Megan 00:02

We move so fast in like, we integrated NanoSALV across an entire hospital. Okay, what's next? And they, our team cheerleader, steps back and says, We integrated NanoSALV across an entire hospital! This is a huge win. So it's the same with wins and with challenges. It's, what's next?

Leah 00:24

Hi, thanks for being here. And welcome to Season Two of The Founder Mindset, brought to you by ATB. I'm Leah Sarich, your host, and I'm super excited to talk to more founders about the human experience of being an entrepreneur. In this podcast, we're digging into what it really feels like to build a company from nothing. I was a broadcaster for over 20 years. So I've interviewed thousands of people, but entrepreneurs, not that many. And yet they have the best stories. They're solving big problems. And they're creating incredible impact. But it is hard work. So why would they do this? Let's find out.

Leah 01:12

Joining me in the studio today is Megan Leslie, co-founder and CEO of NanoTess, a biotechnology company that has developed a product called Nano self, a Health Canada approved medical device for improving wound care and skin health. Megan, thank you so much for being here.

Megan 01:26

Thank you so much for having me.

Leah 01:28

This is so fun. This is probably one of my most favorite things to do is to sit around and talk to founders. So thank you for being here.

Megan 01:35

It's a pleasure.

Leah 01:36

Let's go right back to the beginning. So tell me how you decided to become an entrepreneur in the first place?

Megan 01:42

Oh, great question, I like to say kind of slapped us in the face. So my co-founder and I, we were always problem solving. And so he happens to be my spouse. And in long drives, we would think of startup ideas. And some of them, we build little business plans for it. And we challenge other startup ideas and how we evolve them differently. And this was kind of what we talked about a topic of conversation as a couple for years. And when we had the unfortunate event of losing both his parents to chronic health conditions, we met incredible scientific leaders who were developing really, really cool technology. And we happen to use some of it to provide end of life care for his dad, and saw firsthand the benefits. So when we returned to Canada, our other founder gave us a call and said I’d like to start a company. I'd like to start them with you. And do it in Canada. And from there, we said, well, if not us then who? And if not now when? And then we went from there.

Leah 02:51

That's incredible. So I'm just picturing this, the two of you in the car together hanging out. And you guys are like doing business models and plans like just hanging out together?

Megan 03:03

Yep, pretty much. Yeah, we worked in Grand Prairie. So it was a good seven and a half, eight hour drive. We did oil and gas so it was 15 days on and six days off. And from there every 15 days, we drive back to Calgary to see friends and family. And that's what we would do. We'd listen to business books, and we talk about different startup ideas.

Leah 03:24

So you knew you wanted to be a founder right from the get go.

Megan 03:28

I loved problem solving. And I loved learning. And there were very few professions that I could do that would satisfy the speed at which I wanted to learn. And both of us ended up going into management consulting. Very similar. We got to learn a lot really fast in a variety of different industries. So, I think I did 15 industries over seven years of my initial career, solving very different problems. And that was exciting to me, building up the generalist skill set that I feel has been very helpful now as a founder to know that I've dabbled in a little bit of HR and a little bit of finance, a little bit of engineering and just all over the place, for sure. And to give confidence that we can tackle unknown problems, never by ourselves, but by leveraging the support of a network.  

Leah 04:24

Wow. So help me understand then the motivation for NanoTess itself. So let's first start with why don't you tell us a little bit about what NanoTess actually is.

Megan 04:32

We specialize in making catalysts that help solve some of the world's toughest biological problems and we're beginning that with skin and wound care. So we've developed a catalyst that's approved and in market within the NanoSALV product, and it's been able to help accelerate healing from stage four or chronic wound through to minor acute skin tears, irritations. And what we see is in a hospital setting a wound that would typically take maybe four months, healing in about half the time. So the quality of life impact for healing in half the time, the cost savings, the patient and caregiver, life's dramatically impacted. That's our start first. First start of catalysts. And then ultimately, that big dream is to continue to develop more and more catalysts that go into more products to help accelerate different health conditions, from cancer through to beauty and wellness,

Leah 05:30

I'm going to pull at a couple of those strings. So first of all, you really wanted to help people after experiencing these devastating losses in your family. So maybe just tell me a little bit about how you thought about that, like, how did you go from experiencing these losses to going: you know what we need to work on this, we need to solve some of these problems.

Megan 05:50

Thinking back on it, we often reflected it as almost a therapeutic journey at first. So, because we've always done this, this is the way we think, the way, where we get our joy, solving problems, building concepts. We'd lost both his parents, and it was just over 13 months, it hit really hard. And I think what got us through it is instead of just obsessing on the negatives, and where do you go from here? We were able to obsess on problem solving. And it was, in a way, a distraction, perhaps, but also a distraction that we would do in our normal lives. It felt very normal, it brought us back to normal, this is also during the pandemic. So there wasn't a whole lot of physical in person support systems that we could have at the time, and building the company in that period of time. And just thinking about it and working together on it. I think it got us back into a routine and brought us back to what is normal for the two of us.

Leah 06:54

For the two of you to do these big problem solving initiatives. I love this. And I could see how that would help you move through the grief because then you actually feel like you're doing something.

Megan 07:05

Yep, you’re moving forward. Yeah.

Leah 07:06

Yeah. So, then you were saying how these wounds are being healed? You're seeing this, you know, like cutting half the time out? Like that is unbelievable.

Megan 07:20

It is. Yeah.

Leah 07:22

So what's that, like when you see your product working like that?

Megan 07:23

I think it's really special. And the reason why all of those long car rides with all these different startup ideas, didn't amount to anything beyond just fun conversation, is because we weren't truly passionate, to the degree of dropping everything in our lives and sacrificing everything, we have to make something happen. And Julian and I both jumped into things. 110%. So we knew if we were committing to a startup, we were committing to a startup. And I think that because this had such a dramatic impact on us. And we saw the potential to help support families going through similar situations that we'd gone through at least minimizing an aspect of their care journeys and pain, we were able to commit full and to say this is the one that if we're gonna kind of be an entrepreneur, this is the time this is what we have to do. And every day. And every one of the stories we get from patients or families and healthcare professionals, is what keeps us going. Every year and every month, every day.

Leah 08:29

I've seen some of those stories, I've seen some of those patients' reactions, and they are life changing. They are life changing stories, and that's your product. How does it feel when you hear people saying that this changed my life?

Megan 08:44

It's, I'd say almost surreal. More than anything. I was told once by another healthcare founder that we're always the most skeptical of our own products. And I think it's very true. And when I reflected on that, I think it’s because we want it to work so badly for every single person because we care so deeply. So every single time a new individual or resident patient, family member, health care provider uses it, we always have that little nagging feeling in the back of our minds of but what if it didn't work this time? And that's the thing that, especially in the early days, before we had a lot of data to support the efficacy was the thing that kept us up at night is well what if, what if it doesn't work? And I'm happier now that we have a lot of data. So the evidence has convinced me that yes, we have something really special, but everyday they're still that, “but what if, what if?”, I think it's just part of being a founder, getting through that just because you care so much. You really want it to do exactly what it was designed to do.

Leah 9:54

It feels really high stakes. Like when you're saying to me that, you know, it keeps you up at night, you're wondering if this product that you've put everything your whole life into, like, what if it doesn't work? That sounds terrifying to me, like, I really can't understand why you would do that.

Megan 10:10

You added health elements into that, and it gets even a little bit more, a little bit more table stakes. But because it's not, if a software maybe didn't work, it's still incredibly high stakes. But when it's a health related challenge that you're also solving for someone, and health is very personal to all of us. And especially to me and Julian with our lived experiences, it becomes very terrifying, because you don't want your product to not provide the benefit that you intend, you hope that it will. So I'm really happy and grateful that we've gone through our trials, we've gone through the testing, and the evidence speaks to itself now so that I just keep pointing myself back to that and saying, yep, yep, it does work. It really works. And where can we go next to help support even more indications related? So that's the new addition of skin health into our focus area beyond just wound care. We are treating the skin as an organ, which means everything down to the bone through to just topical.

Leah 11:23

You're very ambitious about this, aren't you? Both of you?

Megan 11:27

We are, yeah. I think you have to be.

Leah 11:30

Yeah, I think you do. I think otherwise, why take the risk? Right?

Megan 11:33

I don't know, I take the risk, it'd be much, much less stressful to work a nine to five job if someone else writing your paychecks and go through a standardized career growth rate.

Leah 11:49

But it sounds like to me from what you're telling me that that wouldn't be enough for you?

Megan 11:53

Probably not., which is, yeah, a little bit a little bit funky.

Leah 11:58

Yeah, no kidding. Oh, my goodness. You've mentioned Julian a couple of times. And as you mentioned, he's your spouse. I gotta ask like, how is it working with your spouse every day, and again, not at some nine to five job where you can just sort of check out when you go out the door. Like where you are working together on something that is very high stakes, that has a lot of impact, that is really hard. How do you guys do that?

Megan 12:23

We just do. I think it's part of our relationship. It's part of who we've always been. And as we've heard, it's probably not for everybody. But for us, it was, this is the third company we've worked in together, we did our degree together. We've always worked and collaborated with one another in industry, in education, and now in something of an adventure on our own. And I think we don't know how to work without each other. It's probably the flip on that same question is, I know him so well. And he knows me so well, that we've made a like a symbiotic relationship where I know what he'll do for me, and he'll know what I'll do for him. And neither of us really crossed the line, often. So I know, I need to get a difficult customer or someone who's not responding on the line, I put Julian on them, because he's, he will get it done. He will call them until he's blue in the face. And then he knows if there's a deliverable due in a couple hours, he passes it to me because I'll be able to get it done. We've grown up into this so deeply that I don't know how we would work without each other anymore.

Leah 13:40

Fascinating, fascinating. I ask every founder that sits in this chair, when we have these conversations, there has to have been some kind of do or die moment as you were building this company or some sink or swim scenario where you were like this could really go wrong in a hurry. When you think about that, when it comes to building NanoTess, or maybe working with your husband or whatever the case may be, is there a moment that comes to mind for you?

Megan 14:09

They are the moments that we don't know were moments. You run at, or at least we run at, a baseline of stress all the time and anxiety. You get used to it. We have a lot of different coping mechanisms to help work through stress and anxiety. But the ones that I feel I almost like retrospectively lose sleep at night knowing that they happened even though they're over. The biggest example is one Julian had a bet with James Lockrey, our founder…

Leah 14:41

Oh, our Managing Partner, yeah, and investor in your company.

Megan 14:44

Yeah, in the early days that he could get the product approved, a NanoSALV approved within a set timeframe. And if he did it, James would have to buy the first unit. So he did it, James bought, two units, first first lot was commercially sold. And we walked our separate ways, and went back to work. And what we ended up finding out is that day James had met with another founder gave it to them, they gave it to their cousin, who had diabetic foot ulcers, and was that risk for going through the amputation process if they continue to progress. And all this happen without our knowledge. And at the same time, we were, we were starting our conversations with James about needing our seed financing. And I don't think James ever thought he was testing the product. But in hindsight, we were really, really happy that it worked. Because James came back saying it's worked so well. But I think what ended up happening in the middle of that story, actually, is the patient reached out and said, I got a tube of your stuff. And we were like 12345, counting on our fingers. Like, how? There's only like five that went out into the world. How did you get this? Is it us? And we followed the thread figured out where it came from, and that it was working for them. And James was so excited that it’s been working. And maybe it led to a successful financing round, maybe it didn't, but it definitely kept us up at night saying, oh, my goodness, the reality of what we do is people are going to access our product, they're going to try it. We're not going to know about every single case, nor will we ever want to know about every single case. And we have to live with that. So when you blow it back out, that's what kind of freaks you out? What is the ripple effect of every single unit that goes onto the market? For us, I think it was a financing round, in this case, and deepening our partnership with Thin Air Labs. And in another case, it may be, I don't know?

Leah 16:58

So, if I'm not mistaken that had that not worked, James probably would have heard about it. And that may have definitely affected his decision making.

Megan 17:09

Yep, I know. James is a wonderful person who definitely believes in founders, which is why we are so grateful to have him in this journey with us and the Thin Air Team. But I don't know if it would be difficult, I think to have it have not worked as much as you like and believe in a founding team. Their product doesn't do what it's supposed to do, it's kind of a little bit concerning.

Leah 17:39

For sure.

Megan 17:37

I'm sure we could have worked through it together.

Leah 17:39

But I'm sure you could’ve gone back to the lab and tried something else, but still.

Megan 17:43

I’m sure it wasn’t the one time shot as it felt at that time.

Leah 17:48

Wow., Okay, so how do you process that? Like, what does that feel like when you put those pieces together?

Megan 17:53

I don't know if we do. Julian and I are both very future focused to a fault. Let's designate a person on our team to be the team cheerleader. So when good things happen, they have to say, this was a good thing that happened. Because we move so fast in like, we integrated NanoSALV across the entire hospital, okay, what's next? And, our team cheerleader steps back and says, “We integrated national health across an entire hospital. This is a huge win1” So it's the same with wins and then with challenges. It's what's next? What's next? It's that constant problem solving, future focused, grow mindset. I don't think we give ourselves enough time to really wallow in the what ifs.

Leah 18:47

It sounds like it's what keeps you going regardless of what's happening. It's always like, I gotta move forward on this. Like, to your point, what is next? Doesn't even matter what's happening right now. Doesn’t matter that we got this product into a whole hospital into a whole healthcare system, as you've done now, several times.

Megan 19:02

I think it's a coping mechanism. But it's a positive one. It pushes it forward. I think it's important to celebrate the small wins too. And I think that's what we tried. So hard to do it. And then finally, they say to delegate what you're not good at, and we’re not good at it, either of us have that skill, so we delegated it. And it's been very helpful, helpful for us and helpful for our team.

Leah 19:28

And to remind me, how big is your team right now?

Megan 19:30

About 20.

Leah 19:32

Wow, that's incredible.

Megan 19:33

We run a very lean company with our 20 unique heads. We manufacture up to $22 million of product a year in our facility. We do all of our sales, a large chunk of our distribution, all of our own marketing. Our HR, our payroll, our accounting. You know, the baselines that have to happen to run a business? We offer it, I think it's a poll we took from consulting with a very tiny team that's really focused on key objectives you can do a lot. And that's what we managed to do at NanoTess, I think it's, it's shocking to see where we're at when you think, well, we really only have 20 people, I don't think it's common.

Leah 20:18

Prior to this conversation, you said, you know, when you're building a startup, every once in a while, you're like, okay, well, someone's got to make the coffee and fill the coffee machine and, and do that kind of stuff. And then all sudden, you're looking around going, Wait a second, that's probably me. How do you fit that in, when you've got 20 people on your team and you're growing at the rate you are?

Megan 20:38

It just gets done. And I, I'm a big believer of leadership, by example. I will unload the dishwasher, I'll stay the latest, I'll do all of the roles. Because if I've done all of the roles, and I keep a pulse on each of them, then I'll be a better leader, because I'll be able to empathize with the realities of my team. So I, until we brought in team members and new leaders how important it was understand all the aspects of the business, to a degree, you don’t need to be an expert. But the most common one is just between sales and operations. So, if sales sells 100 units of a certain size, but operations has the most difficult time making that size, and sales could have pushed a different size, then all of a sudden, it's a disconnect. The advantages that Julian and I have as founders, is we’ve played all those roles. We've packaged all of those tubes ourselves, we know, it's ingrained. And our challenge and our opportunity is to give that cross collaboration and cross functional mindset to all of our team members, and especially, especially our emerging leaders and executive leaders.

Leah 21:57

But what I'm hearing too, is that you're doing all the things. Your point, maybe you don't have to be experts at all the things but you're still doing all the things. So how do you do all the things and stay well, sane, together, cope, cope with all the anxiety and stress that comes with being a founder? How does that work?

Megan 22:17

We now have a team. So we are delegating and undergoing the growth as leaders to manage and run a larger group of people. It's been really fun. What we try to do now is what we can delegate, we will delegate and give opportunities for others to go through those experiences to do their problem solving to continuously improve the business, whether it be operations on marketing, or commercial. And then for us, we've just tried to move ourselves into the bigger what we call stealing, or borrowing the term from Brene Brown, the FFTs. So the effing first times, those we control quite heavily still, because they're the first time. So no one knows what to do. And the best equipped know what to do is certainty members who've had certain experiences, but also either me, and or Julian, because we’ve seen every aspect of the company. So we’re giving a very holistic lens to our business, when we approach an FFT.

Leah 23:27

So, you're very calculated, you recognize, okay, this is an FFT, something we've never done before. We got to figure this out, but you're calculated about how often you have those and how you manage them?

Megan 23:40

We are starting to.

Leah 23:42

You are starting to be, you're practicing, saying yes, she has a big grin on her face, just FYI.

Megan 23:46

Very first time, I think we're so used to the hustle. In the early days of startup, you're pushing, you're fighting, you're trying to get every, every opportunity, you do everything possible to try and secure. For the first time ever, we have opportunities coming to us. Which are very different. And as a business, and as a team, we've had to learn how to handle that because a few months ago, we were drowning in opportunities. Everyone is so busy that we're not doing anything as well as I know we could. And that's when the key word that a lot of investors will say is, you need to focus. And I like to say you need to prioritize, because we need to be open to hearing different ideas, but then we need to focus on the ones and prioritize the ones that we're going to move forward. So we're not putting our blinders on necessarily, but we have to do a few things well. And so what we did is we ended up naming them FFTs because I was analyzing what we had on the go. And about 80% of every person on our team’s job was an FFT. This is ridiculous. This is way too much newness and strategic thinking and it's draining. FFTs are hard. And they demand more collaborative and more perspectives because no one knows what they're doing. So I started naming them. That's step one. And then step two is minimizing when they come up, we have the opportunity to file it into a, yes, we want to do it, a not right now, a no, because, parking lot, we don't have enough data to decide. For building structure into how to handle this new switch of us, getting people coming to us, for the first time. Team, being highly different has never really happened. So, we want to go after all of them. But it's a new shift, give us six months.

Leah 25:53

Well that, you knowing you guys, you'll be flying, it'll be no big deal. You talked about this briefly. But you mentioned this notion of ripple effects. What you do as a founder, and as a founding team, has this ripple effect through your whole team, and arguably even the community and the people you serve. How do you work through these ripple effects? How do you think about them?

Megan 26:39

I have Julian, this is one of the ones that he is so good at. He is a simulator. And he simulates every single action, like 16 steps. I simulate now too, because he's taught me over the years, but not to the same degree that he'll do it. But having that mindset of this is our ripple effect, has every action has a reaction. We're both engineers, and we are intentional to not jump into anything too fast. Because if we jump in too fast, we haven't taken the time to really analyze what is the ripple effect, what has to give in order to say yes to something new. And then acknowledging that mindset all the way into our team and into our customers. Because if we integrate NanoSALV into a long term care center, for example, that's a change that's occurring to their normal practice changes impacting a lot of people. A lot of people don't like change. So acknowledging that upfront and determining how can we create actions and approaches that minimize disruption, add value, and support the change process, it’s almost more important than the product we even sell. product needs to do its job. But the real work is how do you facilitate change, and in healthcare changes not, it’s slow? And in Canada, I think it's even slower, right? Because the because of how our system operates. It's a lot of fun to think about it like that. And you think we are a catalyst company, we sell medical solutions and technologies. Our biggest activity of the day is change management.

Leah 28:27

Right. So you're working through that, and you're very aware of it. Cool, cool. I know that talking to founders, they have all of this intensity and anxiety and stress in the work that they do. But what I've heard from many founders, and I've heard this from you as well is that what keeps you on track and motivated and centered is this notion of impact. It's very important to you, it's important to us, as well at Thin Air Labs, but it's very important to you I know, at NanoTess. How do you think about impact?

Megan 28:56

It’s the stories that keep us going. And I think the best way to answer it is actually a period of time when we didn't talk about the impact that we were making. So within our team, we had one summer, where our commercial team was focused on commercial and it wasn't being shared back to the rest of the team. I had one of my leads come up to me and say, I don't feel motivated, because I no longer know the impact that we're making. And it was a real eye-opening moment, it stuck with me. Why I bring it up for me, when you say that, is impact is so important to our motivation. And if we're not sharing it with ourselves or acknowledging it for ourselves, sharing it with our team, regardless of their role, it can have an impact. And this was a non-commercial facing team member who felt unmotivated because they didn't know all the exciting stories from the patients and their families that were happening. We flipped from that comment dramatically. And now every Monday we share our impact stories.

Leah 29:52

Really? What does that look like? Oh, on your team stand-up?

Megan 30:16

Yea, everyone shares their what's the impact we made? What comments have we heard? We’ll hear failures there too. And we get really exciting energy again, to keep going whether it be from an impact we made or a failure, we get to troubleshoot and problem solve. They both line us up as a team. And we've hired on a storyteller, who is also capturing more stories from past customers and users, and sharing their stories. So that, like, yes, it's a wonderful thing for us to hear as a team, it’s very empowering. But it's also for our community to hear, because if someone is sharing a personal experience that they've had with a wound, an individual hears it, that may be living a very similar experience. And knowing that there is hope, there are products, beyond NanoTess, there are solutions. We can create a community, and that community impact is almost equally as important as the solving of the problem, I feel because some problems, they won't be solved. But if you have a community around you, who's acknowledging the problem, and whose acknowledging the work that's needed to create solution, I think that matters. And that matters a lot. That's why we have, all of our exciting cancer campaigns is there’s still problems, but we have community and support, we're trying to create very similar feelings around wound care.

Leah 31:41

Let’s just take a quick moment to talk about wound care specifically, because I don't think people really appreciate it when you guys have talked about it as the silent pandemic, you know, and things like that. People don't understand the impact that these wounds can have on people's lives, you know, they're losing limbs, they're losing their lives for heaven's sake. And this is something that you're solving for. Tell me a little bit about how you think about this.

Megan 32:01

Every single human and animal will get a wound. So the problem is, it's non-specific, it's everybody just happens to matter how severe it is. And as we age, that probability of getting very severe and chronic wounds increases. Or as we develop comorbidities like diabetes, or, or have a spinal cord injury, reduced mobility, it's harder and harder and harder to heal naturally. And I think, mentally, healing is something that we've always done in our lives. Like, even if you get a cut, you get a blister, and you know, you'll heal, because you've always done it. But what happens when you don't? And all of a sudden, you're living with a 10 year wound. It's been open for 10 years. We have patients and family members that they, we actually had one employee, who, once they started working with us, they were telling their family member, and their mother said, I have some wounds, could this help with me? And they said, What do you mean, you have some wounds? And their mother was suffering from wounds for two years, and she had almost 50 on her body.

Leah  33:19

What?

Leah 33:20

And the only reason that her son knew is because he said he's starting to work for a wound care company. And she's like, well, maybe that could help. And that's why the community and the breaking down the silence around it is so important because you thought you would heal. And now it's kind of, why am I not? What's wrong with me? Why? Why is it not working anymore? It's because a ton of biological things happening to make it delay your healing, and you need help. So when we heal these wounds, our record right now is that 10 year old wound, now healed fully closed, we have a nine year old one that we've done as well. And they take a long time, not magic, it's not an overnight thing. And it's not without holistic care from health care professionals. Because these are limb and life threatening wounds. But we're really happy and grateful that we can provide a benefit, we can have those stories, like without this product, I feel I would have lost my husband, or my brother got a job for the first time in two years because he can finally put pressure again on his foot because he's been offloading from having a wound on his foot. And if you don't have a computer-based job, what do you do? So it's, it's those types of stories. Those are our Northstar stories. And then it's the big picture that we all deserve the peace of mind to know that we can heal, what we do at NanoTess is catalyze healing.

Leah 34:54

Okay, but let's just take a moment to reflect on that because you're telling me that you've had patients that have had wounds for nine and ten years that have been unable to work and you've changed their lives for them. Well, how do you feel about that? What is that like to hear that?

Megan 35:10

It's incredibly special. Sometimes I don't think we let it sink in, because it's the next person who needs our help. It's always that moving forward to the next thing, the next human to support. But what we're trying to do in this intentional step is with our storyteller, bringing those stories out, because we like to hear them, we don't need to hear them. It's the people in their same position that need to hear it. And regardless of whether or not they go with our product, they need to know that chronic and non-healing wounds are a problem. They need to get support from healthcare professionals, they will struggle and probably not be successful to heal on their own, driving people to that definitive care is what's going to help in general, and our product is a piece of that puzzle.

Leah 36:10

Okay, well, as we start to wrap up here, I like to end on a couple of questions. You're the founder of NanoTess, as you're writing the story for your company, you're doing more of it, as I'm hearing. How do you hope the story for NanoTess goes?

Megan 36:24

I hope that as a community, we think about wound care and skin health, as something that we can talk about openly. I hope that we create that environment where storytelling can be a positive indicator for creating community and, and belongingness. And I hope that our product plays a pivotal role in helping families, healthcare providers, and patients heal. And in every walk of life and every community, not just mainstream, acute care hospitals, long term care, like senior’s homes, but in indigenous communities, on reserve, individuals who are doing care after having a spinal cord injury, or in an elderly individual who chooses to live independently in their home. We want to have all individuals represented and really live out our social purpose to leave no one behind. And if we succeed in that, then I think we've accomplished the first part of the answer have, we’ve built the community that's going to tackle this problem, given it a tool to help enable it. But where I hope we are is that we've created, accessible and affordable product that brings community together.

Leah 37:58

And as the founder and CEO of this company, how do you hope your personal story goes?

Megan 38:04

I am so happy with where I have been. I think looking back, I'm at this really fun stage actually, a little pivot here. I am teaching my new emerging leaders, leadership skills, and I'm delegating leadership responsibilities to new leaders. And watching them, hearing their comments, hearing their questions, and seeing their growth. All of a sudden, I was transported back in time to say, that was me. And now look at where I am and how a problem that they’re tackling feels like it's a Goliath of a problem. It's so simple. But it's only simple because it's not an effing first time for me anymore. So where I hope I go is I hope I look back again in another two years and another four years and say, wow, I've grown so much I've learned so much. And I'm a better leader because of this experience. And I'm able to empower others to start their own leadership journeys, and build their leadership practice. At the end of the day, what we do in the world is we deal with people. And regardless of role, regardless of responsibility, people are going to be a part of it in some way or another. And to know how to lead and know how to interact matters a lot. If I can give my team and give each individual the opportunity to take that skill with them. Hopefully they will always stay at NanoTess, and at the end of the day, I know that will benefit in their career having the opportunity to learn what I've only learned trial by fire. They're learning it that way too. But they have me as a coach and a champion. So I hope I feel that way again, years to come.

Leah 40:01

Megan, thank you for this.

Megan 40:02

It was great.  Thank you for having me.

Leah 40:04

You bet.

Leah 40:12
As the lead investor in Thin Air Labs - Fund One, Sandstone Asset Management believes in building the commons through innovative founders who are creating meaningful, positive impact, both locally and globally. Sandstone is doing just that by backing the next generation of emerging entrepreneurs. Picture this, a founder start-up goes from idea to international impact supported by strategic investors who believed in their vision. That's the power of Sandstone's approach. Sandstone doesn't just manage wealth, they cultivate it, supporting founders at all stages. Visit sandstoneam.com to learn how sandstone builds legacies that last.

Leah 40:01

Calgary is a city of innovative companies, ideas, and talent. The Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund is investing in Calgary's future by finding, fueling, and fostering innovation to build a diverse and resilient economy. Find out more at opportunitycalgary.com.

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