The Evolution of an Entrepreneur- Full Transcript
New inspiration can inspire revolutionary ideas
Serial entrepreneur Jean Anne Booth explains the evolution of her career, why she founded her latest company UnaliWear and how her current startup differs from her previous ventures.
Key takeaways from this episode of StartUp Health NOW can be found here.
[00:00] Chime
[00:05] Steven Krein: Welcome to StartUp Health Now! The weekly show celebrating the healthcare transformers and changemakers reimagining healthcare. My name is Steven Krein and on today’s episode we’re sitting down with serial entrepreneur Jean Anne Booth who’s building Unaliwear. This is her fourth startup. We’re going to have a fascinating conversation about the evolution of her entrepreneurial career. This is going to be great episode.
[00:23] Intro Music
[1:02] Steve: Jean Anne, welcome to the show.
[1:03] Jean Anne Booth: Thank you, it’s a real pleasure to be here.
[1:04] Steve: You know, it’s been really great to watch you build Unaliwear over the last year and a half. But, you’ve been an entrepreneur a long time. This is your fourth startup?
[1:14] Jean Anne: That’s right, yeah.
[1:15] Steve: Can you take us back a little bit. Because, first of all, building a company let alone, you know, four is not for the faint of heart. And you’ve had a lot of success selling one of your companies to Apple, one to TI. But take us back a little bit. What got you into entrepreneurship and why are you doing it again?
[1:30] Jean Anne: [Laughs]. Those are completely different questions. [Laughs]. What got me into entrepreneurship in the beginning was simply the fact that I’m as a person, supremely impatient. Everything needs to happen now and the corporate world doesn’t go at my pace.
[1:47] Jean Anne: My background is 30 years in semiconductors, so for over a decade I was actually in just corporate semiconductor positions before I went and joined the first semiconductor start up company that I worked with. I joined them. That one didn’t actually didn’t make it. And then started the next one. That was the one that sold to Apple.
[2:05] Steve: That was called
[2:07] Jean Anne: It was called Intrinsity. Sold to Apple in 2010. They’re best known, Intrinsity is best known for the graphics units in all the iPads. So there’s semiconductor technology behind all of that. So, the reason, the thing that kind of drives me is that desire to make a difference. To do something quickly. To not have to wait on a corporate process, because I’m just not that patient person. [Laughs]
[2:35] Steve: As most entrepreneurs aren’t.
[2:39] Jean Anne: Yep. After Intrinsity I actually was the original founder, the only founder of Luminary Micro which developed microcontrollers. That’s the one that sold to Texas Instruments.
[2:53] Jean Anne: After that one I retired for a couple of years. I was kind of done, I was working on a dive boat as a Divemaster. [Laughs]
[3:02] Jean Anne: It was great. But then the events actually happened that led the founding of Unaliwear.
[3:08] Steve: What were the events and why did you start Unaliwear? And it’s different. Obviously not a semiconductor company. A different kind of animal all together.
[2:15] Jean Anne: It is. Absolutely is. The events that actually happened were, my mom was turning 80. My mom is an identical twin. She’s independant. She’s in excellent health. But she’s a little fragile. She’s a little frail. A little vulnerable. And so, between her and her twin sister Jean, who I’m named after, just some things happened over a period of about 6 or 8 months that made me say, “You know, I think maybe we need to get something to make sure that the girls stayed safe. I started looking at medical alert products and I sat down with my mom one day and went through the products that are on the market. After I got done looking at all the products, my mom looked at me and she held her teeth completely together and she goes, “Don’t you get that for me, I’m not wearing it.” [Laughs]
[4:09] Jean Anne: I was a little taken back. Because she meant it, very much. But also, when I thought about it, I can’t really blame her. My mom was a model all of her life. I’m the spitting image of my dad’s sister, wish I looked like my mom. She’s a very stylish, well put together woman. Always just perfectly done. And even I wouldn’t wear those products. And I’m an engineer’s engineer.
[4:37] Steve: What kind of products are you talking about exactly. Is it the “Help, I’ve fallen, I can’t get up?”
[4:40] Jean Anne: Yeah, the push buttons, like “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” Exactly. All of those ugly stigmatizing products that scream to anybody who sees you, I’m old. And who wants that? You know? Not my mom.
[4:54] Steve: Right. So, what led to you, what was the moment where you realized you had to do something about it.
[4:59] Jean Anne: I left mom’s house that day going, “hmm. going to have to do something else.” Kept thinking about it. Called her a couple weeks later and said, “you know mom, how about if I make you a watch. It will look good. It doesn’t have a button, so it’s not stigmatizing. So nobody will know and it will talk to you. That’s how we do, you know, not having a button. It can help you with falls, medication reminders, and a guard against wandering. What do you think about that mom? And she said, “I don’t know.” And I said, “great, you’re hired.” [laughs]
My mom is actually our senior user experience advisor.
[5:36] Steve: Love it. Love it.
[5:38] Jean Anne: She was personally responsible for, I don’t know, the first 50, 70 people who came through our focus groups as we were working on exactly how did Unaliwear Kanega watch need to look? How did it need to act? And one of the things that are really important to somebody who is independant but vulnerable.
[5:56] Steve: Gotcha. How different is it building this company versus all your other companies? I’m assuming the early days of that company was not driven by something your mom experienced but how is it different?
[6:09] Jean Anne: It’s different in a couple of different ways. I mean, there’s certainly some aspects of entrepreneurship that are absolutely the same. The one characterisation of entrepreneurship is the highs are so high and the lows are so low. That’s always still there. But, other things are completely different. I’ve never started one of my companies without being very passionate about the business that we’re doing, and without that business being one that causes disruption in the market. I’m really good at disrupting market. That’s another commonality, but things have changed in terms of the way that we do funding. And things for us, the founding group of Unaliwear, are also different because this is the first time we’ve had a directly impactful, positive impact on people’s lives.
[7:01] Jean Anne: With our semiconductors we had customers who were building amazing, wonderful products that I loved. But now we’re the ones building an amazing wonderful product that helps millions of seniors live independently with dignity. It’s great.
[7:13] Steve: From an entrepreneur’s standpoint you started the company, what year?
[7:21] Jean Anne: Started it in 2014.
[7:23] Steve: Okay. So you’re
[7:25] Jean Anne:Yeah. Summer of 2014.
[7:26] Steve: You’re a little over a year plus in building it. Where are you right now and how would you describe the state you’re in, in terms of the prototype of the product as well as the company?
[7:38] Jean Anne: I actually got my years wrong. So, 2013. [Laughs]. Because we’re just over two years old. That’s one of the things about entrepreneurship. You lose track of time.
[7:46] Steve: Blends all together.
[7:49] Jean Anne: Where we are right now? We are in our final prototype. Getting ready for market trials of the beginning of 2016.
[7:55] Steve: Assuming the product launch in the midst of the Apple watch coming out, and all of the devices that everyone’s talking about. While I’m sure that could cause lots of problems, confusion, questions. What’s the biggest difference between what is out in the market that everyone is talking about and what is happening with your product?
[8:18] Jean Anne: There’s two things. I believe that for extending independance, for supporting aging in place, you actually need a purpose specific device. Not something that is paired to something else. The fundamental reason is
Not paired with a iPhone, or
Not paired with an iPhone, or even a hub in the home, or something like that. Right?
[8:46] Jean Anne: Because, here’s the fundamental fact. The number one cause of injury death in seniors is falls. A majority of falls happen in the bathroom
[8:54] Steve: The number one
[8:55] Jean Anne: Number one. Majority of falls happen in the bathroom. Majority of falls in the bathroom happen at night. If you have an Apple watch it’s charging. So that doesn’t help you much.
[9:04] Steve: If you have one.
[9:05] Jean Anne: If you have one. Of course on top of that less than 10% of seniors above the age of 75 have a smartphone. And if they’re anything like my mom, they don’t want a smartphone. And they’re really, really good at that age at getting only what they want.
[9:18] Steve: Sure. You’re different. Your unpaired from an iPhone or any other mobile device. The idea is you’re wearing it even when you’re in the bathroom because you don’t need to charge it every day?
[9:30] Jean Anne: That’s right. It’s completely waterproof for the shower the bath or your water aerobics class. And, one of the fundamental things that we did differently that made me actually decide to start this company with a purpose specific device, is that we have a patent pending on a battery system here in the band. You simply take the battery off, put it on the charger, take one from the charger, put it on the watch. Whenever the watch tells you to do so. That way you leave the watch on. SInce you never take it off, you never had to remember to put it back on.
[10:00] Steve: Love that. So now every 90 days we get to see you, you’ve got a new updated version of your watch. [laughs] What number prototype is this?
[10:06] Jean Anne: This one right here is number 5.
[10:08] Steve: Number 5.
[10:09] Jean Anne: Number 6 is the one that’s actually going into pilot.
[10:11] Steve: Ok. Number 6. What’s the difference between the first and the sixth?
[10:14] Jean Anne: The first was our bootstrapped one. It was functional. In a 3D printed box about that big. I actually had it, I wore it. You remember. A 3D printed box. Big white box. Tall, thick, you know. It was bootstrapped.
[10:35] Steve: Thinner, sleeker, faster. What’s your biggest lesson though that you’ve learned through each iteration that is driving everything today?
[10:43] Jean Anne: Through each iteration part of what we do is, with each iteration there are different goals that we have that we want to make sure that they’re going to work as we go into volume production. Also, different things that we want to test with our focus groups. I’m a strong believer in focus groups and the seniors who work with us are really, really important to telling us what it is that we need to be doing. Everybody who talks about the silent generation which is today’s 70 +? They’re not silent, by the way. They’re not at all silent. They are private, but they’re not silent. That’s wonderful because they give us a lot of feedback. When we make a new prototype part of what we’re doing is we’re taking parts of that prototype and saying, is this loud enough? Can you see this? Can you hear this? Would you wear this? Is this easy enough to get the battery out to put it back in? That’s part of what we’re doing in each of those iterations.
[11:36] Steve: This company is so different than your prior companies. Is this a new journey for you as an entrepreneur, do you feel like you’re learning all new things all over again or do you feel like you’ve seen this show before? Just some different players and some different things. I mean how do you kind of size up this between everything compared to everything else?
[11:55] Jean Anne: I think, you know, I think if you’re wise, you are always learning, right? So there’s definitely lots and lots of learning going on. There’s some aspects of building a company and building a physical product which we have that remain constant company to company, but everything is completely different. I mean, the degree with which we get user feedback. I’ve never had the opportunity to get this kind of feedback from other companies before.
[12:21] Steve: Are you doing traditional pilot studies or focus groups? What are you doing?
[12:27] Jean Anne: It depends on what you mean by focus. Our focus groups
[12:29] Steve: I only mean what it is. Whatever it might be in your situation.
[12:34] Jean Anne: When we do our focus groups, there are people who volunteer to actually tell us what they think. Remember the silent generation’s not silent? They’re wonderful at telling us what they think. They give us lots of great suggestions too. It was a focus group that actually gave us that little tag line, “We’re a wearable OnStar for people.” That came out of a focus group.
[12:56] Steve: Listening to them and giving them a voice. Where do you go from here. I mean you’ve got two years under your belt, you know, do you expect this to be a 5–10 year kind of journey for yourself to kind of get this product to a place where you’re dreaming about? Or is got longer shelf life than that? Or shorter? What do you think the market looks like as this develops of the next 5 to 10 years?
[13:17] Jean Anne: I think it’s quite a bit longer, actually. My other companies have been successful and my definition of success, by the way as an entrepreneur, is not only did the investors get money but all the employees get money. Which if you’re an entrepreneur, you understand what that means, so all the multiples get paid out and it goes all the way to the entrepreneurs. And I’m very proud to say that all my companies have paid all the way out through the employees
[13:40] Steve: How long did each of those companies take?
[13:17] Jean Anne: Well, they were semiconductors, so it is a completely different thing. One, Intrinsity, was 13 years. Luminary Micro was four or five.
[13:56] Steve: Ok. A little quicker.
[13:58] Jean Anne: A lot quicker. Very quick on a semiconductor scale of things.
[14:02] Steve: So this one?
[14:03] Jean Anne: This one, You know I mean of all of the companies, this is the one that actually has the ability to grow up and become its own entity long term. If that happens it’ll be great. If we get acquired by somebody with a like mindset that would also be great. I don’t really care as long as we’re able to deliver independence with dignity. And we have a full road map of new devices that can do even more, but you know first things first.
[14:32] Steve: First things first. So when you think about the wearables market and I’m assuming you’re not the only ones thinking about the senior market. What do you think is needed for people to kind of get out of their own way a little bit and keep thinking that this whole things about the Apple watch or even the Android watch or the Fitbit?
[14:53] Jean Anne: I think there’s 2 things here. You know when I started Unaliwear, I didn’t set out to build a watch. In fact I really didn’t want to build a watch. I’d spent 30 years in semiconductors building hardware. I wanted to do a software company for once. Quicker, cheaper. [laughs]. But the bottom line was there is no hardware out there that actually works correctly for the demographic. You have to actually meet the needs of your population. And the charging one is a huge one and no smart phones is another huge one. Eventually over time I think the consumer guys will build a smartwatch that is appropriate for use in the senior demographic. And when that happens, we’ll just port or software. And will become the services software company that we also are today. I think, you know, when it when it talks about, you know, wearable companies getting out of there own way, I think one of the biggest challenges that people have is is that mindset for especially technical entrepreneurs that says, you know, I’m the technologist. I know what’s right. I’m not going to talk to anybody. I’m going to give them that product and they’re going to love it and that’s just not how it works. Not if you want a product that really is good. You need to talk to the people who are going to wear it.
[16:04] Steve: Right. Do you really think, is this company tapping into your unique ability and the thing that you’re really best at as an entrepreneur?
[16:14] Jean Anne: I would say yes
[16:15] Steve: Which is what.
[16:16] Jean Anne: That ability to combine deep technical knowledge with an understanding of the market space that you’re going into.
[16:26] Steve: Do you have any rituals or habits that you’ve picked up over the years that you’re bringing to this company once again?
[16:36] Jean Anne: Yes. Of course. [laughs].
[16:38] Steve: What.
[16:40] Jean Anne: Today’s market you everybody would call it agile development. Way back when I first started doing it with my company’s we called it deliverables. It’s basically, you know, sprint methodology towards development. That’s the reason you see a new watch every time you see me every 3 months, we have a new watch, because we were sprinting in between. We do our agile development with Post-it notes on a wall. And there you go.
[17:10] Steve: High tech. high tech.
[17:11] Jean Anne: Supremely high tech.
[17:12] Steve: High tech. [laughs]. Books? Do you read a lot? Do you consume blogs? What do you kind of use to kind of keep ahead in terms of both your knowledge, wisdom, and kinda keep growing?
[17:28] Jean Anne: I do read and I do consume blogs
[17:33] Steve: Favorite? What book are you reading recently or which are your favorite books?
[17:38] Jean Anne: One of the books that I read recently. This is actually been kind of a while, but was Jonathan Bush’s book on healthcare. One of the things that really struck me about that book was when he talks in the beginning about his experiences making people more healthy that have diabetes and how he didn’t actually get traction on it because the problem was that nobody valued quality of life. At least nobody who paid. Right? The insurers didn’t value the quality of life. So, they didn’t want to actually pay for that diabetes care product because what happened was, because people felt better they actually got out and did things and, you know, then they would like maybe sprain an ankle or something and so they were like, you know, if they’re miserable and they’re laying in a bed all the time because they can’t move, then they cost less. laughs]. Which is ridiculous [laughs].
[18:43] Steve: Good way to kind of wrap up. I think one of the things that I always you know love to talk about is the fact that we don’t choose companies we choose entrepreneurs. StartUp Health is very focused on the quality of the people that are transforming healthcare and we know that these companies, some are early, and some are a little later, but they evolve and morph. But one of the things that we saw right away when we met you was an entrepreneur who hasn’t even done her best work yet, and you done amazing things. So it’s been great watching you, we continue to cheer you on and help and then obviously are excited to see this come to market and see seniors wearing them. I know I’ll have them for my parents. And so, thanks for joining us today and look forward to spending more time together.
[19:27] Jean Anne: Thank you. It’s been a real pleasure being a part of StartUp Health, one of the Health Transformers.
[19:32] Steve: Thank you.
[19:37] Chime
