March 29, 2024 • 51 mins
Enjoy this awesome discussion with Rashmi R. Rao and Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo, as they unravel their journeys through entrepreneurship, innovation, and STEM advocacy in the dynamic world of healthcare technology.
Full of insights on leveraging technology to enhance lives, building impactful communities, and the vital role of diversity and leadership in shaping the future of healthcare and technology, they discuss:
-The transformative power of female empowerment in STEM.
-Crucial insights on integrating technology across diverse sectors.
-Strategies for scaling startups and navigating venture capital.
-The importance of community, health equity, and advocating for women's rights.
-Leadership philosophies and the art of building industry partnerships.
-The origin of the HLWF Alliance, and what they have in store for the future.
This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s a call to action for innovators, entrepreneurs, and advocates ready to make a mark.
*Disclaimer: Podcast guest participated in the podcast as an individual subject matter expert and contributor. The views and opinions they share are not necessarily shared by their employer. Nor should any reference to specific products or services be interpreted as commercial endorsements by their current employer.
This is a production of ProcellaRX
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (00:01):
All right. Well, it seems like
because we have a lot to talkabout, and we can talk for more
than just an hour, so I'm goingto get started. As you all know,
this is a special recording andday to day for women in CSV for
a coffee break, is also going tobe a live episode recorded for
(00:23):
software quality today. It is inservice of International Women's
Day and his women's historymonth of March. And I am so
excited to bring my friend andcolleague Rashmi Rael, to you
all, because like, as soon as westart talking, you're going to
(00:43):
absolutely know why I'm doingwork with her on a regular basis
and all the fun and amazingthings and how passionate she is
about things. So to get started,I'm going to give Rashmi a brief
bio for you all. Okay, so Rashmiis an accomplished entrepreneur,
and innovator with over 40patents and a proven track
(01:07):
record of consumer automotiveand healthcare industry,
building new businesses withover $500 million in revenue.
She's held business and productleadership roles at Qualcomm,
Apple, Harman sang song andPhilips and continues to push
the innovation andsustainability leveraging
technology advancements toimprove people's lives. Rashmi
(01:30):
is passionate about STEMadvocacy, with a focus on
diversity, equity and inclusion,which again shouldn't surprise
you, because that's my passiontoo, especially though in the
technology sector. She is the cofounder or the founder of the
nonprofit, healthcare lifescience, wellness and fitness. H
LWF. Alliance, which I'm also afounding member of this
(01:53):
foundation is born of her livedexperience and is dedicated to
bringing the gaps within ourcurrent health system to light.
So with that, I am going to giveyou a moment Rashmi to elaborate
on that, because that doesn'teven scratch the surface of the
things that you've done in yourlife. Oh, thank you so much.
(02:14):
First of all, thank you forinviting me here, Dory. We've
known each other for a bit andjust as big a fan. So I just
think of this is a conversationmore than anything else. And
doing this
Rashmi Rao (02:30):
in March in recognition of the Women's
History Month, I think iswonderful. There is so much
happening in the world today.
And I feel like we are, youknow, if we have a platform we
must speak. And in that way youand I are so similar in terms of
advocacy. And I think that thatkind of brought us together. So
today, you know, I'm justlooking forward to having a
(02:52):
conversation coffee break withyou and all of your wonderful
audience. Wonderful.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (02:59):
So because, you know, we have known
each other for a while, but Iactually feel I don't know all
of your roots. So can you tellus a little bit about like, how
you came? Like, what is thestory of Rashmi? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (03:11):
yeah, so I grew up in India, I have a twin sister.
And most people asked me why Iended up in healthcare. And I'm
not a doctor inside this is thisis the story this is the origin
story of what all my my motheras pretty much most Asian people
(03:32):
she she wanted my sister and Ito become doctors to possibly
marry doctors. And like start abig hospital system and in India
and just be like this famousdoctor family in my sister did
all of that in acted none of it.
And I tell people that I endedup in health care, because my
mom has been manifesting it forlike so long. And so it for so
(03:55):
many years, in fact, but my I'ma consumer problem solver, and
I've always been that way. Butas I reflect back, I look at you
know, my mom, who was a workingmom, in those days in India,
which was not very common. Andeven today, like the things that
(04:18):
she did and balanced work andhome, I I cannot even imagine
doing it. My aunt's worked. Andmy my grandmother, she had her
own stitching and garmentbusiness. And so she was kind of
the OG hustler of us. And so asI reflect back, I realized that
I, you know, my sister myself,in all our cousins, we kind of
(04:41):
grew up in this cocoon of like,female brilliance that we're in
presence that has truly shapedhow we grew up in what our core
values have been, and what wewant to advocate for it. So as I
entered, you know, engineeringand technology, in fact, many
(05:03):
times found myself as being theone and only I constantly
reminded myself that I come froma lineage of really amazing
women who have, you know, beenvocal in have created space for
themselves and may changeexactly where they were in. So I
drew strength from that, andI've just been very fortunate to
(05:25):
get all the opportunities. But Ithink without kind of coming
from where I came from, andhaving that kind of presence,
female presence from the very,very beginning, I don't think I
would have done half the thingsthat I've done today.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (05:44):
Nice, it's, um, I know, your sister
lives down under, right. So it'salso to, like, totally polar
opposite, sort of, in thatregard, which is very, very
interesting. I know that for me,um, you know, I've stayed in the
life science space for my entirecareer. And I'm, you know,
(06:04):
biochemist by education andchemists, organic chemists
develop drugs, and I stayed inthis space, it feels very
comfortable to me, I'm, youknow, kind of now I can say, I'm
an expert in this particularfield that I do. You have,
though held positions in threedistinct, very different fields,
right. So consumer products, orconsumer electronics,
(06:27):
specifically, right? Automotiveand healthcare. And I'm
wondering, how did you do that?
And what, is there anychallenges in that in your
leadership side? Have youchanged? Like, like, that's a
difficult jump to do?
Rashmi Rao (06:42):
And, you know, I, for me, I think for me, it's a
difficult job. Yeah, yeah.
And honestly, enough, peopleasked me about it, and it was
none of it was really planned.
But I always believe that we,you know, there is nothing to
fear in life, it only is justwaiting for you to understand
it. Even as I've done these, youknow, multiple jumps through
(07:05):
through the differentindustries, it's always been
centered around, you know, usingand leveraging technology, to
make things better for users,for individuals, for drivers.
And now for patients. And that'skind of common, and you know,
that there are differencesbetween the industries, let's
(07:30):
not just pretend like, it's allthe same, because it is not in
consumer, you know, it's allabout rapid innovation and break
things in a quick learn quickand fail fast and things like
that. And automotive, it's verymuch around reliability and
safety. And what I'm learning,you know, as I've now been in
(07:53):
healthcare for a while, it'sprofoundly about impacting lives
at a very, very personal level.
Right. So even as we take thosetools across all of these
industries, what I've taken forme is that the applications are
very, very different. And forme, I like like I said, you
(08:15):
know, there is, my philosophyhas been, there's never a bad
day to have a good idea. And sowhat you need to do is, once you
have that idea, right, what doyou do with it? Like, how do you
take it to be much bigger thanjust yourself? And that's kind
of how I've approached everyspace. And I just feel like I've
(08:39):
been in three different roomsthat are having very similar
conversations, don't they maynot be the same, but they're
very similar. Yeah, when in mostof the things that I've been
involved in, whether it was, youknow, bringing connectivity to
cars, or taking a very usercentered approach to consumer
(09:01):
electronic design, and now I'min this room of healthcare,
where I'm bringing thoseconversations that I've had in
the past, but I'm also trying tounderstand the context that we
have, and the conversations thatare happening here. So I would
highly recommend it, you know,portfolio of impact, is how I
(09:25):
think of it versus Yeah, and I,I can genuinely tell you that
none of it was planned. It just,it has just happened this way.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (09:38):
So in that move from technology, to
bring the technology to thehealthcare space, I know the HL
WF and we all we've been talkingabout this for over a year now,
right? The interconnectivity ofall those different spaces What
(10:00):
are some of the things that youfind? That has surprised you
over the last year that we'vekind of discovered through this
process?
Rashmi Rao (10:07):
Yeah, you know, I in as you mentioned, the origin of
H O WF, and even meeting youfrom the life sciences spaces.
And, you know, me coming fromthe tech space, and our amazing
community that we now have withHL WF is really about bringing
very different and diversevoices together in that same
(10:28):
room, right. And what hassurprised me the most is the
that we all think we understandeach other. But when we are all
in the same room, we, you know,you can't understand each other
if you're speaking differentlanguages, right. And today,
when I think of myself, I can'tlike separate myself, as you
(10:51):
know, this is about consumerexperience, or this is about
employee benefit, or this isabout patient in a care. I am
all of those I occupy the spaceof a patient and an employee and
a consumer every single day. Andso how can, how can we have
those conversations in silos,right. And if we are having
(11:15):
those conversations in silos,then we are definitely missing,
missing important aspects of it.
And without having jumped acrossthese three different rooms that
I said, I don't think I wouldhave even thought it would be a
concept that we can, can canbring, like, very, very diverse,
but I realized that, you know,we are having very similar
(11:36):
conversations. And what hassurprised me the most number
one, it's a woman focused group.
And we have amazing women. Andso that has been the not a
surprise, but surprisingdelight. Meeting just amazingly
qualified women who are verypassionate about their causes,
(11:58):
and now are opening up theirminds to also learn about other
aspects of health and wellbeing. Yeah.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (12:05):
And I can experience in the connectivity
between the two, like how muchI've learned in the last year
from building the community atHL WF, right, and now we have a
resource pool that continues toexpand. Right. And so I think
(12:27):
that that was part of yourvision, but I am not sure how
you thought that that was gonnago so fast. Maybe you want to
talk about what was youroriginal vision for that? Yeah,
yeah.
Rashmi Rao (12:38):
So as you know, we started off with basically
saying, Hey, you're an expert inx. So why don't you tell us
about your expertise, right. Andthat's where we first started,
because it was about bringingpeople to the room and just
saying, share your expertise,because it was a platform.
Again, you know, as most thingshappen in life, you can, you can
(12:59):
imagine certain things, but theserendipity aspect of bringing
amazing people, you cannot planfor that at all right. And so
that was the goal to say, Hey,you're an expert in this, tell
us a little bit more, let'slearn from you. And what that
then transpired into was clearlyseeing some of the gaps. And
especially as you know, there isso much conversation around us
(13:22):
happening, about moving fromsort of fee fee, fee based
services, to value basedservices, or this rapid
disruption of AI that happenedkind of parallel ly to us
growing HW app. And now thereare so many elements and aspects
of both the patient experienceand consumer experience, and
(13:46):
mental health and employee thatis all coming together. And so
we couldn't have planned for anyof that. But the origin was
really to bring really expertwomen, give them a platform and
say, talk about what is yourexpertise, what it has become,
really is this amazing communitythat is, you know, has its own
(14:07):
DNA. It's growing up it with itsown, you know, kind of origin
and it's much, much bigger thanany individual, any one
individual amongst us. Right.
And that's the best part. And Idon't think we can plan for it.
Just we can just be on theright. That's it.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (14:26):
Yeah.
Well, it doesn't surprise me upagainst some some things that
you and I have done in our livesare very, very similar. So from
an entrepreneurial and startupway, you've also have done lots
of startup to scale operations.
I've also done startup to scaleoperations. What are let's talk
(14:46):
about specifically so you'vesuccessfully navigated the
startup ecosystem and theventure capital world. This is a
part of this conversation that Iknow very little about. Okay. So
I'm curious, what key lessonshave you learned in scaling up
innovations from concept tomarket, when you have all these,
this new way of talking becauseagain, I don't know the venture
(15:09):
capital market, like how to talkof that, like, that's a whole
different skill set, which Idon't want to acquire.
Rashmi Rao (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, in in, I've played, I've been in
different stages of myprofessional journey for each of
those. And so I've seen it frommultiple angles, there are
certain angles of that, that Ilove. And there are certain
angles of that, that I am tryingto change. And I think all of us
can be a part of that, thatchange. And I'll start with this
(15:39):
premise that before thepandemic, in 2019 4%, only 4% of
the entire venture capitalfunding in the world, and in a
bulk of it is in the US, when towomen founders, only 4%. And
(16:00):
last year, after the pandemic,it is only 1.8%. So we are not
moving the needle in the rightdirection at all when it comes
to women founded startups. And Ispecifically say that because of
course, we are in thisconversation in Women's History
Month in, you know, the focus isall of this. But the biggest
(16:24):
aspect is if we don't have thosediverse voices, we are
definitely not buildingtechnology. And that has been my
personal experience. So my firststartup, I was the eighth
employee. In a startup in SanFrancisco, I was this very young
graduate student, who had gotthe opportunity to move to San
(16:45):
Francisco. And so I couldn't askfor a better, better start. It
was wonderful. It was again, inthe spaces that I love. It was
MEMS, micro electromechanicalsystems. So building things,
which I just, you know, I'vealways been very hands on in
building things. And about sixmonths into me joining the
(17:06):
startup, Qualcomm acquired us.
And I'm gonna date myself alittle bit here. But this was
pre iPhone, pre YouTube. And soQualcomm at that time had a
company called media flow andEDI fllo. And they were trying
to stream video content ontomobile devices. And this was
early 2000s. So way ahead oftheir time, there was not enough
(17:29):
bandwidth, there was not enough3g, 4g 5g infrastructure, and
they were definitely no devices.
So they acquired this companythat I was a part of the startup
called era nine, to buildtechnology that will be you
know, consuming, very lesspower. So that was one of my
personal passions in terms ofsustainability. That's why I
(17:50):
joined the startup, it was 1/10the power of what mobile phones
were using in those days, andalso to stream video content
that could be viewed everywhere,right? So I go and I joined the
startup, you know, have anamazing exit. But 10 years, fast
forward 10 years, things that wecouldn't control completely
(18:12):
changed the market dynamics,right. And as a engineer, as a,
you know, person that startedfrom the very beginning. I think
I stayed there for a bit toolong, because I was just very
bullish and very, like, I canchange the world, I can do this.
Right. And so a million inchange a billion and change
(18:33):
later. And I did an expat inTaiwan. I mean, I did all sorts
of like crazy things to makethis a reality. We were not as
successful as we want it to be.
It was very, very hard at thattime. But I cannot tank that
experience, because I learned somuch about the decisions that
can go wrong. And it's not justabout a good idea. It's a lot
(18:53):
about execution, and alsomanaging that expectations of
venture capitals, right? Like,how do you because there it's
all about foreign index growthand all of that. So how do you
balance? What do you want tobuild as a founder with the
aspirations of the people thatyou're borrowing the doors?
(19:14):
From? Yeah. Which,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (19:17):
which leads into an interesting kind
of thought around. Before westarted today, we've talked
about innovation and being aninventor, and so you're an
inventor. I've taught innovationto young folks, right? And
there's how to know what is theright problem that you're trying
(19:39):
to solve? And is it worthsolving? Is it worth investing?
Like, is it worth going downthat path? is passionate enough?
Is the you know, the greatergood enough? Or is there some
other way in which you kind oftalk about that or figure that
out for as you go through theprocess? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (19:59):
yeah, I think It's very, it's very personal. And it
should be, you know, everyindividual's right. Because
success can mean so manydifferent things. Success is not
just money, success can beimpact. success can be, you
know, really impacting andchanging people's lives. For me,
I was always driven with seeing,like, my things that I had
(20:22):
worked on in people's hands andmillions of people's hands, that
was always for me the sign ofsuccess, because I'm like, now
I'm in their lives every day. SoI've used what I can, and the
tools that I've been given to,like really make this like tiny
impact, they might not know me,but I know that I impacted them
(20:42):
kind of thing. But that that isvery personal. To me, right. And
so now in healthcare, I thinkit's very important that we
don't pander to the existingsystems. And I have so much hope
for the coming generation,because they see things very
(21:05):
differently. And I see this inmy 12 year old. And you know,
you and I spoke a little bitabout, you know, your, your son
as well. So, it, they see theworld in a very global way. And
they think of issues in a veryglobal way. And so I have so
much hope for them, but but Ithink we need to guide them in
(21:26):
terms of not pandering to thecurrent status quo
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (21:32):
stem, which leads me to like, the big
topic that I know, you and I arevery passionate about, we want
to talk about global health,diplomacy, right, we want to
talk about equity inclusion.
What does that mean? And so alot of what you do today
intersects with all of thoseareas, right, that intersect
with public health, publicpolicy, you have a lot of
(21:55):
passion around this as well,what are some of the things that
you think we can leverage inmaking it more inclusive, or
more equitable? In this process?
Like, yeah,
Unknown (22:11):
thank you for asking me that. Because it's, it's a very
personal thing for me in termsof, you know, health equity,
right, and navigating this UShealth system, as a woman of
color, I've learned so much to,you know, to not dismiss what
I'm feeling to kind of payattention to my body and what my
(22:35):
gut is telling me, versus onlywhat I'm hearing in, you know,
women are not tiny men. So themedications that work for men,
you know, I'm not just gonnatake smaller versions of it,
there's just so many things thatare kind of foundational in how
the US healthcare system was setup, right. But also, we are
(22:56):
seeing a lot of changes. And Ifeel, you know, this is a circle
that we should speak about,about these topics. I feel like
we are moving, you know, in adirection where maybe our
daughters, our next generationis going to have less freedom
(23:17):
than we grew up with. And Iknow, I can just stick around
seeing that happening. And mygoals are very big, but I also
look at it from an impactperspective. So uh, you know, I
don't need to make this changefor millions of people. As I, as
(23:37):
I've, you know, matured, I kindof have learned that impact can
doesn't, you know, youindividually, though, don't have
to, like, always build this bigthing that impacts the entire
world, you can make variouslevels and
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (23:52):
shifts of impact. And there's a ripple
effect that can occur as we makethose transformations. Right.
And starting small and in, it iscontagious. And we all know
this, right? There's lots ofstudies around this, but and at
the same time, there's muchbigger powers to be that are
continuing to take away women'srights, unfortunately, right.
(24:18):
And so and how do we how can weleverage some of the the
technology to make that a moreinclusive sort of conversation?
You know,
Rashmi Rao (24:35):
I come up with this thing called Tax Equity,
a category Oh, okay.
Equity, right. It's catching onin a lot of places. And I really
feel that technology has been aleveler in so many industries.
We've seen that in the lastdecade, and it can be very
disruptive. Right? Social mediais an example. We can now put
(24:58):
our views out there withouthaving being censored, or only
the few on the top having thevoice or the mic. In a similar
way, I truly believe that techequity from a healthcare
perspective is very muchpossible. And today was a
milestone day in it. Because theUN, the United Nations General
(25:19):
Assembly, just ratified theresolution around artificial
intelligence. And they have madeit very, very, very clear in
what that means for the nextsteps for AI. It's about
focusing on not, you know,having people be socially
surveyed and mass surveying ofpeople, surveillance of people,
(25:40):
which we know happens in manycountries, including the United
States, right, but also focusingon sustainable goals, and
ensuring that we are not leavingany country behind. So this was
about 193 countries. You know,when you talk of those big,
like, top down things, this isthis is a milestone, and it
(26:00):
happened today. It literallyhappened this this morning,
right. So things like that,where we can also see the
changes, we need some of thatframework. But from our
perspective, right, as we areworking through HL WF Alliance,
my goal is broadly educating allof the different silos. And
(26:22):
there is a lot of theintersections between the silos
that we can impact withtechnology. For example, mental
health, I think, has been aincredible runaway success
through pandemic, right, wherebeing able to virtually get the
care that you need, has been soimpactful to so many people. And
(26:42):
you and I have spoken about it,it's sometimes times as well.
But as we build some of thesetechnologies, particularly, you
know, at the moment, we'refocused on artificial
intelligence, because it canlearn, and it can take away some
of the burden from having tohave expertise in having to have
physicians in like remote placesand care deserts, right, you can
(27:05):
still administer care withouthaving to be physically present.
And I see that as being, youknow, the number one priority,
and through h o w of Alliance,that's what we're trying to do,
as we build out the corpus ofknowledge, it's about then being
able to disseminate thisknowledge into spaces where they
might not have access to some ofthat, you
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (27:29):
know, it makes me think that so the women
on the call today, women andCSV, right, often we're working
in a siloed space or notnecessarily. It could be
inequality space, that's nottalking to the tech space,
right. And there's a lot ofsiloed organizations as you are
well aware, right. And one ofthe things that I try to help
(27:53):
folks do is use the technologythey have to the best of their
ability to get those thingsdone. But at the same time,
we're also experiencing, youhave to learn how to talk to
one, right, and I think thatthere's a mis misalignment of
(28:14):
thinking that either we're gonnabring in some generative AI, or
we're going to bring someanother fancy tool, and that's
going to, quote unquote, solvethe problem. But the problem is
the people, right, we need to beable to communicate, we need to
be able to talk to one anotherin a different way. And so one
of the things I love about whatthe H LWF alliances is bringing
(28:40):
those different perspectives tothe table. And I'm wondering
through that, though, have youhad to like how to get over that
barrier of getting folks toactually want to participate in
something new, right? Becausebreaking down the silos, it's
hard work, right? You might beable to knock them down once but
(29:01):
it's like it's it every day sortof conversation to continue that
pace of so that that that thereis actual ultimate change at the
end, right. Like it's a constantwork. It's a practice. So do you
have any, like maybe a successstory or some some some tidbits
(29:23):
for us on how to try to do that?
Yeah, yeah.
Rashmi Rao (29:26):
So I want to digress and just share this example.
From from this this past week.
It's in my other role, I'm onthe board of World Affairs
Council, which is a statesponsored, sort of soft
diplomacy group. And I'm on theboard and a part of what I do
(29:47):
there is also to have thesehomestays for people from
globally. So the US StateDepartment brings in you know,
folks with Many, many differentorganizations from across the
globe. And, you know, there isan opportunity to host them. And
I do this because I learned morefrom from actually hosting these
(30:08):
people. And this past week, wehad hosted somebody from
Turkmenistan. And a part a partof what we do is take them out
to lunch and dinners with theother local people, and they
learn more about the US. Right,it's soft diplomacy, and there
was so much of concern in worry,which I had anticipated, but I
(30:30):
had, you know, didn't have theopportunity to discuss because
it was Ramadan. And that is, youknow, you can only have dinner
after sunset. And there is only,you know, there was restrictions
on what you can eat. But we hadno, it wasn't, it was something
that I was aware of. So we thehost, and I discussed this, and
we organized it. And we didn'tthink that it should even be a
(30:53):
problem. But then just thatsmall aspect. You know, when
when we hosted these people in,they actually saw that there was
that much effort that was madeto accommodate them, and
accommodate their culture andtheir practices. It kind of
destroyed in just one dinner,their perception of, you know,
(31:14):
the United States as being thisbig bad guy, who's, you know,
going around the world with bigguns, right. And I bring that
example, because that's what weare doing with HL WF Alliance,
it doesn't have to be like theseismic thing that happens, but
the butterfly effect of beingable to bring and so one of the
(31:37):
examples, I'd love to give asthe event we hosted for
International Women's Day wherewe were speaking specifically
about the possibility rightsthat are under attack in the US.
And so we brought an actualpediatrician who's been
practicing in administering foralmost 3035 years in this space.
And we had a patient, anindividual who had very personal
(32:05):
moving stories about, you know,building a family through these
fertility treatments, and I wasthere and another founding
member. And so just being inthat room and having that
conversation, it was for anhour, but the the, the momentum,
we've been able to create theyou know, the course there was a
(32:26):
lot of coverage for it. But themomentum we've been able to
create after it, I mean, we'vejust gotten started, and to see
that we can mobilize that kindof energy around a topic is just
fills me with hope. It used tobe without Dory. And so for me,
it's about bringing that ethosof you know, what whack is
(32:48):
doing, the World Affairs Councilis doing for, for global
diplomacy into this aspect ofbreaking the silos. And as you
put these people together, whenyou see that you're hearing each
other's concerns, and you're notdismissing it, just because I'm
a patient doesn't mean that Idon't understand the you know,
the science behind it, or Idon't need to understand the
(33:12):
science behind it. For example,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (33:15):
one of the things that I'm just
formulating in my, my mind, asyou're talking is, you know, in
my space, we do have some interIndustry Regulatory privates,
you know, kind of connectionsthat we call consortiums of
(33:36):
different kinds. But, um, how doyou see, you know, do you have
any vision of of actuallybringing in industry into the HL
WF, Alliance salutely.
Rashmi Rao (33:49):
And as we build out, I think the change can only
happen when you put this outthere, and you also need buy in.
So, you know, I'm gonna quote,my favorite RBG here. And, you
know, she always said that workon things that you're passionate
about, but do it in a way whereyou bring people along. Right,
(34:11):
and that is the goal. It's notabout isolating. It's not about
you know, I win, you don't, it'sabout how can we all win? And so
yes, the language for theindustry will, will be
different, because, you know,therefore, profit, we are
nonprofit. And so how do youmake it a win win for both? I
(34:31):
think we'll, we'll have to comeup with that that right
framework. But without that kindof partnerships, the scale is
not possible at all. Right. Andso I'm very, very, very happy to
see some of the focus that manyof these big organizations are
now doing, whether it's justgiving their tools and their
(34:52):
software and their services tononprofits, but they, you know,
Amazon has something similarMicrosoft has something similar
but they also have bigfoundations that are willing to
support not not for profitorganizations. And they are all
also very much looking at howcan they be a part of this
(35:12):
equity aspect, right, becausethey do tech very well. And they
haven't had a great track recordof equity. So, in a partnering
with somebody that is focused onthat aspect, I think, bodes
well, for both both sides.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (35:28):
Yeah. So, um, I was wondering if you would
share with us some of yourleadership philosophy we have,
you know, part of our women inCSP group and part of the
software quality to a podcastaudience is a variety, right,
there are folks that are juststarting out in the industry,
and then there's folks that arevery senior and have been in the
(35:48):
industry for a long time. Isthere some some aspects of your
journey that you could impart onthese women as we go through
this?
Rashmi Rao (35:57):
Oh, gosh, okay. So I mean, like I said, I didn't, I
didn't plan but I have, I've hadthe self discipline to go back
and reflect in see what, whatwhat some of those things were.
And I would say, having acommunity, right is top, and
I've seen that, you know, and Ialluded to the community that I
(36:20):
had when I was growing up. Butthen there was also a community
when I was in undergrad, and wewere about nine girls in a class
of 110. And, you know, but wewere we were, we were a
community. And even as I've goneinto my professional group, and
things like that, there's alwaysbeen a community. And so I
(36:41):
think, being very deliberateabout reaching out and being in
community is not about the gap,it's about the gift before you
get, right. So if you do that,then you automatically have a
group of people, that will be a,you know, willing to do what it
takes to make you successful,right. And also give you the
(37:05):
tools and make the connections,open the doors, be your
advocate, when you cannot be inthe room, as well. And but it
takes effort, and it takes ittakes giving first and having
that as top of mind, how can Ihelp you? I think works best.
(37:26):
And it has it has for me. Andthen I always look at, you know,
paying it forward. Whatever Ihave received, I always look to
you know, can I give this samething to more people. But also
knowing that you have to havelike this advisory council that
I think of, which is people thatwill actually poke holes.
(37:49):
Challenge the world will opposethe world calls. So you know,
curate that advisory councilthat you trust, you know, you
know, the people that have beenin the field have gotten knocked
down and come back up. And, youknow, it doesn't have to be
women alone. They can be men inyour lives as well. But it's not
(38:11):
just about you are amazing allthe time. Right. But you know,
you want somebody to tell you, Idon't think this works. Yes. I
don't think you should do itthis way. Well, I think you
should wait before you send thatnasty email. But that might be a
talk you often salutely Yep.
Right. And so having that isalso important, because it's not
(38:32):
just about Kumbaya. We're allgreat in the world sucks. And
it's always because of the wordbut some, you know, a group of
people that you trust. Yep. Canalso poke holes in in real talk.
Yeah.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (38:50):
So I was gonna ask, So, what do you think
we need to ask of men in thisconversation?
Rashmi Rao (38:58):
Ah, men in the conversation, do we have some in
some in the I
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (39:03):
need so so as a as a female leader,
right? This is part of mycontinue learning and growing
angst, right is I keep beingasked for more and more and more
and more and more because likeyou said, I'm a giver, giver,
giver, giver. And at there'ssome point, right, that usually
(39:30):
who's asking, asking, asking,are the men and in my circles,
right? Yeah, what what do weneed to how can we change?
What's some thoughts around howwe can change that time? What do
we need to ask of them in orderfor us to continue to want to
give right and help him move andgrow and move this needle a
(39:52):
little bit? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (39:54):
in I think it's important to set boundaries,
especially when we're giving andwe know If you're passionate
about it, because if it is, inthis, I've learned this from
experience, right? There aresome people who are willing to,
they're asking the question, orthey're asking for this because
they want to understand theywant to learn, and they want to
(40:16):
change. And there are othersthat are doing this, because
they just can they know thatyou're passionate about this
topic of di, that you will sayyes to this podcast is that
you'll say yes to representingon a panel, and they they don't
have to pay you, for example,you know, I'm just taking a very
narrow example. And I think overtime, you will realize who
those, you know, does thisperson fall into one of the
(40:38):
categories or the others? Andwhat I do Dory is, at times I
just put the put put the groundrules and say, This is it, I
draw the line here. And, youknow, sometimes you're worth the
time and the effort, because Iknow that this conversation will
help you change. And in othertimes, it's just, it's just not
(41:03):
going to. And if it does not,then it's not the burden is not
on me to help continue toeducate you to give you my time
to give you all of them. Right.
So that is that came with alittle bit of learning that came
with a little bit of
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (41:16):
like oil and error, trial and error.
Yeah. What are the what arethose boundaries? What I mean,
boundaries are such a part of myeveryday conversation these days
for what's going on with myfamily life, right is, you know,
who's responsible for what?
Everyone contributing theirpart? Right? And that in that
collective, if everyonecontributes their park, there is
(41:38):
a lesser of a burden on everyright. And one can only hope
that that is what we all aspireto, right, is that each of us
are carrying lesser of a burdenover time, right? Because I
don't I don't think I speak foreveryone. But I know that
there's a lot of women out therethat feel the burden and the and
(41:58):
the burn. Right? Very much.
Right, we're shouldering a lot,whether it's family life, career
wise, health wise, right, youname it. And for the most part
in most communities, women arethe center of that
sustainability of thatcommunity, right. And we need at
(42:21):
an opportunity to have somerespite as well, and how to get
that establishing boundaries,what those boundaries are, and
how to ask for more from otherswhen we can't, and vice versa, I
think is really super important.
I was wondering, I asked often,that I
Rashmi Rao (42:42):
it's a very simple thing, but it has made a huge
difference for me in my life,and I can share it. So one of
the things I've done now forthis entire year, is so I start
my day really early, I start myday at 5am. And I
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (43:00):
know I get texts on the West Coast.
Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (43:05):
so one of the things for me was to take that one hour
to do the things that I want todo, whether it's you know, going
into meditation, whether it'sconnecting with friends, but I
don't do anything related to mywork, or anything that is kind
of work because I have so muchwork outside of my day job,
(43:28):
right. And so but they all canend up being work, whether it's
the community stuff or thingslike that. So it took a little
bit of, you know, effort tocarve out those things that just
are bringing joy in beingpeaceful. And it is not easy,
but because I wake up really Ihave, you know, I have a three
year old as well. And so in Ijuggle a bunch of different
(43:52):
things. But getting that in somedays, it's an hour, some days,
it's just 30 minutes. But it hashelped me sort of ground myself
in the quality of my thoughtsare so different and better
because of that for the rest ofthe day. And I do something
similar at the end of the nightas well. And like I said, some
(44:14):
days it's only 10 minutes beforeI go to bed or 30 minutes. In
some days. It's it's longer.
Yeah,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (44:20):
I love it. So as we wrap up here, I
would like to hear what youthink are some predictions for
the future. Like what do youthink? You know, yeah, like,
like hat like, do you have somethoughts around like healthcare
technology, kind of like wherewe're going? What do you think
is going to happen?
Rashmi Rao (44:40):
I can give you the Doom and Doom but I don't want
toknow I want to hear the hopeful.
Yeah, so for me, I think if wedon't make some drastic, drastic
changes.
We can talkyou know, all day all night. In
nothing will change, right?
(45:02):
Whether we're talking about AI,whether we're talking about GLP,
one, you know, medications,whether we're talking about
digital flourishing, any any andall topics that impact the
health or the pharma side ofthings are the well being or our
fitness, we will not be able tomake progress if we don't make
(45:24):
some drastic changes. And when Isay drastic changes, it's
changing the incentiveschanging, what are we tracking
some of these very largecompanies on, and if that
doesn't change their motivationfor their bottom lines don't
change our lives, our health,and our well being will not
(45:44):
change, right. So if I want topredict and I really do want to
predict that some of thosechanges, you know, we can make
and we can only make that happennot by sitting in our houses and
fretting about it, but talkingabout it in the space in your
communities that in your house,and in your community. But every
(46:06):
one of us has that capabilityand meaning we all do it, we've
seen that we can dramaticallychange in dramatically moved
those needles, right. So that'smy hopeful prediction for the
future that people understandbecause we are tracking our
house more, we all havewearables, we all have home care
in hospital at home. And thatmeans we are more empowered to
(46:30):
take charge of our health andwell being, which means that we
will ask more of these companiesthat benefit from keeping us
sick or treating us when we'resick versus, you know, keeping
us healthy. Right?
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (46:45):
I love us, I am going to open up. So if
anyone has any questions thatare on the phone, you're more
than welcome to come off mute, Ithink you should be able to do
that or raise your hands andthen I can bring you off mute.
If you have a question orthoughts. We'd love to have
those. I know that. We juststarted our spring cohort at HL
(47:11):
WF Alliance, and we are in ourthird week. I think that's
correct. For those of you thathaven't seen, we publish weekly,
and medium and a variety ofother places. And I think it's
really important for folks to toexpand also where they're
(47:32):
getting their news and whatthey're reading. What's been
remarkable to me is seeing whatwhat we're putting together,
right. And then understandingeven the writing process of
where folks are getting sourcedwhere information is coming
from. I think my myselfpersonally have maybe gotten a
little lazy over the years ofjust, I used to read a lot of
(47:56):
medical journals. And I kind ofstopped that. And now I'm kind
of getting back into it again.
And I one of the things I liketo do, I don't know sounds a
little crazy. But that thatbrings me peace and joy. But I
encourage you guys to go out andread what we're we're writing
about. Thank
Rashmi Rao (48:14):
you, thank you, Dory. And that was the point it
was about also making itaccessible to as many people as
possible, right. And we havephysicians writing but we also
have, you know, humans inconversation where real life
patient experiences beingarticulated. And we have a
series of experts inconversation where it's a
(48:35):
conversation about a veryspecific topic. It's in the q&a
forum. So easily digestibleinformation. And then there is
always references that they cantake more deeper.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (48:49):
Yeah. So if you are listening to this,
whether it's on the podcast orin person, if you have folks
that you think that would begreat people to interview and
experts in their fields in anyof those, let us know because
we're always looking for for newones to highlight and to share.
So it can I
Rashmi Rao (49:09):
just say thank you so much for being an amazing,
amazing mentor for me and as webuild out our community and
continuing to be such an amazingfounding part of the HW of
Alliance story. Thank you.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (49:23):
Thank you, Rashmi. I thoroughly enjoy
it. And thank you for your timetoday. I appreciate it. And I
will talk to you soon. All
Rashmi Rao (49:31):
right, take care.
Thank you very much. Bye
All right. Well, it seems like
because we have a lot to talkabout, and we can talk for more
than just an hour, so I'm goingto get started. As you all know,
this is a special recording andday to day for women in CSV for
a coffee break, is also going tobe a live episode recorded for
(00:23):
software quality today. It is inservice of International Women's
Day and his women's historymonth of March. And I am so
excited to bring my friend andcolleague Rashmi Rael, to you
all, because like, as soon as westart talking, you're going to
(00:43):
absolutely know why I'm doingwork with her on a regular basis
and all the fun and amazingthings and how passionate she is
about things. So to get started,I'm going to give Rashmi a brief
bio for you all. Okay, so Rashmiis an accomplished entrepreneur,
and innovator with over 40patents and a proven track
(01:07):
record of consumer automotiveand healthcare industry,
building new businesses withover $500 million in revenue.
She's held business and productleadership roles at Qualcomm,
Apple, Harman sang song andPhilips and continues to push
the innovation andsustainability leveraging
technology advancements toimprove people's lives. Rashmi
(01:30):
is passionate about STEMadvocacy, with a focus on
diversity, equity and inclusion,which again shouldn't surprise
you, because that's my passiontoo, especially though in the
technology sector. She is the cofounder or the founder of the
nonprofit, healthcare lifescience, wellness and fitness. H
LWF. Alliance, which I'm also afounding member of this
(01:53):
foundation is born of her livedexperience and is dedicated to
bringing the gaps within ourcurrent health system to light.
So with that, I am going to giveyou a moment Rashmi to elaborate
on that, because that doesn'teven scratch the surface of the
things that you've done in yourlife. Oh, thank you so much.
(02:14):
First of all, thank you forinviting me here, Dory. We've
known each other for a bit andjust as big a fan. So I just
think of this is a conversationmore than anything else. And
doing this
Rashmi Rao (02:30):
in March in recognition of the Women's
History Month, I think iswonderful. There is so much
happening in the world today.
And I feel like we are, youknow, if we have a platform we
must speak. And in that way youand I are so similar in terms of
advocacy. And I think that thatkind of brought us together. So
today, you know, I'm justlooking forward to having a
(02:52):
conversation coffee break withyou and all of your wonderful
audience. Wonderful.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (02:59):
So because, you know, we have known
each other for a while, but Iactually feel I don't know all
of your roots. So can you tellus a little bit about like, how
you came? Like, what is thestory of Rashmi? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (03:11):
yeah, so I grew up in India, I have a twin sister.
And most people asked me why Iended up in healthcare. And I'm
not a doctor inside this is thisis the story this is the origin
story of what all my my motheras pretty much most Asian people
(03:32):
she she wanted my sister and Ito become doctors to possibly
marry doctors. And like start abig hospital system and in India
and just be like this famousdoctor family in my sister did
all of that in acted none of it.
And I tell people that I endedup in health care, because my
mom has been manifesting it forlike so long. And so it for so
(03:55):
many years, in fact, but my I'ma consumer problem solver, and
I've always been that way. Butas I reflect back, I look at you
know, my mom, who was a workingmom, in those days in India,
which was not very common. Andeven today, like the things that
(04:18):
she did and balanced work andhome, I I cannot even imagine
doing it. My aunt's worked. Andmy my grandmother, she had her
own stitching and garmentbusiness. And so she was kind of
the OG hustler of us. And so asI reflect back, I realized that
I, you know, my sister myself,in all our cousins, we kind of
(04:41):
grew up in this cocoon of like,female brilliance that we're in
presence that has truly shapedhow we grew up in what our core
values have been, and what wewant to advocate for it. So as I
entered, you know, engineeringand technology, in fact, many
(05:03):
times found myself as being theone and only I constantly
reminded myself that I come froma lineage of really amazing
women who have, you know, beenvocal in have created space for
themselves and may changeexactly where they were in. So I
drew strength from that, andI've just been very fortunate to
(05:25):
get all the opportunities. But Ithink without kind of coming
from where I came from, andhaving that kind of presence,
female presence from the very,very beginning, I don't think I
would have done half the thingsthat I've done today.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (05:44):
Nice, it's, um, I know, your sister
lives down under, right. So it'salso to, like, totally polar
opposite, sort of, in thatregard, which is very, very
interesting. I know that for me,um, you know, I've stayed in the
life science space for my entirecareer. And I'm, you know,
(06:04):
biochemist by education andchemists, organic chemists
develop drugs, and I stayed inthis space, it feels very
comfortable to me, I'm, youknow, kind of now I can say, I'm
an expert in this particularfield that I do. You have,
though held positions in threedistinct, very different fields,
right. So consumer products, orconsumer electronics,
(06:27):
specifically, right? Automotiveand healthcare. And I'm
wondering, how did you do that?
And what, is there anychallenges in that in your
leadership side? Have youchanged? Like, like, that's a
difficult jump to do?
Rashmi Rao (06:42):
And, you know, I, for me, I think for me, it's a
difficult job. Yeah, yeah.
And honestly, enough, peopleasked me about it, and it was
none of it was really planned.
But I always believe that we,you know, there is nothing to
fear in life, it only is justwaiting for you to understand
it. Even as I've done these, youknow, multiple jumps through
(07:05):
through the differentindustries, it's always been
centered around, you know, usingand leveraging technology, to
make things better for users,for individuals, for drivers.
And now for patients. And that'skind of common, and you know,
that there are differencesbetween the industries, let's
(07:30):
not just pretend like, it's allthe same, because it is not in
consumer, you know, it's allabout rapid innovation and break
things in a quick learn quickand fail fast and things like
that. And automotive, it's verymuch around reliability and
safety. And what I'm learning,you know, as I've now been in
(07:53):
healthcare for a while, it'sprofoundly about impacting lives
at a very, very personal level.
Right. So even as we take thosetools across all of these
industries, what I've taken forme is that the applications are
very, very different. And forme, I like like I said, you
(08:15):
know, there is, my philosophyhas been, there's never a bad
day to have a good idea. And sowhat you need to do is, once you
have that idea, right, what doyou do with it? Like, how do you
take it to be much bigger thanjust yourself? And that's kind
of how I've approached everyspace. And I just feel like I've
(08:39):
been in three different roomsthat are having very similar
conversations, don't they maynot be the same, but they're
very similar. Yeah, when in mostof the things that I've been
involved in, whether it was, youknow, bringing connectivity to
cars, or taking a very usercentered approach to consumer
(09:01):
electronic design, and now I'min this room of healthcare,
where I'm bringing thoseconversations that I've had in
the past, but I'm also trying tounderstand the context that we
have, and the conversations thatare happening here. So I would
highly recommend it, you know,portfolio of impact, is how I
(09:25):
think of it versus Yeah, and I,I can genuinely tell you that
none of it was planned. It just,it has just happened this way.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (09:38):
So in that move from technology, to
bring the technology to thehealthcare space, I know the HL
WF and we all we've been talkingabout this for over a year now,
right? The interconnectivity ofall those different spaces What
(10:00):
are some of the things that youfind? That has surprised you
over the last year that we'vekind of discovered through this
process?
Rashmi Rao (10:07):
Yeah, you know, I in as you mentioned, the origin of
H O WF, and even meeting youfrom the life sciences spaces.
And, you know, me coming fromthe tech space, and our amazing
community that we now have withHL WF is really about bringing
very different and diversevoices together in that same
(10:28):
room, right. And what hassurprised me the most is the
that we all think we understandeach other. But when we are all
in the same room, we, you know,you can't understand each other
if you're speaking differentlanguages, right. And today,
when I think of myself, I can'tlike separate myself, as you
(10:51):
know, this is about consumerexperience, or this is about
employee benefit, or this isabout patient in a care. I am
all of those I occupy the spaceof a patient and an employee and
a consumer every single day. Andso how can, how can we have
those conversations in silos,right. And if we are having
(11:15):
those conversations in silos,then we are definitely missing,
missing important aspects of it.
And without having jumped acrossthese three different rooms that
I said, I don't think I wouldhave even thought it would be a
concept that we can, can canbring, like, very, very diverse,
but I realized that, you know,we are having very similar
(11:36):
conversations. And what hassurprised me the most number
one, it's a woman focused group.
And we have amazing women. Andso that has been the not a
surprise, but surprisingdelight. Meeting just amazingly
qualified women who are verypassionate about their causes,
(11:58):
and now are opening up theirminds to also learn about other
aspects of health and wellbeing. Yeah.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (12:05):
And I can experience in the connectivity
between the two, like how muchI've learned in the last year
from building the community atHL WF, right, and now we have a
resource pool that continues toexpand. Right. And so I think
(12:27):
that that was part of yourvision, but I am not sure how
you thought that that was gonnago so fast. Maybe you want to
talk about what was youroriginal vision for that? Yeah,
yeah.
Rashmi Rao (12:38):
So as you know, we started off with basically
saying, Hey, you're an expert inx. So why don't you tell us
about your expertise, right. Andthat's where we first started,
because it was about bringingpeople to the room and just
saying, share your expertise,because it was a platform.
Again, you know, as most thingshappen in life, you can, you can
(12:59):
imagine certain things, but theserendipity aspect of bringing
amazing people, you cannot planfor that at all right. And so
that was the goal to say, Hey,you're an expert in this, tell
us a little bit more, let'slearn from you. And what that
then transpired into was clearlyseeing some of the gaps. And
especially as you know, there isso much conversation around us
(13:22):
happening, about moving fromsort of fee fee, fee based
services, to value basedservices, or this rapid
disruption of AI that happenedkind of parallel ly to us
growing HW app. And now thereare so many elements and aspects
of both the patient experienceand consumer experience, and
(13:46):
mental health and employee thatis all coming together. And so
we couldn't have planned for anyof that. But the origin was
really to bring really expertwomen, give them a platform and
say, talk about what is yourexpertise, what it has become,
really is this amazing communitythat is, you know, has its own
(14:07):
DNA. It's growing up it with itsown, you know, kind of origin
and it's much, much bigger thanany individual, any one
individual amongst us. Right.
And that's the best part. And Idon't think we can plan for it.
Just we can just be on theright. That's it.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (14:26):
Yeah.
Well, it doesn't surprise me upagainst some some things that
you and I have done in our livesare very, very similar. So from
an entrepreneurial and startupway, you've also have done lots
of startup to scale operations.
I've also done startup to scaleoperations. What are let's talk
(14:46):
about specifically so you'vesuccessfully navigated the
startup ecosystem and theventure capital world. This is a
part of this conversation that Iknow very little about. Okay. So
I'm curious, what key lessonshave you learned in scaling up
innovations from concept tomarket, when you have all these,
this new way of talking becauseagain, I don't know the venture
(15:09):
capital market, like how to talkof that, like, that's a whole
different skill set, which Idon't want to acquire.
Rashmi Rao (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, in in, I've played, I've been in
different stages of myprofessional journey for each of
those. And so I've seen it frommultiple angles, there are
certain angles of that, that Ilove. And there are certain
angles of that, that I am tryingto change. And I think all of us
can be a part of that, thatchange. And I'll start with this
(15:39):
premise that before thepandemic, in 2019 4%, only 4% of
the entire venture capitalfunding in the world, and in a
bulk of it is in the US, when towomen founders, only 4%. And
(16:00):
last year, after the pandemic,it is only 1.8%. So we are not
moving the needle in the rightdirection at all when it comes
to women founded startups. And Ispecifically say that because of
course, we are in thisconversation in Women's History
Month in, you know, the focus isall of this. But the biggest
(16:24):
aspect is if we don't have thosediverse voices, we are
definitely not buildingtechnology. And that has been my
personal experience. So my firststartup, I was the eighth
employee. In a startup in SanFrancisco, I was this very young
graduate student, who had gotthe opportunity to move to San
(16:45):
Francisco. And so I couldn't askfor a better, better start. It
was wonderful. It was again, inthe spaces that I love. It was
MEMS, micro electromechanicalsystems. So building things,
which I just, you know, I'vealways been very hands on in
building things. And about sixmonths into me joining the
(17:06):
startup, Qualcomm acquired us.
And I'm gonna date myself alittle bit here. But this was
pre iPhone, pre YouTube. And soQualcomm at that time had a
company called media flow andEDI fllo. And they were trying
to stream video content ontomobile devices. And this was
early 2000s. So way ahead oftheir time, there was not enough
(17:29):
bandwidth, there was not enough3g, 4g 5g infrastructure, and
they were definitely no devices.
So they acquired this companythat I was a part of the startup
called era nine, to buildtechnology that will be you
know, consuming, very lesspower. So that was one of my
personal passions in terms ofsustainability. That's why I
(17:50):
joined the startup, it was 1/10the power of what mobile phones
were using in those days, andalso to stream video content
that could be viewed everywhere,right? So I go and I joined the
startup, you know, have anamazing exit. But 10 years, fast
forward 10 years, things that wecouldn't control completely
(18:12):
changed the market dynamics,right. And as a engineer, as a,
you know, person that startedfrom the very beginning. I think
I stayed there for a bit toolong, because I was just very
bullish and very, like, I canchange the world, I can do this.
Right. And so a million inchange a billion and change
(18:33):
later. And I did an expat inTaiwan. I mean, I did all sorts
of like crazy things to makethis a reality. We were not as
successful as we want it to be.
It was very, very hard at thattime. But I cannot tank that
experience, because I learned somuch about the decisions that
can go wrong. And it's not justabout a good idea. It's a lot
(18:53):
about execution, and alsomanaging that expectations of
venture capitals, right? Like,how do you because there it's
all about foreign index growthand all of that. So how do you
balance? What do you want tobuild as a founder with the
aspirations of the people thatyou're borrowing the doors?
(19:14):
From? Yeah. Which,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (19:17):
which leads into an interesting kind
of thought around. Before westarted today, we've talked
about innovation and being aninventor, and so you're an
inventor. I've taught innovationto young folks, right? And
there's how to know what is theright problem that you're trying
(19:39):
to solve? And is it worthsolving? Is it worth investing?
Like, is it worth going downthat path? is passionate enough?
Is the you know, the greatergood enough? Or is there some
other way in which you kind oftalk about that or figure that
out for as you go through theprocess? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (19:59):
yeah, I think It's very, it's very personal. And it
should be, you know, everyindividual's right. Because
success can mean so manydifferent things. Success is not
just money, success can beimpact. success can be, you
know, really impacting andchanging people's lives. For me,
I was always driven with seeing,like, my things that I had
(20:22):
worked on in people's hands andmillions of people's hands, that
was always for me the sign ofsuccess, because I'm like, now
I'm in their lives every day. SoI've used what I can, and the
tools that I've been given to,like really make this like tiny
impact, they might not know me,but I know that I impacted them
(20:42):
kind of thing. But that that isvery personal. To me, right. And
so now in healthcare, I thinkit's very important that we
don't pander to the existingsystems. And I have so much hope
for the coming generation,because they see things very
(21:05):
differently. And I see this inmy 12 year old. And you know,
you and I spoke a little bitabout, you know, your, your son
as well. So, it, they see theworld in a very global way. And
they think of issues in a veryglobal way. And so I have so
much hope for them, but but Ithink we need to guide them in
(21:26):
terms of not pandering to thecurrent status quo
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (21:32):
stem, which leads me to like, the big
topic that I know, you and I arevery passionate about, we want
to talk about global health,diplomacy, right, we want to
talk about equity inclusion.
What does that mean? And so alot of what you do today
intersects with all of thoseareas, right, that intersect
with public health, publicpolicy, you have a lot of
(21:55):
passion around this as well,what are some of the things that
you think we can leverage inmaking it more inclusive, or
more equitable? In this process?
Like, yeah,
Unknown (22:11):
thank you for asking me that. Because it's, it's a very
personal thing for me in termsof, you know, health equity,
right, and navigating this UShealth system, as a woman of
color, I've learned so much to,you know, to not dismiss what
I'm feeling to kind of payattention to my body and what my
(22:35):
gut is telling me, versus onlywhat I'm hearing in, you know,
women are not tiny men. So themedications that work for men,
you know, I'm not just gonnatake smaller versions of it,
there's just so many things thatare kind of foundational in how
the US healthcare system was setup, right. But also, we are
(22:56):
seeing a lot of changes. And Ifeel, you know, this is a circle
that we should speak about,about these topics. I feel like
we are moving, you know, in adirection where maybe our
daughters, our next generationis going to have less freedom
(23:17):
than we grew up with. And Iknow, I can just stick around
seeing that happening. And mygoals are very big, but I also
look at it from an impactperspective. So uh, you know, I
don't need to make this changefor millions of people. As I, as
(23:37):
I've, you know, matured, I kindof have learned that impact can
doesn't, you know, youindividually, though, don't have
to, like, always build this bigthing that impacts the entire
world, you can make variouslevels and
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (23:52):
shifts of impact. And there's a ripple
effect that can occur as we makethose transformations. Right.
And starting small and in, it iscontagious. And we all know
this, right? There's lots ofstudies around this, but and at
the same time, there's muchbigger powers to be that are
continuing to take away women'srights, unfortunately, right.
(24:18):
And so and how do we how can weleverage some of the the
technology to make that a moreinclusive sort of conversation?
You know,
Rashmi Rao (24:35):
I come up with this thing called Tax Equity,
a category Oh, okay.
Equity, right. It's catching onin a lot of places. And I really
feel that technology has been aleveler in so many industries.
We've seen that in the lastdecade, and it can be very
disruptive. Right? Social mediais an example. We can now put
(24:58):
our views out there withouthaving being censored, or only
the few on the top having thevoice or the mic. In a similar
way, I truly believe that techequity from a healthcare
perspective is very muchpossible. And today was a
milestone day in it. Because theUN, the United Nations General
(25:19):
Assembly, just ratified theresolution around artificial
intelligence. And they have madeit very, very, very clear in
what that means for the nextsteps for AI. It's about
focusing on not, you know,having people be socially
surveyed and mass surveying ofpeople, surveillance of people,
(25:40):
which we know happens in manycountries, including the United
States, right, but also focusingon sustainable goals, and
ensuring that we are not leavingany country behind. So this was
about 193 countries. You know,when you talk of those big,
like, top down things, this isthis is a milestone, and it
(26:00):
happened today. It literallyhappened this this morning,
right. So things like that,where we can also see the
changes, we need some of thatframework. But from our
perspective, right, as we areworking through HL WF Alliance,
my goal is broadly educating allof the different silos. And
(26:22):
there is a lot of theintersections between the silos
that we can impact withtechnology. For example, mental
health, I think, has been aincredible runaway success
through pandemic, right, wherebeing able to virtually get the
care that you need, has been soimpactful to so many people. And
(26:42):
you and I have spoken about it,it's sometimes times as well.
But as we build some of thesetechnologies, particularly, you
know, at the moment, we'refocused on artificial
intelligence, because it canlearn, and it can take away some
of the burden from having tohave expertise in having to have
physicians in like remote placesand care deserts, right, you can
(27:05):
still administer care withouthaving to be physically present.
And I see that as being, youknow, the number one priority,
and through h o w of Alliance,that's what we're trying to do,
as we build out the corpus ofknowledge, it's about then being
able to disseminate thisknowledge into spaces where they
might not have access to some ofthat, you
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (27:29):
know, it makes me think that so the women
on the call today, women andCSV, right, often we're working
in a siloed space or notnecessarily. It could be
inequality space, that's nottalking to the tech space,
right. And there's a lot ofsiloed organizations as you are
well aware, right. And one ofthe things that I try to help
(27:53):
folks do is use the technologythey have to the best of their
ability to get those thingsdone. But at the same time,
we're also experiencing, youhave to learn how to talk to
one, right, and I think thatthere's a mis misalignment of
(28:14):
thinking that either we're gonnabring in some generative AI, or
we're going to bring someanother fancy tool, and that's
going to, quote unquote, solvethe problem. But the problem is
the people, right, we need to beable to communicate, we need to
be able to talk to one anotherin a different way. And so one
of the things I love about whatthe H LWF alliances is bringing
(28:40):
those different perspectives tothe table. And I'm wondering
through that, though, have youhad to like how to get over that
barrier of getting folks toactually want to participate in
something new, right? Becausebreaking down the silos, it's
hard work, right? You might beable to knock them down once but
(29:01):
it's like it's it every day sortof conversation to continue that
pace of so that that that thereis actual ultimate change at the
end, right. Like it's a constantwork. It's a practice. So do you
have any, like maybe a successstory or some some some tidbits
(29:23):
for us on how to try to do that?
Yeah, yeah.
Rashmi Rao (29:26):
So I want to digress and just share this example.
From from this this past week.
It's in my other role, I'm onthe board of World Affairs
Council, which is a statesponsored, sort of soft
diplomacy group. And I'm on theboard and a part of what I do
(29:47):
there is also to have thesehomestays for people from
globally. So the US StateDepartment brings in you know,
folks with Many, many differentorganizations from across the
globe. And, you know, there isan opportunity to host them. And
I do this because I learned morefrom from actually hosting these
(30:08):
people. And this past week, wehad hosted somebody from
Turkmenistan. And a part a partof what we do is take them out
to lunch and dinners with theother local people, and they
learn more about the US. Right,it's soft diplomacy, and there
was so much of concern in worry,which I had anticipated, but I
(30:30):
had, you know, didn't have theopportunity to discuss because
it was Ramadan. And that is, youknow, you can only have dinner
after sunset. And there is only,you know, there was restrictions
on what you can eat. But we hadno, it wasn't, it was something
that I was aware of. So we thehost, and I discussed this, and
we organized it. And we didn'tthink that it should even be a
(30:53):
problem. But then just thatsmall aspect. You know, when
when we hosted these people in,they actually saw that there was
that much effort that was madeto accommodate them, and
accommodate their culture andtheir practices. It kind of
destroyed in just one dinner,their perception of, you know,
(31:14):
the United States as being thisbig bad guy, who's, you know,
going around the world with bigguns, right. And I bring that
example, because that's what weare doing with HL WF Alliance,
it doesn't have to be like theseismic thing that happens, but
the butterfly effect of beingable to bring and so one of the
(31:37):
examples, I'd love to give asthe event we hosted for
International Women's Day wherewe were speaking specifically
about the possibility rightsthat are under attack in the US.
And so we brought an actualpediatrician who's been
practicing in administering foralmost 3035 years in this space.
And we had a patient, anindividual who had very personal
(32:05):
moving stories about, you know,building a family through these
fertility treatments, and I wasthere and another founding
member. And so just being inthat room and having that
conversation, it was for anhour, but the the, the momentum,
we've been able to create theyou know, the course there was a
(32:26):
lot of coverage for it. But themomentum we've been able to
create after it, I mean, we'vejust gotten started, and to see
that we can mobilize that kindof energy around a topic is just
fills me with hope. It used tobe without Dory. And so for me,
it's about bringing that ethosof you know, what whack is
(32:48):
doing, the World Affairs Councilis doing for, for global
diplomacy into this aspect ofbreaking the silos. And as you
put these people together, whenyou see that you're hearing each
other's concerns, and you're notdismissing it, just because I'm
a patient doesn't mean that Idon't understand the you know,
the science behind it, or Idon't need to understand the
(33:12):
science behind it. For example,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (33:15):
one of the things that I'm just
formulating in my, my mind, asyou're talking is, you know, in
my space, we do have some interIndustry Regulatory privates,
you know, kind of connectionsthat we call consortiums of
(33:36):
different kinds. But, um, how doyou see, you know, do you have
any vision of of actuallybringing in industry into the HL
WF, Alliance salutely.
Rashmi Rao (33:49):
And as we build out, I think the change can only
happen when you put this outthere, and you also need buy in.
So, you know, I'm gonna quote,my favorite RBG here. And, you
know, she always said that workon things that you're passionate
about, but do it in a way whereyou bring people along. Right,
(34:11):
and that is the goal. It's notabout isolating. It's not about
you know, I win, you don't, it'sabout how can we all win? And so
yes, the language for theindustry will, will be
different, because, you know,therefore, profit, we are
nonprofit. And so how do youmake it a win win for both? I
(34:31):
think we'll, we'll have to comeup with that that right
framework. But without that kindof partnerships, the scale is
not possible at all. Right. Andso I'm very, very, very happy to
see some of the focus that manyof these big organizations are
now doing, whether it's justgiving their tools and their
(34:52):
software and their services tononprofits, but they, you know,
Amazon has something similarMicrosoft has something similar
but they also have bigfoundations that are willing to
support not not for profitorganizations. And they are all
also very much looking at howcan they be a part of this
(35:12):
equity aspect, right, becausethey do tech very well. And they
haven't had a great track recordof equity. So, in a partnering
with somebody that is focused onthat aspect, I think, bodes
well, for both both sides.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (35:28):
Yeah. So, um, I was wondering if you would
share with us some of yourleadership philosophy we have,
you know, part of our women inCSP group and part of the
software quality to a podcastaudience is a variety, right,
there are folks that are juststarting out in the industry,
and then there's folks that arevery senior and have been in the
(35:48):
industry for a long time. Isthere some some aspects of your
journey that you could impart onthese women as we go through
this?
Rashmi Rao (35:57):
Oh, gosh, okay. So I mean, like I said, I didn't, I
didn't plan but I have, I've hadthe self discipline to go back
and reflect in see what, whatwhat some of those things were.
And I would say, having acommunity, right is top, and
I've seen that, you know, and Ialluded to the community that I
(36:20):
had when I was growing up. Butthen there was also a community
when I was in undergrad, and wewere about nine girls in a class
of 110. And, you know, but wewere we were, we were a
community. And even as I've goneinto my professional group, and
things like that, there's alwaysbeen a community. And so I
(36:41):
think, being very deliberateabout reaching out and being in
community is not about the gap,it's about the gift before you
get, right. So if you do that,then you automatically have a
group of people, that will be a,you know, willing to do what it
takes to make you successful,right. And also give you the
(37:05):
tools and make the connections,open the doors, be your
advocate, when you cannot be inthe room, as well. And but it
takes effort, and it takes ittakes giving first and having
that as top of mind, how can Ihelp you? I think works best.
(37:26):
And it has it has for me. Andthen I always look at, you know,
paying it forward. Whatever Ihave received, I always look to
you know, can I give this samething to more people. But also
knowing that you have to havelike this advisory council that
I think of, which is people thatwill actually poke holes.
(37:49):
Challenge the world will opposethe world calls. So you know,
curate that advisory councilthat you trust, you know, you
know, the people that have beenin the field have gotten knocked
down and come back up. And, youknow, it doesn't have to be
women alone. They can be men inyour lives as well. But it's not
(38:11):
just about you are amazing allthe time. Right. But you know,
you want somebody to tell you, Idon't think this works. Yes. I
don't think you should do itthis way. Well, I think you
should wait before you send thatnasty email. But that might be a
talk you often salutely Yep.
Right. And so having that isalso important, because it's not
(38:32):
just about Kumbaya. We're allgreat in the world sucks. And
it's always because of the wordbut some, you know, a group of
people that you trust. Yep. Canalso poke holes in in real talk.
Yeah.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (38:50):
So I was gonna ask, So, what do you think
we need to ask of men in thisconversation?
Rashmi Rao (38:58):
Ah, men in the conversation, do we have some in
some in the I
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (39:03):
need so so as a as a female leader,
right? This is part of mycontinue learning and growing
angst, right is I keep beingasked for more and more and more
and more and more because likeyou said, I'm a giver, giver,
giver, giver. And at there'ssome point, right, that usually
(39:30):
who's asking, asking, asking,are the men and in my circles,
right? Yeah, what what do weneed to how can we change?
What's some thoughts around howwe can change that time? What do
we need to ask of them in orderfor us to continue to want to
give right and help him move andgrow and move this needle a
(39:52):
little bit? Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (39:54):
in I think it's important to set boundaries,
especially when we're giving andwe know If you're passionate
about it, because if it is, inthis, I've learned this from
experience, right? There aresome people who are willing to,
they're asking the question, orthey're asking for this because
they want to understand theywant to learn, and they want to
(40:16):
change. And there are othersthat are doing this, because
they just can they know thatyou're passionate about this
topic of di, that you will sayyes to this podcast is that
you'll say yes to representingon a panel, and they they don't
have to pay you, for example,you know, I'm just taking a very
narrow example. And I think overtime, you will realize who
those, you know, does thisperson fall into one of the
(40:38):
categories or the others? Andwhat I do Dory is, at times I
just put the put put the groundrules and say, This is it, I
draw the line here. And, youknow, sometimes you're worth the
time and the effort, because Iknow that this conversation will
help you change. And in othertimes, it's just, it's just not
(41:03):
going to. And if it does not,then it's not the burden is not
on me to help continue toeducate you to give you my time
to give you all of them. Right.
So that is that came with alittle bit of learning that came
with a little bit of
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (41:16):
like oil and error, trial and error.
Yeah. What are the what arethose boundaries? What I mean,
boundaries are such a part of myeveryday conversation these days
for what's going on with myfamily life, right is, you know,
who's responsible for what?
Everyone contributing theirpart? Right? And that in that
collective, if everyonecontributes their park, there is
(41:38):
a lesser of a burden on everyright. And one can only hope
that that is what we all aspireto, right, is that each of us
are carrying lesser of a burdenover time, right? Because I
don't I don't think I speak foreveryone. But I know that
there's a lot of women out therethat feel the burden and the and
(41:58):
the burn. Right? Very much.
Right, we're shouldering a lot,whether it's family life, career
wise, health wise, right, youname it. And for the most part
in most communities, women arethe center of that
sustainability of thatcommunity, right. And we need at
(42:21):
an opportunity to have somerespite as well, and how to get
that establishing boundaries,what those boundaries are, and
how to ask for more from otherswhen we can't, and vice versa, I
think is really super important.
I was wondering, I asked often,that I
Rashmi Rao (42:42):
it's a very simple thing, but it has made a huge
difference for me in my life,and I can share it. So one of
the things I've done now forthis entire year, is so I start
my day really early, I start myday at 5am. And I
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (43:00):
know I get texts on the West Coast.
Yeah,
Rashmi Rao (43:05):
so one of the things for me was to take that one hour
to do the things that I want todo, whether it's you know, going
into meditation, whether it'sconnecting with friends, but I
don't do anything related to mywork, or anything that is kind
of work because I have so muchwork outside of my day job,
(43:28):
right. And so but they all canend up being work, whether it's
the community stuff or thingslike that. So it took a little
bit of, you know, effort tocarve out those things that just
are bringing joy in beingpeaceful. And it is not easy,
but because I wake up really Ihave, you know, I have a three
year old as well. And so in Ijuggle a bunch of different
(43:52):
things. But getting that in somedays, it's an hour, some days,
it's just 30 minutes. But it hashelped me sort of ground myself
in the quality of my thoughtsare so different and better
because of that for the rest ofthe day. And I do something
similar at the end of the nightas well. And like I said, some
(44:14):
days it's only 10 minutes beforeI go to bed or 30 minutes. In
some days. It's it's longer.
Yeah,
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (44:20):
I love it. So as we wrap up here, I
would like to hear what youthink are some predictions for
the future. Like what do youthink? You know, yeah, like,
like hat like, do you have somethoughts around like healthcare
technology, kind of like wherewe're going? What do you think
is going to happen?
Rashmi Rao (44:40):
I can give you the Doom and Doom but I don't want
toknow I want to hear the hopeful.
Yeah, so for me, I think if wedon't make some drastic, drastic
changes.
We can talkyou know, all day all night. In
nothing will change, right?
(45:02):
Whether we're talking about AI,whether we're talking about GLP,
one, you know, medications,whether we're talking about
digital flourishing, any any andall topics that impact the
health or the pharma side ofthings are the well being or our
fitness, we will not be able tomake progress if we don't make
(45:24):
some drastic changes. And when Isay drastic changes, it's
changing the incentiveschanging, what are we tracking
some of these very largecompanies on, and if that
doesn't change their motivationfor their bottom lines don't
change our lives, our health,and our well being will not
(45:44):
change, right. So if I want topredict and I really do want to
predict that some of thosechanges, you know, we can make
and we can only make that happennot by sitting in our houses and
fretting about it, but talkingabout it in the space in your
communities that in your house,and in your community. But every
(46:06):
one of us has that capabilityand meaning we all do it, we've
seen that we can dramaticallychange in dramatically moved
those needles, right. So that'smy hopeful prediction for the
future that people understandbecause we are tracking our
house more, we all havewearables, we all have home care
in hospital at home. And thatmeans we are more empowered to
(46:30):
take charge of our health andwell being, which means that we
will ask more of these companiesthat benefit from keeping us
sick or treating us when we'resick versus, you know, keeping
us healthy. Right?
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (46:45):
I love us, I am going to open up. So if
anyone has any questions thatare on the phone, you're more
than welcome to come off mute, Ithink you should be able to do
that or raise your hands andthen I can bring you off mute.
If you have a question orthoughts. We'd love to have
those. I know that. We juststarted our spring cohort at HL
(47:11):
WF Alliance, and we are in ourthird week. I think that's
correct. For those of you thathaven't seen, we publish weekly,
and medium and a variety ofother places. And I think it's
really important for folks to toexpand also where they're
(47:32):
getting their news and whatthey're reading. What's been
remarkable to me is seeing whatwhat we're putting together,
right. And then understandingeven the writing process of
where folks are getting sourcedwhere information is coming
from. I think my myselfpersonally have maybe gotten a
little lazy over the years ofjust, I used to read a lot of
(47:56):
medical journals. And I kind ofstopped that. And now I'm kind
of getting back into it again.
And I one of the things I liketo do, I don't know sounds a
little crazy. But that thatbrings me peace and joy. But I
encourage you guys to go out andread what we're we're writing
about. Thank
Rashmi Rao (48:14):
you, thank you, Dory. And that was the point it
was about also making itaccessible to as many people as
possible, right. And we havephysicians writing but we also
have, you know, humans inconversation where real life
patient experiences beingarticulated. And we have a
series of experts inconversation where it's a
(48:35):
conversation about a veryspecific topic. It's in the q&a
forum. So easily digestibleinformation. And then there is
always references that they cantake more deeper.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (48:49):
Yeah. So if you are listening to this,
whether it's on the podcast orin person, if you have folks
that you think that would begreat people to interview and
experts in their fields in anyof those, let us know because
we're always looking for for newones to highlight and to share.
So it can I
Rashmi Rao (49:09):
just say thank you so much for being an amazing,
amazing mentor for me and as webuild out our community and
continuing to be such an amazingfounding part of the HW of
Alliance story. Thank you.
Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo (49:23):
Thank you, Rashmi. I thoroughly enjoy
it. And thank you for your timetoday. I appreciate it. And I
will talk to you soon. All
Rashmi Rao (49:31):
right, take care.
Thank you very much. Bye
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