 Jackie came straight here from DIA landed at 12 o'clock, so it's only two and a half hours to get downtown Yeah, I almost missed my flight to knows like Jeff will kill me Coming back from Minneapolis, right New York, okay, and you are finished now with tech stars There are second tech stars second tech stars Can you talk about why on earth was someone do tech stars a second time? You know we're still Doing retros on that So our we did our first tech stars here in Boulder and that one we I like barely knew what tech stars was to be quite frank It's it's been fascinating to hear the last two speakers because With Andy talking about transferring skill sets I was a school teacher with Teach for America and then I did oppositional research for political candidates And now I'm CEO of a wearable tech company and I swear the skill sets did transfer But what I've had to figure out is HR and finance But the first tech stars was really just like what does it even mean to build a team build a company? How do you talk to investors? It's a very coachable skill. It's awkward to practice, but it's very coachable And then this one we did with in partnership with Target We have a consumer electronics product and I'd never worked retail today in my life And so I was like I should probably know how this works I need to know what end caps are and peg velocity means and how do you establish partnerships with a corporation that has 341,000 employees And not get crushed by them. And so I would say that we learned a ton but completely on different spectrums So I skipped to the like and first go back to the beginning What were you teaching? I taught Spanish at a bilingual school So you're teaching bilingual Spanish Politics and you're like CEO of tech company sounds good. Yeah, I was like an intern in a CEO simultaneously for a while That was like a real yeah Yeah, like that's why I like people joke when people are touch you about titles and like let it go It is not a big deal. It's about what you're getting to work on But I came up with the idea when I was in college for Revolar So Revolar is a discreet wearable that clips comfortably under clothing or onto your keys If you're feeling an easier unsafe you can press it and let people know your status and share your live updating location And it has different capabilities for different situations So you can exit uncomfortable conversation have friends virtually walk you home or have help sent to you depending on how you trigger it and I'd come up with this concept and when I was in college and started the patent process my senior year and We actually just got a word of the patent four years later. So that was really exciting like two weeks ago and Somebody told me it's gonna take you years to bootstrap to get off the ground And so I thought let me pick teaching that pays really well It's been my experience. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. You have the I had when I started teaching I was so dumb and I was like well you get done at three I'll have the rest of the day to like write code and do whatever build side projects Then you find out how much great. Yeah, three. I didn't know it was 3 a.m. Yeah Yeah, definitely people were like how are you teaching for America is an intense program? Like how did you do both and I was like, well, you know, I didn't have anything else to do So I was just doing it all But the leadership that came from that like the skill set I think of nothing else I gained the emotional intelligence to handle What it looks like and funny enough sitting child development on our board is Jenny Law and she was the CEO of maker bots the 3d printing company and her and I talk about how the scaling of a company is follows very much like the Development of a child like when we were a teeny team. It was like being in kindergarten It's super easy. Like it's just, you know, you're all friends. It's a tiny little circle You're all living in the lake our apartment, which we literally did And then you start to grow and it gets really awkward like middle school Like you start to like not know how to communicate anymore because you have different teams Yeah, it gets really awkward. So we like we're squarely in middle school and I think now we're in high school I'd like to think that like we're getting slightly better at communicating Please tell me there's like an R letter jacket. I mean, we have like gear now. So yeah, kind of um, but like the varsity jacket We wanted to make sure it's a said back-to-back tech stars champs because we're the only company Especially the only female lead company who's ever done tech stars twice let alone back-to-back But I don't think our business would be where it is without that But yeah, it's you know, it's definitely been that you feel the growing pains Continuing my totally non linear questioning In college, how'd you get interested in like this issue? So the inspiration from Revolar was deeply personal my little sister was assaulted twice before the age of 17 after her second attack she had to get homeschooled her senior year of high school when I was in college and My mom bought her pepper spray because that's what you buy the people in your life when you were worried about their safety is something like a pepper spray and She was being homeschooled and they required that people go to testing sites to prove that they're not cheating and like actually learning something And because she had pepper spray on her key chain and they knew full well why she was being homeschooled They confiscated the pepper spray failed her in the exam suspended her for over a week from her from her online school Which I was like my sister's like how do you suspend somebody from their own home? And it went on her permanent record that she brought a weapon to school Which I was really pissed off about to be quite frank and I had in college I'd studied in Italy and in Spain and learned that we're incredibly lucky in the United States even have self-defense laws Police officers my first day in Italy told me that if I were to use pepper spray against an attacker I would go to jail. They didn't have self-defense laws And the Netherlands that actually recently happened in like the last year somebody stopped at a rapist with pepper spray and is now facing charges for using pepper spray And so I realized that in countries and having lived in countries like Mexico and in Switzerland knew that The legal systems are not the same everywhere, but that the problems were and What I saw was a lack of an ability to communicate efficiently. I mean my sister. I think everybody always has their smartphone on them But you just don't have time Realistically to take it out unlock it call for help let alone answer questions And calling 911 is a privilege that some people feel safe calling 911 not everybody feels safe calling 911 And you know growing up in Latin America, we definitely don't call the police That is not something my family in Colombia would think to do and so it's like how do you? Reach out to the people that love you most knowing that they're the ones who are most likely in the best position to help you So she was absolutely inspiration and just started the patent process from there So you get out of teaching decide to start doing the company full-time And How did you like get the initial wheels turning? You just grabbed a 3d printer like back up everybody That's the first time I saw 3d printer. I was like, hey, you know talk about magic I mean I like I couldn't agree more actually wrote a blog that said tech stars felt like like I was a muggle And then I discovered the magical world of tech I was like, whoa, this is where it's been, huh? Because I was an international studies in Spanish major like total Luddite Um But what was the question like how did you actually get the ball rolling like you had the you had the idea a little bit of business plan Who like how do you make a thing? First thing I did was trick my co-founder to living with me You have to have that rock star by you and she actually went to business school So she knew like what a business plan should look like and how to put it together If you've ever watched Silicon Valley, you know the one like Jared comes in and he's like what are your roles and responsibilities? That was like the equivalent of my co-founder of coming in she was like So what are we gonna do about roles and and this and that and I was like what like we're just gonna build this? Okay, like it's gonna be great. She's like, okay, but like how I was like, I don't know We'll figure it out and so we went to we were living together working part-time jobs. That's when I was the intern and We went to Denver start-up week and I pulled a bunch of my friends who work night shifts like like had night jobs I got them fake business cards. So we look like a bigger team than we were There's like a lot to be said for faking it until you make it and Yeah, and so we rolled with like eight people to our first Denver start-up week I was like, this is what you're gonna say. This is all you're gonna say You're gonna go to all the events because I wish I could be there. You're gonna take notes for me I'm gonna buy you dinner at the end of this week and And Bring me all the business cards for anybody you meet that's interested and so we made it look like our team was a lot bigger than it was And we ended up winning a back of an Afghan competition, which won us free legal services and I learned what SEO was So we had to change our name and Was the original name? Oh, we've gone through a few but the last one was fear hyphen less solutions fear less solutions Which was a mouthful and like no way we were ever gonna win that online battle. So we rebranded And we also met Mentors I went to the women who start ups. I don't know if you guys have ever been to women who start up here It's phenomenal run by Lizelle and I Had read research as a teacher that if you tell boys no more questions They're more likely to still shout out or keep their hand up and ask the question The little girls are less likely to and so I knew that like women who start up I was like, this is gonna be my panel like if anyone's gonna care about what I'm trying to do it's gonna be these people and Lizelle who didn't know me back then was like way in the back and like didn't see my hand raised And I'm like right in the front so I could get their attention And there's this really awkward moment where they said no more questions And I kept my hand up and I was like, oh my god, this research better be right I was like, this is so embarrassing and I kept my hand up and the people on stage started laughing at me And they're like, you know, let her ask her question like she clearly isn't going anywhere And I literally said like I was a teacher. I know business is about relationships at the end of the day It's about who you know, I'm trying to end rape culture via tech and I don't know anybody So how how do you get your foot in the door and they all offered up to to talk to me and of all of them Jane Miller Who's in natural foods by the way Became one of my mentors. I read her book sleeping your way to the top and other myths about business and She then introduced me to the Foundry Group who are now our investors But it was it really started at them for start of week and just kind of putting ourselves out there And making sure that people heard what we were attempting to try to do So at Denver startup week two weeks ago, I was with a mutual friend of ours Another female CEO of a tech led company and she was like this. I was like, how's your week been? She's like, I you know, it's nice, but I got invited to so many things every day I was invited to like 14 things and then I realized why Fucking Jackie's in Minneapolis. And so everybody's inviting me as like the one lady CEO like, okay Well, Jackie's back now. So we're back to to split duty So Denver startup week is pretty neat if you didn't get to engage with it this year like definitely check it out next year So you get a couple folks together. I believe you Big borrow and stole some like technical People at the beginning and some of their time a little bit of like side-time and side While they're doing other jobs or like coming off other jobs. Is that for sure? I mean we got our one It was kind of like a rural ragtag team, right? So our first CTO had failed retirement twice and He was an advisor for the incubator in a sphere. We were a part of and Heard about we had launched a Kickstarter. So we got offered from the founder group a seed funding and launched our Kickstarter Simultaneously, I literally painted at the end of those three months. It was like a lot because there's only two and a half of us working at that point but both things weren't successful and He calls me up in the middle of our Kickstarter and he's like I'm an advisor for in a sphere My guess is you're using a low-energy Bluetooth. Do you need somebody to build your prototype? And I was like, how'd you know, you know, like I was like, well, I had to be blue too Like how else were you gonna make it talk to the phone and da da da and I was like, okay He would like print out sheets for me and be like this is a crystal. This is a clock. This is you know an electronic circuit board This is how it works And then we got into tech stars and he came along for the ride and then Tom who is another advisor for in his sphere and has 25 years Supplied chain and manufacturing experience. He was a former VP of Google engineering at Otter box Did the same thing and I like people are like, how did you get these people? Like they found me which is the craziest thing And then our you know, I call my little genius dev Juan completely self-taught IOS Had just graduated from college was Andrea's little cousin lived in Texas And I get on a call with him and he's like, I really want to learn how to you know, you know build IOS and I was like, okay I'm well, I have no money you can live on our couch and You know, like that's you're just gonna have to figure it out. I'm not gonna be able to give you any kind of guidance Zero support. So like if you want the job, it's yours. But like you got to get over here and to his credit He showed up in his car from Texas like three days later credit is an interesting word Like Choices and within a year he did our IOS our Android and our Java back-end and when we brought on pivotal To help support us. He didn't he scored so high on his first day that he's now the bar for hires Like if you can't do as well as Juan did on day one Then we're not gonna talk to you because like this kid came from he wasn't even like didn't even go to school for it He just like sits there and he's just wants and he's like can't wait to just focus on IOS Because he's like, can you please stop making me do everything else? I'm like you're kind of it so But he really just wants to do IOS One of the parts I don't want to overlook in that story. Do you have one on you a device? Yes Yes, I was like where is that you said you were on Kickstarter Yeah, but there's a thing like it actually you actually made a thing and we delivered on time Which is we went from prototype to full nationwide retail launch in eight months Which for hardware companies like pretty unheard of Again serious credit to our now CTO Tom with his manufacturing Relationships he knew how to get it done. He knocked it out like nothing I'd ever seen before like that man just moved so fast And you know same credit to our software team who like pulled it together and and we face significant technical obstacles like you know with IOS if you kill the app you'd lose the connection and they found a workaround for that and You know the things that they they overcame technically has just been super impressive And their patience with me as they've had to teach me and coach me through all of this has been fantastic It's good to have good people, right? I'm it's also like It's one thing to say like well these great people They just gave us all our time all their time and they made it really successful, but obviously It's a product and an idea and a problem and a mission that like really resonates with people and They're willing to like hang up Other things such as being retired in the mountains or on the beach or whatever to like come come help you out with it Which is pretty amazing now Where can they work? Where do? Devices get sold so currently we're a nation or the brook stone Best buy dot-com Amazon launch pad and Gonna be on target dot-com soon It's I did yeah, I found out retail doesn't their dot-coms move way faster than in store They only reset twice a year, so I was like that's it, huh? Like so no changes except for twice a year So that's good to know if people want to like experiment with Like from a technical side like I want to I want to check it out I want to like mess around with the software anything like that any Opportunities for them to do that or ways for them to get involved in the company Well, we're hiring So there's definitely ways to get involved right now Do they have to live on the couch? They do not like we have like real, you know investors and funding now It's really it's a nice change like it's really nice And it's actually really funny because like we still like even after the like this next funding will be way closer to market But when even with with the three million we got from the foundry group that didn't put us in a position To always be at market and people would be like, oh, you know, like my salaries were higher there And I was like compared to my teacher salary. This is sweet. I was like so I was like probably the only one who felt like I got a bump Everybody else felt like they'd gone down especially the people that came from Otter box right there like running things and Taking teacher salaries all of a sudden but um, yeah, absolutely You know like we're we just put out a whole bunch of job descriptions and I know that's where we're looking to grow So it's gonna be a good year company is revelar our e-v-o-l-a-r and Thanks Jackie