In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Kate Dilligan, CEO of Cooler Heads.

Cooler Heads is a commercial-stage company addressing a problem affecting many chemotherapy patients undergoing treatment for solid tumors: hair loss and the loss of privacy that comes with it. The company's FDA-cleared medical device, Amma, makes scalp cooling accessible by fitting into infusion center workflows rather than disrupting them.

Kate brings an unconventional background to medtech — from political fundraising to developing classified software for the U.S. government. As a solo female founder who had never worked in hardware, she started Cooler Heads in 2018 after her own experience with breast cancer. By mid-2025, the company had raised $11 million in Series A funding and placed devices across 27 states, with most accounts having never offered scalp cooling before.

In this interview, Kate shares how to design for health system adoption by solving workflow problems first, why saying “no” to scope creep protects your first-generation product, and how political fundraising tactics translate directly to building investor relationships in medtech.

Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:

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Lastly, if you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Kate Dilligan.