By All Means

Sean Higgins knew he was spending too much time on his phone—going down a YouTube rabbit hole when he meant to go for a run, or call his mom. But rather than fighting the ever-present phone, he imagined a new way to utilize the technology that sits in the palm of our hands—a better way, if you will. BetterYou is a digital coach that uses artificial intelligence to map how we spend our time and make suggestions to fulfill the goals we set for ourselves, like more exercise, more sleep, or calling mom every week.

Higgins started BetterYou with partners in 2018, using seed money from his first start up, ilos, a video platform that was acquired by Paylocity and became VidGrid. He quickly realized the real opportunity for an app designed to “harmonize technology with wellbeing” was B2B. The first organizations to sign on were schools, which offered BetterYou as a service for students.

BetterYou ended 2023 with a $6 million Series A funding raise. It’s still early days, but this app is showing traction with users and Higgins is hopeful the company could hit profitability by the end of 2024.

Higgins offers advice on going all in, knowing when to pivot, and vetting an idea without falling for false enthusiasm from those around you. He also talks about digital wellness in the age of AI.

“We should be optimizing our lives around the things that matter most—not watching random ads.”

After our conversation, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship where Jay Ebben is a professor. He offers perspective on how AI is creating new startup opportunities, but cautions founders to make sure they're not just using technology for technology’s sake, rather “doing something beneficial that can help our daily lives.”

What happens after a founder appears on Shark Tank, and walks away from a $250,000 offer? For Beth Fynbo, her Busy Baby activity mat saw six weeks worth of online sales in in three days. “And two weeks later,” she says, “no one had heard of us.”

“I thought Shark Tank was going to be life changing, and it was—just not in the way that I thought.”

Fynbo, an Army veteran and former health care account manager, was a new mom when inspiration struck. Kids were constantly dropping toys off their high chairs. Her Busy Baby silicone suction placemat keeps toys, teethers, and utensils secured in place. In 2023, two years after her Shark Tank appearance, Busy Baby logged $5 million in sales and introduced new add ons to its core product.

Now with two years of growth and perspective since her national television debut, Fynbo talks about what it’s really like to go on Shark Tank and what it’s really like to build a business from the ground up, including raising money, creating an advisory board, navigating the waves of social media marketing, and charting a path to profitability.

“You’re never too old, and it’s never too late to chase a new dream,” Fynbo says. “I was in the army for 10 years. I had this corporate career for 10 years. I had given up on being a mom, but became a mom and a business owner after 40. And I know that probably 50 or so, I’m going to start the next thing. I just want anyone who is stuck in something they don’t love to know: you can change.”

Following our conversation with Fynbo, we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship where Alec Johnson is a professor. Johnson talks about overcoming the limitations of a “dysfunctional belief system”—that’s the idea, he says, that you have to be creative or you have to be an expert to be an entrepreneur. “You can grow into it. You just have to be a good problem solver.”

“Where passion meets frustration creates motivation.”

Erin Pash is the co-founder and CEO of Ellie Mental Health—one of the fastest growing franchise chains you’ve probably never heard of—yet. The Mendota Heights-based company opened its first franchise clinic in July 2022. Now there are more than 200 Ellie Mental Health clinics open around the country with another 450 sold and under development.

Pash is driven by the desire to destigmatize mental health care by building a national mental health care brand that makes care accessible and fun while also creating a flexible work environment for therapists.

Pash is a licensed therapist who saw a bigger opportunity. “We wanted to create a hybrid employment model where we could give therapists safety, security and support while providing them with the culture, creativity and compensation they could get in their own private practice.”

Pash talks about barrier to mental health care, the rising demand for services and how that’s driving more therapists not to accept insurance, which creates barriers to entry for those who need it. She talks about building her business, one practice at a time, and coming to identify herself as an entrepreneur more than a therapist.

“There are two paths to successful business. One is you’re an entrepreneur and you try 20 things and one sticks. You’re passionate about entrepreneurship. The other is you’re passionate about one thing and because you’re so passionate, people can’t help but want to join you. That’s me.”

Following our conversation with Pash, we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business where Mike Porter is a marketing professor. He talks about the importance of a passionate founder and the marketing conundrum in the mental health field. “Not everybody wants to talk about mental health or say, oh, I went to this amazing clinic.” Porter talks about why franchising makes sense. “She’s starting with community."

When your arteries are blocked, you see a cardiologist. For cancer, there’s the oncologist. But for the 13.5 million Americans dealing with a serious wound—from surgery, an injury or disease, an ostomy bag, or old age—there’s often no one coordinating care until the problem becomes a crisis. Nima Ahmadi saw the white space, and co-founded The Wound Company in 2022 with the intention of creating a coordinated, cost effective solution that supports health care providers and improves healing for patients.

The Wound Company partners with medical practices and benefits companies to provide focused patient care through a combination of telehealth, AI diagnostics and in person care. Already the data shows that Wound Co. patients heal 60% faster for a 15 to 20% reduction in cost.

Ahmadi, who studied bioengineering and worked on other software-focused health startups, walks us through the process of recognizing the problem, devising a solution, and actually bringing it to market. He talks about the challenges of scaling a health care startup and why he believes the big health care companies need to think smaller.

Following the conversation with Ahmadi, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business where Mike Porter is a professor of marketing. He talks about the problems caused by a diffusion of responsibility. “What this business is really doing is owning accountability and expertise and aggregating those things in one place…for this very specific outcome.” Porter, who teaches reputation management, also talks about the public’s growing confidence in telemedicine and how that can benefit new innovations like The Wound Co.

Kristen Denzer is the founder and CEO of Tierra Encantada, a Spanish immersion daycare that is on its way to becoming a national brand. Currently there are 11 locations in four states—two of them are franchise centers, and an additional 20 franchise units have been sold. It’s already a $22 million business, and Denzer is just getting started.

Tierra Encantada is actually her third startup; Denzer started her career in nonprofits, but saw business opportunity everywhere. When she got engaged and realized how expensive it would be to plan a wedding, she started her own event rental business. As an animal lover, she co-founded a doggy daycare. So when she went looking for a daycare center for her own children and coulnd’t find one that met her criteria: Spanish immersion, inclusive, healthy meals, quality programing, she started her own. Tierra Encantada started in Eagan in 2013 and within a year, Denzer was working on expansion. She shares what went right, the mistakes she learned from, and why she made the decision to franchise.

Denzer’s advice on entrepreneurship “Just do it. So many people think about doing something for so long…you’re not going to get everything right and it’s ok because you’ll learn from your mistakes.”

Following our conversation with Denzer, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Associate Dean Danielle Campeau talks about the “entrepreneurial mindset—an individual who able to see opportunity in a space and take it.” Here are some key indicators, and ways to make the most of it.

- Curiosity. “A willingness to develop expertise. It’s especially important when you’re launching a business in an area that’s new to you.”

- Product-market fit. “You can understand an opportunity based on your own experience, but then you’ve got to do your homework and make sure there’s really a need for what you want to do.”

- Diverse viewpoints. “Collaboration with partners is key to success. IT’s another way that individuals can fill in their own knowledge gaps.”

- Perseverance. “A no today is not necessarily a no tomorrow. Those that are entrepreneurial thinkers recognize that and they’re going to persevere through the ups and downs.”

Behind many popular drink brands—Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Celsius Energy Drinks, Pabst Blue Ribbon—is BevSource, a St. Paul based company that provides beverage development, sourcing, and production—everything from supplying the can that holds your beer to helping develop and test an entirely new drink idea. Today BevSource is one of the largest packing and ingredient distributors in North America, with $250 million in annual revenue. Janet Johanson started the company in 2002 when she was just 24 years old, with three years of experience in the industry. “I just said yes,” she says.

Johanson talks timing: from knowing when to take on private equity and start a board to knowing when it was time to step away from the day-to-day operations. “As CEO, I got stuck in detail,” she says. “By cutting my hands off, it made me think differently about who we partner with…and how I can make an impact.”

Following our conversation with Johanson, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. Tera Galloway is an associate professor in the Department of Management who studies the craft brewing industry. She explains the idea of “coopetition,” where companies realize is better for their industry to work together than to compete. She talks about the importance of building a network and the critical moment for entrepreneurs, when they realize their out of their depth. “It doesn’t mean you have to leave; you need to get more help.”

"We call it the health care system, but really, it's the illness-burden-treatment system. There are so many things we can do to improve in health care."

Tony Miller and Dave Dickey are serial health benefits entrepreneurs who've built and sold multiple companies, leading the way toward consumer-driven insurance programs. The most recent is Bind Benefits, an on-demand, zero-deductible program that was acquired by UnitedHealth Group in 2021. Recently renamed Surest, the benefits plan is UHG's fastest growing product with a net promoter score nearly three times higher than its competitors.

Miller and Dickey, who no longer work for Surest, talk about how to change health care coverage in America, starting with Miller's first startup, Definity Health, which he sold to UnitedHealth Group in 2004 for $305 million (not $300 million as widely reported, and he tells the story behind that). Miller is managing partner of Lemhi Ventures, a healthcare investment firm, which put the first $12 million into Bind. Between Definity and Bind, he build Carol Corp., which he also sold to UHG.

Dickey an early Definity Health employee and co-founder of Bind, was also a co-founder of RedBrick Health. An employee benefits expert and seasoned sales pro, he consults and advises sales teams and entrepreneurs.

Packed with insights on business of health care, Miller and Dickey also dole out advice on entrepreneurship and disruption.

Following the conversation, we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business where Kjrk Ryerson teaches healthcare innovation. He frames up some of the key benefits advances Miller led, and frames up questions any entrepreneur should ask him or herself before diving in:

1. Do you have a great idea?

2. Do you keep evolving that idea?

3. What is the driving difference?

4. Is there a personal motivation that's driving you forward?

5. Do you have the power to make something better?

"We call it the health care system, but really, it's the illness-burden-treatment system. There are so many things we can do to improve in health care."

Tony Miller and Dave Dickey are serial health benefits entrepreneurs who've built and sold multiple companies, leading the way toward consumer-driven insurance programs. The most recent is Bind Benefits, an on-demand, zero-deductible program that was acquired by UnitedHealth Group in 2021. Recently renamed Surest, the benefits plan is UHG's fastest growing product with a net promoter score nearly three times higher than its competitors.

Miller and Dickey, who no longer work for Surest, talk about how to change health care coverage in America, starting with Miller's first startup, Definity Health, which he sold to UnitedHealth Group in 2004 for $305 million (not $300 million as widely reported, and he tells the story behind that). Miller is managing partner of Lemhi Ventures, a healthcare investment firm, which put the first $12 million into Bind. Between Definity and Bind, he build Carol Corp., which he also sold to UHG.

Dickey an early Definity Health employee and co-founder of Bind, was also a co-founder of RedBrick Health. An employee benefits expert and seasoned sales pro, he consults and advises sales teams and entrepreneurs.

Packed with insights on business of health care, Miller and Dickey also dole out advice on entrepreneurship and disruption.

Following the conversation, we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business where Kjrk Ryerson teaches healthcare innovation. He frames up some of the key benefits advances Miller led, and frames up questions any entrepreneur should ask him or herself before diving in:

1. Do you have a great idea?

2. Do you keep evolving that idea?

3. What is the driving difference?

4. Is there a personal motivation that's driving you forward?

5. Do you have the power to make something better?

Nora and Jay Schaper are serial entrepreneurs with a big idea: rid the world of single use plastic bottles—starting in the bathroom. Experts told them salon-quality shampoo couldn’t be produced in solid form, but that only made them more determined to come up with a winning formula. They did, and HiBar launched in 2018.

The line, which has grown to include face wash and deodorant as well as solid shampoo and conditioner, is now sold in more than 10,000 stores. To date, HiBar says it has eliminated nearly 5 million plastic bottles and conserved over 800,000 gallons of water.

To turn their product into a successful business, the Schapers partnered with an entrepreneur experienced in consumer brands: Ward Johnson, who built and sold the pet food brand, Sojos. A fourth founder is no longer involved. We talk to the three partners about the challenges of building a mission driven business, from engineering to marketing.

“People who are committed to sustainability are willing to make sacrifices…but don’t mess with my face and hair,” Johnson says. “We realized quickly: the product needs to not just be sustainable, it needs to perform as good or better than salon quality, professional grade products.”

Following the conversation, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business where Jason M. Pattit is a professor of management. He talks about the added challenge for mission-based businesses. “There’s a dual tension that happens in the growth phase where you’re trying to scale quickly, which may mean sacrificing mission.”

Feeling homesick drove Argentinian native Belén Rodríguez into entrepreneurship. But grit and tenacity have helped this first-generation immigrant take her grandmother’s empanadas recipe from backyard parties to farmers markets to the frozen foods case of major grocery stores in just five years.

By the end of 2022, St. Paul-based Quebracho Empanadas expects to be in 250 stores throughout the Midwest, with plans to reach 3,000 stores nationwide within five years.

The Spanish pastry filled with savory ingredients captures the flavors of Rodríguez’s childhood in the Argentine Pampas, adapted for modern convenience. Healthy frozen foods used to be an oxymoron, but Rodríguez says Quebracho Empanadas is part of a movement to bring better-for-you ingredients to the freezer case.

On the precipice of launching this fall with Cub Foods, Rodríguez talks about her unlikely path from medical interpreter to founder and CEO of a fast growing consumer product goods, and how the pandemic completely changed Quebracho’s business model. She walks us through her measured approach to growth, and explains why Quebracho, which she and her husband own 100%, is just now starting to pursue investors.

Some keys to Rodríguez’s success so far:

- Leveraging advice from mentors and local organizations with a mission to assist entrepreneurs

- Turning “no” into an opportunity to make a change; she convinced the state to amend a food licensing law to simplify the startup process for new brands

- Balancing the heart of the brand with the realities of scaling—figuring out what can be outsourced, and what is fundamental

“For us, there’s such an emotional component to our brand and founder story,” Rodríguez says. “We bring this authenticity. And the innovation. I want my grandma’s empanadas to be the go-to handheld food in the U.S. It’s very close to home.”

Following our conversation with Rodríguez, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Professor of entrepreneurship Jay Ebben talks about the challenges of scaling a CPG brand. “It’s one thing to sell at farmers markets; very different to be on the shelves at grocery stores.” He says listening to customers, leaning on mentors and taking a measured approach are all fundamental to Quebracho’s forward momentum.