S2EP3: Next Time I'll Leave the Room with Dr. Somi Javaid

After two decades in practice, keeping her company profitable through COVID, and building a patient base that spanned 35 states, Dr. Somi Javaid still walked into investor meetings where people looked around the room asking where her boss was.

In this episode of The Capital Flex, I sit down with Dr. Somi Javaid, board-certified OB-GYN, surgeon, and founder of HerMD, who raised nearly $30 million to build evidence-based care in menopause, sexual health, and gynecology, all well before the market believed women’s health was venture-backable.

She landed her first term sheet in five weeks. She also sat through pitch meetings where investors told her menopause didn’t need treatment and low libido wasn’t real.

Somi didn’t cry in the room. She waited for the sushi and sake bar after.

We talk about what happens when founders mistake access for alignment, and how quickly leverage can disappear in venture-backed rooms. Somi shares the story of an investor who blocked a competing term sheet to force a lower valuation, the “troublemaker” reputation she earned for refusing to play the good girl, and why she walked away from a $65 million term sheet in her first round. 

More than anything, this is a conversation about holding onto your conviction when the room keeps trying to make you second-guess it.

Key Takeaways:

• Why being called “difficult” is often the cost of protecting your leverage
• Why titles in one room don’t always translate to respect in the next
• What happens when an investor decides the very problem you’re solving for doesn’t exist
• How founders quietly give away power the moment they assume the room knows better than they do
• Why Somi walked away from a $65 million term sheet in her first round
• The hidden tradeoff that comes with taking capital too early

My Reflection & Challenge:

Somi let herself get small in rooms that had no business making her feel that way  because she had been trained to defer. That is not a character flaw. It is what the system is designed to do. Naming it is the first move. Deciding it won't happen again is the second.

This Week's Challenge:

• Where in your business are you deferring to a title instead of your own expertise — not because they've earned it, but because the room made you feel like they had?
• And the next time someone disrespects you and follows it with a business-as-usual email the next day, what are you going to do with that?

Links and Resources:
https://www.drsomi.com/
https://www.instagram.com/somijavaidmd/
https://www.instagram.com/hermdhealth/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/somi-javaid
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAdtK-yQpKoFH0c-43qwTLPf3-Io4FfjS

This episode is brought to you by Phoenix Fund Services
To learn more about Phoenix Fund Services and connect with them, visit: https://www.phx-fs.com/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/phoenix-fund-services/

If you enjoyed this conversation, follow The Capital Flex, leave a rating and share this episode with a founder who needs it.

And if you’re looking for a more candid space to talk fundraising, power and building inside systems not designed for you, stay close. The conversation continues.

Production and Administration work completed by Smart Podcast Solutions and Elevate Virtual Business Solutions. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

This is the Capital Foot. I'm Team Sayani. This show codifies the Capital Playbook because no founder should have to learn the hard way. We talk about what really happens behind closed doors. The bias, the breakthroughs, and the things no one says out loud. If you've ever walked into a room and felt the system wasn't built for you, you're in the right place. Hello and welcome to the Capital Flex. My guest today is Dr. Somi Javed. Dr. Somi is a board-certified OBGYN and surgeon and founder of Her MD, a clinic and virtual-based solution advancing evidence-based care in menopause, sexual health, and gynecology. She has raised significant capital to scale her MD, totaling nearly $30 million, which is huge and amazing and significant for a female founder and a female founder of color, no less, because it's we have to celebrate all of these great stories, and has been recognized on Inc.'s female founders 250 in 2024, Worth's groundbreaking women in 2025, and by fortune at the most powerful women international summit in 2025 as well. Dr. Somi is also a frequent commentator for news outlets including Forbes, Vogue, and TEDx, and she hosts the Disrupt Her podcast. Somey and I have been friends for some time, sharing notes on business, the venture ecosystem, all things women's health, and of course, all the things that we would change and fix and redo in this ecosystem. And the list is long. She's one of my favorite people, and I'm so happy to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for joining me. Oh, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

And thank you for that intro. I appreciate it so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Oh, I I have to share all the accolades because I have to make sure we say all the things out loud. So for everyone listening, would you please introduce yourself a little bit more and tell us a little bit more about her MD and what and what you built?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I would say I'm a mother, a daughter, a human. I mean, I think we have to say that in this day and age, right? Someone who nearly lost her mother at the age of 45 made a very naive but very mission-driven promise to her mother, who nearly died at the age of 45 to cardiovascular disease, which still remains over two decades later, the number one killer of women, that I wouldn't stand for it and other women wouldn't have to suffer. Thought becoming a doctor would be the solution. It wasn't. Thought opening my own practice would be the solution. We treated hundreds of thousands of patients. It was a great solution. We scaled, raised capital, pivoted, exited, and now I'm really doubling down on the education and the advocacy. So, podcaster, soon-to-be author, menopause and sexual health care expert. I mean, I just love teaching so much and I love advocating so much. And I just don't want if I can leave any type of legacy, it's that healthcare is a little bit better better than the uh mess that I found it in.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That's my goal. I love it. It's it's an important takeaway, right? To to leave something better than how you found it. And that, and I I do believe that you have done that. I will say, I will add, I saw the documentary The M Factor, and I remember feeling so proud and happy that I knew so many of the people in the film. I was like, I'm friends with her, and I'm friends with her, and I'm friends with her, and I was I was thrilled that I knew so many of you. So I was like, that the film was great, and everyone should see it, and everyone I know has seen it. And and I felt extra special that I knew you and I knew so many others. I was like, oh my friends, all my friends did this. I love this.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

It's fantastic. It was a really, you know, cool experience, but at the time we had no idea that it would be shown, I think, in 60 countries globally, and I don't know how many cities. My portion was people laugh when they found out. That tells you how talented the producers were. Was shot on an iPhone with absolutely no kidding whatsoever. Yeah. I was in um Joe LaMarca Matheson's home because I was one of the first they asked, because it was, I think, after our first raise. It was extraordinary to be alongside those colleagues to work with women, once again, who are so mission-driven to get the project done. So yeah, I forgot. I I've been part of a documentary. I'm actually going to be a part of another one. And uh I've been featured in two New York Times bestsellers. And people have been telling me you need to write a book, but when you're practicing medicine, you know, two decades, you don't have the time, or you prioritize on family or, you know, travel or resting from everything else that you're doing so that you can heal. That's what I talk about. Healers need to heal themselves so that we can make space. And I frankly think anyone who takes care of others, uh, whether it's pets, kids, a company, whatever it is, you have to take that time out for yourself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Well, so uh as we get into a conversation that requires healing coming out the other side, fundraising when female is not an adventure anyone should take lightly. Uh and and part of the mission and the the necessity of this podcast was to bring all those stories to light because I I get a lot of phone calls. I get a lot of inbound from founders as they walk into rooms that weren't built for them. They come upon just crazy, horrendous things that happen as they're out raising capital. And so I needed a place to talk about it out loud and to really leave the ecosystem with some learnings and insights and ultimately a toolkit where they can have a way to be prepped and ready before they walk into rooms that aren't built for them and try to raise capital for their companies. So that's the mission. And that's what we're here to do is talk about the hard stuff and then leave behind some insights for everyone else. So if we dive into it, as you were raising money for her MD, if if you could characterize your fundraising experience in three words, what three words come to mind?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Lucky, I'll explain that because people will be shocked by that. Tough, so tough. And uh eye-opening. Yeah, yeah. No, those are good. Those are tell us, tell us more. I think lucky in that not that we so we were profitable. We had already scaled our company to two locations, and I had been practicing medicine a long time, and the company had existed for seven years, just no one knew it. And the plan was never to scale until women started coming from 35 countries or 35 states in three countries. So I got an offer from my first pitch. So that's why I say lucky.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Wow. Not because that's unheard of, right? Doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Right. And so, you know, we had product market fit, all the things they tell you you have to have. We had the numbers, but you know, back in 2021, menopause, you know, I was told I couldn't say it on TV. Um, no one was talking about menopause, let alone sexual health. And for women in a tier two, and I was tier two market, and as you mentioned, a minority woman with two other minority founders with absolutely zero VC ties. Right. So 0.37% chance was what they gave me. Yeah. So I'm a girl. My mother said the most dangerous thing to do is tell somebody she can't do something because then she's just gonna do it. She's gonna go do it. So I did it up my first pitch, and one of the people on the call called me afterwards, and I thought it was a joke. He was like, um, my firm would be super interested. And I was like, ha ha, very funny. And he's like, No, I'm serious. Like, we would want to invest. It ended up being one of our term sheets. Well, it wasn't the one that we took, but in five weeks, I had raised the entire round with a singular investor. I know, I know, I know. They call this a blue ocean opportunity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because her MD existed before MIDI, before Alloy, before, you know, all the big ones that we know of now. So that's the only reason I say lucky. It's not that we didn't do the hard work. It's, you know, nine out of every 10 startups go under, and the founders take it so personally, but you need a little dose of luck. So our timing was was right and we met the right people. Tough because I was at the top of my game as far as being a doctor for a while. I knew a lot about menopause and sexual health care. And I was considered an expert and had sit on a lot, sat on a lot of advisory boards. So it was very humbling. Um, I had to learn a whole new vernacular vocabulary. Suddenly I wasn't the expert in the room anymore. So tough, but I have humility. When I went on labor and delivery, I wanted to learn from the nurses. So I always joke that I love to teach, but I'm a forever student. But it was very, very tough. And eye-opening because as a doctor, I was used to a certain level of respect and being treated that way and experienced a lot of um disrespect uh while fundraising and in the VC community. I always I tell people I was almost living this dichotomous world where on social media they're like, she's winning, she's on all these headlines, and behind the scenes, people would say and do whatever they wanted. And so that's why it was so eye-opening.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

It's like an out-of-body experience, right? You just you feel like you're not yourself in some VC rooms because it's just it's so deflating.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

It's deflating in behavior that I would never allow to happen. And I'm not saying it didn't happen in my early training, but at this point I was a seasoned, you know, expert, doctor, had research under my belt, all of this, all of the things. And then all of a sudden you're getting treated a very, very different way again. Like you're basically being told you don't know what you're doing, you need to step aside and let other people take over for you. And I believed it because I didn't know. That's the worst part. Right? It's the worst part because I didn't. I mean, if you think about it, I carried the company with the founders through COVID and kept this profitable. And despite that, because I didn't ha have an MBA, I was like, well, I want to have MD behind my name. I assumed people knew more than I did. And I believed, but they didn't understand what drives providers and what drives patients. They understood profitability, but I assumed that they knew more than I did just because I didn't speak the same language. Right. And that was incorrect.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Right. Right. Which is unfortunate. It's too bad that that the the the ecosystem treats people that way.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

But I feel like by you and I having this conversation, because for young founders would come to me and say, Oh, I just want that 2%. You know, patients say if I had known more about menopause, I wouldn't have been hit like a Mac trout. So by you doing this and us talking about this, you're like, we're not scaring. Uh I we we want more women, right? Female founders, we want more money. We just want them to go in eyes wide open.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Eyes wide open and and ready for that perspective to be there and to be ready to not feel deflated and not get debilitated by it, right? And then they know that it's to not give up. And to not give up 100%. This episode is brought to you by Phoenix Fund Services, a fund administration firm built for fund managers who want more than a back office provider. Founded by experienced fund professionals, Phoenix combines institutional grade technology with senior hands-on service, giving fund managers the infrastructure, responsiveness, and operational support they need to grow with confidence. Working with Phoenix means you are not just getting a fund administrator, you are getting a partner that understands what matters to you. Timely reporting, a smooth investor experience, responsive communications, and confidence that the operational infrastructure supporting your fund is built and managed properly. That means less time managing the back office and more time where you create the most value, raising capital, supporting investors, and building the fund's portfolio. Visit Phoenix at phx-fs.com to learn more. Yeah. So take us through maybe one of your harder, more gendered experiences.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Ooh, I like to title this story, because you know I'm a storyteller, which also helped during fundraising data and story, right? You get people in sex, sushi, and sake. It is the only pitch that I have ever cried in, ever. I'm a surgeon, so pretty tough. But my sister and I, who were co-founders, walked into a room. We were waiting on an investor, and this gentleman had inherited most of his wealth, and he was a legal expert. We'll just leave it at that. And uh we were left in his office for 45 minutes waiting. And when he walked in, he was on a phone call still, pretty heated, had made like hand motions to us, like, you know, give us a second. Sat down, started berating the people he was on the phone with. So I was like, okay, this is gonna be a tough one. Right away, looked at me and my co-founder and is basically like, um, where's your boss? Well, that's us. Well, where's your founder? That would be the both of us. Well, where's the money behind you guys? Well, that would be us. Um, we built this profitable company. So he he used every word, but where is the dude in the room? kind of thing. Uh, and we finally assured him that it was it. We had a third found co-founder, it was a female, and this was the team. And then we started telling him about her MD and menopause and sexual health care. And he basically said that hormones are unnecessary, that menopause does not need to be treated, it's not a medical condition, that female sexual health care is that low libido is not a real thing. I left, and the reason I call it a sushi, sake, and sex is because my sister ended up taking me to sugarfish right afterwards, and I drowned my sorrows in sushi and sake. Oh, god and cried. Oh god. But I cried not because of the things that he said to me, but I was so mad that I allowed myself to be disrespected. And now I would have gotten up right away and said, Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

As you were drowning yourself in sake and sushi? And then what was the reflection? And then what would you do now in that same room?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

The reflection was as women, as eldest daughters, as founders, as doctors, I was trained, I could fix it, I can fix it, I can fix it. So in the moment, the harder he pushed, the harder I pushed back with data. The harder I pushed back, not with disrespect, but with data, with answers, with experience, you know, what I knew how to do. The semi now would not try to fix it. It's the same advice I give my patients. Don't try to talk your doctor into treating your menopause or understanding your sexual health. They're not going to, you're wasting your time. Get up and leave. And that's what I would have done. Said, obviously, this is not gonna work. You're not for us, we're not for you. And I would have left right away. As soon as the disrespect started, I would have not, I don't tolerate it now. But at that point, I didn't know. It was my first round. I was, it was in that five weeks. Like, is this normal? Is this not normal? Like, and I think it's like a car accident. My you're just in shock. I remember looking over at my co-founder and her mouth was just open because she couldn't even process what was going on. And she felt equally as bad for not like standing up and saying, All right, let's go. Let's just get out of here. This is not worth it. No amount of money is is worth this.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Right. It feels like slow motion in the moment and even looking back, right? And so extracting from the slow motion is hard.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Extracting from the slow motion is hard. And then it was almost, and then he wrote to us afterwards, asking us for more information. And you're you're then thinking, Am I crazy? Did you not just experience what we did in the room? Like in the same room? That doesn't feel right. Which just reinforces their bad behavior, right? Like, oh, I didn't do anything wrong, you know. Like, I want more information about you guys. And so we were luckily we declined and we said, no, thank you. You know, we have a lot of other interested parties because could you imagine having that person as an investor and on your board and as a partner? Someone who wasn't an uh advocate for the patience or believed in the very mission of the company. So that was, I would say, the worst pitch and my worst experience ever. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

It's it is it is heartbreaking because every one of us has had something like that happen. And and it is that follow-up email where it serves to normalize that behavior because it you go, oh, that's why you feel like doesn't this always happen? Because they followed up and there's no, there's no shame on their part on how they behaved. It was just a normal day for them. And so you start, to your point, you start to question yourself and go, wait a minute, maybe maybe I remember it wrong, but you don't. You know exactly what that felt like, and you and so you you did the right thing. You go, no, we're good. Thank you. We we have money coming from elsewhere.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah. And my never again is to never let an investor make me cry, right? Or to disrespect me in that manner. 100%. Never again.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Never again. No.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

But I did not cry. I am very proud. The tears did not come out in the room. No, that's a big deal. Just like a breakup. I was like, I am not going to give him the validation of my tears. They will come out over sushi and sake, but they will not be spilt in this room. So yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Oh God, I would have, yeah. No, I I would have cried over sushi and sake as well. And then, and now, yes, as a as a grown-up with some seasoned wisdom. Thanks, but no thanks. Thanks, but no thanks. Yes, never again. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh, okay. Deep breath. Got it.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Uh do you have another one? Oh god. Yes, I do. I I have another one. So I've had subsequent rounds, you know, that's how we raised. And I had someone that actually forbade me from talking, and he used that vocabulary. He forbade me from talking to other investors, even though it was an open round. And actually reached out to the other investor who would have presented a much more favorable situation and blocked him. And basically said, Why are you talking to her? You need to be talking to me. Oh my God. Did you have a term sheet? There was there were a couple of term sheets, but then scared this other investor away. And he actually had called me and said, I want to do this, but now I won't because of this other individual. And then this other person then used the leverage from the loss of that term sheet to present a more favorable term sheet for themselves. And so in that moment, I learned a lot that investors can't forbid you from talking to other investors.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Right. Especially if you haven't signed anything yet. And actually they can't do it at all, but let alone blocking other investors.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

No, because everyone's job for the company is to make sure that the company is the most, you know, profitable and does the best and the outcome for the patients and the providers. And, you know, you have to look for the the good of the company, right? That's what everyone agrees to do. But this was done personally to me, not an official call. And so this is the little, you know, behaviors and these like side aggressions that sometimes happen in the VC world. And I'm not excusing it. I'm not saying it should happen, but that's how it happened because it wasn't officially a part of anything. It wasn't witnessed. It just was a side conversation. And I actually didn't listen and tried to fix things and but it didn't work out in my favor. Actually, I just felt like I was in the hot seat all the time after that because then I was known as the troublemaker. Who I just because I wouldn't be a good girl.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Oh no, I was gonna say that that's the label we get, right? Is it as soon as we haven't listened to the patriarchy and done what they told us, now we're the troublemaker and we haven't been a good girl.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

No, instead of being known as being confident or assertive or inquisitive or asking questions, you all of a sudden are the troublemaker, right? You're the troublemaker, and then that's the label you've you've gotten. So that is my other one. And that one was also a very, very, you know, painful lesson. But these are like stretched out over, you know, a couple of years as we were raising, you know, each round. And so you you gain insight from every single one. And it's like, wow, okay, that's a new behavior I've never seen before. And you gotta remember, and it seemed like I am, I was a 40-some-year-old woman at the time, a doctor. I had already raised millions. I was in national publications sitting on boards all across the country, speaking globally. I don't think my parents have forbidden me to do anything since I was a teenager. Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Um, yeah. The narcissism in that is just, it's so severe. And it's just, it's such an insane way to behave and to think that you can it's it's like locker room behavior, like you can just like bully your way through and tell and tell this young woman that she can't do something because you're gonna go win this raise and get the best terms possible, push out the other people and and take over ultimately, right? Attempt to take over her company the way that you want to. Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Attempt. Yes. And so for me, I knew though, in this situation, whereas the first gentleman had done it. publicly in front of other people. Yeah. This person did it very privately. So I knew that right away that it was wrong. It smelled off. It felt off. I knew it was wrong because I was like, well, if this was official, this should happen on a like witness with more people. And and so I knew the behavior was wrong. And I knew the behavior had only been directed at me because I was the one gaining the most traction and talking to the most people and and touching base with people. So I knew that behavior was wrong. And and obviously that individual knew that behavior was wrong because otherwise they would have done it in a different like right like you can disagree on teeth that happens all the time, even in medicine. Like the lead surgeon may not agree with the assistant surgeon, but you talk about it. You can have disagreements but when it happens like this, the these individuals know exactly what they're doing. Right. You know right, right.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Yeah. Yeah. Well it it's also such a moment where trusting your gut and your intuition comes in really handy. And it's another one of those things that in a fundraising capacity women don't do. We we we push it down and we go, oh no, I'm overthinking it when actually our spidey senses are quite reliable and we should be listening to our guts. And it's it's come up in a few conversations that if if I had just listened to my gut, that thing wouldn't have happened. And you knew you knew this was off and that something was wrong and you listened right and it it made a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Yeah but I I think about someone else who would have not because you're almost brainwashed into thinking you are so lucky to be in these rooms. You are so lucky to be like do you know how scarce this money is and the scarcity problem is real. Oh absolutely yeah yes but it should never be used as um think about it from you know I mean I'm married to a medical oncologist and when they're they're very very data driven they're not going to talk to you about the 5% chance of dying right they're going to talk to you about the 95% chance of success and living. And so I think it's almost the opposite in the venture world in the financial world where it's like doomsday and we're going to give you the worst case scenario. And for me I am the eternal optimist I'm the eternal dreamer. Isn't that what an entrepreneur is like someone who builds you have to be yeah you have to be the builds builds the impossible. Right. And so for me I think that's why these conversations were even harder because I was always the girl looking at how can we fix this? How can we do it? How can the numbers work? How can we make it favorable? How can we work on profitability? How can we incentivize people? How can we have the best outcomes so to me the numbers game wasn't scary unless it was like manipulated against me. And then I was scared and then I was tried to be forced to be scared of the numbers when I wasn't scared of the numbers. Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

So God the system it's there's so many things so many things to fix. There are you've told me some stories also about things that happened just in the normal course of business kind of outside of the fundraising experience that were also quite gendered.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yes that was also very very very shocking because I went through a residency program where it was like 24 women and four men. And yeah we had sexist things happen to us you know way back when male surgeons yelling at us and things like that. And it's gotten a lot better in medicine. So I'm not going to say it never happens. But generally medical teams work together for the outcome or the betterment of the patient. And so I was very used to a team approach and working together and not undermining each other or blaming things on gender, right? And so when there were disagreements on a team, normal everyone has ideas and you know the best idea should win. But anytime there was a disagreement on a particular team for us, comments would be made that this was challenges amongst women or just disagreements amongst women. And when I corrected said individual who made that comment as I was presenting data and numbers and appointment times and templates and it's like hardcore financial and you know medical data. And I was still being told the narrative that oh this is just a disagreement against you know of women when I corrected that individual they still wouldn't back down and said okay it's well this is just a disagreement amongst individuals. And so rather than investigating the underlying issues, problems, concerns, coaching was offered so that we could have better communication I'm not against coaching. I'm not against therapy. I mean I think they're both great and I think a lot of founders need them both because you know I always complain that there's not enough sensitivity training in medicine. And coaching was great for me because I was learning how to be an executive right I was growing as I was building. I had never been a CEO before I had never been a C-suite executive. So I was it wasn't that I was offended by the suggestion of coaching. I think every team should have coaching what I am pissed about frankly is the underlying issues getting dismissed and being mislabeled as you know team chemistry issues. Characterizes cattiness yeah characterizes cattiness undermining you know real concerns that are going on and therefore ignoring issues and behaviors that should have been dealt with and then because then it just gets delayed and dismissed. But I learned my biggest lesson there was drama is a great distractor of issues that are going on. So the person who likes to create drama doesn't belong in that seat anymore because they're just trying to circumnavigate the real issues at hand.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

And usually the person bringing up the drama is the one who gets blamed right well it's similar to and this is embedded in your stories but like it's it's okay for someone to offend but if I call out the offense I get in trouble. Right I'm I'm now in trouble for offending and this happens to women all the time right we have to absorb the offense and get treated badly and someone gets to tell us we're no good at running a company or whatever the case may be but if I bring it up and say hey that's actually not true or why did you say that or I'm actually really good at running my company and that was rude now I'm the bad person for calling them rude and it it it just we turn into the bad person all the time. And you go that's just it's just the system is just wired for it to again make us the troublemaker all the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Make us the troublemaker and like navigate the story in a very different way. And so for me I was lucky I was able to reclaim the reins at her MD. We were able to pivot from an integrated model of brick and mortar and tele to virtual only and then we were able to kind of tease out the business into two separate business units and have had a successful exit on the the telehealth side. That's amazing. Thank you. And so that's the other lesson learned is you know my goal once we started fundraising was to get to a national platform and to make sure our care was available in all 50 states. Now did it happen in the way I initially intended no I would have had to raise hundreds of millions of dollars but we did get there and we got our patients there to a national platform and to a very like-minded synchronous platform. So that to me was the second best outcome there could be that's great. So that's great. Yes yes and has kind of you know I think that's the other thing I want to tell founders is that it's okay to pivot. Like you will pivot multiple times because you're building something that hasn't been done before. And so and I also learned a lot more from my failures. I I I don't even see them as failures. And so that's what I would also tell people like you may be just one pivot away from getting to that successful exit or outcome that you wanted. It just the journey looks a little bit different than what you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

I don't know how much you can share but what can you tell everyone about your process to reclaim the reins and and how you thought about it and and what you did to do that after kind of getting through a series A.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Yeah well yeah we all got like through kind of a series A and then an extension round. Yeah so I I would love to say that that was controversial but that was actually a very calm process and wasn't as difficult as as people think because people are like how in the world so the things I can say it was mutual and everyone felt that the company and its original vision were best in the hands of the founders. And so that's where I talk about that triangle of patience, providers and profitability. And so it was a very mutual decision. So we were able to take control of the company again. But you know it's very very people are like I still believe an integrated model is the way to go. Like telehealth is great because we have an access problem. You know this and I know this. But there are just some things even with at-home PAPs and we I love the Femtech that you need a biopsy you need an ultrasound you need surgery. And we were doing it all we were drawing blood we were doing surgery we were doing images we were doing procedures. Women need in-person care even in midlife even after they're done having babies and we were taking care of women 13 to end of life and so integrated care is is the way to go but it was too people like well why didn't you buy back all the clinics and uh it's super capital intensive and so I did not have enough capital. So had to really think about how can I still take care of patients, how can I still educate providers because we have that educational arm, right? And right now we have one provider for every 32000 patients. So there's that gap too. And so we were filling the care and educational gap in the best capital efficient way that we could. And so that's how we solved for that problem. But unfortunately we had to let go of the centers which and that was like a death for me.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah that's heartbreaking because they were doing really well and and I never got to visit one. I really wanted to but I had always heard that they were beautiful and amazing.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

They were gorgeous and we were doing things that people like ACOG now says we'll have a mirror you know for an exam we like were casting anatomy if people wanted to and they could be a part of their examination. We were doing instead of sending people for HSGs you know to see if their fallopian tubes were open we were using saline and bubbles we called it the champagne test. Yes we were doing in-office ablations we were doing in-office sonata we were like ablating fibroids in an hour instead of the hysterectomy so we were doing groundbreaking medicine in a tier two in tier two markets and we were just you know looking back to I just think that healthcare wasn't ready for us yet that it it just it wasn't I remember when I first met you and I first heard the the model and the mission of her MB and because you were in in the middle of the country doing it right and and the the thing I think we said this and I remember I kept thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

I said God if it if it works there you know it's gonna work on the coast right and you prove it there it's gonna work everywhere else and I was just like God I I hope it gets funded and can expand because my goodness if it works there it's gonna work everywhere. You just you just know that it will. But it's capital intensive and that's the hard part.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

And that is the one other you know thing I don't even think you know I had a giant term sheet for my first round and if you want to talk about you know looking back in hindsight I had a term sheet for $65 million for a very very very large chunk of the company at that point. And if I knew what I knew now, right? These companies that were telehealth only have raised 100 million and that's what it took to grow. I was trying to grow an integrated model with the first round was 10 million. I and had I known what was going to happen with the economy uh looking back now I would have taken that taken it yeah yes and actually given us enough fuel to to grow and to grow integrated in the way that a lot more quickly.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Yeah yeah oh yeah no the things you learn it's incredible. Yeah the things you learn yes so if you could as we wrap up two or three big must-nos for female founders things that you you wish you had known early on or you really want women to keep in mind as they prep for their fundraise or even start to build their businesses.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

If you can delay taking on capital as long as you can that that is the paramount lesson to keep in mind. Yeah absolutely so say scrappy but number two uh the same care and thought that goes into your mission that goes into your company that goes into your device whatever you're building should go into your evaluation of whoever's offering you a term sheet because it truly is like a marriage and a long-term relationship through the good bad and the ugly and you want someone who's going to problem solve with you who's going to help you and who have expertise and experience in that area. And I think at that point, you know, people told me it was just so hard to raise that I took capital. But I really would encourage people to evaluate that with the same intensity. And the third thing I would say is nobody knows your your business better than you do. Titles don't entitle you. If that's my take-home message titles don't entitle you nobody has lived your business built your business and I I'm not saying that you know you should stay on as as the CEO if you don't want to but I'm I'm saying nobody knows your business better than you and don't assume people know more because of fancy titles behind their their name.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

That's a great one. That is such an important one to keep in mind. Where can people find you? How can they follow you?

SPEAKER_01 36:53

What's most helpful for you right now if anything Yeah so Sony Jabate on Instagram Dr. Somi on TikTok and uh take a listen to uh the Disruptor podcast.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

Perfect amazing thank you so much friend for joining me and sharing so much wisdom I'm such a fan of you always and this has been fantastic. There's just so much to learn and I I know everyone will appreciate everything. Thanks for listening to the Capital Flex. If today's episode hit home share it with the founder you love and follow me on LinkedIn for more