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The Real Cost of Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Science, Tech & Silicon Valley with Maheen Masouf Adamson · Serious Lady Business

• Leslie Youngblood (00:01) Welcome back to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. And today we are going to be talking about pushing through the shards of glass, the real costs of breaking that glass ceiling in science, tech and Silicon Valley. Welcome Maheen. I cannot wait to dive into this whole topic with you. You have such an incredible journey, incredible accomplishments. You are a Pakistani immigrant. Now neuroscientist to Stanford clinical professor, med tech founder, you've said that breaking glass, know, or breaking the glass ceiling hurts because of those shards fall on you. What have those shards been in your journey? Maheen Mausoof Adamson (00:47) Well, thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate this, you know, very honest conversation and from the start, just getting into it. Leslie Youngblood (00:56) Yeah, we're diving right in. Dive right in. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (00:59) I think it has to do with the fact that if you deviate from the normal or what's called the average, if you deviate from it, whether it's above the norm or below the norm, society or culture is always going to pull you back and tell you to be part of the average. And it's always been very difficult for me in the sense that I always thought that I was the odd one out and because people always wanted me to play a certain role. Leslie Youngblood (01:06) Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (01:29) I wanted to play that role, but I didn't want to just play that role. I wanted to do something more. And in wanting to do something more, it meant stepping out and doing things that men do. And what ends up happening is you get called a lot of names, you get a lot of pushback, especially, and it hurts more when it's from people that you love. Leslie Youngblood (01:31) Bye. Mm. right. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (01:54) And maturity is when you realize it's not because they are causing obstacles, it's because they love you and they don't want you to be in harm's way. Because when you choose a separate path from everyone else, it's going to be a little bit more difficult for you. And they're just watching out for you. So you have to, and I learned that when I became a mom. Leslie Youngblood (02:15) Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (02:16) So, and I think those are your own maturity levels that you realize that all that, all that, ⁓ all those obstacles, a lot of them were something that I just needed to understand at that point. Leslie Youngblood (02:29) Yeah, those shards of glass are painful, but everybody goes through them and experiences those in different ways. I think that is so powerful what you said about that reframe, where it's not that your loved ones want to, don't believe in you or don't think you're capable. It's like they're coming from a place of, they don't wanna see you hurt and they want you to be safe and they want, know, and so that really is such a unique. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (02:35) Right. Leslie Youngblood (02:56) thing to keep in mind that you don't realize. And even society, when society pushes back, it's like you think, I must be doing something horribly wrong. Am I crazy? It's like, don't you're, you're well, yes, you're crazy in the good way, but you're also showing them and doing something that they've never seen before. So what, you know, any of us with change, I think is really difficult sometimes. And so they're on, they're unfortunately necessary, those shards for us to go through. And so Maheen Mausoof Adamson (03:00) Exactly. Right. Leslie Youngblood (03:23) Yeah, it's just kind of wild when you think about that. You're just going to encounter that no matter what. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (03:27) Exactly, and I think one important thing about this and the way you said it is that it just reminds me of this thing about safety, right? Safety is in numbers. So when a woman steps out and does something alone or is the first one in the generation, it's always looked at, my God. But then when my daughter or when women that are younger than me are doing it, they're doing it in numbers and it's safe for them. And if it wasn't, I don't have to judge them on that again. I don't have to worry about them because we have a path for them to have that safety. So they don't have to go, they may have to go through other obstacles, but at least that one is done. You know, so it's like, so they pay in numbers. Leslie Youngblood (03:55) Mmm. Mm-hmm. Brains. Yes. Yes. It's it's instinctual or it's like, it's like so innate because humans like from back in the day, you don't go out on your own. That's dangerous. Like you could, you don't get eaten by a tiger. And it like comes out in these like modern wilderness ways in business for us too. So that's such a great, great point. Maheen, tell us about Suf, your FDA cleared AI guided gaze tracking communication app that runs on an Maheen Mausoof Adamson (04:25) Exactly, exactly. Sure. I think one of the biggest things that I've learned in Silicon Valley is that the best creativity is personal. And that's the basic foundation of my company, which is SOOF Solutions. I didn't even think about creating a company until, I mean, I'm pretty late in the game if you think about it. I didn't think about it until three years ago when I finished my faculty fellowship at Biodesign at Stanford. And I was kind of like pushed to create a company. like, know, in that program, one of the things you learn is how to come up with an idea that is based on the needs of the Leslie Youngblood (05:00) Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (05:15) people, like there's a need in society for it and then you commercialize it. And to me as a scientist it was practically a brand new idea. I'm like, wow, I can create a company from what I think is needed. And what was interesting is that I had thought about this problem and I had literally not been really hurt and sad about it for decades because what happened to my father. and ⁓ it had hurt me so much that I wanted to do something about it but I didn't have a path to do something about it. So when this opportunity came I created this company because it's based on helping people who can't speak, giving them a voice. Leslie Youngblood (05:53) Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (05:54) And the most interesting part about that is that when my father, was incredibly, you know, just very vocal, had stories to tell, would walk in a room and would take over a room, and when he had a stroke, he had aphasia, which meant he couldn't speak. He couldn't move his right hand. And within three days, he was diagnosed with depression. And that one scene replays in my mind that it took him like 15 minutes to ask for a glass of water, because my mother, who was married to him at that time for about a grade than 50 years couldn't understand what he was saying. And it was just terrifying. Like I was terrified. It's like I speak, I'm a huge communicator. Everyone who knows me is like, my gosh, she talks so much. Right. And that was, that was taken away from me. I would have, I would lose my identity. And so I created a way to communicate through your usual devices, your iPad and your iPhones. didn't want to create a device because it takes forever to get it approved by FDA. I wanted to create an app. I wanted to be in the hands of the person. Leslie Youngblood (06:39) You're welcome. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (06:57) who's using it immediately. You just have to download it, personalize it, and it uses eye gaze. So you can use your eyes to select your own personalized content and send it from the iPad to the caregiver's phone. So the caregiver can actually get you a glass of water immediately, and you can actually measure how good the caregiver is doing by measuring the communication. So there's a lot to it, but that's the crux of it. Leslie Youngblood (07:19) Wow. Sure. Yeah, mean, that is so important that you said, I mean, everything there is so important and profound, and I'm so sorry you went through that with your father. But you created this really monumental tool out of that situation. And I think that is a really beautiful when life does that to us, right? And puts us in these situations and we create beauty from these really, these struggles and these difficult moments. And you you went from your daughter, your mother, you know, a partner, and you went from neuroscientist and, you know, and doer in that moment to you felt helpless too, as same as like your father and your mother, right? Where it was like, my gosh, what a, you know, so how difficult must that be as capable individuals and you suddenly lose that ability Maheen Mausoof Adamson (08:07) Yeah. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (08:14) to communicate and how frustrating that must be for everybody. And so how did you even, you know, come up with that particular idea, Maheen? What did you understand about the brain? What did you realize in those moments? Maheen Mausoof Adamson (08:25) Alright, it's... So I've always been a huge nerd. I try not to like push that forward as much as I am. I literally love fashion. I love dressing up. I love makeup. I love all of that. Leslie Youngblood (08:41) Fashion nerd, makeup nerd, where y'all have our nerd things. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (08:44) Exactly, like I love that, like jewelry, you'll never see me without jewelry, like I'm all about that. But there's something about the brain that is so attractive to me from day one because it's an organ that actually changed the way you dream. No other organ can do that in the body. Your spinal cord can do that, your heart can do that, your kidney can do that. The only organ that can do that is your brain. You stimulate it and you think differently for even for a second, right? So it's almost like it gives you a little bit of a God-like complex when you're a neuroscientist, but not really because you immediately you realize you're in a huge universe and you have no idea what the hell is going on. And I'm in the neurosurgery department and I work with the most the smartest people in the world and they are amazing. And what's amazing to me is how humble they are. Leslie Youngblood (09:07) Yes! wire. live. No, no, Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (09:37) They know what they know and they know what they can do, but there's a point where they're like, okay, we've done what we can. Leslie Youngblood (09:45) Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (09:45) I've been studying neuroscience for the longest time for I'm not gonna say how long because it's too long and I I know a lot about the brain, but I don't know everything about the brain and I always tell people I don't know anything below that the Below the neck, but that's not true. It is the brain monitors your entire body So you kind of know a lot about a lot of the things that are going on like I'll give you an example the GI brain GI index right the gut to brain index that's really big Leslie Youngblood (10:00) Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (10:15) famous now and it's really important to women because of autoimmune disease, because of eating disorders, it's all connected to anxiety, depression, gut health, those are really important things. And so I've been studying eye tracking for the longest time, I've been advising companies on it and I've noticed a lot of companies use eye tracking as a way to understand what's going on in the brain because eyes are part of your brain. Leslie Youngblood (10:41) fascinating. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (10:42) And it's amazing to me because in in and it's all connected because in Urdu poetry, which is the language that I speak, or Farsi, the Persian poetry, eyes are a very important part. We talk about eyes as a sign of beauty, as a ⁓ place where you can find longing, a place of communication. It's a location for, ⁓ I don't know, like your soul, all kinds of stuff. And so Eyes are to me ⁓ a window into your brain. ⁓ And what I found really interesting is a lot of companies were looking at the back of the eye or the front of the eye, whatever, to find diagnosis. And I didn't want to really go into diagnosis. What I wanted to do was help with communication because if your mouth is not moving, your hands are not moving, what else can you do to help people understand you? Your head movements, your eyes. And so when I was at Stanford, I was also doing my Masters of Healthcare Leadership at Brown. It's their professional school. And both those things, both those universities, both those programs really helped me target what I wanted to do. You don't want to see my prototypes. They were pretty nasty. They were horrible. Like it was like child drawings, you know, like, I want to do this on an Apple Watch. It's like, are you crazy? You can't do this on an Apple Watch. Leslie Youngblood (12:06) love it. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (12:07) It was a whole process, right? It was like, okay, well, I'm going do this. And then it's like, this is crap. it's like, so it went through all these iterations and people are really nice to you. They never tell you how crappy it is. They're like, well, this is not going to work. And the funny thing is, that, Leslie Youngblood (12:21) Come of that though, keep working on it, Ken. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (12:26) as you learn because when you're a scientist you want to solve everything and you want to be your people say scientists are patient scientists are not patient scientists are the most impatient people in the world we want things to work and we will stay up all night to make it work and sometimes well what happens with companies and in businesses you realize that you have to have very direct market you have to Leslie Youngblood (12:50) and Maheen Mausoof Adamson (12:51) focus and you have to pivot and you have to be very patient and you have to be made of steel because there's a lot of people who will say very crazy things to you very insane things to you and you just have to Leslie Youngblood (12:58) Mm. I'm here. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (13:09) stand up every morning and look at yourself in mirror and say this is just another thing that I'm going to get over. It's a bump in the road and I'm bigger than this and I'm gonna go move forward. I'm not gonna let this crush me. Maybe you binge watch it, a Netflix show, maybe one, but that's it. Leslie Youngblood (13:26) Well, and what I think is also so interesting and wonderful about your story is in being a medical professional and a scientist, you are taught to stay in your lane. And then you decide I'm a scientist and a doctor and a professional, but I also want to step on stage and this new platform instead of staying in the lab. Tell us about how you decided that decision to do that. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (13:38) yeah. This ⁓ is such an important question. You just hit the nail on the head. This is my biggest issue, right? So people are like, well, why do you... You don't know anything about business so I'm like well I went to school for it. I've taken I've had a masters. I did a you know lots of sessions on it and I've learned as much vocabulary as I can but obviously I'm a scientist so I've got most of my training in that. So my goal is to hire people or collaborate with people who can help me build this business into what it needs to be to scale it. So I have wonderful advisors. I have angel investors who believe in me. I have a great sea of ⁓ I have speech language pathologists. I have a great head of marketing. I have wonderful financial advisors. So I surround myself with people and then so and people are like well are you gonna take this full-time? So this is the this is the big issue. When you're in your Silicon Valley used to have this image that you have these entrepreneurs who are like in their early 20s and they sleep on the couch and they have no bills to pay and they push themselves forward and they don't have a dating life, they don't have any girlfriends or they do have a wife and six kids at home but the wife is taking care of them and they're just moving forward with it. I don't have that luxury. It's not about age, it's about you know I run a house, I have kids, I'm a single mom, college, all of that. I need money to feed them. And I also have a passion. I don't need to have this company. I'm doing it because I want to have this company. And so when I get to a certain point, I will step down and hire a CEO to run it. Because it has it's going to get to a point, in my opinion. Leslie Youngblood (15:17) Yes. Yeah. Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (15:35) God willing, that it'll be big enough that I wouldn't be able to handle it because I'm not, you know, the grand, I'm sorry about that. I'm not that grand ⁓ CEO person, you know, sorry. I'm not that grand CEO person, trained CEO ⁓ that needed to be in that realm of understanding how a company is run. So. for me it'll be easier for me to be like a president or a chief scientific officer and have a CEO come in. I'm okay with that. There's a lot of professors who do this. They build companies, they take it to a certain level and then they step down. But how I am doing it right now, my answer to that question is... Can you just give me one second? I am on a meeting. I'll call you back. I'm on a meeting. Leslie Youngblood (16:25) Sure, no problem. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (16:33) That was my mom. I'm so sorry. she calls me morning and night. this and she's 83. So ⁓ I told her I was in a meeting, but she kept calling. So I know. ⁓ Sorry, you'll have to cut that out. ⁓ So ⁓ what I was saying was that the answer to that question, I think that's a I like linking things together. Leslie Youngblood (16:35) no, that's okay, you gotta answer for mom. ⁓ that's sweet. Right, you have to be careful. Yes, of course. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (17:02) Women have been playing multiple roles from the beginning of time. And the reason all these things are now in the media about menopause, about vaginal discomfort, about ⁓ pelvic floor pain, about brain fog, the reason all these things are in the media is because more of us, our bigger numbers, are doing work that men did. Leslie Youngblood (17:27) Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (17:28) We are in the limelight. We need to be our best self when we make executive decisions. And we can't be our best self when we have a UTI. We can't be our best selves when we cannot perform well in bed because we have pelvic floor pain. I'm sure you've heard about Halle Berry making a big deal out of like, I love her. I think it's so important what she's doing. It's because Leslie Youngblood (17:38) right. Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (17:53) we have, or we're taking all these men's jobs just before what you were saying right before we started this recording. So we're in the limelight, we're doing all this and we used to do multitasking before. Now we're doing multitasking that includes making executive decisions that may change the future of the world. Right? So all these things that happening to our bodies actually matter for the economy because how sick days is going to affect the economy. Leslie Youngblood (18:12) Yeah. Yeah. I'm in. Right, sure. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (18:23) Exactly. now it is so to me it's like we were we have always done multitasking so to tell me that I can run a company and have a job and run a house and have kids come on. Leslie Youngblood (18:35) Yeah, right. I mean, it makes perfect sense. And I love that so much because I think there are women out there and women who are listening that may have an idea for something, but think I'm not a tech person or I'm not this or that, but it's like, you can have the idea, then build that team around you that has the chops that need to help you see that through. Like, yeah, nobody builds the Artemis. to go to the moon alone, it takes a team of people to build these incredible things and these incredible businesses. so it's like, man, and like you said, women have been multitasking for centuries since the dawn of time. And I think who is better to run a company with all sorts of different things going on than women? Hello, like, it just makes perfect sense. And so obviously we need to be taking over. And I love to see the paramenopause and menopause and... Maheen Mausoof Adamson (19:05) Absolutely! Exactly. Leslie Youngblood (19:30) all the health conversations being so much more prevalent now because we, there are more of us out there that are taking action for our health and talking about these things that were never talked about before. And so I just think that is so fantastic. And you said something there too that I also want to come back to, especially for women founders and Silicon Valley. We talk about like, yeah, wouldn't that, you you have, like you said, you have this Maheen Mausoof Adamson (19:39) Thank Leslie Youngblood (19:57) this ⁓ identity of this or this like image in our mind of this male founder in Silicon Valley, a founder in Silicon Valley, being a male, being young in a hoodie, couch surfing, grinding, like doing all the things. And it's like, well, but in getting all this investment or, you know, whatever for women founders in Silicon Valley, very different, whether you're a mother, single, middle aged, young, tell us about those unspoken rules, women founders. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (20:16) huh. Thank Leslie Youngblood (20:27) experience in Silicon Valley based on your perspective, Maheen. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (20:31) Yeah, it's been challenging and I'm okay. This is a very honest forum, so I'm just going to be very honest about it. It's been very challenging. think what, overall, I think what Silicon Valley likes to do is to make rich richer and not poor rich, right? And that seems to be a going thing everywhere. they will not Leslie Youngblood (20:39) Yes. Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (20:59) The VCs obviously would not look at you unless you have revenue, unless you have that. But it's also frowned upon if you are not fully vetted in your company. And it's difficult for you to do something when you already have a job. Like I have a very, I'm very blessed to work. in an environment where I make a difference. I actually, what I do makes a difference. can't just, I'm very thankful for it because it's something that has given me the training to make the company that I have made. I cannot disband from it because it's ridiculous. It's the foundation of what my company stands on. And that's the dilemma of being ⁓ a professor and creating a company is because it's so tied together. Leslie Youngblood (21:29) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (21:56) And I think that makes it difficult. there's this, the younger women who are coming up, who are doing the entrepreneurship. And I think they are, they are amazing. And I mentor quite a few of them. ⁓ And there's the middle-aged, older, which we are doing, and some of them are doing amazing. They, a lot of them are, it takes them longer to get funding. for sure. There's a lot of warm leads that end in nothing. And that's happened with me. There's a lot of bullying. There's a lot of do this or you will not get this. Leslie Youngblood (22:32) Hmm. Hmm. Mmm. Hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (22:44) a lot of sidestepping, lot of ⁓ asking for more. So giving very little money for a lot more equity, that is something you have to really watch out for. And I'm not talking from an institution or a company, I'm talking from individuals. I'm talking from investors, angels, and they will... Leslie Youngblood (22:53) Yeah. Mm. Right, no doubt. Right. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (23:10) to you and say, like, because you're young, you are in your field, not young and, you know, young in your in your company and you're willing to take on, you want that money. So you want to. But because they know they know that you're not maybe savvy. And then it almost happened with me, but it didn't. ⁓ And you take take away so much of your company. And there's a lot of bullying as well. Like you want to watch out for that. So. I don't know how to, but the way my mother teaches me, my mother is very good at this. I love bringing people that you grow up with. At the end of the day, those are your examples. My mother has this technique. She says, just ignore. Just ignore. Leslie Youngblood (23:50) Sure. Yeah, just ignore... Easier said than done, Mom! Maheen Mausoof Adamson (23:59) And I was like, okay, I can't just ignore it. She's like, no, just ignore it. Just don't even answer. Just go by. And then my dad used to have this habit where if someone was mean to him, he would actually go up to them and say hi. He would shake their hand. Like they're full on mean to him, but they would go up and start a conversation and be friendly with them. And I think, again, ⁓ I think those are... Leslie Youngblood (24:21) kind of amazing. Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (24:27) the most important things that how to develop those relationships. Like for me, you just cannot, in this environment, you cannot afford any enemies. You have to make friends and you have to be diplomatic. And I am from Pakistan, so we are the kings of diplomacy at the moment. So you no idea how, but. Leslie Youngblood (24:47) Yeah, yeah We need those we need those Maheen Mausoof Adamson (24:52) We need those. But it's important. Like there is right and wrong. And there is that moment where I just say, okay, I'm done. I need to ignore this. But there's a lot of like, I hate saying this and my daughter would not like this. You have to deal with a lot of shit and you have to eat it and you have to just keep moving. yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Leslie Youngblood (25:09) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, I think, yeah, go ahead. Well, you you noted that there will come a time where there will be people trying to take advantage of you, whether you are an experienced founder or new, old, young, wanting equity in your business for not a lot of money. And that is such a big part of the game, that financial part of the game, because everybody that has a special... specifically in tech or whether you're creating a product and you're working on a prototype and a physical product prototype is you need the money to make it happen and You are so desperate or you feel like I don't have money and I'm applying to grants and I and I'm working this job and I'm feeding my kids and I that you know or whatever and it can feel just like okay somebody anybody I'll take anybody's money and sure you 15 % of my business or whatever and it's like that is the worst time to make a deal because you are Maheen Mausoof Adamson (25:48) Exactly. Exactly. Leslie Youngblood (26:08) needing it so bad and they can smell that, right? And so they feel like, yeah, sure. And then, you know, so it's just so difficult. And so to remind ourselves, don't give that power away. And there is so much power in saying bootstrapped. It's not easy or to understand and fully make a deal that you feel through every single fiber of your being is a good deal and that you're confident in. And I think that, you know, women get less than 3 % of all VC funding anyways. And so when an opportunity comes, Maheen Mausoof Adamson (26:14) Yep. Leslie Youngblood (26:38) and you are have a potential that's offering you money for equity, you may feel like I did it. Yes. my God. And I'm awesome in this. But just because it's something potential, make sure you're vetting every single tiny minutia of detail in that opportunity because you don't want to put yourself in a position later that you regret just because you wanted to get that funding. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (27:00) I there's also another thing that I'm going to say and I don't, you know, everything I'm saying is my personal experience and I want women to either identify with it or then say, this didn't happen to me and that's fine. Two things. One is I've heard this and I'm sure you will, you've heard this before. You shouldn't have any trouble raising money and look at you. Leslie Youngblood (27:22) Sure, right? Yeah. Sure. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (27:25) Right? So that's that kind of conversation that creepiness still exists. Leslie Youngblood (27:29) Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (27:32) matter all this all this me too movement all this stuff that's happened all the the that still exists and it's really really nasty so that's that's other thing that is something that I think it's more has to do with me than anything else is that I trust people too easily Leslie Youngblood (27:41) Mm-hmm. Hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (27:54) So sometimes you collaborate with people and you bring them on board, but they end up not doing their job at all. And you have to literally chase them to do something. And then you have to literally... The turnover in a startup is high because of that. Because we are not, we are, we are, I mean, I manage a lot of people at work and I'm, but I have really good support because I have a, work for very big institutions. But now with my own HR like capabilities, maybe I'm not good enough at judging. And one of, one of the things that you brought up Artemis and all that is that one of the things that women are very good at, I think, and I'm getting good at it, may not be as good at Leslie Youngblood (28:10) Sure. Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (28:37) it is to understand people's capabilities and assign them the jobs that they will be good at based on their capabilities and then trust them to do that job. ⁓ And that's how you make a team. I'm good at doing something, I'm not good at doing everything, so I get people to help me and that's how teams are made. Leslie Youngblood (28:46) Mm. Mm-hmm. sure. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (29:00) Sometimes I've been, ⁓ how did they say, they've put wool over my eyes. And it's very easy to do that. Some team members are very good at detecting some, like I'll send a resume and my CO will be like, well, this is AI. Leslie Youngblood (29:06) Sure. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (29:19) So I have good people now or like I have, you know, other people like I, they'll send me music and I'm like, this is really good. they're like, ⁓ excuse me, this was AI. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (29:31) Well, it's good. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (29:34) I mean, I should, you know. So that's another thing that I have to be really careful about is to be very, very mindful about who you trust to do the job. Because you can't do everything yourself and then you end up doing everything yourself. Leslie Youngblood (29:51) Right, that's not a plan for long-term success and happiness when you are doing everything yourself. And it is though equally difficult to find people you can trust that are going to pull through and deliver, especially in that high pressure startup game, especially in Silicon Valley. So I just can't imagine, it's just a. a stew of insanity and like how do you navigate and it's not easy. But I would imagine that you would say you just do what you need to do to get through every day to make that tiny bit of progress no matter how little or how far you feel like that progress. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (30:21) Peace. Yeah, and we are, you know, I made a big decision this year and it was a very big decision. I ended up making the decision of going for crowdfunding. Leslie Youngblood (30:43) Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (30:44) And a lot of people look down upon that. And I'm not doing it forever. I'm only doing it for a few months so we can get to a certain point where we can launch. ⁓ I'm doing it through ⁓ Start Engine, which is ⁓ a company that does it specifically for startups. I've had a lot of... And that's one thing I wanted to say on this podcast is that I do have a Start Engine link and I do have, you you can go there and you can actually... Leslie Youngblood (30:54) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (31:15) own a bit of soot solutions by putting in as low as $500. But it's important for me for people to understand that my company is not something like a medical device or something, a diagnosis that needs to be in this. My company is incredibly commercial. It has to be in the hands of the patients. It has to be in the hands of caregivers and providers, hospitals, and patients. I want to run it like that, which means I have to be very savvy about the marketing, have to be savvy about who I trust, who's going to be involved in it, because it's going to be a very public commercial company. It's not something that I want users to be actual people that give me the data back. Leslie Youngblood (31:43) Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, it's an important time for an app and a platform like Souf. You know, we have what an aging boomer population, have millennials that are becoming this, you know, I think it's called the sandwich generation. You're raising kids while you're caring for aging parents. Tell us more about how that dual responsibility shapes your company. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (32:28) So I'm actually giving a talk in a week's time. I need to make my slides. See, multitasking. ⁓ And it's really interesting because over 65 % of the world's caregivers are women. See how that's linked to multitasking, right? You mentioned your three children. How many? Leslie Youngblood (32:33) Yeah, right. Multitasking, always. Mmm. ⁓ huh. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (32:54) Okay, I think millennial men are different. Millennial men will do a podcast and talk about their children. They will talk about them. I think they will. I think they're a little bit more vogue than the previous generation. Leslie Youngblood (33:06) Yeah, I do agree, right? We've made some progress with the millennial now. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (33:10) But I think there still needs to be work done. think my son would definitely, he's 21 and I think he 22. I think he will also talk more about it. I just think that it is becoming more and more common to bring family and day work into it. So, yeah. Leslie Youngblood (33:34) Hmm, yeah, definitely. Well, what I also think is so crazy about that fact, you said over 80 % of caregivers are women and globally, 81 % of caregivers of older people are women. 60 % is just in the United States. So why aren't more healthcare innovations built from that lived experience, Maheen? Maheen Mausoof Adamson (33:54) They're trying, but I think it's just very rare right now. Like next week I'm giving, like I was mentioning actually, giving a presentation in which I'm focusing Soof Solutions entirely on women. Because not only are women caregivers, women are also higher risk of stroke, higher risk of depression, higher risk of... ⁓ anxiety and it is at higher risk of dementia. So these apps should be tailored so that not just should be tailored from the perspective of how easy it is for the caregiver to communicate with their loved ones and how easy it is for them to navigate based on how women navigate, you know, and Leslie Youngblood (34:22) Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (34:41) their phones or their iPad. So I think there's a way for us to understand that not just caregivers and women who are millennials and are moving down the track of helping their parents and their children at the same time, but also they themselves are getting older. And ⁓ there's a lot of stroke that's happening a lot younger than it did before. Leslie Youngblood (35:01) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (35:11) the age is decreasing. ⁓ there's, there's, so for me, I think, Souf has so many applications, like when I launched this, actually have like five LinkedIn messages right now from like three different doctors and nurses to three doctors and two nurses, and they're all from different fields, anesthesiologist, rehab, developmental, like in children. because it has so many applications, right? And the idea is to just help everyone speak. Because to me, language is a human right. Everyone should have their last words. My father did not have his last words. He couldn't speak. He couldn't speak. He was just looking dead at everyone's face. He could not speak. Leslie Youngblood (35:50) Mm-hmm. So sorry. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (36:03) You know, and I grew up watching Bollywood movies where, know, you're holding the person who's been shot like 10 times and they're dying and they're giving you this entire speech and then they die. I wanted that speech and it was not there. I don't understand how important speech is to me. Like, I don't know if you've seen those, those reels in which, you know, how people die in different cultures on movies. Leslie Youngblood (36:11) ⁓ He wanted to give you that speech, but he was with his eyes, I'm sure. Yum. No. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (36:26) It's hilarious how Korean drama and Pakistani drama and Bollywood movies takes you 10 minutes to die because you're just talking and telling a story. So I think it's just a very... To me, humans are humans because of two things. One, because of bipedalism, we walk on two legs, right? And the second thing is that we're able to communicate with words. Leslie Youngblood (36:53) Yeah. Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (36:54) We don't need to, you don't need to watch our hands move. You don't need to see our mouth move. You can hear us and the words make us make sense and they communicate. And it's to us, that's the basis of our civilization and you have to be able to speak. So that's the core of my company. Leslie Youngblood (37:10) Yum. Yeah, well, and I think that you, to be able to communicate and that's how you connect with others, right? And that's what I think makes it so innate, special, important, all the things, because if you can't express yourself or you feel stunted or frustrated in expressing yourself, whether you've gone through a traumatic medical injury and you're, you know, and you can't speak or whether you're... young and you're trying to learn to speak, know, because kids get frustrated too when they can't find the words. And then when you don't as a mom, we've all been there where it's like you think they're saying popsicle and they're saying Portugal or whatever the heck. And then they're like, they get so mad. You're like, I'm sorry, I'm really trying to understand you. And so you just know that such a human thing. And so to be able to give the gift of communication to kids, you know, they're going through medical ⁓ illnesses and for caregivers to be able to give them and help them to give a better quality of life as somebody ages in, know, again, like just the importance of that and the impact of that is just monumental. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (38:20) It is, and I will give you so many examples of this. Have you seen the show The Pit? Leslie Youngblood (38:27) No, my mom and my sister watch and both love the pit. I've not seen any episodes. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (38:31) So I just started, my son told me to watch it. I just started watching it. And that's not a good show for me to watch because it just came out of the hospital. I also worked at a hospital, I, so it's really interesting to me. But ⁓ in the first episode they had ⁓ women. Leslie Youngblood (38:38) Yeah, sure, right? And you're like, I don't want to go back there right now. Good. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (38:49) who's speaking a different language and they couldn't understand where she was from. And everybody was trying to figure it out and the person who figured it out showed her a map of the world and she pointed out where she was from. It was visual and she could, because she was speaking a different language and they didn't know where she was from. So she pointed at it with her fingers. Now with soup solutions, you can use your eyes but you can also use your hands. But it's all visual because when my father had a stroke, Leslie Youngblood (39:02) Hmm. Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (39:17) The woman, the nurse told me, I don't know if he had a stroke or English is a, he cannot understand English. My father ⁓ grew up in British colonial India. I mean, the guy knew English better than most people that I know in the US. And at that point, language was an obstacle for him. So we needed something that was not. that was agnostic. So we created pictures, and they're all your own pictures. So if there's a you have a picture of your daughter you insert it into our app and you can click on it. We don't have a library of pictures. You make your own pictures. You insert them. So he could click on he could either touch it or he could look at it and select it and if he's confident that he can read those pictures turn into words. But in that show it was really important for them to understand where she was Leslie Youngblood (39:44) Thanks. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (40:12) from because nobody could understand her language and she was from Nepal. So you can ask her mom and sister but they the woman who figured it out put a map on an iPad in front of her and she goes like this and that's where I'm from. Leslie Youngblood (40:23) Wow. And you're like, that's all, that's basically soof. It's soof. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (40:26) That's so bad, that's it. And that's like, you don't need to figure shit out. You just put it in front of them and they'll point at it or they'll look at it. So because you can't not everyone can speak and if you're in different language, that's another thing you can just do that. Leslie Youngblood (40:35) Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, so, so incredible, truly. Now, Maheen, you came to the US, you talked about your dad growing up in British rule, Pakistan. You came to the United States at 19 from Pakistan, something that women aren't quote, quote, allowed to do without being married. How does that background shape and continue to shape your journey today? Maheen Mausoof Adamson (40:54) Thanks. I'm and No, I am told still by my mother that, you know, that was a bad decision. She's kidding. She's very proud of me, incredibly proud of me. She says, ⁓ you went and you created this path for yourself. You're so different from everyone else. You should just be a housewife and have tea parties at home. But ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (41:12) that. She won't let it go all these years later, right? Like a mother. Of course, of course. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (41:32) It's very interesting. From day one, think my dad was a very different character from most of the people that I met in Pakistan. He pushed me. I was his only daughter. I three brothers. And he really pushed me to be very knowledgeable about a lot of things. He pushed all religions. He said, read about all religions. We had a lot of information. I've traveled a lot with him. I've been to at least 10 countries before I was 18 ⁓ outside of Pakistan, which is quite a lot, Europe and everywhere. it was, he basically was always telling me I could be bigger than, than I am. And he said, you could be prime minister of Pakistan if you wanted to. He always put me really high. And so when I saw that my brothers were going to the US to study, I said, I want to go to the US to study. And in those days, in my family, just in my family, and I have a huge family, extended family, it probably equals about 500 people, I have no idea, just huge. And in those days, women did not go to the US without being married. So I wanted to go to study. Because I was like, I don't want to go to medical school. I don't want to go to law school. I don't want to go to engineering. I want to learn about anthropology. I want to know what world history is. And I mean, if you expose me to all this, I'm going to want to know, right? So I fought with my father and my mother for about a year. And they said, OK, you can go to a community college, hang out with your oldest brother. He was married at that time. And then you'll get it out of your system, and you can come back. Well, I guess I didn't get it out of my system. Leslie Youngblood (43:06) Mm-hmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (43:23) But you know it took a lot but it's really interesting. They are the kind of parents who yell and scream but they always have been incredibly supportive and they are very proud of me in the sense that they would be proud of me to other people and then I hear about it. But to me that my mother would be like what is this why are you doing this and then in the background she'd be like did you hear my daughter did this. Leslie Youngblood (43:24) Whoops. Aww. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (43:52) So it's very sweet. But ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (43:52) That's sweet. Yeah. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (43:55) it takes a while to understand that because it was really difficult to be here all alone at 19 and to carve the path because I was in a community college. did not know that I, but I was obviously, my grades were really good. So I transferred to UC Irvine. And I did not go back to Pakistan. I married my ex who is white. That's why my last name is Adamson. And I had a very fruitful marriage for a very long time and dissolved after a long time. Two beautiful kids. And just had a very, you know... I don't know, almost like a typical white picket fence life. know, the Costco going, soccer mom thing, all of that I've done, the vacations and the hiking and all of that stuff. Now life is very different, but ⁓ it's been challenging for, ⁓ as an immigrant, to conquer all those things. For me, was always going on merit? Leslie Youngblood (45:12) you Maheen Mausoof Adamson (45:12) For me it was like if I keep studying, if I keep getting the degrees that I need to get higher and higher, people will see the value of me and not my color, not my skin, not how I look, not how I speak, but they'll push me forward because of what I know and what I am on paper. And I'm going to be honest with you, that's really has been like that for me, both at Stanford and both at the US government. ⁓ There have been challenges, I'm not going to say there have not been challenges, especially since the government has changed, but I have some really incredible support ⁓ at both institutions. I have some really good mentors, have some women mentors as well as men mentors and great supporters who just look at my work. don't, to them I am just, you know, someone who is good at what she does. Leslie Youngblood (45:46) I'm moving. wonderful. and a wonderful, brilliant person, which I love that too, and that should also be said. Now, Maheen, if there's a 19-year-old girl in Pakistan right now or San Francisco or Detroit or anywhere listening and feels different, what would you tell her? Maheen Mausoof Adamson (46:24) Okay, I would tell her to... It's gonna sound so like as if I'm talking to like at some beauty competition or something. Miss Pakistan, yes. ⁓ Miss Pakistan. I would say... ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (46:35) Give us your best one, Miss Pakistan. ⁓ Maheen Mausoof Adamson (46:45) it's okay to doubt yourself. Don't be hard on yourself because you're doubting yourself. Because when you doubt yourself, people are always like, why are you doubting yourself? You're so amazing. Why are you doubting? It's OK. They're not going to understand why you're doubting yourself. I am as old as I am. I still have imposter syndrome. I still have it. Because I mean, I'm surrounded by incredibly brilliant people. Leslie Youngblood (46:51) Mmm. you Maheen Mausoof Adamson (47:11) I mean, I like hanging out with people from who are MacArthur award winners and Nobel Prize winners. I mean, seriously, this is like serious competition, right? Next level, right? So there's always going to be someone higher than you. You always have to be humble and you should always. Leslie Youngblood (47:17) Next level, next level. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (47:27) Always allow the capacity of doubting yourself because it helps you learn. It helps you ask the question. It helps you say, okay, I don't know this. I'm going to ask for help. I'm going to ask for more knowledge because I don't know everything. Being humble and being ⁓ having that humility comes from learning a lot. Leslie Youngblood (47:32) Mmm. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (47:51) It doesn't come from not knowing. It comes from learning a lot because when you learn a lot you're like, man, I don't know anything. That's the key to it. So it's okay to doubt yourself. Leslie Youngblood (48:02) I love that. I think that's a wonderful, beautiful advice to end on here as we wrap up Maheen. And I would love for you to share where our listeners can follow up with you outside of the podcast today. Please share the links. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (48:12) Yes, I will share them with you on email and you can post it. I have a link for my website which has all of the updates. I also have my social media links and my start engine link where people can actually donate money and choose to be part of my company and follow the progress that we are doing which I'm very excited about. So thank you so much and you've been lovely, lovely. Leslie Youngblood (48:34) We are too. We are too. thank you so much. You've been lovely. You're incredible. We are so honored to have you join us today and we will put all of those links in the show notes for everybody listening. Maheen, it was such a pleasure. We're so excited to see everything that you are doing with that you will continue to do for science and Souf and everything. Thank you so much for joining us on Serious Lady Business. Maheen Mausoof Adamson (48:55) Thank you. I hope this was as serious as I can be. Thank you so much, Leslie. Bye. Leslie Youngblood (48:57) It was very serious. loved it. Loved it. Thanks so much. Bye.