Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Blacks and Technology Bit Tech Talk podcast,
Speaker 1: a show where we talk to black people who are engineers, innovators, educators, inventors,
Speaker 1: change makers and entrepreneurs doing amazing things in the world
Speaker 1: of technology. The Big Tech Talk podcast is where they
Speaker 1: show how they are stumping the divide by sharing their stories, experiences, ideas,
Speaker 1: knowledge and perspective on tech with the big community.
Speaker 2: Welcome everyone to the Blacks of Technology Big Tech Talk Podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm your host and also the founder of the Blacks
Speaker 2: and Technology Organization, Greg Grienley, and I'm delighted tonight to
Speaker 2: have doctor Marquisi appears on the show. Doctor Marqusi appears
Speaker 2: as the founder and principal consultant at ruby Leaf Media.
Speaker 2: It's a science media and communications company. She empowers tech
Speaker 2: accelerators and investors who support their portfolio companies in the
Speaker 2: STEM fields, and she has consulted over one hundred science professionals,
Speaker 2: academics and entrepreneurs, guiding them through their startup journey. So
Speaker 2: I'd like to come doctor Marquisia to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. This is such
Speaker 3: an honor.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you, definitely appreciate it. So let's jump right
Speaker 2: into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of where you're from, your education, all that good stuff.
Speaker 3: Sure, So I like to start off by saying, I'm
Speaker 3: a military kid. My parents served in the military. My
Speaker 3: dad did twenty years in the Marines and my mom
Speaker 3: did twenty five years in the Army. So we moved
Speaker 3: all over the place, all over the states, and I
Speaker 3: call Michigan home. My grandparents was there and most of
Speaker 3: our family was there, and so even though we moved
Speaker 3: so many places, we would always come back to Michigan.
Speaker 3: I now currently reside and spend a lot of my
Speaker 3: time in Columbus as well. And during Ohio yep, Columbus, Ohio, yep.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you're right down the street from me, I'm
Speaker 2: in Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We actually we met at one of the black
Speaker 3: tech meetups in Cincinnati's I think that's.
Speaker 2: How we first did. I'm terrible, sorry, right down the streets.
Speaker 3: We were into my husband and I for a little while,
Speaker 3: and then we moved to Columbus UH for a job
Speaker 3: opportunity that that he had, and I continued to work
Speaker 3: UH via the via virtual land with a lot of
Speaker 3: my clients still in Michigan UH and looking to you know,
Speaker 3: branch out to the Ohio ecosystem as well. We did
Speaker 3: UH undergrad I was pre farm UH in Michigan at
Speaker 3: Calvin College Calvin University and then transferred to Purdue University
Speaker 3: for biology. That by that time I realized that pharmacists
Speaker 3: did actually do the research around all of these drug
Speaker 3: discovery and inventions. And so by that time I was
Speaker 3: already into undergraduate research. I was a McNair scholar, and
Speaker 3: that really opened my eyes to it takes a team,
Speaker 3: it takes a village, and being able to be on
Speaker 3: the research side of tech was where my primary focus was.
Speaker 3: It was there where I learned the camaraderie that could
Speaker 3: come with the lab and being able to work on
Speaker 3: a team to solve like a really big important problem.
Speaker 3: So after my bachelors at Purdue, I pursued my PhD
Speaker 3: at Vanderbilt University and then I opened what opened my
Speaker 3: eyes was Hey, in order to get these cool technologies
Speaker 3: outside of the lab, you usually have to start up
Speaker 3: a company. You have to put together interdisciplinary team. They
Speaker 3: call it tech commercialization, which is really, you know, a
Speaker 3: fancy way of saying you have to have different milestones
Speaker 3: and people involved to push the tech out to the
Speaker 3: market to actually benefit the people who meet them. And
Speaker 3: so at that time I was supplementing my PhD. I
Speaker 3: did a PhD in molecular physiology, but I was interested
Speaker 3: in in management. How do you manage a tech in
Speaker 3: this particular manner, How do you get a team together
Speaker 3: with business people and clinicians and researchers to make sure
Speaker 3: the story makes sense. And so I audited a lot
Speaker 3: of engineering courses in management courses to kind of supplement
Speaker 3: that perspective. So by the time I graduated, I knew
Speaker 3: I wanted to be in that tech commercialization space. And
Speaker 3: I did an NBA while I was doing a postdoc,
Speaker 3: which was a really unique setup because the team that
Speaker 3: I was working with, they were on the research side
Speaker 3: looking to commercialize or actually push out a oncology therapeutic.
Speaker 3: It's called a business biopharma. I was a postdoc at
Speaker 3: Michigan State University and and that team wanted to build
Speaker 3: a company around this this tech, and it was it
Speaker 3: was a great opportunity to get the science and continue
Speaker 3: my my journey as a scientist, but also start up
Speaker 3: a company. I was team member number three after two
Speaker 3: academic founders, uh to you know, get that story up
Speaker 3: and going and get the company going. And so I
Speaker 3: kind of chopped that all under under. You know, this
Speaker 3: is the education that led me to this, this particular
Speaker 3: career path.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's pretty fascinating. I'm interested in knowing how many
Speaker 2: clones of you are there, because how do you do
Speaker 2: all this how do you do all that stuff? Strategic?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I wanted to make sure and it was chaotic.
Speaker 3: So when I was getting my my NBA, I picked
Speaker 3: a school that was close to my family. I just
Speaker 3: wanted to. After I got my PhD, I was a
Speaker 3: little burnt out and I was like, I need to
Speaker 3: be around people, grounding, like my sisters. I need to laugh,
Speaker 3: I need to I need to just be around people
Speaker 3: to pour into me. And so I picked an NBA
Speaker 3: program where I could I could commute there and just
Speaker 3: be close to home. And this particular campus was literally
Speaker 3: a block away from where my postdoc was. And so
Speaker 3: the advanced or excuse mean, the executive NBA program we
Speaker 3: would meet only on Thursday nights from since six to ten.
Speaker 3: And then I if you ever hear the story of
Speaker 3: like the postdoc woes you're in the lab, you might
Speaker 3: take a break, but in molecular postdoc training, usually running
Speaker 3: some type of time course, you had to go back
Speaker 3: up to the lab afterwards and kind of finish the experiment.
Speaker 3: So some nights I would leave my NBA class and
Speaker 3: then go back to lab so that I can, you know, finish,
Speaker 3: finish whatever experiment I had. But it was I strategically
Speaker 3: kind to put it close together, so it was almost
Speaker 3: like my own mini joint joint program. And my my
Speaker 3: post doc u mentor knew about my m b A
Speaker 3: and my NBA faculty. Uh, they were supportive and you know,
Speaker 3: knowing that you know, I'm also doing some training, Uh,
Speaker 3: please have grace. So it's it was it's kind of chaotic,
Speaker 3: but family being close by really helped.
Speaker 4: BIT is always focused on forming new partnerships and opportunities
Speaker 4: to assist the community and our members with their continued
Speaker 4: professional growth and development. If you'd like to partner with us,
Speaker 4: send an email in queries at blacks and Technology dot net.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how how did you How did you get into
Speaker 2: the science and things and then more specifically into the
Speaker 2: research part of it, Like you know, there's there's you
Speaker 2: can have your sciences, but like research is are totally
Speaker 2: different based altogether.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I didn't. I knew I wanted to be
Speaker 3: in science from a really young age. And I think
Speaker 3: in the nineties what was really going on was, uh,
Speaker 3: there was a lot of stories and kids getting into
Speaker 3: how they could help the AIDS epidemic and how they
Speaker 3: can be involved. I remember specifically there was a girl
Speaker 3: that was my age who was who was born with
Speaker 3: HIV and she was she was talking about her story
Speaker 3: and I think it I think it triggered and triggered
Speaker 3: something in me to to say, oh, there's something that
Speaker 3: maybe I could do to help a disease state. And
Speaker 3: I think that was like one of the turning points.
Speaker 3: But I went on into undergrad thinking, oh, I need
Speaker 3: to be a pharmacist because you know they surely that's
Speaker 3: the people who who they give out the drugs, so
Speaker 3: they probably make the drugs. So this is why you
Speaker 3: have to ask questions. Uh. It wasn't until like my
Speaker 3: sophomore year at I E. P U I and Purdue
Speaker 3: where at Purdue Indianapolis where I got involved with the
Speaker 3: McNair scholars and they were, uh, particularly a group of
Speaker 3: individuals and faculty members and support system that would help
Speaker 3: first generation students go through to get their PhD. And
Speaker 3: it was then where I was like, oh, you're looking
Speaker 3: for a research track. You're looking to you know, be
Speaker 3: on a team. Uh, that's that's not a pharmacist role.
Speaker 3: That's that's a PhD. That's how that's how I got
Speaker 3: the switching and came to the right path of where
Speaker 3: it needed to be.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, And for those that listen and don't get
Speaker 2: it twisted, being a proposes is still a rigorous curriculum. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So so how did you then was this coming like
Speaker 2: your first I guess for a into more of a
Speaker 2: tech side of it.
Speaker 3: I remember when I was an undergrad thinking, Uh, the
Speaker 3: school that I went to with the mid air program,
Speaker 3: they had an undergraduate research program and you got paired
Speaker 3: of with the faculty member and my member, my faculty
Speaker 3: mentor was from the school of dentistry. And I remember
Speaker 3: at that time thinking, how do I talk about this
Speaker 3: research in a way that would make sense to like
Speaker 3: my siblings and my parents and things like that. And
Speaker 3: so I kept thinking about, well, if I'm in a
Speaker 3: school of dentistry, some of the products and some of
Speaker 3: the things that they might use. Obviously it's toothpaste, mouth wash,
Speaker 3: things like that, And so I always had to by
Speaker 3: my mind, how does this research relate to like a
Speaker 3: product that I would use all the time or that
Speaker 3: my my community would use. And I think that kind
Speaker 3: of sparked the the the realization that what you're doing
Speaker 3: in the lab does have to transfer to a company
Speaker 3: like cool Crest. You know have researchers that are thinking
Speaker 3: on the molecular level, what does that mean for your
Speaker 3: your oral health? But how do you tell that story
Speaker 3: to a company to have a product that you know
Speaker 3: your your family might use. I think at the very
Speaker 3: basic level, that's when I was thinking, there's there's two
Speaker 3: sides here that I need to be able to be
Speaker 3: aware of. I need to learn how to do the
Speaker 3: science and be disciplined enough to do it, but I
Speaker 3: also need to and it was really important to me
Speaker 3: be able to share what are you doing in the
Speaker 3: lab with like my mom and dad and like, well,
Speaker 3: what does that mean, what's what's the what's the purpose
Speaker 3: of it, what is the what's the end goal for you?
Speaker 3: How does how does this benefit the people that that
Speaker 3: that are not in the lab. And I think that
Speaker 3: that's that's the part that really kind of said that
Speaker 3: there's two sides of this that I'd like to explore.
Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, it's it's funny, like I don't know if
Speaker 2: a lot of people know like how certain things come
Speaker 2: to market and how you know, there's a research phase
Speaker 2: of this before and then you have to figure out
Speaker 2: how to how to kind of commercialize this entire thing
Speaker 2: in order for the market to be able to consume it.
Speaker 2: I know that people probably know like, oh, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: there's you know, there's these big companies like you know,
Speaker 2: Procter and Gamble and they have there, but like, I
Speaker 2: don't know if they know like everything that's involved. So
Speaker 2: it's interesting to hear like from that that base level
Speaker 2: side of how things actually how things come to the market.
Speaker 2: So this is interesting. But what excited you about going
Speaker 2: into the field of science? Like, I know you you
Speaker 2: shared your story around the whole AIDS epidemic, but once
Speaker 2: you like kind of got into it, like what what
Speaker 2: was it? There was exciting that that that kept you
Speaker 2: in the field.
Speaker 3: When I was in grad school, I did a project
Speaker 3: where we got a chance to work with another small
Speaker 3: business that was trying to at the time there was
Speaker 3: there was a couple of projects that I had, but
Speaker 3: one one of them was there. It was a company
Speaker 3: that was trying to use the database that Vanderbilt was
Speaker 3: was producing around clinical do you identify data? What do
Speaker 3: they do in their their hospital and their clinical trials,
Speaker 3: And they were trying to make it available to the public,
Speaker 3: and they wanted to have people, uh like a committee
Speaker 3: around it to to kind of say, well, here's how
Speaker 3: we can do this ethically, and here's how we can
Speaker 3: have a business story around it, and here's also how
Speaker 3: do how do we share with the public why we're
Speaker 3: doing this to get their consent, to get their trust,
Speaker 3: to get give them equitable access to the founding the
Speaker 3: findings that we would have later on. And I think
Speaker 3: that particular project, uh really it was the first time
Speaker 3: I was able to talk to other business owners other
Speaker 3: like law students. They had a couple of other students
Speaker 3: on the on like the committee, and you know, what
Speaker 3: we said about how how we think this project should
Speaker 3: go so that it could be equitable and trustworthy for
Speaker 3: the whole community was taken taken the heart and and
Speaker 3: it actually was implemented. The policies that they did and
Speaker 3: that's what kind of was like, oh I can I
Speaker 3: can work and talk to other people and it actually
Speaker 3: can produce something something you know, worthwhile and useful. So
Speaker 3: I think, So I didn't they call it lab hands.
Speaker 3: I didn't really have great lab hands, Like I would
Speaker 3: do an experiment in the lab a couple of times,
Speaker 3: you know, usually it wouldn't work. But I could tell
Speaker 3: based off of, you know, how my colleagues are moving
Speaker 3: through things that I was a lot more interested in,
Speaker 3: how do you how do you tell the story? How
Speaker 3: do I get other people involved? Can we can we
Speaker 3: do something together? What's the teamwork here? And so while
Speaker 3: I was writing the dissertation, I was really interested in
Speaker 3: and how other people were doing there during their training
Speaker 3: and things like that, And so I think, I think
Speaker 3: that really that really stuck with me, like how do
Speaker 3: you translate this this stuff and what's exciting? And it's
Speaker 3: still exciting now. So recently I got a chance to
Speaker 3: now I get a chance to work with a lot
Speaker 3: of founders there. They're professors who are you know, going
Speaker 3: through the process. They've gone through the rigorous training scientifically
Speaker 3: how to get their tech, but that training usually doesn't
Speaker 3: include well, how do you put together a business plan,
Speaker 3: how do you put together a team, how do you
Speaker 3: delegate things that are non technical to your team, and
Speaker 3: how do you turn that tech story into business story
Speaker 3: so that you can get strategic partnerships, so you can
Speaker 3: get funding, so you can get you know, people to
Speaker 3: to to put on or be a part of your
Speaker 3: your story. And it's being an entrepreneur coach is a
Speaker 3: lot of therapy. It's a lot of sessions of like,
Speaker 3: here's how I can connect you to others and being
Speaker 3: able to know what they've been able, what they've done
Speaker 3: in the past. It really excites me to bring something new,
Speaker 3: like a new perspective, uh to you know, something that
Speaker 3: they've been entrenched in in so long and say well
Speaker 3: that's great, let's think of it in a different way.
Speaker 3: That's what That's what really excites me.
Speaker 2: So I'm really interested in knowing if that's the normal
Speaker 2: I guess cadence or pattern that happens with I guess
Speaker 2: within the commercial commercialization of a new product, new medical
Speaker 2: device or something like that. The reason why I'm asking
Speaker 2: is because like there's there's always people out there that
Speaker 2: are they're going to be skeptics of the process. And
Speaker 2: it was interesting for me to hear you talk about,
Speaker 2: you know, things being equitable. Uh. And you know, when
Speaker 2: it comes to like you know, quote unquote big pharmacy
Speaker 2: and all these large you know, medical companies, like people
Speaker 2: have their skeptical about their intentions and what they're doing.
Speaker 2: And so when you said that, it was like, Oh, well,
Speaker 2: I wonder if it's if that's like kind of the
Speaker 2: normal pattern for a lot of these, it would be
Speaker 2: good to know because there may be people could could
Speaker 2: you know, kind of taper a little their skepticism about
Speaker 2: some of these because no matter what, like there's you're
Speaker 2: going to have people to you know, big pharmacy or
Speaker 2: out to get us. They're out to do this, they're
Speaker 2: out to control us, and that type of thing. But
Speaker 2: it's always good to kind of hear like someone on
Speaker 2: on the quote unquote inside Uh. And so I'm just
Speaker 2: kind of wondering, is that is that a normal process?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a that's a great question. I would answer
Speaker 3: in the two folds. So, Uh, when I talk to
Speaker 3: my colleagues, particularly ones that look like me, who are
Speaker 3: interested in uh, underrepresented communities or underestimated communities, people who
Speaker 3: are wanting to take an innovation and and I work
Speaker 3: with companies that are that are really early stage, so
Speaker 3: they're they're the most optimistic, they're the most you know,
Speaker 3: they're the most uh dreamy about what their technology can do.
Speaker 3: And they're they're really yeah, exactly, they're they're really asking
Speaker 3: these questions. And so a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: my colleagues in the First Town found founders, they're really
Speaker 3: in tune with why why they're trying to get this
Speaker 3: this commercialization project up and going. Whether that's a new therapeutic,
Speaker 3: whether that's a new software company that would help connect
Speaker 3: hospitals to maybe marginalized communities, whether it's a medical device
Speaker 3: that would be amazing for you know, people of different
Speaker 3: different shades, different sizes, you know, some of those things
Speaker 3: come and come to bear. And so what what I
Speaker 3: like hearing about those those particular conversations is, you know,
Speaker 3: before they before they get to an exploratory path where
Speaker 3: you're you're really focusing in on how we can make
Speaker 3: a difference and what the milestones are. Those conversations are
Speaker 3: are really inclusive, and the people who are doing the research,
Speaker 3: they're you know, they're they're also making sure you know,
Speaker 3: there's some things that aren't right in clinical trials and
Speaker 3: how they recruit and how people use the data. How
Speaker 3: do we change that conversation or make it accessible?
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: One of the founders that I really love working with,
Speaker 3: she she's looking at how we can use AI to
Speaker 3: to start making predictions of different molecules, and she's already
Speaker 3: thinking about, well, the data that we input into the algorithm,
Speaker 3: it needs to be diverse, it needs to have these
Speaker 3: different types of perspectives so that you could build a
Speaker 3: strong foundation. And there's there's a lot of people who
Speaker 3: are advancing that that that perspective, even with the big companies.
Speaker 3: One of the the uh uh maybe she'll be my
Speaker 3: colleague one day. But one of one of the people
Speaker 3: that I really enjoy following is doctor Joy from the
Speaker 3: uh Uh. She has like this algorithm of justice leads
Speaker 3: where she she just had a Netflix documentary. You know,
Speaker 3: how do we how do we make sure that the
Speaker 3: people on the on the round building these things take
Speaker 3: into account the biases of you know, just human nature
Speaker 3: and and being inclusive about the training and the talent
Speaker 3: to ask these questions. Is how you do that? And
Speaker 3: so building that team is super important and Uh, I'm
Speaker 3: on the more optimistic side with the new founders and
Speaker 3: and they're getting their milestones, but it's it's more prev
Speaker 3: We have a long way to go, but it's more
Speaker 3: prevalent now of at least including in your story. How
Speaker 3: do you how do you account for these particular things?
Speaker 3: And it helps when you, like you said, you have
Speaker 3: people who look like you who are telling what they're
Speaker 3: doing about it, but also show showing that you know,
Speaker 3: I'm speaking out so that other new companies and other
Speaker 3: new innovations that are going in the pipeline all are
Speaker 3: aware of this. That might have been a long winded
Speaker 3: way of saying there's no no, no, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 2: I definitely appreciate the answer. I mean it essentially the
Speaker 2: new generation is holding us down. So I like that.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 2: What's up everyone? We hope that you're enjoying this episode
Speaker 2: of the Blacks and Technology Big Tech Talk podcast. Do
Speaker 2: you or someone you know have a dope story that
Speaker 2: they want to share with our bit audience. Blocks and
Speaker 2: Technology is seeking guests to be on our podcast. We're
Speaker 2: looking to highlight the journeys and experiences of black women
Speaker 2: and men in the tech industry. So if you know
Speaker 2: of someone, send them our way, shoot us an email
Speaker 2: to contact us at blacks and Technology dot net, or
Speaker 2: click on the link in the show notes and fill
Speaker 2: out our form. We're looking to hear from you. So yeah,
Speaker 2: so let's talk a little bit about ruby Leaf Media
Speaker 2: and what are some of the things that led you
Speaker 2: to found in this company.
Speaker 3: So it's it's been established since my grad school days,
Speaker 3: and at first it was a way that I could
Speaker 3: be able to do small market research projects or small
Speaker 3: volunteer or uh scope based projects in a way that
Speaker 3: that could complement my my training. And so I had
Speaker 3: it on this on the side for a little while.
Speaker 3: And recently, what I've learned in just growing in the
Speaker 3: ecosystem and figuring out how the ecosystem works around tech commercialization,
Speaker 3: I noticed that there was people that are connectors in
Speaker 3: the ecosystem. These are your entrepreneurial support systems, and my
Speaker 3: time with the Small Business Development Center really showed how
Speaker 3: they worked together. And I continue to or the goal
Speaker 3: that I have with the company is to support these
Speaker 3: these partnerships or these these organizations when it comes to
Speaker 3: high tech companies. I'd love to use my my PhD,
Speaker 3: my NBA. The fact that when when we started that
Speaker 3: company UH with my with my post doc team, we
Speaker 3: it was a a small drug pharmaceutical company that got acquired.
Speaker 3: So those end up you end up seeing steps along
Speaker 3: the way that could be useful for other founders and
Speaker 3: being able to do that on a scalable level, supporting
Speaker 3: the the organizations that are doing that. That's what we're
Speaker 3: relief is about primarily, and then also being able to
Speaker 3: champion the story around uh underestimated, underrepresented founders who are
Speaker 3: doing the journey. They've they've been in the field, they've
Speaker 3: been working their path sometimes gets overlooked or sometimes uh
Speaker 3: uh I would say, they're their milestones look a little
Speaker 3: bit different than maybe the traditional tech founder that gets
Speaker 3: all the media attention and things like that. But it
Speaker 3: but being able to just share and champion the story
Speaker 3: of founders, the diversity of founders, and how to support
Speaker 3: them and and give them milestones that that would make
Speaker 3: a difference. That's that's what real belief is about. So
Speaker 3: it started with just just being able to in my
Speaker 3: other my colleagues that were in the postoc setting, then
Speaker 3: I graduated. Then it was founders who were also starting
Speaker 3: a company and then I did that, and then I
Speaker 3: expanded to the support systems that support them, and it's
Speaker 3: just it's an extension of how I feel like I
Speaker 3: can best support this, uh, this community as as I
Speaker 3: grow as well.
Speaker 2: Nice. Nice, So talk to us a little bit about
Speaker 2: what a typical engagement looks like, like what from like
Speaker 2: you know, don't have to go into like every little detail,
Speaker 2: but I kind of start to finish I give us
Speaker 2: an idea on like what that would look like.
Speaker 3: Sure, So now that I'm working with organizations, I'll tell
Speaker 3: you one of one of my favorites. Actually it's it's
Speaker 3: it's a typical pathway of how I interact with founders,
Speaker 3: but it was happening in a in a group setting.
Speaker 3: So I have had a contract with Michigan State University
Speaker 3: Research Foundation with a group called Spartan Innovations, and they're
Speaker 3: tasked with the the the job of making sure that
Speaker 3: any any staff, student, or faculty member that that is
Speaker 3: affiliated with the university, if they have a small business
Speaker 3: that is around a high tech or or innovation that
Speaker 3: the the the university is a part of, maybe they've
Speaker 3: they've helped provide funding for that patent or for the
Speaker 3: research to be done there. There they're tasked with the
Speaker 3: the the goal of getting that company or getting that
Speaker 3: technology out into out into the world and out into
Speaker 3: the marketplace. And so as an entrepreneur residence, I would
Speaker 3: work with a faculty member. They have this great idea,
Speaker 3: we've been working on it for a little while, we
Speaker 3: might have a patent around it, We've been working with
Speaker 3: the university. We think that, uh, this this has the
Speaker 3: opportunity to serve more people. So the first thing that
Speaker 3: the that Spartan Innovation will do is assign them an
Speaker 3: entrepreneur in residence and that's somebody to kind of program manage,
Speaker 3: kind of guide them, kind of connects them to an
Speaker 3: ecosystem that will give them a good foundation to start
Speaker 3: to tell that that business story of their technology. I
Speaker 3: recently had an opportunity to do this on a on
Speaker 3: a group scale where they put together an accelerator that
Speaker 3: was for how to get these founders funding. Funding is
Speaker 3: like like you need you need funding, these are these
Speaker 3: are really big projects. And so we put together an
Speaker 3: accelerator for ten of these founders. So there were some students,
Speaker 3: uh it could have been for postdocs, but all around
Speaker 3: the state. Uh, to go through a program where they
Speaker 3: at the end of it, they could have a really
Speaker 3: good chance of getting non deluted government funding, which means
Speaker 3: a grant basically to to to move on UH for
Speaker 3: their for their technology. So we took ten founders through
Speaker 3: this program. It was eighteen weeks. We were able to
Speaker 3: work with them one on one. I was giving them
Speaker 3: access to different people in the community that would help
Speaker 3: move their story along, whether it was somebody a lawyer
Speaker 3: to talk through their their intellectual property strategy, where there
Speaker 3: was a contract manufacturer who'd say, hey, in order for
Speaker 3: us to build this for you, we need you to
Speaker 3: be at this particular level, and giving them basics of
Speaker 3: how you would form a company, how you would build
Speaker 3: a business model around it. And they really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: It was a great compliment to the training that they
Speaker 3: already were receiving. They were able to get connected. They
Speaker 3: were able to have like a checklist of how do
Speaker 3: you actually go out to get these grants from the
Speaker 3: National Science Foundation, the National Institution of Health, the Department
Speaker 3: of Defense, and so they got connections around those as well,
Speaker 3: and so at the end of it, they stayed engaged.
Speaker 3: Eighteen week Accelerator is super hard to do sometimes to
Speaker 3: stay engaged, but eighty percent of them finished the program.
Speaker 3: The ones that went on to pitch their idea for
Speaker 3: the NSF, they were invited to submit a full proposal.
Speaker 3: We gave them access to twenty six different teachers, sixteen
Speaker 3: different organizations in the state that could help them, and
Speaker 3: one of them is raising a multimillion dollar round right
Speaker 3: now off an idea that she she put together in
Speaker 3: the accelerator program. So being able to provide a framework
Speaker 3: for supporters of these founders is something that excites me.
Speaker 3: As an individual consultant, I do this, I do something
Speaker 3: very similar frameworks. Here's who, here's people that you can
Speaker 3: connect to for funding, for marketing research, things like that,
Speaker 3: And it looks different for each for each engagement, but
Speaker 3: really the whole goal is to work either one on
Speaker 3: one or in a group with founders who are like,
Speaker 3: I have an idea, What's what's the first couple of
Speaker 3: steps can I can I take to start building it?
Speaker 2: And I would I would think that this is super
Speaker 2: important because, like I'll take me as an example, so
Speaker 2: there is a for profit component of blocks and technology,
Speaker 2: So essentially it's me running running a business and you
Speaker 2: know I have an engineering background. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 2: know the first thing about running running a business, so
Speaker 2: I would I would think that that would be something
Speaker 2: that is that's something that you would come across all
Speaker 2: the time, Like you have these researchers that these people
Speaker 2: that are deep into the science and technology part of it,
Speaker 2: but they're not business people, right, And so having having
Speaker 2: a company such as as your company or someone like
Speaker 2: you in their corner to say, you know, one, two, three,
Speaker 2: like these are the steps that you need to take.
Speaker 2: It's it's incredibly beneficial, Like it should be a pre
Speaker 2: wreck for for anyone anyone starting a company, and they should,
Speaker 2: I feel should have someone like that, but not everyone does.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's kind of like learning a different different language.
Speaker 3: That's that's why I usually say it's you have to
Speaker 3: turn your text story, which is chalk full of great
Speaker 3: exploration and features of what you've been able to build
Speaker 3: and uh, just this cool journey that you've been on,
Speaker 3: into a business story, which is what are the benefits
Speaker 3: of this technology? How will you get it to people?
Speaker 3: How will you sustain you know, this operation? And it's
Speaker 3: it's when I say bridging the gap, it really is
Speaker 3: this this translation if you will of we're going from
Speaker 3: exploratory mode to how do we sustain this and uh
Speaker 3: commercialize it?
Speaker 4: Do you have a product or service that you would
Speaker 4: like to share with the big audience, or maybe you'd
Speaker 4: like to support the bit community and do your part
Speaker 4: in helping us with stomping the divide start by sponsoring
Speaker 4: one of our podcasts. Please email us at contact us
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Speaker 2: Yeah, because I would say, you know, just crossing paths
Speaker 2: with people who are more of entrepreneurial side, meaning they
Speaker 2: have the ideas, right, A lot of them that I've
Speaker 2: come across, they don't have the business side of it,
Speaker 2: Like they even with their own ideas, they don't know
Speaker 2: the best ways to go, but like who to connect
Speaker 2: to the best ways to go about trying to market it,
Speaker 2: whether or not you need to build build an entire
Speaker 2: prototype out or if you just like any of that stuff,
Speaker 2: like they don't have a full grasp on like they
Speaker 2: have all these wonderful ideas, but like, hey, is anyone
Speaker 2: actually going to buy that? Do you think anyone would
Speaker 2: buy that? Or how do you scale that? If if
Speaker 2: if it came to the points where you're being able
Speaker 2: to scale. So I'll give an example. Call on and
Speaker 2: I have a friend he had a really really good idea.
Speaker 2: This was this was not science or tech or anything
Speaker 2: like that, but he had a got a really good
Speaker 2: idea about a product. Uh. And so, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: I gave him some advice about, you know, having a
Speaker 2: website and you know, setting up your website to take
Speaker 2: orders and and everything like that. And so he had
Speaker 2: an Instagram page he had and so one of the
Speaker 2: things that he would do when someone would inquire about
Speaker 2: like his product, people say, you know, hey, give me
Speaker 2: a call, and I would say, hey, like, that's that's
Speaker 2: not scalable, Like you cannot have everyone who wants to
Speaker 2: give you a call. Like you need to set up
Speaker 2: everything on your website. You need to have you know,
Speaker 2: all your photos of your merchandise and everything there because
Speaker 2: your your your your website is there to be able
Speaker 2: to take, you know, take all these orders and you
Speaker 2: know you can only take one order at a time
Speaker 2: if you're on a phone. Uh. And sometimes it depended
Speaker 2: on like you might run into a scenario where you're
Speaker 2: on the phone and someone can't get through. Then what
Speaker 2: so I said, I'd have to say, like, I know
Speaker 2: that there's like this disparity between like people with the
Speaker 2: big ideas and the business side of it and you
Speaker 2: what you're doing is kind of bridging, like providing like
Speaker 2: this kind of scaffold for these people to be able
Speaker 2: to follow so that they can get their ideas from
Speaker 2: just an idea state to hopefully a commercial commercialization state.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's there's steps even though that it's a
Speaker 3: it might be a different technology, there's steps along the
Speaker 3: way that are fairly similar, like the like what you
Speaker 3: were talking about, how can you have a framework or
Speaker 3: sometimes it's a checklist, like if you want to get
Speaker 3: money from the government, you have to apply to these
Speaker 3: particular grants. They need these three registrations to be done,
Speaker 3: and you need you know, you need to make it out.
Speaker 3: You need to be able to have these these things
Speaker 3: in your proposal, particularly around UH innovations that are in
Speaker 3: the in the medical field, sometimes you have to think
Speaker 3: about your your if your customer is a hospital, there's
Speaker 3: a couple of people who have to weigh in on
Speaker 3: that decision before it even gets to the end user
Speaker 3: or the or the patient or the person that you
Speaker 3: that you're you're really trying to provide a service to
Speaker 3: and so I'll see a lot of a lot of
Speaker 3: time a founder will have this great idea about a software,
Speaker 3: a medical device or something where there's a couple of
Speaker 3: there's a couple of people that you need their insight
Speaker 3: and expertise to kind of guide you on what milest
Speaker 3: what step do you need to get to, so it
Speaker 3: makes sense for them before it even gets to the patient.
Speaker 3: So if you're working with the hospital, if you think
Speaker 3: you want to work with a hospital, you're you know,
Speaker 3: realistically you might can only do one or two at
Speaker 3: a time, and they're they're thinking about, Okay, well, will
Speaker 3: this integrate with something that we already have, will this
Speaker 3: workflow completely disrupt our what our clinicians are trying to do?
Speaker 3: You have this app that is really user friendly for
Speaker 3: you know, maybe a person in the community or elderly
Speaker 3: or things like that. But if the information is needing
Speaker 3: to go to a clinician or or a healthcare professional,
Speaker 3: there's different checklists there before you even talk about the
Speaker 3: benefits of you know, the patient and so being able
Speaker 3: to kind of frame the story of uh, this is
Speaker 3: a great idea, here's the benefit for you. The hospital
Speaker 3: or the clinician, and in turn you'll be able to
Speaker 3: benefit your patient or you know, somebody in the community.
Speaker 3: Sometimes telling those different stories it helps to walk through
Speaker 3: that was somebody and then get some get some Uh.
Speaker 3: They call it customer discovery, but it really is just
Speaker 3: having a couple of conversations under your belt about what's
Speaker 3: really the problem. That's that's that's the main hold up
Speaker 3: for why something like this doesn't exist in the first place.
Speaker 2: And is that why? Uh the accelerator program. Is that
Speaker 2: why it it's such a long program. It's because it's
Speaker 2: like part of this medical science feel and these things
Speaker 2: are not you know, it's not and I don't I
Speaker 2: don't mean to demean or or or anything to any
Speaker 2: other say like uber right for instance, like you take
Speaker 2: a ride share program or application like that, Like that's
Speaker 2: something that might not take as long and a accelerator
Speaker 2: because it's not life or death. You're not dealing with
Speaker 2: patients and you're not dealing with health and medicine and
Speaker 2: things like that. So they might be able to go
Speaker 2: through an acceleration program in a month or you know,
Speaker 2: two months, as opposed to what is it for four
Speaker 2: and a half months? That they go through yours is
Speaker 2: it because of the it's you know, the medical field,
Speaker 2: science field.
Speaker 3: Uh. There were two things that led us to try
Speaker 3: to try to expand the time that we had with
Speaker 3: the founders. One one was the first It was the
Speaker 3: second time that we had did the accelerator and the
Speaker 3: first time we went through it, we noticed that there
Speaker 3: needed a little bit more basic business foundation, uh, to
Speaker 3: just kind of say this is this is a framework
Speaker 3: for how your story is going to be told. We
Speaker 3: can put this in a business model canvas. You have
Speaker 3: to really work through who your customer, the problem that
Speaker 3: you'll solve, the solution, and what that value proposition would be.
Speaker 3: And we took our time with that, so we're like
Speaker 3: four weeks just doing that. In the meantime, you know,
Speaker 3: here's how you would form a company. This is the
Speaker 3: difference between an LLC or a C corp. This is
Speaker 3: how if you are with a university and you're a
Speaker 3: facty member, this is how you disclose that you want
Speaker 3: to actually have a company that you want to start up.
Speaker 3: And the proper process to say, you know, to work
Speaker 3: with your university to you know, actually start a company.
Speaker 3: That took a little bit longer, and it was a
Speaker 3: little bit more customized to the founders. I think this
Speaker 3: next time along around it won't be as long, or
Speaker 3: we try to try to condense it, but it was
Speaker 3: longer because I did want to include in this process
Speaker 3: where you know, you might have, like I was talking
Speaker 3: about earlier, you might have a conversation with a customer,
Speaker 3: an end user, or somebody this project was built for.
Speaker 3: And that's that's pretty much all the feedback you need.
Speaker 3: Will will like in your example, will a customer be
Speaker 3: willing to get in a car with a stranger? Would
Speaker 3: they be willing to use the app to call a ride?
Speaker 3: If you go with that model. With the medical device,
Speaker 3: you know, well does the does the patient want a
Speaker 3: better drug? Well, it will always be yes, But you
Speaker 3: have other different types of well, how how do you
Speaker 3: safely manufacture this particular drug or this medical device? How
Speaker 3: do you talk to the f d A. There's different
Speaker 3: it's so regulated that you know, being able to just
Speaker 3: be exposed to the regulatory part took a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: That might not be as prevalent if you were doing
Speaker 3: a direct to consumer technology. We also I also put
Speaker 3: in a month so that we were working on something
Speaker 3: as as uh so that at the end of it
Speaker 3: you actually had something to to turn it. And so
Speaker 3: we were doing these what I call di y together
Speaker 3: uh type of session where it was like, Okay, the
Speaker 3: hardest thing that people usually get tripped up on is
Speaker 3: making sure their financials have a realistic story behind them.
Speaker 3: So we'll work through it all together. We'll have somebody
Speaker 3: you know kind of come through. We'll look at your
Speaker 3: cap table or the people who own who you think
Speaker 3: will have equity in the company, will you know, work
Speaker 3: out a strategy. And so I think we really took
Speaker 3: our time with it. There were some parts that could
Speaker 3: be condensed, but you're right, there's there's some things in
Speaker 3: the medical the health care healthcare space where you just
Speaker 3: need to be exposed to a lot more pieces in
Speaker 3: order for it to be uh de risks or in
Speaker 3: order for it to make sense to a funding mechanism
Speaker 3: like a brand or a VC.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, that seems pretty uh like a like a
Speaker 2: pretty rigorous process. But I would think that it would
Speaker 2: need to be uh when you're dealing with anything in
Speaker 2: medicine and healthcare.
Speaker 3: And that's why it really does take a village like
Speaker 3: you could you could there's there's some place for you
Speaker 3: to get that information somehow. But you know the purpose
Speaker 3: of an accelerator is to get you those connections when
Speaker 3: you're you're first starting to think about it, so you're
Speaker 3: not building and turning your wills on something uh that's
Speaker 3: you know, doesn't have the benefit of having the insight
Speaker 3: of these different people who will ultimately fund or need
Speaker 3: to partner with you to get it going. It's it's
Speaker 3: sounds it is super complicated, but it's it definitely is
Speaker 3: a place where you know, if you if you have
Speaker 3: this village or you have the support system, it can
Speaker 3: be a little bit easier, a lot of it easier.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I would think that I would think
Speaker 2: it would be fun like to be to be you,
Speaker 2: and I know that it's probably a lot of work.
Speaker 2: And I'm not, you know, trying to dismiss any of
Speaker 2: any of that, but I'm saying from a from the
Speaker 2: standpoint of seeing some of this cutting edge stuff, uh,
Speaker 2: you know coming to market. Uh and and and not
Speaker 2: only that, like I'm pretty sure it's almost it kind
Speaker 2: of reminds me of not not exactly, but like the
Speaker 2: like patent, like how you patent technology like in order
Speaker 2: to get a patent, like the people who are in
Speaker 2: these patent offices, they have to go through things with
Speaker 2: the fine tooth calling and make sure you're not infringing
Speaker 2: on others. And they get to see all these ideas
Speaker 2: coming to them like oh wow, this is this is
Speaker 2: incredible and now you know, and they have to and
Speaker 2: and not only that, but these people also have to
Speaker 2: have a mind for the feel that they are are
Speaker 2: approving patents for. Like you can't just be you know,
Speaker 2: Joe Schmoe on the street and go work in the
Speaker 2: patent office because you know, there's a lot of technical
Speaker 2: you know, and a lot of jargon in these patents
Speaker 2: that you that you have to know. I would think
Speaker 2: that from from the science side of you, that like
Speaker 2: has to Like if it was me and it was
Speaker 2: like all tech stuff and it was you know, text
Speaker 2: stuff coming out, I was seeing all this stuff, like
Speaker 2: I would, I would kind of geek out. So I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm kind of wondering if you if you have that.
Speaker 3: Same I definitely do you hit it on the on
Speaker 3: the head. It's it's a way to like keep up
Speaker 3: with the field in a whole different manner. I think
Speaker 3: one of the things that I was missing in my
Speaker 3: pH d, like, uh, journey was it was it was
Speaker 3: very academic. It was very you know, very narrow. Obviously
Speaker 3: it was academic, but it was very narrow and like
Speaker 3: you know, you only had time or to kind of
Speaker 3: get really really deep in one particular nuanced subject, so
Speaker 3: you could get at the cutting edge at edge of knowledge,
Speaker 3: but you know, being able to hear how people are
Speaker 3: trying to end it on the clinical side, and people
Speaker 3: are trying to innovate and use a I to to
Speaker 3: help with the process side or the design side, and
Speaker 3: then seeing how you know, uh, these are these are
Speaker 3: the the questions and experiments that they were taught to
Speaker 3: do because they're they're thorough, they're exploratory, they're they're able
Speaker 3: to you know, they're they're supposed to get really deep
Speaker 3: in niche. And then this is how you turn it
Speaker 3: so that it's it's it makes sense for people who
Speaker 3: who want to take it in different ways and be
Speaker 3: able to to market it and and tell a lot
Speaker 3: of different type of stories and founders themselves, they're they
Speaker 3: have they have this way of looking at a perspective
Speaker 3: where all it all it takes is like a spark
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, you know, I didn't really think
Speaker 3: of it like that. That that makes sense, And so
Speaker 3: usually they're willing to like as soon as as soon
Speaker 3: as you start to to volley back and forth, well
Speaker 3: have you thought about how particularly you would you would
Speaker 3: answer this question when they ask it like this, or
Speaker 3: how would you collaborate with this team? They'll it's it's fireworks,
Speaker 3: and so you know, it's super fun working with them.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's challenging. So you're you feel like you
Speaker 3: are building with them because it is. It could be
Speaker 3: a very long road, but I really do like it.
Speaker 3: And being able to work with uh the ecosystem supporters,
Speaker 3: people who are like, hey, it's our job to write
Speaker 3: the checks so that we can create jobs and so
Speaker 3: that with the talent can stay here in the community,
Speaker 3: and you know, those are the things that they care about,
Speaker 3: and so being able to support support that effort on
Speaker 3: the ground level is like, Okay, here's how you can
Speaker 3: connect to this abundance of resources. Is just a great
Speaker 3: place to be, Like, I love it.
Speaker 2: It sounds extremely fulfilling, definitely.
Speaker 4: The BIT Foundation has established featured partnerships and programs with
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Speaker 2: Let mean you talked about challenges, Let's talk what has
Speaker 2: been some of the most challenging aspects of running this
Speaker 2: type of consult company.
Speaker 3: So I would say it's the most challenging part for
Speaker 3: me has been ironically, how do you how do you
Speaker 3: say you're you're a bridge builder? Like? How do you
Speaker 3: package up? Like? The The part that I think is
Speaker 3: really valuable is the the expertise that I that I
Speaker 3: bring to the table being a life science a life
Speaker 3: science professional, I had training. I'm trained in molecular physiology.
Speaker 3: I also complimented that with the n b A what
Speaker 3: what how? How do you uh have a sustainable company?
Speaker 3: That that is the value proposition, But it goes beyond
Speaker 3: just just you, you know, being able to scale, Like we
Speaker 3: were talking about sustainability. You know, if if I'm if
Speaker 3: I'm only serving when I'm on one call with one
Speaker 3: founder or even a group, how do I continue to
Speaker 3: bring value in other types of ways. And so I'm
Speaker 3: learning what is what does scaling and sustainability mean to
Speaker 3: a service service provider like myself that is bringing you know,
Speaker 3: the whole whole point of it is so that you
Speaker 3: can disseminate uh this expertise and connections. And so I'm
Speaker 3: learning how to package it or and how to how
Speaker 3: to share it with groups of people who who see
Speaker 3: the need for that bridge building and be able to
Speaker 3: uh who are really trying to champion that support because
Speaker 3: for founders, you know, there's a particular time where you
Speaker 3: need that. But I think the scalability comes from supporting
Speaker 3: the ecosystem and not not solely just the founders. So
Speaker 3: that's I think that's been the challenging part. Uh. And
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of moved and changed ecosystem for
Speaker 3: the past ten years I was serving Michigan and broadening
Speaker 3: out my footprint as well. I'm learning still just like
Speaker 3: just like every other entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope this podcast helps and in some ways,
Speaker 2: you know, bring people to because I would think that
Speaker 2: it seems when I hear you explain it, it almost
Speaker 2: sounds like a no brainer to me. It almost sounds like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we definitely need her, like we need someone
Speaker 2: like her, Like it shouldn't even be a question, it
Speaker 2: should just be automatic. But just like everything else, like
Speaker 2: you always kind of have to sell yourself and sell,
Speaker 2: like you said, the value proposition of people, because there
Speaker 2: are some people who don't even know that they might
Speaker 2: need you need your services, right, and so how do
Speaker 2: you how do you reach those people or how do
Speaker 2: you how do you how do you communicate that value
Speaker 2: proposition to them so that light bulb goes off with
Speaker 2: them like oh, yeah, this is a no brainer, let's
Speaker 2: let's hire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, I would say this, like hopefully when this podcast drops,
Speaker 2: like there will be people out there not only they
Speaker 2: can utilize your services, but can also hear what you
Speaker 2: need and say, hey, like I think I can help her,
Speaker 2: you know, formulate like what that message is for her service,
Speaker 2: and because I know some people who are who are
Speaker 2: really good you know, with with with doing that, like
Speaker 2: and yeah, so hopefully like this brings like some some
Speaker 2: some ears to to what you need as well, and
Speaker 2: they can they can reach out to you.
Speaker 3: So I appreciate welcome the conversation.
Speaker 2: Excellent excellent. So I know you're you kind of talk
Speaker 2: to us about like what the engagement is and and
Speaker 2: and everything, but what are some of the things that
Speaker 2: you feel And this is more like giving some advice
Speaker 2: that some like startup companies, because you've dealt with a
Speaker 2: lot of them, should do like in the beginning of
Speaker 2: their journey that they often miss like besides, besides hire you, like, yes,
Speaker 2: hire me, but what what are some other things that
Speaker 2: you should like right off bat like before you start
Speaker 2: going down do.
Speaker 3: This have conversations with your potential customers and who you
Speaker 3: think your partners would be. You know, they call it
Speaker 3: customer discovery, and people sometimes think, well, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: if I just if I just talk to people, like
Speaker 3: surely surely people will see the benefit and I'll go
Speaker 3: build it and then I'll come back and present them
Speaker 3: with something with high tech things, with things that have
Speaker 3: a lot of different people who who want to give
Speaker 3: insight or you need their insight with nothing beats really
Speaker 3: having a conversation and being able to have multiple ones
Speaker 3: so that you can almost say it exactly in their
Speaker 3: words what their biggest pain point is or what their
Speaker 3: biggest opportunity or goal is. Because people. When you're able
Speaker 3: to articulate somebody's problem as clear as it is in
Speaker 3: their head or how they would say it, people automatically
Speaker 3: assume that you have the answer for its Oh, you
Speaker 3: know exactly what I'm going through. Yes, surely whatever you're
Speaker 3: about to say is beneficial. So being able to have
Speaker 3: mint dozens thirty forty different conversations before you start building
Speaker 3: helps and then build kind of out in the open
Speaker 3: if you can. So what I mean by that is
Speaker 3: the people who maybe might be your testers or maybe
Speaker 3: your users or like will who will see that MVP
Speaker 3: or that that alpha version whatever, cultivate a relationship where
Speaker 3: you are getting their feedback and you're still having those conversations.
Speaker 3: Here's here's what I heard you say your problem and
Speaker 3: pain point was here's my solution? Did I get it right?
Speaker 3: What would your tweak? And just be open to having
Speaker 3: that very direct dialogue so and be able to implement it,
Speaker 3: because you know, building something in the dark, especially if
Speaker 3: you have a long road ahead of you, is hard
Speaker 3: and more hard than it needs to be. So customer discovery,
Speaker 3: or in other words, have more conversations with your your customer,
Speaker 3: with people who who could get you to that, next that,
Speaker 3: next steps. Who would who could have the funding for you,
Speaker 3: who could have the partnership for you? WHOA what what
Speaker 3: does it take for me to actually engage with your company?
Speaker 3: What are you looking for? What are the milestones? What
Speaker 3: what are some of the problems that you're that you're
Speaker 3: going through, And and do it religiously and systematically, like
Speaker 3: listen to them, analyze what they say, and find a
Speaker 3: way to to quickly input it into whatever you're building
Speaker 3: and then get that constant feedback loop. That was super long.
Speaker 3: But talk talk to more people, talk to more.
Speaker 2: No, that's good. Like I have people who who hit
Speaker 2: me up from time to time an email and they
Speaker 2: say they have this idea or whatever, and that's not
Speaker 2: even my round, Like I'm not that you know in
Speaker 2: that whole startup accelerator saying I know people that are,
Speaker 2: and I've taken bits and pieces from conversations I've had
Speaker 2: with them and things that I see to be able
Speaker 2: to And one of the biggest things is it's like
Speaker 2: they automatically want to start with the whole building. I
Speaker 2: want to build this thing and hire these developers and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah, and I'm just like, well, hold
Speaker 2: on for a second, do you know if anybody actually
Speaker 2: even needs this, and not only that what they pay
Speaker 2: for it, right. I've had that from a technical standpoint
Speaker 2: and from having friends who say like, hey, I've got
Speaker 2: this idea for this, for this app, and they're not
Speaker 2: technical logis idea people, and they automatically want to go
Speaker 2: out and start paying someone tens of thousands of dollars
Speaker 2: to develop it. And I'm just like, like, they're they're there.
Speaker 2: They're software out there that will actually help you do
Speaker 2: a mac up, like it's just a mac up, Like
Speaker 2: it's just and you don't even have to You're not
Speaker 2: paying thousands of dollars for this at all, but it'll
Speaker 2: give you something enough of something to show someone, and
Speaker 2: then from there you could get feedback on whether or
Speaker 2: not this is even something you should even pursue because
Speaker 2: you don't even know that yet. So instead of sinking
Speaker 2: money into something like why don't you, why don't you ask?
Speaker 2: And I would say ask, like I always tell them,
Speaker 2: what do I say? I call it market research? That's
Speaker 2: what I find, you know, find a bunch of people
Speaker 2: and just ask them to evaluate, you know, and then
Speaker 2: at the end say, hey, would you pay for this
Speaker 2: and how much would you pay for this ten you know,
Speaker 2: fifteen or whatever before you go building anything like let's
Speaker 2: let's not go that far yet, and so yeah, I'll
Speaker 2: see this this particular situation play out like all the time. Uh.
Speaker 2: So that's that's that's super good advice, like talk to
Speaker 2: talk to people. And another thing I wanted to touch
Speaker 2: on is like that whole feedback loop. Like a lot
Speaker 2: of people there are people out there, uh that don't
Speaker 2: understand like this, this this constant with this constant feedback
Speaker 2: loop and what iteration will get you. And I work
Speaker 2: as a as a DevOps engineer and that's one of
Speaker 2: the core tenets of DevOps is that you have this
Speaker 2: feedback loop that constantly cycles back to you about you know,
Speaker 2: things that you're you know, you're you're you're building and creating,
Speaker 2: so that you can understand a when things fail, uh,
Speaker 2: and what things may or may not need to be
Speaker 2: added or taken away, like you constantly have to have
Speaker 2: this or else you're going to build something that nobody
Speaker 2: wants and it's it's all going to be in the
Speaker 2: image that you thought it was. And you know, there's
Speaker 2: all these people out there that look'll look at it
Speaker 2: like this is nothing like I would have Like I
Speaker 2: wouldn't have asked for this, this, this and this. But
Speaker 2: you thought, you know, because you didn't ask anyone and
Speaker 2: you just went and built it. You you passed on
Speaker 2: your preferences to other people. And that's just not the
Speaker 2: way things should be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and it helps you to so one of
Speaker 3: the things one of the expensive lessons that I had learned.
Speaker 3: I have a coach that I work with and she's
Speaker 3: she's constantly telling me. You know, it's easier to have
Speaker 3: a dinner if people are contributing to the process. You
Speaker 3: can either say, hey, I'm going to have this dinner.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna it's gonna be a seven course meal or
Speaker 3: four course meal or whatever. Uh here it's it starts
Speaker 3: at eight. Be there. Or you could say, hey, we're
Speaker 3: building something. Can somebody give me some ideas of what
Speaker 3: the course should be?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 3: Oh, you could build the make the dessert. Oh cool,
Speaker 3: Well let's do that together.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's easier to to uh to get over that I
Speaker 3: have to have it perfect, I have to have it done.
Speaker 3: It has to have so many features before I get started.
Speaker 3: If you kind of keep people in the in the
Speaker 3: loop why you're building. Say okay, well well we got
Speaker 3: this little part first. Just tell me what you think
Speaker 3: about this, and you just build on top of it.
Speaker 3: It's it's helpful.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that dinner part of the analogy.
Speaker 2: Like that simplifies it so much, and like you could
Speaker 2: you could, you know, give someone that analogy and the
Speaker 2: automatically they're gonna get it right. So I'll love it.
Speaker 2: I'll start using that. Tell us about a recent success
Speaker 2: story came out of Ruby Beef Media if you can,
Speaker 2: like I don't know, like how if any of this
Speaker 2: stuff is top secret or you know, if there's a
Speaker 2: das involved, but if you can tell us about a
Speaker 2: recent success story.
Speaker 3: I'll do one that's personal to me. So I do
Speaker 3: work with I do work with other accelerators. So one
Speaker 3: of the accelerators that I that I work with was
Speaker 3: built one that's called Builders and Backers. I'm on as
Speaker 3: as a builder in residence and so they have h
Speaker 3: people who have an idea. Their their whole tenant is
Speaker 3: you know, being able to in ninety days you're working
Speaker 3: towards an idea. They give you a little bit of
Speaker 3: funds five thousand dollars to build an MVP or get
Speaker 3: get some get some validation under your belt quickly and
Speaker 3: in a way that doesn't require you to, like you said,
Speaker 3: have thousands of dollars spent for marketing or developers or
Speaker 3: things like that, and so being able to work with them, UH.
Speaker 3: The cool thing was they they work with different regions
Speaker 3: in in the country. And one of the reasons that
Speaker 3: one of the reasons that I was able to be
Speaker 3: paired up with UH was a few that I that
Speaker 3: I lived in as as a military kid. So we
Speaker 3: used to live in Alabama. We went to Virginia and
Speaker 3: had a couple of builders in my core board that
Speaker 3: was building out health care community apps for that region.
Speaker 3: And it just meant a lot for me to almost
Speaker 3: come full circle and help ideas and builders that were
Speaker 3: that was from a region that that hadn't hadn't been
Speaker 3: in since you know, my elementary school days, and so
Speaker 3: still health care still still an idea, still like let's
Speaker 3: build something together, and they were able to at the end,
Speaker 3: have you know, have done a couple of experiments if
Speaker 3: you will, of like how this is how I can
Speaker 3: validate an idea and get some traction, and so the
Speaker 3: core that I was working with, they all they all
Speaker 3: got their funding to to get the experiments up and going,
Speaker 3: and they were able to impact their their community and
Speaker 3: invite their community to help them in the build building process.
Speaker 3: And so I have a lot of stories like that
Speaker 3: that are kind of you know, they're special to me
Speaker 3: as somewhere. You know, I'm involved with companies that are
Speaker 3: raising multimillion dollars and and you know, they get the
Speaker 3: traction and things like that, but I really do value
Speaker 3: and the ones that I can give a little bit
Speaker 3: more detail around how how people are interacting with their
Speaker 3: community on an idea that it was just an idea,
Speaker 3: but now they have something to build upon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty cool. It's always it's always a little
Speaker 2: bit more special when it's something that really involves like
Speaker 2: helping the community out. There's always that kind of like
Speaker 2: the social aspect to it that that uh social I guess,
Speaker 2: you know, socially responsible, like that aspect us it's more
Speaker 2: of a feel good thing than than than anything else. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can you can go with a company that can
Speaker 2: raise millions of dollars, but when it's acting the community
Speaker 2: that you know, you grew up in or that you
Speaker 2: love or something like that. Then it's it's it feels
Speaker 2: a bit different.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're all all low code, no code tools
Speaker 3: they were able to access and so you really got
Speaker 3: to see, you know, barriers being lifted, like you could
Speaker 3: build something like tomorrow.
Speaker 2: So what do you do outside? Like what are some
Speaker 2: non science y, non tech things that you do, hobbies
Speaker 2: or whatever that takes up some of your time when
Speaker 2: you're not you know, out there helping startups and you know,
Speaker 2: startup companies and doing accelerators and things like that.
Speaker 3: That's that's a really good question. It takes up a
Speaker 3: lot of my time. But I do probably out of
Speaker 3: maybe a testament to being in Nashville music city. I
Speaker 3: do love to be in the music scene. I play
Speaker 3: the sac the phone, and the piano. My husband also
Speaker 3: plays the saxophone. And we we like hearing the jazz bands,
Speaker 3: like the student bands, the regional bands, and being able
Speaker 3: to you know, I used I used to play in
Speaker 3: different churches and things like that, but just just keep
Speaker 3: up with the music scene, uh, and being able to
Speaker 3: to just kind of garden a little bit. We've we've
Speaker 3: gotten on this this kick where we're trying to to
Speaker 3: plant a couple of different varieties. Uh. My mother in
Speaker 3: law bought this one plant for me that has blossomed
Speaker 3: and it's and it's given me this this great self
Speaker 3: esteem around. Oh maybe I can't keep a plant alive.
Speaker 3: So we're trying a little bit more. Uh, plant plant
Speaker 3: based projects. Uh so that that keeps up, that's.
Speaker 2: Keep Yeah, I'm not a green throne. My wife, uh
Speaker 2: does all the you know, the plants in our house
Speaker 2: and things like. I'll water them from time to time,
Speaker 2: but I'm not the person that's gonna go and plant
Speaker 2: them and things like that. My mom was a huge
Speaker 2: green thromb. She loved plants, and it just never it
Speaker 2: never carried down me.
Speaker 3: I'm more I'm more.
Speaker 2: On the tech side. Like I like the tech stuff
Speaker 2: and that that's it. Like now, if it was something
Speaker 2: that was doing some pretty cool stuff with plants and
Speaker 2: tech like, I probably would be into a little bit more.
Speaker 2: But my wife always talks about getting a farm and
Speaker 2: guard me and I'm just like the city, I don't
Speaker 2: want to my garden and my farm is is Kroger,
Speaker 2: Like that's We'll go to the grocery store pick out
Speaker 2: we'll do organic this time.
Speaker 3: How about that I was trying to do like, uh where,
Speaker 3: I feel like that's the starter level. I haven't graduated
Speaker 3: from it yet. So all of those have died.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's funny. Another interesting thing is that my daughter,
Speaker 2: she went to the School for Creative for Performing Arts.
Speaker 2: She was part of the jazz band. She played jazz trombone.
Speaker 2: So she's a huge jazz lover. Yeah. Yeah, And I
Speaker 2: went to Performing Arts too. I played in the band.
Speaker 2: I played the flute though, and I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 2: I only stayed there for a couple of years. My
Speaker 2: daughter graduated from me. She went from fifth to fifth
Speaker 2: grade to graduation, and she played in a jazz band
Speaker 2: the entire time. So I have I have a deep
Speaker 2: appreciation for music of any sort. She she's she's a
Speaker 2: self taught keyboardist, guitarist, what else. She she can sing
Speaker 2: write music like she's she's way more musically inclined than
Speaker 2: I was. But yeah, so we we we like jazz,
Speaker 2: we like the you know that whole thing. So it's
Speaker 2: pretty cool.
Speaker 3: It's special. It's great to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. She had a really good teacher there.
Speaker 2: His name was I think it was Irwin One's Stucky
Speaker 2: I think was really good jazz. Yeah. We we would
Speaker 2: go to all her concerts and they were phenomenal like
Speaker 2: her jazz. Her jazz band was phenomenal. So it was
Speaker 2: it was a good time. What's next for Rugby Leaf Media?
Speaker 3: So I'm I'm practicing what I'm preaching and doing uh some.
Speaker 3: I'm currently doing some more customer discovery and asking more
Speaker 3: questions around how we can cut more checks to underrepresented
Speaker 3: and underestimated founders in terms of angel investing and BC investing.
Speaker 3: So one of my one of my good mentors, her
Speaker 3: name is doctor Don Bats. She really opened my eyes
Speaker 3: to the process of how investment gets deployed to these
Speaker 3: the companies and the founders in the high high tech space.
Speaker 3: And so being able to include in my support how
Speaker 3: do you, how do you? How can I help to
Speaker 3: enable some of this funding to go to underestimated founders
Speaker 3: is is definitely something that's on my radar. Being able
Speaker 3: to to do both things, hold the space where yes,
Speaker 3: we know that venture in venture capital less than three
Speaker 3: percent goes to women or underrepresented minority founders, and being
Speaker 3: able to say expertise and the milestones to get you
Speaker 3: to these really successful exits. How do we how do
Speaker 3: we bridge how do you bridge this gap? Basically? And
Speaker 3: so I'm learning more about the diluted funding space and
Speaker 3: how I can help support the funds that are investing
Speaker 3: in these these underestimated founders and what I can do
Speaker 3: to to support and what rubally can do to support
Speaker 3: support them, because it definitely is a a a subject
Speaker 3: that's ripe, ripe for transformation. It's it's been ripe. Uh.
Speaker 3: So that's that's something that I've I've been setting my
Speaker 3: sites sits on recently.
Speaker 2: Okay, and so what what's next for you?
Speaker 3: Well? Being able to uh actually, UH, if you don't mind,
Speaker 3: there is a Black Angel Forum that I'm helping to
Speaker 3: organize that'll take place in Detroit. UH. It's going to
Speaker 3: be a conversation of all of the Black Angel was
Speaker 3: going out to all the Black Angel groups and individuals.
Speaker 3: I'm helping to organize this this uh space for them
Speaker 3: to share their problems, their paying points, their goals and aspirations. UH.
Speaker 3: Really looking forward to to helping out the team in
Speaker 3: that capacity. It's it's a collective between a lot of
Speaker 3: different different groups. But UH, being able to to help
Speaker 3: facilitate that conversation. It's is what's what's next on the
Speaker 3: horizon for me and then being able to implement some
Speaker 3: of that into you know, how how I how I
Speaker 3: support these organizations. That's that's it for me. Other than that,
Speaker 3: you know, we we planted a Japanese maple tree. We're
Speaker 3: just trying to help it survive and fingers crossed that
Speaker 3: will make it through the summer. It's looking a little bit. Uh.
Speaker 3: That's that's my goals in the meantime.
Speaker 2: Nice. Yeah, I don't. I don't have any advice for
Speaker 2: you maple treat I would just say water it. That's
Speaker 2: like the safe, the safe advice, Just water it. So
Speaker 2: how can folks follow you? You know, follow the relief media?
Speaker 2: How can you know follow you to learn more? Uh?
Speaker 3: The best way right now is to connect with me
Speaker 3: on LinkedIn. I try to post my companies post on
Speaker 3: theres as well as different events that I go to,
Speaker 3: and that I think is really great for founders who
Speaker 3: are trying to establish their their tribe. I'm in the
Speaker 3: middle of building out out what that looks like, but
Speaker 3: it's that's that's probably the best way to find me.
Speaker 3: And in all the various projects that I'm doing.
Speaker 2: Excellent, excellent, and I will put a link to that
Speaker 2: in the show notes to your LinkedIn page. I do
Speaker 2: want to say this, like, if there is anything that
Speaker 2: I can do, that bit can do to help accelerate
Speaker 2: what you're doing in any capacity, even if it's just
Speaker 2: a hey, do you know you know anyone who does
Speaker 2: so and so, or can you connect me? I see
Speaker 2: this person that's connected with you on LinkedIn? You like,
Speaker 2: don't hesitate to reach out to me via email, via
Speaker 2: LinkedIn or however you need to, Like, I'm like, this
Speaker 2: is this whole thing. Boxing technology is not just about
Speaker 2: my organization or the community built. It's about helping other
Speaker 2: people and other organizations that have like a similar a
Speaker 2: similar vision to what we're what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2: And you know, with you helping underrepresent the underestimated founders,
Speaker 2: I think that that aligns perfectly with what we're trying
Speaker 2: to do is as a home. So just feel free
Speaker 2: to reach out and say hey, even if it's hey,
Speaker 2: you think they might want to be involved. We've got
Speaker 2: chapters up in Detroit, UH as well, so you know
Speaker 2: we can we can assist somehow, some way, to get
Speaker 2: the word out and then you know, we'll do that.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really appreciate you mean willing
Speaker 3: to connect. And I've been following you know, the other
Speaker 3: the other podcasts and the resources. You guys do a
Speaker 3: great job and is really a staple. Appreciate that to
Speaker 3: give these resources out to the founders and and all
Speaker 3: things techt So I really appreciate your guys' work as well.
Speaker 3: But thank you. I will take you up on on
Speaker 3: the connections. I'll try to connect.
Speaker 2: Sounds good, sounds good. Well. Thank you doctor Pierce for
Speaker 2: for joining us tonight. I really appreciate you talking about
Speaker 2: your journey, talking about the things that Riverleief Media is doing,
Speaker 2: and we wish you the best of luck and uh,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe we'll follow up sometime in the future
Speaker 2: if you find out what what you're up to.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you all right, thanks a lot, Take care you too,