from the crossroads of America in the Hoosier State of Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories and extraordinary Innovations happening right now in the Heartland I'm Matt Hunker CEO at Powder Keg and I'll be one of your hosts for today's conversation I am joined in Studio by co-host Nate spangle head of community at powder keg over here on my left and on the show today is Ariana McGee founder and CEO of navigate maternity and so this was not just about joining a company this was about saving mothers Ariana McGee is the founder and CEO of navigate maternity which is a company using both hardware and software to create an equitable and culturally competent Journey for all mothers we are so excited to have Ariana in the show today and learn more about her story but also how she built momentum with navigate maternity including winning the Delta red tank pitch competition and the grand prize of 25 000 recently pitching at The Innovation showcase and participating in executive women of color Summit in Charlotte North Carolina I know there's so much more momentum happening right now Ariana but congrats already on all of that and thank you so much for being on get in thank you thank you thank thank you so much for having me I'm very excited to be here and share a little bit more about navigate and our story so thank you can you tell us what navigate is can you describe the product yeah so what I like to say we are a tech enabled medical device company and our Flagship product is our remote patient monitoring system so we have Hardware we have software but in a nutshell we Empower care teams with the the data necessary to remotely manage prenatal postpartum moms okay for for those that don't know prenatal postpartum tell me what that means yeah so a mama that's pregnant and after Mama's had a baby so I've actually had four kids yeah so I've been in that prenatal postpartum period quite a bit but unfortunately as a country we have a maternal Health crisis we actually are have the highest prenatal and postpartum death rate of any High resource nation in the world and Indiana is ranked actually number three in the nation for the worst maternal outcomes oh gosh so yeah so we've got a lot of work to do and and then compounded black women like myself are dying three to four times the national average so there's a lot of work to be done and it really is what drives navigate is we have a lot of issue that we've got to solve we've got to solve them now I appreciate you breaking it down for me I have not have held children my wife and I have not had children but my sister is a midwife so I hear a lot about it I understand tangentially but have not experienced it firsthand I would love to just understand more the problem and maybe even take a step back and tell us how you came up with this idea it sounds like a just really awesome connected Med device company thank you thank you so the gate really out of again my own experience of having four children I have a five-year-old a three-year-old a two-year-old and a one-year-old and you get so much sleep I can just tell you oh my goodness all of the Beautyrest but on top of that I've also worked in the healthcare space for 11 years so I've worked in a multitude of different roles at different companies I've worked in Pharma I've worked in medical device I've worked in Global Market access Consulting and actually my last role headed U.
S market access at a large Global Market access excuse me large Global medical device company so I have a deep expertise within the med device space but that coupled with having babies during covid which was really my first clue that I'm like wait we've got a major problem so during covet I was pregnant with our third I was not being touched and I was a high-risk mom and that was what first scared me and said prompted me to say wait there there's some issues here and I want to investigate this further but really the moment that I say catapulted navigate was when I almost died last year Fort Wayne giving birth to my fourth child oh my God so I encountered a very tired on-call doctor who tried to send me home now at this point I have had three C-sections I am less than two days away from my scheduled fourth C-section and this doctor does not want to hear she's tired it is two o'clock in the morning she wants me to go home and I had to plead with her I had to beg her to listen now again I've worked in healthcare my husband is an orthopedic spine surgeon my mother's been a senior vice president within medical device so I have all of these resources behind me that's pushing the hand of this doc who does finally call my doctor but in in that moment I felt vulnerable and I only can now think how would another mother that does not have those kind of resources feel fast forward my doctor once she finds out she rushes in she takes me back to the operating room they open me up and I have a huge uterine window which means that my uterus was so thin you could see my daughter's hair oh my gosh and that told me that told my doctor told my husband that had I gone home that day my would have burst and my daughter would have died and I would have died too so it's in that moment when you know the stats you understand how easily women die but it's different when you experience it and that was the moment that I said no I've got to do navigate full time yeah tell me how that device solves that challenge yeah so my team you know what we try to solve we really focus on the four key clinical gaps okay number one a Mother's touched about 14 times during the prenatal and then postpartum period these aren't just snapshots so most up until this upcoming year mothers have had one appointment after giving birth and then that's it you get that one appointment at six weeks and then you are not seen until a year later which then that drives reactive care so we only then intervene once some issue has taken place because we haven't been monitoring mom third we haven't been capturing social determinants of Health Data so that really refers to doesn't mother have access to healthy food doesn't matter have access to Safe housing all of these things affect the outcomes and then lastly implicit bias so you all just heard my own story around implicit bias so how do we replace this subjectivity with objective data and that's how navigate system helps to solve for those four key gaps we really connect the care team the patient and then obviously with our validated FDA cleared Hardware to be able to give our care teams validated data so that they can intervene with their moms before catastrophic event takes place that makes a ton of sense that's a big idea and I would imagine even having a ton of experience in Med device ton of experience in healthcare this was this your first startup I actually did help launch a global market access consulting firm alongside my mom so that was actually I'd say my first Revenue within the startup the First Med device startups yes it it was but I think from my own experience working at different companies working at bigger companies I've learned a lot of competencies right I've seen how things run at scale absolutely and I think that coupled with growing up in a family that is entrepreneurial so again my mom owning her own firm my dad owning his own Consulting excuse me Construction Company my stepdad having his own transportation company I grew up around entrepreneurs what do you think you learned growing up around entrepreneurs it's hard work number one but number two I also learned about how to be resilient how to be agile how to be a critical thinker I think those are the things that really help and set entrepreneurs who do well apart and I saw that I saw those competencies in my parents and learned a lot and I think when I when it was time when I when it was in my spirit to make a move I wasn't afraid yeah I love that I think that health health care is just a very a gated industry right it's like very scary especially for entrepreneurs to be like ah I can't break into big farm I can't break into med tech you launch navigate like what was the first step of like hey I want to launch a health Tech Hardware software company what do you do yeah so first you build a team um first you build a team because you need to understand your stakeholders right so luckily because I worked in healthcare I understood who those key stakeholders stakeholders were and right away I reached out to the people that were those stakeholders and luckily they they joined me in my vision I have an amazing team my CEO has been in healthcare space 11 years she's worked on the payer side of the business rcmo has been a practicing OB for approaching now 14 years also has her Executive MBA from IU Kelly School business she's a Phenom in her own right and so these were women that I knew joining alongside me and then my background we had the tools when I was saying the agility and the critical thinking skills and the competency to create a medical device company yeah is this so as I think through it it's not like a direct-to-consumer like Mom's sign up it's through Healthcare Systems exactly yeah so that's so yeah now this is not a consumer product no this is a medical device actually even when thinking about our Hardware so this we don't have just a we have a Bluetooth blood pressure cuff this is a Class 2 device this is not a device that you get from a Walmart or Amazon this is actually a Class 2 device indicated for use in pregnant pre-eclampting a postpartum women and so when thinking about again creating something we were thinking about the flow that is Healthcare how does it currently fit into the current flow of healthcare we're not trying to break the system because frankly startups struggle with trying to break the Healthcare System you're not going to do that what you need to know or do is do your research and understand how Healthcare Works how reimbursement Works how commercialization works and then you create a solution for the market and understanding once again who those stakeholders are it's not just the patients not just the doctor you've got payers you have health systems you have administrators you've got State Medicaid you have commercial payers there's so many different stakeholders and it is it's daunting but we weren't afraid because we frankly have done it so yeah I love that and so you've outlined this problem right this big audacious problem that you guys were solving and this team that you've built but where are you at in the process yeah so we have so we're actually pretty pretty far so we're approaching our launch so we expect to launch here Q2 of next year we have our our Hardware our software we're starting testing we have customers in our pipeline so we're right at that very exciting moment where we're finally going to put something in Market I'm sure there will be hiccups and probably a few car crashes along the way but we will figure those pieces out and but yeah so we're excited things are really about to pop as we say one you mentioned your team just amazing background obviously a huge part of making all this happen getting ready for lunch something we hear on the show so often is that the deciding factor between success and failure is the founding team yeah what was it about this business or you or how you approach these people that made these people say you know what this is the next step I want to take with my career this is I'm gonna stop what I'm doing and join navigate saying who decided to jump off a cliff with you without a parachute and how did you convince him to do that because that's the hardest part right it is convince others that jumping off the cliff is a great idea you'll build the plane on the way down right yeah literally I mean yeah it's so funny my my CEO she she found that that Meme where it's yeah this is entrepreneurship building the plane on like the way down but no so part of it was that they too were they understood the problem they are both black women one is from Gary Theo's from Gary Alicia is from Fort Wayne they have experienced the problem so Dr Harris Alicia she is a black OB in the state with one of the worst outcomes and so she is constantly feeling that she has to take care of her patients and give them the like the best care this is she's on the front lines as I say and so this was not just about joining a company this was about saving mothers and who better than a black OB and then another black woman who has worked in the payer space and has worked in the Medicaid and Medicare space a quick break from our normal programming I have Erica schweire CEO from Elevate Ventures here in the studio today Erica thanks for being here yeah thanks for having me and you're going to tell us a little bit about this rally Innovation conference that's coming up yep so it's the largest cross-sector Innovation conference in the world we're going to feature six Innovation Studios so think hard tech software Sports Tech AGN food Healthcare and entrepreneur ownership is going to be our catch-all I love that so tell me what is who's it for yeah it's for innovators entrepreneurs investors honestly anybody probably listening to this podcast it's going to be a multi-day thing that's multi-day in downtown Indianapolis yep people coming in from all over the country and maybe even all over the world to be here that's our hope yep and the dates are actually August 29th through the 31st perfect and if people want to find out more information about speakers tickets things like that where can they go yeah so they just go to rallyinnovation.
com and sign up for communications they can also get their tickets I'll love it you heard it here rallyinnovation. com we'll see you there yeah now it's just like we were saying it's literally like building a plane first asking people to jump off a cliff with you and then we're gonna build the plane on the way down so I got a parachute it it was a big ask but luckily I asked women that believed in what we were building Dr Harris has been practicing OB for approaching 14 years and she's on the front lines she sees this every day right and she as a black OB is she feels the weight of trying to help to solve this problem and as I always tell her I was like how can we make what you do scalable right how can we make it in such a way that you're not feeling and your colleagues aren't feeling burned out yeah and she was like if we can figure that out then we've we can really make a big difference and so getting her on board was frankly not as difficult as I thought it was going to be so that's good I'm glad that she joined and then Thea James same thing this is another black woman who was originally from from Gary and has worked in the pair space for quite some time and she's she sees the disparities and she was like wait you want to build something that actually would make a difference in mothers who were of color or women who are on Medicaid absolutely I want to join this I actually was able to oh I got some Thunder in the studio here I like it that's good theater right right we're gonna we're gonna roll with it yeah I like it I actually got women to join me who weren't afraid to jump off the cliff frankly if it meant that we could help solve this big of a problem it might as well be us let's take the risk and let's do it yeah can you dive in I don't have a ton of experience when it comes to health care and knowing all these different parties that are at the table that you're working with right you're talking about the doctor the OB Side but also the payer space that's a new term for me can you dive into that a little bit yeah definitely that refers to insurance companies think of it as United Healthcare yeah right your Cigna your Blue Cross Blue Shield and then when you think about Medicaid so Medicaid is our government plan right you have CMS which is like the big government entity that takes care of Medicaid and think of Aid like Mamas and babies and then care Medicare they take care of our older population yeah um Medicaid pays for almost half of all births in our country wow so when you think about having to create a product or wanting to create a product or an innovation where is going to be focused on pregnant and postpartum women you can't have that conversation without focusing on the number one payer yeah you're boom and you want to get it in these patients hands because these are the patients that are more than likely experiencing most of the issues they need it the most so for us it was very important to engage those stakeholders early on and to start the conversation Medicaid again you have state medicaids you also have what we like to call manage medicaids and these are Medicaid companies that actually contract directly with States and then you may have a payer like a Care Source right here in Indiana right so they also take care of they take care of Medicaid patients so you work with those stakeholders so that you can understand what their pain points are right because they want to help solve these problems because they want to have they want to make sure that their patients are having better outcomes they want to solve it just as much as you especially they want to solve it if they're paying for almost half of them too so that is those are the stakeholders that we really want to work with because they understand why we need to solve this and they are feeling the pain of not solving it what do you think more parents need to know about the birthing process that the current process maybe doesn't get 100 of the time yeah so the current standard of care is it it just has too many gaps frankly and and to be fair ACOG and obese and midwives have been advocating for remote patient monitoring they understand and know and they believe that it will lead to better outcomes there has been research that demonstrates when we actually monitor moms between those appointments it leads to better outcomes the goal here though is that we need to fold this end to the standard of care and so one of the ways that we plan on not only doing that but proving that our system works is we have hired Christy Mitchell of Atlas Clarity to conduct a three-site feasibility study so our goal is that we're not just going to say it we're going to prove it we're going to do the clinical research to demonstrate that we can help enhance the standard of care we will never replace it we need our doctors we need Our Midwives we need our nurses we want to make sure that they're empowered to help make this experience better for everyone including the outcomes so take us through like the customer Journey right I guess I'll say Tech term right the customer Journey but right you guys launched your everywhere moms go to their first appointment they found out this happy moment they're pregnant and they're gonna work with navigate how does that look like for a mom or soon to be mom yes yes so at the first point excuse me at the first appointment we envisioned that a doctor would then prescribe you a navigate kit so our kit is a prescribed only kit that is prescribed to you by your physician okay or either your midwife at which time then they will actually turn the kit on live in the office and then Mom will go home with her kit now while she's at home with her kit she has access to the software so this software is connected to the physician responsible for her care she also has what we like to call Patient Navigators think of them as Watchmen so that's our internal person watching these boards so if Mom's blood pressure is out of range if the weight is out of range then we're able to alert and triage to her care team to say hey there's an issue with Mom we may need to check on Mom and what this allows for mom is peace of mind I've I've been pregnant I know what it feels like to be scared to not be able to feel or be able to reach my doctor directly and then as a doctor as a as that stakeholder imagine you don't know what's happening with like your patient right there's this big gap and so we want to fill those silos connect those stakeholders so that once again we're intervening before a catastrophic event takes place I think there's that's just incredible and I think there's such a need for not you talked about it earlier reactive right everything a lot of things in healthcare seem to be reactive oh I'm hurt and now I go get treatment versus like ongoing I not that it's totally comparable but like tracking yourself on like a wearable Fitness like going through that and keeping up with like how's my heart rate looking when I go on runs and that kind of thing this just makes to me makes so much sense and I'm like oh my gosh like this why don't we do that yeah like this should be a thing and as someone who doesn't have has actually zero experience in anything to do with maternity or birthing or anything like that I'm like oh like duh yeah this should be a thing thank you thank you Nate yeah we that is the goal when launching that other stakeholders like you will be like duh this makes sense of course I'm sure that we will find more and there will be more Nuance to it but absolutely we too here believe that it this makes total sense and you're watching Mom and we have the vision we know the problem and Matt handed to it earlier in the intro of the momentum that you guys have been building let's talk about that what if there's some recent wins you guys have had thus far in the journey thank you yeah so we've had some good wins obviously but Ebbs and flows but so let's see we'll start back we actually we were in the Verizon Health Equity accelerator this past year which was a 14-week program was amazing it culminated in this big showcase out in Boston back in May Verizon yes um shout out to that that team Verizon's awesome a great partner and I learned a lot just they really wrap their arms around the cohort and it was it was just a really great experience we also placed second at Stanford by Stanford yeah we play second in Stanford bio design they had a pediatric and maternal Health Global pitch competition and so we we play second there and then we also actually Dr Harris won the IU Kelly School of Business pitch competition last year using navigate and then this past year I was named Pioneer of the Year up in Fort Wayne that's amazing Partnerships what does that mean it means the Oregon Trail you have to like get up get out west yes but it was to highlight people within the community within the northeastern region who were innovators and there were four finalists and they selected myself and navigate as the winner so so you have a lot of experience pitching did you pull in any past experiences in learning to pitch a startup thank you for that that nice softball so yes so I graduated from IU Bloomington in honors English as well as theater so I definitely have always loved the spotlight growing up and but also as I say because a lot of folks would always see the final product right you always see the show but you don't see the work that goes into the show and theater teaches you so much about discipline and about showing up and about doing the work and so I learned a lot of skills from my theater program at IU which is a top theater program yeah it is and yeah so I say all that I then moved to New York City where I did do theater professionally oh I was frankly struggling financially and so I said okay it is it is and so that's actually how I decided to make the pivot over into Healthcare okay it was when I was in New York what are some of those skills from theater that you learned there that you're applying now as a startup entrepreneur because I would imagine a lot of our listeners are in leadership positions or looking to get into leadership positions and it would probably benefit from that kind of cross-pollination of ideas of bringing some of those soft and hard skills from theater here into the boardroom or into the conference room absolutely so the number one thing is practice right so in theater you're taught your trained really to rehearse and it is repetitive and it is tedious and you have constant feedback and your coaches are giving you constant feedback and so you have to a learn how to take that feedback and then act on it right so not only am I hearing the feedback but then how do I translate it and then how do I then adjust yeah and it's the same thing in entrepreneurship or in leadership you have to be willing to listen to the people giving you feedback whether it's your team whether it's customers whoever that is you need to take the feedback listen and then act on it it also teaches you like I said earlier discipline it teaches you about consistency and showing up day in day out and when you know you may have for instance a really great show one day maybe a rehearsal the next day is not good and so now you've got to do the work and you have to have the discipline to stick with with it so there I think there are a lot of soft and hard skills that I learned in my theater program at IU that I've definitely translated into my professional career in healthcare no better feedback than Applause or lack thereof no I I remember first time I was on stage at Powder Keg like opening up an event lack of Applause I cracked a joke and no one said anything and I either just go you guys can laugh like I'm giving you permission I know it's a professional event like sheesh throw me a bone exactly are you ready to transform your brand with award-winning video content that captures your vision and connects with your audience check out Alchemy the experts at building your brand using video from story driven social media Snippets that leave a lasting impression to compelling full-length documentaries they have got the expertise to take your brand to the next level Alchemy is actually our video partner here on get in and they do amazing work all the videos across social across YouTube all that is done by Alchemy and they're an amazing partner to work with reach out to me Nate powderkeg or check out alchemefilmco.
com to get connected with Alden and his team they will take care of all of your video needs I think I want to dive in a little bit on you guys are headquartered in Fort Wayne Right but earlier we were just talking about the momentum you've been building in places like Boston with Verizon and Stanford right like on the west coast yeah that's incredible what are you seeing as one like you're based in Indiana and I you plan to continue to be based in Indiana absolutely but what are the key differentiators of growing a business in Indiana and why have you Chosen and why are you choosing to continue growing here absolutely Fort Wayne has been an excellent place to have a startup to be frank it's been amazing thus far so my husband full disclosures born and raised from Fort Wayne so he is a Fort Wayne if that is such a thing I'm a Fort Wayne Indiana C is from the four and he loves it but I understand why because literally when I made the decision to really go all in with navigate it was so easy frankly for the community just wrapped their arms it was so easy in terms of people being like you want to do this here I will help you I will put we will put our resources behind you you need to talk to that person I got it I'm sitting in an email now it wasn't it just was it Fort Wayne in Indiana is primed for Innovation we want it right we will support it we will actually put our weight behind it we won't just say okay right and so that was what I found about keeping navigate in Fort Wayne it is absolutely part of our this will be home for us because Fort Wayne and Indiana has wrapped their arms around us and they want us here and they have they are willing to put their resources behind us do you have advice for Founders that might be not finding it as easy and they're like they're based in Indiana right what can they do to start plugging into these users I agree that they're there but not everyone knows where to look for them we'll go to powdercake.
com all right I mean thank you for the softball yeah exactly I'm like there's tons of resources there get hooked into the ecosystem I think that is a huge piece of it reach out especially if you went to IU you went to Purdue you went to Notre Dame get hooked into the their Venture arm right they have so many resources I can't tell you how much I IU Ventures and that team down there and Jason's team has helped us the same thing when you look at Purdue you just gotta get hooked into the ecosystem think about techpoint right reach out to Tech point and those players there reach out to idec find out what grants are available there are a lot of resources but you also have to be proactive and intentional about tapping into those resources there's a metaphor that that we heard on um interviewed we did on our other podcast that was about how an entrepreneur is someone who's working hard and if people see you working hard and you're sharing the story and you're sharing the journey people are more likely to get out and help you so it's like the difference of someone just sticking their thumb out when their car is broken down and hoping someone stops versus pushing the car and the likelihood of someone stopping and coming out to help push the car is so much more likely than someone pulling over if you're just standing there with your thumb out not doing anything to try to move things forward and at the same time as a Pioneer there's a famous saying it you can't be a Pioneer without taking a few arrows in the back talk to me a little bit about some of the challenges and friction that you've faced uh really trying to change the faith the the face of Health Care yeah so I think that you hit the nail right on the head we're changing the face of healthcare right and literally yeah literally I think that when we like for instance when we we got out here we um raise our precede to successfully did that it was awesome we had great support we had I can't tell you how many OBS invested in navigate because they were like yes we need this when we got out here and started to then think about okay we're gonna start to tap into ins or institutional funding excuse me VC funding that was a different journey and I think that it was confusing frankly to see black women from the Midwest in medical device and it was tough It's first of all It's just tough Market to be frank but it was really tough and honestly you wouldn't you would be shocked at the things that we've heard um the things that have been said to us and honestly I think if we had a different face those things would not have been said to us so we've we have really stuck with our mission and so to your point you're gonna have some headwinds period that's where that the last piece grit comes into it you gotta have the grit to keep going yeah and we've had that thank goodness and so we don't get deterred by that we're focused on on our goal and we really focus on our customers and I think that has made a lot of difference so to to your point I don't think people really at first wanted to come and help us push push the car I think a few folks did but once we got it really rolling and they were like okay we'll come over but it took a while I think we had to push probably further than other Founders did because we're black women from the Midwest yeah Healthcare obviously Nate and I have not experienced that firsthand being straight white guys and Entrepreneurship is not easy no matter what your ethnicity or gender or anything but the fact that you have those headwinds as well of just the inherent bias it really is inspiring yeah the amount of grit that you had to have you and your team had to have to face those headwinds and keep going it's like pushing the car car but also uphill right exactly I just have to imagine as you sit in these conversations whether it's with people like Matt and I or at to a traditional VC when you think like guys would probably look like us and it's like you see it click in their head and like oh like I understand the problem like I remember as you're explaining this I'm like oh like that should be a thing and seeing the momentum there like that has to be a good feeling at times when it's like oh this person gets it now but it's like tough to have to explain this what which seems now as a rudimentary problem right like as for you said that I'm like oh my gosh like I'm a for not thinking about that ahead of time but I don't know I think that's just crazy yeah I I totally get what you're saying in that it does it feels good when you see people get it yeah because definitely you're gonna find your village I feel like we've found our village and they get it they're like yes this makes a thousand percent sense but frankly you will hear a thousand no's right and they're like I just I'm just not I'm just not seeing it in one Healthcare I just I don't know if you guys have enough background in healthcare and maybe it's just a passion project those are the things that people will will say to you you're like not these combined almost 35 years of experience and barely someone only one of us is 40.
that doesn't mean we had another founder on the show that said do they have a list and it's oh okay you're on my list you're on my you're on my phone I'll remember this I'm not gonna forget what you're just a passion project okay Buster yes but again I I tried I so I personally don't keep one because that's just space in my mind and I that does not hold space in my mind good for you heck yeah you're a better person than I am yeah no we try to focus on finding the people we try to focus on finding the people and the more knows that we get the closer we get to our yes oh that's a great reframe I love that I love that and I wish more investors understood just the enormous opportunity in a lot of these untapped markets overlooked underrepresented groups of people industries that are ripe for disruption Healthcare cough right come on and that's literally what the name powder cake came from there's this huge powder keg of untapped potential that is here in places like Fort Wayne Indiana that if we can just create a better connected ecosystem so you can find those right people which you're doing and have done and continue to do there's just so much of an impact we can make yes as a community yeah if topha was here he would say also key in to get in right that's the name of the podcast helping people understand what's going on like this amazing very Dynamic companies growing in Fort Wayne and that's happening here in Indiana that's amazing right so I'm gonna I'll give a little toe Fair time he would definitely be saying that right now but as we rap I think that it might be time for one of my favorite times of the show which is called our lightning round are you down for two minutes to go through some rapid fire questions okay okay I think so quick it's top of the Mind first thing that comes to your head you just let it rip no wrong answers no no there's no wrong answer first thing outside of the amazing entrepreneurial ecosystem what is Indiana known for basketball boom basketball are you a Pacers fan I'm sorry guys I was raised in Gary in Chicago on the Bulls fan oh there we go and end in the 90s come on I know Jordan era winning oh it was my childhood though Nostalgia I love that what is one Hidden Gem in Indiana bonus points if it's from the Northeast Vera Bradley have you guys and the Bradley Hotel in Fort Wayne it's fabulous all right Vera Bradley yes I stayed there last night yes yeah they have the store like they have the rooftop restaurant it is gorgeous and then like the factory is based there in in Fort Wayne yeah you drive by it on the highway coming from India I love that Vera Bradley yeah we I we've heard a few times that we need to get the original founder on the show she spoke at my graduation at IU there's two Founders and one of the founders she explained that actually Vera Bradley was named after her co-founder's mother I believe she's like our my name didn't sound the best and so that's why we picked her that's amazing she has a really cool founding story I love that okay we gotta make that happen yeah absolutely who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who's doing big things oh my goodness there's so many guys you gotta keep Kelly Jones yes and I scare Boomerang you got to keep all those folks on your radar they're doing some amazing things they're they're making some moves shout out to Kelly Jones past guest of the show and we've got to get Oscar Morales on the show Absolutely and we'll we'll link up uh Kelly Jones's uh show in the show notes and also I was noting the theater connection our very first interview Lindsay chepkema founder and CEO of casted mention her theater background as a driving force of a lot of her entrepreneurial energy too we're starting to see some patterns now here on the show which is really cool to see do we have a do we have a favorite role what was your favorite role oh easily Joanne in rent oh that's awesome that's amazing what a great role yeah that's very cool Final thing we want to wrap up with all right you talked about being plugged into the community listeners out there that want to get involved with what navigate is doing and you personally how can they support how can they get involved with you guys's mission definitely go to our website www.
navigatematernity. com follow us on our socials navigate maternity and then of course if you have questions or anything like that please send us an email at info navigate maternity. com uh amazing thank you Aaron this was spectacular it was awesome hearing about all the amazing things that you guys are doing with navigate and the successes you've had thus far and that are yet to come for Q2 launch let's go come on just thank you so much spectacular super inspiring story We are rooting for you and we're gonna look for all the ways we can help push the car awesome appreciate it of course thank you this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg.
com newsletter and to apply for membership to the powder cake executive Community Check out powderkick. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at casted have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast in video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at Powder Keg and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 percent off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted at casted. us slash powderkeg
