Antibiotics to Algorithms: A Journey from Patient to Tech Founder

Founder of Corra, Elya Lane, reveals her courageous journey from battling life-threatening infections to creating a revolutionary app. Her personal health struggles ignited a mission to develop a tool that not only saved her life but is now empowering countless others. Tune in as we delve into her remarkable transformation from patient to tech founder, and the invaluable lessons she learned along the way.

You can follow Elya on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elya-lane/

And learn more about Corra at: https://www.corra.health/

You can also contact Elya directly at: elya@corra.health 

Follow us on Tik Tok @shesambitiousaf for more content and episode teasers!

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Welcome to She's Ambitious AF, the bold and empowering podcast that turns up the volume on female entrepreneurship. Join us as we dive headfirst into the wild world of boss babes, where we spill the tea on all things ambition, success, and the occasional hilarious disaster. All right, listeners, it's great to be back today. We're joined by guest Elya Lane. 

Elya Lane (Guest): Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I'm Elya and I'm the founder of Quora. it's an app that I created to help individuals like myself who may be managing various health ailments.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wonderful. let's start with learning a little bit more about Cora and maybe explain why you even built it.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, definitely. So, I was born with a rare genetic condition and have an autoimmune condition as well and when you have health conditions, or anything that you're battling, it very [00:01:00] quickly can spiral out of control. You develop comorbidities, and health took quite a turn to the point where I developed chronic infections.

Elya Lane (Guest): And for me, this, this was the condition that was beyond my control. It wasn't just about managing pain. This is one that became quite life threatening. It got to the point where I had been on full strength daily antibiotics for so long, my doctor had to let me know there was risk of long term complications from antibiotic use. I was developing antibiotic resistance and other antibiotics were not working. I was still getting infections. So, there was a very real risk that either from infection or complications from medication I wouldn't have. long left and was scary because whether that was a few months or a few years or

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): but having a Timeline on my life it's terrifying especially having two young kids And was really from this place of like [00:02:00] I I can't live if I'm gonna make it to my kids are in high school And this my doctors didn't have any other solutions.

Elya Lane (Guest): I remember one doctor finally told me we'll have you tried cutting out vegetables 

Angelica Maestas (Host): I was like, I'm so sick of the guesswork have to find a solution that will help me identify what my triggers are.

Elya Lane (Guest): Without going on these ridiculous elimination diets, or cutting out green vegetables, or all dairy, or all meat, or all, like, I was like, what's left? Water? different, contradicting advice. I was sick of it. And that's what led to Quora. So I set out on a journey to create a product using a machine learning algorithm that would take in any and every factor of my health, along with the severity, the frequency, and how long between the logs and the symptoms things occurred.

Elya Lane (Guest): And take all of that in and be able to help me identify what my triggers were. And it did, and it saved my life. And now I have this phenomenal product I'm no longer worried about [00:03:00] how much time I might have left. I'm able to live. I will always have a condition I have to manage,

Elya Lane (Guest): But I finally have the tool to enable me to manage it. And and it's made all the difference. So now we're launching it and taking it. To others who also need help

Angelica Maestas (Host): Well, that's an incredible story, and the future of healthcare is a lot about patient accountability. And yes, we need to be better managers of our own health, but we do need the right tools. And there aren't a lot of the right tools out there yet. And so I'm excited to see where we're going. Where Cora goes in that respect I want to talk a little bit about how you even went from idea to development.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Can you share a little bit about what your background is? Are you a technical founder?

Elya Lane (Guest): I Am NOT a technical founder. So I genuinely didn't have a clue what I was doing on that front It really was When when [00:04:00] something is a necessity not like a hope or a dream or wish or like, oh, wouldn't it be cool? but like life depends on it. You, you find a way. My background is in business. I have started a few other businesses.

Elya Lane (Guest): Sold my first business at the beginning of 2020, actually right before the pandemic hit. and so I was confident in my ability to run a business, though that's not really what my first thought was when I started Quora. First and only focus was do I create something that will save my life, right?

Elya Lane (Guest): That was the only thing on my mind the first couple years, right? Not how to build this business or how can I make it profitable or how is just this is desperately needed for myself and others. How do I make it happen? And so I interviewed a lot of development teams. I hired a development team starting out.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I made a lot of mistakes on the way. I hired the wrong team twice and it has been quite a learning curve. And I'm thrilled to say I now have the most incredible development team. I now have a solid [00:05:00] team. You know, the cliche, you know, it's like family, but genuinely we're close friends. We all get along. we all build each other up. We all have strengths in different areas. I'm, I'm so grateful to be in this place because we weren't in this place in the beginning. I had a lot of learning to do to on this journey of pursuing a technical company, Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. I think the most valuable lessons are from, at least for me, have been from the bad things, the wrong decisions that were made, but then it has a multiplier effect once you incorporate lessons learned into all of your planning going forward. And then you share that story so other founders can learn from it and then you help others avoid some of those, those costly mistakes.

Angelica Maestas (Host): So to that end, I would love to hear a little bit more about the wrong teams that you hired. What were you, what were you looking for and what did you hire that ended [00:06:00] up not working out?

Elya Lane (Guest): yeah you know, I think, I think there's a couple things that need to be addressed, right? It's not something I focus too much time on, but there is something to be said for being a woman in tech, especially if you are non technical. Because if you end up with a team. that does not have a lot of respect for women and you don't know enough technically know when they're being honest with you or not.

Elya Lane (Guest): It's very difficult to manage that team, right? Like, if you're in a company that you are an expert in the field know when someone is being dishonest or not performing in a way they said they would, it is easy to get on top of that, fire them, move forward. It's much more difficult if you don't know the lingo being thrown at you, if you don't know if what they're saying is accurate.

Elya Lane (Guest): You're like, you know, like, you have the BS raider going off, or you're

Angelica Maestas (Host): feel like that's true, but I also don't know enough to, like, dig into the code

Angelica Maestas (Host): [00:07:00] Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): my gut

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): right. So that was really toughfinding people that you can trust. Who do know the language who are in that area.

Elya Lane (Guest): I think is really important. So with the first team there was a lot of promises and I met them in person and I really wanted a local team to me and I signed a contract I learned from that contract they were supposed to launch the app and have everything created in the algorithm. And I explained to them, I, have some math background, I'm like, this is what we need, this algorithm needs to do, this is what I know it can be capable of.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): then like halfway through the project, they're like, oh, we can't build this algorithm. That's way too complicated. I was like, okay. So I hired a chief data scientist who's still with me. He's phenomenal. He has the best decision ever. He's. The heart and soul of Quora, I adore him. And he designed the algorithm and just handed it to them.

Elya Lane (Guest): He's like, all you have to do is connect here and here. Like, I'm handling all the machine learning. Like, all the difficult stuff. You just have to connect it. And they were like, Yeah, we're not going to be able to do that. It's [00:08:00] too difficult. And I was like, The app is called Quora for correlations. Like, that's the whole point.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): of this app. Like what?

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Mm.

Elya Lane (Guest): luckily learned my other businesses to fire fast. And so I did. We let them go and said, we need to find a new team. We found a second team and they were, they were fantastic. Genuinely. Again, I did a lot of interviewing. I found one I really liked. they had this whole spiel about we only take on one project at a time, we put all of our folks on it, it was like these two guys, and they were great. And when they started the project, and we had to wait, there was like a three month delay because they were finishing a project they were on, so we had to pause everything, stop everything, like it slowed it all down, and then they wanted to start over from scratch in a completely different language, so then they were going to code the app on Flutter, and they started the project, and he was great.

Elya Lane (Guest): head coder was phenomenal, and he did excellent work. And then halfway through our project, he handed our project off to a different guy, [00:09:00] so he could take on a new project because they were really excited about how in demand they were. And new guy not handle our app.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm.

Elya Lane (Guest): And so then, then we had, unfortunately, some legal issues where we kept going back to the contract.

Elya Lane (Guest): At this time, I brought in a technical advisor who did understand the language because I learned that the first time. we had our attorney with us and everyone like, hey, this is what the contract says, this is what you've promised us, and you are not, and they just up and quit in the middle of the project.

Elya Lane (Guest): They decided they didn't want to do it anymore. And they said, you want us to finish it? Sue us. And I was like, I can waste my money suing them, or I can try to find a new team. And we had to go back and forth on that for a while, and that was very frustrating. Again and again, some of it I really do think was because a female founder who did not know the technical language at the time,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Oh my god. Wow. Mm hmm. Mm

Elya Lane (Guest): say things like hey, when can I get this? Tomorrow, 2pm. The next day, [00:10:00] 4pm, I'd be like, hey guys, I didn't get this, can you please send that over to me? And they're like, well, you're just so emotional. And I'm like, no, this is not emotional. This is, you said this would be done at 2pm, and I said, where is it?

Elya Lane (Guest): That's, know, like crazy stuff. I would just, they would make answers like this. It's my favorite. Memory of this difficult time of growth is one of the logs we have on Quora is a menstrual cycle log, and they had to demo it in one of their meetings, and it has symptoms because If you have a menstrual cycle, then, then you tend to have symptoms associated with that, whether it's cramping, headache, whatever it is. And we want to be able to track that so that we can identify what symptoms may be associated specifically with a menstrual cycle versus you know, your condition or something else.

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm.

Elya Lane (Guest): Anyway, they had to demonstrate this and they had to add a symptom. And the symptom that they had added to demonstrate how the bar worked

Angelica Maestas (Host): I don't know. Oh my god.

Elya Lane (Guest): a [00:11:00] month I've got those feelings. On a scale of 1 to 10, how are your feelings today? I was like, what?

Angelica Maestas (Host): What?

Elya Lane (Guest): symptom! man, it was an exciting time. So,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Elya Lane (Guest): You know, it was a learning curve. And and I learned.

Angelica Maestas (Host): 

Elya Lane (Guest): see if they can execute, see if they are honest. Instead of hiring a team for a full project starting small, trust, building relationship before you hire someone for the whole project. If I could go back in time, I'm sure I could do this all much smoother. But at the same time, When CORE was being built, I was also very, very sick,

Angelica Maestas (Host): I was trying to get this built while learning a language, while running this company and working with the development team, all while being in and out of the urgent care on, on multiple medications and on, in and out of bed rest. And like, I was so sick and that also slowed my progress down [00:12:00] significantly, right? Investors see that the company's four years old. They're like, wow, it's been around for a while. I'm like, it's really only been anything for a year, right? Like it's pretty new as far as actual focus on growth, Yeah. I mean, the traction that you've now got since you started being able to full time focus on it, that's,

Elya Lane (Guest): 

Angelica Maestas (Host): that's the story that needs to, to be paid more attention to. And it's funny. I was just having a conversation with a founder that's going to be a guest.

Angelica Maestas (Host): she had a. Very well known tech company was a co founder sold it because she did not have the confidence to be running a tech company.

Elya Lane (Guest): bummer.

Angelica Maestas (Host): of people who made her, who like, who fed that. And it was a spouse in particular. And they were like, yeah, you're not going to be able to take this anywhere.

Angelica Maestas (Host): It's gone as far as it can go. And so against her own desire, she did sell it was for about 8 million.still [00:13:00] impressive, still an accomplishment

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah,

Angelica Maestas (Host): later, it sold for 70 million.

Elya Lane (Guest): Ugh.

Angelica Maestas (Host): she kicks herself. It's just one of those things. It's like, ah, it's, it's hard being a woman in tech.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah,

Angelica Maestas (Host): you don't have to have the technical background, but if you're good at building teams and, And filling in the gaps or, or hiring people that are complimentary, you can go really far. 

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): treat you differently because you're a woman or whatnot, the first team, I think, genuinely was discriminatory. right after I hired them, they ended up outsourcing all of our work, which was not what they had told me they were going to do, and the team they outsourced it to Did not want to talk to him.

Elya Lane (Guest): That's when I had to bring on a technical founder who was actually my friend's husband because I had to have like a man speak on my behalf to get anything done which was really frustrating to have to even go down that path, but he's and I respect and [00:14:00] appreciate him. So I was grateful for his willingness to assist but the fact that that's even necessary was absolutely frustrating and the second team.

Elya Lane (Guest): I think it was mostly unconscious Like I don't think they were even aware right like it wasn't blatant. I don't think they had any awareness of their actions or the things they were saying, And it wasn't really the time or place to necessarily, like, I just, like, I just need a product build.

Elya Lane (Guest): And again, he was a phenomenal developer. It's not like it was a lack of skill. It was just a lack of respect, Like, there's a contract, and we all agreed to it, and we all signed it, and, let's just both hold up our ends of the contract. And I found I have a lot more people that try to weasel out of a contract with me or think they can just walk out of it than my husband has experienced in business, right?

Elya Lane (Guest): Or, or other men I've talked to where people are like, eh, like, what are you gonna do? know, like, you have to almost be more assertive and then that's not always taken well

Angelica Maestas (Host): It

Elya Lane (Guest): line to walk.

Angelica Maestas (Host): it's [00:15:00] the balancing act. It's not being too pushy because then you're viewed a certain way. It's not being a doormat because then you're viewed a certain way and people take advantage, but I think in listening to your story, probably the most valuable thing you did was you fired fast, 

Angelica Maestas (Host): And I think a lot of founders. Can struggle with that because they think, oh, well, they've already gone this far. And maybe if I'm more involved in this way, or maybe if I do this, if you're having to change everything around this individual or around this team, just save yourself a lot of time and a lot of money and, and cut them out.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And. For you, you had to decide, do I want to sue? 

Elya Lane (Guest): startups have better things to be doing than engaged in litigation. So cut your losses and yeah. no, and it was Mhm. It was, I mean, it was an incredibly frustrating experience, and it cost us money, It could have cost us a lot more though if we [00:16:00] hadn't, just cut our losses and fired, and that's something I, I learned. I have an econ professor who is my absolute favorite. And econ was my original path. And and just the concept of sunk costs. Right? It's like you're not getting that money back. But you could lose more if you keep going. It's like, instead of getting hung up on Well, I've put so much into it. Like, I've done it. Well, it's like, that's gone.

Angelica Maestas (Host): You're not getting that back. So, the question is, are you going to lose going down this path? Or do you just say, well, that sucks. forward, like, pivot, know, cause the only way a company survives is if you're willing to, never seen a project that goes through perfectly the first time, like I've, I've never, it's a home improvement project or a business, I've never seen anything just without any, a few bumps, Yeah, exactly. And you had some experience running a business. You had a successful business. You've had a couple

Elya Lane (Guest): Mm

Angelica Maestas (Host): prior, right?

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah. That, the first business I ever started, brick and mortar at least, I've [00:17:00] been doing business since I was, I think, ten. Everything I saw as a kid turned into a business. I, I could not, I remember my mom multiple times being like, Aliyah, This, this doesn't have to be a business.

Elya Lane (Guest): Like you could, this could just be a hobby. Like you could just enjoy. I was like, no, you know, as a, I think I think I was like 12. I was in a craft class for a bunch of little girls and we were taught how to make these little twine dolls. And I immediately was like, I can sell these at church.

Elya Lane (Guest): Like I I'm taking these church, I'm going to sell them. And I did, and I sold quite a few. And my mom's like, you could have just enjoyed making. I was like, no. This is a

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): you know. And that's just how my mindset's always been. Like, everything gets turned into a business. And I have a passion for that. But the first brick and mortar business I started was a tutoring and art center. I've always had a passion for teaching and giving back to the community. And I was tutoring out of my house. And it became too much [00:18:00] for my home. I opened my first storefront. And I remember Going to the landlord. This was before I had my business degree or anything. I did everything backward. And, I went to the landlord and he said, okay, well, we need to see, you know, your cash flow sheet. And he asked for a few other things. Business plan and whatnot. I looked at him and said, can you get that to me? And he was like, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Elya Lane (Guest): I'm a little, He was like, I'm busy the rest of today. Would it be alright if I get it to you tomorrow? And he was like, sure, no problem. And I went home, and I went on YouTube, and I looked up what is a cash flow sheet,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah,

Elya Lane (Guest): make one, and I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and followed the tutorial and I made my first cash flow sheet, and then I looked it all up for a business plan and I like stayed up all night writing it.

Elya Lane (Guest): you And the next morning I submitted my business plan and cash flow sheet, and he approved me, and I got my first suite. Ha

Angelica Maestas (Host): well, I mean.

Elya Lane (Guest): idea what I was doing. I just literally, in 12 hours, figured out how to write a cash flow sheet and submit it, and now I write them all the time. [00:19:00] so, it's just been a wild ride.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, how lucky are we that we live in a time where that is doable and I don't like, I admire all business owners. It's such a vulnerable thing that you do to become an entrepreneur, but doing it prior to now, when we have all these resources at our disposal, I can't imagine and anything that I need to learn.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I can do it quickly because the information is now accessible. So. Good, good points and good call out to, to use the resources that we have.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, definitely. I'll throw another one out there. There's all these AI takers now. And I have my note taker listen in on most things. But if there's like material I need, like a podcast or something, a YouTube video, something that explains something I need to know, but I also have to be in a meeting, I'll actually have my note taker listen to it, like in a separate room while I'm in a meeting. And then, cause it summarizes all of it. And it

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah,

Elya Lane (Guest): the bullet points of everything. And then I don't have [00:20:00] to watch a 40 minute video and I can just So if I just scan it in 30 seconds, I'm like, alright, good. And tell you the important parts. I can click on it and listen to just that part of the script. Anyway, it's been really helpful. It's greatly enhancing my efficiency so,

Angelica Maestas (Host): man, you're giving me so many, so many hacks today. So I'm going to use that. See, I thought I was already like upping the ante because I speed up the playback on podcasts or books,

Elya Lane (Guest): Mhm.

Angelica Maestas (Host): on podcasts. And you know, there are some, some folks that are slower talkers. And so some it's okay to do like 1. 8 X that's probably the max I can do,

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I'm consuming so much content daily.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And part of it is. It's helping me level up its education, what, whatever it is, but I need it to go a little bit faster so I can take advantage of it. So I've been doing that, but I'm totally going to do the using my note taker for, for webinars and podcasts. Oh,

Elya Lane (Guest): with speeding things up is on Audible and podcasts and [00:21:00] everything, anytime to get my brain adjusted to it, I will put it at the highest speed that will allow it, and I will let it, run for 60 seconds, 30 seconds, something like that. And then I will slowly, like, start clicking back, down, it's like slowing it, until it sounds normal to me. So instead of going from normal to fast, where, like, my brain has to adjust, if I start it at the very fastest, and I just slowly scale it back, I can tolerate a much faster speed, and it sounds like a

Angelica Maestas (Host): interesting.

Elya Lane (Guest): speed, because it's so much slower than what I'd started at that.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, wow.

Elya Lane (Guest): found that pretty effective also.

Angelica Maestas (Host): What's the fastest speed that you can still process?

Elya Lane (Guest): usually, I usually don't go above like 2, 2. 1. It depends on the platform, you know, and the material. If it's like if I'm learning something that's brand new to me, then I probably am going to be at 1. 7. If it's content that I'm familiar with and I just kind of need a reminder or I, I know the lingo kind of thing, [00:22:00] then I can listen to it a lot faster.

Elya Lane (Guest): So it depends on, it depends on the material and, and how long it takes my brain to absorb it, 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yep. Good tips. Last question on this topic, which AI note taker do you use?

Angelica Maestas (Host): I actually just switched. I was using Superseed, I think is what it was called, and it was pretty good. And then someone introduced me to Otter AI, and man, that one is next level. So I've been very impressed with that and would recommend it to everyone. It's, it's fantastic, They're they're all changing so quickly.

Elya Lane (Guest): So even if you try one that doesn't have some element of this other one, which is kind of the rabbit hole that my my business partner and I have gone down as we vetted about a dozen now, right now I love Fathom, but I don't love that it has to record. And when you're in intro calls and relationship building, I'm kind of.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Blurry of that because you're trying to kind of let your hair down and be a little bit more lax. So [00:23:00] anyways, 

Elya Lane (Guest): I would love to hear a little bit more about tech stars. What was it like to get accepted? What was the application process? Tell me about it.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, no, it was It was fantastic. I was determined to get into an accelerator because again, the businesses I've started, I'm confident in my ability as a business owner and the ability to run a team, the tech business is new and the idea of fundraising has been new to me. That's not somewhere I have any connections, right? I knew I needed an accelerator to really kind of launch me into this world. It's a brand new world and there's a lot to learn. I'm a fast learner, but I need, someone to at least point me in the right direction. And so I started applying to a lot of different accelerators and I got a lot of different interviews, but I really kind of had my heart set on Techstars because, they, They really seem to have a focus on how to build quality founders, not just quality businesses, They really have a people [00:24:00] focus that a lot of the other ones don't, where I felt more like a number to a lot of the other Accelerators, where as long as the business is successful, we could throw you out tomorrow. And 

Angelica Maestas (Host): yeah,

Elya Lane (Guest): as the business grows but maybe not like in the pre seed round.

Elya Lane (Guest): You know, like not day one, And so I love, I love Techstars give first focus, and I love their founder focus. They really focus on the people they're bringing in. And I applied, I applied a lot. I don't quite remember the number, but I think you can apply like three times every six months. I had to apply like 9, 12 times, something like that to a bunch of different ones that I felt like were a good fit for me, and then I started getting the last season as things Now that I, once I had a story, like wow, it worked, it saved my life, it's having an impact, this is what our beta testers are saying. once we had some of these traction points coming in, I started to get quite a few interviews with a few different [00:25:00] Techstar accelerators and a few other accelerators. And I chose the Atlanta impact program mostly because of Anastasia, who was an investment principal there. She's now a managing director herself,

Angelica Maestas (Host): yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): for her and, and she and I just really connected and going to that program, meeting the whole team. It was, it was a phenomenal experience.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Awesome. And yeah, I can't say enough good things about Anastasia. She's been a great. Super connector for me as well

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah,

Angelica Maestas (Host): is just,

Elya Lane (Guest): amazing.

Angelica Maestas (Host): she, she recognizes the, the star qualities and the founders. so you are, are currently in tech stars or you already completed it?

Elya Lane (Guest): I just graduated, so

Angelica Maestas (Host): did.

Elya Lane (Guest): from Techstars end of April, and made it back home May 1st. So the program I was accepted to was in Atlanta, and I live in California. So I loaded up my three giant dogs, my kids, everybody, and my mom actually moved with us. And we moved to Atlanta for three months for the program.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Elya Lane (Guest): it [00:26:00] was quite the adventure.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh my goodness. Wow.

Elya Lane (Guest): in California by himself. but he, I mean, I went to him. I was like, hey, I got into this program and I really think it'd be a good fit for Cora. And I really want to say yes, but I'm nervous and we'll be moving. And that's such an expense.

Elya Lane (Guest): And I mean, again, mid school, you know, like this is a whole thing. And my husband, he's just been, One of my biggest supporters. He's like, you have to, you have to say yes. You have to go for this. Like, he's like, love Anastasia. You've been telling me about this program. He's like, you, you can't say no to this opportunity.

Angelica Maestas (Host): You have to go. And I was like, okay. And then he drove us out and he came and flew out and he drove us home. I love that. You need, whether it's spouse, siblings, friends, whatever, you just need people who believe in you and sometimes will push you and say, it's okay that you, that you go and you take this leap. I'm curious, how old are your kids and how, how have they reacted to this, this side [00:27:00] of life?

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah. Oh man. My daughter turns 10 this year. She's nine right now and my son just turned eight this month. And you know, it's been, it's been fun. Cause I mean, there's some frustration for them when I have really heavy days. It's difficult to be an entrepreneur and a parent. Because startup life takes up a lot more than you're just nine to five job.

Elya Lane (Guest): you dream about your business, it's just always on your mind. And It's been really fun as they've grown to see their excitement in it and to, for them to be able to really grasp what was going on in Atlanta because when this, when this company started, I, we weren't going to tell the kids that we weren't sure how long mom had left, you know, like that's not a conversation you're going to have with, you

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): year old. And so we kind of, we hit a lot of it from them. We, we did our best to try to shelter them from how sick I was. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Hmm.

Elya Lane (Guest): So that they weren't living in fear of like what

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): like, you know, like it's hard enough as an adult to do that.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Elya Lane (Guest): [00:28:00] so I had to sit them down for our tech stars pitch. And at this point she was so excited.

Elya Lane (Guest): They were all excited and like, Hey, I, I'm sharing my story about Cora and you guys know what I've been working on it. But in the pitch, I talk about how sick I was and how was worried was gonna die. my daughter says, What?! You didn't tell me?!

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Elya Lane (Guest): And I was like, Well, you were very little when I started this.

Elya Lane (Guest): She was like, I could have handled it! She

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh my

Elya Lane (Guest): so

Angelica Maestas (Host): gosh.

Elya Lane (Guest): And then, getting to see it on stage, she came and she gave me a hug afterward, and she says, Mommy, to be just like you. I was

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): is just like thrilled to be a part of anything He's just like always happy.

Elya Lane (Guest): My daughter has already got the entrepreneur bug. She's trying to start her own. Book company. She writes her own books. She

Angelica Maestas (Host): Really?

Elya Lane (Guest): her, yeah, get them published and they're actually pretty good for [00:29:00] her age. I'm actually quite impressed with them.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Really?

Elya Lane (Guest): wants me to help her publish her books and start her own book business right now.

Elya Lane (Guest): I'm like, wow.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh,

Elya Lane (Guest): she's already starting, starting young.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love that. You have to let me know as that moves further along. I'd love to help amplify that and also

Elya Lane (Guest): purchase a book.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'll have to send them over to you. Her children's books are pretty good. I'm actually impressed. I'd read it.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I've been on a writing journey as well for many, many years and I have one children's book that I started even took like a six week class on writing children's books and just couldn't get past it. So kudos to her that she's actually at the point where she's ready to crank them out.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's really just me holding her back. She asks almost every day. She's like, Mom, can we help me find a publisher? Can we publish it by ourself? Like, and she's done all the artwork. She's talked to my sister in law, who is a published children's author and artist for children's books and stuff. And she's, she's doing her due diligence. Cause I told [00:30:00] her, I was like, look, if you really want to start a company, like it's not you, I'm not doing this for you. You have

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): do the hard work. I

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm

Elya Lane (Guest): want to publish books, then we're going to edit them and we're going to, like, I will tell you areas to improve and then you have to improve them because it's not going to be my writing.

Elya Lane (Guest): It's going to be yours.

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm. Mm hmm.

Elya Lane (Guest): to let you just take the easy path. If you really want to start a business, you're going to experience the work it takes to start a business. And

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): she hasn't shied away from it. She's all in. So it's just, it's really cool to see kind of my same spirit reflected in her, you know?

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love that book. That's awesome.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah.

Angelica Maestas (Host): All right. I'm going to transition us to some rapid fire questions.

Elya Lane (Guest): Okay. Favorite emoji to use in work chats.

Elya Lane (Guest): Oh, goodness. Probably just the I the check mark all the time.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I did.

Elya Lane (Guest): like, you know, basically the thumbs up, just the like, yep, check, saw that, you know.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Elya Lane (Guest): that's probably what I use the most.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Okay. [00:31:00] Go to power outfit for important meetings.

Elya Lane (Guest): I like my black blazer. Anything that goes with my black blazer is good.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Of advice you've received from another female founder. 

Elya Lane (Guest): stop apologizing. stop, stop quieting your voice. I, I do that quite often where I try to tone down so I don't sound so abrasive. And, and to just be bold, and Anastasia actually said this one, she said if they're turned off by your confidence, then they're not for you. And I love that.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love that. Most used app on your phone besides Quora.

Elya Lane (Guest): Oh, besides, I was gonna say, Quora, I use Quora all the time and you should too, everyone should use Quora. Oh man, most used app on my phone, I mean Slack, cause I use it for work all the time. Otherwise I like to use Duolingo

Angelica Maestas (Host): What language are you learning?

Elya Lane (Guest): Italian and Spanish.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Nice.

Elya Lane (Guest): If Cora had a theme song, what would it be?

Elya Lane (Guest): Probably Middle Finger would be at least [00:32:00] my theme song which is probably not one I should say publicly. I love that song. It's a little I don't know. It's not necessarily my style of music. I just really like the lyrics a lot, so I'll go with that one.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Okay. And last but not least, what can our listeners do to support you?

Elya Lane (Guest): Download the app. Give it a try. There's a freemium version with the three most common logs, so you don't have to pay anything to give it a try. And then to get access to the full app that offers 12 unique logs and has connections to Apple Health and everything It's only 7. 49 a month. If you do the annual subscription, you can get 33 percent off using the code Elya, my name E L Y A 33. So download, and that's a huge way to support. We also have a free community online for individuals with chronic illness called the Spoonie Community. So if you join that on Facebook, totally free. We offer discounts to various products that our members request. We'll like reach out to that company and see if they're willing to give us a code.

Elya Lane (Guest): So it's a great [00:33:00] space to kind of build community. And then we're actively raising. So if anyone has any connections and wants to, Connect us with, especially angels in this current stage. We're doing a lot of smaller checks, you know, 25, 50k checks. So, if anyone has any pre seed VCs or angels they want to send our way, that'd be great.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And should folks find you on LinkedIn or how should they get in touch with you?

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah especially for like, for the raising and everything, LinkedIn's great. Otherwise, I give my email out publicly to, Everyone for, who wants to reach out to me about Quora, and that's just my name, E L Y A at Quora. Health. So, anyone can email me, and I'm happy to chat with anyone interested in using Quora, or who needs help getting set up, or wants to get plugged into the company, or the community, you know. I try to be as accessible as possible.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Awesome. That's great. Thank you for being on Elya.

Elya Lane (Guest): Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): [00:34:00] And that's a wrap on another episode of She's Ambitious AF. Remember to dream big, hustle harder, and show the world that when it comes to success, we're not just ambitious, we're Ambitious AF.