Women Building With AI: Female Founders and Tech Startups (Live from Venture Week Miami)

I sit down with Gazal Vakili (FutureSelf), Marian Bacol (Somarae), and Rebecca Krauthamer (QuSecure) during a packed live recording at Mindspace Wynwood during Miami Venture Week.

For the one-year anniversary of How I AI, we recorded Women Building With AI live to spotlight 3 Florida female founders building in AI. From AI-powered wellness and identity simulation technology to next-generation cybersecurity protecting against AI and quantum threats, this conversation dives into what it really takes to build responsibly in the AI era. 

Topics Covered

• Building and testing AI-powered products in the early stages
• How founders narrow down an MVP without feature overload
• Grassroots distribution and community building
• Bootstrapping vs venture capital fundraising
• What founders should understand about AI security and quantum risk
• Lessons learned from scaling teams and hiring early employees

Featured Guests

Gazal Vakili — Founder of FutureSelf
 A neuroscience-backed identity simulation platform helping users interact with their future self through AI-powered experiences.

Marian Bacol — Founder of Somarae
 An AI-powered somatic wellness platform supporting nervous system regulation and emotional resilience through technology and community.

Rebecca Krauthamer — Co-Founder & CEO of QuSecure
 A cybersecurity company building quantum-resistant encryption to protect enterprises and governments from emerging AI and quantum threats.

Tools & Platforms Mentioned

AI & Creative Tools
ElevenLabs – AI voice generation and cloning technology
Lovable – AI-powered wellness and community support platform
Gemini – generative AI assistant
Veo – AI video and cinematic content tool

Startup & Networking
Connectd – platform connecting startups with advisors, fractional experts, and board roles 
Two Bear Capital – early-stage VC firm investing in breakthrough tech

Quantum & Next-Gen Tech (context)
IonQ – quantum computing company developing trapped-ion systems 
Rigetti Computing – quantum computing hardware and cloud software provider 
D-Wave Quantum – commercial quantum computing company (annealing systems) 
Quantinuum – integrated quantum hardware/software company advancing quantum computing and cryptography tools 
Quantum Australia – national initiative supporting quantum research and commercialization in Australia

Thank you to our partners: Lovable, Mindspace Wynwood, Venture Week Miami, Law and Pixels, By Art Productions

Watch the Live Video Replay on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCfjiUeH-Do

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Brooke Gramer hosts and moderates conversations at the intersection of AI, entrepreneurship, and emerging technology. She is available for live panel moderation, conference programming, and curated founder conversations.

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"How I AI" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Gazal 0:00

and it's really what came down to it is, yes, you know, we can't build the universe so let's build the door, that gets users in. And so defining that door, like what is that door? What is the simplest experience you can provide in order to still provide the value and the promise of the product. That's really how we start to think about it. Like, what is that, core product loop that still provides that magic that I'm after?

Brooke 0:27

Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing, events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock. Welcome back to How I AI. This episode is a special one. It's the live recording of our one year anniversary event,"Women Building with AI." It was recorded with a live audience during Miami Venture Week, this past February. Over this last year, this podcast has reached a growing audience of engaged professionals, founders and creatives, discovering practical AI through real human stories. For its anniversary, I wanted to take those conversations into a room with real founders and open it up to a Q&A. You'll hear from three founders building in very different spaces, from AI powered wellness, to identity simulation technology, and next generation cybersecurity. Their perspectives spanned early MVP building, grassroots distribution, fundraising, and ethical AI development. This live event was in partnership with Lovable and MindSpace, and it brought together an incredible group of builders and leaders within the Miami Tech community. I'm already working on our next live event for New York Tech Week, the first week of June 2026. Be sure to follow my Instagram for more details as they come out. If you're listening and thinking about producing a conference, a Tech Week event, founder Summit, or a corporate innovation series, conversations like this are something I love curating and moderating. Live panels and founder conversations are an area I really thrive in so if you're interested in collaborating or bringing something like this to your audience, feel free to reach out to me directly. Alright, let's dive in. Gazal Vakili She's the founder of FutureSelf, a neuroscience backed identity simulation platform, powered by 11 Labs. Does anybody use 11 labs? Yes. She brings a background in clinical research and digital therapeutics, along with a master's in health sciences. Thank you, Gazal. My next speaker is Marian Bacol. She's the founder and CEO of Somarae, an AI powered somatic wellness platform and community for personalized, realtime stress relief and nervous system support. Her platform is powered by lovable. Does anybody use lovable already in the room? Yes. Awesome. Great to hear it. And then last but not least, we have​Rebecca Krauthamer, she's co-founder and CEO of QuSecure. QuSecure is a quantum resistant cybersecurity company, protecting enterprises and governments against AI and quantum driven threats in real time without the costly infrastructure. So welcome, Rebecca. Thank you so much for being here. So my opening question I want to give for this space and each of you ladies, and we can go down the line here and start with Gazal, please, each of you give us your founder snapshot. Who are you and what are you creating and why does it matter right now?

Gazal 4:24

Hi everyone. Thank you so much, Brooke. Thank you for having me and putting together this incredible event. So I'm​Gazal Vakili. I am the founder of FutureSelf, which is an early stage startup. So my background is actually in clinical research. I spent the past 17, 18 years in the world of clinical trials in pharma, biotech developing, uh, medical interventions in various different indications. And, um, the last five years of my career was really focused in digital health. I was heading up the digital health unit for a pharma company where really our mission was to go beyond the pill, which was a mission that I was very passionate about. And we got to build really creative interventions. So virtual reality was a medium that we focused in and we built virtual reality programs for various different mental health disorders and social anxiety was actually one of them. And so I did leave the, um, corporate world late 2024 and sort of embarked on my own journey 2025. It was sort of a year of figuring out who I wanted to be and the identity that I wanted to step into, and that led me to what I created FutureSelf, which is really something that's mission aligned. It is really, it's an identity simulation app, neuroscience backed where you get to interact with the future version of you that's already living and accomplish your greatest vision through various different experiences. So this is through future self coaching, um, that are highly personalized meditations that are customized, multisensory visualizations where you get to, um, your brain actually encodes it as future memories because our brain doesn't know the difference between what is happening in reality and what you are vividly envisioning, using all senses, as well as cinematic videos where you'll get to see yourself actually living your vision. So through this mechanism, we are, our goal is to change and shift the identity of the person. So you start, you start showing up as that future version of you every day. And so why this is important today is that, um, you know, with this whole revolution with ai, there's a lot of people that will be losing their careers, their sense of self, their identity, and really what we're focusing on initially is career, financial, abundance and purpose. And so with the aim of helping people through that transition. Beautiful. Thank you.

Marian 6:46

Hi everyone. I'm Marian Bacol. I am the founder of Somarae. And this journey actually, even though I founded the company last year. This journey started 12 years ago. 12 years ago, I overdosed and had a near death experience. That was the catalyst to my healing journey. Uh, before that I checked off all the boxes. High achiever, eldest daughter of immigrants, any eldest daughters out here know what I'm talking about. Yes. Um, and so checked off all the boxes, uh, did all the things that I needed to do, but didn't address a lot of things internally until it all kind of unraveled when I had my near death experience. And so from there, bought a one-way ticket, moved from LA to Miami, away from everything. And really, this was 12 years ago. Dove into healing just really for myself. And I started with meditation, got certified in meditation and breath work. And what I realized that even though I was teaching it and doing all these things, I was meditating for hours. But in real life I was triggered. You know, I thought I was better than everyone doing all the things. And then a few years later I started really discovering for myself, somatics, which is body-based, coming back to your body. So instead of ascending, I was descending and actually feeling all the things that we're told not to feel and to not you know, think about right, because we're told to disassociate and leave all that behind. And simultaneously, I actually organically grew my coaching and consulting and speaking. I became a TEDx speaker, hosted retreats and events, uh, for eight years doing somatic work and all of that. And through the process, my clients were telling me how even though we had this session, they would wait. Right? Who waits? I will do that practice, you know, later on I will do that. That tool that you taught me later on. Um, and they needed support even though they needed more support than my coaching or therapy and retreats. And so I started looking for an app that would actually support them and I could not find something that really resonated with women, the top meditation apps, top wellness apps were founded by men and we integrate women's health. So you can actually track your cycle with very personalized nervous system support. Um, and we're really big on community. So I love what, um, you said being really purpose driven. Somarae is a purpose-driven people first company. We're applying to be a C corp, a B Corp company so that we can have a give back solution and really incorporate, uh, wellness events that have in-person co-regulation. And I think it's so important for what we're doing now because it's really the merger of ancient wisdom, right? Um, and everything is science backed by papers, by studies, and it gives people the tools to self-regulate and also connect ancient wisdom and technology together because I think we can build, especially for women, we can build things that will improve humanity. So amen.

Rebecca 10:02

Hi everyone, and big fan of what you both are building. Um. Um, in a, in a different space. And, uh, we're here talking about AI today. So I'll give a little bit about my AI background. Um, you know, some people can say that they were hacking away at AI when they were like in middle school or high school, but I get to brag that my AI career started when I was seven, when I was an extra in a movie. Has anyone seen, uh, the movie Bicentennial Man? for, it is becoming a deeper and deeper cut. It's a movie from the nineties with Robin Williams and it's, he's like a robot that's on a journey to become a person. So that was, that was my, like the beginning of my AI career was, you can see my elbow in like the back of my head in that movie. So my acting career didn't work out, but I did I ended up getting to go to Stanford at a time when like deep learning was really starting to have, um. Real applications, and that was the previous buzzword, right? Deep learning. And so I got to study AI, uh, and I worked in AI for a while, and it was really these big questions of what, what is a thinking thing and how do we build it? That really, really attracted me to this space. But again, I, another joke, I, around 20 15, 16, uh, I kind of got bored with AI. And I kind of felt like there was, there was nothing more to do for me there. You get to this place when you're building ai, where you push up against the walls of what's possible. Um, you read about like sci-fi eventualities and it's really hard to get there on regular computers. And I wanted to just look over the edge and see what was over there. And that was quantum computing. And so I got into the field of quantum computing and to make the long story short. Where I am today, uh, we've been my company QuSecure. We founded it. We've been at this for five years. Um, and we are in the cybersecurity space, so the defense against the dark arts of quantum computing. Now this, like, this sounds really sci-fi, this sounds really abstract, but why is what we do important? Think about how many digital transactions you have each day. Text messages, signal, WhatsApp, any of that you're sharing with your, your best friend, whatever it is. Uh, you're checking your electronic health records online. You're doing therapy maybe online, right? Um, you're sharing very, very sensitive information. Maybe you're even trading crypto, any of these things. We, we often take it for granted, but they're protected with encryption and cybersecurity. And there is this big fret that's coming down the pipe, AI and quantum computing. And what we do is we defend against that. We make sure that your data, that you want to keep private, that remains private. And, um, and yeah, I love what I do and, and it's a, it's a very, very important part of the AI conversation is this cybersecurity layer.

Brooke 12:59

it was really hard to choose to be on this show today. And, thank you if anybody in the room applied. I, I had a, an application process going for one of the speakers and, I ultimately landed on these three different women because they're in such unique spaces and different phases of building your business. So maybe you're just launching and still ideating your MVP and maybe you're now in marketing and distribution and growing it and or maybe in your series three of fundraising. So everything across the board today, and keep in mind, we're gonna do some Q&A at the end so if you have any questions, think about it now. Alright, Gazal, I'd love to kick it off with you. She's bootstrapping her company at the moment and she's pulled together an amazing team of volunteers. A lot of her team is working through equity based. She's has a team of interns and she just secured a developer. If you could speak on how did you attract the right people and what have you learned about building a team before you have big funding.

Gazal 14:04

So when I started out about 10 months ago, I first, um, reached out to a couple of people that I highly trusted that I had worked with on the virtual reality mental health, um, area. Um, one of them was a clinical psychologist. Um, she was a chief, uh, clinical officer and the chief, um, product officer. And that product, that company had also gotten acquired, so they were available and so they joined me. It's really people that are mission aligned, right? That's the most important thing that really are passionate about what I'm doing and what this can do for people. And so we started ideating and going through and really focusing the initial phase, I would say, really on ensuring that the product is grounded in clinical evidence. And that was really the first three, four months, right? Making sure that we're creating something that's truly going to be impactful, that's grounded in neuroscience and psychology. You know, she's a cognitive scientist and the other, um, the other girl, she's also been in this field for 20 years. And then slowly we started to, as I started to share what I'm doing with friends and my community. A lot of people, the first question truly that I would be asked is, you know, what do you need and how can I help? That was a very common question that I get all the time, and I still get that. And so then I would share my gaps and then they would introduce me to, you know, to X person, and then the other person would introduce me to the other person. So I would say most of my team was built that way through people that would hear about it and would just really wanna be a part of it. So through that I, you know, I have learned that one of the biggest drivers for humans, which has been truly really heartwarming is impact is to really be a part of something that's bigger than themselves. Something that they truly believe in that they can contribute to. So yes, most of the team is, you know, mission alignment. It's equity alignment, and I do have others that just wanna be a part of it for no reason other than to want to contribute and to be part of the movement that they see.

Brooke 16:09

Thank you. That's what I love, working and interviewing with women. I feel like we, not to say men don't, but we tend to lead with what our community and our children and, and our loved ones need and, and, um, are solving problems that way first and foremost. Again, not saying one way or the other, but thank you for sharing. Marian, you've, I, I to call Marian the grant queen. Her and I were just having an offhand conversation about some legal questions I had based on her experience, and she's like, oh, you know, there's a grant for that. Because if you think about starting a business, how expensive it is to get all your legal fees covered among everything else, especially if you're a solopreneur or bootstrapping in the beginning. So you've been really strong at securing grants and outside funding. What have you learned about finding money beyond traditional investors?

Marian 17:00

Yeah, so I think it's really resourcefulness, right? And so when I first started, I thought I was supposed to raise BC fines and because, you know, Somare is venture scalable, but I think. After doing more research and talking to people and actual founders who've gone BC and all of these things, I actually stopped fundraising and decided to bootstrap so I could really focus on my community the customers and launching. And we actually, uh, officially launched in January. Now we're already revenue producing and what that really showed me. Was that there are more resourceful ways sometimes when you aren't giving given everything. And I've talked the founders too, who. Got the money, they, you think that because you have the money then you can do the thing. But from what a lot of investors and a lot of other founders have shared, is that the money is an accelerator to something that already is working and that's actually what is going to support you. Because the statistics of people who get funding and not go into the next round is actually, and I don't, don't quote me, but extremely high. Um, and a lot of startups do not. They fail. And so I had to get really creative and there's a lot with the story, and I think when you really have a great founder story and impact behind what you are building, it is the part of the movement. People resonate with that. Uh, I've gotten grants to sharing my story. I've gotten grants, um, because of relationships that I've made that have told me about something, and I think it's also being really resourceful in the way of trying different things that people aren't used to. For example, part of, you know, I'm a Bootstrap founder and we're going to be raising with Angels First and family offices instead of going straight to VCs. Is that you have you find. Investors that are really aligned with your mission. And as they say, not all money is good money. You want to be with investors that really align with your vision and are able to help you. So, uh, searching for grants, really putting yourself out there. I think building in public has really helped me because people know what I'm doing. I've actually gotten people that I don't know, people from online. Brooke has actually sent me stuff like top of mind like, Hey, I saw this grant, apply to this, apply to that. Like do all these things. And I think just put yourself out there. Be resourceful. Put yourself out there, build the connections and you'll stay top of mind for people and they'll be sending you things. So, yeah.

Brooke 19:38

Thank you. Yes, and please take your time to introduce yourself to me because I love keeping my friends and my community top of mind. Once I know what you're, you're seeking I love to extend my network of resources, so be sure to connect with me after. Okay, Rebecca, great question for you, AI is moving really fast. What are we completely underestimating right now when it comes to security encryption and quantum risk? What risks do you think most founders are not thinking about when they're building AI products for the first time?

Rebecca 20:14

So much of our lives are online, and the reason like many women, right? Very mission driven. I, I really genuinely wanna make the world a better place. And I see that a lot with female founders. Not that it's exclusive to female founders, but and for me, we're going into this AI era where we don't know what's gonna happen. And the reason that I got into this space that I did into cybersecurity is because, again, I was intrigued by how do we make this a bright future for, for humans and. I think about our lives in a digital world as sort of like a Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And the, the very base of that pyramid is data protection. We gotta own our data. We have to be able to protect what deserves to be protected. And so to bring it back around to the question, AI is moving so quickly, we we have to get that cybersecurity right. And when you think cybersecurity or when you think encryption or you hear me talk, you're like, yeah, that's for the big enterprise companies, right? But it's not, it's critically important that, that small companies are thinking about this and how we handle data because AI is making threats more dynamic, not just quantum computing. And so, you know, in, in Miami, there's I run into a lot of cool companies, a lot of like blockchain and crypto companies too. And a lot of these high tech companies assume they're good, like cybersecurity can be an afterthought. But the hard truth is. Blockchain will not stand up against these threads, right? You have to be building with that in mind. Not as an afterthought, but at the forefront of protecting your user, your consumer's data, and that is so foundational to getting it right as we move forward into an AI and digitally driven world. That that's what I'd say.

Brooke 22:08

Thank you. Who here is into blockchain and Web3? Yeah. Good to hear. Alright, Gazal, let's turn it back to you. You are still building and testing out your MVP and in the beginning you shared that you wanted to have all the features, you had all the ideas to put in, which even I can relate to. Um, when it comes to conceptualizing apps or or products, what helped you narrow it down and focus on what really matters as you get really closer to your final MVP?

Gazal 22:42

I would say that that's been one of the biggest challenges for me. You know, it's you. You have this big vision and it's like you wanna build the universe and soon you realize that you simply cannot, you know, you can spend years building a product, but you really need to get it into the hands of users to really understand what it is that the users want. So we have been doing user testing throughout the process, which is very important but detaching from all the different, you know, features that I thought are really part of this, like operating system that I'm building for identity change was very difficult. And, and it's really what came down to it is, yes, you know, we can't build the universe so let's build the door, you know, that gets users in. And so defining that door, like what is that door? What is the simplest experience you can provide in order to have to still provide the value and the promise of the product. That's really how we start to think about it. Like, what is that, you know, core product loop that still provides that magic that I'm after? Which again, wasn't easy, but I, you know, we have sort of, we have that now and it still requires discipline to not allow, you know, the creep to happen. Because there's a billion ideas that pops in, and so we already have 50 features that we wanna add to it. But yeah,

Brooke 24:05

thank you for that such valuable feedback is now, it's quicker and easier and more cost efficient to build our MVPs now the next step, let's go back to Marian. Your growth has come from grassroots community building. What has worked best for you when it comes to distribution and marketing?

Marian 24:24

So I think now in the era of no code software vibe coding, uh, it's actually a lot easier to build product. And now what differentiates startups that become successful is distribution. And this is actually what's going to decide if, you know, people stay in your community or not. And community really is a bigger thing. So before we were Somarae my, our name was Nirvana ai. And despite the branding that had to, the rebrand, that had to happen, I'm actually really glad it happened because people thought we were just ai, but we were not, we're actually the platform. That's one for self-regulation. And the community part was really big, bringing people back into in-person events and really feeling and experiencing the somatic part. So it's the events, the in-person connections. Even though it is a slower build, you have more stable foundation. And because of this, uh, I've actually been a community builder for 20 years I've been doing events for over 20 years. I realized that how I actually get users to convert is to experience it first. So I'm actually having an event on Thursday, uh, at the Tesla Design District. And it's a somatic experience event because when people actually feel it,'cause our whole thing is get out of your head, most solutions still leave people in their head and then come into your body. When people actually feel it, they're like, oh, now I get it. And we are able to confirm that people do sign up because they have that support. So we're planning lots of events, actually going to all the tech weeks all over the US this year. I do a lot of local events retreats, and with that you have really your moat. Because technology can go, like, get replaced really quickly by top AI companies. Your moat is your community because people wanna stay with you. You know, they really feel they become your brand ambassadors. I have people who've signed up, clients, members, uh, who tell people who without me even asking, they're like, oh, sign up for Somarae Do this. Go to the event Like that actually in the long run will help you with distribution.

Brooke 26:43

All right, Rebecca, let's go back to you. You're building in the deep tech space and raising serious capital. What has raising money as a female founder specifically really been like for you, and what would you like to share about learning about that along the process?

Rebecca 27:03

There's so, like fundraising is so gate kept and so I'll share a few of the things that I have learned the hard way. One, um, it's hard, like it is, if it feels like it's hard and you're feeling like you're getting 50 nos to every Yes, that's, you're doing it right. No one. You'll see these highlight reels and, and people acting like it's easy. It is, no matter how good you are, it's never easy. And it is often harder for women. You're gonna get asked prevention questions versus promotion questions. Questions like, well, what about this risk? Versus a guy's more likely to get a question about, well, what about this opportunity? Right? And per usual, we just have to be, we have to come prepared and we have to be better. We have to do amazing. there's a methodology to it. It's not magic, right? It's just practice. And if you're going into it, just ask someone who's done it. A lot of people, again, will gate keep, oh, you've gotta have this thing. Nope. BS There is absolutely like steps in methodology to get it right and it takes a long time, but, but just talk to someone who has done it. Here's the most important thing, and this is the thing I think we don't talk about enough. The, a lot of the investors want you to think this and like fall in this trap of when you get on an investor call, you feel lucky to have their time. You feel like you've gotta prove something to them like you are selling'em. The reality is, and I really respect people who could strap and uh, and, and avoid venture because it is a privilege for someone else to own a percentage of your company that you are oftentimes giving your life to. So what it took me a while to figure out is there's money everywhere. There's a lot of money out there looking for a place to land. Not to say it's easy, but you are entitled when you're building something to find your people, your tribe. And when you get on that call, you are also more than entitled to be interviewing them. Why do they deserve to own a piece of that company that you are building? Just because they have money to put in. And that, that really changed things for me. Find those people that are good for you, that are your tribe, that are gonna help you grow and believe in the cause. And I, I've turned down. Two different checks. Like, check on the table, here's the money. I turned down a million dollar check and I turned down a$10 million check. Wow. Yeah. From right. And these were, it was because they were people that I did not want as part of this ride. Right. If you told me these, these two different people were showing up in the Epstein files these days, I would be like, yeah, that makes sense. And so, so I said, no, and it's this, it's scary. Like it's, it's. Very scary to say no. But it, we've, it's been so much better for us. And VCs are like, or whether, whether VC or angel, whatever, investor, family office they should provide a lot more value than just the money that they're putting in. And so our series A lead and I told'em straight up, you're gonna own as much of this company as I do. I want you to create twice as much value as I have. And hats off to them. They have, uh, so shout out to Two Bear Capital. They're fantastic. Find your people, find the money, and uh, and interview them. It's a privilege to own part of your company. Yeah.

Brooke 30:30

Beautiful. Gazal, if you were to put your business together four years ago, you wouldn't have gotten as far as you are now with the advancements in 11 labs and tools like Gemini. And so I want you to share about using these tools and how you're powered with this cinematic video, like VEO three, you wanna share about how these are helping you build your app faster, uh, without having to have a huge engineering team.

Gazal 30:57

Sure. Yeah. So we actually did get a grant, a startup grant from 11 Labs, which has been incredible. What we we're basically doing is we're using all the. Sort of the, the, the highest and greatest API tools that are available. And building on top of that, instead of building everything in house where, you know, we wanna create the most premium experience possible using what's available. And then once we have traction and a clear signal then determine what would make sense to build in-house. So this, we're able to do a force, you know, in an incredibly speedy fashion. So quality and speed. And then again, once we have a better understanding of what the users want, then we would determine, okay, what makes sense to actually build in-house for, you know, whether it's better quality or just better control and cost, of course,'cause they are expensive, but yes. It's been, I mean, we wouldn't be able to, we would take, I don't even know, like four or five years and a lot of millions of dollars to build this without the existing tools.

Brooke 32:03

Such exciting times. Marian, you've built Somarae mostly using lovable on your own. What gave you the confidence to build it yourself? I know you have a CTO, but he really just checks in on the code and you can share more about that in your own words, what have you learned along the way building on lovable?

Marian 32:23

So I use Lovable and 11 Labs. Okay. And what I love about Lovable is because it's fast iteration. And so I went to a unicorn CEO summit last week, and the founder is a billion dollar exited, uh, SAS tech founder. And she said, women wait until we're 100% ready to take action versus our counterparts that wait until they're like 60, 70% and they go. And that's something that I've actually been, uh, really taking to heart because as you know, like, like I want this feature, I want this and that, but I decided because lovable it is so much easier to test and iterate things. And I had an existing community of my clients that I was able to really pull from, did interviews and all this. And they gave me basically what they wanted. I wanted to give them a product. So that's why with lovable we were able to launch, uh, and iterate. And without launching I never would've known that there is such a huge need to integrate perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause type of information. And because of that, we're building that in and then we're launching in the app store with a much more robust product and already with an existing community. And so what I love about it's that you can iterate very quickly and you are able, and it still looks beautiful.'cause I think for women, we love things that look beautiful. You know, aesthetics is a big thing and I was able to really learn. And for, I'm pretty tech savvy. I actually used to do marketing for a tech company. I worked with startups when I was in corporate, so I've always been curious and I think you just do it. I think to learn these tools, you actually have to just do the tools. You have to iterate, you have to make mistakes. Uh, and I was fortunate enough to also bring on people to my team that believed in the mission. I actually found them through Connected. Uh, it's an amazing platform. They're actually sponsors for my event here on Thursday. I have two events on Thursday, uh, and you get access to pro bono fractionals and advisors that are really, and this is free for founders. And I was able to use them and so my CTO and tech advisor have really helped me check the code and they've worked in SaaS and other tech companies and they're like, actually this is a lot cleaner than we anticipated. And because of that, we have a really good conversation. We can iterate and really giving our iCP, what they're truly wanting. Um, and I think you really have to think about that. Take yourself out of it and ask what they want. They will tell you, listen to them, iterate with them in mind, especially ones who already pay for your product because they've already invested in you. Um, and so it's just this loop of listening, iterating I personally, we'll call them, talk to them, WhatsApp them, ask them how they're doing, what they found, bugs and they're, it's a really good communication and I wanna continue doing this even as we grow, like put systems in place to do that. And I've seen this as a lovable ambassador on the backend. The really amazing, like we tell them this is a bug, this is happening. And they fix it so much faster. So I love that example that they're. Really sharing with me, like even as you grow and you're that big to pay attention to your users.

Brooke 35:50

Thank you. Let's move it back to Rebecca. Rebecca, as you have scaled your company, what maybe didn't go as planned and what did that teach you about building responsibly? I know that's like one of your core pillars.

Rebecca 36:04

They, they say that every time your company doubles in size, everything breaks, every process you've put in place, it all just kind of falls apart, and I've definitely found that to be true. One thing that we got wrong is putting process in place prematurely and not process that speeds things up. Process that actually slows things down because, you know, that's what a big company would do. Uh, and hiring people also that speak very confidently and know what to do, but not able to do the do it themselves. So I think it's you know, it's something that I, I noticed we did and, and we've luckily gotten past is we hired a lot of these people who are very experienced. And I kind of deferred to this experience, right? Oh, you've done this thing that's amazing. Come in, help us. And these, a lot of time ended up being people that like to share how to do things right. But when you're a startup. Your unfair advantage is that you can move fast and you need people who are gonna roll up their sleeves and not just tell you how to do something, but do something. And then I found us putting in process to kind of make things move, but in the end, I realized it was having the wrong people in place and we need, we were putting in process to kind of make up for that fact. So, um, we stripped out a lot of the wrong people. Once again, find your people, find your tribe, and really focused on a culture of trust. And building the community internal so that everybody can talk to each other and when they wanna get something done, when engineering wants to get something done, they can talk to sales, sales can talk to engineering, and there's, there's this deep trust between everybody and, um, and focusing on culture and our values and really screening hard for that when we hired people on. That has made all the difference. And I'm super proud. This happened this week. We got, for the third year in a row, we got, um, Forbes Best Startup Workplaces. And Can you Yeah. And they like look at the data and they, they, they pick, um, they pick the startups. They're like best, they have the best culture. And, uh, and so I'm, I think getting culture wrong early on is, is, a mistake, get it right as fast as you can because it makes everything else go faster.

Brooke 38:18

Yes. Congratulations indeed. Alright, we're in our final 10 minutes or so of the space, so I wanna open it up to Q&A and maybe we can just get some hands raised who, who may have a question we like to go first.

guest4 38:32

Um, thank you so much guys. Such a great panel. I have a question for Rebecca. I'm in finance, I'm in FinTech, so I'm very interested in security and we use a lot of AI and it's a huge fan and you know, we double mind. Um, I'm curious, you mentioned one of the most important thing is finding the right people. How do you find the right people? What are you looking for? What's your criteria? Like, how do you know this is the person I want to hire? Or is this is not the person, this is not a person from the company that want my culture?

Rebecca 39:01

How do you find the right people? Man, I found a lot of wrong people in order to learn how to find the right people but people who can take feedback. We've kind of adopted this phrase like low ego, high eq, people who are trust builders. People who can take feedback in the interview process, like, Hey, I think you kind of got this wrong, and see how they respond. We've started doing a lot of contract to hire, which has helped quite a bit because especially in the, like I've noticed interviewing people sometimes, they're actually, I can tell they're using AI to answer the questions nowadays, and it's kind of creepy. Um, and everyone knows the right answer, like. Oh, this should be this way. Of course, yes. Everyone says the right thing. They're actually doing the right thing. So whether it's like take homes to see how they think, uh, contract to hire, see how they integrate. Um, the final thing I'll say is there's sort of that theory of like, there are people that are givers, there are people that are matchers, there are people that are takers there, and the best performing companies are the ones that cut out the takers and are, are primarily givers. And so really screening for people who are give first and creating a and safe environment for where givers don't get taken advantage of.

Brooke 40:13

Do either of you have anything to add? Yeah, I can add.

Gazal 40:15

So one thing that I do is, um, just, you know, as an early stage startup, I do have a one month trial phase where, you know, I bring them on and, you know, it's, it's like assessing compatibility, just synergy. I think that's been really crucial for me. Also, really, I think trusting your intuition is a big part of it. And prior to wanting to bring anyone on, having a very clear I idea. So really sitting down and designing the person, right, the qualities you're looking for and what it is you're looking for. So it's very clear for you. And then trusting your intuition I think is a big part of it too.

Marian 40:48

I have one other tip because I had a whole team before in my last company, is that I found, especially for found like startups, uh, new companies, is that they have a sort of entrepreneurial drive within, like they call it like intrapreneur, right? So you don't really micromanage that. You kind of help'em see the big vision and they execute. And sometimes they come up with really innovative ways that like never would've thought of. And it's really giving them that permission, that sort of space to also take ownership of it and run with it. Those have been the best hires for me.

Brooke 41:24

Any more questions?

guest3 41:26

Thank you all. Um, I have a question about Quantum because we, we talk a lot about ai. Right now it's the focus, but I know Quantum is, or a year it's even bigger. And I'm curious what three companies should we be looking at? Where can we learn more about what quantum even is and how to think about it?

Rebecca 41:44

Yeah, I, I got into quantum from ai, because it's quantum will be bigger, it will enable a lot of the things that we dream of achieving in AI. Three companies. Um, my company Q Secure to learn about the, the fret side of quantum computing. Companies in the quantum computing space proper. They're actually a handful of publicly traded companies that you can invest in today. Uh, ion Q, edi, D-Wave, couple others. They're really cool. And then there's a couple stealth ones or stealth ish. There's a company that's gonna go public called Quantum. They're very cool. They're setting a lot of the, the records. And then there's a company out of Australia called S Quantum, and they're, they're kind of a dark horse, but doing really cool stuff. Then like Google and Microsoft are also doing things in Quantum and they put out really good educational resources too.

Brooke 42:35

Rebecca, share what Quantum.

Rebecca 42:37

What is quantum? That's a, this is a good question. Quantum computers, they're these things that sound like sci-fi. If you google a quantum computer and you haven't seen one, it'll be presently pleasantly surprised. It's a really pretty thing, actually, it looks like a chandelier. Quantum computers are this next generation of computers, and they're not just bigger, better, faster, stronger, regular computers. They are ones that think in a fundamentally different way and can solve different problems. And so, um, the way I usually like to explain it is if you close your eyes and imagine you're trying to solve a maze and you enter into the maze and you hit your first T, you can go right or left. Choose left. Hey, next t you know, go right. Whatever you're iterating through this maze. That's how a person acts. That's how a regular classical computer also acts. Quantum computer. Walks into a maze, hits its first tee, it can go, but right and left at the same time, and then once again, right and left at the same time. And so the power of a quantum feed, which is important, right? All technology is a tool. The power of quantum computers is being able to kind of hold all of these different paths through that maze in ram, in memory at once and through algorithms, quantum algorithms. Shave off the, the wrong ones so that you're left with the most optimal path through that maze. And there's actually a lot of problems in the world that we're likely to only solve with quantum computers modeling molecules and, and drug interactions and those kinds of things impossible to do with regular computers. Uh. Breaking today's encryption that we use impossible with regular computers, possible with, with quantum computers. So that was a bit of a long answer, but they're, they're real. They're coming very quickly. Uh, and you can even go on and program one if you want. I think you can program IBM's quantum computer online. But, uh, keep an eye out. The next five years are gonna be really, really exciting. And the important thing to look out for is when Quantum Peter starts solving problems that you recognize. Not like super sciencey sounding ones, but like, did it do financial portfolio optimization? Did it help discover new molecules, et cetera?

Brooke 44:52

Think we have time for a couple more questions.

guest6 44:54

Hello. So my question is actually for each founder, regarding first hires, um, I'm curious to know when each of your first hires were and when, like at what point in the first year, first month, um, and why, like, there's a story related to that where there was an actual breakdown and fundamentally that had to kind of the process or if it was something planned.

Brooke 45:19

Let's start with

Gazal 45:20

So, yeah, for me, it started out with, two colleagues that I had worked with previously and then, uh, our next hire was, um, a software engineer. In essence, some of that, you know, we needed to actually build the product. And then from there it just continued on to, you know, UX researcher and have a couple of other interns, another product designer. So slowly added on our team of 10.

Marian 45:46

I think you hit an inflection point, right? Where you have, you can't do certain things and you need to delegate or find support for me the first inflection point was finding someone who was very tech savvy, my CTO and tech advisors, because I could only take it so far. And then the second was. Uh, my marketing assistant manager because even though I'm a marketer by experience, there was only so much I had to focus on other things, you know, to be the CEO of the company and really thinking what the visionary where it goes. And I needed support in that. So wherever you're going and you find inflection points of, okay, I don't have this capacity I need to hire out, I think that's, and it varies right? Per person. I don't think there's like. A exact formula. It's what you need. Just like if there's technical founders, they're looking for non-technical, right? So find the inflection points and then grow. My partner behind is who has helped me a lot too. Uh, he's also a tech founder. He also, he's really great at hiring lots of people and delegating. And sometimes as women we think that we could do it all. Seeing him and being able to just call in a lot of people higher has been a great reminder for me to also like, yes, I can do it, but is that really for the best of the company? And so then growing it and now we're a team of six and actually bringing a new intern on as well. So find the inflection points and then delegate out.

Rebecca 47:18

We actually got started with four co-founders, so we shared the load quite a bit and um, and I think if you're a solo founder or you don't have the luxury of having four people who will work for free for a while the thing that my first hire I hired while he was doing his PhD and, you know, inexpensive, smart labor that I could pay literally outta my own pocket. And we still work together.

Brooke 47:44

Alright, I know we missed this side here.

Guest1 47:46

Yeah. So this question is people who've done coworking in a therapeutic space, um, and obviously what you're doing is so different and if you have any input too, even though it's not your case, but what you're doing is so, so different. And I'm really curious if, obviously you had a passion, you had your own experience and you had your own experience that brought you to what you did. But I imagine that even before you started and then like you say, testing and asking people what they want, that became aware of, oh wow, here are the real gaps here. Here's where there's a real vacuum in that. I'm really curious what each one of you has sort of noticed or would say, no. Yeah, that's a vacuum. It's not my thing or is my thing or there was a vacuum and I, that's why I'm filling it. Or it's a vacuum. It doesn't relate to me. But I still see it like a really curious. Any, any vacuum discussion? Yeah.

Gazal 48:40

Yeah, so. For me this is definitely something that does relate to me. You know, I spent my career in clinical research and one of my biggest fascinations became the placebo effect and the understanding of the power. You know, it's real scientific proof of the power of our beliefs, the power of our thoughts, and our expectations of reality, and, I became obsessed with trying to really understand how do I implement that in my everyday life? And at the same time, I, most of my life, you know, suffered from imposter syndrome and just, you know, self forth and self-confidence issues and, but I was very committed and on a journey of, you know, self expansion and development and all the things. And so. I started to understand, you know, that the most powerful, the most important and powerful belief that we have is the, is is the belief in ourselves, who we believe we are, and and understanding that, without evidence, belief is fragile. So what I've created is really to create that evidence that the brain needs, understanding how we, you know, where we hold our sense of self and who we believe we are, and how to change that by providing the brain, this evidence, right, this multisensory evidence that it needs to believe in the different self, to change the self schemas and therefore your actions become just aligned and natural. Right. So that's, that's, yeah, that's how. Came up,

Marian 50:04

The gaps really presented themselves to me. So prior to building Somar array I had events clients, a certified somatic breathwork facilitator. I was already coaching, already doing events, hosting retreats, and it was a gap that they would tell me. So it was a real problem that clients I already had and my community were sharing with me and it was me researching it. I wanted to find an app that I could supplement to help them, you know, on their day to day.'cause Somar Ray is micro practices meant to help you in your like, very few minutes to really complete your stress cycle, uh, and then move on with your day. It's to help with those micro practices that we all need. We need to drink water, right? Not just once, but consistently. So same. That's the same kind of thought pattern. And so because of this problem. I could not find a solution that I felt was not only trauma informed, but really heart centered. There is, I know that there's an app out there for Women's Cycles that, um, the founder and CEO actually sold that data and women trusted this, you know, and I felt like I think to be able to really resonate with women, I had a different lens because I am a woman and kind of going through this, and so I really wanted to create something that was so personalized to the people that I was already helping. So the gap was presented and it kind of unfolded with me just being curious and really wanting to create something that was of integrity to me, um, that I could trust to, you know, present to the people that I cared for a lot, like my clients who go through a lot of, not only trauma, but like a lot of healing. And wanted to really go back into their body. So that's where the gap was was just in like unfolded with me doing the work.

Brooke 51:56

Thank you all so much for being here. We can keep the conversation going like I mentioned, we have an after social at across the street. Uh, we'd love to see you there. Follow the podcast@howaipodcast.com to learn more about future featured founders that I have coming up. I just released an episode this week, uh, featuring a woman who specifically teaches AI to seniors and those over the age of 60. Um, and just really a reminder of how inclusivity is so important for tech and ai, and that's really the mission behind my podcast. So thank you all. I hope you all are walking away with a sense of empowerment and inspiration and one key takeaway. And thank you ladies such wise, words were spoken here tonight from such different spaces in, in your lives, and I'm, I'm so honored to host you. Wow, I hope today's episode opened your mind to what's possible with AI. Do you have a cool use case on how you're using AI and want to share it? DM me. I'd love to hear more and feature you on my next podcast. Until next time, here's to working smarter, not harder. See you on the next episode of How I AI. Have you just started exploring AI and feel a bit overwhelmed? Don't worry, I've got you. Jump on a quick start call with me so you can walk away with a clear and personalized plan to move forward with more confidence and ease. Join my community of AI adopters like yourself. Plus, grab my free resources, including the AI Get Started Guide. Or try my How I AI companion GPT. It pulls insights from my guest interviews along with global reports, so you can stay ahead of the curve. Follow the link in the description below to get started.