This week’s episode is focused on Feyi Ayodele, the co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ, a precision health company designed for physicians to help their patients with monitoring cancer risk and prevention. Ayodele talked about she came up with the startup idea while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro with her mother. She also talked about how she approached fundraising as a former VC herself and what it was like selling CancerIQ to healthcare organizations and hospitals.
This week’s episode is focused on Feyi Ayodele, the co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ, a precision health company designed for physicians to help their patients with monitoring cancer risk and prevention. Ayodele talked about she came up with the startup idea while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro with her mother. She also talked about how she approached fundraising as a former VC herself and what it was like selling CancerIQ to healthcare organizations and hospitals.
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Becca Szkutak 0:02
Hello and welcome to found TechCrunch his podcast where we bring you the stories behind the startups from the entrepreneurs that built them. And today I'm joined as always by our lovely co host,
Dom Davis 0:12
Dominic Midori Davis
Becca Szkutak 0:13
here, Tom, how's it gone?
Dom Davis 0:14
I'm doing well. What about you?
Becca Szkutak 0:16
You know, I'm hanging in there recording this on a Wednesday afternoon. So right smack in the middle of the week, but I think we'll make it to the end.
Dom Davis 0:23
It's almost Friday. That's how I'm thinking about it.
Becca Szkutak 0:25
How early do you start saying that Tuesday? Regardless of what they're listening to this episode, we've got a good one for you. Today, we're talking to fie i o de les from cancer IQ, which is a precision health platform that allows providers to identify, evaluate and manage entire patient populations based on individual genetic risk factors for cancer, which seems like quite a big mission. So let's find out more.
Think how's it going? It's going great. Where are you hanging in there? You're in Chicago, right? Yes. Wonderful.
Feyi Ayodele 1:04
Are we're right in the middle of summertime shot. It's typically a little bit colder. But it's been an absolutely fantastic summer. Oh, cool.
Becca Szkutak 1:11
Thanks so much for being on the show today. Why don't you tell us a little bit about cancer IQ.
Feyi Ayodele 1:15
All right. Cancer accused really a company on a really bold mission to end cancer as we know it through early detection and prevention. We believe that by leveraging enormous amounts of clinical genetic and behavioral data, we can understand people's specific cancer risk and make sure that all patients have a personalized plan to get ahead of cancer
Becca Szkutak 1:37
thinking about cancer and diseases like that, in general, such a huge problem, as you mentioned, and you said, there's all these things, there's treatment, there's cures, there's prevention, there's so many different avenues to attack these kinds of problems. How did you land on this idea? And was this your first idea to build a company around maybe starting to solve this? Or what did that process look like?
Feyi Ayodele 1:59
The real impetus behind the idea for cancer IQ, I must say comes from my co founder, who is Dr. phumi. Old Pandey. She is a world renowned cancer geneticist and breast medical oncologist. And she also holds the esteemed position of being my mom. Her life's work has been in really understanding the basis of disparities between black women and others in terms of their cancer outcomes. And a lot of the research she's done is found that it's not really about the color of your skin, she's always looked underneath people's skin to understand why they got cancer in the first place. And in her work, what she's found is that by understanding people's risk, understanding people's genetic predisposition, there are things that she can do to actually get ahead of cancer, so that instead of her patients dying of cancer, where we do find that people of color have disproportionately worse outcomes. Black men are 47% more likely to die of colon cancer than others, like women are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than other patient populations. You know, why would you be so focused on treating cancer when you could in fact, do something to prevent it? So that's really where the idea for cancer IQ came from. Now, in terms of how do we solve that problem, let's maybe take a step back and tell you about what the process is today to prevent cancer because that probably is key information in terms of how we solve it. So today, if you want to stay ahead of cancer, you need to see a super specialized provider, a genetic counselor or medical geneticist, someone like my mom, they will do a full genetic evaluation. They will review the literature for the latest guidelines and what to do. And most likely they'll offer you some sort of concierge service to manage your cancer screenings, your surgeries, and everything that you need to stay ahead of cancer. And the most notable success stories of patients who have gotten access to this service are people like Angelina Jolie, who was able to end you know, long history of breast and ovarian cancer through her preventative surgeries, or like tennis star Chris Everett, who was able to catch a Varian cancer in its earliest stages. Even most recently, someone like Jill Martin from the today's show, who announced that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, because she had this genetic evaluation that was done. The problem and what motivated us to get into this business is because the true issue is really about patient access to the services. Yes, the worried wealthy and the famous who get access to these 1000 You know, super specialized providers across the country. And because only so few patients get access to 1000s of patients every year, and were diagnosed with unnecessary avoidable late stage cancers. So with cancer IQ, we really wanted to solve this problem by turning it on its head, you know, instead of you needing to see a specialist provider like my mom wanted to empower your everyday provider to act like a cancer genetic specialists. And we do that by automating the full process and leveraging content and AI and everything to make sure that patients aren't just on waiting lists to see these superstar providers, but they can actually be seeing closer to home. So we're taking a little bit of a different approach using some of my mom's background using, again, common sense to try and tackle cancer from the preventive angle. And
Becca Szkutak 5:31
just before we dive into that further, I just have to know what is it like running a company with your mother, I just can't imagine running one with my dad. So
Feyi Ayodele 5:41
it's really interesting. And I think it's something where the mother daughter relationship has really evolved over time, we actually got the idea for cancer IQ when we were on a family trip to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. So you know, when your phones die after two days on a mountain and got seven days with your mom, you finally start talking about adult things. And I am ashamed to admit, but this was probably the first time that I actually really understood what my mom did. And this is probably the very first time that she actually got advice from her daughter, because my background actually comes from the world of investment banking, and private equity and venture capital. At the time, she had leaned on me and, you know, regarding one of her problems, or problems that she was trying to seek grant funding for her cancer prevention program. And I actually gave her some advice. I said, you know, this grant thing sounds like a boondoggle, right, there's, there's actually venture capital that's out there that can act faster, and help you come up with more sustainable ways of scaling, not only your program, but scaling your mission, which is to get this kind of cancer prevention program out into the hands of the masses. So I think it was by really establishing initial credibility with my mom, that kind of sets the pace for what we were doing with cancer IQ. And even though initially, I felt like I was just supporting my mom and her mission, it became very apparent early on that I was actually the CEO, and that my mom was actually going to be working for me.
Dom Davis 7:13
So amazing to hear how you guys were able to combine both of your interests in a sense to start a company. I'm really intrigued now. So taking the startup route and looking for venture funding. What was that process? Like? And do you think that going the grant route would have been easier?
Feyi Ayodele 7:29
Oh, well, all I can say is that the grant route involves a lot more work, and a lot more time than what I had to put in to get this company started. I think what I had was a cheat code. Coming from the world of venture capital myself, I really understood the rubric that venture capitals use to evaluate investments in early stage companies. And that rubric was one that we didn't necessarily meet. Venture capitalists are always looking at the team, they're looking at the market opportunity. They're looking at product, and they're ultimately looking at traction. And, you know, because I was a woman, a first time founder, under the age of 30, and black, I felt like I really was missing everything that most investors were looking for in the team category. So I really needed to focus on all the other metrics being super tight. So from a market analysis perspective, I leverage everything I learned, you know, from investment banking, and McKinsey put together something really thoughtful from a product perspective, I use experts in the field of user experience design, I brought all the experts in the field of genetics around the product. So it truly was differentiated and novel. And then I really leaned in on traction, and making sure that I was really checking the box in that category. So much so that even before I was even raised seed funding for cancer IQ, actually, to five figure checks from health systems that are already committed to buying cancer I do, because I needed to show that level of commercial traction to overcome any sort of concerns that venture capitalists had about the team had I not have that background and kind of understood the checklist. I don't think cancer IQ would have even gotten off the ground.
Dom Davis 9:20
Allow that's so interesting. Even like with the background and experience of your mother, you still felt that they would have, you know, dismissed all of that.
Feyi Ayodele 9:29
I mean, to be honest, and again, just another data point that comes from data from Venture Capitals is there's always this kind of like nutty professor idea, right? There's an academic who's got these great, you know, research ideas, but can they actually scale a company? Right? So when it came to the team, we've had the scientific credentials, for sure. But all those elements around team when they're looking at who's going to take this and make us money and exit the company. That's where again, we needed to fill in more gaps. So again, had it not been We're understanding that rubric. And of course, having my mom who's a thought leader in the field, it would have been a lot more challenging to go the venture route, which we ultimately were successful.
Dom Davis 10:08
Yeah, what was the process, or what is the process, I guess, of selling your product to hospitals.
Feyi Ayodele 10:14
So one of the key things that helped us sell us to hospitals was actually having some lived experience with the problems we were trying to solve. If I were to go back to, you know, the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, I didn't come to the bottom of the mountain and incorporate cancer IQ. What I chose to do instead was actually work with my mom at the University of Chicago in the cancer center, but in a more of a business and operations. And here's what I learned on the inside of a health system, I learned that if you have a kind of personalized cancer prevention program, like my mom's, there are a lot of really positive outcomes for the health system. On the clinical side, you have patients that evade cancer, are eternally grateful for this, and show up every single year to come for their cancer screenings, and, obviously refer more patients like themselves and their family members to programs like this. So clinically, it's the right thing to do for patients. But the second thing I observed while I was on the inside of an actual health system is that there were really surprising financial outcomes from having this program, I learned that it generated incredible recurring revenues, right, because instead of someone just having an episode of cancer care, and then moving on, they come every single year for their screenings, their evaluations and things that are needed to detect that cancer early. I also found that these patients that are providers are survivors, they tell all their friends, and they bring in new patients. So there's a significant amount of new patient volume, because they have this program in place. And then the third thing I found is that it really did contribute to the overall brand of the institution. There are a number of people even in the Chicago metro area that knew my mom and knew her because she was famous not for her work, just treating cancer, but for her work, getting to cancer before it was initially diagnosed. So from a business perspective, it actually made a ton of sense for hospital to have this kind of program. The main challenge, however, was how do you deliver the service in a way that is operationally efficient in a way that you can hire people to run this program that aren't the only 1000 in the country. And that was the problem that we needed to solve. And once we had that solution in place, it was a no brainer telling that story to peer health systems and saying, hey, when I was at University of Chicago, I was an administrator of this program, and generate a ton of financial value, loyalty and brand recognition. And I think that authenticity is what got our first two health systems to actually buy cancer IQ. Before I even left the university to raise the money to build the product.
Becca Szkutak 13:08
It's something I'm interested in is the fact that as you mentioned a little bit earlier, preventing cancer is a huge thing. And there's so many factors, each type of cancer, there are different contributors to potential outcomes. And there's just so many data points and so many things to track. How did you guys think about that, when you were building? Like, did you ever consider starting with, say breast cancer starting with like a specific area and building from there, or what was the thought process like of figuring out how to tackle something with as many data points as it has.
Feyi Ayodele 13:38
So what's interesting about cancer prevention, and let's start with the initial kind of prevention that we did, the kinds of cancers that we wanted to prevent at the beginning, or hereditary cancers. There's a swath of about like about 10 types of cancer, where we know that they are highly associated with your genes. Okay. But to make that possible, we needed your everyday provider to somehow get up to speed in the field of genetics, when most providers were trained at a time where the knowledge that we have about genetics truly wasn't in place. So what did we do? We took a model, you know, from another industry and brought it over into healthcare. And that model was TurboTax. Right? Back in the days when you needed to do your taxes, you needed to hire a CPA or a tax accountant that really knew all of the rules and the processes. And that was the default mechanism. And that's kind of what doctors have today in the field of genetics. They don't know what to do so they refer to genetic counselor or specialist. What we were trying to do with cancer IQ from a design perspective is how do we take providers and make it so that ordering a genetic test, interpreting a genetic test, making a clinical recommendation on the basis of genomic information was as easy as TurboTax and to do that, we had the As content advisors, so it's as if it was designed by the CBA. We had people like my mom and what we called at the time, the friends of Fumi, from city of hope from Memorial Sloan Kettering from all these, you know, well renowned cancer centers. And they basically told us what the logic would be if they were moving through a process with a patient. And it was upon us to make it a user experience that was as elegant and as simple as TurboTax. And that's how we ultimately solve that first problem of tackling hereditary cancer, which is a place where doctors were feeling a little bit more insecure. Now we've evolved, we've taken that model, and we said, listen, now let's not just look at people with hereditary risk factors. Let's look at patients with adherence risk factors. So during the pandemic, there were millions of patients who skipped their mammograms and skip their colonoscopies and skipped the routine cancer screenings. And guess what these patients were also at risk. They're at risk, not for genetic reasons, but for adherence reasons, right. So we added onto our platform and other module to assess risk based on those factors. And then we extended it beyond that we said, well, there are also people who are at risk because of behavioral factors, they are smokers, or they're overweight, right? We can't just be a solution for those people who have something in their genes, we need to be a solution for everything. So we took that TurboTax framework and kind of added modules over time, to that now truly are the partner that providers look to, for all cancer so that we can end cancer as we know it, no matter what kind of risk factor the patients have.
Becca Szkutak 16:41
It's so interesting to hear you compare it positively to TurboTax. Because I feel like TurboTax is like the thorn in my side. But I feel like I would like the service.
Feyi Ayodele 16:52
Yeah, yeah, well, again, we've definitely simplified it. But I think the principle about removing the expertise from just a group of specialists and democratizing it was really the principles that we learned from solutions like TurboTax.
Becca Szkutak 17:06
And sort of thinking about scaling from here. Do you guys think more about continuing on this main mission, cancer prevention and selling into more health systems? And we're finding that product? Or do you consider sort of moving into other types of diseases or chronic illnesses that maybe come with the same scenario around prevention, where that can make a big difference? But how do you think about scale from where you guys are headed?
Feyi Ayodele 17:30
So first and foremost, let me answer the big question like, are we going to expand beyond cancer, and for where we are today, cancer is such an enormous problem, right? That we think there is more than enough room for us to become an enormous company, tackling that problem a lot. Okay. And here's how to cancer IQ has actually been around for 10 years now. And part of the reason it's been an incredible career opportunity for me is because I've gotten to be an entrepreneur several times within cancer IQ. And here's how the first business that I started, where I had that very empathetic voice and got health systems to my cancer IQ. That was the first business that I started, I started that business. And it's now scaling to the point where we're in now, over 45 different health systems, over 225 different hospitals within those health systems, we've got a team that's repeatedly scaling that part of the business. But along the way, I discovered a new business within the cancer IQ business, one of the consequences of cancer IQ is that we are accelerating adoption of genomic tests. So who do I choose to partner with, I built an entire lab partner business, where we have the leading genomic testing companies that are partnered with cancer IQ, to not only streamline the ordering experience for providers, so they can be introduced to some of those genomic tests. But they've been really great partners, and boots on the ground actually evangelizing for the use of cancer IQ beyond the size of my own company. So that's kind of the second business I built in as the genetic testing lab partner network. The third business that I've now getting to start and I starting really in partnership with some of the leading life science companies in the world is a life science business where, again, we're taking the same platform, same outcomes, but we're delivering value to life science and pharma partners. And I'm doing that really in partnership with our series B lead investors. I couldn't ask for the best people to advise me in this new business venture than Merck, and Amgen, and McCaslin who collectively are like a trillion dollars with a market cap that are now invested in cancer IQ to see how we can solve the cancer problem from the pharma and life science angle. So how are we growing and how are we seeing growth? We're seeing the same end mission which is to help patients and providers stay at Head of cancer, but we're monetizing through different people within the healthcare ecosystem. Because what I love about what we do at cancer IQ, and what I love about my job is that it's really a win win win for so many different stakeholders. And I eventually see everyone being a partner to cancer, thank you.
Dom Davis 20:23
Yeah, and the company has been around for a while. And so I'm interested to know how the pandemic has impacted your company, because I'm thinking specifically, like the pandemic was a turning point within the healthcare system. And also, the effects are still ongoing, like with long COVID, and all these things, and a lot of people are now predisposed to things that they never thought they were. And so the question of how has the pandemic impacted the way hospitals and doctors interact with your product,
Feyi Ayodele 20:52
the pandemic, I think the first month, everybody was really terrified, especially in the digital health space and in tech in general. But the pandemic proved to be an incredible accelerant to what we're doing and cancer IQ. It taught health systems how to do things a lot faster. It taught them how to stand up technology in response to an urgent patient need. And even on the clinical side, one of the things the pandemic did is actually highlighted those health care disparities, and highlighted that it's not just the small fraction of patients like Angelina Jolie that need help getting through their cancer prevention journey, it suddenly became a high priority problem, because there were millions of patients who weren't going in for their screenings, there were millions of patients who were over two, and there was a rising rate in late stage cancer diagnoses. So I think there were really three factors that really propelled cancer IQ in terms of growth. That was number one, you know, speed of healthcare systems, making decisions. Number two, knowing that digital technology needed to actually help the healthcare industry. And then third, knowing that, you know, cancer itself was such an acute problem that it needed collaboration to truly solve it. And I think it's that last point, understanding that it was an acute clinical problem that needed collaboration. That's one of the things that we all learned during the pandemic was crucial, and why so many health systems are inviting cancer IQ to help them
Dom Davis 22:21
with their cancer problem, does your product use AI at all?
Feyi Ayodele 22:25
So AI now is a really, you know, sexy buzzword in multiple elements of our platform, we are using AI to harness and improve and train and enhance the product using some of the training data that we put together. But in the healthcare world, I will say that, you know, physicians are still making decisions based on things that have been clinically validated, not necessarily based on things that come from training models or datasets that cancer IQ is aggregated. So most of what our providers are using on a regular basis is really just automation and revealing some of those clinical guidelines to providers on an everyday basis that is AR and their future. Absolutely. There's so many ways to apply AI to our products so that it can make things a little bit easier for physicians to absorb. And we plan on integrating more of that in the future.
Becca Szkutak 23:15
Kind of switching gears. I know, we've touched on a few times, but the company has been around for a minute now and thinking about you personally, as a founder. What has this journey been like for you personally growing this company,
Feyi Ayodele 23:29
I think one of the things that's really important to me, and one of the things that drives me and makes me continually excited about what we're doing at cancer IQ. Part of it comes from me being a diverse founder. I think one of the things that's made me incredibly resilient, incredibly stubborn and constantly trying to achieve the next milestone in the next is because I want every investor to not even think twice about investing someone that is young that is female. And then as black, ever again, I am maniacally focused on making sure that I'm making an outside patient and provider impact, but also making an impact on the venture community and itself on all of my investors to get incredible returns on everything they've invested in cancer IQ. Because I think it's important that I, myself as a founder and a CEO are positive data points so that it's easier for others to follow in my footsteps. So that's what makes me excited about continuing what we're doing, helping the company scaled even bigger and better milestones, and also making sure that even the diverse investors who have invested in cancer IQ, get some credit for making the decision to back us
Becca Szkutak 24:40
and noting what you just said, that seems like a lot of pressure plus in relation to the fact that just the mission of the startup to begin with. It's a big mission that can definitely change people's lives. How do you feel about the weight of all of this and sort of the expectations you have for yourself and the company but also making sure things just don't get too much.
Feyi Ayodele 25:02
Well, I don't know if I'll say this to the rest of the audience, but I have a Nigerian mother, that is a genius. There's no amount of pressure that is bigger than just what I was born with. I think I'm naturally high achieving, I thrive under pressure, I strive for greatness. And I've seen greatness ahead of me. And you know, what better way than try and you know, top the generation that came ahead of me then going for something as lofty as ending cancer as we know it. But that's really the vision that I have for this company. I truly believe that if we can take some of what I think the Cancer Moonshot is calling these ground shots, these brown shots are really about making sure that everybody at least has a personalized plan to get ahead of cancer instead of tackling the enormous problem of trying to treat and cure cancer, that we can make enormous strides. And those strides, I think, are things that get me out of bed every day and excited about what I'm doing, instead of feeling like there's pressure to perform in more of that academic sense that can be crippling for some people, I think the last thing I'll say is that there's also this personal motivation. Aside from being a data point, I'm also helping people that look like me, you know, as you age, unfortunately, more people have that firsthand experience with cancer, either with a sibling or a friend, or, again, more of these people being diagnosed at younger ages means that this is getting closer and closer to home. So how can I contribute short of going to medical school, as my parents wish I had done, I could contribute by making sure that cancer IQ is in the hands of as many providers as possible, so that we can do something for people like myself,
Becca Szkutak 26:50
and one like follow up on that. Consider you just mentioned that your parents would have wished you would become a doctor. I'm curious, was entrepreneurship always in the plans for you? Or did you always Was that ever in sort of your plan for your career
Feyi Ayodele 27:01
was very interesting is I feel like it was I came out as an entrepreneur. And my parents accepted that very early on. I actually went to Wharton undergrad. So I, you know, straight from high school knew that I was going to be a business person. And the very first business that I started was a company called seeds and weeds. It was a like, I think it was a I basically hired my younger siblings to offer the service to all of my neighbors where we would clear the leaves from their gardens, and like plant bulbs for, you know, for the spring. So a lot of these things. And these characteristics were in me at a younger age. And what I always wanted, and why I think I had this entrepreneurial spirit is I always wanted things to be better than the status quo. So part of the reason I think my parents were accepting of the fact that I was never going to go to medical school is I kind of looked at what they did as the like, crude, backward way of doing things like why is it that you need to go to school for this many years? Right? Why is it that you need to be away from your family for this many hours? Isn't there a better way? I think they've embraced the fact that I've always wanted a better way of doing things. As part of why they've accepted, I'm not going to be a doctor, but I'm probably going to scale the practice of medicine in ways that they wouldn't be able to achieve on their own.
Dom Davis 28:21
I just want to talk a little bit about you as a leader. Can you talk to me a little bit about your leadership style?
Feyi Ayodele 28:27
That's a great, great question. So having what my employees would say about me is that I have incredible energy. And I'm very resourceful. And let me dig into the two of these. So, you know, from an energy perspective, I am always looking for a better way I'm very fast paced by nature, I in general, want things to move faster than the world wants me to. Instead of, you know, pushing that down to people, I think people see an example in me on a regular basis. And then my work speed is immediate, I can juggle a gajillion things at once. And I never expect people to do things that I can't do myself or wouldn't be able to do myself. So in terms of my energy and my work speed, say that's definitely part of my leadership style, and leading by example. The other thing I'd say that probably my employees would say about me is I'm also incredibly resourceful. And I think that's also a really great case, you know, maybe to invest in underrepresented founders, I think, from the jump because I didn't always have the resources, I was very resourceful and trying to do more with less and even now that we have been funded to the tunes of you know, 10s of millions of dollars, I still kind of have that attitude that you know, how can we be resourceful? How can we do more with less, make things go as long as possible? That's a that's the second thing about me. I think the third thing is I also really do leave with my heart. I think the mission I have cancer IQ. I bleed it every day. I think that people who have joined the company and have been really successful are people who really share that mission with me, and are really ready to run through walls for us to accomplish that mission. So as a leader, when you are incredibly energetic and super resourceful, what gets you through some of the difficult times is having a leader who's also super focused on that mission and translates that to everybody in the company every day.
Dom Davis 30:29
And will Burt my first thing, how many employees do you have now?
Feyi Ayodele 30:32
We are now I think 52. I always love
Dom Davis 30:36
knowing especially like when there's co founders. How did you and your mom decide how to split up responsibilities at the company?
Feyi Ayodele 30:44
Oh, that's a great question. Let's actually go back to or our founding story. So again, my mom and I started this company, but we didn't go alone. So one of the resources that the University of Chicago had was at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, they actually had a formal program to matchmake people from the biological sciences division, which is where my mom and I were, with business school students who would, you know, vet the business idea or write a business plan, and kind of get the company through that first hurdle. Because I was fresh out of business school, I was enamored by having this program in place. And when we went to pitch people at the Booth School of Business, I was totally overwhelmed by how many people wanted to join cancer IQ and be one of our co founders. So out of the I think it was almost 50 students that I interviewed, you know, just to assess this, our third co founder was a gentleman by the name of Hi, Bo Liu, who's still with cancer and Q today. And here's what I loved about hyper. Hypo also came from a finance background. I started off at Credit Suisse, he started off at a quant hedge fund, called AQR. And similar to me, he wanted to, you know, not just be typecast as a finance person, but because talents to other places. One of the fascinating things that hypo did is he left AQR to work for the Chinese men's national basketball team. And he actually ran the basketball team using a Moneyball type analytics program that he had built using a lot of the data science that he learned in the finance industry. So when we thought about, like, what are our responsibilities, I mean, hypo was someone who had incredible experience, leveraging data and building data, which products he was coming from industries that were a little bit more advanced, and how they harness data and how they use it to make decisions. And not only did he have that, but he also shared my love for Harold's chicken, which is a fried chicken chain here in Chicago. So it was a match made in heaven. So how do we split our responsibilities, my mom really leads kind of the medical and scientific advisory aspect of things, I've always really been on the commercial side of things. And with high bow on board, everything data that drives our product and drives our outcomes was led by him early on. So it was really important to have that diversity as part of our founding team to get us to the next stage.
Dom Davis 33:06
And one more point on that, how do the three of you work together to foster and create a positive working environment for your employees.
Feyi Ayodele 33:14
So one of the things I will say is, again, in full disclosure, my mom has really not day to day within the company, she's actually best position that she's at the University of Chicago, continuing to write papers on the model of care that cancer IQ recommends. And so she's very much an educator, very much a publisher, very much a sciences. So she comes in, you know, once a quarter when our team is all together for that rah rah, but she's really not in the team on a day to day basis, out of High boy and I couldn't manage responsibilities to get everybody excited about what we do. I think for me, I'm the person that always has this lofty aspiration. That's really the next, you know, what's the next milestone for cancer IQ. And I really orient people around, the bigger impact we can make. If we're a bigger company, one of the things I really like that hypo does is he brings that same energy enthusiasm for you know, here's what we're going to do next. But he brings data to support this, I'd say like once a quarter when we're all together and all hands meeting, this is when Hi Bill will rattle off statistics like you know, we have saved X 1000 years of human life, or we have screened 500,000 patients this quarter, and we found x number of mutations, and we have changed care for this many 1000s of patients. And I think that's all really been part of working at cancer IQ with the leadership that we have on
Becca Szkutak 34:41
board. And one thing I noticed was when you mentioned that you guys had around 50 employees and thinking of how long the company's been around. I definitely wanted to ask you about how you guys think about growth. I mean, Dom probably knows us too. But I mean, covering startups, sometimes you talk to a company that's like a year old and they have like 300 employees and and some of them, of course, have grown too fast other than it's industry specific, but there is sort of this venture and startup mentality to like, grow, grow, grow, add, add, add scale, scale scale. And it seems like you guys have been much more thoughtful and sort of approaching this and adding in things as you get feedback from hospitals and sort of see things naturally play out. And I'm curious how you guys have thought about growing the company, as you have thus far. And we're a lot of those things intentional, or were these choices, kind of just how things played out? And yeah, just how you thought about growth?
Feyi Ayodele 35:30
I'm actually really happy you asked that question. I don't think anybody's asked me this before. But I think it goes back to me being resourceful. And also back to one of the core principles I think we've understood is that to be in this space, it's impossible to go in alone. And let me tell you some of the AHA is that we've had a cancer IQ. If we think about the number of health systems and number of providers that are out there, to truly cover everybody, we'd be looking at hiring a sales force of you know, 200 to 300 people, okay? And that's proximately, the sales force that Myriad Genetics has, and in vitae has, and Ambry genetics has these are these, you know, large genetic testing companies that really have coverage of every single provider that's out there. And along the way, one of the things that I found out, you know, being resourceful, and being focused on being a product company, which is I think where we'd like to be is that if we have the absolute best product in the world, then we can motivate the sales forces of all these organizations to help cancer IQ scale. And that was the AHA that we had a longer way that's really the value in our lab partner network is that we now have hundreds of people that are aware of cancer IQ are trained in cancer IQ that know that value that cancer I do, actually delivers that don't work for us that are helping cancer IQ scale on a daily basis. And when I think about conquering the world, and how cancer IQ can be everywhere, part of us conquering the world is thinking about how can we get everybody in the healthcare ecosystem evangelizing about cancer IQ on our behalf. That's where the partnerships with pharma companies come into play. That's where future partnerships with even employers and insurers and payers will come from, because I truly believe that core that what we're doing is the right solution to the problem. And if we have the right solution, and we're focused on building a world class product, then we can scale very rapidly through channels and through partners who believe in that too.
Becca Szkutak 37:37
And one thing we definitely wanted to ask you about is what your journey has been like with motherhood while you've been building this company out at the same time, I know we've read some interesting stories about your fundraising journey in that way.
Feyi Ayodele 37:49
Yeah. So Well, I found out that I was pregnant, right in the middle of raising my series B round. And what I'd say that did for me is it created this extreme sense of urgency, right, that I don't think I would have had, if I weren't pregnant, I knew that the baby was due, I knew there was kind of a deadline by which I needed to raise this money. And I think that really propelled me to be focused on the process and making sure that I was accessible within a really short period of time. What was interesting is that it was really important timing that I think actually credited cancer IQ for where we are today. Our round actually closed on March 2 of 2022, which I think was one week after Russia invaded Ukraine, and a whole bunch of uncertainties happen thereafter. So had I not been maniacally focused on getting this done in a short period of time, it could have been much bigger challenge than it was for me at the time. I think the last thing is, I think one of the key things that helped me fundraise while pregnant was number one, zoom. You know, I've met most of these investors early in my pregnancy, so they had to please see me face to face. But what was really interesting is everyone came into Chicago for the closing dinner, when I was eight and a half months pregnant. I think that was the very first time that they even found out. So what's my advice? You know, for other female founders, pregnancy is not necessarily a bad thing. I think it makes you way more efficient. It gives you a huge sense of urgency. And I don't think it's necessarily any Investor's Business, I think, because I have zoom and allow people to focus on the company and not, you know, the state of my pregnancy. And they all were excited to come into cancer IQ.
Becca Szkutak 39:34
And unfortunately, we're out of time, so we're gonna have to wrap it up here. But thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure. Thank you. And that was our conversation with faith. Tom, what do you think?
Dom Davis 39:49
I thought it was really, really interesting. What about you?
Becca Szkutak 39:52
Yeah, I definitely thought it was interesting. I feel every time you hear of something coming out of the oncology space or cancer space you still rarely hear about the prevention side of it, which is, in theory, like the part we can do the most about. It's like
Dom Davis 40:05
literally like prevention is one of the biggest things. And I love how it looks at saying what you are most likely to get based off of your prior medical history. Yeah. And kind of looking at that, especially in terms of marginalized communities, I think is really, really big.
Becca Szkutak 40:21
No, it's definitely good to hear that because that is such a persistent issue in the healthcare system. So it is always good to hear about people actually building things that are working to fix those issues, that it's crazy, they still exist. And I wish we had asked her more about her transition from running that student venture fund at Wharton to then becoming a founder herself, because we've talked to people on the show before who were VCs and then decided to launch a company, either for the first time or again, and I have never heard someone talk about fundraising the way she did in the sense of like, well, I was a VC. So I knew exactly what they were looking for. So I literally knew how to cater the pitch. And I'm like, in theory, that seems so obvious. But it must not be of like, no one's ever mentioned it to us before like talked about it.
Dom Davis 41:08
I was thinking about it. Because it's like, obviously covering black founders, there's always that, well, we shouldn't have to do this. We shouldn't have to do that. And so when she was saying, like, Yes, I just went in, and I gave them what I knew what they wanted, which was that they know that I'm a black woman, and I know that they're not gonna like me. So I'm just gonna give them every reason why they should. And it's really playing the game in a very, very good way. Because it obviously worked out.
Becca Szkutak 41:32
Yeah, no, it's just so smart. Because like, especially think of the checklist thing and saying, like, she wasn't confident they were gonna make a bet on them based on the team, which, I mean, we talked to VCs all day, they say, Why invest on the founder or invest on the team? Like, they say that all in every day lies? Exactly. And she was like, so I knew I needed like these other things that would overcome that piece of it, which is just a really interesting way of looking about it. And of course, it is a little frustrating to think you'd have to really talk up so much like a solution that helps to prevent getting cancer, that's also like a very venture bankable SAS business model. But I mean, hey, this is the industry we work in.
Dom Davis 42:15
I know, imagine your mom is like an award winning oncologists and still not believing that investors would back her and her ideas and her lived, like research experience.
Becca Szkutak 42:25
I know. It is crazy to think about. And I really liked her little point about that, where it's like she mentioned, she thinks like VCs only, like science based companies that are founded by like the quote, unquote, like nutty professor, which I just thought that was kind of funny, because like, I'm sure that's also true.
Dom Davis 42:42
Yeah. Oh, my goodness, VCs we never know. But it was also interesting to get the capitalist aspect of healthcare within this discussion, in terms of selling to hospitals and the monetization of our diseases, basically,
Becca Szkutak 42:58
oh, no, no, it's so true. I have to, like constantly remind myself that like hospitals, or like for profit, for the most part, I was like, it just seems wrong. It seems
Dom Davis 43:08
so wrong. I know. But it's interesting thinking about how you take something as life saving as this and have to model it in a business form. Because everything here is a business.
Becca Szkutak 43:22
I know. I liked how she talked about like, the way she set it up was like TurboTax, which like, I recently got by like, check in the mail from like, the class action lawsuit against excellent, like, definitely not my favorite company. But when she like, broke it down further. I was like, Okay, no, I totally get what you mean, in the sense of like, TurboTax was a way that people who had no information on tax code could then do taxes themselves, and feel confident that they're getting it right. And I think what she said about like, the ability to sort of know, these extra things that oncologists do know, are sort of like this extra information that say your general physician wouldn't know. And then being able to plug in the information and get results and be able to take it from there. Makes a lot of sense. It's very bread and butter SAS in a way that I don't think I've seen in like health care.
Dom Davis 44:10
Yeah, I was gonna say it seems like every time we talk to a health care company, I'm reminded about how archaic the way the industry operates is, oh, I know. It's like, oh, my gosh, what is this? They probably use Internet Explorer still, or something insane like that.
Becca Szkutak 44:22
I know, the way that every founder talks about healthcare, and then you go to a health care provider, you're like, reminded that they're like, 90%, right? You think like doctors came on like horse and buggy to work or something. It's like,
Dom Davis 44:33
I know, the doctors knows, like written in stone. So messy.
Becca Szkutak 44:37
I'm just glad people are trying to tackle stuff like this. And it is good that they've been able to sort of raise the money they have and I definitely am glad to chat with a company like this that did grow over a longer timeline because sometimes I'm like, Yeah, and it doesn't usually work out for these companies. So maybe that's the secret that I'm missing but like when a company's like we're two years old now. 400 employees and are like worth $4 billion. I'm always just like something that's missing some things that doesn't really happen like that unless you really hit it out of the park. But I mean, like, I can't think of an example I would point to for that. So it is always nice to hear of like companies actually growing slowly.
Dom Davis 45:14
Yeah, it's growing slowly. It's always good to hear about a company growing slowly finally
Becca Szkutak 45:21
found is hosted by myself. TechCrunch Senior Reporter Becca Skuta. Alongside Senior Reporter Dominic Midori Davis founders produced by Maggie Stamets with editing by Cal our Illustrator is Bryce Durbin phones audience development and social media is managed by Morgan Liddell Alyssa Stringer, and Natalie Kreisman TechCrunch is audio products are managed by Henry pic of it. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week.
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