Heather Underwood served as CEO of EvoEndo, a pediatric gastroenterology startup, after completing the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. She holds a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, where her doctoral work involved creating digital-pen-based clinical decision support software for midwives and labor and delivery nurses in Kenya. After graduating, she became a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she founded a program focused on human-centered innovation through design, prototyping, and entrepreneurship.
You love teaching and were a professor at the University of Colorado Denver. What drew you from academia back into the startup world?
I’ve always tried to infuse that startup, entrepreneurial energy into everything I’ve done. A great example is my PhD work. I chose an interdisciplinary program, the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder, which allowed me to operate very much like a startup entrepreneur while pursuing my doctorate. In addition to conducting research, I lived in Kenya and worked with labor and delivery nurses to design, develop, implement, and scale a novel, digital pen-based clinical decision support tool to help monitor labor and reduce preventable maternal morbidity and mortality.
That experience reaffirmed my passion for working at the intersection of technology and healthcare in the fast-paced start-up world. It also underscored that no matter what type of organization I’m part of, working with motivated, kind, and talented people who share the same passion brings out the best in me.
What are the joys and challenges of leading a startup developing something novel?
The challenges are the joy! Okay, not all the challenges are fun, but they do help you remember the value and importance of what you’re trying to do – save and improve lives. Creating a novel technology and getting people to use it is huge challenge simply because you are likely taking on decades of entrenched practices, beliefs, and processes. Add the complexity of navigating regulatory, reimbursement, IP, and commercial pathways to build business around that technology, and the challenges just multiply.
That’s when the passion for wanting to see people’s lives improve—whether they’re providers, patients, caregivers, or people on your team—really matters because you know you’re doing something truly meaningful, and if that was easy, everyone would do it.
You’ve talked about how your view of leadership has evolved. How has the Ferolyn Fellowship contributed to that evolution?
The Ferolyn Fellowship is unlike any other program I’ve ever been part of. It is helping me realize that being a good leader is not about being what other people think you should be, but about leading as your whole self.
When you’re early in your career, it’s very easy to fall into adopting a “leader persona” at work that’s based on the expectations and needs of others. But that can be in conflict with who you are, creating an inauthentic persona that actually hinders your ability to relate to other people with compassion, empathy, and vulnerability. We talk in the Fellowship about how Ferolyn “led with her heart,” and it has been empowering to practice bringing both my head and my heart to work. The work we’ve done has given me confidence and trust in my leadership style and in my ability to handle even the most challenging situations – both personal and professional.
Could you share something about yourself that you feel has helped shape who you are today?
You are probably familiar with the book and recent film “Boys in the Boat” about the University of Washington (UDub) rowing team who, against all odds, won gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Well, I was a UDub freshman “girl in the boat” my first year of college.
Despite having little rowing experience and not being a six-foot tall, high school rower on scholarship, I was strong and disciplined as a previous competitive gymnast and I endured the demanding tryouts to make the team as a walk-on!
In addition to the immense academic challenges I took on my freshman year, that year was also one of my most physically challenging. I developed a deep gratitude for the trainers, physical therapists, and healthcare providers who kept my body going during that grueling season, which culminated in a definitive first place finish in the last race of the season. Rowing helped shape my ability to persevere under intense physical and mental pressure, to be part of a highly communicative and synchronized team, to be extremely efficient with my time, and to work hard for the things and people I care about.
Knowing how and when to dig deep and sprint is invaluable at a startup. But equally as important is knowing how to focus, settle into a steady rhythm, and keep pulling consistently with the team through the finish line.
—In conversation with Claudia Carasso, host mentor and co-founder of The Ferolyn Fellowship