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Showing posts with label shradha argawal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shradha argawal. Show all posts
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An Ecosystem Where Start-Ups Help Other Start-Ups
An Ecosystem Where Start-Ups Help Other Start-Ups
Shradha
Agarwal and Rishi Shah are co-founders of ContextMedia, a health care media
company in Chicago. They made a point of financing and mentoring other
start-ups. Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times
It is a symbiotic relationship that makes sense to Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah, both 31 and co-founders of ContextMedia, a health care media company in Chicago. The two entrepreneurs are expanding their 10-year-old company, which they started when they were students at Northwestern University. They have made a point of supporting other start-ups by financing an angel fund called Jumpstart Ventures. The fund has backed more than 45 businesses, giving $20 million since 2011.
Although there are no precise estimates on how many such ecosystems exist, the Kauffman Foundation, a research organization focusing on entrepreneurship, found that nearly every one of the more than 360 major metropolitan areas in the United States had such a network in place.
ContextMedia provides customized health care information on screens at doctors’ offices and other sites. Doctors can show patients digital 3-D anatomical diagrams of procedures using ContextMedia “wallboards” or tablets. Their material is now viewed by more than six million patients a month at 25,000 medical practices or health care locations.
The company is also working with the Mayo Clinic to bring their media content directly to hospitals and physician offices.
More than 400 people work at the company, whose revenue last year was $63.5 million. It hopes to add more than 200 workers by the end of the year.
Although ContextMedia has made inroads into a notoriously difficult market to crack — doctors’ waiting and examination rooms — it was done without venture capitalists, who weren’t willing to take a risk, Ms. Agarwal said. Support from the Chicago entrepreneurial community not only got her company started, but it also helped the company clear some high hurdles.
Professors at Northwestern first helped Mr. Shah and Ms. Agarwal. And the founders “bootstrapped,” or self-funded, their enterprise during the recession.
“In 2008-2009, we slowed down,” Ms. Agarwal said, “so we had to reconnect to our journey, which was our passion for changing health care.” With the Jumpstart fund, she says she now wants to “pay it forward” to other entrepreneurs.
These support systems need to be diverse to be effective, though. According to the World Economic Forum, which surveyed more than a thousand entrepreneurs around the world, what start-ups value most are accessible markets, funding, regulatory framework, an educated work force and major universities. That doesn’t mean, however, that the network always provides robust financial backing from big-money players like large venture capital firms.
An ecosystem also offers social and psychological support. What fuels entrepreneurial success, Ms. Agarwal noted, are passion and purpose. When she started her company, she wanted an enterprise that would have a positive social and personal impact. She started with diabetes education, a disease that affected both her and Mr. Shah’s relatives in India.
When Ms. Agarwal interviews candidates for the Jumpstart Ventures portfolio, she wants to find like-minded people who are “passionate about their mission.”
Mert Iseri, co-founder and chief executive of SwipeSense, a company focused on reducing hospital infections, was someone who fit the bill. Also a former Northwestern student, he met Ms. Agarwal in 2012.
Mr. Iseri, 28, was focused on providing a digital hand hygiene solution to combat the 100,000 annual deaths in the United States from hospital-acquired infections. Such infections cost $28 billion a year in related health care expenses.
“Shradha became our first investor and gave us our first check for $25,000 and employed ‘radical candor,’” in her mentoring, Mr. Iseri said. That included discussions about tough decisions that had to be made when building a business, such as hiring, firing and determining long-term goals.
“It is always difficult to fire someone,” Mr. Iseri said. He described one situation where a sales representative was a high performer but didn’t fit the culture at SwipeSense. “Shradha was very clear; her direct feedback was to part ways right then and there, and she highlighted that no amount of short-term results can justify holding on to folks who won’t be long-term members of the team.”
SwipeSense’s initial presentation at Healthbox, a Chicago-based incubator, raised $1 million in 2011 after one of its first demonstrations. Mr. Iseri credited Ms. Agarwal’s continuing support with helping his company secure more than $12 million through several rounds of financing.
Mr. Iseri would not disclose his company’s sales but said it had “annual revenues in the seven figures” and was “experiencing significant month-over-month growth” with its customers.
Ms. Agarwal, her employees, co-investors and angel investors have also bolstered entrepreneurs by simply being nearby and giving direct guidance.
For instance, ContextMedia provided office space to Packback, which offers online learning communities and digital textbooks for college students. Ms. Agarwal and ContextMedia employees often interacted with the firm’s workers to offer advice.
“We’ve been in seven office spaces since we were founded four years ago,” said Jessica Tenuta, a co-founder and head of design of Packback. “Shradha showed us how to hire and incorporate our values while mentoring us. We made great connections while being in their space.”
Packback now has 24 employees and a $250,000 investment from Mark Cuban, who took a 20 percent stake in the company after the co-founders presented on the reality show “Shark Tank” two years ago.
Ms. Tenuta and Packback’s co-founders — Kasey Gandham, Nick Currier and Mike Shannon — have also garnered support in other ways. The company works with 1871, a business incubator in Chicago that offers classes, co-working spaces and access to venture capitalists.
Ms. Tenuta did not disclose her company’s sales revenue but said the firm expects to have 30,000 students using Packback in the 2016-17 school year, up from 10,000 students in the previous year.
For their part, Mr. Iseri and Ms. Tenuta were inspired by their experiences to mentor other start-ups. These may be at university-based or private incubators and accelerators, in co-working environments or through other angel investors and venture capitalists.
Ms. Agarwal characterized the payoff as “the communal support through learning, wellness and volunteer opportunities.”
She added that her enterprise and those she backs have “a bias toward action and scaling to the market.” That means an entrepreneur’s vision must eventually translate into revenues, profit, growth and a commitment to giving back to the community and other entrepreneurs.
The network of support offered by start-up ecosystems, though, won’t get entrepreneurs entirely past the fear of failure and rejection. A plunge into the unknown is part of making it past those perilous first years.
“When I was a girl, my mother pushed me into the deep end of a pool to get me to swim,” recalled Ms. Agarwal, who grew up in India. “She said it was the only way to learn. She was one of four daughters in her family, all of whom were pushed to earn college degrees by my grandmother.”
If Ms. Agarwal and her peers succeed, their companies will also contribute to social good such as better medical education and improved health outcomes.
They will, in her words, be “solving problems worth solving.”
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
CONTEXTMEDIA CO-FOUNDERS RISHI SHAH AND SHRADHA AGARWAL TO RECEIVE FIRST EVER CHICAGONESS AWARD FROM CHICAGOLAND ENTREPRENEURIAL CENTER AND 1871
CONTEXTMEDIA CO-FOUNDERS RISHI SHAH AND SHRADHA AGARWAL TO RECEIVE FIRST
EVER CHICAGONESS AWARD FROM CHICAGOLAND ENTREPRENEURIAL CENTER AND 1871
Award Highlights Commitment To Fostering Community And Opportunity
Throughout The City; First Time Ever Being Awarded By CEC; Awardees Recognized
For Outstanding Effort To Foster Economic Opportunity Throughout Chicagoland.
CHICAGO (SEPTEMBER ##,
2015) – The
Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center today announced that it will unveil a new
award at the 2015 Momentum Awards dinner, called the Chicagoness Award, and
that this award will be bestowed upon Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal, co-founders
of ContextMedia. Chicagoness, a term created by CEC, describes the unique
spirit of the entrepreneurial community in Chicago, which values hard work,
inclusion, and commitment to collective opportunity.
“Rishi and Shradha are exemplary leaders in the
entrepreneurial community, and truly represent the spirit of Chicagoness,” said
J.B. Pritzker, managing partner of Pritzker Group and 1871 founder. “They are
not only outstanding entrepreneurs, but are also community-driven individuals
who use their experience and expertise to support new businesses and innovative
ideas throughout Chicago.”
Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal are co-founders of
ContextMedia, a health services information company that owns and operates a
suite of digital healthcare networks delivering condition-specific programming
at point-of-care in all fifty states. Both Rishi and Shradha are active in
Chicago’s civic organizations and entrepreneurial community. Rishi serves on
the Boards of Directors of many civic organizations, including Young Presidents
Organization (YPO), the Institute for Student Business Education at
Northwestern University and the Academy for Global Citizenship. In 2012, he
co-founded a personal venture investment firm, Jumpstart Ventures, through
which he has made over 30 investments in fast growing early to late stage
startups. Additionally, Rishi serves as a mentor for numerous technology
startup accelerators and incubators, including 1871. Shradha serves on the
boards of Northwestern Student Holdings, HY Connect, Global Act and Techweek.
She is also a startup adviser, investor and founding partner of Jumpstart
Ventures.
“The exceptional bond of Chicago’s entrepreneurial
community makes the city an amazing place to build a business,” said Rishi Shah,
co-founder and CEO of ContextMedia. “We are honored to accept the first
Chicagoness Award, and look forward to continuing to build our connections and
create opportunities with other entrepreneurs throughout the city.”
The title award is particularly interesting in the
context of CEC. CEC filed for and received a U.S. Registered Trademark on the
term Chicagoness in late 2013. Last year’s dinner was themed Chicagoness and
this is a term that is frequently used around 1871 and CEC to describe the
broader commitment to community and collective opportunity that is fundamental
to 1871 and CEC.
“Chicagoness is the special DNA of our city that leads
to successful CEO’s giving back to the city by leading our civic
organizations,” said Jim O’Connor, Jr., CEC Board Chair. “It is a no frills
attitude that puts humility ahead of individual ego. 1871 is the best example
of the spirit of Chicagoness, and its entrepreneurs benefit tremendously from
the incredible community that it fosters.”
The Chicagoness Award is one of four awards that will
be bestowed at the coming event, including the Momentum Award, the Corporate
Champion Award, and the Entrepreneurial Champion Award. The event, which will
take place at the Radisson Blu hotel, will draw 750 of the top supporters of
business and entrepreneurship in Chicago together. It is the largest gathering
of the tech community annually and the primary fundraiser for CEC, which
supports the activities and operations of 1871.
Anyone interested in attending the Momentum Dinner can
register at http://www.1871.com/2015Momentum. 1871 makes an effort to open up
the dinner to entrepreneurs, and facilitates strong interactions between some
of our best entrepreneurs and the attendees of the dinner.
About 1871
1871 is the home of more than 325 early-stage,
high-growth digital startups. Located in The Merchandise Mart, this 75,000
square foot facility is also the headquarters of nationally recognized
accelerators, Techstars Chicago and Impact Engine; half a dozen industry-specific
incubators in key areas such as real estate, education technology, food and
financial technology; several emerging tech talent schools (Flatiron, The
Fullbridge Program, Designation and the Startup Institute), and the state's
leading technology advocate, the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition. It
is the second home to Chicago-based VCs, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, MATH
Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, OCA Ventures, OurCrowd and Chicago
Ventures, as well as satellite offices for Northwestern University, University
of Illinois, University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois
Institute of Technology, and DeVry. 1871 has fast become recognized as the hub
for the city’s entrepreneurial/technology ecosystem and has been featured in Inc.
Magazine, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Chicago
Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business among other top media. 1871 is the
flagship project of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.
About ContextMedia
ContextMedia is a health information services company,
building digital media technologies to deliver lifestyle education to patients
to improve health outcomes. The company empowers healthcare professionals to
engage patients while curating content personalized for each member office.
Headquartered in Chicago, it is the fastest growing company in the industry
impacting over ten million patient visits each month through contextual and
actionable content in healthcare practices nationwide. To learn more, visit www.contextmediainc.com.
Friday, June 26, 2015
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