Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Becky Raichur of DrOwl On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience

Keep an “entrepreneurial mindset”. An entrepreneurial mindset is about constantly questioning the status quo, learning from your mistakes, and always taking action on your ideas. Create your product with persistence and a sense of urgency, while continually testing your ideas.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Becky Raichur, CTO and Co-Founder of DrOwl.

Becky Raichur is an innovative entrepreneur who has co-founded several companies, including her latest venture, DrOwl, where she is the CTO. Her background in mathematics and computer science has enabled her to blaze new paths of programming and cloud computing to keep ahead of the curve in-app, search, and online development. She has served as an expert witness for legal cases involving ethical Internet use and has been active with multiple charities helping underprivileged children and seniors.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Plain and simple, I love to solve problems. Ever since I was in grade school, I always gravitated towards problem-solving. I also enjoyed math. By the time I reached college, my interests, like myself, had adapted and evolved and I took a lot of engineering and programming classes, but I didn’t end up getting my degree in math.

Graduate school presented the environment that enabled me to bring all of my interests together when I studied Applied Mathematics. It was there that I started to do what I love: solving large mathematical problems on computers. My success in school eventually brought opportunities and one of them was working on high-speed databases for the U.S. Air Force at Phillips Labs.

From there, my career blossomed, and I would eventually use my IT experience and the programming aspects that I love, to help co-found four companies. My latest venture is DrOwl, an award-winning medical platform built on patented technology that helps users securely access, understand, and share their medical records.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?

The first company we started had one of those epic moments that every company dreams of. We had just entered into a strategic partnership that led to a flood of customers so large that we hired 6 people in one day, effectively doubling our team, and we were still having trouble keeping up. We literally had the entire team helping to onboard the new customers and we were still falling behind.

But luckily my mother, father, and sister came to visit me that very weekend. Just in time to be put to work. My family spent the whole weekend helping us to catch up. It was a moment I’ll never forget, and it set me on a path to success while solidifying my journey as an entrepreneur.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

People who have been working long enough understand that mistakes are necessary for growth; especially when you’re just starting a career. When my husband and I co-founded our first company, we took our knowledge from our previous industries and tried to apply them to our new one without fully understanding the costs associated with scaling at such a rapid rate. Our goal, like many early-stage businesses, was to reach out and bring in new clients. We thought that if we sent out a nice letter, that people would be excited about our product and simply sign up for our services.

We spent thousands of dollars on expensive parchment paper and envelopes. And what we learned was that the mindset was correct, that we needed to start marketing our product, but the business practicality of using expensive stationery wasn’t, because it didn’t end up giving us the results that we wanted. It was a tough lesson to learn but it was a necessary one on the path to success.

This mistake taught me that you need to test and vet things out before scaling them. If we had done smaller tests to see how the letters performed before buying 10,000 envelopes, we would have saved a lot of money. Funnily enough, we still joke about it, and 20 years later we’re still using the remaining envelopes and paper.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

DrOwl gives people the ability to access, understand, and share their medical records. When you sync your records to DrOwl, you get a patient snapshot of your conditions, medications, and allergies. The patient snapshot feature came about because of a very personal experience that we had when my husband and I were helping to take care of Arvind’s mother when she was sick.

As she was getting older, she was routinely admitted to the hospital, and whenever new doctors would come into the room, we felt like we had to start from scratch each time to try to convey a quick snapshot of her medical conditions and allergies in the few minutes that we had with them. This was stressful for us, and it was frustrating to have to go through it every time.

DrOwl stands out because we give families and caregivers the tools that they need to help get their loved ones the best possible care, even in the most challenging of circumstances, like what we went through with my mother-in-law. We give users access to their loved one’s medical records and an up-to-date patient snapshot that can be shared with doctors, making it easy to be able to quickly convey to medical personnel the most up-to-date information about their loved one’s conditions, medications, and allergies, which helps lead to the best possible outcome and experience.

If we could have shared DrOwl’s patient snapshot at the time we were taking care of my mother-in-law, it would have made a dramatic difference in our experience, which is why we created it. It was important to us to help ensure that other families would have a better experience and wouldn’t have to go through what we did.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Medicine isn’t just about the facts and figures; there’s an emotional component to it that’s also an important part of the puzzle. When you hear bad news, like that your child has Down’s Syndrome, or your loved one has cancer, it can be scary and overwhelming. It’s hard to know where to start or who to talk to about it. That’s why we’re excited to be working on a new support group feature for the DrOwl community that can help people during their most vulnerable times.

My experiences have proven my beliefs about healthcare to be true. I believe that community support will help people because it gives them a mechanism to connect with others, who have already been through what they’re going through. It lets them know that they’re not alone and that they have a community of people supporting them. This can help take the fear out of a medical diagnosis because let’s face it, the unknown is scary when it comes to your health. Being able to connect with people who have already gone through it, helps, but shows you that you’re not alone and that other people have not only gone through it but they’ve survived it and can give you advice based on their experiences. Having that kind of support and sharing of knowledge is important for families and caregivers and it can make all of the difference as you navigate through difficult diagnoses like these.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

The short answer is no. There’s a systemic problem starting at the earliest point for young girls in our education system. Historically, boys were encouraged to do science and math and girls were not. Girls were told it’s okay if you don’t get math, it’s a hard subject. And so, I believe that it starts there from the early education all the way up to where we as a society need to encourage girls and lead by example in showing them that they can use their love of math and science to do great things and to be successful.

We’ve seen some positive changes to this, but we are nowhere we need to be for proper representation of women in STEM. We have a long way to go, and the modern landscape reflects that. Silicon Valley also shows it. There are a lot fewer women in positions of power whether that be mid-manager level or CEO’s. This needs to change.

One of the reasons that I went to the college that I did was because I received an engineering scholarship. I want those same opportunities for other young women out there and I hope that they will happen. With more focus on math, engineering resources, and scholarships for women, I think we can get there. Women can — and will — truly change not only the landscape but the world, and I look forward to the day when the status quo of women in STEM starts to evolve.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?

It’s difficult being a woman in a very male-dominated field. It can be even more difficult being the only woman on a single team. Finding the right cultural fit in a company can be challenging for women in STEM and Tech roles. They likely evaluate it differently than their male counterparts.

Women know that finding the right cultural fit is the key to their finding success and happiness at work and they look for companies that are going to value their ability to contribute based on their skill set in an accepting and supportive environment. Women don’t want to have to waste time and energy dealing with misogyny or misconceptions of what they bring to the table workwise simply because they’re women. They want to feel like a valued member of the team and not feel isolated from their male counterparts. They are looking for a level playing field where they can learn and grow into larger and larger roles based on performance. If a company has one women team leader out of 20 team leaders, that’s something that women need to take into account.

The solution to this is learning to respect each other and celebrate our differences because different people bring different experiences to the team, which makes the overall team that much more valuable. And with more women in leadership roles, they can help to not only change the culture but the dynamic behind it, which will lead to a better and more productive work environment for everyone.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech? Can you explain what you mean?

I consider myself somewhat of a “Mythbuster”. Some of the myths that my female peers and I consistently “Bust” about being a woman in STEM and Tech include:

Women are not good at math or science.

Unfortunately, there’s a bias that starts early in the educational system that girls aren’t as good at math and science as boys. And I know from personal experience that this just isn’t true. I loved math and problem solving from an early age and would have loved to have had more support from my teachers celebrating that interest. It’s been proved over and over again that if we have teachers that believe that girls can do well in math, and they tell them that, then girls will start to believe it themselves.

Women are not interested in math or science.

The myth of women not being interested in math and science is the easiest one to dispel. What you find is that many women who make it all the way through computer science classes and find jobs in their field will change careers because they didn’t like the environments they experienced in STEM and tech roles. It’s not the role or the work that they didn’t enjoy, but it’s the company cultures that they didn’t like which caused them to make the switch to something else where they knew that they’d be happier.

Women are too emotional.

I think it’s important to know that women can make the same hard business decisions that need to be made as men. It’s not a weakness to have emotions and just because you have them doesn’t mean that you are going to be emotional in the business sense. You can be empathetic and still do what’s right for the business.

These myths are outdated but they are perpetuated by the spread of misinformation. The reality is that women do like math and science; women are good at math and science; and, the emotions felt by women have played a major role in the development of some of today’s biggest strides in almost every arena. From health care to technology, the impact of women is being felt almost everywhere. We need to educate our youth so that they know women can indeed lead companies and showcase the women that have paved the way so that more young women have role models. We should recognize that the best leaders lead by example and that having empathy as a leader shows that you have high emotional intelligence, and it is not a weakness. Empathy makes you a stronger leader, and shows your team that you relate to them, listen to them, and care about them, which in turn makes them feel more engaged, inspired, and happier at work.

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Fail fast.

Failure is hard. But you need to make sure you don’t fall in love with an idea. When building any technology, you need to quickly figure out if it is viable and if it is not, fail fast.

This lesson will save you valuable time and money.

Promote the right people.

The best performing employees are not always the best managers. It is difficult to manage people and new managers always have growing pains. Even the employees that seem like great leaders may not be good managers. Management requires a particular dynamic that is very uncomfortable for some people.

You can lose some of your best employees by promoting them before they are ready.

Everyone’s opinions matter, especially the ones that don’t agree.

Sometimes when employees or consultants don’t agree with you, or your company’s mindset, it can be difficult to listen to their ideas or concerns. But if we listen to people who do not agree with us, and communicate with them to understand their objections or reasons for disagreeing, we can usually learn something about a vulnerability or perception problem with the technology.

Vulnerability is not a weakness.

Many managers don’t want people to know that they don’t know all the answers. But management is not always about having every answer, it’s about asking the right questions and developing innovative solutions.

Keep an “entrepreneurial mindset”.

An entrepreneurial mindset is about constantly questioning the status quo, learning from your mistakes, and always taking action on your ideas. Create your product with persistence and a sense of urgency, while continually testing your ideas.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

The advice I give other female leaders is to create an open environment where everyone feels they can come to you about anything. And, remember that diversity of thought is the number one byproduct of diversity in practice. This creates a more understanding, representative, and professional environment which will help your team to thrive.

When you hire people, who are different from yourself, they’ll bring new and different ways of thinking to your team and more importantly, life experiences. Be willing to understand their different histories and perspectives because they will help your team to think about things from completely different angles. This in turn will only help to strengthen your team’s ability to rise to meet challenges and exceed your collective goals.

And if you can create a team culture where mutual respect is the foundation, your team will work well together and be set up for success.

What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

Whether you manage a small or a larger team, the dynamics of managing those teams may be a bit different, but your goal should be for everyone to feel respected, engaged, and connected as a unit.

I’ve found the most effective managers talk to each person on their team every single day. But when you start to manage larger and larger groups, that can be challenging because if your team is large enough, you could be spending your entire day checking in with everyone and unable to do other work. I recommend breaking your larger team into smaller groups with 10 or less employees and assigning a team leader for each group who can handle the daily employee engagement for you. Group leaders can then circle back with you, so that each of your smaller teams feels connected to the larger group as a whole.

I’d also recommend having periodic meetings that bring all of your different teams together because it helps everyone to still feel like they’re a part of the larger team as a whole, which is also important for team dynamics. Remember that when your employees feel respected and connected to not only their colleagues but also their managers, they in turn will be more motivated and feel more vested in the team outcomes. This helps create a better work environment for everyone.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

The person who helped me get to where I am today is my husband, Arvind. We’ve started four companies together. With my background, I handle the technical side, while he handles the business side of things. It’s a perfect match.

Throughout the years, Arvind’s unconditional and unwavering support has made a difference. In our early days when launching our first company, Arvind constantly pushed me to realize that I could do more than I initially thought that I could. Hearing genuine encouragement from a third party can give you a window into something about yourself that you may not have recognized prior. That push had a significant positive impact on me early in my career.

We are all a work in progress and learn and grow as we go. I’ve learned over the years that I can do pretty much anything with the right attitude, the right people, or the right tools to help. I was just lucky that the right person to help me get to where I am happened to be my husband.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I enjoy helping people and paying it forward to help others, as others have generously done for me over the years. Over the years I have consistently served on several nonprofit boards, including the local food bank, where I help them with their IT development.

When the pandemic hit, my company DrOwl made the conscientious decision that we needed to do our part to help communities around the country stay safer in such challenging times. We partnered with schools and businesses by giving them our COVID check-in and contact tracing solution for free. It has resulted in over 2.5 million check-ins and provided support to countless families, communities, and business owners. I’m extremely proud of the fact that DrOwl’s free check-in tool has helped organizations to keep communities safer from Covid-19 during the pandemic.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would like to start a movement for young girls who are interested in math the way was I at their age. To be able to help inspire and school-age girls, and continue to motivate young women coming up through the ranks in the math world, much the way that the girls who code movement did for coding.

It would be great if we could give girls and women of all ages, a place where they can get mentorship, guidance, and even scholarships. A community or organization that celebrates their collective love of math and helps amplify it in new ways and makes them feel supported for loving math and knowing that they’re not alone.

Programs like these could help to bridge the gender divide in science and tech and help girls to believe in their unlimited potential in STEM.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite quotes is “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending,” by C.S. Lewis.

It’s such a simple quote, yet very profound. It reminds me that we’re all human and we all make mistakes; regardless of our age, degree, or title. The more experienced you become it can be hard sometimes to forgive yourself. But, I look at this quote and it reminds me that it’s o.k. It brings me back to a very constructive starting point where I know mistakes are a part of any process and that they end up molding you into the person that you are today.

It reminds me that I can always pivot to change the ending when something isn’t working. That I can start from that moment on, and change the path forward from where I’m at, to make something work.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

There are a lot of prominent leaders that I admire, but if I had to pick just one, I’d pick Sheryl Sandberg. Her extraordinary career undoubtedly has shaped the world into what it is today. Facebook changed the world forever and I greatly admire her for her contributions in helping make them the company they are.

I’ve been in the startup world for quite a while and I’d love to connect with her to talk about her experiences and pick her brain on what she thinks will be next for Silicon Valley.

She redefines for women what their role in tech can be and lets women know that they can not only shatter the glass ceiling to reach new heights and have a high-powered career but that they can also enjoy time with their family and have a life too. I admire that she’s values balance in her life and unapologetically goes home at 5:30 pm every night to have dinner with her family. She’s an amazing role model for women everywhere.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!