[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_137":-5,"_138":-5,"_139":140,"_141":142,"_143":144},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/2296/let-your-vision-drive-you-no-matter-what","id",2296,"title","Let your vision drive you, no matter what","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560\nSo in middle school, I came back and I said,\n\n2\n00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:06.160\nI'm gonna run for student office.\n\n3\n00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:10.040\nAnd my dad was saying, great, what are you gonna do?\n\n4\n00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:12.920\nAnd I said, I'm gonna run for secretary.\n\n5\n00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:15.960\nAnd he was like, great, that's wonderful.\n\n6\n00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.280\nBut can you tell me the difference\n\n7\n00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:21.480\nbetween what a secretary does versus the president?\n\n8\n00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:23.360\nAnd this is middle school and high school.\n\n9\n00:00:23.360 --> 00:00:25.320\nAnd so at that time, I said, well, no,\n\n10\n00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:27.200\nI don't really know the difference.\n\n11\n00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:29.960\nAnd he said, then why don't you go for a president?\n\n12\n00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:33.000\nAnd I said, well, I just thought that that's kind of,\n\n13\n00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.080\nwhat you do, it's my first time.\n\n14\n00:00:36.080 --> 00:00:39.240\nMaybe it's because I'm a girl and he stopped me right there.\n\n15\n00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:41.480\nAnd he said, it doesn't matter\n\n16\n00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:44.720\nwhether you're a girl or boy, Asian color of skin,\n\n17\n00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:45.920\ntall, short, et cetera.\n\n18\n00:00:45.920 --> 00:00:48.920\nIf you have a vision for what you wanna do,\n\n19\n00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:50.200\nyou go for it.\n\n20\n00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:51.920\nDon't let anything hold you back.\n\n21\n00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.720\nAnd so I remember saying, okay, let me do it.\n\n22\n00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:56.560\nAnd so I ran this whole campaign.\n\n23\n00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.200\nI said, say yes to Jess for a president.\n\n24\n00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:00.920\nAnd I made all these fortune cookies\n\n25\n00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:02.840\nand put all the messages in there.\n\n26\n00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:06.160\nAnd I ended up winning that whole campaign.\n\n27\n00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:08.080\nAnd I ran every year, my high school year.\n\n28\n00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:11.040\nSo I was president every single year of my high school.\n\n29\n00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.400\nAnd it was just something very early on for me\n\n30\n00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.920\nthat I take with me, even now as a female founder\n\n31\n00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:22.240\nand entrepreneur and leader, is that belief\n\n32\n00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:24.480\nthat if you have a vision, it doesn't matter\n\n33\n00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.600\nwhere you come from or who you are, what you look like,\n\n34\n00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:30.880\nor people's perceptions are of you, you go for it.\n\n35\n00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:32.960\n'Cause it's the vision that's gonna drive you.\n\n36\n00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:36.640\nAnd so that was a very pivotal moment for me.\n\n37\n00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:37.480\n- I love that.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",1967349,"end_time",2062420,"keywords","DEI, female founder, POC,","slug","let-your-vision-drive-you-no-matter-what","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","Eyyox44sxGeQij6StST6MjzHG3eLbBXaUv02Yf1yYlbA","mux_asset_id","iCM1aMVWa1XQW57eECM01601nriOMOtgBixi6KYgFKpbM","leader_id",85,"episode_id",233,"updated_at","2025-02-26T20:11:03.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/2296/let-your-vision-drive-you-no-matter-what","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_101":102,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_25":107,"_108":109,"_62":110,"_59":110,"_111":112,"_69":113,"_39":114,"_115":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_116":117,"_89":118,"_44":119,"_120":121,"_122":123,"_46":-5,"_124":125,"_126":127,"_93":128,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":58,"_59":60,"_61":-5,"_62":60,"_63":-5,"_64":65,"_66":67,"_68":-5,"_69":-5,"_70":71,"_72":73,"_74":-5,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":-5,"_89":-5,"_46":-5,"_90":91,"_92":-5,"_93":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Solve Problems at a Human Level","solve-problems-at-a-human-level","Learn how a deep understanding of your customer at a human level can power a successful startup – even if you don’t have a background in that particular industry. Plus, practical advice for entrepreneurs to make smart hires and manage teams well.","summary","

Today’s guest is Jessica Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of ianacare, a digital platform that connects family caregivers with the resources they need to care for their loved ones.

Jessica founded ianacare because she herself was a caregiver in her mother’s last days of life. She saw firsthand how frustrating, exhausting and isolating the experience was, and she knew there had to be a better way.

That’s how great entrepreneurs think. They truly understand their customers’ problems on a human level, and then they set out to solve those problems with excellence.

So if you run a business yourself, or if you want to someday, or if your company simply serves customers in any way…

Listen to this conversation and see how to solve your customers’ problems at a human level.

You’ll also learn:

The perspective you absolutely must have before you launch anything digital
How the hiring process changes through various stages of your business
What to do if you don’t have much expertise for your startup (and why that’s actually okay)
Practical tips for leading hybrid and remote teams

Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources:

The How Leaders Lead App: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go

Daily Insight Emails: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day

Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.760\nHey, everybody.\n\n2\n00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:08.840\nWelcome to Howl Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I\n\n3\n00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:09.360\ninterview\n\n4\n00:00:09.360 --> 00:00:11.920\nsome of the very best leaders in the world.\n\n5\n00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:15.020\nI break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have\n\n6\n00:00:15.020 --> 00:00:15.560\nsomething\n\n7\n00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:19.360\nsimple you can apply as you develop into a better leader.\n\n8\n00:00:19.360 --> 00:00:22.560\nThat's what this podcast is all about.\n\n9\n00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:27.200\nToday's guest is Jessica Kim, co-founder and CEO of IONACare.\n\n10\n00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:29.320\nNow, how great is this?\n\n11\n00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:34.390\nIONACare is a digital platform for family caregivers, and it connects them with\n\n12\n00:00:34.390 --> 00:00:34.840\nevery\n\n13\n00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:39.120\nresource they could possibly need to care for their loved ones.\n\n14\n00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:43.200\nJessica founded IONACare because she herself was a caregiver in her mother's\n\n15\n00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:43.760\nlast days\n\n16\n00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:44.960\nof life.\n\n17\n00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:49.300\nShe experienced for herself just how frustrating and exhausting and isolating\n\n18\n00:00:49.300 --> 00:00:50.240\ncaregiving can\n\n19\n00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:54.200\nbe, and she knew that there had to be a better way.\n\n20\n00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:57.120\nNow, that's how great entrepreneurs think.\n\n21\n00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:01.830\nThey truly care about their customers' problems on a human level, and then they\n\n22\n00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:02.400\nset out to\n\n23\n00:01:02.400 --> 00:01:05.480\nsolve those problems with excellence.\n\n24\n00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:10.370\nSo if you run a business yourself, if you dream about doing that someday, or if\n\n25\n00:01:10.370 --> 00:01:10.680\nyour\n\n26\n00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:15.510\ncompany serves customers in any way, shape, or form, this conversation will\n\n27\n00:01:15.510 --> 00:01:16.320\ninspire you\n\n28\n00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:20.520\non how to solve your customers' problems at a human level.\n\n29\n00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:25.070\nSo here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Jessica\n\n30\n00:01:25.070 --> 00:01:25.520\nKim.\n\n31\n00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:34.690\nJessica, there's no doubt that you are a serial entrepreneur, and you\n\n32\n00:01:34.690 --> 00:01:36.360\ndefinitely are\n\n33\n00:01:36.360 --> 00:01:39.440\none of the most creative persons that I know.\n\n34\n00:01:39.440 --> 00:01:44.150\nI can't wait for everyone to hear your entire story, but first, can you tell us\n\n35\n00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:44.760\nabout your\n\n36\n00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.480\nlatest venture, IONACare, and how it came about?\n\n37\n00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:49.960\nYeah, absolutely.\n\n38\n00:01:49.960 --> 00:01:53.560\nThank you so much for having me on, David.\n\n39\n00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:59.000\nI started IONACare because I was thrust into being a caregiver.\n\n40\n00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.240\nI did not intend to start a business, so my mom had pancreatic cancer for about\n\n41\n00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:03.640\nseven\n\n42\n00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:10.190\nand a half years, and my dad actually lovingly cared for her for many of those\n\n43\n00:02:10.190 --> 00:02:11.280\nyears, but\n\n44\n00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:15.240\neventually he's 10 years older, and he was working full-time, and he was\n\n45\n00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:16.160\ncompletely burnt\n\n46\n00:02:16.160 --> 00:02:17.400\nout himself.\n\n47\n00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:21.420\nAnd so I just came right in, and I was thrust into that role of being their\n\n48\n00:02:21.420 --> 00:02:22.320\ncaregiver.\n\n49\n00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:23.640\nThey moved in with me.\n\n50\n00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:25.200\nI was working full-time.\n\n51\n00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:30.420\nMy kids at that time were 10, 7, and 5, and I just had to navigate all of her\n\n52\n00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:31.080\nmedical\n\n53\n00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:32.080\ncare.\n\n54\n00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:33.680\nI was performing all the nursing duties.\n\n55\n00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:39.820\nI was pumping her stomach several times a day, and feeding her and bathing her,\n\n56\n00:02:39.820 --> 00:02:40.200\nand\n\n57\n00:02:40.200 --> 00:02:47.280\neventually, she passed away in my home in 2017.\n\n58\n00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:54.610\nAnd it was the loneliest, hardest time in my life, and I remember in deep grief\n\n59\n00:02:54.610 --> 00:02:54.800\nthe thing\n\n60\n00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.680\nthat I felt most was frustration.\n\n61\n00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:00.960\nI was so frustrated.\n\n62\n00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:01.960\nI've been an entrepreneur.\n\n63\n00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:03.120\nI've been in the tech space.\n\n64\n00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:04.360\nI knew the technology was there.\n\n65\n00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:05.360\nI knew the funding was there.\n\n66\n00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:09.660\nI knew that we could reach people in their homes, and I was so frustrated that\n\n67\n00:03:09.660 --> 00:03:10.160\nthere were\n\n68\n00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:16.250\nmillions of caregivers, and yet it is so hidden and it's completely underserved\n\n69\n00:03:16.250 --> 00:03:16.560\n.\n\n70\n00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:20.360\nAnd so my co-founder Steve Lee and I partnered together.\n\n71\n00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.880\nWe dug into it, and we realized we need to solve this.\n\n72\n00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:27.880\nAnd so that's kind of why we started IANA Care.\n\n73\n00:03:27.880 --> 00:03:30.240\nAs I understand it, it's a huge market.\n\n74\n00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.320\nThere's 43 and 1/2 million caregivers out there.\n\n75\n00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:39.170\nSo how have you gone about innovating to give these caregivers practical\n\n76\n00:03:39.170 --> 00:03:40.280\nsolutions you can\n\n77\n00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:41.280\nactually use?\n\n78\n00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:47.000\nWell, I think innovation always starts with learning and understanding.\n\n79\n00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:48.880\nAnd so you're right.\n\n80\n00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:50.640\nI always start with the problem.\n\n81\n00:03:50.640 --> 00:03:54.500\nSo one out of seven people in the US alone have a type of chronic condition\n\n82\n00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:55.160\nwhere they\n\n83\n00:03:55.160 --> 00:03:57.480\nbecome reliant on a caregiver.\n\n84\n00:03:57.480 --> 00:04:02.070\nSo we're talking about Alzheimer's, cancer, disability, stroke, and when we\n\n85\n00:04:02.070 --> 00:04:02.840\noften think\n\n86\n00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:07.800\nabout these conditions, we tend to focus on the clinical side of the things.\n\n87\n00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:08.800\nWhat did the doctor say?\n\n88\n00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:09.800\nWhat's the surgery?\n\n89\n00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:10.800\nWhat's the medication?\n\n90\n00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:17.090\nBut over 90% of the actual time being cared for happens in the home, not in the\n\n91\n00:04:17.090 --> 00:04:18.120\nhospital.\n\n92\n00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:22.340\nAnd they're typically cared for by family caregivers who are unsupported,\n\n93\n00:04:22.340 --> 00:04:23.040\nunpaid, and\n\n94\n00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.040\nuntrained.\n\n95\n00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:28.080\nAnd so David, it's actually 54 million family caregivers now.\n\n96\n00:04:28.080 --> 00:04:33.890\nAnd the most recent Blue Cross Blue Shield study said that 61% of Americans\n\n97\n00:04:33.890 --> 00:04:35.040\nconsider themselves\n\n98\n00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:38.120\na caregiver of some shape or form.\n\n99\n00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:44.760\nAnd so this results in major societal and institutional issues.\n\n100\n00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:47.940\nAnd the things on the business side that we're really focusing on are the 33\n\n101\n00:04:47.940 --> 00:04:49.000\nbillion of productivity\n\n102\n00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:55.420\nloss for employers, employees, because most caregivers are working at the same\n\n103\n00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:55.800\ntime.\n\n104\n00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.960\nAnd then the 50 billion healthcare costs that are often avoidable.\n\n105\n00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:05.240\nAnd so the question is, after understanding all of that, we said, well, what do\n\n106\n00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:05.800\nwe do?\n\n107\n00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.480\nWhat do family caregivers need help with most?\n\n108\n00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:12.040\nAnd what they need help with most are the everyday tasks.\n\n109\n00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:14.520\nIt's the administrative work.\n\n110\n00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:15.680\nIt's the daily care.\n\n111\n00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:16.680\nIt's the bathing.\n\n112\n00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:17.680\nIt's the feeding.\n\n113\n00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.760\nIt's all the financial management.\n\n114\n00:05:20.760 --> 00:05:24.520\nBut then they also need systemic support.\n\n115\n00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:27.490\nAnd that's why we're really working with employers and health plans, because\n\n116\n00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:28.280\nuntil we really\n\n117\n00:05:28.280 --> 00:05:32.240\nchange the system, we can't really serve family caregivers.\n\n118\n00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:36.580\nAnd we may think of all of these things as non-clinical aspects of care that\n\n119\n00:05:36.580 --> 00:05:37.040\nmay not\n\n120\n00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:41.180\nbe as big of a deal, but it's actually the social determinants of health that\n\n121\n00:05:41.180 --> 00:05:41.640\nimpact\n\n122\n00:05:41.640 --> 00:05:45.720\n80% of someone's health outcome.\n\n123\n00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:50.450\nAnd so that is why the key role of a caregiver is so important, but then our a\n\n124\n00:05:50.450 --> 00:05:51.400\nha moment.\n\n125\n00:05:51.400 --> 00:05:55.960\nSo again, I always start with, what do we know and what are we learning?\n\n126\n00:05:55.960 --> 00:06:01.160\nBut our aha moment was that there are thousands of these resources and services\n\n127\n00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:02.240\nthat already\n\n128\n00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.560\nexist to serve care and caregivers.\n\n129\n00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:09.520\nYet they are completely segregated.\n\n130\n00:06:09.520 --> 00:06:12.080\nIt's really hard to find their hidden.\n\n131\n00:06:12.080 --> 00:06:16.570\nThey're hidden in buckets like health care institutions, employer benefits,\n\n132\n00:06:16.570 --> 00:06:17.080\neven your\n\n133\n00:06:17.080 --> 00:06:19.840\nown social circles and local resources.\n\n134\n00:06:19.840 --> 00:06:24.030\nAnd so the end user does not know where to begin, and they are thrust into it\n\n135\n00:06:24.030 --> 00:06:24.480\ninto a\n\n136\n00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:26.440\nvery emotional experience.\n\n137\n00:06:26.440 --> 00:06:27.880\nAnd so that's where we come in.\n\n138\n00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:29.920\nTell me about aha care as a name.\n\n139\n00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:31.520\nWhat's the meaning behind that?\n\n140\n00:06:31.520 --> 00:06:32.520\nYes.\n\n141\n00:06:32.520 --> 00:06:37.560\nSo aha care, what we really understood was that the core of caregiving, it's a\n\n142\n00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:37.960\nvery\n\n143\n00:06:37.960 --> 00:06:39.680\nisolating experience.\n\n144\n00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.920\nWe don't really talk about it in our culture.\n\n145\n00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:45.860\nWe don't know how to support caregivers in the same way that we have learned to\n\n146\n00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:46.280\nsupport\n\n147\n00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:47.720\nparents.\n\n148\n00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:54.320\nAnd so the aha and aha aha stands for I am not alone.\n\n149\n00:06:54.320 --> 00:07:00.790\nAnd so it is the core principle of how we do everything is that we say how do\n\n150\n00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:01.560\nwe build\n\n151\n00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:07.890\ntechnology solutions and bring real communities together so caregivers do not\n\n152\n00:07:07.890 --> 00:07:09.360\ndo this alone.\n\n153\n00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:12.400\nAnd so that's kind of the essence of everything we do.\n\n154\n00:07:12.400 --> 00:07:13.960\nI was thinking about your business.\n\n155\n00:07:13.960 --> 00:07:18.430\nIt seems to be that probably one of the biggest barriers to usage is just\n\n156\n00:07:18.430 --> 00:07:19.680\ncaregivers and most\n\n157\n00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.440\npeople just have a hard time asking for help.\n\n158\n00:07:22.440 --> 00:07:23.440\nExactly.\n\n159\n00:07:23.440 --> 00:07:24.800\nAnd that to be the case?\n\n160\n00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:25.800\nYes.\n\n161\n00:07:25.800 --> 00:07:28.240\nAnd actually that's the perfect segue into what we actually do.\n\n162\n00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:31.440\nAnd it's the first layer of support because that's where people begin.\n\n163\n00:07:31.440 --> 00:07:34.980\nAnd so we are this one platform that integrates all the different layers of\n\n164\n00:07:34.980 --> 00:07:35.640\nsupport.\n\n165\n00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:40.120\nAnd the first one is your friends and family, your personal social circles.\n\n166\n00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:44.140\nThe number one piece of advice that social workers will tell you is to ask your\n\n167\n00:07:44.140 --> 00:07:44.720\nfriends\n\n168\n00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:46.600\nand family for help.\n\n169\n00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:48.320\nBut it is very awkward.\n\n170\n00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:51.920\nIt's socially not accepted in our culture.\n\n171\n00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:55.280\nAnd so what we did is we first said let's unlock that and we created this\n\n172\n00:07:55.280 --> 00:07:56.480\nplatform where\n\n173\n00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:00.610\nyou invite your friends and family and neighbors who say yes I want to help you\n\n174\n00:08:00.610 --> 00:08:00.920\n.\n\n175\n00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:04.360\nHow many times have we been on both sides of oh my gosh David let me know what\n\n176\n00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:04.680\nI can\n\n177\n00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:05.680\ndo to help.\n\n178\n00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:06.680\nRight?\n\n179\n00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:08.800\nAnd nothing happens because things are so vague.\n\n180\n00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:12.520\nSo once you invite them onto the team we walk them through how to get meals,\n\n181\n00:08:12.520 --> 00:08:12.960\nrides,\n\n182\n00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:16.920\nrest the care, pet care, childcare, house and it's grocery shopping.\n\n183\n00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:20.520\nAnd you fill out this very quick kind of request that gets blasted out to your\n\n184\n00:08:20.520 --> 00:08:21.200\nteam.\n\n185\n00:08:21.200 --> 00:08:24.640\nAnd then the team members see everything on one screen.\n\n186\n00:08:24.640 --> 00:08:28.210\nThey click one button that says I got this and all the details go on both\n\n187\n00:08:28.210 --> 00:08:29.320\npeople's calendar\n\n188\n00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:30.800\nwith that one click.\n\n189\n00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.250\nAnd so what we realized was that it's very awkward to say hey David what are\n\n190\n00:08:34.250 --> 00:08:34.800\nyou doing\n\n191\n00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:35.800\ntonight?\n\n192\n00:08:35.800 --> 00:08:38.880\nDo you want to make me dinner?\n\n193\n00:08:38.880 --> 00:08:41.560\nIt's like so awkward I would never ask you that.\n\n194\n00:08:41.560 --> 00:08:46.450\nBut I can create this buffer using technology to blast it out and then you as a\n\n195\n00:08:46.450 --> 00:08:47.280\nsupporter\n\n196\n00:08:47.280 --> 00:08:50.120\nyou look and you say you know what I can actually do that tonight.\n\n197\n00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:56.320\nAnd I click I got this and that's how we've been able to deliver thousands of\n\n198\n00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:57.120\nmeals and\n\n199\n00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.760\nrides and all this daily help.\n\n200\n00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:04.560\nSo that's kind of like the first layer that we started but we also realized\n\n201\n00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:05.720\nthat that's\n\n202\n00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:10.690\nnot enough help for especially caregiving situations that last for four plus\n\n203\n00:09:10.690 --> 00:09:11.080\nyears.\n\n204\n00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:15.290\nAnd so we work with employers where we integrate all of their benefits into the\n\n205\n00:09:15.290 --> 00:09:16.360\nplatform because\n\n206\n00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:20.940\nthey're available to you and often free to you and then we put zip code based\n\n207\n00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:21.200\nlocal\n\n208\n00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:25.520\nresources almost like a Yelp if you will onto our platform.\n\n209\n00:09:25.520 --> 00:09:29.680\nWe have our own expert content and then you can even connect with a human care\n\n210\n00:09:29.680 --> 00:09:30.440\ngiving coach\n\n211\n00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:34.160\nto really process everything that you've been going through.\n\n212\n00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:39.160\nAnd so again it's all the different layers that people need throughout the\n\n213\n00:09:39.160 --> 00:09:39.160\ndifferent\n\n214\n00:09:39.160 --> 00:09:42.120\nphases of the journey all in one app.\n\n215\n00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:48.410\nYou have such a big idea and you have such a huge market you launch ionic care,\n\n216\n00:09:48.410 --> 00:09:48.920\nCOVID\n\n217\n00:09:48.920 --> 00:09:49.920\nhits.\n\n218\n00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:50.920\nYeah.\n\n219\n00:09:50.920 --> 00:09:55.000\nYou know how did that impact your business and how did you scramble?\n\n220\n00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:56.240\nYeah.\n\n221\n00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.990\nYou know COVID is so devastating on so many levels and you know I think you\n\n222\n00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:03.560\nknow for caregivers\n\n223\n00:10:03.560 --> 00:10:07.720\nwe always say it's not a new thing.\n\n224\n00:10:07.720 --> 00:10:12.290\nTeachers have been doing this and being isolated in the home for many many\n\n225\n00:10:12.290 --> 00:10:13.360\nyears but it has\n\n226\n00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:18.160\nmade it worse the stress and mental health is completely through the roof.\n\n227\n00:10:18.160 --> 00:10:24.810\nBut what it has done actually has accelerated this awareness on a global level\n\n228\n00:10:24.810 --> 00:10:25.800\nthat there\n\n229\n00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:27.480\nare caregivers.\n\n230\n00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:31.610\nSo for the longest time people in caregiving have been trying to be on their\n\n231\n00:10:31.610 --> 00:10:32.560\nsoapbox saying\n\n232\n00:10:32.560 --> 00:10:37.180\ndo you know that there are 43.5 million caregivers of which now it's 54 million\n\n233\n00:10:37.180 --> 00:10:37.960\ncaregivers and\n\n234\n00:10:37.960 --> 00:10:39.840\nmost people say I don't see it.\n\n235\n00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.760\nWhat I don't that must not be a big deal they're home.\n\n236\n00:10:42.760 --> 00:10:49.570\nBut because of the pandemic with COVID-19 the world has is now awake to all the\n\n237\n00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:50.000\ncare\n\n238\n00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:55.290\nthat happens in the home to our elderly to our vulnerable populations who have\n\n239\n00:10:55.290 --> 00:10:55.960\nchronic\n\n240\n00:10:55.960 --> 00:10:56.960\nconditions.\n\n241\n00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:01.000\nNow they are the highlight of what everyone's talking about to protect them.\n\n242\n00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:06.980\nAnd so we are leveraging this opportunity and this momentum of awareness to say\n\n243\n00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:07.880\nyes finally\n\n244\n00:11:07.880 --> 00:11:12.720\nlet's build this tangible support for caregivers that have always deserved the\n\n245\n00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:14.160\ntype of support.\n\n246\n00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:20.110\nSo it actually has accelerated our you know our business tremendously the need\n\n247\n00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:20.600\nwe are\n\n248\n00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:24.360\ntrying to keep up with all the caregivers that are on our platform.\n\n249\n00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:28.430\nWe locked in our first major enterprise deal nine months ahead of schedule and\n\n250\n00:11:28.430 --> 00:11:28.800\nwe all\n\n251\n00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:33.470\nknow those contracts can take you know 12 to 18 months and we were able to go\n\n252\n00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:34.080\nthrough\n\n253\n00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.760\nall of it because they saw the need that was so great.\n\n254\n00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:41.910\nNow what do you recommend to caregivers that are impacted by COVID just you\n\n255\n00:11:41.910 --> 00:11:42.480\nknow one or\n\n256\n00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:44.840\ntwo big things that you recommend.\n\n257\n00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:50.270\nI think the first major thing is know that you're not alone even though you are\n\n258\n00:11:50.270 --> 00:11:50.800\nyou feel\n\n259\n00:11:50.800 --> 00:11:57.450\nso isolated and you feel that all the typical resources are now restricted even\n\n260\n00:11:57.450 --> 00:11:58.120\nmore.\n\n261\n00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:01.880\nWith the beauty of technology you can still get a lot of support.\n\n262\n00:12:01.880 --> 00:12:04.800\nSo we always say care without contact.\n\n263\n00:12:04.800 --> 00:12:11.000\nSo we have these tremendous stories where a caregiver is on our app in a very\n\n264\n00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:11.520\nkind of\n\n265\n00:12:11.520 --> 00:12:17.530\nintense situation they had their personal social circle team grow up to 120\n\n266\n00:12:17.530 --> 00:12:18.000\npeople all\n\n267\n00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:22.920\nlocal in remote and they were able to get 540 meals delivered all from friends\n\n268\n00:12:22.920 --> 00:12:24.520\nand family.\n\n269\n00:12:24.520 --> 00:12:29.610\nThey were able to get gift card sent and so they felt this outpouring of just\n\n270\n00:12:29.610 --> 00:12:29.920\nall the\n\n271\n00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:33.680\nsupport despite physically being so socially distanced.\n\n272\n00:12:33.680 --> 00:12:37.560\nAnd so that's the first thing is that you're not alone and technology can help\n\n273\n00:12:37.560 --> 00:12:38.240\nkind of bring\n\n274\n00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:42.930\npeople together at this time and you know our care managers can help you\n\n275\n00:12:42.930 --> 00:12:44.160\nnavigate through\n\n276\n00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:47.200\nall the different restrictions that you're facing.\n\n277\n00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:52.500\nYou know how much does your passion for loving others and being compassionate\n\n278\n00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:53.440\nhow much does\n\n279\n00:12:53.440 --> 00:12:58.790\nthat drive you in this situation because you know you're also a hard driving\n\n280\n00:12:58.790 --> 00:12:59.560\nbusiness\n\n281\n00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:00.560\nperson.\n\n282\n00:13:00.560 --> 00:13:04.100\nI mean we're going to talk about you got an incredible track record of building\n\n283\n00:13:04.100 --> 00:13:04.920\nbusinesses.\n\n284\n00:13:04.920 --> 00:13:10.060\nSo you know what is this special motive thing that you have how does that how\n\n285\n00:13:10.060 --> 00:13:10.840\ndoes that\n\n286\n00:13:10.840 --> 00:13:13.120\nreally make you tick.\n\n287\n00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:17.360\nIt is everything and I mean everything.\n\n288\n00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:21.480\nIt is the core it is our fuel it is our center.\n\n289\n00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:25.270\nYou know my co-founder Steve Lee and I always say that there are two major\n\n290\n00:13:25.270 --> 00:13:26.180\ntruths to ionic\n\n291\n00:13:26.180 --> 00:13:27.340\ncare.\n\n292\n00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:30.440\nOne we are highly empathetic.\n\n293\n00:13:30.440 --> 00:13:38.290\nWe truly go and care to the point where we say we love our caregivers and\n\n294\n00:13:38.290 --> 00:13:39.200\nbecause that\n\n295\n00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:45.830\ndedication is so strong that is what makes us decide what feature to launch\n\n296\n00:13:45.830 --> 00:13:46.720\nthat is what\n\n297\n00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:52.580\nmakes us decide what priority is how do we serve you know our caregivers that\n\n298\n00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:53.240\nwe have\n\n299\n00:13:53.240 --> 00:14:00.030\nso much love for and we care for each other as a team and I always say you know\n\n300\n00:14:00.030 --> 00:14:00.800\nyou're\n\n301\n00:14:00.800 --> 00:14:02.920\nnot working for me.\n\n302\n00:14:02.920 --> 00:14:07.160\nI'm not hiring you I may be your manager but you're not working for me.\n\n303\n00:14:07.160 --> 00:14:12.480\nWe are all working for this mission that we feel so convicted by and we need to\n\n304\n00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:13.040\ncall each\n\n305\n00:14:13.040 --> 00:14:18.100\nother out we need to you know link ours we need to high five we need to keep\n\n306\n00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:18.560\neach other\n\n307\n00:14:18.560 --> 00:14:24.890\nsharp because it's the mission we're going after and so empathy and love is the\n\n308\n00:14:24.890 --> 00:14:25.400\ncore\n\n309\n00:14:25.400 --> 00:14:27.720\nof everything that we do.\n\n310\n00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:32.960\nBut then the second thing is we work really really hard.\n\n311\n00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.400\nWe strive for excellence.\n\n312\n00:14:36.400 --> 00:14:40.810\nThe reason why we strive for excellence is because if we're not excellent we\n\n313\n00:14:40.810 --> 00:14:41.240\nlet our\n\n314\n00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:46.060\ncaregivers down or our partners down or our customers down and so it's this\n\n315\n00:14:46.060 --> 00:14:46.960\nhand in hand\n\n316\n00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:51.570\nthat you can be very hard mission driven but because that is your core that's\n\n317\n00:14:51.570 --> 00:14:52.040\nwhy you\n\n318\n00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:53.960\nwork so hard right.\n\n319\n00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:57.200\nIt's not this also culture to have this badge and to say oh yeah I don't get a\n\n320\n00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:58.160\nlot of sleep\n\n321\n00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:02.400\nI'm such a hard core person and you know crush Red Bull over my head.\n\n322\n00:15:02.400 --> 00:15:06.440\nNo the reason why it works so hard is because people are relying on us and we\n\n323\n00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:07.160\ncare so much\n\n324\n00:15:07.160 --> 00:15:10.120\nabout them and that and that's what's going to drive us.\n\n325\n00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.600\nSo it's those two things that drive us.\n\n326\n00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:16.640\nYour passion is so contagious and I'm sure it's inspiring to everybody that\n\n327\n00:15:16.640 --> 00:15:17.280\nworks with\n\n328\n00:15:17.280 --> 00:15:18.280\nyou.\n\n329\n00:15:18.280 --> 00:15:21.520\nYou know and shifting a little bit back more to the hard stuff of your business\n\n330\n00:15:21.520 --> 00:15:22.000\nyou know\n\n331\n00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:26.160\nwhat have you learned and how are you evolving your free app.\n\n332\n00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:29.890\nYou got an incredible app I mean I checked it out but you know you've this had\n\n333\n00:15:29.890 --> 00:15:30.200\nto be\n\n334\n00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:35.390\na major learning process what's the single biggest thing you've learned about\n\n335\n00:15:35.390 --> 00:15:35.760\nthat.\n\n336\n00:15:35.760 --> 00:15:39.290\nSo the first the major thing we learned about that is we knew that that wasn't\n\n337\n00:15:39.290 --> 00:15:39.760\ngoing to\n\n338\n00:15:39.760 --> 00:15:45.910\nbe our business model the free app but we knew because we're so centered on\n\n339\n00:15:45.910 --> 00:15:46.560\nloving our\n\n340\n00:15:46.560 --> 00:15:51.130\ncaregiver we had to start there and we wanted our insights and everything to be\n\n341\n00:15:51.130 --> 00:15:52.040\nsaid to\n\n342\n00:15:52.040 --> 00:15:54.720\nstart with how do we serve you.\n\n343\n00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.810\nAnd so that free app has evolved where we said actually the friends and family\n\n344\n00:15:58.810 --> 00:15:59.240\nis not\n\n345\n00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:03.160\nenough you need other resources you need your benefits you need your local\n\n346\n00:16:03.160 --> 00:16:03.960\nresources you\n\n347\n00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:08.820\nmay even need a coach and so it was through our end user insight and\n\n348\n00:16:08.820 --> 00:16:10.400\ncollaboration with\n\n349\n00:16:10.400 --> 00:16:14.970\nour caregivers that we've built all these other layers out which made sense\n\n350\n00:16:14.970 --> 00:16:15.320\nthen to\n\n351\n00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:21.170\nwork with employers so our business model is employers and health plans pay us\n\n352\n00:16:21.170 --> 00:16:21.840\nto integrate\n\n353\n00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:26.950\nall of their benefits into our platform so then the utilization rates go higher\n\n354\n00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:27.320\nso they\n\n355\n00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:30.970\ncan see the impact of these benefits that they're paying for with the people\n\n356\n00:16:30.970 --> 00:16:31.480\nthat they\n\n357\n00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:35.550\nare also serving and so what we love about it is that family caregivers have\n\n358\n00:16:35.550 --> 00:16:36.200\nenough on\n\n359\n00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:40.750\ntheir plate they're already doing 470 billion dollars worth of care for our\n\n360\n00:16:40.750 --> 00:16:41.680\nsociety really\n\n361\n00:16:41.680 --> 00:16:46.900\nbeing unpaid so we didn't want to charge them but our you know we have partners\n\n362\n00:16:46.900 --> 00:16:47.320\nlike\n\n363\n00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:51.010\nemployers and health plans that have an incentive to take care of their\n\n364\n00:16:51.010 --> 00:16:52.240\nemployees and members\n\n365\n00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:56.780\nand so that's our business model so we've learned so much but the root of it\n\n366\n00:16:56.780 --> 00:16:57.680\nwas starting\n\n367\n00:16:57.680 --> 00:16:59.480\nwithin caregivers.\n\n368\n00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:04.250\nSo now you mentioned a little earlier that you got your first customers well\n\n369\n00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:04.920\nbefore you\n\n370\n00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:05.920\nthought.\n\n371\n00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:10.590\nYeah why do you think that happened what did you do as a leader to make that\n\n372\n00:17:10.590 --> 00:17:11.200\nhappen?\n\n373\n00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:16.760\nI have to say you know it is public like our first customer is Anthem Insurance\n\n374\n00:17:16.760 --> 00:17:16.800\nand you\n\n375\n00:17:16.800 --> 00:17:20.470\nknow they're the second largest insurance company they've been tremendous\n\n376\n00:17:20.470 --> 00:17:21.080\npartners I\n\n377\n00:17:21.080 --> 00:17:26.720\nthink they're a thought leader in caregiving and social determinants of health\n\n378\n00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:27.320\nso we did\n\n379\n00:17:27.320 --> 00:17:33.020\na study together so they believed in us enough to say okay let's see you know\n\n380\n00:17:33.020 --> 00:17:33.640\nif this is\n\n381\n00:17:33.640 --> 00:17:37.650\nif people like it if people will use it if it really achieved the ROI that we\n\n382\n00:17:37.650 --> 00:17:38.520\n're expecting\n\n383\n00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:45.060\nand so we were able to see from that study that we were able to reduce by 83%\n\n384\n00:17:45.060 --> 00:17:46.120\npeople taking\n\n385\n00:17:46.120 --> 00:17:50.660\nany time off from work because they had the support system we were able to\n\n386\n00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:51.200\nprove that\n\n387\n00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:56.500\n30% reduction of stress levels of these caregivers especially during COVID and\n\n388\n00:17:56.500 --> 00:17:57.200\nthen higher\n\n389\n00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:02.940\nsatisfaction of and loyalty to the employer and so we were able to prove those\n\n390\n00:18:02.940 --> 00:18:03.440\nkind of\n\n391\n00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:07.670\nmetrics and then so that combined with everything that was happening with the\n\n392\n00:18:07.670 --> 00:18:08.480\npandemic with\n\n393\n00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.850\nthe innovative kind of approach of Anthem allowed this to accelerate and they\n\n394\n00:18:12.850 --> 00:18:13.400\n've been\n\n395\n00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:18.070\ntremendous partners so yeah we were expecting to get our platform built out\n\n396\n00:18:18.070 --> 00:18:18.880\nwith all the\n\n397\n00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:24.340\nother layers and start selling this quarter to other large employers but we\n\n398\n00:18:24.340 --> 00:18:25.280\nlaunched two\n\n399\n00:18:25.280 --> 00:18:32.160\nweeks ago live we have hundreds of people on the platform already so we're just\n\n400\n00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:32.880\nwe're\n\n401\n00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:36.580\nso excited that we have this privilege to serve them so your business is\n\n402\n00:18:36.580 --> 00:18:37.840\nalready taking off\n\n403\n00:18:37.840 --> 00:18:42.800\nand you're also I read where you're already winning national awards for\n\n404\n00:18:42.800 --> 00:18:43.840\nintegrated digital\n\n405\n00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:48.880\nsolutions and what advice can you give other leaders on how to build digital\n\n406\n00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:49.760\ncapability\n\n407\n00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:57.070\nbecause you you've got this down well I think we're always still learning but I\n\n408\n00:18:57.070 --> 00:18:57.520\nused to be\n\n409\n00:18:57.520 --> 00:19:02.030\nintimidated when we said okay what does this look like digitally and what I\n\n410\n00:19:02.030 --> 00:19:02.840\nrealized and\n\n411\n00:19:02.840 --> 00:19:09.030\nthis may be my anthropological roots but it ultimately technology and digital\n\n412\n00:19:09.030 --> 00:19:09.440\nthese are\n\n413\n00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:13.900\nchannels these are tools just like anything else what you really have to focus\n\n414\n00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:15.760\non is the\n\n415\n00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:22.000\nhuman problem the human experience the human perspective the human behavior\n\n416\n00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:22.720\nchange the\n\n417\n00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:28.080\ndesires the feelings especially if you think about caregiving it's not just\n\n418\n00:19:28.080 --> 00:19:29.520\nlogistical there's a lot\n\n419\n00:19:29.520 --> 00:19:35.200\nof family dynamics and this is life and death that many times and until you\n\n420\n00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:37.040\nneed to focus on those\n\n421\n00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:43.880\nthings and then when you really understand those core principles core\n\n422\n00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:46.960\nconvictions the desires then\n\n423\n00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:52.460\nyou look at all your tools and say how do we get them from here to here so they\n\n424\n00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:53.760\ncan flourish and\n\n425\n00:19:53.760 --> 00:19:59.750\ndigital is a major tool right now because it makes everything accessible and\n\n426\n00:19:59.750 --> 00:20:01.520\nscalable now we can\n\n427\n00:20:01.520 --> 00:20:06.780\nserve all levels of employees not just the c-suite and so technology is a great\n\n428\n00:20:06.780 --> 00:20:08.240\ntool but don't I\n\n429\n00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:11.400\nwould say my biggest thing is don't get caught up in it has to be digital just\n\n430\n00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:12.320\nfor digital sake\n\n431\n00:20:12.320 --> 00:20:18.780\nor just we need to be relevant we are still human flesh skin like blood you\n\n432\n00:20:18.780 --> 00:20:20.080\nknow emotions like\n\n433\n00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:25.110\nroot yourself in that and view digital as a tool that's great advice and and\n\n434\n00:20:25.110 --> 00:20:26.240\nyou you've mentioned\n\n435\n00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:31.680\nyour your co-founder steve lee you have a really powerful relationship with him\n\n436\n00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.520\nwho does what in\n\n437\n00:20:33.520 --> 00:20:37.930\nin the business and and how do you two stay on the same page because it's hard\n\n438\n00:20:37.930 --> 00:20:39.440\nto be co-anything\n\n439\n00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:46.240\nyes he is amazing so steven lee and he knows i sing his praises we are so\n\n440\n00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:47.840\ncomplimentary as co-founders\n\n441\n00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:54.590\nwe're 50/50 co-founders and he always says if he was here he would say look at\n\n442\n00:20:54.590 --> 00:20:56.000\nmy face this is a\n\n443\n00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:01.370\ntech and operational face and he calls himself a savvy geek or something like\n\n444\n00:21:01.370 --> 00:21:02.160\nthat i think he's\n\n445\n00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:08.600\npretty cool but he's an mit grad tech genius like but we together are very\n\n446\n00:21:08.600 --> 00:21:11.280\nvalues aligned and so we\n\n447\n00:21:11.280 --> 00:21:16.640\nbring different views to the big picture decisions and vision and we always\n\n448\n00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:18.560\nhave a healthy debates\n\n449\n00:21:18.560 --> 00:21:23.340\nand get to a better place together and then when it's time to execute we have\n\n450\n00:21:23.340 --> 00:21:24.480\nown areas where he\n\n451\n00:21:24.480 --> 00:21:28.820\ndoes you know the the well the product will do together because a lot of it is\n\n452\n00:21:28.820 --> 00:21:29.520\ncore insight on\n\n453\n00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:33.400\nthe human behavior and you know the ux um you know i'll have a lot of input and\n\n454\n00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:34.320\nthe words that we\n\n455\n00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:39.930\nchoose but then the way it goes from you know our our sketches to uh you know\n\n456\n00:21:39.930 --> 00:21:41.040\nmake sure it works\n\n457\n00:21:41.040 --> 00:21:45.390\nwith all the data data analytics that's all him um and then he's really just\n\n458\n00:21:45.390 --> 00:21:47.040\nbrilliant about um\n\n459\n00:21:47.040 --> 00:21:51.840\nyou know he's ran a company words it went from two people in his garage to ipo\n\n460\n00:21:51.840 --> 00:21:53.440\num and so he's\n\n461\n00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:57.940\nreally gone through all these big org decisions as well in terms of hiring\n\n462\n00:21:57.940 --> 00:21:59.040\nhundreds of people\n\n463\n00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:03.790\neverything from bonus structure to kind of hire like whatever your leadership\n\n464\n00:22:03.790 --> 00:22:05.040\nstructure looks like\n\n465\n00:22:05.040 --> 00:22:10.700\nand so we're very collaborative on those big things but definitely we we focus\n\n466\n00:22:10.700 --> 00:22:11.520\non you know our\n\n467\n00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:16.040\nown pillars i do a lot of the marketing the the sales the consumer insights and\n\n468\n00:22:16.040 --> 00:22:16.880\nthat's kind of\n\n469\n00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:22.550\nreally how we split it up do you have any advice Jessica for founders on how to\n\n470\n00:22:22.550 --> 00:22:24.240\ngo about hiring at\n\n471\n00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:32.180\ndifferent stages of your business yes so you know in the beginning you need um\n\n472\n00:22:32.180 --> 00:22:33.200\ngeneralists\n\n473\n00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:39.520\ni think people who know how to both think big picture but actually has to do\n\n474\n00:22:39.520 --> 00:22:40.240\nthe detailed\n\n475\n00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.850\nexecution but by definition of a startup you have huge plans to change the\n\n476\n00:22:44.850 --> 00:22:45.680\nworld right\n\n477\n00:22:45.680 --> 00:22:49.670\nchange culture impact the world but you have a very small team and very small\n\n478\n00:22:49.670 --> 00:22:50.560\nbudget and so\n\n479\n00:22:50.560 --> 00:22:57.440\nbecause of that you need big thinkers but you need doers and so that's uh that\n\n480\n00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:58.160\n's that's what how we\n\n481\n00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:02.410\nsaw the first that's how you should see i believe like the first kind of stage\n\n482\n00:23:02.410 --> 00:23:03.920\nof your of your business\n\n483\n00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:08.550\nand then as you grow um and once you've kind of realized the core plumbing of\n\n484\n00:23:08.550 --> 00:23:09.200\nhow your business\n\n485\n00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:14.030\nworks and you've proven out some of those things then you can start bringing in\n\n486\n00:23:14.030 --> 00:23:15.360\nmore kind of managers\n\n487\n00:23:15.360 --> 00:23:20.790\nbut even through i would say um and all those stages are a little bit uh kind\n\n488\n00:23:20.790 --> 00:23:21.600\nof mushy now but\n\n489\n00:23:21.600 --> 00:23:26.720\ni would say even through series a everyone has to be people that execute there\n\n490\n00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:28.000\n's no room for just\n\n491\n00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.630\nmanagers alone everyone has to manage themselves manage other people but then\n\n492\n00:23:31.630 --> 00:23:32.800\nactually get the job\n\n493\n00:23:32.800 --> 00:23:38.480\ndone um and then i think as you scale to like a bc that's when uh it just makes\n\n494\n00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:39.360\nsense to kind of\n\n495\n00:23:39.360 --> 00:23:43.430\nhave more of a uh managing senior leadership but for startups you definitely\n\n496\n00:23:43.430 --> 00:23:44.320\nhave to be a doer\n\n497\n00:23:44.320 --> 00:23:49.440\nyou know jessica i suppose that people will be writing books on how to be a\n\n498\n00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:51.440\nremote leader uh\n\n499\n00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:57.380\nwhat challenges have you faced and new ideas that you've surfaced to to lead\n\n500\n00:23:57.380 --> 00:23:58.880\nyour work from home team\n\n501\n00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:02.940\nuh that is i would love to read that book david because i think we're all\n\n502\n00:24:02.940 --> 00:24:04.240\ntrying to learn about\n\n503\n00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:10.010\nthat now and i have been reading whatever i i can on it i would say well i\n\n504\n00:24:10.010 --> 00:24:10.960\nstart with like what's\n\n505\n00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:18.790\nthe biggest difference i think you miss out on the casual conversations uh the\n\n506\n00:24:18.790 --> 00:24:19.920\nthe two-minute\n\n507\n00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:23.880\nconversation before a meeting starts uh the joke that happens when you're kind\n\n508\n00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:24.720\nof catch each other\n\n509\n00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:31.050\nin the hallway and i think that's really hard to replicate on video calls alone\n\n510\n00:24:31.050 --> 00:24:32.160\nbecause you that\n\n511\n00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:35.360\nstarts everyone's just sitting there and you feel like you just have to go at\n\n512\n00:24:35.360 --> 00:24:36.480\nit and startups are\n\n513\n00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:40.720\nalready so stressful and hard working enough that what we had to do is kind of\n\n514\n00:24:40.720 --> 00:24:42.400\nbuild in some buffer\n\n515\n00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:47.370\ntime especially with our core team to kind of talk about random things or to\n\n516\n00:24:47.370 --> 00:24:48.400\nlaugh or to say\n\n517\n00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:52.990\nwhat is that statue behind you you know and that takes intentionality because\n\n518\n00:24:52.990 --> 00:24:54.080\nit's so easy to say\n\n519\n00:24:54.080 --> 00:24:58.950\nokay what are we getting done um but you know it's kind of bringing in some of\n\n520\n00:24:58.950 --> 00:25:00.320\nthat that human side\n\n521\n00:25:00.320 --> 00:25:04.560\nof it you know we just hired three people they have never seen in in person and\n\n522\n00:25:04.560 --> 00:25:05.680\nit's very weird\n\n523\n00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:12.730\nbut i think the benefit of this is i do think due to this pandemic work is\n\n524\n00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:13.680\ngoing to look different\n\n525\n00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:20.270\nforever and so the good thing is i think we can start building that intention\n\n526\n00:25:20.270 --> 00:25:21.200\nality and that\n\n527\n00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:27.170\nrelationship building in this new world from the start uh and i i think the\n\n528\n00:25:27.170 --> 00:25:28.640\nother key learning is\n\n529\n00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:33.250\nlike you know not everybody is the same so take time to talk to each person\n\n530\n00:25:33.250 --> 00:25:34.160\nindividually and say\n\n531\n00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:38.010\nhow can i best support you during this time some people actually would rather\n\n532\n00:25:38.010 --> 00:25:39.200\nget the job done and\n\n533\n00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:42.290\nnot have chit chat because they'd rather spend time with their family and they\n\n534\n00:25:42.290 --> 00:25:43.440\nhad leaned at balance\n\n535\n00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:47.630\nso i think it's just about both as a cohesive culture how you know what are our\n\n536\n00:25:47.630 --> 00:25:48.480\nprinciples and\n\n537\n00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:52.520\nthen individually how do i serve each uh team member what do you think the\n\n538\n00:25:52.520 --> 00:25:54.000\nbalance will be between\n\n539\n00:25:55.280 --> 00:25:59.550\nworking in the office versus robotics as as things evolve and we get out of\n\n540\n00:25:59.550 --> 00:26:00.160\nthis mess\n\n541\n00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:06.640\nyeah i i really strongly believe it's going to be like uh uh you know three\n\n542\n00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:08.000\ndays in the office two\n\n543\n00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:13.120\ndays not that's what we're going to implement uh or it's just i mean it depends\n\n544\n00:26:13.120 --> 00:26:13.680\non your\n\n545\n00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:18.720\nstage it depends on the type of company you know because some companies i mean\n\n546\n00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:19.520\nsome roles have to\n\n547\n00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:24.610\nbe really in person but i think in general i think what i do love about um what\n\n548\n00:26:24.610 --> 00:26:25.360\nwe're all\n\n549\n00:26:25.360 --> 00:26:31.600\nexperiencing on a global level is that you can still get work done without and\n\n550\n00:26:31.600 --> 00:26:32.240\nintegrate your\n\n551\n00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:38.370\nfamily life in your personal life um and i what i do love is the fact that my\n\n552\n00:26:38.370 --> 00:26:39.840\nkids can come in here\n\n553\n00:26:39.840 --> 00:26:45.220\nat any point and a year ago i would be mortified and now i'd probably put them\n\n554\n00:26:45.220 --> 00:26:46.400\non my lap and give\n\n555\n00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:51.500\nthem a kiss and say meet mr no back and i think um you know i have a really uh\n\n556\n00:26:51.500 --> 00:26:52.640\nmeet like fun\n\n557\n00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:58.430\ninspiring story actually um that i always it was around april this was like\n\n558\n00:26:58.430 --> 00:27:00.160\nright you know covid\n\n559\n00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:04.260\nand this pandemic is very fresh around that so everyone was trying to still be\n\n560\n00:27:04.260 --> 00:27:05.600\nvery buttoned up\n\n561\n00:27:05.600 --> 00:27:11.840\non zoom and everything and i had a major call with uh a fortune 500 company\n\n562\n00:27:11.840 --> 00:27:13.280\nlike a big one you\n\n563\n00:27:13.280 --> 00:27:17.330\nprobably know that person did but i won't say any names and i was really\n\n564\n00:27:17.330 --> 00:27:18.800\nnervous i was like okay\n\n565\n00:27:18.800 --> 00:27:24.070\nhere i am this is my chance i can sell in here um and then uh i was with the\n\n566\n00:27:24.070 --> 00:27:26.320\nhead buyer and then my\n\n567\n00:27:26.320 --> 00:27:33.370\ndaughter who is by the way 13 okay she's not three she walks in in a green cray\n\n568\n00:27:33.370 --> 00:27:35.360\non costume okay with\n\n569\n00:27:35.360 --> 00:27:39.990\nthe hat and everything and she starts going like this on my zoom and i'm like\n\n570\n00:27:39.990 --> 00:27:42.000\num okay no get out\n\n571\n00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:46.850\nand i started sweating and it was a little awkward because now it's a little\n\n572\n00:27:46.850 --> 00:27:48.320\nbit more normalized but\n\n573\n00:27:48.320 --> 00:27:52.800\nthen it was still pretty formal and so it's embarrassing kind of like go out go\n\n574\n00:27:52.800 --> 00:27:54.160\nout and then i lost my\n\n575\n00:27:54.160 --> 00:27:58.330\ntrain of thought and then i kind of stumbled and got back into it and you know\n\n576\n00:27:58.330 --> 00:27:59.440\nwe got through the\n\n577\n00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:04.580\nmeeting and at the end i was like hello how could you have done this to me this\n\n578\n00:28:04.580 --> 00:28:06.080\nwas such a big meeting\n\n579\n00:28:06.080 --> 00:28:12.070\nand you're not three years old and i will never forget i got an email around 5\n\n580\n00:28:12.070 --> 00:28:13.280\n45 that night\n\n581\n00:28:13.280 --> 00:28:19.990\nand it was from that head buyer and what she said was jessica that meeting and\n\n582\n00:28:19.990 --> 00:28:21.760\nyour crayon was the\n\n583\n00:28:21.760 --> 00:28:27.820\nbest part of my day thank you so much for sharing your crayon with me and she\n\n584\n00:28:27.820 --> 00:28:30.400\nbasically made it made\n\n585\n00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:34.470\nme put me at ease because she probably knew that i was freaking out and saying\n\n586\n00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:35.360\nyou know what this\n\n587\n00:28:35.360 --> 00:28:39.130\nis the world we're living in i get it don't worry about it and i just think\n\n588\n00:28:39.130 --> 00:28:39.760\nthat's the type of\n\n589\n00:28:39.760 --> 00:28:45.270\nleadership that we need to have um and so yeah so i anyway there's a piece of\n\n590\n00:28:45.270 --> 00:28:46.640\nhumanity right it's\n\n591\n00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.150\npiece of humanity on on zoom and you know to have a little kid that can you\n\n592\n00:28:51.150 --> 00:28:52.880\nknow do the be a crayon\n\n593\n00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:57.410\nsays something about you too you know i i know you're an avid learner and i\n\n594\n00:28:57.410 --> 00:28:58.720\nknow you met with uh\n\n595\n00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:04.400\nandra newe the former chairman of of of pepzico when i told you that she was\n\n596\n00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:05.120\npassionate about\n\n597\n00:29:05.120 --> 00:29:11.680\ncaregiving yeah what did you learn by comparing notes with her uh well one\n\n598\n00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:13.520\nhearing her talk about\n\n599\n00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:19.760\ncaregiving on such a global level with her exposure and experience was so valid\n\n600\n00:29:19.760 --> 00:29:22.480\nating it was um it made\n\n601\n00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:27.070\nit so real and i think having someone in her position to be able to be a\n\n602\n00:29:27.070 --> 00:29:28.640\nspokesperson for this\n\n603\n00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:34.130\npeople will listen and so uh i think well the so that was the thing that just\n\n604\n00:29:34.130 --> 00:29:36.000\nstruck us most was\n\n605\n00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:41.610\nshe was so knowledgeable so articulate she is brilliant and her heart is is\n\n606\n00:29:41.610 --> 00:29:43.920\ngold um and she is\n\n607\n00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:50.170\nreally kind of utilizing her position her platform her voice she is going to\n\n608\n00:29:50.170 --> 00:29:51.120\nmake a difference and\n\n609\n00:29:51.840 --> 00:29:57.870\nand she sees it and she led you know thousands of people and she's a global\n\n610\n00:29:57.870 --> 00:29:59.440\nleader so i think so\n\n611\n00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:03.100\nthat's the that's the first thing is that it it's um it is a real thing and it\n\n612\n00:30:03.100 --> 00:30:04.080\ngave us even more of a\n\n613\n00:30:04.080 --> 00:30:09.530\nboost to say this is real and she loved our approach um and then i i think with\n\n614\n00:30:09.530 --> 00:30:11.040\nher she really did\n\n615\n00:30:11.040 --> 00:30:16.100\ninspire us that it is a systemic problem so we always knew and typically we\n\n616\n00:30:16.100 --> 00:30:17.440\nthink of caregiving\n\n617\n00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:21.880\nbecause we all come to it typically through a personal experience so we know\n\n618\n00:30:21.880 --> 00:30:22.800\nwhat happened\n\n619\n00:30:22.800 --> 00:30:26.880\npersonally individually we see what it did to our family or a friend's family\n\n620\n00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:28.960\num and then you kind\n\n621\n00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:33.250\nof start hearing stories but again because we're in this phase in our society\n\n622\n00:30:33.250 --> 00:30:34.720\nand culture where\n\n623\n00:30:34.720 --> 00:30:39.150\nwe don't often talk about it we don't even have terms yet for it um it can\n\n624\n00:30:39.150 --> 00:30:40.800\noften get lost um\n\n625\n00:30:41.600 --> 00:30:47.400\nand she really kind of emphasized that our systems have to change our\n\n626\n00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:49.040\ninstitutions have to change\n\n627\n00:30:49.040 --> 00:30:53.600\nour policies have to change she's talking at the government level and hearing\n\n628\n00:30:53.600 --> 00:30:54.720\nher speak like that\n\n629\n00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:00.960\nmade opened our eyes to say you are exactly right and it really had an impact\n\n630\n00:31:00.960 --> 00:31:03.120\nearly on how we kind\n\n631\n00:31:03.120 --> 00:31:06.120\nof started building the fabric of ionic care and that's kind of how we're\n\n632\n00:31:06.120 --> 00:31:07.120\napproaching it as well\n\n633\n00:31:07.120 --> 00:31:10.990\nit gave you even more conviction that you're heading in the right direction\n\n634\n00:31:10.990 --> 00:31:11.680\nwhich yeah i think\n\n635\n00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:14.800\nall of us need when we're we're trying to break new ground\n\n636\n00:31:14.800 --> 00:31:24.880\nyou know jessica it's been so great hearing about ionic care and how you're\n\n637\n00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:26.000\nbuilding the business\n\n638\n00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:30.840\nand uh you know i want to talk a little bit about you now and and tell us about\n\n639\n00:31:30.840 --> 00:31:32.080\nyour your upbringing\n\n640\n00:31:32.560 --> 00:31:37.120\nokay well i was born and raised in new jersey and proud of it\n\n641\n00:31:37.120 --> 00:31:43.040\ni'm the youngest of three kids with an awesome big brother and big sister and\n\n642\n00:31:43.040 --> 00:31:44.320\nmy parents were just\n\n643\n00:31:44.320 --> 00:31:49.440\nincredible people my dad is a psychiatrist and so as you can imagine i grew up\n\n644\n00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:50.400\ngetting so many\n\n645\n00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:54.670\nlectures um like if i did anything wrong i wouldn't get grounded or things\n\n646\n00:31:54.670 --> 00:31:55.760\ntaken away but he would\n\n647\n00:31:55.760 --> 00:32:00.940\njust sit me down and spend hours walking around me talking and i hated it at\n\n648\n00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:02.240\nthat point but i\n\n649\n00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:06.690\nlook back at those lectures and as an adult i really appreciate everything that\n\n650\n00:32:06.690 --> 00:32:07.760\nhe instilled in me\n\n651\n00:32:07.760 --> 00:32:16.140\num he was just a huge fan of just uh shaping growth mindset and self-confidence\n\n652\n00:32:16.140 --> 00:32:17.200\nand then my mom was\n\n653\n00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:21.020\njust the most supportive person she would do whatever it takes to kind of make\n\n654\n00:32:21.020 --> 00:32:22.000\nanything happen that i\n\n655\n00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:25.900\nwas interested in and so i just really credit my parents for establishing this\n\n656\n00:32:25.900 --> 00:32:27.120\nfoundation of believing\n\n657\n00:32:27.120 --> 00:32:31.340\nin myself and just going after what i wanted to do just can you have a early\n\n658\n00:32:31.340 --> 00:32:32.720\nchildhood story that\n\n659\n00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:38.480\nthat you like to tell that will tell us a lot about you well it's interesting\n\n660\n00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:39.840\nuh this is also a\n\n661\n00:32:39.840 --> 00:32:43.620\nstory around what i was just saying and how my you know parents just instilled\n\n662\n00:32:43.620 --> 00:32:44.560\nthis self-confidence\n\n663\n00:32:44.560 --> 00:32:49.450\nwhich i really appreciated uh so in middle school i came back and i said i'm\n\n664\n00:32:49.450 --> 00:32:51.040\ngonna run for you know\n\n665\n00:32:51.040 --> 00:32:56.280\nstudent office and my dad was saying great you know what are you gonna do and i\n\n666\n00:32:56.280 --> 00:32:57.200\nsaid i'm gonna run\n\n667\n00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:02.180\nfor secretary and he's like great you know that's wonderful um but can you tell\n\n668\n00:33:02.180 --> 00:33:03.040\nme the difference\n\n669\n00:33:03.040 --> 00:33:08.200\nbetween what a secretary does versus the president and you know this is middle\n\n670\n00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:09.120\nschool and high school\n\n671\n00:33:09.120 --> 00:33:13.110\nand so at the time i said well no i i don't really know the difference and he\n\n672\n00:33:13.110 --> 00:33:14.320\nsaid then why don't you\n\n673\n00:33:14.320 --> 00:33:19.040\ngo for president and i said well i just thought that that's kind of you know\n\n674\n00:33:19.040 --> 00:33:20.560\nwhat you do it's my\n\n675\n00:33:20.560 --> 00:33:25.500\nfirst time maybe it's because i'm a girl and he stopped me right there and he\n\n676\n00:33:25.500 --> 00:33:27.200\nsaid it doesn't matter\n\n677\n00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:32.260\nwhether you're a girl or boy Asian color of skin tall short etc if you have a\n\n678\n00:33:32.260 --> 00:33:33.520\nvision for what you\n\n679\n00:33:33.520 --> 00:33:38.890\nwant to do you go for it don't let anything hold you back and so i remember\n\n680\n00:33:38.890 --> 00:33:40.320\nsaying okay let me do\n\n681\n00:33:40.320 --> 00:33:45.140\nit and so i ran this whole campaign i said say yes to just for president and i\n\n682\n00:33:45.140 --> 00:33:45.760\nmade all these\n\n683\n00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:51.010\nfortune cookies and put all the messages in there and i ended up winning that\n\n684\n00:33:51.010 --> 00:33:52.080\nwhole campaign and\n\n685\n00:33:52.080 --> 00:33:55.240\ni ran every year my high school year so i was president every single year of my\n\n686\n00:33:55.240 --> 00:33:55.840\nhigh school\n\n687\n00:33:55.840 --> 00:34:02.320\num and it was just something very early on for me that i take with me even now\n\n688\n00:34:02.320 --> 00:34:03.680\nas a female founder\n\n689\n00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:09.590\nand entrepreneur and leader is that belief that if you have a vision it doesn't\n\n690\n00:34:09.590 --> 00:34:10.640\nmatter where you\n\n691\n00:34:10.640 --> 00:34:15.630\ncome from or who you are what you look like or people's perceptions are of you\n\n692\n00:34:15.630 --> 00:34:16.640\nyou go for it\n\n693\n00:34:16.640 --> 00:34:20.540\nbecause it's the vision that's going to drive you and so i'm just so that was a\n\n694\n00:34:20.540 --> 00:34:21.520\nvery pivotal moment\n\n695\n00:34:21.520 --> 00:34:26.500\nfor me i love that say yes to yes that's great advice for your father now you\n\n696\n00:34:26.500 --> 00:34:28.080\nwent on to brown\n\n697\n00:34:28.080 --> 00:34:33.920\nwhich is a great school and you majored in anthropology how did that shape your\n\n698\n00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:35.360\nbusiness approach oh my\n\n699\n00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:41.400\ngosh i am so grateful that i did that and um when i went to school i was like\n\n700\n00:34:41.400 --> 00:34:42.400\nokay this is what i\n\n701\n00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:47.120\nreally love doing i have no idea what job this is going to turn into but ever\n\n702\n00:34:47.120 --> 00:34:48.320\nsince i was 10 when\n\n703\n00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:52.720\npeople would say what do you want to be when you grow up i said i don't know\n\n704\n00:34:52.720 --> 00:34:54.160\nbut i want to study\n\n705\n00:34:54.160 --> 00:35:00.250\npeople and i've always been so intrigued by our culture our backgrounds our\n\n706\n00:35:00.250 --> 00:35:01.440\nupbringing our\n\n707\n00:35:01.440 --> 00:35:06.480\nsituational experiences and how all of those things literally shape the way we\n\n708\n00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:07.520\nsee the world\n\n709\n00:35:07.520 --> 00:35:12.640\nand so when i got to college anthropology was just that it was digging into\n\n710\n00:35:12.640 --> 00:35:14.480\nhistory and cultures and\n\n711\n00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:19.680\nall the different ways communities live and interact and communicate and so i\n\n712\n00:35:19.680 --> 00:35:21.600\nyou know the way i see\n\n713\n00:35:21.600 --> 00:35:26.640\nthat now is that that is really what business is all about you know what we're\n\n714\n00:35:26.640 --> 00:35:28.960\nultimately doing as\n\n715\n00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:33.280\nbusiness creators entrepreneurs leaders is that we're trying to create a\n\n716\n00:35:33.280 --> 00:35:34.720\nsolution to make\n\n717\n00:35:34.720 --> 00:35:39.430\nsomeone's life better and to have let them flourish and how can you do that if\n\n718\n00:35:39.430 --> 00:35:40.800\nyou don't know\n\n719\n00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:44.730\nwhat that person is about and how they're shaped and how they view the world so\n\n720\n00:35:44.730 --> 00:35:46.160\nit absolutely is the\n\n721\n00:35:46.160 --> 00:35:51.080\ncore of the way we approach marketing the way we approach even the solution we\n\n722\n00:35:51.080 --> 00:35:52.640\n're creating the way\n\n723\n00:35:52.640 --> 00:35:58.880\ni lead it's so rooted in the person and so anthropology is really the core of\n\n724\n00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:00.480\nhow i operate today\n\n725\n00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:05.280\nthat's incredible you know you seem to really focus on the problems that impact\n\n726\n00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:05.760\npeople and that\n\n727\n00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:10.180\nreally drives your ideation process and your light bulb moments is that is that\n\n728\n00:36:10.180 --> 00:36:11.440\na correct conclusion\n\n729\n00:36:11.440 --> 00:36:18.800\nyes i it's interesting i spend the bulk of the time focusing on the problem and\n\n730\n00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:19.360\nthe existing\n\n731\n00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:22.700\nbehavior and i think you know david like you were saying i think that's kind of\n\n732\n00:36:22.700 --> 00:36:23.520\nmy anthropology\n\n733\n00:36:23.520 --> 00:36:26.770\nbackground because people always say how do you get a business started what do\n\n734\n00:36:26.770 --> 00:36:27.040\nyou do\n\n735\n00:36:27.040 --> 00:36:31.760\nand so often we jump to execution but how are you supposed to kind of create a\n\n736\n00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:32.320\nsolution if you\n\n737\n00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:37.040\ndon't really understand what you're solving and so even with this we went and\n\n738\n00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:40.320\nread uh 14th century\n\n739\n00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:46.340\ndeath manuals we read all these journals and research from doctors like we\n\n740\n00:36:46.340 --> 00:36:48.080\nreally dug into the\n\n741\n00:36:48.080 --> 00:36:52.190\nproblem that exists today and how it existed over the last decades to\n\n742\n00:36:52.190 --> 00:36:53.280\nunderstand how we can move\n\n743\n00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:57.390\nit forward in a in a practical way yeah well i love that that focus you know\n\n744\n00:36:57.390 --> 00:36:58.720\nfinding those problems\n\n745\n00:36:58.720 --> 00:37:02.800\nthat didn't solve them you know at the age of 19 you started jessica's wonders\n\n746\n00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:03.840\nnow that's a baked\n\n747\n00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:07.890\ngoods company and you did it right out of your your college dorm room tell us a\n\n748\n00:37:07.890 --> 00:37:09.040\nstory about how that\n\n749\n00:37:09.040 --> 00:37:14.120\nhappened um so yeah i i did not intend to start a business i was an\n\n750\n00:37:14.120 --> 00:37:16.640\nanthropology major i walked\n\n751\n00:37:16.640 --> 00:37:21.700\ninto this pizzeria my sophomore summer and this pizzeria was called phalini's\n\n752\n00:37:21.700 --> 00:37:22.960\nand providence\n\n753\n00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:28.380\nand i saw this plate of banana bread and i said wait a second who made this i\n\n754\n00:37:28.380 --> 00:37:29.760\ncan do it so much\n\n755\n00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:33.300\nbetter and it was saran wrapped and it had a toothpick with a little you know\n\n756\n00:37:33.300 --> 00:37:34.480\nsign that's at a dollar\n\n757\n00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:39.740\n69 so i knew it wasn't like a professional company and so he said um why you\n\n758\n00:37:39.740 --> 00:37:40.640\nthink you could do\n\n759\n00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:45.470\nbetter and i said absolutely so he's like all right bring it in so i brought in\n\n760\n00:37:45.470 --> 00:37:47.200\nmy special banana\n\n761\n00:37:47.200 --> 00:37:51.290\nbread that i named after my friend kelly who was obsessed with bananas and i\n\n762\n00:37:51.290 --> 00:37:52.240\nbrought it in and\n\n763\n00:37:52.240 --> 00:37:56.600\nit sold out that day and he was like wait hold on i'm a pizzeria this is summer\n\n764\n00:37:56.600 --> 00:37:57.600\ntime i don't sell\n\n765\n00:37:57.600 --> 00:38:01.510\nout of baked goods bring in another one so i kept bring it in and kept selling\n\n766\n00:38:01.510 --> 00:38:02.720\nout and after a while\n\n767\n00:38:02.720 --> 00:38:06.870\ni said wait i want to make sure people know that i made this so i made signs\n\n768\n00:38:06.870 --> 00:38:08.720\nout of construction paper\n\n769\n00:38:08.720 --> 00:38:14.460\nand markers and i called it jessica's wonders and the slogan was so good it'll\n\n770\n00:38:14.460 --> 00:38:16.000\nmake you wonder\n\n771\n00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:21.920\nand it just after a while i was just like wait hold on you need to pick me for\n\n772\n00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:22.160\nthis\n\n773\n00:38:22.160 --> 00:38:25.650\nthat was how far away i was from business i wasn't even charging him for all\n\n774\n00:38:25.650 --> 00:38:26.080\nthese\n\n775\n00:38:26.080 --> 00:38:33.830\nbanana breads that he was selling out of but long story sure i ended up you\n\n776\n00:38:33.830 --> 00:38:35.040\nknow continuing to\n\n777\n00:38:35.040 --> 00:38:40.000\nsell to 13 different hot spots around campus i was literally baking out of my\n\n778\n00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:40.720\nlittle tiny\n\n779\n00:38:40.720 --> 00:38:47.680\nefficiency oven in my dorm room and then brown had its very first business plan\n\n780\n00:38:47.680 --> 00:38:48.320\ncompetition\n\n781\n00:38:48.320 --> 00:38:53.040\nand so i didn't independent study with professor hazel teen which was actually\n\n782\n00:38:53.040 --> 00:38:53.680\nthe same professor\n\n783\n00:38:53.680 --> 00:38:57.660\nthat helped the nantucket nectar's guys tom's got and tom first start their\n\n784\n00:38:57.660 --> 00:38:59.200\nbusiness and so he\n\n785\n00:38:59.200 --> 00:39:02.220\nsaid okay we could do an independent study but you have to enter this business\n\n786\n00:39:02.220 --> 00:39:03.840\nplan i said okay fine\n\n787\n00:39:03.840 --> 00:39:09.200\nand so as i did the business plan um you know i loved the process of thinking\n\n788\n00:39:09.200 --> 00:39:09.760\nabout all the\n\n789\n00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:14.900\ndifferent aspects that you had to do to create a business and there were 77\n\n790\n00:39:14.900 --> 00:39:16.720\nteams and i won the\n\n791\n00:39:16.720 --> 00:39:23.760\ncompetition and and so after winning that um i ended up selling more and then\n\n792\n00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:24.720\nuh one of the\n\n793\n00:39:24.720 --> 00:39:28.870\nmentors and alum kind of took me under his wing and i ended up raising one\n\n794\n00:39:28.870 --> 00:39:30.640\nmillion dollars my senior\n\n795\n00:39:30.640 --> 00:39:34.910\nyear of college and so i had braces at that time i was like 20 years old i\n\n796\n00:39:34.910 --> 00:39:36.480\nlooked like i was 13\n\n797\n00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:40.910\nand we quickly grew the business to over four million in revenue in just two\n\n798\n00:39:40.910 --> 00:39:41.600\nyears um getting\n\n799\n00:39:41.600 --> 00:39:47.820\ndistribution along the entire east coast uh so it was an incredible experience\n\n800\n00:39:47.820 --> 00:39:49.040\nand that kind of\n\n801\n00:39:49.040 --> 00:39:52.920\nis what introduced me to what entrepreneurship was wow that's a that's a very\n\n802\n00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:54.000\nquick start you know\n\n803\n00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:58.820\nyou you mentioned you know 19 you look young you had the braces how did you how\n\n804\n00:39:58.820 --> 00:39:59.200\ndid you get\n\n805\n00:39:59.200 --> 00:40:03.180\npeople to take you serious as a business person back then yeah i had to learn\n\n806\n00:40:03.180 --> 00:40:04.080\nthat the hard way\n\n807\n00:40:04.080 --> 00:40:08.880\ni realized i'd have a lot of energy and passion and everyone talks about it and\n\n808\n00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:09.680\ni think that's so\n\n809\n00:40:09.680 --> 00:40:14.240\ntrue like i saw a vision that this could be like the Ben and Jerry's of baked\n\n810\n00:40:14.240 --> 00:40:15.760\ngoods and so i presented\n\n811\n00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:21.170\nit that way i always had people taste the product so they could enjoy it but i\n\n812\n00:40:21.170 --> 00:40:22.400\nrealized that i had\n\n813\n00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:27.410\nto back it up with a lot of kind of financial planning or the plans of how i'm\n\n814\n00:40:27.410 --> 00:40:28.560\ngoing to actually\n\n815\n00:40:28.560 --> 00:40:33.860\nexecute it because you can have passion but especially being so young and\n\n816\n00:40:33.860 --> 00:40:34.560\nhaving a bubbly\n\n817\n00:40:34.560 --> 00:40:39.520\npersonality like i i have i realized i had to give people assurance that i was\n\n818\n00:40:39.520 --> 00:40:40.640\nalso very planned\n\n819\n00:40:40.640 --> 00:40:44.360\nout and i knew what how i was going to actually do this and so the combination\n\n820\n00:40:44.360 --> 00:40:45.360\nof those two things\n\n821\n00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:49.520\nmade people trust in me and i'm so grateful that they gave me this chance and\n\n822\n00:40:49.520 --> 00:40:50.480\nall these angel\n\n823\n00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:54.720\ninvestors i invested a million dollars in me when i was so young it i really\n\n824\n00:40:54.720 --> 00:40:55.680\ncredit them for giving\n\n825\n00:40:55.680 --> 00:41:00.450\nme this opportunity and so what happened to the company yeah so after a couple\n\n826\n00:41:00.450 --> 00:41:01.360\nyears of running\n\n827\n00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:05.250\nit and we were all in the soft and sharp supermarkets we just i just had this\n\n828\n00:41:05.250 --> 00:41:06.560\nopportunity to have a\n\n829\n00:41:06.560 --> 00:41:10.820\nsale of it and it was it was a good sale and i was able to then go to business\n\n830\n00:41:10.820 --> 00:41:12.160\nschool afterwards\n\n831\n00:41:12.160 --> 00:41:18.300\nand that's really when i kind of really processed everything that happened so\n\n832\n00:41:18.300 --> 00:41:19.200\nas you can imagine it\n\n833\n00:41:19.200 --> 00:41:24.320\nwas such a whirlwind there was a point where through that experience being so\n\n834\n00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:25.360\nyoung i slept\n\n835\n00:41:25.360 --> 00:41:29.380\nat the office i didn't have anything else other than to i was just pouring\n\n836\n00:41:29.380 --> 00:41:30.640\neverything into the\n\n837\n00:41:30.640 --> 00:41:36.220\nbusiness and so i didn't have any kind of life work balance and so i learned a\n\n838\n00:41:36.220 --> 00:41:38.160\nlot of really\n\n839\n00:41:38.160 --> 00:41:42.850\ncore life lessons through Jessica's wonders and business school really helped\n\n840\n00:41:42.850 --> 00:41:44.800\nme process strategically\n\n841\n00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:50.000\nwhat happened what we did right what we could have done better and so i really\n\n842\n00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:50.560\nappreciate\n\n843\n00:41:50.560 --> 00:41:53.460\nthat time that i had there to process everything with my classmates you know\n\n844\n00:41:53.460 --> 00:41:54.640\nspeaking of processing\n\n845\n00:41:54.640 --> 00:41:58.990\nthat you know what would be the top three bits of advice you'd give aspiring\n\n846\n00:41:58.990 --> 00:41:59.920\nentrepreneurs based on\n\n847\n00:41:59.920 --> 00:42:07.600\nthat experience yeah i mean the biggest thing is you don't need to have a\n\n848\n00:42:07.600 --> 00:42:09.200\nbackground or all this\n\n849\n00:42:09.200 --> 00:42:15.680\nexperience in what you have a vision for so often we get roadblocks by saying\n\n850\n00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:16.400\nwell i don't have a\n\n851\n00:42:16.400 --> 00:42:21.080\nbackground in baking like i was on a professional baker all i did was have a\n\n852\n00:42:21.080 --> 00:42:22.560\nvision for this product\n\n853\n00:42:22.560 --> 00:42:27.040\nand this brand and kind of what we could create and what i did was just look\n\n854\n00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:28.400\nfor someone that just\n\n855\n00:42:28.400 --> 00:42:32.430\nknew a bit better than me and so that's the other thing we often think we need\n\n856\n00:42:32.430 --> 00:42:33.760\nthis famous expert or\n\n857\n00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:38.400\nthis famous person or the best mentor in the world in order for me to move\n\n858\n00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:39.680\nforward but you just need\n\n859\n00:42:39.680 --> 00:42:44.760\nto find someone that's just you know knows a bit more and so the person that\n\n860\n00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:46.240\nreally helped me learn\n\n861\n00:42:46.240 --> 00:42:52.420\nhow to bake on a commercial scale was an owner of a local bagel store around\n\n862\n00:42:52.420 --> 00:42:54.320\ncampus i walked in and\n\n863\n00:42:54.320 --> 00:43:00.090\ni just said can you help me kind of figure out how to get this one low-frescipy\n\n864\n00:43:00.090 --> 00:43:02.640\nto you know 50 pounds\n\n865\n00:43:02.640 --> 00:43:07.000\nand he said okay we'll come tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. because that's when i\n\n866\n00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:08.400\nstarted and so i was\n\n867\n00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:12.640\nthere in front of his door at 3 45 a.m. with two coffees in hand and i said i'm\n\n868\n00:43:12.640 --> 00:43:14.080\nready to go and so\n\n869\n00:43:14.080 --> 00:43:17.450\nthat eagerness is what made him feel like i'll invest in you and help and\n\n870\n00:43:17.450 --> 00:43:18.640\nmentor you to teach you\n\n871\n00:43:18.640 --> 00:43:23.110\neverything so i think that's the thing it's just you just need to go forward\n\n872\n00:43:23.110 --> 00:43:24.640\nand just find one person\n\n873\n00:43:24.640 --> 00:43:29.540\nthat knows just a little bit more than you i think the other thing is make sure\n\n874\n00:43:29.540 --> 00:43:31.200\nthat you find people\n\n875\n00:43:31.200 --> 00:43:35.660\nwho believe in your vision just as much as you do and so you know with our\n\n876\n00:43:35.660 --> 00:43:37.040\ninvestors you know you\n\n877\n00:43:37.040 --> 00:43:41.920\nhave to find people that like not are only looking for a financial return and\n\n878\n00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:42.880\njust seeing it as a\n\n879\n00:43:42.880 --> 00:43:46.910\nfinancial investment but how are you going to do it and that how is really\n\n880\n00:43:46.910 --> 00:43:47.920\nimportant to get\n\n881\n00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:51.830\naligned with great you know i was really surprised just to learn that your your\n\n882\n00:43:51.830 --> 00:43:53.600\nnext career step was\n\n883\n00:43:53.600 --> 00:43:58.370\nbrand management at craft foods you know you go for being as entrepreneur into\n\n884\n00:43:58.370 --> 00:43:59.600\na big company like\n\n885\n00:43:59.600 --> 00:44:04.960\ncraft that had to be quite an adjustment it was you know but you know i i feel\n\n886\n00:44:04.960 --> 00:44:06.160\nlike i was i was\n\n887\n00:44:06.160 --> 00:44:10.530\ndesiring it you know because i started my first company and it was really my\n\n888\n00:44:10.530 --> 00:44:11.840\nfirst professional\n\n889\n00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:17.770\njob starting my own thing all on my own i kind of wanted to learn from the big\n\n890\n00:44:17.770 --> 00:44:18.960\nguys because the thing\n\n891\n00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:22.140\nthat i hated hearing was people would say oh that's great that you have to\n\n892\n00:44:22.140 --> 00:44:23.440\nspeak good company but you\n\n893\n00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:28.010\ndon't know how the real world works i'm like hmm but let me figure out how the\n\n894\n00:44:28.010 --> 00:44:29.120\nreal world works\n\n895\n00:44:29.120 --> 00:44:33.760\nand so i wanted to go to craft foods to get that apples to apples comparison of\n\n896\n00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:34.480\nwhat it was like\n\n897\n00:44:34.480 --> 00:44:40.520\nto work at a startup food business out of a dorm room to a fortune 500 and it\n\n898\n00:44:40.520 --> 00:44:42.080\nwas incredible to see\n\n899\n00:44:42.080 --> 00:44:45.500\nkind of the similarities and the differences and what's done well in a big\n\n900\n00:44:45.500 --> 00:44:46.720\ncompany and what's\n\n901\n00:44:46.720 --> 00:44:51.480\ndone better in a small company but i wanted to stay in the same industry so i\n\n902\n00:44:51.480 --> 00:44:52.000\ndidn't have the\n\n903\n00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:57.180\ndifferent industry to kind of skew that point of view um and so i loved kind of\n\n904\n00:44:57.180 --> 00:44:58.000\nlearning how to\n\n905\n00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:03.660\nrun a bigger team uh bigger finance running a bigger p&l and having inter\n\n906\n00:45:03.660 --> 00:45:04.960\ndisciplinary teams\n\n907\n00:45:04.960 --> 00:45:09.770\nand so i learned so much but after three years the thing that i missed was the\n\n908\n00:45:09.770 --> 00:45:10.800\nkind of startup\n\n909\n00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:15.820\ngrind kind of like being really close to the consumer and being part of that\n\n910\n00:45:15.820 --> 00:45:17.200\ninitial vision\n\n911\n00:45:17.200 --> 00:45:22.870\nand creation process and so um that's when i kind of started my next company\n\n912\n00:45:22.870 --> 00:45:23.600\nyeah and so you\n\n913\n00:45:23.600 --> 00:45:27.890\nwent on to found uh botico tell us the genesis of this company it's really\n\n914\n00:45:27.890 --> 00:45:28.800\ninteresting\n\n915\n00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:35.660\nyeah so you know i was on maternity leave from craft actually and i had my\n\n916\n00:45:35.660 --> 00:45:36.960\nfirst child i now\n\n917\n00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:42.260\nhave three kids uh and when cayla was an infant my eyes were opened up to the\n\n918\n00:45:42.260 --> 00:45:43.840\nworld of parenting\n\n919\n00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:46.990\nand this was right when mommy blogging was coming out and all the brands were\n\n920\n00:45:46.990 --> 00:45:48.000\njust showing parenting\n\n921\n00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:53.990\nus this calm and beautiful thing and i realized hey that's not reality and so i\n\n922\n00:45:53.990 --> 00:45:55.120\nsaw this opportunity\n\n923\n00:45:55.120 --> 00:45:59.890\ncreate a brand that was very personality driven um and to create products that\n\n924\n00:45:59.890 --> 00:46:01.360\nreally focused on\n\n925\n00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:05.790\nthe quality time we spend with our kids and so the way i always thought it is\n\n926\n00:46:05.790 --> 00:46:07.280\nyou know we can buy a\n\n927\n00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:11.820\nlot of things for our kids but the most important thing that we can give to our\n\n928\n00:46:11.820 --> 00:46:12.800\nkids is our time\n\n929\n00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:15.950\nand attention but it's hard to do that consistently when we're juggling\n\n930\n00:46:15.950 --> 00:46:17.760\neverything and we're tired\n\n931\n00:46:17.760 --> 00:46:21.440\nand so we created these activity boxes where it just came to your house every\n\n932\n00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:22.240\nmonth and you just\n\n933\n00:46:22.240 --> 00:46:26.100\nopen up and all the materials and instructions are there for you to just and\n\n934\n00:46:26.100 --> 00:46:27.040\nenjoy and spend good\n\n935\n00:46:27.040 --> 00:46:30.840\ntime with your kids oh that's great now i i understand you learned how to put\n\n936\n00:46:30.840 --> 00:46:31.520\nyour initial\n\n937\n00:46:31.520 --> 00:46:37.830\nbobbico product together by learning how to sew on youtube yes that's right\n\n938\n00:46:37.830 --> 00:46:39.600\nbecause before we\n\n939\n00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:43.660\ncame out with the activity boxes our first product was this uh infant car seat\n\n940\n00:46:43.660 --> 00:46:44.800\ncover to protect the\n\n941\n00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:49.780\nbaby from the cold and the wind and again i didn't know how to sew the last\n\n942\n00:46:49.780 --> 00:46:52.000\ntime i sewed was in sixth\n\n943\n00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:58.330\ngrade home economics class um so what i did was i just kind of watched a ton of\n\n944\n00:46:58.330 --> 00:46:59.760\nyoutube videos\n\n945\n00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:05.010\ni got material um and this when i had to do a certain pattern that was too\n\n946\n00:47:05.010 --> 00:47:06.480\ndifficult to even\n\n947\n00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:11.460\nlearn how to do through youtube i stapled it i duct taped it i just did\n\n948\n00:47:11.460 --> 00:47:13.040\nwhatever i needed to do\n\n949\n00:47:13.040 --> 00:47:19.140\nto get to a certain prototype so then i could take it over to the local seam\n\n950\n00:47:19.140 --> 00:47:22.080\nstress at a dry cleaners\n\n951\n00:47:22.080 --> 00:47:26.400\nyou know the local dry cleaners and i just said to her i said can you make this\n\n952\n00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:27.280\nlook better than\n\n953\n00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:32.110\nwhat it is right now obviously i don't want duct tape on it um and so she did\n\n954\n00:47:32.110 --> 00:47:34.480\nand um same thing she\n\n955\n00:47:34.480 --> 00:47:38.550\nkind of took me under her wing and and started teaching me what patterns were\n\n956\n00:47:38.550 --> 00:47:39.520\nand how you really\n\n957\n00:47:39.520 --> 00:47:44.000\nsew certain patterns and so that's how we got our first products out the door\n\n958\n00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:44.640\nand then we ended up\n\n959\n00:47:44.640 --> 00:47:50.950\nselling thousands of those through by by baby and and um amazon and uh we just\n\n960\n00:47:50.950 --> 00:47:52.080\ngrew the business but\n\n961\n00:47:52.080 --> 00:47:55.860\nit really started with youtube videos and finding that one person that just\n\n962\n00:47:55.860 --> 00:47:56.640\nknows a little bit more\n\n963\n00:47:56.640 --> 00:48:00.890\nthan you so you really help families spend quality time together for the\n\n964\n00:48:00.890 --> 00:48:02.560\nproducts that you created\n\n965\n00:48:02.560 --> 00:48:06.400\nand you started out by selling to big box retailers as i understand it and then\n\n966\n00:48:06.400 --> 00:48:08.160\nyou went to uh a\n\n967\n00:48:08.160 --> 00:48:14.720\nsubscription model yes what drove that decision i it's kind of again if we are\n\n968\n00:48:14.720 --> 00:48:16.240\ncreating solutions\n\n969\n00:48:16.240 --> 00:48:21.710\nfor our consumers and i just dug in to what they were doing what they were\n\n970\n00:48:21.710 --> 00:48:23.200\nlooking at what their\n\n971\n00:48:23.200 --> 00:48:29.050\nneeds were and i realized especially with the rise of social media at that time\n\n972\n00:48:29.050 --> 00:48:29.520\nthat there was this\n\n973\n00:48:29.520 --> 00:48:35.840\nopportunity to directly communicate and have this real relationship with the\n\n974\n00:48:35.840 --> 00:48:37.120\nmoms and dads and\n\n975\n00:48:37.120 --> 00:48:41.180\nfamilies that we were serving and so when we were in big box retailer you know\n\n976\n00:48:41.180 --> 00:48:41.680\nwe would\n\n977\n00:48:41.680 --> 00:48:46.320\nwork with the great buyers but we had no personal connection or awareness or\n\n978\n00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:47.280\nunderstanding of what\n\n979\n00:48:47.280 --> 00:48:52.150\neach individual consumer was doing and so that shift was really just out of the\n\n980\n00:48:52.150 --> 00:48:52.960\nintent of getting\n\n981\n00:48:52.960 --> 00:48:56.730\ncloser to the consumer and building our direct relationship with them now you\n\n982\n00:48:56.730 --> 00:48:57.680\nended up selling\n\n983\n00:48:57.680 --> 00:49:01.660\nbobbico and which you stayed on as president for a couple of years uh what\n\n984\n00:49:01.660 --> 00:49:03.040\ntriggered your decision\n\n985\n00:49:03.040 --> 00:49:08.000\nto leave oh gosh so much but i guess i would say you know there was just an\n\n986\n00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:09.120\nopportunity when you\n\n987\n00:49:09.120 --> 00:49:12.960\nthink about what you want to do with the business you often don't know how it's\n\n988\n00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:13.680\nall going to play\n\n989\n00:49:13.680 --> 00:49:18.080\nout and what the exit strategy will be and we're just so focused on serving our\n\n990\n00:49:18.080 --> 00:49:19.120\ncommunity the best\n\n991\n00:49:19.120 --> 00:49:24.020\num but i just started realizing that fundamentally the physical box\n\n992\n00:49:24.020 --> 00:49:27.280\nsubscription directly to consumers\n\n993\n00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:30.670\nit was not the best way that we can really serve them and that it would be\n\n994\n00:49:30.670 --> 00:49:31.680\nbetter as part of a\n\n995\n00:49:31.680 --> 00:49:38.060\nbigger company and so we had books in every single box and you know we had bare\n\n996\n00:49:38.060 --> 00:49:39.120\nfoot books in there\n\n997\n00:49:39.120 --> 00:49:44.290\nand it was by far the best boxes that people loved uh this is a global children\n\n998\n00:49:44.290 --> 00:49:45.360\n's publishing\n\n999\n00:49:45.360 --> 00:49:50.420\ncompany they have incredible kind of global stories that all with the mission\n\n1000\n00:49:50.420 --> 00:49:52.320\nof opening their minds\n\n1001\n00:49:52.320 --> 00:49:57.360\nand opening their worlds and so i've got to know the founder she's a female\n\n1002\n00:49:57.360 --> 00:49:58.960\nfounder um in Cambridge\n\n1003\n00:49:58.960 --> 00:50:03.680\nso close to me and we just started having coffees and dinners together and the\n\n1004\n00:50:03.680 --> 00:50:04.800\nmore we talked about\n\n1005\n00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:11.280\nour vision we realized that together we can make it even stronger and better\n\n1006\n00:50:11.280 --> 00:50:12.400\nand so it was such an\n\n1007\n00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:18.390\norganic and natural kind of progression and so we they acquired um bobbico and\n\n1008\n00:50:18.390 --> 00:50:19.840\ni stayed on as president\n\n1009\n00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:23.970\nfor a little over two and a half years it was just an incredible experience and\n\n1010\n00:50:23.970 --> 00:50:25.120\nwe had thousands of\n\n1011\n00:50:25.760 --> 00:50:30.800\nsales direct sales people selling our products and so i loved leading kind of\n\n1012\n00:50:30.800 --> 00:50:31.840\nthe thousands of people\n\n1013\n00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:35.560\nand um just really giving them a sense of purpose of what they were doing and\n\n1014\n00:50:35.560 --> 00:50:36.640\nwhat they were sharing\n\n1015\n00:50:36.640 --> 00:50:40.610\nwith people. Jessica i had a lot of fun getting ready for this and i went to\n\n1016\n00:50:40.610 --> 00:50:41.760\nyour twitter account\n\n1017\n00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:46.250\nand i i read a number of your tweets and i want to i want to ask you a few\n\n1018\n00:50:46.250 --> 00:50:47.280\nquestion about that\n\n1019\n00:50:47.280 --> 00:50:52.250\ni learned that that you really like the idea of reverse pitches where rather\n\n1020\n00:50:52.250 --> 00:50:53.280\nthan entrepreneurs\n\n1021\n00:50:53.280 --> 00:50:56.980\npitching their ideas industry experts give you the key problem for their\n\n1022\n00:50:56.980 --> 00:50:58.480\ncreators to solve can you\n\n1023\n00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:03.460\ntalk a little about that yes oh my gosh i am a big believer of this the more\n\n1024\n00:51:03.460 --> 00:51:04.720\ncommon thing is for\n\n1025\n00:51:04.720 --> 00:51:09.960\nconferences to have entrepreneurs and they pitch their idea right but i think\n\n1026\n00:51:09.960 --> 00:51:11.600\nwhat's more impactful\n\n1027\n00:51:11.600 --> 00:51:17.180\nare all these executives and leaders and industry experts who are living and\n\n1028\n00:51:17.180 --> 00:51:19.920\nbreathing these problems\n\n1029\n00:51:19.920 --> 00:51:22.560\nday after day and they're trying to solve it but they're solving it in a\n\n1030\n00:51:22.560 --> 00:51:23.600\ncertain way but they have\n\n1031\n00:51:23.600 --> 00:51:30.390\nall these other ideas of how other solutions can make their impact stronger and\n\n1032\n00:51:30.390 --> 00:51:31.040\nso i\n\n1033\n00:51:31.040 --> 00:51:36.310\ni there these reverse pitches is basically the total opposite where up there\n\n1034\n00:51:36.310 --> 00:51:37.600\nyou have this panel\n\n1035\n00:51:37.600 --> 00:51:42.040\nand you have these industry experts and they share what they're seeing and the\n\n1036\n00:51:42.040 --> 00:51:42.400\nproblems that\n\n1037\n00:51:42.400 --> 00:51:46.510\nthey're seeing and why it's a problem and why we need to be concerned but they\n\n1038\n00:51:46.510 --> 00:51:47.520\nhave no idea how\n\n1039\n00:51:47.520 --> 00:51:53.360\nto solve it but they really understand what's wrong and so we as entrepreneurs\n\n1040\n00:51:53.360 --> 00:51:54.400\nin the audience we can\n\n1041\n00:51:54.400 --> 00:51:59.020\nhear all of that insight and the way that we're built is to say oh my gosh well\n\n1042\n00:51:59.020 --> 00:52:00.320\nwhy don't we take\n\n1043\n00:52:00.320 --> 00:52:04.460\nthis part from a and this part from b and collaborate and kind of create a\n\n1044\n00:52:04.460 --> 00:52:06.160\nsolution together but i\n\n1045\n00:52:06.160 --> 00:52:09.600\nthink that's so effective and i think we should have more and more of these\n\n1046\n00:52:09.600 --> 00:52:10.960\nreverse pitches versus\n\n1047\n00:52:10.960 --> 00:52:15.700\nonly hearing the idea yeah there's your problem solving orientation again yeah\n\n1048\n00:52:15.700 --> 00:52:16.720\ni love this tweet\n\n1049\n00:52:16.720 --> 00:52:21.280\nyou said you can take the entrepreneur out of the startup hustle but you can't\n\n1050\n00:52:21.280 --> 00:52:21.680\ntake the\n\n1051\n00:52:21.680 --> 00:52:26.210\nstartup hustle out of the entrepreneur what do you mean by that oh my gosh i\n\n1052\n00:52:26.210 --> 00:52:27.680\nthink it's just what i\n\n1053\n00:52:27.680 --> 00:52:34.340\nrealized after being at the very beginning of a startup and then even being at\n\n1054\n00:52:34.340 --> 00:52:35.840\nan organization\n\n1055\n00:52:35.840 --> 00:52:40.900\nlike craft foods or being on the venture side i realized that like\n\n1056\n00:52:40.900 --> 00:52:42.640\nentrepreneurs are built with\n\n1057\n00:52:42.640 --> 00:52:50.910\nthis internal drive grit hustle and actually that's what we enjoy like and even\n\n1058\n00:52:50.910 --> 00:52:51.760\nif we're in this\n\n1059\n00:52:51.760 --> 00:52:56.800\na bigger organization that has a lot more structure and probably a lot more\n\n1060\n00:52:56.800 --> 00:52:57.680\ncushioned to risk\n\n1061\n00:52:57.680 --> 00:53:03.680\nwhat we crave is to kind of keep pushing and pushing the boundaries forward\n\n1062\n00:53:03.680 --> 00:53:08.330\nand pushing the team forward to make it even better and so i think there's\n\n1063\n00:53:08.330 --> 00:53:09.440\nbenefits in being\n\n1064\n00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:13.440\nin both types of organizations but i realize once you're a startup entrepreneur\n\n1065\n00:53:13.440 --> 00:53:14.000\nyou can't take\n\n1066\n00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:18.800\nthat hustle out of them you know here's another interesting tweet that you had\n\n1067\n00:53:18.800 --> 00:53:19.440\nyou said just\n\n1068\n00:53:19.440 --> 00:53:24.490\nspoke on this panel about women and leadership half the audience was male that\n\n1069\n00:53:24.490 --> 00:53:25.440\n's how we make an\n\n1070\n00:53:25.440 --> 00:53:32.110\nimpact yeah explain that oh i think women in leadership and moving forward any\n\n1071\n00:53:32.110 --> 00:53:32.800\nkind of\n\n1072\n00:53:33.680 --> 00:53:39.510\nminority group if you will is that we need to have a conversation with every\n\n1073\n00:53:39.510 --> 00:53:41.200\nsingle person involved\n\n1074\n00:53:41.200 --> 00:53:46.570\nbecause it's so often when we have women leadership discussions especially the\n\n1075\n00:53:46.570 --> 00:53:47.360\ntype where\n\n1076\n00:53:47.360 --> 00:53:50.690\nyou want to move something forward we're only speaking to each other other\n\n1077\n00:53:50.690 --> 00:53:52.640\nwomen and that's not\n\n1078\n00:53:52.640 --> 00:53:57.210\nhow we're going to actually change our culture or how things are done we need\n\n1079\n00:53:57.210 --> 00:53:58.800\nto integrate in the\n\n1080\n00:53:58.800 --> 00:54:03.200\nreal world there there are men and women and we have to have this conversation\n\n1081\n00:54:03.200 --> 00:54:04.640\nto figure out\n\n1082\n00:54:04.640 --> 00:54:09.650\nsolutions to work together on and to hear each other's input because so much of\n\n1083\n00:54:09.650 --> 00:54:11.280\nthe time is that\n\n1084\n00:54:11.280 --> 00:54:15.520\nwe are making assumptions and don't we don't really know the other side and so\n\n1085\n00:54:15.520 --> 00:54:16.480\nhaving conversations\n\n1086\n00:54:16.480 --> 00:54:21.210\ntogether is actually really important so i feel like that we apply that to kind\n\n1087\n00:54:21.210 --> 00:54:22.720\nof any other topic\n\n1088\n00:54:22.720 --> 00:54:26.870\nJessica this has been so much fun and now i want to have a little bit more with\n\n1089\n00:54:26.870 --> 00:54:27.760\nyou with a lightning\n\n1090\n00:54:27.760 --> 00:54:32.960\nround of q and a so here we go you ready for this yes i'm ready all right what\n\n1091\n00:54:32.960 --> 00:54:33.760\nthree words best\n\n1092\n00:54:33.760 --> 00:54:41.370\ndescribe you okay energetic um creative and heartfelt if you could be one\n\n1093\n00:54:41.370 --> 00:54:42.640\nperson for a day\n\n1094\n00:54:42.640 --> 00:54:49.140\nbeside yourself who would it be and why i would love to be my mom when i was my\n\n1095\n00:54:49.140 --> 00:54:50.880\nwhen she was my age\n\n1096\n00:54:52.160 --> 00:54:57.960\nwhy is that i i think it would just give me so much understanding because i\n\n1097\n00:54:57.960 --> 00:54:59.920\nknow i i knew her when\n\n1098\n00:54:59.920 --> 00:55:05.160\nshe was an adult and i just i think it would say so much about it would show me\n\n1099\n00:55:05.160 --> 00:55:06.400\nso much about the\n\n1100\n00:55:06.400 --> 00:55:12.160\ndifference of the equality of of of women the whole culture she was an\n\n1101\n00:55:12.160 --> 00:55:14.640\nimmigrant that came from korea\n\n1102\n00:55:15.520 --> 00:55:21.840\nso it would just be incredible to tie what i know intellectually but into a\n\n1103\n00:55:21.840 --> 00:55:22.960\nhuman soul that i\n\n1104\n00:55:22.960 --> 00:55:27.160\ncared and loved so deeply and it would just probably be life-changing to be her\n\n1105\n00:55:27.160 --> 00:55:27.760\nfor one day\n\n1106\n00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:35.600\nwhat's your biggest pet peeve? um lack of progress\n\n1107\n00:55:35.600 --> 00:55:41.440\nsurprise what's something about you that few people would know\n\n1108\n00:55:44.640 --> 00:55:50.320\nactually was going to be a violist at one point in my life i went to the pre-\n\n1109\n00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:52.560\ncollege juliard school\n\n1110\n00:55:52.560 --> 00:55:56.720\ni had one of those violin i don't know if you know about the violin hickey but\n\n1111\n00:55:56.720 --> 00:55:57.840\nyou play so much that\n\n1112\n00:55:57.840 --> 00:56:03.980\nyou have this big hickey looking like mark on your neck and i loved music so\n\n1113\n00:56:03.980 --> 00:56:05.280\nmuch and i that was where\n\n1114\n00:56:05.280 --> 00:56:10.280\nmy first job that would play gigs and um and i remember uh you know practicing\n\n1115\n00:56:10.280 --> 00:56:11.600\nthree hours a day\n\n1116\n00:56:12.560 --> 00:56:16.480\nand just loving it i love chamber music and so i don't think people would ever\n\n1117\n00:56:16.480 --> 00:56:17.600\nguess that i would\n\n1118\n00:56:17.600 --> 00:56:26.240\nwant to have been a musician do you have another hidden talent um let's see so\n\n1119\n00:56:26.240 --> 00:56:28.800\nanother hidden talent\n\n1120\n00:56:28.800 --> 00:56:35.400\nis well i used to be an aerobics instructor but just by saying aerobics really\n\n1121\n00:56:35.400 --> 00:56:36.080\ndates me i think\n\n1122\n00:56:36.080 --> 00:56:41.090\nbecause who says aerobics anymore so i totally was a 90s kind of aerobic aerob\n\n1123\n00:56:41.090 --> 00:56:41.680\nics with the head\n\n1124\n00:56:41.680 --> 00:56:47.120\ndanden everything but i would teach classes i did it for like six seven years\n\n1125\n00:56:47.120 --> 00:56:49.680\num and uh i still\n\n1126\n00:56:49.680 --> 00:56:55.710\nenjoy it uh so that's great what's your favorite idea that you've had so far i\n\n1127\n00:56:55.710 --> 00:56:58.160\nmean i feel like\n\n1128\n00:56:58.160 --> 00:57:03.310\niana care is life's work it's got i think you're gonna say that i say iana care\n\n1129\n00:57:03.310 --> 00:57:04.000\ni mean this is the\n\n1130\n00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:08.680\nculmination i i feel like of decades and but but all of this started with this\n\n1131\n00:57:08.680 --> 00:57:10.000\nbakery that uh that\n\n1132\n00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.320\nyou have oh years ago i remember that you know so what's your favorite baked\n\n1133\n00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:16.160\ngood okay so definitely\n\n1134\n00:57:16.160 --> 00:57:20.280\nmy favorite baked good is molten chocolate cake i am a chocolate girl and when\n\n1135\n00:57:20.280 --> 00:57:21.280\nit oozes out there's\n\n1136\n00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:26.610\nnothing better well el jessica it's been just fantastic uh catching up with you\n\n1137\n00:57:26.610 --> 00:57:27.440\ni mean you are\n\n1138\n00:57:27.440 --> 00:57:32.980\nan amazing leader and an inspiring leader and uh thank you so much for for\n\n1139\n00:57:32.980 --> 00:57:34.720\nsharing your your wisdom\n\n1140\n00:57:34.720 --> 00:57:38.230\nand what you're learning about leadership and your journey with others so thank\n\n1141\n00:57:38.230 --> 00:57:39.280\nyou very much thank\n\n1142\n00:57:39.280 --> 00:57:44.560\nyou david it's such an honor to be here i respect you so much and so thank you\n\n1143\n00:57:44.560 --> 00:57:46.720\nfor you know uh using\n\n1144\n00:57:46.720 --> 00:57:50.960\nyour voice to teach us all about leadership um it impacts so many of us\n\n1145\n00:57:50.960 --> 00:58:05.440\nmake no mistake jessica is a hard driving super sharp business person but in\n\n1146\n00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:05.680\nevery\n\n1147\n00:58:05.680 --> 00:58:10.930\nventure and in every role she has always attuned to the problem her customer is\n\n1148\n00:58:10.930 --> 00:58:12.000\nfacing she feels\n\n1149\n00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:16.780\nit at a human level and that empathy motivates her to go out and do excellent\n\n1150\n00:58:16.780 --> 00:58:18.720\nwork it's such a\n\n1151\n00:58:18.720 --> 00:58:23.670\nwinning approach and it's one we can all definitely learn from so let me offer\n\n1152\n00:58:23.670 --> 00:58:25.280\nyou a bit of coaching\n\n1153\n00:58:25.280 --> 00:58:29.520\nit's so easy as leaders to let layers pile up between us and the people we\n\n1154\n00:58:29.520 --> 00:58:30.800\nactually serve at the\n\n1155\n00:58:30.800 --> 00:58:35.820\nend of the day this week is a part of your weekly personal development plan i\n\n1156\n00:58:35.820 --> 00:58:36.960\nwant you to brainstorm\n\n1157\n00:58:36.960 --> 00:58:42.090\nthree ways you can connect with customers really try to understand and empath\n\n1158\n00:58:42.090 --> 00:58:43.120\nize with the problems\n\n1159\n00:58:43.120 --> 00:58:48.020\nthey're experiencing i just know that this can lead to the motivation you need\n\n1160\n00:58:48.020 --> 00:58:48.880\nto solve their\n\n1161\n00:58:48.880 --> 00:58:53.270\nproblems on a human level so do you want to know how leaders lead what we\n\n1162\n00:58:53.270 --> 00:58:54.320\nlearned today is the\n\n1163\n00:58:54.320 --> 00:58:58.680\ngreat leaders solve problems on a human level thanks again for tuning in to\n\n1164\n00:58:58.680 --> 00:58:59.840\nanother episode of\n\n1165\n00:58:59.840 --> 00:59:04.050\nhow leaders lead where every thursday you get to listen in while i interview\n\n1166\n00:59:04.050 --> 00:59:04.880\nsome of the very\n\n1167\n00:59:04.880 --> 00:59:09.130\nbest leaders in the world i make it a point to give you something simple on\n\n1168\n00:59:09.130 --> 00:59:10.480\neach episode that you\n\n1169\n00:59:10.480 --> 00:59:15.760\ncan apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be\n\n1170\n00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:44.280\n[ Silence ]","

David Novak 0:04

Hey everybody, welcome to how leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learnings so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Jessica Kim, co founder and CEO of ionic air. How great is this ionic air is a digital platform for family caregivers. And it connects them with every resource they could possibly need to care for their loved ones. Jessica founded Diana care because she herself was a caregiver and her mother's last days of life, she experienced for herself just how frustrating and exhausting and isolating caregiving can be. And she knew that there had to be a better way. Now, that's how great entrepreneurs think they truly care about their customers problems on a human level. And then they set out to solve those problems with excellence. So if you run a business yourself, if you dream about doing that someday, or if your company serves customers in any way, shape, or form, this conversation will inspire you on how to solve your customers problems at a human level. So here's my conversation with my good friend, and soon to be yours, Jessica Kim.

Jessica, there's no doubt that you are a serial entrepreneur. And you definitely are one of the most creative persons that that I know. And I can't wait for everyone to hear your entire story. But But first, can you tell us about your latest venture ionic air and how it came about?

Jessica Kim 1:48

Yeah, absolutely. So thank you so much for having me on David. So I started ionic hair because I was thrust into being a caregiver. I did not intend to start a business. So my mom had pancreatic cancer for about seven and a half years. And, you know, my dad actually lovingly cared for her for many of those years. But eventually, you know, he's 10 years older, and he was working full time. And he was completely burnt out himself. And so I just came right in, and I was thrust into that role of being their caregiver, they moved in with me, I was working full time. And my kids at that time were 10, seven, and five. And I just had to navigate all of her medical care, I was performing all the nursing duties, it was pumping her stomach several times a day, and feeding her and bathing her. And, you know, eventually, you know, she passed away in my home in 2017. And it was the loneliest, hardest time in my life. And I remember in deep Greece, the thing that I felt most was frustration. I was so frustrated, I've been an entrepreneur, I've been in the tech space, I knew that technology was there, I knew that funding was there, I knew that we could reach people in their homes. And I was so frustrated that there were millions of caregivers, and yet it is so hidden, and it's completely underserved. And so, you know, my co founder, Steve Lee, and I partnered together, we dug into it, and we realized we need to solve this. And so that's kind of why we started ionic err,

David Novak 3:27

you know, as I understand it, it's a huge market. Like there's 43 and a half million caregivers out there. And so how have you gone about innovating, to give these caregivers practical solutions you can actually use?

Jessica Kim 3:41

Well, I think innovation always starts with learning and understanding. And so you are right, you know what, I always start with the problem. So one out of seven people in the US alone have a type of chronic condition where they become reliant on a caregiver. So we're talking about Alzheimer's, cancer, disability, stroke. And when we often think about these conditions, we tend to focus on the clinical sides of things. You know, what did the doctor say? What's the surgery? What's the medication, but over 90% of the actual time being cared for happens in the home, not in the hospital, and they're typically cared for by family caregivers who are unsupported, unpaid and untrained. And so David, it's actually 54 million family caregivers now. And the most recent BlueCross BlueShield study said that 61% of Americans consider themselves a caregiver of some shape or form. And so, you know, this results in major societal and institutional issues and the things on the business side that we're really focusing on are the 33 billion of productivity loss for employers employees, because most caregivers are working at the same time, and then the 50 billion healthcare costs that are often avoidable. All. And so the question is, after understanding all of that, we said, Well, what do we do? What do family caregivers need help with most. And what they need help with most are the everyday tasks. It's the administrative work, it's the daily care, it's the bathing, it's the feeding, it's, you know, all the financial management, but then they also need systemic support. And that's why we're really working with employers and health plans. Because until we really change the system, we can't really serve family caregivers. And we may think of all of these things as non clinical aspects of care that may not be as big of a deal, but it's actually the social determinants of health, that impact 80% 80% of someone's health outcome. And so that is why the key role of the caregiver is so important. But then our aha moment. So again, I always start with, you know, what do we know, and what are we learning, but our aha moment was that there are 1000s of these resources and services that already exist to serve kids and caregivers. Yet they are completely segregated, it's really hard to find they're hidden. They're hidden in buckets, like health care institutions, employer benefits, you know, even your own social circles and local resources. And so the end user does not know where to begin, and they are thrust into it into a very emotional experience. And so that's where we come in.

David Novak 6:27

Tell me about Ionic, here's the name. What's the meaning behind that? Yes. So

Jessica Kim 6:31

I on a care, what we really understood was at the core of caregiving, it's a very isolating experience. We don't really talk about it in our culture. We don't know how to support caregivers in the same way that we have learned to support parents. And so the I A N A of ionic hair stands for I am not alone. And so it is the core principle of how we do everything is that we say how do we build technology solutions and bring real communities together? So caregiver, do not do this alone. And so that's, that's kind of the essence of everything we do.

David Novak 7:12

I was thinking about your business. And it seems to be that probably one of the biggest barriers to usage is just caregivers. And most people just have a hard time asking for help. Exactly. Are you finding that to be the case?

Jessica Kim 7:24

Yes. And actually, that's the perfect segue into what we actually do. And it's the first layer of support, because that's where people begin. And so, you know, we are this one platform that integrates all the different layers of support. And the first one is your friends and family, your personal social circles. The number one piece of advice that social workers will tell you is to ask your friends and family for help. But it is very awkward. It's socially not accepted in our culture. And so what we did is we first said, Let's unlock that. And we created this platform where you invite your friends and family and neighbors, who say yes, I want to help you. How many times have we been on both sides of Oh, my gosh, David, let me know what I can do to help, right? And nothing happens because things are so vague. So once you invite them onto the team, we walk them through how to get meals, rides, respite care, pet care, childcare, house errands, grocery shopping, and you fill out this very quick kinds of requests that gets blasted out to your team. And then you the team members see everything on one screen, they click one button that says I got this. And all the details go on both people's calendar with that one click. And so what we realized was that it's very awkward to say, Hey, David, what are you doing tonight? Do you want to do you want to make me dinner, it's like, so awkward, I would never ask you that. But I can create this buffer using technology to blast it out. And then you as a supporter, you look, you say, You know what, I can actually do that tonight. And I click I got this. And you know, that's how we've been able to, you know, deliver 1000s of meals and rides and all this daily help. So that's kind of like the firt. That's the first layer that we started. But we also realized that that's not enough help for especially caregiving situations that lasts for four plus years. And so we work with employers where we integrate all of their benefits into the platform, because they're available to you and often free to you. And then we put zip code based local resources, almost like a Yelp, if you will, onto our platform. We have our own expert content, and then you can even connect with a human caregiving coach to really process everything that you've been going through. And so again, it's all the different layers that people need throughout the different phases of the journey. All in one app.

David Novak 9:41

You have such a big idea and you have such a huge market. You launch ionic air COVID hits, you know, how did that impact your business and how do you scramble?

Jessica Kim 9:54

Yeah, you know, COVID is so devastating on so many levels and Um, and you know, I think, you know, for caregivers, we always say it's not a new thing. Caregivers have been doing this and being isolated in the home for for many, many years. But it made it worse, the stress and mental health is completely through the roof. But what it has done, actually has accelerated this awareness on a global level that there are caregivers. So for the longest time, people in caregiving have been trying to be on their soapbox saying, Do you know that there are 43 point 5 million caregivers of which now it's 54 million caregivers, and most people say I don't see it what I don't, that must not be a big deal. They're home. But because of the pandemic, with COVID-19, the world has, is now awake to all the care that happens in the home to our elderly, to our vulnerable populations who have chronic conditions. Now, they are the highlight of what everyone's talking about to protect them. And so we are leveraging this opportunity. And this momentum of awareness to say Yes, finally, let's build this tangible support for caregivers that have always deserve this type of support. So it actually has accelerated our, our business tremendously the need, we are trying to keep up with all the caregivers that are on our platform. We locked in our first major enterprise deal nine months ahead of schedule, and we all know those contracts can take up to 12 to 18 months, and we were able to go through all of it because they saw the need that was so great.

David Novak 11:37

Now what do you recommend to caregivers that are impacted by COVID, just you know, one or two big things that you recommend?

Jessica Kim 11:44

I think the the first major thing is know that you're not alone, even though you are you feel so isolated, and you feel that all the typical resources are now restricted even more. With the beauty of technology, you can still get a lot of support. So we always say care without contact. So we have these tremendous stories were a caregiver is on our app, in a very kind of intense situation. They had their personal social circle team grow up to 120 people, all local and remote, and they were able to get 540 meals delivered all from friends and family, they were able to get gift cards sent. And so they felt this outpouring of just all this support, despite physically being so socially distanced. And so that's the first thing is that you're not alone. And technology can help kind of bring people together at this time. And, you know, our care managers can help you navigate through all the different restrictions that you're facing.

David Novak 12:47

You know, how much does your passion for loving others and being compassionate? How much does that drive you in this situation? Because, you know, you're also a hard driving business person I've yet to you we're gonna talk about but you got an incredible track record of building businesses. So, you know, what is this special emotive thing that you have? How does that how does that really make you tick?

Jessica Kim 13:12

It is everything. And I mean, everything. It is the core, it is our fuel, it is our center. You know, my co founder, Steve Lee, and I always say that there are two major truths to Aiyana care. One, we are highly empathetic, we truly know and care to the point where we say we love our caregivers. And because that dedication is so strong. That is what makes us decide what feature to launch that is what makes us decide what's priority is how do we serve, you know, our caregivers that we have so much love for. And we care for each other as a team. And I, we always say you know, you're not working for me, I'm not hiring you. I may be your manager, but you're not working for me. We are all working for this mission that we feel so convicted by and we need to call each other out. We need to, you know, wink our sweet to high five, we need to keep each other sharp because it's the mission we're going after. And so empathy and love is the core of everything that we do. But then the second thing is we work really, really hard. We strive for excellence. The reason why we strive for excellence is because if we're not excellent, we let our caregivers down or our partners down or our customers down. And so it's this hand in hand that you can be very hard mission driven. But because that is your core, that's why you work so hard, right? It's not this hustle culture to have this badge and to say, Oh yeah, I don't get a lot of sleep. I'm such a hardcore person in it. No crush Red Bull over my head. No, the reason why I work so hard is because people are relying on us and we care so much about them and that, and that's what's going to drive us. So it's those two things that drive us

David Novak 15:12

who are your passion is is so contagious, and I'm sure it's inspiring to everybody that works with you, you know, and shifting a little bit back more to the hard stuff of your business, you know, what have you learned? And and how are you evolving your free app? You got an incredible app? I mean, I checked it out. But you know, you've this had to be a major learning process. What's the what's the single biggest thing you've learned about that?

Jessica Kim 15:35

So the first, the major thing we learned about that is, we knew that that wasn't gonna be our business model, the free app, but we knew, because it were so centered on loving our caregiver, we had to start there. And we wanted our insights and everything to be say, to start with, how do we serve you. And so that free app has evolved, where we said, actually, the friends and family is not enough. You need other resources, you need your benefits, you need your local resources, you may even need a coach. And so it was through our end user insight and collaboration with our caregivers, that we've built all these other layers out, which made sense then to work with employers. So our business model is employers and health plans pay us to integrate all of their benefits into our platform. So then the utilization rates go higher, so they can see the impact of these benefits that they're paying for, with the people that they are also serving. And so what we love about it is that family caregivers have enough on their plate, they're already doing $470 billion worth of care for our society really being unpaid. So we didn't want to charge them. But our, you know, we have partners like employers and health plans that have an incentive to take care of their employees and members. And so that's our business model. So we've learned so much, but at the root of it was starting with 10 caregivers.

David Novak 16:59

So now you you mentioned a little earlier that you got your first customers well, before you thought Yeah, yeah. Why? Why do you think that happened? What did you do as a leader? To make up I have to say,

Jessica Kim 17:11

you know, it is public, like our first customer is anthem insurance. And, you know, they're the second largest insurance company, they've been tremendous partners, I think they're a thought leader in in caregiving and social determinants of health. So we did a study together. So they believed in us enough to say, Okay, let's see, you know, if if this is if people like it, if people will use it, if it really achieved the ROI that we were expecting. And so we were able to see from that study, that we were able to reduce by 83%, people taking any time off from work, because they had this support system, we were able to prove that 30% reduction of stress levels of these caregivers, especially during COVID. And then higher satisfaction of and loyalty, it's for the employer. And so we were able to prove those kinds of metrics. And then so that combined with everything that was happening with the pandemic, with the innovative kind of approach of Anthem, allowed this to accelerate, and they've been tremendous partners. So yeah, we were expecting to get our platform built out with all the other layers and start selling this quarter, to other large employers. But we we launched two weeks ago, live, we have hundreds of people on the platform already. So we're just a we're so excited that we have this privilege to serve them. So your

David Novak 18:35

business is already taking off. And you're also I read where you're already winning national awards for integrated digital solutions. And what advice can you give other leaders on how to build digital capability? Because you, you've got this down?

Jessica Kim 18:52

Well, well, I think we're always still learning. But I used to be intimidated. When we said, Okay, what does this look like digitally? And what I realized, and this may be my anthropological roots, but ultimately, technology and digital, these are channels, these are tools just like anything else. What you really have to focus on is the human problem, the human experience, the human perspective, the human behavior, change the desires, the feelings, especially if you think about caregiving. It's not just logistical. There's a lot of family dynamics, and this is life and death that many times and until you need to focus on those things. And then when you really understand those core principles, core convictions, the desires, then you look at all your tools and say how do we get them from here to here so they can flourish? And digital is a major tool right now because it makes everything accessible and scalable. All, now we can serve all levels of employees, not just the C suite. And so technology is a great tool. But don't, I would say my biggest thing is don't get caught up in it has to be digital, just for digital sake or just we need to be relevant. We are still human flesh skin, like blood, you know, emotions, like lose yourself in that and view digital as a tool.

David Novak 20:23

It's great advice. And, and you've mentioned your your co founders, Steve Lee, you have a really powerful relationship with him. Who does what in in the business? And how do you to stay on the same page, because it's hard to be co anything?

Jessica Kim 20:39

Yes. He is amazing. So Steven Lee, and he knows I sing his praises. We are so complimentary. As co founders, we're 5050 co founders. And he always says, If he was here, he would say, Look at my face, this is a tech and operational face. And he calls himself a savvy geek or something like that. I think he's pretty cool. But he's an MIT grad tech genius, like, but we together are very values aligned. And so we bring different views to the big picture decisions and vision. And we always do have healthy debates and get to a better place together. And then when it's time to execute, we have our own areas where he does, you know, the will the product will do together, because a lot of it is core insight on the human behavior and, you know, the UX, you know, have a lot of input and the words that we choose. But then the way it goes from, you know, our sketches to, you know, make sure it works with all that data, data and legs, that's all him. And then he's really just brilliant about, you know, he's ran a company where it's went from two people in his garage to IPO. And so he's really gone through all these big org decisions as well in terms of hiring hundreds of people, everything from bonus structure to kind of hire, like whatever your leadership structure looks like. And so we're very collaborative on those big things. But definitely we we focus on, you know, our own pillars, I do a lot of the marketing, the sales, that consumer insights. And that's kind of really how we split it up.

David Novak 22:19

Do you have any advice, Jessica, for founders on how to go about hiring it at different stages of your business?

Jessica Kim 22:26

Yes. So you know, in the beginning, you need generalists. I think people who know how to both think, big picture, but actually has to do the detailed execution. But by definition of a startup, you have huge plans to change the world, right? Change culture, impact the world, but you have a very small team and very small budget. And so because of that, you need big thinkers, but you need doers. And so that's, that's, that's what how we saw the first. That's how you should see I believe, like the first kind of stage of your of your business. And then as you grow, and once you've kind of realized the core plumbing of how your business works, and you've proven out some of those things, then you can start bringing in more kind of managers. But even through I would say, all those stages are a little bit kind of mushy now. But I wouldn't say even through Series A, everyone has to be people that execute, there's no room for just managers alone. Everyone has to manage themselves, manage other people, and then actually get the job done. And then I think as you scale to like A, B, C, that's when it just makes sense to kind of have more of a Managing Senior Leadership. But for startups, you definitely have to be a doer. You know, Jessica,

David Novak 23:45

I suppose that people will be writing books on how to be a remote leader. What challenges have you faced and new ideas that you've surfaced to lead your work from home team?

Jessica Kim 23:59

That is, I would love to read that book, David, because I think we're all trying to learn about that now. And I have been reading whatever I can on it, I would say, Well, I start with like, what's the biggest difference? I think you miss out on the casual conversations, the two minute conversation before a meeting starts. The joke that happens when you're kind of catch each other in the hallway. And I think that's really hard to replicate on video calls alone, because you that starts everyone just sitting there and you feel like you just have to go at it. And startups are ready, so stressful and hardworking enough that what we had to do is kind of build in some buffer time, especially with our core team to kind of talk about random things or to laugh or to say, what is that statue behind you? You know? And that takes intentionality because it's so easy to say, okay, what are we getting done? But, you know, it's kind of bringing in some of that, that human side of it, you know, we just hired three people that I've never seen in person. And it's very weird. But I think the benefit of this is I do think, due to this pandemic work is going to look different forever. And so the good thing is, I think we can start building that intentionality and that relationship building in this new world from the start. And I think the other key learning is like, you know, not everybody is the same. So take time to talk to each person individually and say, How can I best support you during this time, some people actually would rather get the job done and not have chit chat, because they'd rather spend time with their family and the lien debt balance. So I think it's just about both as a cohesive culture, how, you know, what are our principles? And then individually, how do I serve each team member?

David Novak 25:52

What do you think the balance will be between working in the office versus remote as things evolve? And we get out of this mess?

Jessica Kim 26:00

Yeah, I really strongly believe it's going to be like a, you know, three days in the office two days, not. That's what we're going to implement? Or it's just, I mean, it depends on your stage, it depends on the type of company, you know, because some companies, I mean, some roles have to be really in person. But I think in general, I think what I do love about what we're all experiencing on a global level, is that you can still get work done without and integrate your family life in your personal life. And I what I do love is the fact that my kids can come in here at any point, and a year ago, I would be mortified. And now I'd probably put them on my lap and give them a kiss and say, meet Mr. Novak. And I think, you know, I have a really amazing, like, fun, inspiring story, actually, that I always it was around April, this was like, right, you know, COVID, and this pandemic is very fresh around then. So everyone was trying to still be very buttoned up on Zoom and everything. And I had a major call with a fortune 500 company, like a big one. You probably know that first. And David, I won't say any names. And I was really nervous. I was like, Okay, here I am, this is my chance I can sell in here. And then I was with the head buyer. And then my daughter, who is by the way, 13, okay, she's not three, she walks in, in a green crayon costume, okay, with the hat and everything. And she starts going like this on my Zoom. And I'm like, I'm okay. No. And I started sweating. And it was a little awkward, because now it's a little bit more normalized, but then it was still pretty formal. And so it's embarrassing, kind of like, go out, go out. And then I lost my train of thought. And then I kind of stumbled and got back into it. And, you know, we got through the meeting. And at the end, I was like, done this to me. This was such a big meeting, and you're not three years old. And I will never forget, I got an email around 545 that night. And it was from that head buyer. And what she said was, Jessica, that meeting and your crayon was the best part of my day. Thank you so much for sharing your crayon with me. And she basically made it made me put me at ease, because she probably knew that I was freaking out and said, You know what, this is the world we're living in. I get it, don't worry about it. And I just think that's the type of leadership that we need to have. And so yeah, so I anyway, that's kind of

David Novak 28:45

humanity, right? Yeah. manatee on on Zoom. And, you know, to have a little kid that can you know, do the be a crayon says something about you, too. You know, I know you're an avid learner. And I know you met with Indra Nooyi, the former chairman of PepsiCo, when I told you that she was passionate about caregiving. Yeah, what did you learn by comparing notes with her?

Jessica Kim 29:11

Well, one, hearing her talk about caregiving on such a global level with her exposure and experience was so validating. It was it made it so real and I think having someone in her position to be able to be a spokesperson for this people will listen. And so I think we'll the so that was the thing that just struck us most was she was so knowledgeable. So articulate, she is brilliant. And her heart is is gold. And she is really kind of utilizing her position, her platform, her voice, she is going to make a difference and, and she sees it and she led, you know, 1000s of people and she's a global leader. So I think so that's the That's the first thing is that it's, it is a real thing. And it gave us even more of a boost to say this is real, and she loved our approach. And then I think with her, she really did inspire us that it is a systemic problem. So we always knew. And typically we think of caregiving because we all come to it, typically through a personal experience. So we know what happened. personally, individually, we see what it did to our family, or friends, family. And then you kind of start hearing stories. But again, because we're in this phase in our society and culture where we don't often talk about it, we don't even have terms yet for it, it can often get lost. And she really kind of emphasized that our systems have to change, our institutions have to change, our policies have to change, she's talking at the government level, and hearing her speak like that made open our eyes to say you are exactly right. And it really had an impact early on how we kind of started building the fabric of ionic care. And that's kind of how we're approaching it as well,

David Novak 31:07

it gave you a more conviction that you're heading in the right direction, which I think all of us need when we're we're trying to break new ground.

You know, Jessica, it's been so great hearing about ionic air and how you're building the business. And, you know, I want to talk a little bit about you now and tell us about your your upbringing.

Jessica Kim 31:32

Okay, I was born and raised in New Jersey and proud of it. I'm the youngest of three kids with an awesome big brother and big sister. And my parents were just incredible people. My dad is a psychiatrist. And so as you can imagine, I grew up getting so many lectures. Like, if I did anything wrong, I wouldn't get grounded or things taken away. But he would just sit me down and spend hours walking around me. And I hated at that point. But I look back at those lectures. And as an adult, I really appreciate everything that he instilled in me. He was just a huge fan of just shaping growth, mindset, and self confidence. And then my mom was just the most supportive person, she would do whatever it takes to kind of make anything happen that I was interested in. And so I just really credit my parents for establishing this foundation of believing in myself, and just going after what I wanted to do.

David Novak 32:30

Jessica, do you have an early childhood story that that you like to tell? That will tell us a lot about you?

Jessica Kim 32:37

Well, it's interesting. This is also a story around what I was just saying, and how my parents just instilled this self confidence, which I really appreciated. So in middle school, I came back and I said, I'm going to run for, you know, student office, and my dad was saying, great, you know, what are you going to do? And I said, I'm going to run for Secretary. And he's like, great, you know, that's wonderful. But can you tell me the difference between what a secretary does versus the president? And you know, this is middle school and high school? And so at that time, I said, Well, no, I don't really know the difference. And he said, then why don't you go for President? And I said, Well, I just thought that that's kind of, you know, what you do? It's my first time. Maybe it's because I'm a girl. And he stopped me right there. And he said, it doesn't matter whether you're a girl or boy, Asian color of skin, tall, short, etc. If you have a vision for what you want to do, you go for it. Don't let anything hold you back. And so I remember saying, Okay, let me do it. And so I ran this whole campaign, I said, Say Yes to Jess, for President. And I made all these fortune cookies and put all the messages in there. And I ended up winning that whole campaign and I ran every year, my high school years, I was president every single year of high school. And it was just something very early on for me that I take with me, even now, as a female founder and entrepreneur and leader, is that belief that if you have a vision, it doesn't matter where you come from, or who you are, what you look like, or what people's perceptions are of you. You go for it, because it's the vision that's going to drive you and so I'm just so that was a very pivotal moment for me.

David Novak 34:22

I love that say yes to Jess, that's great advice for your bother. Now you went on to to brown, which is a great school and you majored in anthropology. How did that shape your business approach?

Jessica Kim 34:34

Oh, my gosh, I am so grateful that I did that. And when I went to school, I was like, Okay, this is what I really love doing. I have no idea what job this is going to turn into. But ever since I was 10, when people would say what do you want to be when you grow up? I said, I don't know. But I want to study people. And I've always been so intrigued by our culture, our background, our upbringing, our situational experiences, and how all of those things literally shaped the way we see the world. And so when I got to college anthropology was just that it was digging into history and cultures and all the different ways communities live and interacting, communicate. And so I, you know, the way I see that now, is that that is really what business is all about. You know, what we're ultimately doing as business creators, entrepreneurs leaders, is that we're trying to create a solution to make someone's life better and to have let them flourish. And how can you do that if you don't know what that person is about, and how they're shaped and how they view the world. So it absolutely is the core of the way we approach marketing, the way we approach even the solution we're creating, the way I lead, it's so rooted in the person. And so anthropology is really the core of how we operate today.

David Novak 36:00

That's incredible, you know, you seem to really focus on the problems that impact people, and that really drives your ideation process and your lightbulb moments is, is that a correct conclusion?

Jessica Kim 36:11

Yes, I, it's interesting, I spend the bulk of the time focusing on the problem and the existing behavior. And I think, you know, David, like you were saying, I think that's kind of my anthropology background. Because people always say, how do you get a business started? What do you do? And so often, we jumped to execution, but how are you supposed to kind of create a solution if you don't really understand what you're solving. And so even with this, we went and read 14th century death manuals, we read all these journals and research from doctors, like we really dug into the problem that exists today and how it existed over the last decades to understand how we can move it forward in a in a practical way.

David Novak 36:55

Well, I love that that focus, you know, finding those problems have been solved them, you know, at the age of 19. You started Jessica's wonders now that's a baked goods company, and you did it right out of your college dorm room. Tell us a story about how that happened.

Jessica Kim 37:09

So yeah, I did not intend to start a business. I was an anthropology major. I walked into this pizzeria my sophomore summer. And this pizzeria was called Fellini's and Providence and I saw this plate of banana bread. And I said, Wait a second, who made this I can do it so much better. And it was Saran wrapped and had a toothpick with a little you know, sign that said $1.69. So I knew it wasn't a professional company. And so he said, why you think you could do better? And I said, Absolutely. So it's like, Alright, bring it in. So I brought in my special banana bread that I named after my friend Kelly, who was obsessed with bananas. And I brought it in, and it sold out that day. And he was like, Wait, hold on. I'm a pizzeria. This is summer time, I don't sell out of baked goods, bring in another one. So I kept bringing it in and kept selling out. And after a while I said, we I want to make sure people know that I need this. So I made signs out of construction paper and markers. And I called it Jessica's wonders and the slogan was so good. It'll make you wonder. And it just after a while, I was just like, Wait, hold on, you need to pay me for this is how far away I was from businesses that I wasn't even charging him for all these bread, banana breads that he was selling out of. But long story short, I ended up you know, continuing to sell to 13 Different hotspots around campus. I was literally baking out of my little tiny efficiency of it in my dorm room. And then Brown had its very first business plan competition. And so I did an independent study with Professor Hazel teen, which was actually the same professor that helped the Nantucket Nectars. Guys, Tom Scott and Tom first start their business. And so he said, Okay, we could do an independent study, but you have to enter this business plan. I said, Okay, fine. And so as I did the business plan, you know, I loved the process of thinking about all the different aspects that you had to do to create a business. And there were 77 teams, and I won the competition. And so after winning that, I ended up selling more. And then one of the mentors and alum kind of took me under his wing. And I ended up raising $1 million dollars, my senior year of college. And so I had braces at that time. I was 20 years old, I looked like I was 13. And we quickly grew the business to over 4 million in revenue in just two years getting distribution along the entire east coast. So it was an incredible experience. And that kind of is what introduced me to what entrepreneurship was.

David Novak 39:51

Wow, that's that's a very quick start. You know, you mentioned you know, 19 You look young you had the braces. How did you how did you get people to take you Serious as a business person back then,

Jessica Kim 40:02

yeah, I had to learn that the hard way, I realized that I have a lot of energy and passion, and everyone talks about it. And I think that's so true. Like I saw a vision that this could be like the Ben and Jerry's of baked goods. And so I presented it that way. I always had people taste the product, so they could enjoy it. But I realized that I had to back it up with a lot of kind of financial planning or the plans of how I'm going to actually execute it. Because you can have passion, but especially being so young, and having a bubbly personality like I, I have, I realized I had to give people assurance that I was also very planned out. And I knew what how I was going to actually do this. And so the combination of those two things made people trust in me, and I'm so grateful that they gave me this chance. And all these angel investors that invested a million dollars in me when I was so young, I really credit them for giving me this opportunity.

David Novak 40:56

And so what happened to the company? Yeah, so

Jessica Kim 40:59

after a couple of years of running it, and we were all in the Stop and Shop supermarkets, we just, I just had this opportunity to have a sale of it. And it was, it was a good sale, and I was able to then go to business school afterwards. And that's really when I kind of really processed everything that happened. So as you can imagine, it was such a whirlwind. There was a point where through that experience being so young, I slept at the office, I didn't have anything else other than to I was just pouring everything into the business. And so I didn't have any kind of life work balance. And so I learned a lot of really core life lessons through just because wonders, and business school really helped me process strategically what happened, what we did, right, what we could have done better. And so I really appreciate that time that it had there to process everything with my classmates,

David Novak 41:53

you know, speaking and processing that, you know, what would be the top three bits of advice you'd give aspiring entrepreneurs based on that experience?

Jessica Kim 42:01

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is, you don't need to have a background or all this experience in what you have a vision for. So often, we get roadblocks by saying, Well, I don't have a background in baking, like I wasn't a professional baker, all I did was have a vision for this product, and this brand and kind of what we could create. And what I did was just look for someone that just knew a bit better than me. And so that's the other thing, we often think we need this famous expert, or this famous person or the best mentor in the world in order for me to move forward. But you just need to find someone that's just, you know, knows a bit more. And so the person that really helped me learn how to bake on a commercial scale, was an owner of a local bagel store around campus, I walked in, and I just said, Can you help me kind of figure out how to get this one loaf recipe to, you know, 50 pounds. And he said, Okay, well come tomorrow morning at 4am. Because that's when I started. And so I was there in front of his door at 3:45am with two copies in hand, and I said, I'm ready to go. And so that eagerness is what made him feel like I'll invest in you and help and mentor you to teach you everything. So I think that's the thing, it's just, you just need to go forward and just find one person that knows just a little bit more than you. I think the other thing is make sure that you find people who believe in your vision just as much as you do. And so, you know, with our investors, you know, you have to find people that like not are only looking for a financial return and just seeing it as a financial investment. But how are you going to do it? And that how is really important to get aligned with?

David Novak 43:48

Great, you know, I was really surprised just to learn that your your next career step was brand management at Kraft Foods, you know, you go for being this entrepreneur into a big company like Kraft, that had to be quite an adjustment.

Jessica Kim 44:02

It was you know, but you know, I feel like I was I was desiring it. You know, because I started my first company. And it was really my first professional job. Starting my own thing all on my own. I kind of wanted to learn from the big guys, because the thing that I hated hearing was people would say, Oh, that's great that you have this baked goods company, but you don't know how the real world works. I'm like, huh, but let me figure out how the real world works. And so I wanted to go to Kraft Foods to get that apples to apples comparison of what it was like to work at a startup food business out of a dorm room to a fortune 500. And it was incredible to see kind of the similarities and the differences and what's done well in a big company and what's done better in a small company. But I want to stay in the same industry. So I didn't have the different interests to kind of skew that point of view. And so I loved kind of learning how to run a bigger team. Bigger Finance, running a bigger p&l and having interdisciplinary teams. And so I learned so much. But after three years, the thing that I missed was the kind of Startup Grind, kind of like being really close to the consumer, and being part of that initial vision and creation process. And so that's when I kind of started my next company. Yeah. And

David Novak 45:22

so you went on to found Baba co Tolosa, the genesis of this company, it's really interesting.

Jessica Kim 45:29

Yeah. So, you know, I was on maternity leave from Kraft actually. And I had my first child, I now have three kids. And when Kayla was an infant, my eyes were opened up to the world of parenting. And this was right when mommy blogging was coming out. And all the brands were just showing parenting as this calm and beautiful thing. And I realized, Hey, that's not reality. And so I saw this opportunity to create a brand that was very personality driven, and to create products that really focused on the quality time we spend with our kids. And so the way I always thought it is, you know, we can buy a lot of things for our kids. But the most important thing that we can give to our kids is our time, and attention. But it's hard to do that consistently when we're juggling everything, and we're tired. And so we created these activity boxes, where it just came to your house every month, and you just open up, and all the materials and instructions are there for you to just enjoy and spend good time with your kids.

David Novak 46:28

Oh, that's great. Now I understand you learn how to put your initial Baba co product together by learning how to sew on YouTube.

Jessica Kim 46:35

Yes. That's right, because we kept before we came out with activity boxes, our first product was this infant carseat cover to protect the baby from the cold and the wind. And again, I didn't know how to sew, the last time I sewed was in sixth grade home economics class. So what I did was I just kind of watched a ton of YouTube videos, I got material. And when I had to do a certain pattern that was too difficult to even learn how to do through YouTube. I stapled it, I duct taped it, I just did whatever I needed to do to get to a certain Frodo type. So then I could take it over to the local seamstress at a dry cleaners, you know, the local dry cleaners and I just said to her, I said, can you make this look better than what it is right now, obviously, I don't want duct tape on it. And so she did. And same thing, she kind of took me under her wing and start teaching me what patterns were and how you're really so certain patterns. And so that's how we got our first products out the door. And then we ended up selling 1000s of those through byebye, baby and and Amazon and we just grew the business. But it really started with YouTube videos and finding that one person that just knows a little bit more than you.

David Novak 47:57

So you really help families spend quality time together for the products that you created. And you started out by selling the big box retailers, as I understand it, and then you went to a subscription model, yes. What drove that decision?

Jessica Kim 48:11

i It's kind of again, if we are creating solutions for our consumers, and I just dug in to what they were doing, what they were looking at what their needs were. And I realized, especially with the rise of social media at that time, that there was this opportunity to directly communicate and have this real relationship with the moms and dads and families that we were serving. And so when we were in big box retailers, we know we would work with the great buyers, but we had no personal connection or awareness or understanding of what each individual consumer was doing. And so that shift was really just out of the intent of getting closer to the consumer and building our direct relationship with them.

David Novak 48:56

You ended up selling Bob ako. And but you stayed on as president for a couple of years. What triggered your decision to leave?

Jessica Kim 49:03

Oh, gosh, so much. But I guess I would say, you know, there was just an opportunity. When you think about what you want to do with the business, you often don't know how it's all going to play out and what the exit strategy will be. And we're just so focused on serving our community the best. But I just started realizing that fundamentally the physical box subscription directly to consumers, it was not the best way that we can really serve them and that it would be better as part of a bigger company. And so we had books in every single box. And you know, we had barefoot books in there. And it was by far the best boxes that people loved. This is a global children's publishing company. They have incredible kind of global stories that all with the mission of opening their minds and opening their worlds. And so I got to know the founder. She's a female founder in Cambridge, so close to me And we just started having coffees and dinners together. And the more we talked about our vision, we realized that together, we can make it even stronger and better. And so it was such an organic and natural kind of progression. And so we they acquired Bob Rocco and I stayed on as president for a little over two and a half years, it was just an incredible experience. And we had 1000s of sales, direct sales, people selling our products. And so I loved leading kind of the 1000s of people, and just really giving them a sense of purpose of what they were doing and what they were sharing with people.

David Novak 50:37

desk, I had a lot of fun getting ready for this, and I went to your Twitter account. And I read a number of your tweets. And I want to I want to ask you a few questions about that. I learned that you really liked the idea of reverse pitches, where rather than entrepreneurs pitching their ideas, industry experts give you the key problem for their creators to solve. Can you talk a little about that?

Jessica Kim 50:59

Yes. Oh, my gosh, I am a big believer of this. The more common thing is for at conferences to have entrepreneurs and they pitch their idea, right. But I think what's more impactful are all these executives and leaders and industry experts who are living and breathing these problems day after day, and they're trying to solve it, but they're solving in a certain way. But they have all these other ideas of how other solutions can make their impact stronger. And so I there, these reverse pitches is basically the total opposite where up there, you have this panel, and you have these industry experts, and they share what they're seeing and the problems that they're seeing, and why it's a problem and why we need to be concerned. But they have no idea how to solve it, but they really understand what's wrong. And so we as entrepreneurs in the audience, we can hear all of that insight. And the way that we were built is to say, oh, my gosh, well, why don't we take this part from a and this part from B, and collaborate and kind of create a solution together? But I think that's so effective. I think we should have more and more of these reverse pitches versus only hearing the idea.

David Novak 52:12

Yeah, there's your problem solving orientation. Again, you know, I love this tweet, you said, you can take the entrepreneur out of the startup hustle, but you can't take the startup hustle out of the entrepreneur. What do you mean by that?

Jessica Kim 52:25

Oh, my gosh, I think it's just what I realized, after being at the very beginning of a startup, and then even being at an organization like Kraft Foods, or being on the venture side, I realized that, like entrepreneurs are built with this internal drive, grit, hustle, and actually, that's what we enjoy. Like, and even if we're in this, a bigger organization that has a lot more structure, and probably a lot more Christian to risk, what we crave is to kind of keep pushing and pushing the boundaries forward, and pushing the team forward to make it even better. And so I think there's benefits and being in both types of organizations. But I realized once your startup entrepreneur, you can't take that hustle out of them.

David Novak 53:16

You know, here's another interesting tweet that you had, you said, just spoke on this panel about women and leadership, half the audience was male. That's how we make an impact. Yeah, explain that.

Jessica Kim 53:28

I think women in leadership and moving forward any kind of minority group, if you will, is that we need to have a conversation with every single person involved. Because it's so often when we have women leadership discussions, especially the type where you want to move something forward, we're only speaking to each other other women. And that's not how we're going to actually change our culture or how things are done. We need to integrate in the real world there. There are men and women and we have to have this conversation, to figure out solutions to work together on and to hear each other's input because so much of the time is that we are making assumptions and don't We don't really know the other side. And so having conversations together is actually really important. So I feel like that we apply that to kind of any other topic,

David Novak 54:22

just because this had so much fun. And now I want to have a little bit more with you with a lightning round of q&a. So here we go. Are you ready for this?

Jessica Kim 54:31

Yes, I'm ready. All right.

David Novak 54:32

What three words best describe you.

Jessica Kim 54:34

Okay, energetic, creative, and heartfelt.

David Novak 54:40

If you could be one person for a day besides yourself, who would it be and why?

Jessica Kim 54:46

I would love to be my mom when I was my when she was my age.

David Novak 54:52

Why is that? I

Jessica Kim 54:55

think it would just give me so much understanding because I know I I knew her when She was an adult. And I just, I think it would say so much about it would show me so much about the difference of the equality of women, the whole culture. She was an immigrant that came from Korea. So it would just be incredible to tie what I know intellectually but into a human soul that I cared and love so deeply, and it would just probably be life changing to be her for one day.

David Novak 55:28

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Jessica Kim 55:34

Lack of progress.

David Novak 55:37

Surprise, there's something about you that few people would know.

Jessica Kim 55:44

I actually was going to be a violist at one point in my life. I went to the pre college Juilliard School I had one of those violin I don't know if you know about the violin Hickey plays so much that you have this big Hickey looking like mark on your neck. And I loved music so much. And I those were my first jobs that would play gigs. And, and I remember, you know, practicing three hours a day, and just loving it. I love chamber music. And so I don't think people would have ever guessed that I would want to have been a musician.

David Novak 56:20

Do you have another hidden talent?

Jessica Kim 56:24

Let's see. So another hidden talent is? Well, I used to be an aerobics instructor, but but just by saying aerobics really dates me, I think because who says anymore? So I totally was a 90s kind of roped aerobics with a headband and everything. But I would teach classes. I did it for like, six, seven years. And I still enjoy it. So

David Novak 56:51

that's great. What's your favorite idea that you've had so far?

Jessica Kim 56:55

I mean, I feel like Ionic air is life's work. Ayanna care. I mean, this is the culmination I feel like of decades. And but

David Novak 57:07

but all of this started with this bakery that that? Oh, yeah, go. I remember that. You know, so what's your favorite baked good?

Jessica Kim 57:14

Okay, so definitely my favorite baked good is molten chocolate cake. I am a chocolate girl. And when it oozes out, or there's nothing better?

David Novak 57:22

Well, Jessica, it's been just fantastic catching up with you. I mean, you are an amazing leader, and an inspiring leader. And thank you so much for for sharing your wisdom and what you're learning about leadership and your journey with others. So thank you very much. Thank you, David.

Jessica Kim 57:39

It's such an honor to be here. I respect you so much. And so thank you for, you know, using your voice to teach us all about leadership, it impacts so many of us.

David Novak 57:59

Make no mistake, Jessica is a hard driving super sharp business person. But in every venture, and in every role, she is always attuned to the problem her customer is facing. She feels it at a human level. And that empathy motivates her to go out and do excellent work. It's such a winning approach, and it's one we can all definitely learn from. So let me offer you a bit of coaching. It's so easy as leaders to let layers pile up between us and the people we actually serve at the end of the day. This week is a part of your weekly personal development plan. I want you to brainstorm three ways you can connect with customers really try to understand and empathize with the problems they're experiencing. I just know that this can lead to the motivation you need to solve their problems on a human level. So do you want to know how leaders lead? Well, we learned today is the great leaders solve problems on a human level. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be

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