How to build a company VCs chase, with Kristin Oja, Founder of STAT Wellness

Kristin Oja was born in the middle of a thunderstorm. Her mom likes to tell that story, because as Kristin says, raising her was its own kind of storm. Early on Kristin and her mom had a deal. All of her intensity had to go somewhere useful, and here is where it went: in seven years of building a healthcare company, through a pandemic, Kristin has never lost a single night of sleep. Her mantra is "let the fires burn." Whatever is smoldering at 10pm will still be smoldering in the morning, and she will handle it then. Kristin is a doctor of nursing practice, a functional medicine practitioner, and the founder of STAT Wellness, where functional medicine, strength training, and group fitness live under one roof, which is genius. In 2018, banks, angels, and VCs told her no about a hundred times. STAT now serves thousands of patients across four states, held 25 percent margins through a pandemic, and Kristin was named to EY's Entrepreneurial Winning Women class of 2024. I could not be more excited that she made time for Mimir in the middle of opening a new store. The thing I learned from Kristin is to not take on any form of outside help unless you can articulate, concretely, what you would do with it. The same investors who told her no in 2018 came running the moment she opened her second location, and she kept turning them down, even when saying yes would have sounded very cool. Then something changed, and in the episode she walks through the exact moment she knew it was finally time to raise, why she passed on her dream investor when she did, and the one question she asked herself at every fork along the way. Hearing that actually took so much pressure off, because it showed that you don't need all the answers. You just need to answer the one question in front of you right now. We get into the tactical weeds too. How to run a two-week time audit before your first hire. How she keeps culture up from the employee and customer perspective. How to catch the patterns you're missing in your own business. And why the founder loneliness is a problem you solve with structure, not necessarily therapy. If you're building something right now and you feel behind because you don't have the capital, or the five year plan, this episode is for you. Connect with Kristin: Kristin Oja: https://www.kristinoja.com/ STAT Wellness: https://www.statwellness.com/ Instagram: @kristinojadnp STAT Wellness Instagram: @statwellness If you want to support the podcast, please leave a review! If you're looking for more ways to contribute I would be deeply honored if you wanted to ⁠Buy me a matcha!⁠ Also, be sure dive into ⁠⁠The Well on Substack⁠⁠ and check out the ⁠playlist of what founders are listening to⁠