In the summer of 2019, Adara Blake (https://www.adaranicole.com/) founded a startup, Believe in Breast Milk. Adara is a speech therapist and lactation consultant who wanted to solve the problem that 60% of mothers do not breastfeed for as long as they intend to. Typically, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is used for pain relief in muscles; Adara’s innovation was to use TENS to stimulate breast tissue and drive milk production. Adara’s vision was to create an internet-of-things (IoT) TENS device so that Believe in Breast Milk could track user data and yield better results, similar to how Omada Health uses an IoT scale to track weight data.
There was initial data showing this could work! Adara’s friend Susie used Adara’s TENS technique to increase milk production 5x in just a few days :
In this podcast, Adara walks us through her journey:
Feeling inspired by other “delusional” founders in Silicon Valley / San Francisco Bay Area
Deciding to create Believe in Breast Milk in summer 2019
Struggling to determine her first steps
Incorporating the startup into a business
Taking out a personal loan of $5,000 to pay engineers to create a CAD drawing of a prototype of the smart TENS unit
Avoiding paying another $5,000 to build the prototype.
Adara used the Nascent Startups methodology to focus on “creating initial value”. Instead of the expensive and tedious IoT TENS, Adara quickly and cheaply created similar value for her first users by paying less than $100 for a conventional TENS and using a free Google Form.
Recruiting 6 people to use the TENS and measure milk production
Shutting down the startup informally when it “fizzled out” in summer 2020
A founder’s journey: No regrets about being “delusional,” just wishes it would’ve been quicker and cheaper (12)