S1EP10 - Why Mess with My Maternity Leave with Sona Shah

This is The Capital Flex. I'm Naseem Sayani. This show codifies the capital playbook because no founder should have to learn the hard way. We talk about what really happens behind closed doors, the bias, the breakthroughs, and the things no one says out loud. If you've ever walked into a room and felt the system wasn't built for you, you're in the right place. Today, my guest is Sona Shah from Neopenda. And it's a company that's building wearable devices to track the vitals of newborns. And from my understanding, and she'll update us in a few minutes, they've been having incredible success, uh, in hospitals across Eastern Africa. And that's where a lot of the idea was originally born and tested. Uh, then, so she'll tell us a bit more. Sona and I met, I think just previously during this year, uh, when she was doing her fundraising round and I was so impressed and interested to hear more about what she was building and why she was building it. So I'm so excited to have you on the pod today.

Thank you so much for having me. It's really an honor.

For everyone listening, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about your company.

Yeah, for sure. So I'm Sona, as you mentioned, I'm CEO and co-founder of Neopenda. We design medical technologies, particularly for emerging markets. My journey has been anything but linear. So I started out as a chemical engineer, went to Georgia Tech for undergrad, Then found myself in western Kenya as a primary school teacher in a community with no running water and no electricity. And so just really immersed myself into a totally different world and culture and loved so much of it except for the inequities that I was fortunate not to have growing up. Came back to the US, started working in pharma, and so again, totally different world. Really loved the healthcare, the engineering side, all the medications we were creating were going through clinical trials. So just saw a wide variety of things that I kept thinking that the kids that I taught in Kenya may never see the medications that I was helping make, and that was really the inequity that drove me back to graduate school at Columbia University to pursue a master's in biomedical engineering. I didn't know that I'd end up with a startup. Here we are 10 years later, but met my now co-founder Tess in a biodesign course that we took together, and we were both drawn towards thinking about why newborn mortality in particular is so much higher in low and middle income countries than in the US. And there truly are about 1,000 problems contributing to that. But tinkering in our lab in New York only got us so far. So we got funding from the university, used that to travel out to Uganda and do a proper needs assessment out there. And it's, it's still kind of this gut-wrenching feeling every time I go into the hospitals because every single one is overstaffed, it's overcrowded, and the only equipment that we see there is collecting dust in a corner. So that's why we created Neopenda, to design medtech that functions anywhere in the world.

That's incredible. It's such a great story and has such immediate impact, right, with the providers and then with the children, of course, which is tremendous.

Thanks. Yeah, it's, it's been an exciting journey. Just, I think the impact that we're having is, is certainly on the patients and the clinicians and the parents that are caring for these babies. But I also think the impact is on rethinking how medtech is viewed in around the world and just creating a space for a way to scale profitability and impact together. There's no reason to compromise either of those.

Right. Absolutely. And that, we'll talk about that more cuz that's one of those putting, doing good and making money next to each other is one of those things that I try to talk a lot about at, and so that we don't have to separate the two to make money. It just doesn't make sense. So, you know, the basis of the podcast is to talk about fundraising and given the world that we live in, I know I hear a lot, I hear so many stories from founders all across the country and in some cases from around the world and. It's, it's two, there's two versions. There's really great stories when of course founders raise the capital and get the check. And more often than not, there's also, there's also the really painful and frustrating stories because we know the unfortunate experiences that a lot of women go through when they're fundraising because of bias and bad behavior and all the other things that we know happen. Uh, and so the purpose of the podcast is really to elevate those stories and, and talk about them. And talk about how, what happened, how we responded, what we learned, uh, and really what the insight was so that for other founders that listen to this, uh, they have some insight and they have a bit of a toolkit when they go into their fundraising. Uh, then nobody has to do this alone, right? We want everyone to, to have a way, uh, to go in with more insight and an ability to really be ready for it. So you and I talked beforehand on, on what your experience has been. So before we jump into the stories, I would love to just hear overall what, what your experience has been in fundraising and if you had characterize it with a couple of words, what, what couple of words would you use?

Yeah, fundraising has been a journey for sure, and it's been all the ups and downs that you can think of with fundraising. And I think that's true for any startup, whether you're female, male, raising for startups in the ecosystem that we're in right now is challenging. I will say that I think there is additional complexities given that we are a female-led company that is creating medical devices, which is a highly regulated industry that involves hardware. For emerging markets when a lot of people think of Africa as one country. So a lot of this is where, where by design, a different kind of company, right, that it doesn't fit the traditional mold of what most VCs are looking for. We're not a SaaS-based startup that has exponential growth overnight. It's, it's a different trajectory. And so I think a journey is a good word for how I would describe our fundraising. Cycle. I think if, if there were a couple of words to think about in particular, relentless is one that comes to mind. It's a— medical devices are a capital-intensive industry up front. It takes a lot of time and money and resources to be able to take a medical device from ideation all the way through commercial launch, and then, and then some. And so I think with that, it's— the fundraising journey has been relatively constant in a lot of people think of medical devices as a US market or just for the US market or high-income countries more broadly. But that's why something as simple as a vital signs monitor doesn't exist in 85% of the world. I think if I were to choose another word, it would be educational. Um, and I think educational is both for the investor community but also for ourselves. Part of the reason I love the fundraising cycle some days is because we get to learn from really inspiring people that ask us really tough questions. The tough questions are actually the ones that help us grow. If you're asking me a question that is because of how I look or my gender or the mission of the company, then you're probably not the right investor, so stop wasting my time. But the really thoughtful ones, the— even the ones that say no, I really appreciate it because it helps me think, it helps me helps challenge me in ways that I think are educational and transformative for the company itself. But on the flip side, it is a lot of education for the investor community about why does it make sense for us to be creating medical devices for the African continent and emerging markets globally? What does it take to actually take a medical device from ideation through launch? And there's just so much education that we have to do before we even get into the traction and all of the other pieces. Right.

You're starting from a different place, right?

Right, exactly. Right.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And because that it's emotional. Um, so the highs are really high, the lows are really low, and you just have to brush off the lows and move on to the next day and keep on, you know, the, the mission is really what drives us, the vision of the company. And I think as long as we're rooted in that and as long as we know that we're improving quality of care for patients around the world and doing so in a way that's sustainable, the bad days will pass and the good days will will continue.

Well, founder experience comes in a lot of— it has all the ups and downs of, of anything else that we might go through, and it certainly isn't rosy every day. So we, we see a lot of that. So if you want to walk us through maybe one or two of your more, uh, treacherous stories and how— what, when, what happened? How did it feel? How did you respond? Uh, and, and then, and then, you know, what happens the next time?

Yeah, so I— a lot of this isn't aren't things that we've necessarily publicly shared. And so I'm actually really grateful for the opportunity to share it and for this podcast, because as you rightfully mentioned, there's no reason for any of us to do this alone. I often learn best from other founders that have experienced similar things or how they approach things. And so I really appreciate the opportunity to share our story, um, as painful as they may be to relive. So the first instance that immediately comes to mind is, is Actually around my maternity leave, we had closed a round, so closed legal documents signed, most of the money was wired in, everything was looking great except for one investor who had closed and signed the legal documents. They were already on our cap table, so they, you know, it's a trusted advisor, trusted mentor, friend, and they didn't deliver the funds and that they continued to give excuses for months essentially. And we continued to believe that the money was coming at some point because They were, you know, a board observer for a long time, and they were, they were trusted mentors, very trusted relationship. Yeah, right, exactly. And I think for a lot of that reason, we just continued to wonder what's going on, why isn't the money coming? And it was a pretty substantial amount of money that we were expecting to come in. And so months go by, I'm pregnant, getting more and more pregnant by the day, and I'm creating this really beautiful maternity leave plan. It was honestly really beautiful. I still look at it sometimes because the resources and the links, and you know, it was beautiful. Of course, nothing never goes as planned. Um, but now this is around January 2023. I'm 8 months pregnant at this point, and we start receiving fraudulent wire transfer confirmations. And so, you know, we of course believe the money's coming. Here's a, here's a wire transfer confirmation, and the money didn't come. I'm calling the bank, I'm calling their bank, I'm trying to figure out what's happening. And it's an international investment, and so I thought maybe it's just delayed. Essentially, the week before I delivered, I realized the money was never going to come. But by that point, we had already used a lot of the cash because we were dependent on the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we were expecting from this investment to come in and just realized that it would never come. And so I had a 3-day maternity leave, not the, not the greatest. I'm calling investors from the hospital, and honestly, it was, it was out of a point of desperation. It wasn't at a point of traction and excitement for the company. It seemed like almost everything was failing all at the same time. And the choice for me was get back to work or your company dies. So I got back to work.

Oh, it's so brutal. It's so brutal because with those relationships, you, you, you want, you have relied on it in the past. You want to continue to rely on it. And then at the last moment during a significant life event that you want to put your heart and soul into because you've been, have been and waiting for this. Now you're having to be on the phone solving a bigger problem for your company than you thought you were ever going to have to deal with. Uh, and, and you're resolving for cash because now you're gonna run outta runway and it's not a place you wanna be in at all.

No, it's not. And again, it was coming from a, a point at, at that point there was just so much time that was lost. Like if we had gotten the investment in, just think about what 6 months would do for our growth with additional capital. And so it was just a consistent, you know, holding back on growth, holding back on growth until the funds came in. And then when they didn't, then we were, we were in trouble.

Yeah. And now your timeline is off, right? Your timeline is off and you're having to reconcile. Now there's spend that's gone out the door that you're having to now reconcile. Probably, you're probably in the hole on a bunch of things and now new cash has to come in plus some, right?

Yep. Exactly. And I think that was kind of the really challenging part of it is just not only reconciling like company is in trouble, but I just delivered a baby. I'm recovering. My mental capacity is not 100% there. I'm figuring out how to feed my baby and I chose the path of nursing and that comes with its own mental games and all sorts of things associated with it. But also it took away from my family time. My partner and I had time that we were really excited to spend to get to know our new family. And that was taken away. That's time that we will never ever get back again. And it's just disappointing when you try to plan everything to the T and everything seems perfect and someone lets you down.

Yeah. And that it's a unique experience that women go through because we are also, when we want to, birthing children and having these other life experiences that a, a male founder just By way of physiology isn't dealing with, but that particular investor didn't have the consideration to come forward and say something. They just stalled and stalled. Was there ever a reconciliation with that investor?

No, I think they're actually caught up in legal lawsuits related to kind of some of the, the sketchy business that was happening around it. And so, you know, there wasn't a ton of reconciliation from that in particular. I think it was one of those things that with the investor, I've learned a lot about recognizing bad investor behavior. And it goes both ways. There's bad entrepreneurial behavior as well. So it's, it's certainly not just the investor ecosystem. And we all owe it to ourselves to take ownership when entrepreneurs are also being bad. But in this case, it was very much just an investor not having the company's best interest in mind and just taking advantage of situations. And I very much think that it's, you know, if roles were reversed, thankfully my partner was extraordinary and extraordinarily supportive in this situation, but At the end of the day, I was the one nursing on calls or pumping and trying to figure out how do I make this pump not sound so loud on this investor call. And, you know, taking calls at 3 in the morning because I was awake with my baby then anyway. And so it was just a totally different ecosystem, totally different experience that I don't wish on any other founder. And I hope that everyone can take the leave that they deserve and that they need for their bodies to recover and for them to spend with their families.

How are you managing your fundraising comms and closing out a round differently the next time because of that?

Yeah, I'm more conscious about identifying the signs early on of just what could be troublesome. I'm much more conscious about making sure that everything is teed up for the wire to happen the exact same day as when we close our round, when legal documents are signed. So, you know, if there is a delay. Delay your close. If there's a delay for whatever reason, people are traveling, there's all sorts of reasons why that might exist and they might be legitimate reasons, but make sure that everything is 100% teed up in advance and borderline kind of being annoying and pesky about sending routine emails to the investors, just making sure that everything looks great. Because if not, then, you know, things can fall through the cracks. So I think it, it's part of also bringing on the right investors to the cap table. Fortunately, every other investor that we have on our cap table has been extraordinary. Extraordinarily supportive, and many of them stepped up in this situation to help support. And so I think just surround yourself with people who really believe in you, believe in the company, and are there to support you if and when things go wrong, because nothing is ever going to be perfect all the time. So just build, build a network that you can rely on to help you navigate the really tough situations.

Yeah, no, it's great. It's great advice because you want to— you Sometimes as women, we feel like we maybe are already considered pushy, so we don't wanna be overly pushy. But in instances like this, we actually have to be very buttoned up and, and actually be a little bit pushier than we feel like we want to be and take, and take the stand in the confidence that we have to manage the round appropriately and make sure we can close the cash that we need. Because it's, otherwise we're gonna run into problematic situations, right? And we can't have that happen.

I prefer the term persistent, or maybe that's what somebody told me, persistent and persistence.

Persistence. No, exactly. And the, this is, it's a language problem, right? But it's because of what we get told by the system is getting perceived as pushy. Yes. But it is persistence and commitment and, and standing in our confidence and saying, this is what I need to get the things done that I need to run my company. So here's. Here's the process and this is the process I'm gonna stick to.

And honestly, an investor wants to invest in somebody that has that buttoned up. You don't want, you don't wanna invest in somebody that isn't meticulous about making sure all the details are correct and that we're all ready to go. And so if they do push back on it, then they might not be the right investor for you.

At Neopenda, they believe geography should never dictate the quality of healthcare you receive. They've spent years in the field working alongside nurses to build context-appropriate technology that actually lasts. By providing continuous vital signs monitoring, they're giving frontline clinicians the tools they need to stay ahead of the curve. They've proven the model, and now they're inviting you to help them scale. Partner with them to modernize global healthcare at www.wefunder.com/neopenda.

Right, 100%. So you had, you had one other story you mentioned.

Yeah. And I'm sure this one in particular has crossed many other female founders. Essentially every other female founder I've spoken to has seen some level of this. So I, I was at a networking event and of course networking events are usually in the evening and there's often a glass of wine involved. And so I was looking for a glass of wine and there was a potential investor. And so we're chatting, we're having a great conversation. He was traveling somewhere else, and I was, I was traveling. We were both traveling at the time, and so we were just chatting about the business and the investment opportunity. It was an investor that I, I hadn't really encountered, and so it was honestly a really fresh breath of air. It was nice to be meeting people that I hadn't seen before and just seeing what else is out there. And so as we're talking, we were talking about, you know, before we both travel back, let's grab coffee, let's connect and discuss more of the investment opportunity, more than you can do at a networking event when you're trying to meet 100 people. And so we exchanged numbers. Later that evening, I get back to the hotel and, or Airbnb, and I'm, I'm sitting there just catching up on notes and trying to do everything. And I get a text from the potential investor and he is like, hey, do you want to meet now? And this is like 9, 10:00 PM. I'm tired. I was done for the day. And in many cases I would go back out and go meet someone else to, you know, figure things out and then just talk about the opportunity. But He started texting things that seemed inappropriate and started to say things in the message that I was sitting there questioning, am I misreading this? Because this is an investor, it's somebody, it's a professional relationship. We met at a networking event. We're very clearly talking about investment opportunity. It's investor, investment opportunity. That's the extent of our conversation. But then it started to get weird and he started to make some comments about my— how I looked and other things that were very inappropriate. And I think at one point he verbatim just said, "You're a hottie," um, which is inappropriate. Didn't matter what I looked like, he probably would say that to anyone. And I'm just sitting there thinking, what did I do? What did I say that could have led to this? Like, what did I do wrong that might have led him on, that might have You know, gave him some level of indication that I was interested beyond the investment opportunity. And so of course I immediately shut that down, told him to not contact me again, blocked him, and you know, basically told him like it's inappropriate that he's contacting me in that way and that we were only talking about investment opportunity. And so I blocked him and I didn't hear from him after that. Fine. I'm sitting there for a couple months and it still boils my blood to think about just the interaction. Of course.

I would be fuming. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just, it's inappropriate. And at the, at the time I'm sitting there and yes, as mad as I was about it, I sat there and said, fine, I'll take it and move on the next day. You know, it's not worth my time to say anything or do anything about it.

Well, it's always a moment where you, you, you have to decide what you do with that because unfortunately it, it happens to women a lot. And I've heard versions of that story more often than I like. To count, right? So you have a decision to make in that moment on what you're going to do, right?

Exactly. And we fight challenges on a daily basis. We figure out as a team how to move mountains. And it's not just my reputation, it's the company's reputation. And so there's a lot that we also have to hold ourselves up to, this standard of, you know, there, there were many different directions that I could take in that moment. I decided do nothing. A couple months go by, I'm still fuming about this, and I was talking to some other entrepreneurs about it, and it was actually quite fascinating because it was a group of men and women, all inspiring changemakers around the world. And I was telling them this experience, and the females in the room all just rolled their eyes and they were like, that's absurd, let's move on, because, you know, it sucks and we've all faced something similar. But the men in the room were like, you have to do something. And I was sitting there thinking, it's easier to say that because, you know, have to do something that puts a lot of pressure on women. It puts a lot of pressure on us to be able to speak up and share our stories. And while one perspective is absolutely, I don't want that to happen to anyone else. The other perspective is, again, I have a reputation for the company. I don't wanna be blacklisted as that female founder that's going around saying things without, you know, whatever else.

It's growing up in abundance versus growing up in scarcity. It's, it's exactly that difference, right?

Exactly. But what I did take to heart from that was You're right, I do need to do something about this. But the way that I actually handled that was to find the female VP or female executive at the investment committee. I sent an email to this person with screenshots of the messages from our WhatsApp thread and said, I don't know what you're going to do with this, but here's the information, do what you will with it. And that way, of course, I picked the female person, which Of course, there were only a few, or maybe just one, and that's why I picked the one that I did. But she was immediately appalled and very apologetic about the situation and, you know, wanted to learn more. And I, I didn't do a ton with it because I have a company to run and there's more things that I need to be doing with that. But I do hope that there were repercussions for this individual. Um, I did indicate that it does reflect poorly on the investment firm because if these are the people that they're hiring and this is the culture that they've cultivated, that they think it's okay, then I'm not interested in their investments and nobody else should be either.

You're probably not the only one is—

No.

Also, right? And so good for you. Exactly.

That's probably definitely why I said something because I didn't want that person to go around saying the same things. And again, I have a hard time believing that it's an entire firm. Maybe it is a cultural thing across the firm, and I certainly wouldn't take any investment from the firm no matter how much they gave me, but even with that, I do also think there's always bad apples. The investor that invested in our case, the other people in the firm were amazing. It's just, it just takes one bad apple to, to ruin it for everyone. So yeah, it's, it's unfortunately a situation that I think most of us, and this hasn't been the first, there's many other instances where people say inappropriate things, especially around fundraising. And it's shocking, but still exist.

It still exists. And I, and thank you for sharing, right? That is, it's one of those tougher stories that I've heard so many versions of and women getting propositioned by VCs over and over and over again. And it's either, and everyone sits with it. You get yourself out of the situation and you sit with it cuz you don't know what to do because it's your reputation, it's the company's reputation. You still need to fundraise. And you know, everyone's talking to each other and so you don't wanna get blackballed. You don't, all kinds of things could happen, but at some point you have to, I'm like you, like I would've found a way to say something to someone inside the building and, and you're, you're hopeful that that person is receptive, uh, and is able and something happens inside the building, right? And some kind of repercussions whether you find out about that or not. And, and I'm hopeful that from that, you know, the women who are experiencing these things, cuz I, you know, I heard stories 2 weeks ago about this. And we need a way for one, the women in the system to protect each other and be able to share stories and have different ways to respond. And two, for, you know, to know that the other women inside the firms are receptive and also part of the fabric of protection, right? So that we aren't otherwise part of the problem. Which is something I worry about, but I do hope it's getting better. I do think it is.

Yeah. And I think that was a lot of— I am very proud of the way that we handled that situation in particular, because I don't have time to go and publicly shame, and there are other repercussions for that. I just don't have the ability to do that. But I do think it's important to step up and say something to someone. In this case. Call out the VC, find someone else, call out the VC that can, you know, someone else that can do something more with it. I think if there are receptive people within the organization, and if she didn't say anything in response, then maybe I would've pursued it further and figured out a different way. But she was really receptive and she was shocked by the comments and the messages that were screenshotted to her. And so I felt like she was going to do something about it, and that was enough for me to move on and keep doing what we needed to do to, to get our vital signs monitored to the babies who needed it, because that's ultimately what we need to do. Not talk about people talking about how I look. Um, that's right.

Yeah. No, that's not productive and it's not necessary to the fundraising conversation.

Right.

Yeah. Oh goodness. Goodness. Well, thank you for sharing. That's amazing. It's so helpful to everyone who listens. So I, I think that's great. Are you seeing points of light or things that are getting better and changing in the ecosystem that kind of make things feel better and are shifting kind of how the experience is, is changing for women in BC?

I definitely think that there's, there's a lot more conversations and I think that's a starting point. Um, I think that is a light that we're all talking about this. Podcasts like this exist now, not exactly like this, which is why I'm very grateful that it exists now.

Good.

I'm glad. Good. But there are more people talking about women's health issues and startup founders that, you know, female startup founders. And there, there are more conversations that are happening. The challenge that I'm having right now is a lot of it is conversation. Statistics haven't changed. Actually, some of the statistics have gone in the wrong direction. We're seeing less females funded. And so I think while there is a lot more talk, and that's a starting point for sure, We need more action. We need more people to be stepping up and actually doing something about the funding situation. And if there truly is that big of a gap between what people see between male and female founders, then give us the resources that we need to actually succeed. I don't believe that. I don't believe that there is that big of a gap, and there's plenty of evidence and research to show that female founders use our capital more efficiently and we can—

higher performance, faster exits. We have all the data. Yeah.

There's all the data that exists in the world. So I don't believe the argument that, you know, there exists something else. But even if you did believe that, then invest in resources for female founders. Invest in some kind of commitment to actually be doing something differently. But what we see too much now is people just talking about it, and talking is not enough. We need to actually see action.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, I agree with you. There's There's a lot of discussion. The pie has gotten bigger, but the percentages haven't changed. And, and we have all the data in the world, like the report after report after report comes out and proves the case over and over, but the pattern recognition isn't moving fast enough. And so we, there's a, there's a crew of us working really hard to shift that, right? It just has to go faster. So I'm, I'm with you. We're, we're pushing a very big rock uphill. And so, and so we're trying to get more people to push the rock with us. But ultimately there shouldn't be a hill. And I think that that's the part that has to change is that we, we just need the, to not have the hill. So hopefully. If you had one or two big must-knows for female founders who are coming into the ecosystem now, things to know, must-dos, what would be your two big points of advice?

I think the first is find a problem that's worth solving. Because if you don't believe in the problem that you're solving, everything is going to be an uphill battle that you don't wanna fight. And there's a lot of pieces, a lot of bias that just exist with being a female founder. And, and oftentimes I grapple with, is it because we're an atypical startup? Is it because we're doing medtech in Africa or medtech in emerging markets that fundraising is harder? Or is it because I'm a female founder? And maybe we'll never know the answer. I'm sure it's a combination of that, but the, the driving force be behind my co-founder and I behind our team is that We care very deeply about the problem that we're solving, and we care very deeply about the patients that we are improving quality of care for on a daily basis. And the, the way that medtech is now being seen across the continent, being seen as an opportunity and not a donation. And so we're very proud of kind of the, the way that we're shaping things, but it's tough. So if we didn't have that, you know, resilience and the, the problem behind us, then I don't know exactly where we'd be. Um, so that's the, the first piece of advice. And the second is surround yourself with a network. And this network is of other inspiring founders, of investors who believe in you, male and female, of friends who know nothing about the startup ecosystem, because there are many days that you'll want to go and just not talk about startup.

Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so find All of the people that you can surround yourself with, depending on the day, depending on the hour, that can support you and be the people that say, you can do this. If there's anyone in the world that can do it, it's you. Because without those people, those challenges will continue to eat away at you. So find your network, find a problem worth solving.

Yeah, no, I think that's great advice. It, it works all around cuz even as a fund manager, you have to be it's hard. The whole stack is hard, right? And so even I meet a lot of great young people in some cases, but I want to be a fund manager. I think, oh, well, you, you really have to be committed to do this and ready for what it's gonna take because you're not gonna make money for 2 years. So be ready for that. 'Cause, and so it's the same thing. You have to really be in it for the long haul. Otherwise you're, you're gonna get tired really quickly of the, The, the chaotic days that are really, really hard. So it's absolutely great advice for founders. I appreciate it. Last question is, you're building a business, there's lots of work to do. What can everyone listening do to help? What are the things you need? What can everyone rally around to help you, to help your business grow? What's your, what's your ask?

Yeah, well, I think we're at a really exciting stage of the company. Um, just to give everyone a picture of where we are today, our wearable vital signs monitor is our flagship product. It's called NeoGuard. We have sold our devices, we've received regulatory clearance, we've launched commercially across a few African countries. We've sold to over 50 hospitals, logged 50,000 hours of monitoring across thousands of patients.

Congratulations. It's huge.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we're really excited and proud of that, but we're only scratching the surface and we're now kind of in this really exciting transition to scale phase. And what we realize in this is this transition to scale phase, it's we of course need capital, but beyond the capital, we also need expertise. We need to build the infrastructure that will enable us to really scale from thousands of patients to hundreds of thousands, millions of patients globally. And that infrastructure takes many different forms. It ranges from accounting advice to supply chain and regulatory to network connections that can open up doors to hospitals in Africa. So there's many different ways that that can take. So if our story resonates with you, I'd encourage you to just get in touch with us. We are raising a community investment round, which allows anybody anywhere in the world to invest for as little as $100. So I'd encourage you to take a look at that if you're interested in supporting us with capital and potentially expertise, but feel free to reach out.

Amazing. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today, for sharing your stories and your experience. I think it's gonna be tremendous for other founders that listen to this and for the ecosystem, frankly, so that we just build more awareness on what's going on with fundraising and with the other half of the ecosystem. And thank you for being here. I really do appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you. And can't wait to hear the, the rest of the inspiring females that you've got on this.

It should be fun. Thanks for listening to The Capital Flex. If today's episode hit home, share it with the founder you love and follow me on LinkedIn for more.