Venture Everywhere Podcast: Jade Kearney with Jenny Fielding
Jenny Fielding, Co-founder of Everywhere Ventures, catches up with Jade Kearney, Co-founder and CEO of She Matters on episode 24: Because She Matters.
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In episode 24 of Venture Everywhere, Jenny Fielding, Co-founder of Everywhere Ventures chats with Jade Kearney, Co-founder and CEO of She Matters, digital health platform designed to improve health outcomes and reduce maternal mortality for Black mothers. Jade recounts her inspiring journey from concept to product, and how she transformed her pain into purpose, pivoting from an educator to an entrepreneur and maternal health advocate.
In this episode, you will hear:
Jade's journey from postpartum anxiety OCD to founding She Matters, using her personal struggle as a catalyst for social impact.
The systemic barriers that Black mothers face when seeking healthcare, particularly in the realm of postpartum and mental health.
She Matters’ innovative and proactive approaches to bridge the healthcare gap.
Embracing diversity, staying mission-driven, fostering honest communication, combating imposter syndrome and building a strong team.
The importance for entrepreneurs, particularly those from underrepresented groups, to have a strong supportive network.
She Matters' launch of their symptom tracker and the expansion of their Cultural Competence Certification Program for Providers.
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00 Jenny: Hi, and welcome to the Everywhere podcast. We're a global community of founders and operators who've come together to support the next generation of builders. So the premise of the podcast is just that, founders interviewing other founders about the trials and tribulations of building a company. Hope you enjoy the episode.
00:00:20 Jenny: Well, hi Jade. Super excited for this chat. Welcome to Venture Everywhere. And I'd love to just start with telling us a little bit about you and your background, where you're from, and just give us a little flavor of who Jade is.
00:00:36 Jade: Well, thank you for having me. I'm so stoked to be here. I love talking to you, period. I'll start with who I am before I jump into She Matters. I am a girl from Newark, New Jersey who was a teacher for many, many years and was in education and diversity and inclusion before I had my daughter.
00:00:55 Jade: I had my first daughter six years ago while I was at NYU. And while I was at NYU, I was doing digital media design, a master's in digital media design. And I never thought that this would be me. I was just a new mom getting ready to do I thought EdTech.
00:01:14 Jade: I thought I would be an EdTech. And so this was how I was going to get into that. There are very few Black women and Black folks in EdTech in general. So I thought this would be my way to get in.
00:01:25 Jade: Ended up having a serious bout with postpartum anxiety OCD, which is not talked about too much. It's basically like intrusive thoughts about yourself and your baby. And turned my thesis project into SheMatters.
00:01:42 Jenny: Wow, I actually didn't realize that. That's so interesting. So it came from a personal place, which I always call the empath founders, which I really love. So how did it go from, idea to help maybe solve something that you were facing personally to a business?
00:01:57 Jade: Well, I had a brunch. So this is about six years ago now. I already had the idea for the app. And originally SheMatters was pairing Black mothers with therapists because we thought that was what Black mothers wanted.
00:02:11 Jade: Frank Rimalovski, I never say his name right. I'm so sorry, Frank. At NYU over there with the Innovation Fund, liked the idea, didn't like it all the way in the beginning and said, “I don't know if anybody would really go for this,” but after we were in sprint, he said, "These girls work hard. So bring them on for the accelerator program."
00:02:33 Jade: That's how we knew it could be a business, right? Because we did like over 500 interviews with Black women. And quickly realized that they didn't want to be paired with therapists because they didn't even know what was happening with themselves.
00:02:47 Jade: That helped us so much to form this into a business because we realized that part of this was education. Black women didn't know what was happening while it was happening, so how could they want to talk to somebody about something that they didn't know they were experiencing?
00:03:41 Jade: We said, okay, so we see a void in the market there. And the other thing that's happening is that healthcare providers don't clearly understand the help that Black women need. All we know is that there's this gap in communication between healthcare provider and what's happening with the system and Black mothers and how they communicate to the healthcare provider.
00:03:24 Jade: And on both ends, it had to do with safety and communication. So that's how we really said, "Oh, this could be a business and let's do it." But I don't think that without Frank and Rebecca and NYU, we would have come to that conclusion and maybe would have thought about something different and like we would have still been trying to pair Black moms with therapists.
00:03:44 Jenny: Well, shout out to Frank, who is such a great supporter of entrepreneurs across New York and I love that he made you do 500 customer discovery interviews. So that's just amazing.
00:03:56 Jade: It was a contest and I am competitive and so is my co-founder, Marguerite Pierce. So we were very competitive.
00:04:02 Jenny: I love it. Okay, so tell me about the early years of starting SheMatters because the product actually did change. So I imagine there were a few iterations from where you started at NYU.
00:04:13 Jade: Yeah, so we used to have a box. We used to have a product. So we were subsidizing therapy for Black women with a gift box. So people would buy a gift box with all things, health and wellness, and it was subsidized free therapy for Black women.
00:04:27 Jade: It was going really good. When we applied to Techstars, we had this e-commerce business, but that's not what we wanted to do. And we quickly found out that our customers were white men from Canada who were giving these boxes to the the folks that are their employees or to their wives or women in their lives or whoever, but this was not the goal.
00:04:47 Jade: Our goal was to improve Black maternal healthcare. And we were turning into an e-commerce business. It was very strange, but I feel like sometimes you stumble upon things because they work and it doesn't really get to the root of what you're trying to do, especially if you're in social impact, because you worry about money so much, you're like, "Well, this is working."
00:05:04 Jade: Well, it takes away from the actual thing you're trying to change, which changes your relationship to your business, right?
00:05:12 Jenny: So interesting. I didn't realize that that was the demographic that was buying the box, because I remember meeting you when you had the box, and I was like, "This woman is amazing."
00:05:22 Jenny: And the box was just out of our sweet spot of what we invest in, but I always loved your passion and your mission. Then take us from the box to evolving into what SheMatters is now. So just catch us up.
00:05:35 Jade: We talked to Isaac Kato. He used to be the managing director of Techstar Seattle. And I stalked him. He'll tell anybody that I researched him. I stalked him. I was an entrepreneur in residence at digitalundivided. And that's how I met him.
00:05:49 Jade: And I just was relentless at trying to talk to this man because I loved his energy. And he seems so just genuine about everything. And I told him we were in this weird space of like, "We have this box, but this is not what we want to do. This is our overall product."
00:06:03 Jade: And he was like, "So are you going to kill the box? You're going to come into Techstars? Are you going to keep going with this? Are you going to kill the box?" And so we decided to kill the box. So we pivoted our first week in Techstars, right?
00:06:19 Jade: And decided to do our culturally competent certification. And that's through an LMS system. And we got a lot of interest right off the bat because no one is doing this. And it is really a proactive approach to the problem of Black maternal morbidity.
00:06:37 Jade: So it really was Isaac believing in us enough and believing in me to say, if you're gonna do this other thing, do this other thing. Don't let the wheel spin over there if that's not really what you wanna do and I'm not judging you, you decide on what you wanna do.
00:06:51 Jenny: And can you talk a little bit about the product because it's so innovative and the LMS and how you've combined those two things with the training?
00:06:59 Jade: Sure. So the product is… we're the only company that does a certification in Black maternal health. So we basically help healthcare providers better understand the needs of Black women through the historical nuances that we face in healthcare in general in the United States.
00:07:13 Jade: And if you look at diversity training in healthcare, medical schools only get about three hours, and that's to cover everyone. Black, white, Asian, LGBTQ+, trans, all of it. Three hours isn't enough for anything.
00:07:30 Jade: So what we're doing is we give six to 12 weeks and providers can choose on how they want to go through this program. That's 80% async. We collaborate with healthcare providers and networks to make it – we say we're culture collaborators, right?
00:07:45 Jade: We make it accessible at the rate your company wants it to be accessible. So if you want to meet twice a month, we do that. If you wanna meet once a month, we do that. We do what works for your company.
00:07:55 Jade: And then there's 20% where healthcare providers have to speak to a Black mother. Some healthcare providers in Idaho, Rhode Island, where there's very small numbers of Black women, never have had conversations with Black mothers.
00:08:08 Jade: So how can you build empathy? How can you have behavioral change? If you've never talked to someone who walks in your office, it would be the same for anyone. So it's without judgment. So we make sure that healthcare providers speak to Black women.
00:08:21 Jade: The last thing we do, it's imperative that there's an implementation plan so you don't get certified without telling us how you can use this to decrease Black maternal morbidity in your practice, at your medical school, or within your hospital network.
00:06:03 Jenny: Out of curiosity, how do your customers, the hospital systems measure success? What are the KPIs that you help set with them?
00:08:44 Jade: So there's a decrease in readmission rates. Black women are 80% more likely to go to the emergency room during their postpartum period, 80%. And that really has to do with the miscommunication that happens in the hospital.
00:09:00 Jade: So if you leave the hospital feeling like you weren't heard, you're home and you're nervous about what's happening and you feel like something's wrong and nobody listened to you, you go back to the hospital, right?
00:09:11 Jade: And there's an increase in that six week postpartum visit. Six weeks postpartum, that point is integral to your health moving forward as a mom. That's the first doctor you see for you. Every other week you see the pediatrician, but you don't see your healthcare provider. So if you miss that six weeks, something could be very wrong.
00:09:33 Jade: You could be suffering from postpartum depression or anxiety, or you could be suffering with high blood pressure postpartum, and you just don't know because you're under dirty diapers and laundry, and you just did not go because you felt like you weren't seen and heard on your initial hospital visit.
00:09:50 Jenny: You don't come from healthcare, and healthcare is just a very complicated beast. How have you learned how to interact with these healthcare systems? And really, I mean, I feel like you've done an incredible job getting pilots and partnerships and all of this. Give us a little insight on best practices.
00:10:10 Jade: I think doing research in the space is super important. So knowing folks who know the space because healthcare is different. And this is what I didn't understand in the beginning. Like this takes months.
00:10:25 Jade: This can take six to nine months to get a contract with a medical school or with a hospital because there are all these channels that don't happen in other arenas like other types of businesses. So don't set yourself up for failures. Set yourself up for success.
00:10:40 Jade: Know that it's okay that if it's taking three months, six months, you're not failing, right? Managing your frustration around it. But you do that by understanding the industry.
00:10:50 Jenny: I love that you're talking about three and six months. I know healthcare startups that have two years to get a deal with a health care provider or system. So yeah, I mean, you are moving fast.
00:10:01 Jade: It's hard. It's really, really hard. But I think that the epidemic of Black maternal morbidity and rightfully so, has folks up in arms. Because I write down the things that people say that are consistent across the board.
00:11:17 Jade: And one thing that people always say at hospitals, I wanna be specific, is we don't know what to do. And I think people don't know what to do because the reactive approach isn't working. So this is a proactive approach.
00:11:28 Jade: But the other thing is people are people and I know people. Through everything I've done, I think studying children, studying their parents, being in diversity inclusion, you have to understand people.
00:11:42 Jade: So when I see people, I can gauge how serious they are. I can gauge what they really want. And that's just something that I've always been able to do.
00:11:50 Jade: So knowing that these are just people and people either wanna make change or they don't. I'll never claim to be this amazing sales guru. No, but I do understand people. And I think that counts for something.
00:12:02 Jenny: Yeah, I mean, such an important characteristic of a founder is to be able to read the room, right? And I feel, like, you’re great at that of really understanding incentive alignments, who's serious, who's not. Yeah, that's really interesting.
00:12:16 Jenny: Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges of running a healthcare company and one especially focused on the problem that you're solving in the demographic?
00:12:25 Jade: Oh, my God, there's so many. How much time do you have? One biggest challenge is the sales process. Sometimes you get all the way to almost signing the contract and people will say something like, "We're not really focused on Black maternal health."
00:12:37 Jade: And it's like, "Well, every other mom is dying." So it just becomes the thing of who cares the most and who's going to put their money where their mouth is.
00:12:47 Jade: And a lot of people are talkbots or like things for clickbait, but they're not serious about the actual problem. And we know the statistics because we know the hospital. So it's kind of like, "Um..." so that's frustrating.
00:12:58 Jade: It's really hard to be the demographic that's dying while you are advocating for those who are dying and you talk to people who don't care because the people who are dying look like me.
00:13:10 Jade: I was at the Senate in Albany the day before yesterday speaking about Black maternal health. And a woman got up and said in December she lost her baby, a stillborn. She had her doctorate. It's not an access problem. It's like a problem because there's systemic racism.
00:13:25 Jade: And everyone in there was crying and it's like, "This is happening right now." The other thing that's really challenging is to know that you have a product that can work, but the process is long. So you have to be super patient.
00:13:39 Jade: And I think that we're in a culture that's not patient. Everything is right now. Everything is go, go, go. And it's hard to not doubt yourself when things don't happen as you want them to.
00:13:50 Jade: You know, I have investors, we have customers and you have to show and prove for everyone. And sometimes it's like, "It's not working today." Some days it's, Oh my God." And sometimes it's like, "This shit is not working today. And I'm frustrated and I'm upset and why," and I thought thinking versus what's actually happening is sometimes so crushing, especially early on.
00:14:12 Jade: I think now we have more of a handle on that. But in the beginning, you hear so much of, yes, we love this and we want you to be here and we wanna make change. And then when it doesn't happen, it's like, "Oh my God, but people are dying."
00:14:22 Jade: So I think when it's social impact versus a product, it's like, if somebody doesn't want a hairband that doesn't break your hair off, it's like, "Okay. Somebody doesn't wanna save lives." It's like, "Well, damn, I have the data, here's the statistics, why don't you wanna do this?"
00:14:39 Jenny: That's pretty dark, right?
00:14:41 Jade: Yeah.
00:14:42 Jenny: Why not work with me on this? Because this is foundational.
00:14:46 Jade: For anybody, there's so many companies Health In Her HUE, Mommy, shout out to all those girls doing the things. All of them, everybody, why don't you want to work with one of us?
00:14:55 Jade: There's enough Black maternal morbidity to go around. And we're very different on our product. But what I'm saying is, select something.
00:15:03 Jenny: So you called it patience. I think I use the term and I definitely feel this with you, resilience. How have you built resilience over your career, running the company, your life? Talk a little bit about that characteristic because I think it's so prevalent in you and your story.
00:15:22 Jade: I think it's just me. I don't come from any type of money. On my first day of college, both of my parents were in jail. I've always had to like work really hard. And so being caught off guard is a part of who I am.
00:15:37 Jade: I've just learned to work in that space. I think that if you are from an inner city, if you are from a challenging background, you work in the chaos. My husband always says, "Oh my God, you work so well in chaos, you're crazy." It's like, "No, the world is pretty chaotic. So you have to be the calm river in the middle of the storm type of thing."
00:15:57 Jade: And everything is always okay. It's about, can you get through the storm on this, calm river? If you just hold on, you'll get through it. So you gotta figure the shit out. It'll be fine, just figure it out. Just stop freaking out.
00:16:10 Jade: And if you don't give up, then you don't fail. I really believe in that. And I'm a mom, I don't really have a choice. This is my full-time job. I have four children. I live in the city. It's a billion dollars to go just outside of your door.
00:16:23 Jade: So like, I'm not going back to a nine to five ever, ever. I'm not going to choose between this lunch meeting or going to my daughter's gymnastics meet, it's not happening. So I think every mompreneur, if you look at them , they're not fucking around.
00:16:40 Jade: It's like, no, I have to do this. Not just for my children, but for me and the freedom that that brings. Being a woman in any business is very controlling. Like There's a controlled sense to it. It's like you have to be this way and you have to do this thing.
00:16:55 Jade: Entrepreneurship, regardless of how hard it is, it's a crazy, chaotic, why would you ever do this? But there's a certain level of freedom that you cannot buy. And yes, it's crazy and yes, it's chaotic and I sometimes cry and I'm screaming and all of the things, but I'm happy. And I think that matters for something, right?
00:17:15 Jenny: It does. How do you see, I mean, I think, one of the things that's so cool about you and getting to know you the last few years is people bring challenges and you seem to see opportunity and that's very unique.
00:17:27 Jenny: So when things are kind of rough, or it is that chaos, how are you kind of stepping back and saying, actually, this is a real opportunity for us?
00:17:35 Jade: I think that comes from studying the industry and really respecting and studying other founders, right? Like right now, our symptom tracker. I had to really look at the landscape and see that wearables, there's no postpartum wearable that has a tracker for preeclampsia, eclampsia and HELLP syndrome.
00:17:58 Jade: That's what causes the most mortality, maternal mortality, outside of everything else. And 90% of that happens during postpartum. I had to sit back eight months pregnant with my twin. You remember that. I was, like, swollen and say, well, I don't want to walk downstairs to look at this magnet.
00:18:19 Jade: That tells me the symptoms that would cause me to have to call 911 or perhaps kill me, why is it not right here? But then I had to say, is this realistic and study the space and give myself the time to step back and really look at it and not just rush to do it?
00:18:36 Jade: Is this something that people want? Will this work? Do we have the money? And then commit to it. Cause that's the hardest thing to do. Because a lot of people pivot because it's just not working quick.
00:18:48 Jade: But if you commit to it and you stay with it, it'll work, if you studied and researched prior. So I think that helps.
00:18:57 Jenny: So tell us what's next for She Matters. So give us a little insight on where the business is going.
00:19:02 Jade: Well, the symptom tracker is next. I'm so excited about that. It'll be released, May 2024. We have an amazing team of engineers and product folks. I'm so excited.
00:19:14 Jade: Also expanding to medical schools all across the nation. I'm actually doing that right now, traveling and talking to medical schools because a lot of medical schools feel like this is extremely important to graduate their doctors, understanding Black maternal health.
00:19:31 Jade: Being the only certification for Black maternal health, just being that standard and being that governing body of the space. Making those moves and working with our lawyers to understand what that looks like for us to be the governing body of certifications around Black maternal health. And hopefully at some point, get some rest.
00:19:52 Jenny: Really not for a few more years there, Jade. That's very optimistic.
00:19:53 Jade: Yeah.
00:19:59 Jenny: Can you talk a little bit about how you've built your team? You seem to be very focused on culture and obviously bringing people in the fold that are impact focused and believe in your mission. So talk a little bit about your team.
00:20:12 Jade: Well, our engineering team, our product team, we went through Remedy and they're amazing. They made sure that a woman of color was the head of our team. And we spoke to them prior to say, how important that was to us and working with companies that believe in that as well.
00:20:28 Jade: And I don't think anybody will disagree. Diversity of thought is how you gain success. So it's not that we don't want white males a part of our team. We want white males who are from all over the world. We want white males who went to Yale, white males who went to MIT or who went to UCLA, not just one type of person.
00:20:48 Jade: I think we look at people who are mission driven because that's super important for us. So who cares about this problem because there are going to be so many down days that you have to pick folks who really care, who you don't have to sell it to, who want to be a part of it. So that's been super beneficial for us.
00:21:08 Jenny: I love it. Have you learned to be a better communicator? So I know that's something that you've been working on and that you've got like a particular style. So I'd love to just hear more about how you think about communication within your team and beyond.
00:21:21 Jade: It's important because my default is to bury my head and I don't want to talk. That's how I've gotten through life and with therapy and feedback, you realize that's not the best way to move, but it's something that I've always struggled with because like, bury your head in the sand, get the shit done and come up.
00:21:38 Jade: But when you have investors, when you have customers, when you have a team, when you are a boss, you have to speak to people. So I've been able to improve that by getting out of my head and not being ashamed.
00:21:49 Jade: I think people don't talk about the shame that comes with entrepreneurship. There's a lot of shame. You're like, "Oh my God, am I feeling. Oh my God, is this the right thing? Oh my God, did I make the wrong decision?"
00:22:00 Jade: There's so much pressure that you sometimes have shame and shame makes you hide. And so I think you communicate with people that you trust.
00:22:11 Jade: So to call someone and say, you know, I called you a couple of weeks ago to let someone know what's going on or to talk to somebody, you have to be able to trust them and know like, that they still see you in a good light because everyone makes mistakes or everyone has challenges.
00:22:29 Jade: And I think picking people who I trust and picking people who I know they're gonna give me the real and like, what the fuck are you doing? But like, also this is how we move forward is super important to communicating in a great way.
00:22:43 Jade: And it's the same with our employees. They'll come to me and say this is the thing that we wanna do. You said this, this isn't correct. We can't do that in this time and I can listen to them because I trust them and I trust that this is important to them as well.
00:22:56 Jade: So I can't be crazy and this won't be done in three weeks but what they're saying is important and I trust them. You're not gonna trust everybody you work with. I don't need to trust everyone I work with.
00:23:07 Jade: But those people who are around you that I need to communicate with, there has to be a certain level of trust. And I think I'm a good people person observer. So I have those people around. So I'm not as ashamed as I used to be.
00:23:21 Jade: But when I first started, there's also that thing that happens. I think it happens to Black founders in particular, where you have that. I don't remember the exact word. It's like, I'm not supposed to be here. I'm here by luck and not on my own merit.
00:23:34 Jade: It's very shaming when you feel like you're not doing things correctly. And I think every entrepreneur should have a fucking therapist. Cause this is hard. It's hard for anybody.
00:23:45 Jade: But if you're in one of those disenfranchised groups, who this place in this space is not traditionally who you see. It's super, super important because you have that imposter syndrome that's like, I don't want anybody to see me fail because I'm really not supposed to be here.
00:24:03 Jade: And it's like, it's not a secret that I'm Black. It's not, it's like, I am supposed to be here, but it's just that thing that happens. And that has to be talked about more, but that makes you a better communicator. I'm not scared to say this didn't work anymore but two years ago I was.
00:24:20 Jenny: I get chills when you talk about that notion of feeling like you're not supposed to be here. I obviously have that as well as a woman running a fund. So I really relate to that. Any strategies on how you got over that?
00:24:33 Jade: Yeah, I have an amazing support system. I remember the first time we were raising and I wanted to stop. And like Isaac Kato was like, "You're not gonna fucking stop. You're gonna keep going. You'll do okay."
00:24:46 Jade: Like the next time you'll get to choose who you want and you can say, fuck that. But right now you're not going to give up, right? So he's one person who's been super instrumental in our maturation as a company.
00:24:58 Jade: I think my family, they don't care what I'm doing. They're like, "Oh, great, fucking pass the salt. Like you'll be fine.” No one has done this in my family. So anything I do, my mom thinks it's fucking great and thinks it's whatever.
00:25:13 Jade: So you have to have people around you who are going to be honest with you. My husband is very much like, you're amazing on the days that I feel my worst. And then I have truth tellers around me. What are you doing?
00:25:25 Jade: Marge, my co-founder. Oh my God. You said all that shit and how are you going to do that? And how are you going to make that happen? You know that I'm the person that does the thing. Now I feel stressed.
00:25:36 Jenny: Love that Marguerite.
00:25:40 Jade: She's always like, okay, how do you get it from the wall to the thing? And so I have people around me who check me, who don't really care. It's not that they don't care what I'm doing, but they care about the Jade more than Jade, the CEO. I have people around me who just support me regardless. And you have to have a good therapist. You have to take care of yourself. Sometimes I have to turn everything off.
00:26:03 Jade: I had a situation in January where I had to turn everything off. I had to get away from everything and I had to just cry it out. I can't take the meeting, let me cancel this today. I am sorry, I'm busy, whatever. And I had to just be with myself.
00:26:16 Jade: And you have to be able to do that because if not, people will tear all the pieces from you. They'll take all the time. You'll be talking to people in circles. And it's for what? Just take a break and like love up on yourself because this whole thing is like little pricks, like little, little needles on you.
00:26:31 Jade: And it's just like, yeah, one little needle doesn't make you bleed out, but 10,000 will make you bleed out. So like, love your time and go in ward and like, don't give everything to everybody.
00:26:43 Jenny: What does success look like for you, Jade?
00:26:46 Jade: Black women feeling like they can have a baby and not die. So I don't know if that'll ever happen, right? Of course I wanna make money, but it's not money. It's actually improving Black maternal healthcare.
00:27:00 Jade: Everyone is not gonna love us, but people might be scared when they see us in the hospital and that's important to me. I want Black women to feel like, I'm gonna have a baby, it's gonna be a great experience. Not, am I gonna die? Because that's the first thing that Black women think.
00:27:15 Jade: Oh, I'm pregnant, oh my God, am I gonna die when I have my baby? Or during postpartum, because that's when you're most likely to die. Am I gonna go home and I'm gonna have a stroke? Maybe, I don't know. My cousin did, so that's what success looks like.
00:27:29 Jenny: Wow, this was such a great interview. I mean, really to have so much candor and realness is pretty unique, so I really appreciate this.
00:27:27 Jenny: We're gonna finish up with a speed round. So what's a book that you're reading or a podcast that you're enjoying now?
00:27:44 Jade: I love the book, Switch, and I read it all the time. And there's one anecdote in there where he says, “These people went to Vietnam and they were trying to change things and the kids were malnutritioned.”
00:27:55 Jade: And all these folks came in from the United States and they were trying to tell people how to give the kids more nutrition. And there was a province close by that someone came in and said, “We need to change how we're looking at it.”
00:28:09 Jade: What's being done well, instead of us trying to change everything. And the way that they were looking at it was wrong. The province where the kids getting all the nutrition, they were scooping the rice from the bottom to the top.
00:28:19 Jade: And then the rice had shrimp and little things from the ocean that had nutrition in it. So they didn't need to tell these people what to do. They just had to think different and learn from what was being done correctly. So I love that book. It's called Switch.
00:28:31 Jenny: That's awesome. If you could live anywhere in the world for one year, where would it be?
00:28:36 Jade: South Africa. I love South Africa. Love it.
00:28:40 Jenny: Favorite productivity hack?
00:28:42 Jade: Slack. Oh my God. Doesn't matter where in the world you are. You can talk to everybody quickly.
00:28:48 Jenny: You're like me. I'm obsessed. And then where can our listeners find you and find more about SheMatters?
00:28:55 Jade: You can go to shematters.health. You can go to SheMatters on Instagram, and you can go to SheMatters on LinkedIn. You can find me at jadekearneyofficial on Instagram, and you can find me on LinkedIn, just Jade Kearney.
00:29:08 Jenny: Lots of places to find you. Okay, this has been awesome. You're such a star and an inspiration to me personally. So keep on all the magic, Jade, and thanks again for joining.
00:29:19 Jade: Thank you so much.
00:29:21 Scott Hartley: Thanks for joining us and hope you enjoyed today's episode. For those of you listening, you might also be interested to learn more about Everywhere. We're a first-check pre-seed fund that does exactly that, invests everywhere. We're a community of 500 founders and operators, and we've invested in over 250 companies around the globe. Find us at our website, Everywhere.VC, on LinkedIn, and through our regular founder spotlights on Substack. Be sure to subscribe, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Read about She Matter’s $2M raise.
Check out Jade Kearney and Marguerite Pierce in Founders Everywhere.