204 | Humanizing Healthcare & Optimizing for Impact with Chat Razdan
Our guest on the pod this week is Chat Razdan. Chat is the Founder and CEO of Care + Wear, a company that is reimagining how the world looks at and feels about health care.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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Humanizing Healthcare Interview with Chat Razdan
SPEAKERS
Chat Razdan, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of The Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience that is already transforming many lives. Before I introduce our guest today and our topic, I have one request. If you could go over to Apple podcasts or whatever app, you're listening to the show on and do a rating and review, it helps tremendously. Thanks so much. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to chat Ross, Dan. And our topic is humanizing healthcare and optimizing for impact. Chad is the founder and CEO of Karen, where a company that is reimagining how the world looks at and feels about health care. Chad, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me, Paul, super excited to be here. You guys are doing some really important work and yet honored to have you here. Before we get into what you're doing at Karen, where, why you started and who you work with and all the great things you're doing. We are called the enterpreneurs chat. One of the ways we like to get to know somebody has to ask you about a wellness or a resiliency practice that you use to resource yourself for this really important, but not always easy work. Yeah, definitely we have every Thursday as a company, we actually do a personal health Thursday, where for an hour, we kind of let people outlet but ask people to do whatever they want. And it started by my attempting to become a yogi. My yoga instructor now will argue several years in that I'm definitely a full on Yogi, I would tell you, if you saw me practicing yoga, you would think otherwise. But it's just super important to be able to take some time away for yourself. And that's one thing I look forward to every Thursday evening is doing yoga. And then I actually very slowly run up and down the West Side Highway five days a week. And so if you're if it's a morning time, you will likely see me on the West Side Highway, rocking a character shirt running up and down. I know that trail along the river there, it's really a beautiful place to run. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Yeah. And it's been even more fun during COVID. They painted on one of the piers, I want to thank you for all the frontline workers that have been dedicating themselves not just during the pandemic, but day in and day out. And so it just kind of further inspires me each and every day. Just give people a little bit of sense about how did you get into this work? what's what's the short version of the origin story of Chad that he said, I want us to rethink what we're doing in healthcare and make it more human like, what led up to that decision and post saying, I'm going to pull on that lever.
Chat Razdan 03:02
Yeah, totally. It honestly just came out of personal need. I wish I could say that I had planned to start Karen wire my entire life, or something like that. But the true answer is that I had friends and family diagnosed with cancer, and started noticing a few people wearing socks on their arm. And as I started asking questions, I learned that they were wearing socks on their arms, because they had been told they're getting treatment through what's called a picc line. It's basically an IV tube because in your arm and connects to your heart. And you use it as a way to get medical nutrition or antibiotics into your body over an elongated period of time. And so I saw people wearing socks on their arms and thought there's got to be something better than a sock. And so I started working with nurses and doctors from Hopkins and UVA to try and redesign the tube sock and while we were doing that took a step back and realize whenever you go to the hospital, everything has always been focused on function and not on how it looks or how it makes you feel. And really just wanted to build a brand focused on reimagining how you look and feel about healthcare and bridge function and fashion together to do so.
Paul Zelizer 04:22
When we were chatting before we hit the record by you. It's such an obvious thing, but I hadn't thought about it. But you talked about the hospital gown. Talk to us a little bit like what's it like for somebody help us think about this for a minute. Chad is somebody who's thought about this a lot. They use the hospital gown as an example or even like a metaphor what it feels like to be a patient who puts on a hospital gown and enters into that system.
Chat Razdan 04:48
Absolutely. Paul so everyone, whether by choice or not has known someone that's had to go into the hospital. For me it started as a child. I got tubes in my Here's three times. And I remember being terrified of going in to get the surgery I, All I knew is after the surgery, I would be in a lot of pain, I would be really tired. And I remember the first time having to put on a patient gown and suddenly being told to wear a dress like product, where I was exposing my backside, to the entire hospital. And remember, already being terrified and now being further terrified and even more nervous, because of the fact that I had to wear this garment that was not flattering, it was causing me to expose myself. And as we think about the patient experience, you're already nervous, you're already worried about what's going to happen when you walk into a hospital. And then you're given a product that is not providing that comfort and dignity and inspiration. And as we set to resolve that issue, we realize that there's such a negative stigma associated with the hospital. And a large part of it is starts when you're wearing this gown that has the backside exposed. And so we set out to try and solve that. And we're fortunate to teach a class at Parsons School of Design, where we focus on redesigning the patient gown. So starting with the idea that your backsides, no longer exposed, but rather, wearing get more like a bathrobe and being able to feel a little more pleasant about what you're about to go through. And then also as we went through the class, we have the opportunity to not only work with 10 amazing students throughout the semester, but nine hospital systems, commercial launderers, hospital administrators, patients, and even fashion designers like Donna Karan and Kay Unger. And as we were really trying to solve to create a better patient gown, we learned that hospitals currently actually have up to nine different types of patient gowns. And so our goal was a creative rebel, quote unquote, revolutionary patient gown that you could feel like you're wearing a bathrobe could have more dignity and support and bring all these nine different types of gowns into one all for the same price or less than what hospitals are paying today.
Paul Zelizer 07:23
solicitors. I don't know if you caught this. But if you've been listening for a while, you know, I have my spiritual highlighter chat. That's when I like want to emphasize what a guest has said. And I want to emphasize, I lost track of how many times you use the word dignity. Think about that for listeners. Think about this person who's deeply passionate about dignity in our healthcare system where dignity may not always be the height. Not that everybody's like going out trying to intentionally step on somebody's dignity. But I know I have had experiences and people in my family and yeah, dignity is not always the first word that might come to mind to describe our experiences with healthcare. So just notice that listeners think about what that means, as a founder of a company come in with that intentionality. So give us a sense of chat. What what are we talking timeline wise? When did you start caring rare?
Chat Razdan 08:18
Yeah. So I came up with the idea in February of 2014, and started working on a few prototypes with a local manufacturer. And then by May of 2014, I kind of realized this was my calling. And I wanted to go full time to do that. It was something that had been in my head probably for a few months before that even but actually went from concept and head to actually quitting to start the company pretty quickly. But then it actually took about a year to actually bring to market the first product. And I think that's one thing that most people don't realize when starting a company is just how long it's going to take. We're in a we're in a time in a world where all of us want answers yesterday, and we want solutions yesterday. And I know I was super frustrated at how long it took. Our product team will probably tell you today that I still get frustrated at the length of time it takes. So that's still a learning process. But all bad jokes aside, it was an amazing process where we got to work with incredible people and really learned how to build a product and how to bring it to market and also how to be much more efficient for the future. Nice.
Paul Zelizer 09:44
That's 2014 and again, before we hit record, you told me a story that really stuck with me. The second part of our title is optimizing the impact and right from the star and Matter of fact even had a push back with some potential or people who turned out To be investors, it wasn't totally clear. But right from the start, you said, we're not going to be one of these companies that just gives a little like, you know, you hear about 1%, or something like that you said right from the start, we're going to give back 10% of our profits. And you're going to do it, like, from day one, and you got some questions might we say about? Talk to us a little bit about why you feel so strongly about that? And how did you navigate that with some of the people who were asking you to kind of tone it down a little bit at the beginning?
Chat Razdan 10:31
Yeah. And it's actually something that I just think it's core to our DNA. So thank you for reminding me about it. Because it's something that is so important to us that we don't even talk about it, which is weird to say. But you're 100%, right, when I thought about creating a company that was focused on helping the community and my loved ones and others around us, I realized from the get go that if I was going to do this, I wanted it to have a bigger impact. So we started with picc lines, which is is a big deal, there's about 6 million people that get a picc line installed, every year, it's growing at about a 5% annual growth rate. And but in the grand scheme of things, 6 million is not a huge percentage of the population. And I said, Look, if we're gonna do this, I want to be helping even more people from the get go. And so we started with partnerships with foundations, like stand up to cancer and the American Cancer Society. And over the years, I've been really fortunate to work with some amazing organizations, like March of Dimes, in the hospital systems and more, but from the from that day one, it was okay, what is a big number. And to be honest, I didn't know what the right number was I just to your point, I knew that 1% was too small and it wasn't meaningful. And I felt that 10% of profit was going to be a pretty meaningful number that would make us think about every decision we made. And so that's how I chose that number. And today, at least, we like to say at least, because sometimes we'll do more, but at least 10% of our profit is given back in the form of either cash or product donation. So this year, for example, with COVID, we were able to donate hundreds of 1000s of products to people in need. And I think that that is something that is super important is being able to have a larger impact and know that whatever problem you're trying to solve for that you're able to help even more people in a time of need, and day in and day out. And I think it's what drives everyone at our company. It's what drives a lot of our partners that we've been fortunate to partner with. And it's, it's something that regardless of who you are, we're always going to have as really important to our, to our DNA.
Paul Zelizer 13:01
As somebody Chad has thought a lot about giving for impact. There's there's some different advice out there. Some people are like, well, if you give it's like, it's good for business, you know, Millennials want companies that are thinking about the well being and Gen Z and you'll meet you'll sell more you actually make more money if you give and other people are like, well, you actually might not make more. But you should do it anyway. Because it's the right thing to do. Like, how much of that decision to really optimize and to be at the higher level of the people we've ever interviewed on this show in terms of giving back how much of that is it's just the right thing to do. How much of that this is a wise business decision? Like, what was your thinking when you pick that number?
Chat Razdan 13:47
Yeah, the honest truth is, it just felt like the right thing to do. It felt like if we were gonna do something really meaningful that we had to pick something that was pretty large. And that's what drove the decision over time, as I told our actual investors about it. The ones that jumped on board said look, even though you didn't mean it to be it's actually a very strategic business decision, because you can use it as a way to get back to market to people that actually are consumers of yours. And and I think that's been a really valuable lesson and experience for us is, we absolutely have probably gotten people to come to our website and know about our brand because of our give back. And because we've been able to get such big brand names involved from an foundation standpoint, but the real truth is, is that was never really the driving force behind our arrangements and it was never why we do what we do. It was truly just Hey, we want to we want to operate like, I call us for purpose. We are a for profit entity. But for us, it is really important to remember that at the end of the day profits, not what is driving us day in and day out. And so by using that as our driving force, that's been kind of how we make decisions. And yeah, we have gotten benefits on the business side. But that's kind of been a, I guess, a something that was unexpected and not unplanned for.
Paul Zelizer 15:34
If somebody is listening, and they're starting to make sense, okay, I get what Karen wears about and the space you operate on, if you were going to give like three iconic examples of Karen ware products. So somebody can like ground this conversation. What are we talking? What are these folks making? Obviously, thing, go to your website? And I really encourage you listeners to do that. But for the sake of this conversation, what are a couple examples of your product that you think are really good, that would give somebody a sense of what you do at caremark?
Chat Razdan 16:03
Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the first one, in terms of what everyone will immediately understand is definitely the patient counts. So kind of like what you were talking about, and what I kept talking about dignity and comfort and support. Right now, when you go into a hospital, most of the time, you're given a gown that opens in the back and exposes your backside. It's very uncomfortable, you're cold, you're worried. And then you're given this this product. So we redesigned the patient gown to provide clinical access. So it has IV access in the arms. It has a telemetry pocket to hold a monitoring device in your chest. It has color coded ties to allow you to adjust the fit to be a little better for you, but also to know what tie goes to what I always hate whenever I go to the doctor's office or hospital and I'm given a gown with same color ties everywhere, and I have no idea what goes where. And then also is just providing a little more dignity for my ability to walk and lie in bed and sit down even in a chair. Second product that I would say is our chest x s shirts. So for patients with a port, that is where we have collaborated with brands like Oscar de la Renta, it's where we've created our own versions as well. And that is designed for when you're getting treatment through what's called a port. It's basically a surgical pipe in your chest and you go in and historically, you would walk into a hospital, many people would just have their shirts off, to be able to access it during the duration of the treatment. And so people might be getting infusions for six, eight hours without a shirt on. And that's obviously not a comfortable scenario. And so partnered with Oscar de la Renta to create a wonderful hoodie that keeps you warm, has zippers that open up really easily to allow you to access your chest and then has a snap so you can zip it back up and snap it up, while leaving the line going through the hoodie to allow you access there. And then our first product is our picc line cover. It is a sleeve that goes over what's called a picc line. And what we were able to create that's unique and pattern was a special mesh window that allows for breathability to the dressing what most people don't realize and why you've historically been told to wear a tube sock is the dressing that you place over a picc line actually requires the air for it to function. So the dressings not going to have its medical benefits unless you are putting something that allows for air and breathe ability for the dressing. And then we also created the mesh window not only for the breathability. But for the visibility to be able to quickly tell if there's any sort of leakage or infection, because it is connected to your heart. If you have any leakage or infection, you could get pretty bad repercussions including potentially even dying. And so being able to move quickly and resolve any sort of issue is super important. And now actually several years in we've gotten some amazing data from a top five hospital system that's been a customer for a while demonstrating that our picc line covers actually reduce migration. So movement and infection of the picc line by 70 plus percent and so being able to help make for a better clinical outcome by not having as many dislodge events and migrations is obviously a home Run, when you think about wins
Paul Zelizer 20:03
78% that's really significant. Congratulations. And when we were getting ready one of your team members like Chazz, tell us chat, tell the story about the sleeveless dress tell the story. So there's all these very technical things you're doing. But help us remember the human story. There was a young woman who was needing to deal with a medical situation and was going to a very important event in her life. Yeah, let's tell us about her.
Chat Razdan 20:36
Yeah, totally. Allie was wanting to go to her senior prom. And this was one of the many oh my goodness, look at how amazing this is moments I've been able to have over the course of the years, where she had wanted to go to a senior prom had a really cute sleeveless dress that she really wanted to wear. But she was worried that everyone was just going to be staring at her arm the entire time, because she had a picc line in place. And she had a gray dress that she reached out to us and said, Hey, is there any way the one of your sleeves would match this color, and back then, we were a team of one. So she was talking with me both as the quote unquote customer service representative, also as the CEO, but also as the mailroom attendant and supply chain, expert, and warehouse. And so I was like, Hey, this is really weird. But I can actually FaceTime us so you can see the true color. And we can kind of compare it at least over FaceTime to show you what it looks like. And then why don't we send you two sizes, because we don't want you to miss your problem because you measured incorrectly and so was able to get her the right size and sleeve to allow her to enjoy go into her senior prom and focus on all the great music rather than having to worry and dancing rather than having to worry about everyone just staring at her arm. And I think it's it's stories like that, and people like that, that really inspire us to do even more and to continue on our path and journey to help as many people as possible. And really focus on doing whatever possible that we can do to kind of continue to bring function and fashion together to reimagine the world, and how we think about healthcare in general.
Paul Zelizer 22:44
I love that story. Such a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing that chatting. Started in 2014. And through this very, your company is called Karen, where there's deep compassion and care and empathy for what people who are having these medical situations are dealing with. You've grown quite a bit give us a sense, like, what's the scale of the company now?
Chat Razdan 23:08
Yeah, totally. So really fortunate to be able to help millions of people we work with over at hospital systems and governments worldwide. Still a small and mighty team. We are 15 as of today actually had two people start today, which we're super excited to have them joining gratulations. Thanks. It's weird when you know you don't get to meet them on the first day in person these days because of COVID. But super excited to have them on the team. And our team is super passionate about making a difference in this year where last year we delivered millions of products globally. And this year, we're looking to do even more and continue helping as many people as possible. But there's well over 7 billion people around the world. And we've still got a long, long way to go in terms of being able to help each and every person and we're really focused on doing whatever we can to help as many people as possible.
Paul Zelizer 24:17
Congratulations, growing to 15 people and millions of products is no small feat. And yeah, really congratulations. So let's do this. In a moment. I want to just come back and want to unpack a little bit more. In the second part of the show. We like to look at how something works as a social enterprise just like what's the nuts and bolts of a company. Before we do that. I just want to do a quick pause and hear a word from our sponsor. Do you have a business that's about helping people and making the world a better place and you want it to grow in terms of both your impact and your income? If you do I'd like to talk about podcasting for a minute. There Reason why is the podcast listeners are pretty special bunch. And when I was looking into the research thinking about, you know, do I personally want to get involved in podcasting for my businesses, I found three data points that really said, ooh, look at this. There's something very special going on here. Number one, podcast listeners are early adaptors were the kind of folks who are looking for new ideas. And when we hear about something prior pretty quickly, we jump in with new ideas, whether it works or not, we were wired that way to look for new ideas and implement them quickly. Number two podcast listeners are natural leaders are the kind of folks that people in our circles turn to whether it's our professional networks or community networks or in our families. And lastly, podcast listeners make more money, not just a little bit, but quite a bit more. When you put that together, listeners Think about that for a minute. You have an innovative idea that's about making the world a better place. And these are the kind of folks that think that way. And they're the kind of budget to invest in your products and services. If you'd like to learn about using podcasting, whether you want to be a guest like chats doing such a great job today, or I have the honor of being the host today, where you want to do both aware partners has a podcast success team will walk you through every step of the way of learning to leverage podcast to help your positive impact business grow in terms of both your income and your impact. You can find out more at aware partners comm forward slash podcast dash success. And thank you to everybody in our podcast success team who sponsors this podcast. Such as in the second part of the show, we'd like to unpack a little bit about how it works, we asked you to put on your social entrepreneur glasses. So we just learned we've got 15 people as of today, congratulations, you're delivering millions of products give us a sense of like, when you look at your revenue stream, like what would somebody who's trying to understand it as a social impact business? What would they see in terms of revenue stream and how people are finding you?
Chat Razdan 27:09
Yeah, that's a great question. And one that continues to evolve each and every day. Like any true social entrepreneur, I guess. It's interesting, we are very atypical. And I think some investors love this some hate this is we sell both direct to consumer as well as to hospitals. So if you're a patient, we want to help you. And so we have on our website, all of our products available for you to purchase, we have different colors, we have different designs, you, for example, can wear your favorite baseball team, so that you can root on in my case, the Orioles while wearing a picc line, we have collaborations with like Oscar de la Renta, March of Dimes, and others. But then we also have another side of our business where we're selling into a hospital. And those hospitals are providing our products too hot to their patients. And so, for example, University of Virginia or the Mayo Clinic, and others, you can actually go in and get, you'll get a picc line provided to you each time that you go in and you actually will have, they even put their branding on it. And so it's a really unique way for the hospital to be able to help market themselves as well. Some of our other products can be found nationwide to with medical distributors. So we work with many of the world's leading medical distributors. And then we're also on contract with what's called a general purchasing organization, that GPO which is contracting and negotiating on behalf of many large hospital systems. And so it's a really, it's one of those things when you think about driving awareness on our team, we have a team that is really focused on interacting with hospitals each day, day in and day out. And then we have another team that's really doing whatever we can to drive awareness for the end user, so that they know that they can come to our website and buy from us. And while we're doing all this, we're obviously trying to keep track of all of our revenue and profit, etc. so that we can make sure that we are giving back to those in need, which is obviously super important to our DNA and something that's super important for us as well.
Paul Zelizer 29:46
So, to throw a little lingo around, you are both a b2c and b2b company. In other words, I can if I'm going in the hospital, I can go and buy a sleeve right for you. Or, if I'm the, you know, medical purchasing agent or chain of hospitals, there's 37 hospitals, I can buy enough for the entire chain of hospitals all the way from one person to a large organization. You work with both of them. Yep, exactly. Beautiful. In terms of your marketing, I want to give our listeners a sense, I noticed something. And I'd love to get your thoughts because my hunch is this wasn't an accident. So like if you go to your blog, and listeners put a link to the Karen ware website, in the show notes, as well as the other resources we've mentioned. But like there's a blog, that's called gift ideas for patient undergoing chemotherapy. And as you read through that blog, one of the things I noticed is that there's a bunch of things in terms of these gift ideas that aren't things that Karen were sell, for instance, earplugs and talk about, you know, the noise of a hospital and how tired people can get or another one that's close to my heart as a bald man, there was one about silk or fleece pillowcases. Now you all don't sell silk or Pee Wee's pillowcases. But I'm bringing this up listeners Think about this for a minute. Here's, you know, blogging and content marketing love it. It's, I think one of the most empowering ways to grow a business. But oftentimes, when you go to a company, if there was to be a product placed in their blogs of a product based company, the majority or all of the things they mentioned, would be their own products or services, and you all, there's something happening there where you're talking about earplugs and you don't sell earplugs, and you're talking about silk pillowcases, and you don't sell silk pillowcases, talk to us a little bit about what's going on there. unpack that for us a little bit.
Chat Razdan 31:44
Yeah, totally. I think that's where the care part of Karen, where it comes out, and for Karen, where it's not just about promoting what's best for our company, but rather being the destination for you to help you in your journey, and be able to support you in any way possible. And so for us, it's always been important that people come to us and trust us, and what our advice and support and look wall, there's many times where people ask us for advice that we're not qualified to provide, including when they have a medical issue, we are going to be the first to say you should really talk to your medical provider. But we do want to be that trusted destination for you. And so like you're saying for the earplugs or the pillow cases, those are things that what we're going to do is as we get feedback from others, and as we hear about things that are helpful for them, and that they wish they could share with the rest of the community, we're going to go ahead and do that. And sometimes we'll even have guest people come in and talk about their experience, talk about what what they think could be helpful. And sometimes you'll see something a little more kind of promoting ourselves and our products, but we at the end of the day are wanting to do whatever we can to help you in your journey. And yeah, in the short run, that could mean less profit or less revenue for us. But in the long run, we're building that relationship with you. And we are caring about you and your family and your loved ones. And doing whatever we can to help you in that journey. And to me, I always like to tell people that five years from now, if we're doing over a billion dollars in sales, and that's it, I would actually view that as a failure I set out to start this company to help my loved ones to help those in need. And for us that will never just be about products. But it's always going to be about helping you in your journey and helping you feel like a human again. And whatever we can do to do that I think is super important for us.
Paul Zelizer 34:03
So when you got started with all this like was this space you knew a lot of value knew all about like medical supply and distribution, both b2c and b2b and partnering with these big organizations like March of Dimes, like how much of that was already in your skill set. And how much of that is like, well, I want to get this done. I don't know anything about blank, but I got to figure this out to you know, move the needle in the direction I want to go.
Chat Razdan 34:31
Yeah, Paul, it's, it's a great question. And I think this is one thing that many people don't realize as an entrepreneur. The truth is, is that you probably regardless of your experience, you probably have no idea about 90% of the things that are going to happen to you no matter what, in my case, probably even higher. I'm a former strategy consultant and investment banker. So I worked at two amazing firms. I worked at Kearney for my consulting career in Goldman Sachs. For my investment banking career, but I hadn't really pursued healthcare, I didn't really know a lot about it. I didn't know much about fashion either. But there were definitely certain components of my previous lives that I was able to bring in. For example, one thing would be working capital, you read the stories about startups that grow and actually go bankrupt by growing too much, because they aren't getting paid until well after their bills are due. And so they end up having issues where they have factories or sellers money before they're getting paid. For us, that was super important to be the other way around. And so we as a company strive to be what's called negative net working capital, where we are getting paid before we are having to pay our bills that allows us to really grow and be successful. But most of the lessons were learned on the job. And I did that a couple of ways. One, I created an enormous advisory board at the beginning, I had at one point, over 15, people that were officially advisors for the company found people that had a strong sense of specific skill set. So I had a marketing advisor, a PR advisor, an operations advisor, actually a social entrepreneurship advisor, nurses, doctors, hospital administrators, and then just surrounding myself with people that I could go to with questions. And I think, today, we take a three pronged approach to the development of each and every one of our products. And the honest truth is, is the reason we do that is because I wasn't the right person. And I wanted to get the right people in the room with me. And so I first and foremost, brought in clinicians and clinicians ensured that our products are medically superior to everything else out there, when you think about a startup, especially in healthcare getting hospitals are patients or customers to want to buy your products over a well known brand, they're going to be able to do that because they're going to want to do that because you have something that's far superior to everything else out there. And so by working with conditions, we were able to do that. And strategically that allowed us to create products that also had unique IP for us. And so we were able to get patents on each and every one of our products. Secondly, I wanted to incorporate the end user into the design process. And so when you think back to the story of a patient gown, and my being a child and having to have my backside exposed, there might be a clinical reason to have your backside exposed. But from the patient perspective, it's something that you absolutely don't want to do. And that was something that I thought was really, really important. And something that I was really striving to solve for. And so bringing them to be a part of the design process was super important. And then lastly was bringing in manufacturing and fashion and design. And so like, for example, when we were creating our bra, our factory that was making the braas, our post reconstructive surgery browse, our factory actually came up with a great idea as we were trying to solve one component of it. And so working hand in hand with them has definitely been amazing and unbelievable. And it's also allowed us to create a really awesome three pronged approach to the design and development of each of our products. And it's all started from the fact that I joke with everyone that hey, I didn't know what I was doing. And so just wanted to get people around us that did and have now more fat into a full on design process for the company.
Paul Zelizer 39:04
Love. And I just want to again, for our listeners highlight. Sometimes it's the passion and the willingness to enter into a space and be more open to have these kinds of conversations, then I don't have a certification or 27 years of experience in blank space. So I really appreciate you sharing this with us chat and how you came up with this approach of leveraging other people's experience and being willing to ask about it proactively asking about it. Rather than well. I've been in the medical space forever and I know what I know what people need, right? That's not that's making care and where work so well. So if you're listening and you've got an idea, but it's you know, outside of or you're just getting started with your career. Notice what Chad did there engaging people who have that lived experience in those different skill sets and Including them and asking can even many times lead to better results. And somebody who's that I'm the expert, I know everything kind of approach to a particular space.
Chat Razdan 40:14
That's the old adage that one plus one equals three. And that's making sure that you follow that day in and day out.
Paul Zelizer 40:22
Yeah. This leverage with some of these very well known foundations and nonprofits, like as I looked at it, let's use March of Dimes, because a lot of people, at least in the US probably know them, right? Like, what have you learned about partnering with big organizations in a space 30 are working for good and here you are a for purpose company, I love that language, right? You're not a nonprofit, and sometimes there's, oh, opinions about for purpose, you know, social benefit be corpse, etc. I think it's better known than it was 10 years ago. But still, sometimes that divide or difference can be an issue, what have you learned about how to effectively work with foundations, and turn them into allies and collaborators and even best case, scenario, brand advocates?
Chat Razdan 41:15
Yeah, I've learned a lot and still continuing to learn even more. I think the first thing is, is nonprofits, just like startups are extraordinarily passionate about what they're doing. And most people that are going to, for example, March of Dimes are not going there for their really large checks, right, they're going there. Because they have a personal reason to make a difference in the world, as it relates, in particular to mothers and babies and families. And I think that that is something that is really important to remember when you're interacting with foundations is the normally undermanned, they normally don't have the ability to spend a lot of time doing anything. So whatever you can do on their behalf, I think helps a lot. I know when we started for some of our foundation partners, we used to write up all the copy all the way out, I think for one Foundation, we even went in and edited their website for them with the code. It's all hands on deck and being willing and able to do whatever you can for them. I think the second piece is the stories are so powerful. And this actually took us a few years to realize, but nonprofits at the end of the day actually care more about the community stories they're getting rather than the checks that you're giving them or providing to them. And I know when we started, there were a couple of foundations that were like, We will only work with you if you give us a million dollar check every every week. And I was like, you know, I would love to do that we're really not at that stage yet. don't even have a product out on the market. But what we found with a lot of our amazing foundation partners is being able to tell a clear and compelling story and being able to share the impact on the community is super important. March of Dimes actually had approached us to work with them, because they had personal stories of families with preemies that weren't able to wear any clothing and the Nicki because the Nicki one Z's at the time were really just like a one z that was made for smaller sites, and it didn't provide any sort of clinical access. If you would have to unplug the baby from the machines to put it on and off the baby. Just things you couldn't do in that environment. And so when they came to us, and we said yes, but we want the ones to be able to be taken on and off while the baby's still plugged in, or we we talked about still wanting to use a comfortable antimicrobial fabric. We talked about design and being cutting edge. I think they were just as impressed with us as we were of them for what we wanted to go about doing. And I think now we're starting to see a lot of that benefit, where we get some incredible stories where you get the prom story or we've recently had some amazing stories of families in the NIC queue and how the ones that he was able to help get provide inspiration and support. And I think that that is really at the end of the day, what drives the relationship and what drives the enthusiasm and excitement and then it's the fact that you are small and when you're interacting with them. They're talking with again, the CEO, the janitor, the head of partnerships, the mailroom attendant all in the same time because it's all the same person and I think that that is really really unique where you're creating incredible brands. On bonds individually, and really just trying to change the world together in super cheesy, but Gandhi always used to say that you should be the change that you wish to see in the world. And that's what we are trying to do at Karen wire. And that that's how we kind of view all of our partnerships.
Paul Zelizer 45:23
When you think about the humanizing healthcare part of things, I can certainly imagine how good it feels with my family, you know, suddenly, their new premature infant has comfortable, warm, you know, clothing that fits there such I can only imagine what that feels like to be an individual parent, or the young woman who made the dress with them work. So just exquisitely where do you see any of the healthcare providers any impact? like are they noticing anything? You see nurses or doctors or health care administrators? Like, do you see any impact on that level?
Chat Razdan 46:05
Yeah, totally. We see. I mean, yes, and I think that's why we, the conditions are so integral to designing each and every one of our products, where you're working with the clinicians to try and solve the issue, and you're taking it from both the patient's side, but also the medical side. So in the Nicki, for example, families will sometimes still put on a Wednesday that they then have to unplug and plug or they really have to do a lot of work, to be able to get the lines to the baby, or be able to kind of provide the support that they want. And what we've been able to do is save them time, as well as providing more comfort and access points. So with our Nikki, one z, for example, we have IV access, and then we actually have ties and snaps all across the body. And so you can get to any part of the body rather easily without exposing the rest of the baby. And so it's by working together, we're able not just to create something that looks good, and not just something that feels good, but also something that clinically is solving for any sort of issues that you might potentially be having today. And that's why as we design and develop even more products, many of them with amazing hospital partners, when we're designing those, the hospital partners an integral part of the development because we want to make sure that we're helping you on the on the hospital or clinician side as well.
Paul Zelizer 47:48
So you're seven years in and you're selling millions of products a year, you've got a team of 15. Again, congratulations as of today. Give us a little bit of like, when you look ahead, if you were to look ahead five years from now, what would you like, Karen, where would you like it to be as a company in terms of like the scale of the company? And what kind of impact? Would you like to see having five years down the road that you're not able to yet have now?
Chat Razdan 48:17
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, the easy answer is to say, we want to be helping even more people with even more issues. And I want you when you think any sort of health care need to be able to come to care and where and for us to have that solution for you. And to be the end all be off for you. But as I said earlier, it's not just about products, it's about the community and inspiring each other when we think about what the world has just gone through over the last year plus, in particular. And there's a whole loss of enthusiasm and inspiration. And it's bringing that back and helping Connect patients and clinicians together and both patients to clinicians, clinicians, the patients, but also patients the patient's conditions or conditions. And I think that that's going to be something that's super important for the future. And being able to provide that support and guidance, I think will be really, really important. And then I think it's having even more of an impact. And I think of some of the amazing companies out there that have done so many good things in the world. And we're still at the beginning of that, especially from a social mission. Part of it and it's long term, I would like to have our own Karen wire foundation where we are able to help those in need all over the world. And I think we've still got a lot of amazing work that we can do. And we're really excited to make as big of an impact that we can and continue on requests of doing whatever we can to allow people to bring fun And function together to reimagine healthcare altogether.
Paul Zelizer 50:05
Ted's fabulous to talk to you today. And I could hang out with you all day. But I know you're busy. And I know our listeners are too. So I won't do that. But if there was something as we're winding down that you were hoping we were going to get to today, and we haven't gotten to it, or you want to pass on something, and starting to say goodbye to our social entrepreneur audience who cares about impact, you know, at least as much as you do, we have this incredible audience, and they're working to find and many of them are younger, and aren't seven years in and don't have employees, you know, 15 employees, anything you want to leave them as we start to say goodbye?
Chat Razdan 50:44
Yeah, I think the biggest thing I would say is, success doesn't really happen overnight. In fact, I would say worst, we still got a long way to go. And don't get discouraged, don't get upset about one negative thing that happens, or one potential speed bump. I mean, we've had so many stories of things that haven't gone, right. And I think being at a startup is like writing the world's craziest roller coaster, that there's so many ups and downs. And you have to stay grounded, and you have to remember what you're doing and why you're doing it. And it's something that we continue to work on day in and day out. But remembering all the good that you're doing in the world, I still remember, one of my mentors from Goldman, when I talked to him about potentially doing this full time said, What's the worst thing that happens that you try and help a few people? And it doesn't work out? Is that something that you're ever going to be ashamed of? And is that something that you're ever going to be upset about? And my immediate answer was no, I would be thrilled to say I failed. But I tried to help people and I was able to help three people. And that's kind of what gave me the inspiration to jump in start caring where and I think it's thinking about it in the same way that you can have an impact. And even if you change the life have one person that is so valuable, and so incredible. And it's thinking about each and every person that you're able to help and impact in remembering that and use that as your driving force. And if you do that, you're going to be able to make a huge difference. And I'm really excited not only to be here and get to meet a lot of your amazing community, but to see what the community does. And we're all in this together. And whatever we can do to help, we would be thrilled. So
Paul Zelizer 52:35
thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you. For listeners, go check out their website, look at the fabulous work they're doing. Go take a look at some of those blog posts and go notice what they're doing on social media is the company that's really practicing a lot of the principles that we're talking about here on the enterpreneurs podcast, go check it out. Before we go, just want to remind you we love listener suggested topics and guests. If you have a guest or topic that you think would be a good fit, go to the aware printers website, look at our contact page. And we have our three criteria. We try to be really transparent how we make choices. It's all right there. If it feels like a fit, please tell us your idea. For now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these poignant times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.