“Be a horse, not a unicorn.”
Although this might seem like strange advice to give a young entrepreneur only months into his journey of building a business, this is the essence of the feedback I received from Dan Cohen, Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor Greg Pool. With hair beginning to sprout my bald head and a new bill of health after a year and a half battle with lymphoma, I was returning to Wake Forest eager to make light of my experience in treatment. Resilience Gives had a little bit of traction and I was ready to take it to the moon, but Dan was quick to remind me that horses didn’t go to the moon.
Surrounded by stories of software companies going from dorm room to Silicon Valley, my generation of entrepreneurs is often disillusioned that every company follows a similar trajectory. Pushing me to better define my own ideas of success, mentors throughout the Wake E-ship department, business school, and around the university helped me understand that my intentions with Resilience Gives were rooted in values of changing individual patient experiences. Although overtime this may translate into changing millions of lives, it starts with one. In effect, my mission of empowering the patient and affecting positive change through our business practices, was more about building a solid brand like a horse than it was building a software company preparing to fly like a unicorn. Building a brand rooted in strong values, just like healing, takes time.
Jake Teitelbaum, Founder & CEO of Resilience Gives.
One year later, we’ve worked with 20 patients and are on track to do over $125K in revenue and donate over $50K, helping patients pay for medical expenses and fund research. We aren’t a unicorn doing Facebook style growth, but we are a brand having tangible impact on real lives.
About the Author
Jake Teitelbaum ’17 is Founder & CEO of Resilience Gives, a social enterprise helping patients retain dignity throughout their treatment experience. Through their platform, patients design custom socks to wear during and after treatment. Those same designs are sold to the general public on their website www.resilience.gives and half of profits are donated back to the patients to help with treatment expenses.