifelong health- breastmilk is the most effective way to optimize the signature gut microbiome during the critical first three years of life. While studying the gut microbiome (the 100 trillion bacteria that influence the way we eat, think, and function on a molecular level) as a PhD student at the University of South Florida, I learned that babies that weren't getting mother's milk were suffering fatal complications. This research identified how prolonging breastfeeding and skin to skin contact enables breastmilk to continually act in establishing immunity, enabling protective neurological development and genetic optimization through microbiome establishment, thus preventing the long-term detrimental effects of gut bacterial dysbiosis.
Consequently, the one thing we can control to prevent dysbiosis related deaths is increase the volume of breastmilk these babies get. I was curious what the barrier was, and applied to The National Science Foundation grant to identify what was preventing breast-feeding in the hospitals and for moms after discharge. After over 300 interviews of moms, neonatologists, nurses, hospital supply managers, and other key stake holders-the findings were shocking. As a result, to address the gap in industry causing the problem, I invented the 1st bottle modeled after real mom's nipple shapes and flow rates designed to promote prolonged breastfeeding.
One scary day, I remember walking into a lactation class with babies screaming, confused dads, and my handheld 3d scanner asking moms if I could scan their breasts. It was their desperate response: “Yes, please if it will help design a product that will eliminate these latching problems” that motivates me to overcome entrepreneurial barriers everyday. I never thought after being 10 years in and a semester away from 'Dr. Wright' I would consider putting graduating on hold to be a dedicated founder. Realizing how powerful the health-tech, bio-tech, fem-tech, and pharma companies are has shifted my paradigm from frustration with the state of care- to a solution oriented hypothesis: be a better industry player. I am inspired to drive marketing budgets to innovations that focus on empowering the population to optimize their wellness with preventative tools and services while providing the data to help fund companies founded by the individuals who have identified gaps in industry and generated a business model that addresses their target market’s specific pain points.
In July 2018, I was the first student to have been selected as the Principal Investigator for a prestigious National Science Foundation $53,000 grant to research product-market fit of my invention. In October 2018, The Natural Nipple pitched at the Florida Blue insurance pitch competition and won the Most Innovative Healthcare Solution. In December 2018, we took an investment valuing the company at $1.75 million pre-product, pre-revenue. In May 2019, we won the first Clinical Quickfire Challenge and investment by Johnson & Johnson for $50,000 and lifelong mentorship with J-Labs access. In June 2018, we were selected as one of eight companies in Tampa Bay to pitch for Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest Tour given our traction in a little over a year- receiving over $220k in grants and investments. In August 2018 we were selected to recieve a $100,000 investment from the Brandery- statistically more difficult to be selected for than Harvard. At this point, I felt incredibly close to burnout and decided I can’t ride three horses and win. I chose to drop the PhD program, after completing all coursework and preparing my defense with only two semesters left to graduate, and left my job as a Forensic Nurse Practitioner to move to Cincinatti- taking the risk to be a dedicated founder. In November 2018, I was the first recipient to ever decline the Brandery investment after a third attorney revealed what the term structure would do to our valuation.
Commence a cascade of rather ego-unraveling events that have left me with a desire to share the nature of startup uncertainty and how that feels as a founder, because in real life- you cannot control for a <.05 probability. This is a stark contrast to the worshipped 95% confidence interval used in research methodology to measure hypothesis to outcome prediction, while leaving learnings that were not originally considered by the wayside as 'failures', unpublished, and for the future to repeat.
This journey from clinician to researcher and now entrepreneur has been the ultimate unlearning. Any singular decision is the result of Confident Uncertainty, while I'm pretty sure the remainder of the ride spent in indecision and evaluation, is actually not-so-confident certainty that dresses up as 'safe'...but sometimes results in stuck. Sharing my vulnerable un-learnings with people definitely feels scary, but I have a gut feeling bits of this messy adventure will resonate along the way to potentiate hope.