Month: June 2022

America's nursing shortage and lack of healthcare access for many people are well-documented.  Bre Loughlin and her company, Nurse Disrupted, are actually doing something about it.  She recently joined The Savvy Entrepreneur show to share her story.

Nurse Disrupted provides a turnkey system where healthcare access is limited, and staffs it with online nurses who screen patients and either assist them or get them to the next step in healthcare treatment.  The company started with homeless shelters during the pandemic in Dane County, Wisconsin (the home of Madison).  It has since expanded to locations in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin, and the calls for help are starting to come in from all over the country.

The system is anonymous and super-easy to use.  Payment for the systems comes from public health grants as well as large health systems who are desperate to reach rural, inner city, and other poorly-served populations.  The company is now funded through outside investors, and is growing rapidly.

But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.  Bre shares some of the challenges she faced and how she overcame them.  She also offers her thoughts on lessons learned that may make the journey easier for others.

Nurse Disrupted is the inspirational story of a startup company that does well by doing good.  It's a clever product and service, and helps meet a desperate need.

Click on the arrow to listen and be inspired!  Or read a transcript of the interview here.

 

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Annette Gilchrist started out as a cancer researcher before starting MyGenomeRx, on online platform that identifies potential gene-drug interactions.

She joined The Savvy Entrepreneur to share the story of shy she founded MyGenomeRx, and how she's built & grown the company.

Annette's medical research background led her to teach pharmacists, and as part of one of her courses, she had pharmacy students use their DNA to identify potential gene-drug interactions.  She quickly realized that there were a lot of potential interactions, but no good websites to easily access this information.

She partnered with a coding whiz and they developed MyGenomeRx, a site where you can enter your DNA from ancestry.com, 23and me, or other source.  For a small fee, the platform then identifies gene markers that may cause your body to uptake a drug faster than normal, slower than normal, or have no response to at all.

Researchers are constantly finding indications of these, all of which help both patients & physicians determine which drug and dosage to use.

Annette shares some of the challenges of creating such a huge matching platform and of generating a report that is easily understandable.  It's also a story of how to find the right co-founder, and the challenges of  creating a company as a side hustle for both of them, not to mention the challenges of marketing and pricing.  It helps that this is not Annette's first “rodeo” as a founding entrepreneur, and she talks about how some of the learnings with her first company have helped as she's built and grown MyGenomeRx.

It's an interesting story, and Annette openly shares some of the challenges she's faced along the way.  And she candidly shares some of the lessons she's learned and advice for other budding entrepreneurs.

Click on the arrow to listen to the fascinating story of MyGenomeRx — and you might even decide it's a good idea to find out your own drug-gene interactions.   Or go here to read a transcript of the interview!

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Mike & Malaika Wells are a husband-wife duo who co-founded Do Well Brands, a Chicago startup. They're figuring things out as they go, not afraid to pivot where needed, and most definitely enjoying the journey along the way.

They'll keep you laughing as they finish each other's sentences and have friendly back & forths. They share how their quest for better, healthier foods & beverages led them to found and grow Do Well Brands.

Click on the arrow to take a listen! It's inspirational, full of helpful advice, and sure to make you smile!

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