345. Breaking Bias and Revolutionizing FemTech with Lisa Marceau, Co-Founder of Joyuus

Susan Sly 00:00
Well, hey everyone, Susan here and I'm super excited for you to meet Lisa Marceau. She is a second time founder, her newest venture is called Joyuus. She is focused on helping women with their postpartum health. And she is tackling some of the most challenging areas. What you might not realize is that even in the United States, women still die in childbirth, the rates for depression are significant. And it's just something that you know, as women, and for those of you who are not women, but you love women have women in your life, that, you know, we just in the United States, like have a baby go back to work. There is no real period of taking that time to heal, to bond and to just be my gosh. And so Lisa is going to talk about her journey to founding this company, especially during one of the most challenging stressful times in her life, where she goes through a sudden divorce, and is laid off from a job and she starts a company and it's incredible. And for those of you who've ever thought about starting a company, and you're like I've got too much like happening right now, I think this is the episode for you. And Lisa is absolutely incredible. So before we get into the episode, I just want to share a little bit about a couple of things that are going on. One, that in the previous episode, if you didn't hear it, I was talking about AI was talking about the Elon Musk and open AI lawsuit, I started a new series within a series where I'm talking about my own journey, in terms of founding ThePause.Ai. What is going on with us. And so it's almost like a bit of a founder diary that's happening at the end of each show. So definitely check that out. And it will be at the end of this show too. And then if you are looking to take your LinkedIn to the next level, oh my gosh, Agency 8 is doing some incredible things. I just saw this morning, a preview of what they did for one of my MIT classmates. They did a new banner, his profile photo looks amazing new descriptor. I mean, it's ridiculously good. If you want to see an example of their work, go to my LinkedIn profile @susansly, my personal one. And you can check it out. So we have a very simple easy package for you just go to agency8.com, and just get them to do your LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the bomb. It is amazing. So go check it out. And again, full disclosure. I am the founder of that business, but I no longer run it, which is fabulous. And so my daughter Avery oversees it. You've heard some of her social media shows, along with Diana Frerick, so go check it out @agency8.com. So with that, we are going to get into the show with the amazing founder of Joyuus and a dear friend, the incredible Lisa Marceau.

Susan Sly 02:57
This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, the show that brings the no nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly.

Susan Sly 03:09
Well, Lisa, first and foremost, it is so great to have you here. And I'm super excited because we are also going to get to hang out in person and have maybe some cocktails, coffee, it's all going to be good, in Orlando. And and Lisa, one of the things you and I have been speaking about a lot is this whole concept of the environment for female founders and, and fundraising. And I want to just jump in right there and start with some statistics. So we know that less than two and a half percent of female lead pitches to VCs get funded. We know that we're also in a climate where it's still approximately 20% of all US based companies have at least one female founder that's not tech. That's just all companies combined. And so I want to jump right in with the first question. You know, as a woman, have you experienced? I would say, you know, you and I talk about data bias, but have you experienced, do you think gender bias in terms of going out and pitching?

Lisa Marceau 04:22
First of all, just thrilled to be here, having this conversation with you and, and talking about some of these really important questions that are affecting female founders in particular. And that's, that's an awesome place to start. Because we, you know, in my in my career, I have experienced it in a really interesting way. And it's maybe not the way you would have thought. When some of the companies that I'm working with and the one that I started Joyuus, the question really was around, why, are you a nonprofit? Why are you looking for for investment?, you know, and that was really interesting. We kept getting it over and over. And one of the questions that that struck me is why are we being considered a nonprofit when we're talking about postpartum health and maternal health and some of the big gaps in women's health? Why does that get sidelined? So, it the question kept coming up? And the answer was, well come back to us when you have kind of something real. And that's where I saw probably most of the bias is. Why are we not considered part of the kind of mainstream private funding?

Susan Sly 05:36
Come back when you have something real. Interesting. I had a founder on the show, and she was, she had founded a company in the glamping, like the first glamping company. And she, I can't remember how many pitches she does, over 75. And someone comes in, she's already at revenue. A guy comes in to a VC fund out of Wall Street. And he has an idea literally on a PowerPoint and gets a ton of funding. And she's she was she was denied, right, like the same thing. And we know that and, and firstly, I want to shout out to all the men listening. I just came, just before Lisa and I started the show, I came from coffee, I was telling Lisa, and I was chatting with a friend of mine who does oversee a lot of different funding that is going on, and we were still talking about the disparities. And so the women are asked different questions than men. And they're consistently asked about their home life, and it can come off very much like, Oh, so you know, tell me what, you know, do you have a family and things like that it comes off very chatty, but the women are getting asked different things. So has it been your experience, Lisa, where in those pitches, you're also getting asked questions that might be considered a little more personal, that are out of alignment with what you're wanting to present as a founder?

Lisa Marceau 07:10
I think what's really interesting is that, so I'm one of the company that I founded is a company for postpartum health, right. So when I pitch, I talk about a very personal story that I experienced when I went through postpartum. So I talked about my, you know, kind of sitting in my rocking chair with my baby girl sobbing while you know, trying to get her back to sleep after someone come visited our house and woke the baby. And I tell the story, because I went through that not knowing that I had postpartum depression, I spent, I have three beautiful children. And it wasn't until 20 years later that I realized that the experience that I was going through was was actually postpartum depression. So when I start the pitch, that's the story that I tell because I want people to understand that when they say one in three moms have negative outcomes after they have a baby. They say 50% of moms don't actually have maternal care. These are not problems that affect women in a bubble, right? So if I'm not being able to function in the role that I have, everything around me is also impacted. And so to your question about like, these personal kind of questions that differentiate us somehow from like the rest of the world, that is all of us. And the impact is really, really broad. And I think when you say like it, you know, how you talk about your family and talk about kind of chatty and not really getting to the, to the substance of why you're why you're there. I think it is a big distraction, because we tend not to get the time to talk about the reason why these things actually matter, and why we are needing to make an impact and make change in this space.

Susan Sly 09:03
Yeah, absolutely. And I think we are finally having a forum to talk about postpartum to talk about menopause. And to talk about the issues. And and one of the things that you and I have discussed is that there are some significant challenges. It sounds very elegant to say, Oh, we're going to use technology to solve this, right? It's not so simple because there are different populations within a population. Right. So like for menopause. There there there's chemo pause. So women who went into menopause because they were they were diagnosed with cancer. Then there's forced menopause. A woman has a hysterectomy. Mia who you know the co-founder at The Pause, she's she went into menopause at 32. And yet, we're bucket-tising. A lot of men and women just under an umbrella of whatever it is, prostate cancer or postpartum or or cardiovascular disease. And technology is allowing us to say, hey, now we can actually be a lot more granular. Let me let me ask you this, going back to the concept of Joyuus, like just this, given one of the things we talked about a lot on the show, is, when did you have that moment, it's like, this is something I want to start, this is something I want to do?

Lisa Marceau 10:38
Interesting, because when so I worked in, I worked for a clinical research organization for for 30 years, I ran the organization. And I built digital products to fill the gap between clinical best practice and real world. So I was working in this space for a really long time, a lot of the work that I did, was in maternal health and women's health. And, and one day, I was talking to a colleague of mine obstetrician, she's a medical adviser on our team. And she's amazing. And we were chatting, and I said, Well, when moms come back to you, after they have their baby, what, you know, what are some of the issues that they're bringing up? She said, that's the problem. After they have a baby, they don't come back to us, because we're the were the obstetricians. And that's where they get lost in care. And that's where that conversation was the spark of the idea to say what, this is an enormous gap. Now, like with all kind of startups that idea had to percolate for a while, and really kind of, you know, I spent some time figuring out kind of with her, and then along the journey, how to really make it into something that women could use. And so that was kind of the little seed that really started the question, but it really started before that, because I think startup really always comes from what is the gap that needs to be filled? And that's what I've been doing for most of my career, is where's the gap? And and how do we solve that? How do we provide something that's going to be meaningful and impactful, to solve the problem that's that that exists. And, and so one of the things that I think is really important is that Joyuus, this is a really important product that we are developing, but women's health as a category. And femtech as a category is, is an area that has so much potential and need an opportunity, because there are so many gaps that are out there to be filled.

Susan Sly 12:32
I was actually you mentioned FEM Tech.I was at a mixer and there was a guy, a VC, goes what is FEM tech? And he was serious. He was serious, like and I, I commended him. I said, Yeah, I want to acknowledge you for asking. Thank you. Thank you for asking, like, and I don't want to ever shame anyone for asking a question. I would never shame my kids. There are a lot of people who don't know, even people listening what FemTech is, it is a very broad umbrella for technology that directly impacts women. But you know, women are also a very broad category, we have different seasons of our lives. So that you know, to be able to say there's there's FEM tech, there's biotech within FEM tech, there's all sorts of things. There's, you know, IOT devices, you name it. Lisa, the, the so often, we all get ideas, right? It's like, oh, yeah, this is a company I want to start. There was a survey I read, that it was actually in USA Today. It said 70% of Americans want to start their own business, only 7% of them ever do. So it's one thing to have an idea. But where did you find the courage to say I'm actually gonna go do this. Because you've had a very illustrious career. And when someone goes and starts a company, they're probably not making any money. There's a lot on the line, right? But most startup founders, I know, you know, I'm not. Don't pay themselves initially right? So you better hope you have some savings or you have another stream of income to like, kind of float your boat for a while. But where did you get the courage to say I'm actually going to go do this, and especially speaking to someone who's listening right now really resonating with I have a problem I know there's something I want to solve but where did you find that for you?

Lisa Marceau 14:26
I You know what I'm really fortunate in and I got a shout out to my coach over the over the years who really asked me two really important questions that really changed my perspective, because I'm not a risk taker. I'm not the one who's like okay, I'm gonna go start up and I've got this and let's get out there and that was never me. I was like in this stable, you know, employed environment for a really long time worked in corporate for a while. And what what's fascinating is the way I started my company off Millennial Health and then Joyuus, is really is something to be like, don't ever do that, right? I was in the middle of a pandemic with three kids at home. And to be perfectly real, I was in the middle of a divorce that came out of nowhere. And I was laid off from a job that I'd had for for a long time. And in that moment, one might say, I need to go figure this out and find another job. And I remember sitting on my front porch, and just, I'd sit out there and eat breakfast with my daughter. And that's it. And I thought, why do I want to jump right back into something that didn't serve me. And going back to kind of the things that I worked through with my coach kind of several years before, she asked me two questions. And I think these are the I think these are the most powerful questions. They stick with me now. One is, why did you think you had job stability just because you got a paycheck? So I would say first of all, yeah, think about that. Right? Right. We all believe that we have stability, because we are getting paid by a paycheck. But I think we all think about it, we know someone or ourselves, our own experiences where that isn't necessarily true. And the other thing she asked me, and this one kind of struck me really deeply is. She said, when have you experienced financial failure? And now I've been with career for 30 years, and I have three children. And, you know, raised a family and built a career. I said, Never. And she goes, Why do you suppose that is? My answer without even thinking was, because I've had to. So when I sat on the porch, thinking about starting my own company, which I'd always kind of had in the back of my mind is something I wanted to do. And now there's this gap that I feel like there's this, there's work that needs to be done. And I just want to don't want to go back into the environment that I had been in that why not start it. There is no financial failure, and there is no fear because I have to make it work. Yeah, and so that's kind of where the power came from, to start both Alpha Millennial and then ultimately, Joyuus. You know, to really lean into what drives you, and what your passion comes from. And that's, I think one thing I think, is really, really important. And in the in the journey to start up your goal have your, your, your, the mission has to be driven by passion, right has to be driven by passion, if your goal is to make money, that's not kind of that's an outcome, right? That's an outcome, the goal is really to make an impactful change, whatever that means to you. And if that's your your goal and your mission, you're going to, you're going to make it work, you're going to find the way to get there. And if your goal is money, I'd say find another path, because money is never a goal, and you will kind of only ever think very narrowly, and see you'll have blinders on the whole way, and you won't be able to see it. A startup is change and evolution where you start and where you end are never going to be the same place. Right. So if you're not open to all of the ideas and the innovations and the changes that come along that pathway, that's where success comes from. Right. That's where companies really succeed when they when they hear and are open to all those modifications, those evolutions, and if your goal is money, you you stick on a path because that's what you think is going to get you there. So So I think that's a really important thing. And I'd say to anyone out there listening who, who wants to start their own business, is really have a passion, that really means something to you.

Susan Sly 18:51
Which is huge, because as the founder, that has to get you up in the morning. And then there's also the investors who money is important to them, right. And as as an investor, one of the things I always ask any startup that I've invested in is what is your exit plan? And what is your path to revenue and I want to see a pro forma and you know, all of those things. And it's, it's funny as we're raising money for The Pause, and I'm on the other side of that, you know, where's your pro forma, what's your path that exit and, and I I'm also telling stories about menopause, and I'm telling my own story. And you, you, you go back and forth, your heart is in the same place, but you've got to be nimble, and to be able to wear those hats. What has been for you, you've done such an incredible job because you have non diluted funding with grants. You have amazing technical partners that have helped enable your technology, but I want you to share with the world listening - the hats you wear, and which is the easiest hat for you to wear, and which is the one that is still the most challenging at times to put on?

Lisa Marceau 20:09
Oh, man, that

Lisa Marceau 20:10
is a great question. And I think, I mean, I guess part of part of my strengths, I would say is compartmentalization. Because sometimes it's just making sure that I'm working on the right thing during the right time of day. There are definitely things that I can't do first thing in the morning, and there are definitely things I will never do late in the afternoon, just my brain works. So sometimes it's what how do I organize my hats? Essentially? Right. And, and knowing who I am and how I operate, and you know, where my where my, you know, focused brain is versus you know, when do I write when do I do billing and accounting? So, I guess part of it is that I really appreciate more most of the hats because I learn so much in the process. And I think collaboration is so critical to the process. That's that's one thing that helps me be able to enjoy them. Because I know what I don't know, but but I also want to want to learn in the process. I have like, like you mentioned, I have a really great technology partner, who is is overseeing engineering team, the engineering team, and I learned a lot, I don't have to have input on every every step. I need to have strategic vision, and I have to have input on the bigger picture. And I need to be able to answer questions. But I also need to listen and learn. And so I guess, I guess though each hat has its benefits is how I tend to think about it in a strange way.

Susan Sly 21:44
So of all I'm going to ask the question, and I'll share, I'll share for you mine, right, like wearing all the hats as a founder. So everything from going into Carta, to refining the pitch deck, to going out and networking, to working with the team that is the technical team because I am a technical founder. Like all the hats for me. You said something really key, which is the time of day you put those hats on? Yeah, I am so fresh in the morning. That's when I want to make my decisions. I want to review contracts, though. Absolutely. Late at night. I don't want any hat on. No, just put the hats in the closet. I don't want to have them on. But how do you create boundaries?

Lisa Marceau 22:40
I am very fortunate in that I have worked virtually for a big chunk of my career. Not full time, I worked four days in the office, I did the two hour commutes. I worked in the office varying kind of days per week over my career. But one thing that was important is and I think is the value of of, you know, making sure you balance with your family. And you can respect that as well as. I got my kids to daycare, got my kids on the bus, you know, that was super important for me. So even though I would you know go screaming out of the house to get on the road, it would be after I got my kids up on on the bus, for example or. So those boundaries for me have been set for a long time. I have a workday. It might be longer some days than others. But I have a workday and and maybe I can be flexible. Whether that starts at seven, I'm like you I'm like I'm fresh in the morning. I want if I'm doing accounting, it's going to be in the morning, probably. If I'm writing it's going to be you know, it's not going to be at 530 at night. But it's important for me to make sure that I am giving time to the people in my life that deserve that for me as well. So that boundary was really easy to create. And sometimes, you know, that's what we have to remind ourselves, right? It's it's also, I think the other boundary that I have really kind of grown to respect in myself is that, your bucket will be as empty as you allow it to be. And what I mean by that is if you are always willing to have an empty bucket, someone is always willing to fill it. So decide what you want, as far as your time and attention and where you want to put it because someone else is always willing to put something in that bucket for you. And you can either allow it or not allowed and I think those are really important boundaries, especially as a founder because you have to kind of have a vision and a pathway. You have to be open to collaboration, like we were talking about that change and the evolutions and nimbleness. But But I think if you're not clear on some of the core things that are important to you, you know those boundaries get very, very gray and it becomes really easy for someone to kind of push you in a direction or bury you in stuff that you didn't really want to be doing, you say yes to things you didn't mean to. So I think that is the other important thing is really be clear on what are the critical things for you, and then balance yourself with your family because they're there, they're so important. I think I might have mentioned, my kids are all about to graduate and be off into the world. So no matter where you are, whether it's kids or family, or what other other joy you have in your life, it's not going to be here forever in the form that it is right now. So if you don't take this minute, to find that balance in those boundaries, it's not going to be here in the future. So that's been really kind of present for me a lot of days.

Susan Sly 25:40
Which is, which is huge. It's this that that what is your, what is your line in the sand. And I'm in the same way, like, every morning, I am taking my youngest daughter to school. And that that is our time, there are no calls during that time, we talk. It's very important. And and that's the that that is so key. And this and also I'm I'm so I think it's because you know, I've reached a certain season in my career, that I'm willing to say no, not, I don't want every investor. Because it you know, it's not just about an investor putting money into a company. It's about how that investor is going to show up. Do they understand the vision, the mission? Yes, we want them to get a great ROI for their investment. But I also don't want 500 texts a day, um, that, you know, that are a distraction from actually getting things done. Right. And it's so I think, for me, I've grown to a place Lisa, where I'm just, you know, I'm comfortable with the word no. And I'm comfortable with no is no, and and we're not looking back. And because, you know, I did have leaky boundaries for years where it was, like I said, yes to things, or I was always on the road traveling to the point where on like, there was, you know, a period of time where I was on an airplane every week for 26 weeks, with the exception of one week. And I remember I was sitting there, it was a weekend. And I said to my husband, like I feel that, like my heart was racing. And I was like I just the anticipation of having to get on the airplane. And I would get on the United flight and I knew the flight attendants. Like it was because I you know, and that, how crazy is that? Right? That I would know them. And so, uh, one of the things for me in terms of saying, you know, what, I was a, I was, you know, a co founder, and I was a co CEO of a company, and we had offices to overseas to domestically. And I loved it. And I grew and I learned, but I also wanted to in creating my own company, I wanted to create something different, where it wasn't expected that people would, you know, work 16 hour days and have to be in an office and like you said, you know that this is a new world, in terms of how we show up and how we work and recognizing our productivity and our superpowers. So I want to ask you this, Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, they wrote a book called 10x is Better Than 2x. And the principle around the book for people listening is that so often we're doing 2x things, we're doing a lot of administrative minutia, we're kind of doing things in our comfort zone, but it isn't really focused on our superpowers. And that our superpowers, if we would focus 80% of our time on doing those things. We'd have 10x results in terms of our time, freedom, our financial freedom, everything else that we would do. So Lisa Marceau, what are your superpowers in business?

Lisa Marceau 28:56
I think that number one is collaboration. Because you mentioned networking before I hate networking, to be honest with you. It's like not the thing that I love to do. But that's because it's it's defined by a certain thing. But in my what I've learned over the past kind of few years in as a founder, is networking is just collaboration with authenticity. Because collaboration with authenticity is really about meeting people and learning from them and being willing, it's not. It's not that I want things from people when I collaborate, I want to learn from them and I want to share what I am bringing to the table and see if we have a match and see if if they can contribute something to what I'm doing and vice versa. And that I think gives me a ton of joy. I learned so much and I think it helps everything get better grow and kind of be be more successful. So I would say number one that's probably it's probably my desire to collaborate.

Susan Sly 30:02
Networking to0, is the,I was asked this exact same question. And when I think of networking, I think of two things. How I'm, you know, how can I add value to the people I'm meeting and connect them with people that will help them? And then I also think, what can I learn? Right? So I was invited to a network. Most people wouldn't know this, because they would say, Oh, well, she's been on stage in front of 20,000 people in Las Vegas, and she's done speaking events with Tony Robbins. And she said, you know, all this stuff. And most people think I'm naturally extroverted. I'm not it, I'm a situational extrovert, it takes me more energy to go and do a networking event. If I'm speaking at an event, I just go out, and I speak and I serve. And then I go back, and I sit backstage and just be quiet, or go back to my hotel room, just like, Okay, I can't talk to anyone. But when I network, I had to shift that for me, because I wanted it to feel energizing. So now I think, oh, okay, what if I could go and learn and what if I can meet some people and connect them with other great people. And, and I want to give a shout out. So Andrew Bart is a founder of a company called AlgoFace, and disclosure, I'm an adviser to that company. It's a CV company. And he started this thing, Lisa, that every two weeks, on a Wednesday night, we all go this wine bar, it's in like north north north, like you guys, drive north of Scottsdale. And there's just wine, and there's no agenda and people talk. And that's the whole thing. I'm like, this is the best networking event ever.

Lisa Marceau 31:44
Right? That to me is and then when I learned that, that's what networking actually, like networking has such a definition. But when you learn that networking is really just meeting people where they are and learning from them and talking to them, You have no idea when that's going to become something more powerful and interesting. And meeting you, I think is such a great example of just having conversations about what my passion is and where my interests are in learning that you have passion and interest in in a similar field, and how might we connect and, and then just, you know, here we are talking Raw and Real. So I think it really is about just being open to everybody has a perspective and everybody brings something that you know, let's learn from each other.

Susan Sly 32:27
Absolutely, and not not everyone's gonna get it and I want to I want to dive into Joyuus, for you know, that not everyone's gonna get it. Not everyone's gonna resonate with it. Like, I'm talking menopause. It's it's this is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship, we have a PG rating. This is a very funny story. So you and I are in a startup ecosystem, and you, Mia the co-founder who I mentioned, we're in a meeting and it's all men. And I know I'm gonna get an X rating on iTunes for what I'm about to say, but it's so funny. And Mia starts talking about the problem with menopause. And she starts talking about vaginal dryness in the meeting. And it was so funny, because like, the looks on the guys faces like some guys were like really cool. And so guys, like they just didn't know what to do with that. And she was so funny because I don't even know that she was cognizant that that was like one of the first things she talked about. And, and you know, not I've spoken to women, they're like, I've never had menopausal symptoms. I've spoken to men and be like, my wife didn't really have it. And then conversely, I've I've had men literally get a little teary because they love their wives so much. And their wives struggled so much with it. And so not everyone's gonna get it, just like Joyuus, not everyone is is going to resonate. But you know, the one of my mentors, her name is Kathy Smith, and she's passed now but she used to say, Susan, the people you're looking are looking for you. So I want to dive in and talk about Joyuus. So you have the idea. And you're like, Okay, I'm starting a company. And I've just been through from Holmes Rahe scale of the top five stressors, divorce, death, moving, losing your job, illness of a loved one. So you got to have the big five girlfriend and you're like, This is a good idea. Let's start a company and I'm really going to explore postpartum. So you get this company spun up. Share with everyone like where are you now? And what you know what's next for the company?

Lisa Marceau 34:44
Well, so we are I believe, that all companies need to do three things so that this will give you some context for where Joyuss is now. And number one is basically, listening to your customers and your audience to make sure that you build something that is effective for their needs. So basically, does it address what they want? So that was all of the early work is asking moms, specifically. The most impacted moms black and brown moms, Hispanic moms, the moms who have the worst outcomes in the data. And then really learning what to build, right. So that was that was the effect and that and then testing it, right, making sure it works, right, making sure you're not wrong. And this is where we talk about this idea of not just kind of assuming we know that we're right, and that's the path we're gonna go on to get there. Be willing to be wrong. And so we learned a lot in that process. And so now we're we're knee deep in the middle of a randomized control trial, because we need to test that what we built and what we learned from moms who said this is what they want need, is actually something that we can deliver on right. And we're looking at effectiveness across. We're looking at effectiveness across maternal function, depression, anxiety, resilience, so really big things, things that really impact day to day. And some of the biggest killers, mom depression is one of the biggest killers of moms postpartum. Hemorrhage is one of the biggest killers of moms postpartum. So these are the things we have to solve, right? So we need it to be effective. And that's the part that we are knee deep. And right now, we're really focused on making sure we learn from the from the work in a in a very standardized way. The other thing that we need to do is make sure that we develop something that is efficient, that means that it is is accessible to people after we finished building it. Now, that's part of the go to market strategy, right, making sure we can understand where our biggest targets are. For example, employers are a great avenue for a product like Joyuus because it it connects them to kind of their work and, and one of the biggest stressors is work, right. So you're coming back to work after you have a baby. And you're supposed to jump right back in as if you never left. And when employers understand the power of supporting women postpartum, they understand the power of supporting the entire family, because it affects partners as well, right. And it affects medical outcomes, time at work all of that. So So for example, what we're trying to learn right now is where is that market, where is the best, kind of the most efficient way to deliver this, so the most women can access it. And then I think adoptability is a really big piece of the kind of triangle of things that have to be considered to make a product work. And if you build it based on what people actually want, and you present it in a way that is accessible, through the right resources, the right delivery, then you'll have a product that is adoptable. And that's how you create a successful business, We're , we're in the thick of testing right now. So that's, that's the current state and the future state is really finding that pathway to, to deliver it to moms, through potentially through employers.

Susan Sly 38:14
And there's so much to unpack there, because there's like, investors, like, let's get this out to market, then there's like, the the granting side, which is, let's make sure that, you know, the the trials and everything is in alignment with something that, you know, is what our grant application said it was. And and what, what people listening don't know, know, is like you there, there are lots of folks to please along the path of this journey. And there's lots of learning, there's lots of growing to do. And I know Lisa and I have spoken privately about some of the what her research has revealed. And that's also it's gotta be hard to because there are a lot of problems for you to solve. Right? Like, I know that it people will be shocked. And you probably have this statistic that that in terms of how many women die in childbirth in United States.

Lisa Marceau 39:16
One of the it's that's such a great point. And this is one of the and this is not just postpartum. I mean, this is why you're doing what you're doing and why. You know, we see a vast kind of increase in the in the FEM tech market and women's health is because women are dying way too often. For all the wrong reasons. These are preventable deaths, right? So so we need to be working to do things that can help prevent the preventable deaths. And childbirth postpartum, that's an area where women should not be dying. That there are ways to solve these problems. And that's Joyuss, is going to be one piece of that. And this focus on addressing the Women's Health market is is another one are really critical pathway to changing some of those statistics. I can tell you a story about ovarian cancer and prostate cancer and breast cancer if if, if that absolutely puts a fine point on this, right. So I'm doing I'm writing on this right now. So ovarian cancer is 70, 80% of cases are diagnosed in stage three or for prostate cancer 70 to 80% of the cases are diagnosed in early stage, regional stage local stage. This has a huge impact on the five year survival rate, right? What's the correlation to that is that the funding for prostate cancer has always been since I think 2012 been in the top two or three funded cancers, ovarian cancer has been in the bottom two or three of the funded cancers. So one might say, well, it's just a funding problem than we need to get up to speed on the funding. But in my research and doing this, like really kind of digging into this, what I came across is a meta analysis of ovarian breast and prostate cancer at the genome wide level. And what that research started to demonstrate, and it looked at 400, 000 and some, cancers, 25% of all cancers in that space. And what it started to uncover is that if we look at it across the spectrum, we actually can see that there might be markers really early on, for these hormone hormone related cancers that could have prevent could increase increased preventative treatments way before they're even diagnosed in the first place. So it's not a gender specific issue, if we start to look at it across all of the data, and that's where they are the stuff with AI becomes super important, right? It's not just about women's health, it's about how we need women's health, in the mix at the same level and same power as all of the other health research, because that's where we can see patterns and make change.

Susan Sly 42:03
Absolutely. And that's it, like how we started the show is yes, I stand on my soapbox, and I'm going to be speaking about this. By the time the show was released in Silicon Valley for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, I'm talking about the future of women in AI, and how do we encourage young women to come into this profession? My my whole come from is what are we inviting them to? If we're telling them they're going to fail to get their ideas funded? 97.5% of the time, then, you know, that's, that's, it's not that enticing, right. And, and I think what we have to stop doing is having gender bias in the funding especially, we're trying to, to really solve problems that affect all of us, because, no, a woman might not get prostate cancer, obviously, but her husband might or her son might or her father might or her brother might. And this affects us all, it's like the heart disease kills more women in the United States than all the top five cancers combined. And yet, 70% of that dataset is is on men. So it's not, it's not able to accurately accurately give the level of prediction that we might deserve. Let's put it that way. Right. So to your point, we are seeing technology enablement that are really going to change the landscape of of you know, of, of our health outcomes. And that's why I always say like AI, the big, big bright spot is for health care. And that's why sweeping legislation that affects all AI could actually damage some of the goals we are trying to achieve in healthcare. So that is a whole topic for another conversation. So I want to ask you a final question. So the journey that you've had, now, in launching this company and doing you know, you're in the weeds with the research, I know, we've got you and I were talking about some of the events you're going to be speaking at and really, in terms of, you know, building out this business, if you could go back a few years and give yourself some advice based on what you know now, what advice would you give yourself?

Lisa Marceau 44:28
I would give myself the advice to be very clear in some what you what you want this to look like for yourself. And don't be afraid to speak up. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. And don't be about don't be afraid to say this is what I want from this. Yeah, yeah, too often we don't do that.

Susan Sly 44:57
Yeah. And I love that you said that because that, In going back to Dan Sullivan's book, The, with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. That Dan's talking about, wants versus needs, and we don't have to justify our wants, we want what we want. Right? Right. You want to solve this problem for women, right? And, and that's okay. You don't have to justify that. That's, you know, there's a lot of badassery there, my friend, you want what you want. And that's okay. And, and, and I would just say to all of us, I love that advice. Lisa is just like, let's just be okay with wanting what we want. And as Lisa said, when we come from that place of collaboration, and really helping to uplift each other up to those wants, then we step out of that competitive plane, which has a lot of taking energy, and a lot of toxic, destructive energy. And, you know, these problems that affect all of us that, you know, for you and I, as founders that we're working to solve, can really, you know, positively make an impact, which is, which is so tremendous. So, Lisa, I can't firstly, I can't wait to see you in person. So follow all of our social media, because it's going to be all over. We're going to shoot some videos. We have some announcements coming out, Lisa. And I think we're going to be a little traveling roadshow because we're going to be together a few times, over the rest of the year. So you just have to, you know what, we should wear hats every time we're photographed.

Susan Sly 46:30
We should get some hats, which hat are we wearing now?

Susan Sly 46:34
Yeah, which hat are we wearing now. And if you would like to, you know, when you see us in person, if you know where we're going to be, you know, this is now going to be a thing. Or start with many hats. We're going to start receiving random hat. I love it. I love it. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for being on the show. And thank you just for everything you do in the world. I'm so excited to follow your research. It has, you know, tremendous heartspace for me, as well. And I'm gonna start I'm so excited to be on the front line cheering you on. Getting to witness firsthand you building this company. I think it's amazing sister.

Lisa Marceau 47:14
Well, thank you. And I'm so pleased to be here and to be able to talk about it and just have the support, again, of women like you who are out there doing the same so so let's do it together. Yeah.

Susan Sly 47:26
Bring it on. That's right. All right, everyone. Well, if you want to find out more about Joyuss about Lisa, just check out the show notes on Susansly.com. Make sure you are following on all of our social and ever we are on Instagram, on X, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, we're there. And I don't know what the future of Tik Tok is. So the show doesn't have a Tik Tok. But anyway, so God bless, go rock your day. And I will see you in the next episode. Well, hopefully you enjoyed the show with Lisa. And as you heard, I mean, my gosh, starting a business when you go through an unexpected divorce, where you've been laid off, it's a pandemic, and you get the courage to do that. And to be able to go out there and figure out, hey, there's a problem I want to solve. And even though I haven't had experience in doing this, and I've been working, you know, for someone else for 30 years, I'm gonna go do it anyway. I mean, talk about incredible. And I loved the two questions that Lisa's coach asked her. And so in this episode, I'm going to talk about the latest update with thepause.ai. So one of the things that I want to do differently as a multiple time founder, if you include the agency that I started not just to co founding a computer vision company, but other things I've done. I wanted to create our infrastructure platform, and the enablers before I launched the product itself. And so what I did is I went and the announcement came that I was doing this company and friends reached out who I had known from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and you may think about HP like laptops and stuff, you have no idea how big that company is in terms of being a global company. And all of the tech enablement, they have their cloud enabler, which is Green Lake and then they have servers and and IoT devices. And you name it. It's a massive company. And I do have some really close friends who work there and I love them and they're they're absolutely incredible. And so one of them reached out to me and said, Hey, did you know we have a startup incubator and we will help support you along with our partner Alpha three cloud run by Ron Sachs. You After you go through a technical due diligence, if you're invited into the program, you will be one of our preferred DEI startups. And so we have been going through technical due diligence and our architecture and going through questions, everything from Kubernetes to Docker, if you don't know what that means, that's totally fine. You know, and and, and how we're going to launch and how we're going to scale and our financials. And so that has been going on for the last probably in the neighborhood of just under eight weeks. And I'm so happy to announce that we have been accepted into the program. And we will be part of the Hewlett Packard system and which is, we didn't announce it, it was it was very challenging, because a lot of our investors have asked for a valuation cap on the initial investment. And I have been really wanting to not give a valuation cap. And if you don't know what that means, it's it's saying how, okay, hey, if you invest in the company, this is what the company is essentially worth, even before we're at revenue. And so with the hyper scalar announcement with Hewlett Packard, that definitely reinforces the value of the company. So I'm, I'm just so very grateful. That was a huge win. And as this podcast is being released, we're going to be in Orlando, there's going to be an announcement about it. And I just, you know, again, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful for all of you, the listeners for all of the support. And I would say the biggest thing that I'll share with you is that relationships matter. And taking that time every day just to reach out to people without an agenda know, their kids names, their wife's name, their husband's name, their, you know, dog's name even and just to care about people. And it is amazing how it comes back to you. So that is this week's paws diary. If you're not following us, we are on all the social media channels at the paws AI, and then check out our website, thepause.ai If you're not a subscriber get on the list, because we have a lot of announcements that are coming out. So with that, that's this week's diary. And I will see you in the next episode.

Susan Sly 52:18
Hey, this is Susan and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Ron real entrepreneurship. If this episode or any episode has been helpful to you, you've gotten at least one solid tip from myself or my guests. I would love it if you would leave a five star review wherever you listen to podcast. After you leave your review. Go ahead and email reviews at Susan sly.com. Let us know where you left the review. And if I read your review on air, you could get a $50 amazon gift card and we would so appreciate it because reviews do help boost the show and get this message all over the world. If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to Susan sly.com That's where all the show notes live. And with that, go out there rock your day. God bless and I will see you in the next episode.