Latest / Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy / What It Takes to Start—and Leave—a Successful MedTech Company

Transcript

What It Takes to Start—and Leave—a Successful MedTech Company · Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy

0:00
We are here now with Dr. Smirti Agarwal. And
0:03
I met her at just an event a while back. And so you
0:07
have been on my list to have on this podcast of someone I wanted
0:11
to have on. She has been a successful entrepreneur and
0:15
has taken a step back from the first company and is launching a new
0:19
one. But I want to just start all. And the new company
0:22
is very helpful for new entrepreneurs. But I want
0:26
to start at the beginning and have you tell us about your first
0:29
journey into entrepreneurship and what that was all about.
0:33
Yeah. So thanks, Mary. It was so exciting to
0:37
meet you at that networking event and I'm so glad we met.
0:41
So. Yeah. So I'm Smriti. I started
0:44
my journey as a grad student. So I was doing my PhD
0:49
in genetics. I was working on neurodegenerative,
0:53
rare neurodegenerative conditions that lead to blindness. So I was
0:56
understanding both the cause of it, like looking at patients and
1:00
understanding the cause of these rare diseases. And then also
1:04
I had the fortune of working on a
1:07
therapy. So I worked on gene therapy, which is a treatment
1:11
for these children. And so while I
1:14
was doing my PhD and I actually had just started
1:18
my first few weeks at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,
1:23
I was asked if I wanted to consider the MD PhD program.
1:27
So in that, I said yes, and I will
1:31
finalize and make this decision after. I have
1:34
observed surgeries, like I've seen surgeons in action and I've seen the process
1:38
and what it entails day to day. So I went and
1:41
shadowed surgeons and really got into it. So I ended up shadowing,
1:45
shadowing like hundreds of procedures. And I would go to training,
1:49
like hands on training events, and I would go into surgery for brain
1:53
surgery, you know, women's health, like
1:56
hysterectomy procedures. I would observe a lot of
2:00
oncology, like cancer procedures, pediatric
2:03
procedures. And throughout this, I
2:07
guess, process, what I understood was that the system is
2:10
flawed. Okay. And why it's flawed. It's like, well, if
2:14
your surgeon tells you that they're going to do their best, they truly mean
2:18
it. But is that really the best for you? And
2:22
that just. That's an interesting debate, I imagine.
2:25
Right. And how they learn is it's a skill. And
2:29
surgeons just like any other skill, they learn by practicing.
2:33
So when you're practice, practice, practice, practice makes perfect and then you get
2:36
really good at it. But when you're practicing, you
2:40
know, overcoming the learning curve on patients, then that leads
2:44
to compromise and quality of care that the
2:48
patients don't deserve. But there is no alternative solution to
2:51
this. Right. Because like I said, it's a skill. So
2:55
I understood that problem. I really, like, had
2:59
deep conversations with surgeons who were very vulnerable
3:02
with me on this topic. And they explained to me, you know,
3:06
what this. How this makes them feel, and, like, how this affects their day
3:10
to day emotionally, you know, psychologically,
3:14
all of that. And once I understood the problem, I started
3:17
diving deeper into the solution. So that was the start of my first
3:21
company. That's fascinating. So say the name again. Lazarus
3:25
3D. Lazarus 3D? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So tell us
3:29
what that is. Yeah. So Lazarus 3D, it's a platform. And what
3:32
we provide surgeons is the ability to rehearse
3:36
upcoming cases before they operate. So let's say, you
3:40
know, Mary had a surgery coming up and your doctor told you
3:43
it's going to be really complicated. You know, I've not
3:47
seen one like this before. What we do is we take your scans,
3:51
so MRIs or CTs, and create replica of you
3:54
of your organ with its disease and deliver it to
3:58
the physician. So your surgeon will get a organ
4:02
replica that is a copy of your specific
4:06
anatomy, and it cuts and bleeds, realistically.
4:10
So what that means is that surgeons can basically do a dry run of
4:13
your upcoming case before they do it on you. And this gives them
4:18
basically an unparalleled ability to not
4:21
just validate their plan, but modify
4:25
it and perfect it before they do it, before they have the real case.
4:29
That is fabulous. And I don't really think I
4:33
understood what that all was when you were first telling me about
4:36
it. Oh, yeah, yeah, I can imagine. That's just so. I
4:40
can see how that would be so helpful to a surgeon to have
4:44
that and so comforting to patients.
4:47
Yeah, yeah. And the patients often get to hold it too,
4:51
like the replica of their kidney or their
4:55
brain. And it just. I think it boosts confidence
4:59
and it builds just confidence
5:03
in the dialogue that you're having with the surgeon. Like, hey,
5:07
yeah, you know, we're not just going into this blind. Like, I've really
5:11
done, you know, the rehearsal, and
5:14
I am going to be really genuinely providing you
5:18
the best quality of care. That's awesome. Yeah. So as
5:22
a. Because we're now at Reno Startup Week, I see you again, and there's lots
5:26
of entrepreneurs here and there's a lot of tech here also. So much
5:29
tech. Tell it. Give us some ideas on what was really
5:33
helpful in building this. You had, obviously had a great model
5:37
and there was a need there, so that's probably fundamental, I imagine.
5:41
Yeah. So I think people start with an idea and
5:45
then they come up with a solution and then they build a solution and then
5:48
they try to sell it, right? We did not do that. Okay? We
5:52
identified the problem, okay. And we worked
5:55
alongside our customers who are physicians, surgeons,
5:59
and these are best in class surgeons to build a product
6:02
together with them with their input, with their insight, with their
6:06
feedback. And we iterated on every,
6:10
you know, advice, every piece of data point that
6:14
we were generating from their, from, from the
6:17
collaborations and together built that product, right?
6:21
And we always kept patients first.
6:25
Like that was really like the underlying,
6:29
you know, principle was patients come first.
6:33
And we're building this for the patients and we're doing it to
6:37
empower their surgeons so that they have the best tools to provide the best
6:40
care. So that's how we built it. And actually
6:44
right at that, the beginning of it, when I
6:48
never like exhibited my own company, I never built my own
6:52
company. This was my first rodeo. And
6:55
so we went to a trade show and at this medical
6:59
conference, we showed up with our table chair or
7:02
whatever and we'd set it up and it was a 10 by
7:06
10 booth. So the surgeons we were working with were telling their friends about it,
7:10
and their friends were telling their friends about it. And it was just all very
7:13
organic until a point where a medical device
7:18
marketing executive came by and said, oh,
7:22
can you make this for me? And I was like, oh, you're, you're a medical
7:25
device company, like, why would you need this? And then they told me
7:29
that if I could create a bladder for them that had
7:34
like different, like bladder, so there's polyps which
7:38
are like cancer, they can be cancerous. So can you create
7:42
a bladder cancer model for me that I want to,
7:47
you know, demo my device on? Okay. I asked them,
7:50
yeah, we could do that. And so I said that. And then I was
7:54
like, what are you using today? And he said he was using a pig bladder.
7:57
Like, literally, like they will go to the butcher shop or somewhere
8:01
and get like animal parts or
8:05
another company was using a bell pepper to do
8:09
the cystoscopy. That's the procedure. That's fascinating, right?
8:12
And so I was like, can you show me what you're doing? And they literally,
8:15
they took me to their booth. And now these are like extravagant,
8:19
you know, multi million dollar booths for these
8:23
Fortune Hundred, Fortune 500 companies. So he
8:27
showed me in this very extravagant booth,
8:31
lo and behold, the pepper. And he was doing the
8:34
demo on that pepper with all of the surgeons
8:38
that walked by. And I was like, this is a joke.
8:42
And he's like, nope, this is the best we have. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
8:46
So then I was like, this is it. And we started
8:50
like at that point, I went to every single exhibitor and I was
8:54
like, what's your product? What are you doing to do your demos?
8:58
And tell me, is that really like serving your
9:01
needs? Like, are you happy with that? And that just
9:05
opened up a entire
9:08
division of the company which was focusing
9:11
exclusively on medical education and training for
9:15
new products. When they launch new devices to the market,
9:19
they should be doing demos on things that are
9:22
more human right and representation of the human disease
9:27
than, you know, a bell pepper.
9:31
I love that. So then you started doing that. Then we started generating revenue
9:35
from that. And that revenue actually funded
9:38
all the other things that we needed to do, like all of the material science,
9:42
R and D, our patent protection
9:45
for legal, our regulatory
9:49
filings, like for the FDA, our
9:53
hiring of the first employees. All of that was funded or not all,
9:56
but a chunk of significant chunk of it was funded from
10:00
revenue with these customers. That's
10:04
fabulous. Yeah. So where is it at today? What stage is the company at?
10:08
Yeah, so fast forward 10 years. So it's been 10 years, so
10:11
that's okay. Yes. 10 years in the
10:15
making. And you know, we broke a lot of things and we learned a lot
10:19
of things in that process, but today it's already
10:22
on the market. So the patient specific models are FDA cleared.
10:26
They have billing codes for reimbursement. They are
10:30
in large health systems across the country.
10:34
And we also work with pretty much
10:38
the best medical device companies that are global companies
10:42
in providing them with demo units.
10:46
So for, for hands on demo and training purposes.
10:50
And their teams are so much happier,
10:54
I can't imagine. Because it's safer for humans
10:57
and safer for doctors to not freak out that they're
11:01
not practicing on a human for the first time, really. But something more
11:05
human, like to brilliant. They would have done training also
11:09
on cadavers. So I just wanted to share that. Okay. So, so
11:13
cadavers are like, you know, people and once they
11:16
pass away, they want to donate their bodies to science. And so medical
11:20
schools have these cadavers and you learn anatomy
11:24
on that. Right. So you learn like you know, the different organ
11:27
systems and gross anatomy. Right. But
11:31
those cadavers don't have diseases. So if you're a brain surgeon
11:35
trying to like learn how to treat a solid
11:38
tumor in somebody's brain, you will not
11:42
get that training from the cadaver because it doesn't have that
11:45
disease. So this was sort
11:49
of a big leap forward
11:53
paradigm shift in how people learn and
11:57
how people treat patients and all of that. That is amazing. I
12:01
love that so much. Thank you for going into so much explanation
12:05
because I don't think I knew all of that. Cause right now. So
12:08
you're new to moving back to Reno or moving to Reno? To Reno. To Reno.
12:12
Okay. Like me to Reno. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I
12:16
grew up on the east coast. I went to school in Houston. Then I moved
12:20
to Oregon to build this company. And we moved to
12:23
Oregon during COVID. Those were such good years,
12:27
weren't they? Yeah. Yeah. So we had a business
12:31
pivot where we were making, you know, 3D
12:34
printing PPE supplies, and then we were sourcing
12:38
supplies and became the largest supplier to the Harris County Health System
12:42
in Houston. And then when that crisis was sort of
12:46
marginally averted, we decided to
12:49
go focus on the core products. So we pivoted back to
12:54
our core technology, the patient specific models
12:57
we were submitting to the FDA at that time. So it gave us that flexibility
13:00
to actually, you know, move and
13:05
find our facility. We wanted to be in Oregon or
13:08
just west coast in general because for many reasons, but
13:12
we found, we'd found a spot. So now we have a 25,000 square foot facility
13:16
there. Okay. And it's doing well. So
13:20
I last year exited. I'm in the process of
13:23
exiting from my company. Okay. And that was
13:27
like 10 years of go, go, go, grind and hustle, bustle. Right.
13:31
Like, just no breaks. So this time I
13:35
put the brakes and I took a break. And
13:39
that was definitely the most stress,
13:43
anxiety, PTSD inducing. Oh, no.
13:47
Taking the break was the anxiety producing thing. Yes.
13:52
At first I was like, yeah, you know, I need to step away. And
13:55
I wanted to do that for many reasons.
14:00
But after I did that, I was just like, really
14:03
miserable. So I talked to mentors,
14:07
I talked to advisors, I talked to other founders
14:11
that had, you know, stepped away. And
14:15
I just asked them, like, why did you do it? You know, how did you
14:18
manage that and would you Recommend it? And 100%
14:22
of them were like, yes, we recommend this. And
14:26
their advice was to not dive into the next thing until I was
14:30
really clear on
14:34
whether I was ready for that next thing, to commit to it. And also
14:38
just to reset.
14:43
Your cortisol levels are so high because you've been in that
14:47
fight or flight. Yeah. For so long. For a decade. And so
14:52
they basically advised me that there was going to be a significant
14:56
reset and there was an identity crisis where you're like, I was the
14:59
face of the company, I was the founder and my public
15:03
identity and Persona was tied to the brand
15:07
that I built. And so everybody's
15:10
like always asking you like, how's the company doing? And you have that
15:14
hesitancy to say like, you know, actually I've taken a break.
15:17
I've have sort of stepped away momentarily from
15:21
that. And yeah, so that was
15:25
last year. And then fast forward into
15:29
it. I came to this realization that all
15:33
of the problems that I was dealing with as a first time founder
15:37
with my first company are real problems that every
15:40
founder, every entrepreneur deals with. Right. This is not
15:45
unique to me. Okay. I was not special. Right.
15:48
And so how can I help those other
15:52
founders, those other innovators that are also
15:56
perhaps stuck in meaningful ways that
16:00
helps them accelerate their journey without making
16:04
the 500 mistakes that I made. And
16:08
so this is leading you into your next thing, this thought? Yes. So this
16:11
is leading to, you know, we're still at
16:15
the very early stages of it, but it's my new
16:19
venture, it's Atlas 360. So Atlas
16:23
360, the goal is to go
16:26
in and help startups. So I most,
16:30
most of my background has been med tech and biotech and basically
16:36
provide executive leadership where they need it most. And so
16:40
it could be in operations when you don't have
16:44
processes, you don't have systems in place and you're doing everything
16:47
yourself. It's exhausting and it can lead to burnout
16:51
and you don't want it to get there. So how can we
16:56
get in there and address it before it takes the best
16:59
of you from you? And then also
17:04
when companies, you know, lots of people like build good products
17:07
or solutions but they don't know how to bring it to the market or they're
17:11
struggling and they're getting no's, or they're getting rejections and they're so like personally
17:15
affected by that. Or a fear of
17:18
success or a fear of failure or a fear of failure. Fear
17:22
of talking about it, not knowing how to
17:26
ask for help or not knowing why they should or when they should ask for
17:29
help. Yeah, exactly. And can they ask for help? Because
17:33
it's their company and you know, should. They
17:37
may not feel comfortable asking for help. Right. And so
17:41
it's difficult. And it's also difficult to find people that have the exact set of
17:44
skills that you are looking for. And let's say you
17:48
find that person but you can't afford them full time. So what do you do
17:52
then? Right, so that's where I step in and
17:55
I come in as a fractional C suite. So I can be
17:59
your fractional chief operating officer or fractional
18:03
chief commercial officer or chief strategy officer and
18:06
basically, you know, get to the
18:10
grind and help you with whatever your
18:14
biggest urgency is. Right. Like you're always fighting fires. So
18:17
having a lending hand in that can be really
18:21
helpful and especially from somebody that's been there and done
18:25
that and they know exactly what you're going through. The other
18:28
thing that I'm really good at is product
18:32
positioning. So when you have a product and
18:35
you want to create a strategy, your go to market strategy
18:39
and you want to bring in your first customers, paying customers,
18:44
it can be overwhelming and it can take a long time.
18:48
So how do we remove the stress from it
18:52
or minimize the stress rather? And how do we shrink the
18:55
timeline to commercialization and to
18:59
revenue generation, which I think is like most important in
19:02
any business. Oh, so yeah, so important. So those are. So
19:06
that's you just laid out so much. So let me ask because this is
19:10
a lot of stuff and I think it's important. I think there's, I've heard, I've
19:14
met a lot of people in Reno that are doing fractional
19:17
CEO or you know, that kind of. Can you explain to people who have no
19:21
idea what you're talking about and they want to start a business maybe what that
19:24
means and why that's beneficial. Yeah.
19:28
So a fractional CXO, it could
19:32
be CEO, it could be
19:35
COO, CCO, doesn't
19:38
matter. Is a person that has the
19:42
expertise, ideally from experience building
19:45
other companies in their past and they
19:49
bring that expertise and you know, the breadth of
19:53
what it takes to build a company. You know, you need to know like
19:57
really everything. Right. So they bring that experience
20:00
and expertise to you without you having to
20:04
hire them full time. So they are sort of like, you can
20:08
think of it as a consultant, but they're not just a consultant,
20:11
they're operators. And so they're like helping you
20:15
build a business. They're in it with you, next to you, you
20:19
know, doing things, making things happen. So there's
20:23
benefits to the company. The company doesn't have the
20:26
overhead of the benefits like that they would have provided
20:30
a full time employee. They also don't have the liability
20:34
of hiring on the full time employee. Right. And it's
20:37
also like low risk in terms of
20:41
fit. Like if this individual is not a good
20:45
fit for many reasons, cultural fit performance,
20:49
maybe like, you know, whatever they are
20:53
capable, whatever their expertise are may not be best aligned
20:57
with what your needs are or maybe you know, you just want to go in
21:00
different directions, you can go your separate
21:04
ways. Right. Much easier. Yeah. So it
21:08
really is a good start soft spot for companies where they're like,
21:11
man, I really like need a clone of me today and I
21:15
wish that clone existed so I could grow my business and
21:19
like go from my six figures to seven figures or seven figures to eight
21:22
figures. But I can't hire them full time. Maybe because
21:26
you're a beta positive but you're not profitable
21:30
or you just don't want to take on that risk of
21:34
bringing in a full time C suite. Yeah, that's very, very good.
21:38
So how would someone, would they hire you month by month? Is there a
21:41
certain time frame that you get hired for? Yeah, so I
21:45
mean that's a good question. I know you're still
21:49
developing this. Actually like I've never asked this question, so I don't know how it
21:52
works. So it's a contract and like every
21:56
other standard consulting contract, it's on specific,
22:00
whatever terms you negotiate. So it could be, you know,
22:04
like for this duration or, or it could be milestones. Like I want
22:07
you to help us achieve this X milestone. Yeah. And
22:12
you know, like help us get there. And it's not really
22:16
about time because time is actually
22:19
very, it's a vague concept in startups. Like
22:23
sometimes it's moving so fast where you don't even remember.
22:27
Like, like, oh, it's, you know, a whole week
22:30
has gone by and you still feel like, you know, where are we in this?
22:34
And sometimes it's so slow moving like you're waiting for a customer to
22:38
find close a deal and you're like, man, like it's been five minutes
22:42
and why are we not done with it yet? Right. So yeah, big
22:46
concept. But I like to be like goals
22:50
or outcomes, focus. So yeah, that makes sense. Want to structure it and I have
22:54
been structuring it that way. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So go to
22:58
market strategies. I know I had even referred a friend to you
23:02
for a go to market strategy. So what is involved in that? Yeah,
23:05
so you know your industry, you know what you're
23:09
building, you know your target customer. Right.
23:13
But you don't have a complete
23:17
like mapped out plan of how you're going to
23:20
get the product to the market. So you may
23:24
have an understanding of the need
23:27
and why the solution is serving that need. But how do
23:31
you communicate that to your target customers and how do
23:35
you actually. So essentially in
23:38
marketing we talk about buyer Persona. So
23:42
that's part of the go to market strategy is like you're building the buyer Persona,
23:46
you're building your beachhead customers, your first early
23:49
adopters who are going to be your early customers. And they're not going
23:53
to ask you questions like who else are you working with? Right.
23:57
Like, they need it and they will use
24:01
it. They will be your first customer. So how do you make that happen?
24:05
So all of those components are part of this
24:09
strategy that allows you to stay focused.
24:13
And essentially it's like a blueprint for how to get those
24:17
early paying customers to buy your products.
24:21
Yeah. And it may involve hiring too. Like, it may involve,
24:26
you know, collateral creation, content creation. It may involve
24:30
hiring a business development expert. It may involve a
24:34
partnership with a strategic business or
24:37
entity. It may involve
24:41
strategy with contracting through the government
24:44
agencies. So you have to, you know, there's like
24:48
so many different things. There's so many different things. Yeah. Involved in that initial process.
24:52
Yeah, yeah. And I've owned a business and I think I did it all wrong,
24:55
you know, but it was Covid era and I was just, you know, I was
24:58
an island unto myself. Way too much so in a very
25:01
techie ish. Well, you know. Yeah, it was
25:05
online sales and shipping, which is tech enough for me. You know,
25:08
logistics, all the logistics stuff was not necessarily my
25:12
forte. So there's a lot to it. I know there's a lot to it. And
25:15
running your own thing. And I know you're giving a talk tonight, which we're going
25:18
to be at, about using different AI
25:22
tools. Yep. So tell us what you
25:26
know on that or what you recommend. Yeah. So when I started my
25:29
journey, you know, 12 years ago, we didn't have.
25:34
Or maybe they existed, not that I was aware of at that time.
25:38
And, you know, nobody was like robustly using it and there was
25:42
little awareness of it. So fast forward to the last
25:46
few years. We've had these tools that really have been
25:50
so pivotal to making life
25:53
easier. Like for a founder or an entrepreneur, a
25:57
creator or a business owner, where,
26:01
you know, traditionally I would have hired a team. Like I would have hired
26:04
a agency to do my marketing work or an agency
26:08
to do X, Y and Z things
26:12
that I needed done. Like if I wanted to create a product
26:16
book, I would have brought somebody in to do that.
26:21
Today, there are tools that can help you get there.
26:25
So in as little as 30 seconds, I can get like a first draft
26:29
of my product deck completed.
26:33
And yes, it's going to be atrocious.
26:37
Totally not to your satisfaction or
26:41
may just be completely off too, but it still
26:45
really is helpful. And so there are Tools like that, where I have
26:48
been using those tools and leveraging them to expedite
26:52
the process. And instead of sitting there and
26:56
every image with every text box and
26:59
whatever margins, I don't have to do that. You know, there are tools
27:03
that automate that process for you. And then same thing with
27:07
like basic things like spelling, grammar,
27:10
even writing an email draft, there are tools that can help
27:14
you with that. So I don't think you can solely rely on them.
27:18
And yes, Everybody is using ChatGPT, which I think that's a good place to
27:22
start. But there are much more sophisticated tools that are like,
27:26
tailored to the specific needs
27:30
and they provide tailored output for that specific
27:35
area of your need. And I think
27:39
like. So actually there are more than 70,000
27:43
AI tools and apps on the market. Today, which is
27:46
overwhelming, right? And we know of like ChatGPT, but there's
27:50
2000 generative AI tools.
27:53
Okay. It's a lot, right? And so you can't,
27:57
I mean, you could just trial and error and like sift through them.
28:01
But my talk is focused on the ones that are
28:04
tried and true, the ones that I have worked with.
28:08
And yes, there are some
28:12
tips and tricks, tips and tricks, right. On how to use them and
28:16
how to optimize and even really like what the
28:19
intended uses versus how I use it is different in
28:23
some instances. So I'm going to be sharing that. Okay, you want to talk about
28:26
the specific one right now? We're going to do it now. Yeah, sure. So
28:30
I think a good one would be like,
28:34
customization for the ChatGPT
28:38
where you can create your own ChatGPT
28:42
and it's a prompt engineering, but it can be pretty simple,
28:46
especially if you have a sort of
28:50
a outline for how you're going to prompt it.
28:54
Then it can really help you build
28:57
a custom GPT that you can rely on for business development
29:01
or marketing, content creation, whatever.
29:05
And the other tool is Gamma AI. So Gamma AI.
29:09
I have been using it for quite some time. I really like it. It helps
29:13
create pitch decks, it helps create product decks, it helps create
29:17
marketing content, like, with ease. Yeah. And I was
29:21
just talking to you about this because you sent that to me and
29:24
Erika actually had already heard about this and heard some good things about
29:28
it. So I, for the talk that I was giving, I put it,
29:32
I used Gamma and then realized it didn't translate to
29:35
Keynote, but I didn't know that. So. Yeah, but it did help kind of
29:39
give me, made me go, oh, like this is. I think it saved
29:43
me some hours on that initial to Just kind of put my thoughts. This
29:47
is the first time I had given the talk that I gave this week.
29:51
So, you know, creating it from scratch and
29:55
making sure in your brain you're actually wanting it to be what it is. So
29:59
that was a helpful tool. So why that one though? Why do you
30:02
like that one? Why? I like Gamma. So I've used so many other tools.
30:07
So I've used Gemini, which is integrated with Google
30:10
Slides. I've used just ChatGPT. Of course it
30:14
doesn't like. It gives you ideas and it can create your
30:19
maybe outline, but it's not going to
30:22
build a deck for you. Then there is beautiful
30:26
AI. There are so many. There's Canva AI, there are so
30:30
many others. I like Gamma because
30:34
it has different, like, sort of starting
30:38
points. So you can feed it your entire outline
30:41
and you can feed it additional, like knowledge
30:45
and ask it to build a deck from that
30:49
database or content that you have
30:53
provided it. Or you can start with like a blank
30:56
slate. And it's like, hey, you know, I'm feeling really lost
31:00
and I am feeling low energy and just, you know,
31:04
too stressed right now to give it all this
31:08
intake. So I'm just going to give it like a glimpse of what
31:12
I want my presentation to be on. Okay, it
31:16
will start there. And the output, I think it's like,
31:20
you know, decent. Right. So I have
31:24
high standards, but I think that if you prompt it well
31:28
and of course what you put in is what you get out, but if you
31:31
prompt it well, it will do a decent job of your first
31:35
draft. And from there I can iterate and
31:40
modify it to my liking. Yeah, Which I think that's one of the best
31:44
things about AI is that you don't have to start with a blank slate. So
31:47
sometimes the blank slate is what's most intimidating. But if there's something in front of
31:51
you that you can go, yes, no, yes, no, edit this, yes, no, yes, no.
31:54
I think you can just get rolling a so much quicker. Exactly.
31:58
That's my talk. So it's blank to brilliant. Oh, good. All
32:02
right. I just landed on that so fast, didn't I? Went from
32:06
blank to brilliant. It's a really good name too. So I love that.
32:10
I'm looking forward to seeing it. So tonight that's going to be fun.
32:13
So question with chat. So with ChatGPT to get to that.
32:18
So it's just driven, custom to you. Is that like
32:21
buying it at the different level and then doing customizations from then
32:25
or what do you do with. That if you're a solopreneur or you're just
32:28
starting out, the plus works. So I think
32:32
that's like the $20 mark.
32:36
$20 per month, I think. Yeah. And you do have to have the,
32:39
the paid version of it because it is a custom
32:43
feature and I think it's, it's a
32:46
fantastic tool. So. And it's well worth it. So you, you're still going to be
32:50
able to do all the regular chat things,
32:54
which I use it for so many different
32:58
purposes today, like even organizing
33:02
my to do list or you can prompt it to
33:06
put reminders for you in your Google Calendar.
33:09
So there's those features, but the
33:13
custom GPT, basically
33:19
you can prompt it and you can make it be as specific as you would
33:23
like or you can be a little more generic.
33:27
So if you're being specific, you can tell it like, what's your brand? What's your
33:30
brand identity? You can put your brand book in it. Perhaps it wants
33:34
to know your mission vision. Like, you know, it wants to know your core values,
33:38
it wants to know your product like it wants to
33:41
know your pricing so that it has all this information.
33:45
And as you are brainstorming ideas with
33:49
it or running different proposals through
33:52
it, you can rely on it because it's going
33:56
to talk to you as a professional and it's going to.
34:00
Only you can limit its data source, so
34:04
you can limit it to the information that you have provided it.
34:07
So there are all these different,
34:11
I guess, components of, of the custom GPT
34:14
tool that optimizes your
34:18
productivity, like to the next level. Yeah, I love that. And especially
34:22
when you're a solo entrepreneur or you're just starting out, there's not a lot
34:25
of money and you got to pay your bills and fund your
34:29
business and so, you know, skipping steps that you'll get to later. I
34:33
know like with our podcast, even we, we are still going to use
34:37
a graphic designer to do the logo, but we just haven't done it yet.
34:40
So we did something that's kind of simple. I think it was Canva or something
34:44
like. But so we kept it simple until you're ready to do the
34:48
bigger thing. And that's kind of how you
34:51
start things sometimes. Yeah. So that's your mvp. So, you
34:55
know, minimal viable product is a perfect place to start
34:59
and, you know, leveraging the custom GPT
35:02
to make it what you need or what you want it to be. It
35:06
could be your executive assistant, it could be
35:12
your executive business director,
35:16
it could be your legal right. I mean, you don't take legal
35:20
advice from It. But a good first pass through, you.
35:23
Know, for just basic ideas before you go to someone
35:27
who really knows this stuff. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
35:31
So this is just. You're just starting this out and
35:34
do you have kind of. Is there a way for people to find you yet
35:37
or you're not quite launched it yet?
35:41
Yeah. So most of my, most
35:44
of my engagements have been organic. So it's people in my
35:48
circle that know me. You know, I have a fairly large
35:51
network so they can find me on LinkedIn.
35:55
So just Smriti Agarwal on LinkedIn
35:59
and connect there. Yeah. But yeah, I'm not
36:03
like advertising it or really
36:07
I don't have a website and I don't know if I will need it
36:12
and I don't want to have a whole pile of clients like, you know, it's
36:15
a boutique service, so. Right.
36:19
Yeah. There's a limited thing that you'll do with it. Yeah. How did you
36:23
find out about Reno Startup Week? And like, I know you're volunteering here and
36:26
helping. Yeah, so I found out about Reno Startup Week
36:32
through one of the speakers who's, you know,
36:35
I've known Christina for a little while. Yeah, I know Christina. Yes, yes,
36:39
yes. And we were just talking to her, I was asking her, I was like,
36:42
hey, can you tell me more about, you know, like the
36:46
network here for entrepreneurs, innovators?
36:50
And I just wanted to mingle and like get to know the community
36:53
and see where I can support people. You know, I'm an advisor and a
36:57
mentor to other early stage founders. And so she was telling
37:01
me that I should come to, you know, Startup
37:05
Week. And I was like, what is that? And she said, oh, she's a speaker.
37:08
And I was like, like, what's happening? Like, I was just,
37:12
what does that mean? And this was a few weeks ago. Yeah.
37:16
So after she told me about it, I was very excited
37:20
and also disappointed because I had not had a chance to like,
37:24
you know, plan it in my schedule and like, you know,
37:28
apply to be a speaker or, you know, panelists. And so
37:32
at that point I reached out to the organizers and I was
37:36
so glad that there was an opportunity to volunteer. I think that's
37:39
good. Great opportunity. It's been great for me because I've get,
37:43
I've gotten to know people, like folks from the government,
37:47
the Economic Development office here In Nevada, the
37:51
SBDC, you know, other entrepreneurs, funders.
37:54
There are VCs here. So it's been really awesome. Yeah,
37:58
it's such a good community. I'm so glad you're here. So. Okay. So personally,
38:02
what brought you to Reno? Like, why did you choose Reno? Yeah. So
38:06
you know how it is. Like, you know, you've been in the same
38:09
place for so long and like, when you want to hit that
38:13
reset button and you're in the same place, like
38:17
your environment, it's going to impact you and it's like,
38:21
who are you talking to and what you're doing in your day to day. It's
38:25
going to be the same old things. So I wanted to sort of start fresh
38:29
and hit the reset button. So I looked at options, you know,
38:33
looked at Washington, California and
38:36
Nevada. I like Nevada because of its proximity
38:40
to Lake Tahoe. Tahoe is
38:44
a good draw. I'm like, I would say a
38:48
novice skier. Like, I'm on the blues right now, so. Nice. Good for you.
38:52
Yeah. So I figured, you know, with Mount Rose being so close
38:55
by and like, it being an affordable city
38:59
and it being so close to the Bay Area,
39:03
why not? So I took a leap of faith and landed in Reno.
39:06
Yay. Well, I'm so glad you're here and I'm so glad I met you too.
39:10
So. And I'm looking forward to tonight and ways that
39:14
I know we're always looking to ways to make things go faster.
39:18
Something about a podcast, which of course, we're not really doing this to make money,
39:22
so something about a podcast needing to go be. Be really
39:25
good, but also to get lots out on socials and
39:29
interact in a way that's
39:32
time is time. At this point, it's not even money, but we
39:36
gotta make use of the time because we only have so much of it. Yeah.
39:39
I mean, I know that all the tools help. Yeah, yeah. Other
39:43
podcasters like the tools that I mentioned, you
39:46
know, you could become a partner with them. They could be a
39:50
sponsor for your podcast. Hey, well, there you go. Like, lots of
39:53
podcasts, take note. Monetize. Yeah, yeah. Like, they'll put in the
39:57
ad even if you're listening to the Spotify podcast. Like, they'll have
40:02
featured brands, right? Yeah. Hey, over
40:05
time, we'll grow as fast as we can, and we're going to do some of
40:08
that stuff. So that sounds like a good idea. So thank you so
40:11
much. Anything in closing that you want to add for this?
40:16
Yeah, I mean, it's been good. And
40:20
I think for anyone that is sitting
40:23
with the idea in the back of their mind and just
40:27
anxious or uncertain of, you know, should they do it,
40:30
should they not do it, they should take a leap of faith and should just
40:33
go for it and, you know, break things, make
40:37
mistakes, don't be afraid, ask for help, get
40:40
advice. You know, go to the people that
40:44
came before you, like the people that have done it and have had success in
40:48
their careers and learn from them. Yeah, for sure.
40:52
Everybody is more than happy to give back, and everybody is more than happy to
40:55
pass their knowledge along and just, you
40:59
know, don't be your own
41:03
bottleneck. Yeah, that's my advice. I love that. Don't be your own
41:06
bottleneck. That is excellent advice. Well, thank you so much
41:10
for coming on today and for just. I'm so glad I caught you.
41:14
And like I had said, Erika and I set up out here and we have.
41:18
We have had some scheduled this week and we have more scheduled this week, but
41:21
today we're like, let's set up on campus. And as soon as we did, it
41:25
started getting cloudy and then there was. It was noisy over there. It was
41:28
noisy inside. And then everyone's kind
41:32
of clear going to their different things. I think so. But I'm so glad
41:36
I caught you today because you were on the list. I'm like, for a while,
41:39
I'm like, I gotta get her on. So. Yay. Thank you to everyone
41:43
listening so much.