What does it take to become an industry leader? Add in the fact that the tech industry is predominantly male-led, and you’re a woman.
Our Founder and President Joan Melendez faced and overcame this challenge, now successfully changing up healthtech and stereotypes in one go.
As part of a focus on female entrepreneurs in technology, Joan was part of an interview series run by Billion Success.
For new entrepreneurs, Joan gave the following useful advice:
Know the ins and outs of your industry before you become a leader in it.
My mentor once said to me: “I will not work with you in building the electronic health records until you fully understand the procedure and procedural area.”
She refused to work with me until I knew how to circulate, scrub and understand a case, and understand the supply chain and sterile processing areas before I built a screen. It was the best experience I could have asked for.
My knowledge of the process has allowed me to build an application that fits into a workflow rather than redirect it. But without experience in knowledge in the field, I would never have been able to build it up the best way possible.
But improving and educating yourself doesn’t automatically lead to success.
For that, you need a solid team behind you -- something which challenged Joan in the early stages of Xcelrate UDI:
Good talent is hard to find. You’d be surprised how many people you trust with aspects of your business, who do not have your business’s best interest at heart…and unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way.
I made some poor talent choices at the start of my business that did more harm than good that I wish I could have avoided had I known before starting my business
Now that I’ve hired a strong and reliable team, I’m consistently amazed at how much of a difference it makes. Working with the right people, trustworthy people takes a load off my shoulders.
Now as an established business and voice in the healthtech industry, Xcelrate UDI is concentrating its power on improving patient advocacy and safety -- especially in the current chaos of the vaccine rollout.
Read our latest thought leadership to understand how we combine healthtech with data for a successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
