De-risk your startup: The academic-entrepreneur advantage w/ Nicola Brown

Sometimes, being an entrepreneur can keep you so busy, you wake up one day and wonder just how the heck you got where you are. But when you build an organization with a culture steeped in customer discovery and research, you start to see the patterns. Nicola Brown, founder of Kokoro, explains to our viewers how patterns, research, and customer discovery are vital components to her company’s philosophy around healthcare and wellbeing. Refreshing and candid, Nicola’s animated discussion about the drops and gains she’s experienced over the last three years is sure to resonate with health innovators worldwide. Whether it’s debunking assumptions, finding the right support system, or just finding five minutes to breathe, we’re sure you’ll find a tip (or two) you can take with you! Here are the show highlights: Why validating your market will help avoid pitfalls (and drops!) (3:15) Conducting continuous research is key to debunking costly assumptions (7:35) You don’t always have to be first to market - sometimes it’s better to be second (14:44) Why the right support and guidance is critical to your product launch (20:36) Try a different approach to your differentiation strategy (30:18) Why you need to take a 5-minute personal reset, every day (33:27) Guest Bio Nicola Brown is the Founder of Kokoro, an integrative health data management company and practice community serving all levels of business leadership. She leverages her community development career in government, universities, and nonprofits to explore new ways of tackling complex challenges facing marginalized communities around the world. Nicola has earned a Masters of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Georgia and a BS in Family, Youth & Community Sciences from the University of Florida. If you’d like to reach out to Nicola, you can reach her through the contact page on her website at www.joinkokoro.com or on LinkedIn at Nicola Brown. If you contact Nicola on her website, mention you heard her on Dr. Roxie’s show and Kokoro will do a free assessment for you.