January 31, 2020

January 2020 Venture Spotlight featuring Vanessa de Waal, Founder & CEO of Flöka

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To start off 2020, we spoke with Vanessa de Waal, founder and CEO of Flöka. An alumni of entrepreneurship@UBC's Incubator program, Flöka is a platform and app built to empower women to take care of themselves by owning their uniqueness, using AI to learn from the intelligence of the user's own body.

What is new with Flöka?

Flöka just launched the second, smarter version of our MVP (minimum viable product)! Flöka can uncover relationships between your different lifestyle habits...say your acne and your skincare regimen, or how your sleep changes with your exercise. You can find it on the App Store. We're really excited about what's in store for the rest of 2020. 

How has your experience as part of entrepreneurship@UBC help to inform your journey with Flöka today?

 
As part of the Incubator program, I loved the competition talking to customers! We won every week, however, it was more internally motivated. I staked out on the street and found help from a UBC nutrition student- we talked to women in so many different places about their health and their challenges. This opened my eyes to the problem- "okay I thought this was just me, but it is definitely not just me". YC (Y Combinator) says the happiest entrepreneurs talk the most to their customers, and I feel that. To this day, there's almost no day without DMs to our users and I love it. The connection is everything. We're building something together. 

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

Be very flexible in your methods, and inflexible on your vision. Put a stake in the ground and own it. Also, pick a problem you can stay in love with. Not a solution, but the problem. Stay massively curious.

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This interview was taken from our January 2020 Venture Spotlight. Read it in full, here

The Venture Spotlight is a monthly series sharing the latest news coming out of the entrepreneurship@UBC community. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay in the loop for all things entrepreneurship@UBC, from upcoming events and announcements to venture success stories and ways to get involved, here

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