The Importance of Community in Entrepreneurship (ft. Cathy Skinner)

Thanks for tuning to Digital Voices podcast, where we chat digital transformation challenges and opportunities across healthcare and life sciences. And now, your host, Ed Marx. Hey, it's Ed. Welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. Hey, we're going to tackle a new topic. We're going to talk— tackle entrepreneurship in healthcare and digital and all sorts of cool things. I have a Awesome guest with me today, CEO of NextGen Port, Kathy Skinner. Kathy, welcome to Digital Voices.

Oh, Ed, thanks so much. Happy to be here.

Yeah, I know obviously about NextGen Port, and that's why I wanted you on, because I think it's just fascinating. But I think it's also going to be really interesting for our listeners who've been thinking about, you know, everyone's got an idea, right? It's like, how do I do it? And they're all scared to do it. You've actually done it a few times, which we'll get into in a little bit. So I think it's going to be super, super informative. Plus, you're just a great person.

Well, thanks. And it'll be fun to hear where your brain goes on this crazy, uh, podcast. So—

Yeah, yeah, we, we have a general outline for our listening audience, but we can definitely deviate. So a couple things that we always cover on Digital Voices. One is how we first met. So we only met recently through a mutual friend, Chris Ross. So my co-author And he and I were hanging out together, launching our book, and introduced to you. And we just had a great time together. We spent a weekend together with, with you and Chris and Simran and just celebrating this book. And so that's sort of how we met. And I learned more about your company. But the most important question, Kathy, in addition to that one, is songs on your playlist. What kind of music do you like to listen to?

Oh, that's such a great question. I've got a A very eclectic playlist on Spotify and songs that are mostly love songs and relationship songs. But some of my favorite artists might be new to you, people like Patrick Watson, a guy named Zucchero out of Italy, Bastille, James Morrison, Jeff Buckley, and one of my favorites is Leif Volbeck. So I've got like 18 hours on this one playlist and in French and Spanish. Spanish and Italian and some African and everything from Motown to EDM. So it's kind of a big spread.

Yeah, love it. Yeah, and you did drop some new names for us. And we do have a playlist on Spotify called Digital Voices, and we'll definitely be adding some of those to it. So thank you. What about life message and mantra? Are there sort of words or a quote, things that you live by?

Yeah, so I appreciate that. I was thinking about it before we got on the call. And There's some component of being a light, and whether that's lighting up new ideas and new ways of thinking about things or lighting a path for others. I spent a long time, and one of my career journeys was coaching, lighting up the cancer journey, making it easier for others. So it's all about this concept of being a light and illuminating and And educating and coaching and sharing and supporting.

Yeah, I like that. And I like the use of light because it can go a lot of different directions. It's very, very cool. So tell us about who you are. So we know a little bit given what you just shared and your musical tastes, but tell us who you are. Like, where did you grow up as an example?

Oh, so my childhood and my background is eclectic as well. So I am a Navy brat. My dad was in the Navy and he served for 21 years. And so that means every 2 to 4 years as a kid, I moved, which sounds weird to some people, but that's all I ever knew. And so my sister and I grew up in places like the East Coast, like Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. We lived in the Philippines. We lived in Monterey, California. We lived in Hawaii. We lived in the Bay Area. And so that ability to move and adapt and try new cultures, try new languages, be in a new school, be in a new neighborhood, that stuff was just part of my upbringing. I think my parents did a great job teaching us adaptability and resilience, which has definitely flowed into who I am today. And I just thought, I think things went well in my childhood. Part of my work in entrepreneurship is in the cancer space. And the origin story of that is, sadly, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and he passed away over 20 years ago. So, my cancer journey originates with my dad, and that has been the— my inspiration.

Yeah. Well, you actually wrote a book about cancer, related to cancer.

I did. I did. So, I had mentioned coaching. So, my first career was coaching college women's volleyball, and I did that for 10 years. And then I coached youth, but also while I was coaching youth on the side, I started working as a cancer exercise specialist. And I was the first certified cancer exercise specialist in Minnesota where I'm based, and one of the first ones around the US. And that training grounded me in a research-based a curriculum around cancer recovery. So building muscle mass, bone density, dealing with pain, dealing with fatigue. And I, I took the core of that research-based protocol and morphed it into, um, an efficient protocol that could be used in a Pilates studio, in a fitness studio, in a yoga studio. And I did write a book about that, um, called The Art of Well: Exercise for Cancer Recovery. And it was, it was a helpful, uh, guidebook to doing exercises that built muscle mass, bone density, and also how to deal with core issues and balance issues. And it just had a nice layout of how to do these exercises in, in an accessible way.

Yeah, no, that's really cool. Because as you know, and I want to talk a little bit about it as well, being an athlete, you know how important it is to be in shape. And we don't think about it We think about it in terms of athletics or, you know, just getting some, you know, cardiovascular health. But we don't think about it ever like if you're sick, if something happens to you, if you are already sort of, you know, have muscle mass and have different capabilities, you're going to do better. So, it's really important that we always maintain our fitness level. for all these different reasons. And so you don't want to find yourself having to sort of catch up on the back end. So, but that book sounds great because I know a lot of people after illness or during illness, right? They can't exercise and stay fit. And now you give them some ideas on how to do that. So that's really cool. So I know part of your story too that you alluded to is volleyball. I'm a huge volleyball nut. So tell us a little bit more and then we'll sort of tie that into leadership in a little bit.

Sure. So, when I went to college at UC Davis in California, and then lived in the Bay Area, and had an opportunity to coach volleyball at a local high school, San Ramon Valley High School, where I coached— I was a varsity volleyball coach. And, when I played volleyball in college, part of the summer program was that the athletes at the university would be the Coaches for summer camp. And so as a summer camp coach, I learned how to teach. It also improved my play, and I fell in love with coaching and teaching youth at summer camp. And then when I got a chance at San Ramon Valley High School to be the head coach there, I jumped on it. And if anyone's coached for many, many years, you know that magical teams only come around every couple of years, if at all. And it's magical not only that they're successful, but they have incredible chemistry and work ethic and just the dynamics and personality. So I was fortunate, San Ramon Valley High School, to have one of these magic teams. And I coached there for a couple years, and then, um, we had an opportunity to move to the East Coast, and I marketed myself as a California volleyball coach.

Hmm.

And so on the East Coast, I got a job at Fordham University where I was the head volleyball coach. I was maybe, good grief, like 28 years old. I wore a suit to the interview, and they hired me. And I was like, what? And I was at Fordham, and I was the first woman to be a full-time head coach in any sport at the university.

Wow.

So, it goes along with a theme I have around pioneering. So, that was one of my opportunities to pioneer being the first full-time head coach as a woman at Fordham. We also had the opportunity to take Fordham's volleyball, or the Fordham athletic department moved from the Patriot League, which was non-scholarship, into the Atlantic 10, which was full scholarships. So we were playing against URI, which is University of Rhode Island, University of Massachusetts, Dayton, Xavier, Virginia Tech, George Washington.

Big 10.

And we got crushed, just slaughtered. I mean, I'm not very tall. I'm 5'4. 6 on a good day. And the athletes I inherited from the Patriot League were just teeny tiny like me. And I was— and we just got, we just got destroyed. So my first goal for after getting crushed that fall was to recruit more athletes. And I brought in 9 new athletes to the Fordham volleyball program. And by the time I had finished coaching there for 4 years, we had a record of .500. And I thought that was pretty good accomplishment going from Can you be less than zero? But if you're just building the program and recruiting athletes and the whole notion of bringing people into something that's novel and new and building plays very well into the next iteration of my career journey, which was entrepreneurship.

Yeah, that, that's super interesting how that experience would, would form you and shape you as, as a leader and a pioneer. 'Cause that's what you do today. And like, you're CEO of, uh, NextGen Port, and it's, and it, and it sounds really interesting. Share with us a little bit about your company.

Thanks. Um, so as I shared, after, um, collegiate coaching, I moved, uh, into being a cancer exercise specialist. And what that meant was working with cancer patients face-to-face. That was my first company called The Art of Well. And my second company was called Thrivers, and it was a digital health platform that had cancer exercise and cancer nutrition. And now this third company, NextGen Port, is hardware, software, and data. So think about medical device, software platform, and data coming from the device. And I share all 3 of those company names and company focus because really working face-to-face with cancer patients is my first love. And the ability to be in a sacred space, watch people in treatment or coming out of treatment, find their way back to their bodies, to their mental and emotional stability, to trusting that they have a life and a future. It's really an honor and a sacred place to be in. And one of the women I was working with came back to me after a doctor's appointment and said that the drug that was fighting her cancer was concurrently damaging her heart.

What?

And I was listening to her tell me this story and looking at the implanted chemotherapy that was under her skin and thinking, why couldn't we know sooner that her heart was being damaged and that she was moving in the wrong direction? And that's really the kernel and the origin story of NextGen Port. But that was back in 2016 when microtechnology didn't exist, when there was no such thing as remote patient monitoring or hospital at home or oncology at home. So that kernel of an idea still stuck with me for many years until I met my business partner, who's a PhD, MBA, scientist, rock star. And so, the two of us, she and I launched NextGen Port together, and we've been on this journey for a couple years.

So, tell us a little bit more about it. So, like, what problem— obviously, you know, we don't want to damage, uh, we don't want to have collateral damage, um, but what problem you solving? Like, what is it doing precisely?

Yeah, thanks for asking a clarifying question. So for decades, cancer patients have an implanted chemotherapy port in their chest. So the port goes in under the skin, and there's a catheter piece, which is like a tube that goes into the heart. And this piece of plastic, this port, enables chemotherapy to go into the body and diffused in a big body of blood in the— it's called the superior vena cava. It's a big artery. And then it's also a great way to draw blood so we don't— the veins in someone's arms aren't damaged or overused.

Yeah.

And so this chemo port is well respected. Every year, 800,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients get an implanted port, and it's a standard of care. Well, all this port does is sit in the body, and chemo can go in and blood can come out, but it isn't used for anything else.

Right.

So I had the idea that we could use technology, which is now micro, and put technology in the body of the port and sensors on the catheter that's touching the blood and measure, you know, is the blood— are the blood cells changing? Is there a change in body temperature? Is there a change in oxygen level? Because all those measures make a big difference in 2 ways. One is a cancer patient showing early signs of infection.

Mm-hmm.

Because there'll be changes in blood and body temperature and heart rate. Or is a cancer patient even ready to hop in their car, drive 2 hours to Mayo, drive 2 hours to MD Anderson, only to show up and get their blood tested and realize they don't qualify for chemo on that day and they get sent home? So it's really a tool to support patients to know, keep them on their treatment, 'cause research shows that has the best possible outcomes.

Right.

It's really a platform to help hospital systems generate revenue and keep patients on their treatments so that the hospital can get— can bill for services, the oncologist, the care team, everybody is still functioning at the highest level of their license and their business. And then for insurance companies, by looking for early signs of infection, we're keeping patients out of the hospital.

Yeah.

And reducing costs. That's a burden not only on insurance companies, but employers, and also on patients. So there's a lot of value to leveraging something that already exists, but using it in a novel and innovative way.

Yeah, I love that because it is a classic example of we invent something and then we sort of, because it's working, we sort of forget about it. Technology has moved on, capabilities have moved on, and no one thinks to go back, right? Because it's sort of working. We're doing it 800,000 times a year. But you, you know, based on your experiences and things, realized there could be a better way. Where does NextGen Port stand today? So where are you in the whole process of bringing it to production?

So we're a medical device company, but as you can imagine, the data flows out. So we have a software component and a data component. So we're squarely focused right now on the hardware, which is that unique piece of measuring changes in blood, heart function, and vitals from inside the body. So testing different scientific approaches to get to accuracy in blood cell counts. We are filing patents around our approach. We're putting together clinical protocols. So for anyone in the medical device space, we're preclinical, pre-FDA, pre-revenue, gathering the data necessary to hit all those milestones. And if you're an investor, we're in our seed round of funding, and we're looking to close that by the end of this year, where we're raising $2 million. So a lot of lingo there, but if you're in the know, it makes sense.

Yeah. No, that's super exciting. And I think it's great to share with us that level of detail because not everyone knows all that whole process. So it's good to have that sort of visibility. And yeah, we will drop in the show notes also your website so people can look up information to get ahold of you. So let's talk about entrepreneurship. So you already mentioned the different companies that you've done. What are 2 or 3 lessons that you've learned from your previous experience that you're now applying to NextGen Port?

Oh, that's so good. I think the lesson that I learned, the most lessons I learned was in my second company called Thrivers. And I love that company. If you think of the word thrive and the word survivor and you blend it together, you get Thrivers. And it's a digital health platform, so an app with cancer exercise and cancer nutrition and a way to support patients by leveraging technology with helpful tools. And the thing that I loved about the company was that it was really novel. But the thing that was difficult was it was so novel, it took a really long time to come to a viable business model. And so that company sadly did not survive COVID. And what I have now, what I've learned now is with NextGen Port, we have a clear business use case, a clear pathway to how we as a company will generate revenue in multiple streams. Clear value we add to patients, payers, providers, even pharma. So it's all about if you're— for anyone thinking about launching a company, you can have a great idea, but if you don't have a good business model and how you're going to make money, you're going to struggle more than you should. And my favorite story to share about money and mission is, Mayo Clinic was launched by some nuns. Nuns were the first people to put $40,000 into Mayo Clinic. And even the nuns of Mayo Clinic said, no money, no mission.

Right.

So, even they knew you had to have a business model to do good in the world. And all of my companies have the goal of doing good in the world, lighting up the world. But, The second one struggled to have a viable business model. And now I'm hardwired to have a viable business model for this company, NextGen Port, with multiple revenue streams.

So, yeah, so you've taken those lessons learned. That's good. What about— so, so this is a variation, Kathy, on the question, but what about listeners who have this great idea and they're, I wanna be like Kathy, And so I wanna do a startup. So other than the viable business model, is there one other piece of advice that you would give to someone thinking about a startup?

I would say, um, understand what you are good at and what you're not good at, and then find co-founders or team members to supplement those gaps. Um, I love my current NextGen Port team because we are all so good at what we're good at. And, um, My business partner and co-founder, Dr. Roseanne Welcher, is a scientist. She's great at patents. She's great at clinical protocols. And so I am not good at those things. However, I'm a great storyteller and I'm great pounding the pavement and I'm great hunting and gathering strategic partnerships. And then we have a director of R&D who understands chemotherapy ports and how they're built. So It really— the teams I recruit to help me in my business are similar to the teams I recruited when I coached volleyball. And then I'm finding an opportunity for people to play in the position of their strength. Yeah. And we don't duplicate each other's efforts, but rather, I think of us as a 3-legged or 3-legged stool or a 4-legged table, and we each have our own pillar of strength and position of strength to support the efforts of the company. And so, I think surrounding yourself with people that are really good at what they do, that's a complement to what you do, and also moves the company forward.

Yeah, I love that. Is there anything that early in your life sort of helped you to be this pioneer? And you already touched on, you know, the way that you grow up, and having to move, and you always had to make new friends, and all kinds of stuff. So, you kind of learned this resilience, and you did a lot of stuff with volleyball and teams. But is there anything else early in your life that sort of helped you prepare for your current role, like as this pioneering entrepreneurial person?

I think some of it's my family of origin. So, just the confidence that my mom and my dad instilled in me to just literally be a tomboy and climb trees and snorkel and just explore the world and be outdoors and be active. be physically active, so that was helpful. And then deep, deep in my family of origin, my Russian great-grandmother was an entrepreneur. She had a textile store and a children's clothing store and something she launched on her own. And so, the family lore and the family stories of my babushka—

I love that.

Doing her own companies, I think, translated into me thinking about doing my own businesses. And frankly, if you look at my personality, I like to be special. I like to be a pioneer, and I like to be first in things. So novel and innovative are part of my key preferences, I guess.

Yeah, no, that's cool. So, Kathy, what about people who wanna be like you? And I mentioned that earlier in terms of, Becoming an entrepreneur. But now, just like you as a leader, there's probably people listening or that know you that are like, wow, this person's pretty interesting, doing a lot of great things. She knows her purpose in life. Is there any advice you would give those individuals?

I would advise that you be active in the world in the areas that you care about, and then look for problems and gaps and try to solve those. So, it's— this is not a new concept, but sometimes folks say, I wanna be an entrepreneur, and they come up with a solution and then go looking for a problem.

Yeah.

I would advise you to live your life, be in the world, look for gaps, look for problems, and then solve for those, because then you have a personal connection to it. You can see how it would make a difference in a person's life, and it anchors it in a, in a ground truth that, uh, really resonates when you try to raise money with, uh, investors or try to recruit team members. Um, I, for example, I share, you know, 20 years ago cancer came to my house, and so that anchors it into why I do what I do in a very concise and meaningful way.

Yeah, yeah, that's really good advice. What about recharging your batteries and remaining fresh? So obviously, entrepreneur, you could work 24/7 if you wanted to. You are an active, outdoorsy type person. So how do you find the time for yourself?

So I've been working in the entrepreneur space for 15 years now, and I learned pretty early on that if I try to burn the candle too long, then I'm just toast the next day. So what I've done instead was build in a cycle and a rhythm of exercise every day, eating really well, getting a full night's rest. If I don't turn off my brain around 8 o'clock at night and just start to wind down, I have a really hard time sleeping. And if I have a hard time sleeping, I'm no good the next day.

Right.

So, and so those healthy habits, Part of it being an athlete, going to practice every day, eating well, that stuff is ingrained in just who I've been for a long time. And I find it gives me strength and value and consistency in my entrepreneur life. The challenges come when stuff just goes sideways.

Yeah.

Or the company Thrivers that I loved failed because at the midnight hour, a contract fell through and we didn't We didn't get paid. And so then there was no money to keep the company going. And—

Yeah.

And so it's, it's how to, how to deal with the hardships and the things that you can't control. Um, I have kind of a, a plan for resiliency and rebounding that it's not that novel either, but something goes terribly wrong, I just kind of quit for the day. Um, I go outside, I walk, I ride my bike, I do whatever I need to do. I, I have a really good dinner. I don't drink alcohol that night, and I go to bed and I just try to wake up the next day and, and try again. I do a lot of journaling. So there's some self-care that needs to come because unexpected stuff that happens, it's totally outta your control. And that's the, that's the most painful part I think is I'll take responsibility if something goes sideways and it's mine, but if I can't— I couldn't predict it. I couldn't control it. That's the hard part. So building the resiliency into, does that mean I need to pivot? Does that mean I need to stop? Does that mean, how do I do my workaround? I'm a really big fan of not taking no for an answer. So I will keep going and going and going as long as I can.

Yeah, well, I think that the concept of self-care as you pointed out, is so critical. Otherwise, yeah, you'll get yourself burned out and it limits your creativity and all sorts of other things. So that's really good advice. So Kathy, we talked about a lot of things all the way from music, and I have heard of the Italian person who actually played Zucchero.

Zucchero.

Zucchero. I think he played some of that for me the last time we were together. Really good stuff. I like the whole concept of the light in terms of, you know, your guiding principles. We learned a lot. I love sports analogies. So we use volleyball quite a bit in terms of the team and positioning and things like that, just general leadership. Talked a lot about NextGen Port and how it came to be and where it is and where it is going. And then we talked about leadership and different things for entrepreneurs. What did we miss? Or is there anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word.

Yeah, I would say that the other thing that someone should think about when they're interested in launching a company is finding a community that will support them. And so, I've got 2 big support systems. One is a group called the Founders Club, where we meet once a month. It's highly confidential. We share best practices, we share our highs and our lows. And really, that's one of the most valuable assets I have because I can say, hey, can you recommend an attorney for this? Or what about this on a term sheet? Or what about this in a sales cycle? And I've got safe, secure support. So find a community of like-minded people that are on the same entrepreneurial journey. And the other thing is I have a partner that really gets me and gets what I'm about. I always haven't always had that. And it's It's hard when you're challenged in the world doing entrepreneurship, and it's doubly hard if you don't have the partnership support that understands it.

Yeah.

And so, to have a partner who gets you and, or gets me, and allows me to be the person I wanna be, and be ambitious, and be driven, and be risk-taking, that makes a big difference in my confidence, my security and understanding that I could be a rock star and I could crush it, because I just feel that way. So, I think the community and the partner support is critical to success.

Yeah, in all areas of life, I completely agree with you. Kathy, this has been so interesting. Thanks for being part of Digital Voices.

Yeah, thank you, Ed. Great conversation. Really enjoyed it.

Hey, that wraps up another edition of Digital Voices. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening to Digital Voices Podcast with Ed Marx. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe on your preferred streaming service and leave a rating and review. And most importantly, thanks again for listening.

Thank you.