Dr. Asha Parekh, Co-Founder and CEO of Frontline Medical, joins The Savvy Entrepreneur to talk about how to encourage more women in STEM fields. On average, only 19% of leadership roles in the MedTech industry are held by women. Similarly, only 10% of healthcare startups are owned and/or founded by women.
She also shares a bit about her own entrepreneurial journey as the CEO and co-founder of Frontline Medical Technologies.
The following is a transcript of the interview she did on the show recently. You can also listen, if you prefer, to the podcast on-demand version.
Doris Nagel 0:42
Hello and welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur show!
We’re broadcasting here from the Greater Chicago Milwaukee area. If you’re an entrepreneur or small businessperson, or thinking about becoming one, this show is for you!
I’m Doris Nagel, your host for the next hour. I’m a crazy entrepreneur myself, and love helping other entrepreneurs. I’ve counseled many startups & small businesses over the past 30 years, and I’ve also helped start at least 9 different businesses.
The Savvy Entrepreneur show has 2 goals: to share helpful information & resources, and to inspire — to make your journey as an entrepreneur faster and easier & maybe just a bit more fun!
And to help with that, I have guests every week on the show who are willing to share their stories and advice. This weeks’ guest is Dr. Asha Parekh, CEO and co-Founder of Front Line Medical Technologies Inc, who joins me today by phone from London, Ontario, Canada.
Front Line Medical Technologies Inc. is a medical device company that has developed a product called the COBRA-OS™ . The COBRA-OS™ is the smallest device ever available to stop aortal bleeding. It allows front line personnel to save more lives by controlling patients’ bleeding, in fewer steps, and therefore hopefully decreaising potential complications.
Asha has a PhD in biomedical engineering from Western University with a specialty in biomaterials and medical devices. She has several patents and publications and has secured multiple grants and funding for her projects.
Additionally, Asha is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of women in STEM –Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, –and changing the fact that women account for less than a third of those in science and research careers. On average, only 19% of leadership roles in the MedTech industry are held by women. Similarly, only 10% of healthcare startups are owned and/or founded by women. She frequently shares her experience with students to inspire girls and women to explore STEM.
In her spare time, she enjoys playing and watching soccer and F1 racing.
Asha, thank you so much for being on the show today – welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur!
Dr. Asha Parekh 3:14
Thank you so much for that great introduction and for having me on the show. Doris, I’m very excited to be here.
Doris Nagel 3:22
I’m delighted you joined us. I think the natural place to start is to tell our listeners just a little bit more about your business. Talk more about the device that you invented — what it does and and why you invented it.
Dr. Asha Parekh 3:40
As you mentioned, we at Frontline Medical Technologies have developed the smallest REBOA device. REBOA is an acronym that may sound complicated, but it stands for “resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta.”
Doris Nagel 4:00
That’s a mouthful! [laughing]
Dr. Asha Parekh 4:02
It is. But it’s really just a fancy way of saying you’re blocking the aorta, which is the main blood vessel that carries blood from your heart to the rest of your body. And so this is used this procedure reboa is used in emergency situations such as trauma, whether it be in the civilian setting, or military setting, also, postpartum hemorrhage cases among other applications, but basically so the reboa device itself, which would be our device called the Cobra was, which is also an acronym…. But anyways, [laughing]
Doris Nagel 4:40
Thank you for sparing us that, but I’m sure that physicians and emergency medical personnel know exactly what it is.
Dr. Asha Parekh 4:55
That’s right. And the device itself is a tool that is used to do exactly that to block the aorta, and that prevents if you have it specifically for hemorrhage. So if you’re bleeding out in the torso region, you know, you can’t compress that area like your internal organs and effectively stop bleeding as you could if it was on an extremity like your hand or your leg.
Doris Nagel 5:19
I guess that’s right — you can’t really do a tourniquet on your torso,
Dr. Asha Parekh 5:26
Maybe you could, but it might not be very effective. Internal bleeding would still be going on.
That is why when you block the aorta, it actually prevents the blood loss through injury site, wherever it’s happening. And the other key thing is that it ensures that there’s continuous blood flow, so that whatever your heart is pumping reaches your brain and your heart, because those are the two vital organs to keep you in good standing.
That’s the whole theory and premise behind doing this type of procedure, and it is temporary. It’s not like you want to block blood flow from the rest of your body indefinitely. This is a temporary measure to allow patients to get to definitive care, because, Doris, the statistics are crazy. If you’re outside of a hospital, and you have this type of hemorrhage, there is currently only a 10% chance that you’ll make it. 90% of patients will bleed out before they even get to the care of a surgeon. So it’s alarming. It’s a large amount of people that are unfortunately suffering from these types of injuries.
Doris Nagel 6:50
In the background information you sent me and that I mentioned in the introduction, your device “avoids potential complications.” And I guess one obvious potential complication is you don’t make it. But are there others? Things like brain damage?
Dr. Asha Parekh 7:11
Absolutely. The complications unfortunately come in when there’s blood loss to the brain and the heart. There can be cardiac arrests, and a lot of other unfortunate things can happen.
And the other complications are actually for the procedure itself. Currently, with the technologies that are available, it is very difficult to perform ROBOA outside of a hospital. And for those actually being done inside a hospital, the patient is already in the hospital, but personnel are just trying to buy time maybe to get them from the ER to the OR.
But you asked why we did this. We wanted to target those broader areas and get out into the field and give those patients the 90% of patients, at least a chance at surviva — let’s make it easier, let’s try to overcome the current complications that there are, let’s overcome those challenges and see if we can get something into their hands that is a little bit more suitable for the field.
Doris Nagel 8:44
I’m sure with your background, you could have invented a number of different things. How did you decide to focus on emergency medical procedures and devices?
Dr. Asha Parekh 9:01
That’s a great question, Doris. You know, there are many factors that went into that. I’ve worked on many medical technology projects, but none of them really encompassed everything that I would want to dedicate my life to.
That’s the easiest way I can say it. Nothing checked all the boxes the way this one did. One of the major ones that was very important to myself and my business partner is the impact. This has obviously the potential to have a very high impact on people’s lives, their families, communities. I’ve always wanted to be doing something where I really felt like I was helping people, and this definitely checks that box.
The last thing I’ll mention – and its perhaps the most important — are the people that you’re doing this with. My business partner is a vascular surgeon by trade, but he is one of a kind. He’s not a stereotypical surgeon. And that was a very big part of my decision. Because the people that you work with play a huge role in your own personal decisions.
Doris Nagel 10:49
We could do a whole show on finding good business partners, and what makes good business partners. In fact, I might just do that!
But you’re right. You can have a great idea, but if things with your business partner don’t mesh, then that creates a whole bunch of other challenges.
How and when did you decide to start the business? There’s probably a lot of pathways that you could take a device that’s invented. For example, you could try to license it to one of the big device companies. There’s probably other ways to go to market. Talk about the process of founding the company and how you went about that.
Dr. Asha Parekh 11:49
You’re exactly right. And in some of these other projects that I’ve worked on, we’ve done exactly that: invent something, file the patents, and you know, if that’s the end of the road, that’s fine. Or if there’s a company that wants to take it on, that’s also fine.
But like you said, commercialization by starting a company is a much larger commitment. And again, it was because this project checked all of those boxes. And if I can narrow it down, maybe the highest thing on our on both mine and my business partners’ list is the impact we saw. We really felt the need to commercialize and put something like this out into the world where we can at least try to help try to save people’s lives. Better than what’s being done today, you know?
Doris Nagel 13:01
It’s certainly true that if you license an idea, you have less control over whether anything really ever happens with it, and what happens with it and how it’s how it’s developed, right?
Dr. Asha Parekh 13:24
That’s right. So, just over three years ago, we received a bit of startup funding through a local program. And that’s really what catapulted us into serious conversations about what it would take, and putting real effort into moving this forward.
Because at that time, we both had our day jobs, and was something we were just doing in our spare time. And we asked ourselves, “Are we really ready to put the effort into it? Are we going to actually going to try to build a company around this?”
And that’s when I took the leap into entrepreneurship. And this has been my full-time job ever since. We took that plunge to get into the world of medical technology commercialization, which is not a small or a short journey. The path to market itself is quite long, but thankfully, we’ve never had to look back.
Doris Nagel 14:25
You mentioned a local program that was helpful. Was that a local accelerator program that helped you gain confidence to make that jump?
Dr. Asha Parekh 14:40
I would say the funding was a factor. The program itself wasn’t a typical accelerator. They did have some like sessions to help with startups, on things like intellectual property and things like that and, but it was really the funding that got us going. It was a mix of government funding and a local organization. It certainly got us thinking about incorporating sooner than we might have.
Doris Nagel 15:20
What does the pathway look like? What needs to be done next? And where are you looking to market this product? And how?
Dr. Asha Parekh 15:35
In general, medical technologies, depending on the class of the device, can take several years and several millions of dollars to just get to regulatory approval. We can’t just start making something and sell it. Obviously, it has to be safe and effective. And to prove that takes a long time. And I will say that we are thankfully at the point where we are ready to enter the market.
We are starting in North America first. And then we will expand. So, Canada and the US will be our first markets. The field of REBOA itself, I will say, is still an emerging market. It’s not a very established field. And that makes it a bit challenging, but it also makes it exciting.
Doris Nagel 16:33
So there is a huge potential to make an impact, for sure. I’m imagining that — if this is not a procedure that most emergency medical personnel have performed — there’s going to have to be a fair bit of training for them to be able to use this effectively.
Dr. Asha Parekh 16:53
That’s a great point, Doris, because as we designed and developed this, making it as user-friendly and easy as possible. That was a very big consideration for us. There certainly will be a training component, especially for people that have not done it, to learn. But people in the medical field often have to learn new procedures and there may be a small training component required there. But we do believe that we have lowered the barriers by expanding the type of professionals that can do it beyond just surgeons in the hospital.
Doris Nagel 17:43
It’s a big leap into entrepreneurship, particularly in healthcare in general. Talk about some of the challenges you faced and how you dealt with them.
Dr. Asha Parekh 19:34
I think that we’ve been fairly lucky on both a company level and a personal level. But obviously, there are always those hills or roller coasters, as they say of entrepreneurship — the high and the lows.
I will say there are some challenges being a small company. We’ve kept it lean and try to keep our organization small, considering funding. But also, the workload type is very different in a startup. You may have a lot of work to do sometimes, and not so much at other times.
Hiring is something that factors into all of that, and so I think one of the things that has stood out is finding good partners and people. Again, going back to how important the people you work with are and those relationships and finding good partners. It is one thing to find a good employee and making that work with the timing is one thing, but even finding outsourced partners is not always easy.
Doris Nagel 20:48
Right. And you do need to have a lot of flexibility, because what you need today in terms of an employee may change over time. So that makes it even trickier, right?
Dr. Asha Parekh 21:04
That’s exactly right. We’ve brought on a couple of outsurced people as consultants or agencies and such, and had to do some firing of them. But it’s a lot easier to let those people go than it is to fire a full time employee.
So that’s not to say we haven’t gone through some changes there. But ultimately, finding not only a good partner, but a good partner at the time that you need them at each stage is key. And that has been something we have dealt with along the way. But again – touch wood — we have been fairly lucky in every other regard.
Doris Nagel 21:56
As a startup with a brand-new medical device, you need to think about the marketing of it, and how you going to find customers, but you also have the manufacturing piece of it, too. So, I’m guessing you needed to find a an effective manufacturing partner?
Dr. Asha Parekh 22:19
Yes, absolutely. And that was not easy, either. But yes, our manufacturer is definitely a very important and key partner.
Doris Nagel 22:31
Especially because medical device manufacturers are heavily regulated. You can’t just stroll down to your local tool and dye company, and ask them to make a prototype for you. There are only certain companies that have the regulatory approval and the quality systems and everything else that you need to have to produce a medical device.
Dr. Asha Parekh 23:06
That’s correct. Those are required for the field. But I think we have been lucky. We found a good manufacturing partner.
I think this past year and a bit now with the pandemic has certainly had an effect on a lot of people, and that’s not to say we haven’t been affected as well. But again, we are thankful for where we are and where we’ve come, eve while we haven’t been able to avoid every delay possible.
Doris Nagel 23:51
I do know that shipping and logistics has been affected by the pandemic, and that probably has affected you as well. You need somebody to not only manufacture the product, but also get it distributed in a way that’s cost-effective, but also timely. I know healthcare systems in the US don’t want to keep a lot of inventory of things, which means you need to be able to deliver it just-in-time, or pretty close to that.
Dr. Asha Parekh 24:33
That’s correct.
Doris Nagel 24:35
So what’s been the single hardest thing so far for you in beat becoming an entrepreneur?
Dr. Asha Parekh 24:45
I would say that the hardest has also been the best, which is that I have never done this before. It’s been an education on its own, which is amazing, but also very hard.
There have been a lot of learning experiences, because I’m not a seasoned entrepreneur. But I like to use that as inspiration to share with people who are scared to do it. I tell them, “Just because you’ve never done it doesn’t mean that you cannot.” We built this company from the ground up, so you really feel the rewards of ownership. Everything that has gone into this, you’ve literally done yourself.
It is definitely hard to learn so many facets of building a business. Especially since it was just me and my business partner at first. We had to learn everything from how to take the product to market, learn the manufacturing development piece, and everything from regulatory, quality, finance, intellectual property, and corporate legal things — things neither of us had ever dealt with. So, it’s been hard, but it has been amazing at the same time.
Doris Nagel 26:16
How do you find effective resources? What advice might you offer in terms of finding those partners and the help that you need?
Dr. Asha Parekh 26:33
What I’ve learned over the past few years is to always ask in order to find good people. That’s one of the biggest lessons, because it doesn’t work so well when you just shoot, aimlessly or Google search when looking for people to help.
Doris Nagel 26:58
You don’t strike me as a very aimless sort of person!
Dr. Asha Parekh 27:04
We always looked with a target in mind, but maybe not necessarily knowing how to find the right people on our own. I have found that our best relationships and the best connections have been through referrals. So my advice is to go to the people that you know, and ask. Continue to ask for any recommendations, because sometimes other people that have been through it that may say, “Yes, actually, I know somebody who would be really good for that,” instead of just trying to find people on our own. I mean, if you don’t have a choice, you don’t have a choice. But if we have the option for a referral, then we will try to go down that route first. At least there’s some credibility from someone. And that, again, goes back to who you’re asking – make sure they are also a credible source.
Doris Nagel 28:00
You’re making the argument pretty effectively to network, network, network, right?
Dr. Asha Parekh 28:09
Absolutely. Because again, it goes back to people right here and having those having, you know, I wouldn’t i’m not i have a huge network person I have a quality network is, is more what I strive for.
Doris Nagel 28:26
Where do you find inspiration when you hit a speed bump or a little wall?
Dr. Asha Parekh 28:58
I will say two things. One, it always goes back to that impact, like the drive that, you know, we want to get that out there, again, PR on a company level and personal level, I mean, it’s like, I really want to help get this out there. So you know, if it’s, it’s hard push through, keep pushing, do what you need to do, because this has to get out there, you know, that so impact would be huge. And, you know, on a personal level. I have to say this, I if I think I’m going through a hard time and you know, or there’s something that’s personally tough for me to do. I often think about my business partner, because he is not only a full time surgeon also does this, you know, in a capacity I I have yet to comprehend how he can do it. But you know, amongst other things that you know, in life and It really, I think the support is what I’m trying to get at, I’ll also is, you know, having, having that support. And I’m like, you know, I look at everything that we can accomplish together, and I do drive inspiration from his drive as a person. So those would be the two things is just, you know, really wanting to affect change in the world, which may sound cliche and whatever, but it’s really true. You know, it is something that really drives me and, you know, having having an exceptional partner.
Doris Nagel 30:36
I personally agree that having a an overall purpose — something you’re passionate about — certainly helps most entrepreneurs. I think that’s another theme that I would say it’s been very consistent in all the people I’ve talked to is, you know, when you have that vision, that overriding vision, staying focused on that, and, and continuing to, to draw inspiration from it helps helps most of us get through those those rough patches.
Asha, I know one of your other passions that we chatted about before the show is helping encourage more women in STEM. And again, for those of you who have heard the term stem, but not sure what it means is science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And, you know, there are really, the numbers are pretty depressing, particularly in medical technology and healthcare. I mentioned in the introduction you had shared with me only 19% of leadership roles in the med tech industry, are held by women and only 10% of healthcare startups are owned or founded by women. And I you know, Ash, I don’t know if that’s a Canadian only statistic or North America. But I know the numbers, no matter which ones you look at are shockingly small. Why? Why is that? I mean, there are the majority of nurses are women and lots of physicians are women these days. So what what, what’s the story there? Do you think? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 34:04
I think there’s a few things to to look at. One is the actual stem portion of it, which, you know, as you said, is the science and technology and the actual, you know, that technical part of it and the separate I almost separate them in my mind because that is very different, like encouraging, which I do, as you mentioned, encouraging women to get into STEM to begin with is one thing, but a woman in STEM already getting into like a corporate med tech job is is a different ballgame almost, you know, having that ownership or like, you know, co founding a company or both those positions. I think those roles entail, you know, a different angle as well. So it’s a little bit of both of those worlds coinciding.
Unknown Speaker 34:57
Yeah, I I agree with you, and I I think it’s good to separate the two. So let’s talk about women in STEM in general. I mean, you must be, I’ve concluded there must be things that happen at a fairly early stage of development, because they’re there. As far as I know, there’s there’s really not many barriers mean, when you go to college or university, women are free to choose to be a communications major, or a math major or computer science major or a journalism major, right? I mean, nobody says, You’re a woman, you can’t be a math major. So something else is happening to pre select women who, from from be choosing those paths?
Unknown Speaker 35:49
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great point, or it’s, and I fully agree with you, I think it starts from a very young age. And I think that influencers on those decisions are many, you know, again, some controversial, potentially controversial topics, but even from parenting, to school environments, social environments, all of those things. And I think every play slash person, you know, has, has its part in where people go. And I think there are, you know, cultural things at play here as well, that, you know, kind of direct you in ways even if unintentionally, but I do think that the influences come from, from many directions,
Unknown Speaker 36:36
you’ve thought about this a lot, give some examples of how an event or encouragement or lack thereof, might affect the course of someone’s career.
Unknown Speaker 36:52
Yeah, you know, I will say, from personal experience, you know, I am thankful to have parents who, you know, encouraged us to do what we wanted to, and, you know, not necessarily pushed us in any way, specifically. But I do know, in contrast, you know, some friends that I am, I’m an Indian ethnic background, and I, you know, I will say, me growing up with those types of parents, particularly, again, I’m focusing on this one thing as an example, but a lot of people with of Indian background, they do get a lot of pressure from their families to go into the, you know, medical sciences engineer, you always hear like, they’re all you’re an engineer, Doctor, you know, those types of fields are the ones that Indian people tend to go towards. But, you know,
Unknown Speaker 37:58
I think
Unknown Speaker 38:00
that’s why I noticed the difference. And I can see to your point, where if you are, you know, pushed into that way, and it may not necessarily be your own passion, you know,
Unknown Speaker 38:13
so you mean, in inadvertently, parents by pushing their children, they’re young, they’re young daughters, into sciences may actually inadvertently turn them away from it, because they feel like they have to, as opposed to something they want to do. Is that, Am I understanding you? Right?
Unknown Speaker 38:33
I do agree with that. Doris. I do agree with that. And, you know, there, there’s also the part where, you know, every individual is different. So an individual, you know, I can think of people right now in my life and individual that may have been in that family, cultural situation, that move towards stem for, you know, probably a bunch of reasons, but, you know, also had that influence from the parents, they may be completely fine with it, because they’re, they’re the type of person that will carry on with their life with whatever, and not necessarily reflect on it. Whereas, another person I know, has also had those influences gone down that path, and not enjoyed it reflected and has have realized that they made these choices for maybe the wrong reasons, not entirely, because it’s what they wanted to do. And that can have, you know, a great impact on your life, as I’m sure you can imagine.
Unknown Speaker 39:30
Oh, well, it’s interesting. And there, there may be cultural factors here. I you know, I’m just thinking my daughter just graduated with her bachelor’s degree in statistics. So she is a she is a successful stem story. But you know, um, so, you know, I’m Caucasian, and she jokes that she’s the She’s a very small minority. And in fact, you know, watching the graduation ceremony, they, first of all, there were fewer women a lot fewer. Right? And without sounding stereotypical, there were a lot of the women who were there were mostly of Asian descent. Different different Asian ethnic origins. But, you know, she jumped, she goes, Oh, my god, there’s one more white woman. And so, I mean, you know, it’s it, I found the whole thing kind of appalling, because I guess I thought that somehow since I went to college, was I saw that many years ago, but I thought it must have changed a lot by now. And yet, it hasn’t. So how, I mean, I just makes me wonder, what is it that we as parents are doing, or not doing to, to encourage our children of all different ethnic nationalities? And, and, and different kinds of backgrounds to encourage women to, you know, to really consider this?
Dr. Asha Parekh 41:20
Yes. I think we touched on this previously. I think there are some inherent biases, biases towards women, even in this day and age. I think it’s unintentional. People and parents don’t even realize what they’re doing to treat their daughters differently than sons. And you can’t affect change if you’re unaware, right?
You can only do something about it if you’re aware that it exists. So, I think there is work to be done around awareness and educating people in being mindful of our behavior towards women and unintentionally doing these things.
Doris Nagel 42:18
Someone I was chatting with not too long ago said that there’s a study out there researching the reactions of parents with their children on the playground. They found that, even at a very early age — three, four or five, six years old — parents of daughters were more likely to say — and note this is both mothers and fathers — were more likely to say to their daughters, “Be careful!” and more likely to say to to the boys, “Wow, look what you did!”
Dr. Asha Parekh 43:04
That’s a great example of exactly what I mean. The same behavior from a daughter and a son, but what a what a drastic difference in response.
Doris Nagel 43:14
That’s probably a good segue into the other half of the equation. You rightfully made the distinction between first encouraging more women to consider technical fields where there certainly is a need for more women and their perspective.
But then it’s yet a different thing, as you say, to actually become an entrepreneur or a senior executive, in a company where you can influence how things change.
So what happens there?, so there’s now um, I think your statistic was maybe less than a third are in our women in STEM, less than a third of the candidates in in STEM fields are are women. So you would expect to see though a third of the women holding leadership positions in healthcare companies or being founders of startup healthcare companies. So what happens in the next step, do you think to make the statistics drop off even more?
Dr. Asha Parekh 44:28
Yes, I think there’s a big portion of that. That is also you know, as we evolve in thankfully, again, and I have to say, I do think that we are moving in the right direction, but there’s obviously a lot of space to still work with and the which can be seen by those numbers. But I think there there are factors that play into that such as that because those are personality things in terms of confidence and, you know, having the courage confidence to be in those type of roles, I do think that that’s a, you know, has, again, going in the right way over generations, but typically, females were not in these roles, and it has been traditionally the males that have been in, in these, you know, senior roles and, and that type of thing. So I think there’s a shift. And, you know, once there’s always a curve and an adaptation and adoption curve, and, you know, as we go through this transition, I’m hoping that it continues to, you know, close that gap, but I think that, it still does play a large role in it, because of all these influencers that we talked about, including parenting, school, social, environmental, you know, to, to allow females to even feel like it’s okay to develop that side of them.
Doris Nagel 45:54
If you ruled the world, what would your vision be in terms of what we need to do as a society in North America to accelerate that movement? What kinds of things would you advocate for?
Dr. Asha Parekh 46:14
Education around awareness for everyone. Again, I wouldn’t pinpoint any one party, but I’d include all of the influencers, from parents to schools, to, you know, all of these environmental things, so that everyone is more aware of their biases and behaviors.
I do want to be a little bit careful, because I, I am in it, and I try to advocate and help and inspire people to get into STEM, but I’m very much someone who believes and we need all kinds of things. In the world, I would never want to be in the position of trying to get everyone into STEM.
Doris Nagel 46:56
Right. We need artists and we need writers, too. There’s already a lot of money at the universities that flows into engineering and computer sciences. For example, I went to my daughter’s campus on a tour, and there were all these new buildings for engineering and, and computer science. And the poor English building looks just as dumpy as it did when I went there to school.
Dr. Asha Parekh 47:25
Exactly. And I do believe that we need to encourage people to do the things that work for them and not just try to point them in one direction only. But again, being in the field and wanting to help the people that do want to be in STEM or and or be in those leadership roles, I think the education and awareness can go a long way. It’s not something that can happen overnight. But I do think that I do think that it can eventually happen
Doris Nagel 48:07
I’m curious whether you’ve experienced more challenges or different challenges because you are a woman or because of your ethnicity? Do you feel that the road has been harder for you, or has it really not something that has mattered?
Dr. Asha Parekh 48:30
I do feel pretty lucky. Everything’s relative of course. I may think something’s a lot and someone else may think it’s not and vice versa. Being born and raised in Canada, I don’t feel like I’ve experienced a lot of discrimination. But I think also that mindset plays a lot into it. Maybe I could have been discriminated against a lot, and maybe not even realized it. But I’ve never felt that I didn’t belong.
I will say that on a professional level, engineering is still very male dominated. So I have been exposed to that for several years since, you know, undergrad, and there are times where I find myself being still the only female in a room or the only female on a conversation. And it’s not, I don’t always notice that even but the I have experienced on several occasions, you know, where times when it has been hard to be heard, it’s hard to get listened to, you know, and that the reasons behind that can go from not being even given the opportunity you’re not addressed in the conversation, or and there’s been times where I’ve tried to get a word in and I just can’t like it’s hard, you’re overpowered and that’s not always the case. And it’s been a select few times that I can remember. And unfortunately, there are people that will still default to a man or a woman in the room, no matter what that’s their, that’s their, you know, default, and they will do it 100% of the time again, maybe without even realizing it. But that goes back to those influences that we talked about how they were raised, where they were raised all of those influential factors. And I mean, of course, this is very group and person dependent. Not all men are alike, either, right? There are some very awful Yeah. So so that for sure. ethnicity, I again, I can honestly, doors, honestly, I can recall one incidents growing up that, you know, I was, and it wasn’t here it was in the UK. But where I really realized, you know, there was a comment made about the color of my skin, I never experienced it beyond that growing up. So again, I do consider myself lucky there. And as an adult, I again, I just I have not felt that and whether somebody has had that bias towards me or not, it either has not been blatant enough for me to realize it, or I don’t take it into consideration enough to, you know, have it impact me, and I don’t want those things to impact me. So I’m very thankful for that. And, you know,
Unknown Speaker 51:29
I think you’re right, I find sometimes
Unknown Speaker 51:32
the bliss,
Unknown Speaker 51:34
mindset is important. And you remind me of a, one of the guests that I had on my show a few weeks ago, who is a venture capitalist, and she’s experienced a lot of the same thing. She’s the only woman in the room, and she said, You know, a lot of it, a lot of it was very weird, but I didn’t care, I just knew I was gonna keep showing up. And eventually, they realized I was going to keep showing up and I was going to make intelligent comments. And over time, they just, you know, realize, okay, that’s her and she belongs here and, okay. And, you know, so I don’t think I think, you know, what you’re suggesting is probably probably not a typical, it’s just you need to have enough self confidence and enough passion about what you’re doing that you just, you just keep showing up, right?
Unknown Speaker 52:30
That’s right, you just keep doing it. You know, and again, like you said, if you’re contributing and have the, you know, ability and show that you’re, you’re meant to be there, you know, hopefully, people will realize that, even if it’s not at first, then eventually.
Unknown Speaker 52:49
Well, good. I’m glad that you keep showing up. And I hope, I hope more, more professionals like you keep showing up. But looking back, what advice would you give on your entrepreneurial journey from your entrepreneurial journey? What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs, maybe especially women, entrepreneurs, but entrepreneurs in general, about starting your own company? and growing it?
Dr. Asah Parekh 53:20
Yeah, you know, and I would say, exactly, that really, in a nutshell is what we just talked about, is keep showing up, keep doing it, if I was a motivating voice in my head, from, you know, my journey, I, I tell myself to do exactly that, keep moving forward, find a way if you don’t know something, learn it, figure it out, talk to people find those resources to make it happen. Because just because you haven’t done it, like I’m a prime example, doesn’t mean that you can’t make it happen, you know, entrepreneurship, you know, there are inherent risks, and doing that, as everyone can probably comprehensive on some level, but you have to continue to be open minded and be prepared to take some risks, you know, and, you know, I think just keeping, keeping that momentum and pushing through the highs and the lows, is, is the biggest thing, you just you just make it happen. You know, another thing I would say is I it might sound contradictory to what I said, but, you know, as I was saying, to talk to people on that, but it’s a little bit on the other side is don’t listen to everyone. You know, there are some experienced people that can give you advice that’s not suited for your particular company or situation. And I think that because, you know, I was in that situation, as I said to is that I’ve never done it before. So you lean on people, but it doesn’t mean that they necessarily know the best course of action for you and, you know, you don’t always have to follow a normal There are typical things that people can lay out for you for. I don’t know that there is such thing, but you know, a typical medical device company, but that’s not necessarily the right thing for you to do. And I will say that, you know, we’ve been in situations like that, as well as that it’s like, we stand up and push for what you believe in it, you know, there are situations where people are going to say, No, no, no, this is the norm, or, you know, you should do this. And it’s like, really, like, you know, I think that reflection and questioning those things is very important. You know, even talking about fundraising briefly, you know, those decisions, you know, shouldn’t be taken lightly. And I think, for a lot of people who are in startups, and particularly like myself, in situations where they’ve, it’s their first time, you know, you sometimes feel like you have to listen to the people that have done it before the even right, like venture capitalists, or people that go through these, they’re like, Oh, no, we only do this, okay, well, great. Like, it’s sometimes hard to resist, and I’ll use that as the example. Because if you need money, which you can’t run a startup, especially a med tech startup without funding, you know, if you need money, and they’re dangling something in front of you to give you, I don’t know, I’m going to make something up like millions of dollars, but they want to take 70% of your company, you’re you may feel like you have to do it, because they’re like, it’s the only way you’re going to be able to do it. And I would say just challenge yourself a challenge to think beyond that. If you don’t need to, you know, it may be the right decision for you of, you know, maybe, but don’t necessarily listen to all of that, you know, I think that’s a big thing.
Doris Nagel 56:51
I had a serial entrepreneur on the show a few weeks ago. His advice was not to act on every piece of advice. Because if you talk with lots of people – and you should – but then go run and change your business plan or your approach every time, you’re going to spend all your time pivoting, pivoting, pivoting.
His advice was to talk to several knowledgeable people, and if you hear the same thing three or four times, probably there’s some kernel of truth in there. But don’t, you know, don’t don’t need your work. Because lots of people are just offering advice. And I laughed, and I said, as you know, it’s like, when, when I was a new mom, you know, everybody in there, everybody, everybody in stores would just come up to you and say, This is how you should do this with your child, you shouldn’t let them do this. And, you know, you could drive yourself completely nuts. I’m trying to listen to each and every person who and their advice, but you know, but but as you say, be measured about it, consider it, you know, it sounds like you know, also having thick skin a little bit, that some people aren’t going to be wildly enthusiastic about what you’re doing based on their own personal experience. But, you know, sound out lots of different people, right. And if you hear the same thing over and over again, maybe listen to it, reconsider. If not, maybe just say thanks, and move on.
Dr. Asha Parekh 58:37
That’s right. I love that analogy. Because, you know, we do often think this company is our baby, we call it that a lot. Like, no, like, you know, no one, no one knows better than you really to be able to at least assess those things and do what’s right. So you know, that’s a great, that’s a great point. And yeah, and the last thing I will say, and I touched on it earlier, too, is choose your people wisely, from your project team to partnerships, you know, I do strongly believe you know, it has a huge effect on a personal level and on a business level, you know, your passion that we also talked about, you know, that delivers on, like the outcomes of what happens you know, of your successes and the team of people behind a company are crucial to its success and personally, day to day even if you think on a daily level to you know, everything your own happiness. Having surrounding yourself with the right people I think is vitally important. So that that would be a strong point of advice from my end.
Doris Nagel 59:50
I think that’s great advice.
How should people reach you or the company If they’re interested in learning more about the product, or maybe they’re just looking for advice or something we touched on today?
Dr. Asha Parekh 1:00:08
Our website is definitely probably a good starting point for the product: www.frontlinemedtech.com. There is a contact form on there if people would like to get in touch with the company. And my LinkedIn profile is a good way to reach me personally. If anyone would like to talk, I’m happy to share my experiences and talk about anything at all. My first name is Asha Parekh. It should be fairly easy to search for that name. And it will show Front line Medical Technologies in my profile.
Doris Nagel 1:01:17
Asha, thanks so much for being on the show this week. I really appreciated your insights. It was great having you as a guest.
Dr. Asha Parekh 1:01:27
Thank you so much, Doris. It’s been a pleasure. I really enjoyed our conversation – thank you for having me.
Doris Nagel 1:01:36
And thanks to all of our listeners – I appreciate you listening in today.
And a special shout out again to my guest today, Dr. Asha Parekh, CEO and Co-Founder of FrontLine Medical Technologies, who joined us this week to talk about how the new medical device she’s invented, as well as the topic of how to encourage more women in the sciences and technology.
You can find more helpful information and resources on my website, www.globalocityservices.com, where there’s a library of blogs, tools, podcasts, and other resources. Because this show is for you, my door is always open for comments, questions, and suggestions, or just shoot the breeze, you can email me at dnagel@lakesradio.org, and I promise I’ll respond.
Be sure to join me again next Saturday at 11 am. Central time/noon eastern.
Until then, I’m Doris Nagel, wishing you happy entrepreneuring!
[…] Click on the arrow to the left to take a listen! Or, if you prefer, read a transcript of the interview. […]