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Biggest Challenges Faced By A Founder At WellSpace

Maria's biggest challenge as Founder of WellSpace is "patience," a necessary virtue given the lengthy process of developing a robust product and balancing that against the desire to immediately help the "billion women" she aims to empower. This is compounded by the financial demands of bootstrapping, requiring careful consideration of long-term vision versus potentially accepting venture capital, a choice influenced by Maria's desire to retain control and a specific company culture.

Entrepreneurship, Startup Funding, Product Development, Patience and Perseverance, Financial Management

Advizer Information

Name

Job Title

Company

Undergrad

Grad Programs

Majors

Industries

Job Functions

Traits

Maria Ko (Kiejnich)

Founder

WellSpace

UCLA Class of 2020

Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ed.M. in Learning Design, Innovation and Technology

Economics

Healthcare, Medical & Wellness, Technology

Entrepreneurship and Business Owner

International Student, First Generation College Student

Video Highlights

1. The importance of patience in achieving long-term goals, especially in the entrepreneurial world where immediate results are not always guaranteed.

2. The financial challenges of bootstrapping a startup versus seeking venture capital funding and the tradeoffs involved in each approach.

3. The importance of maintaining control over one's company culture and vision, especially when considering external funding options.

Transcript

What is your biggest challenge in your current role?

The biggest challenge in my current role is patience. As an entrepreneur, you have a vision for where you want your product to be, and you want it to be robust and filled with helpful features. You don't always realize how long it takes to build that kind of product.

Sometimes it can feel discouraging not to see results immediately. Of course, it's a process where you test out the minimal viable product. But there comes a point after a series of tests where you just want to see the outcome you envisioned. If you're still not seeing it, it can be a bit discouraging, and you start to wonder, "When will I?"

So I find that to be the biggest challenge because I want to deeply help women be healthier with my WellSpace product. Right now, I can only have our product tested with 30 people. I'm still in the process of learning, and sometimes it feels like, "When will I be able to help that billion women I want to empower?"

There is that component, and patience definitely becomes more and more necessary as time goes on. I would say that's for me, the biggest challenge, as well as finances. You always have to think about how you will be financing the team and the project going forward, especially if you decide to bootstrap, like I'm currently doing.

Taking VC money is a more straightforward path. You have an idea, you learn from it, you pitch it, people give you money so you can pay your team and see how it goes. But that isn't the right route for everyone.

The biggest challenge was also in deciding if I want to continue working on this in seven, ten, or twenty years. The answer for me is yes. I want to continue working on WellSpace for many, many years to come and see it grow into many tools for wellbeing.

Do I want to take VC money? Not necessarily. I don't want to sell my company or lose control over decision-making, or have my culture influenced in a way that isn't positive. So, I would say the biggest challenges are in patience and then deciding on finances.

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