A PhD on Her New Learning Experience: Founder’s Spotlight with Kristen Archbold
This summer, Dr. Kristen Archbold, CEO and Founder of Azimuth Sleeping Solutions, is embarking on a new learning journey. With both a Bachelors and Doctorate in Nursing from the University of Michigan, Kristen Archbold has spent her career in nursing and academia, most recently at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) here in Memphis. However, this accomplished academic found herself on a new academic journey this year after launching Azimuth Sleeping Solutions, which has designed a strapless CPAP masks for patients with obstructive sleep apnea.
Kristen’s long nursing and academic careers have been dedicated to patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Currently, only about 35% of patients prescribed a CPAP machine actually use it. Kristen sought out to find an alternative to current devices by creating a strapless mask. The mask is orally-retained, making sure air flows where it’s needed, with no leakage, and of course without claustrophobic or uncomfortable straps.
In May of 2019, Azimuth began the intensive Zeroto510 medical device accelerator. Kristen and I sat down for a chat about the transition from nursing and academia to entrepreneurship and startup culture. Hear how an RN and PhD is navigating the world of startup accelerators…
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Liza: First, what is Azimuth?
Kristen: There’s a mathematical definition of an azimuth angle; the angle is zero when you are standing due north and the sun is standing over your head. The angle is where your location is in relation to the Sun and North. If you notice the device, there’s the nose piece then two cannula that connect to the flute. So everybody is going to have a different angle, there nose will connect differently to the flute – that’s their azimuth angle. It’s a little dork/sci-fi but I am that person. I’m a Star Wars person. But that will be a tagline – Azimuth: What’s your angle?
Liza: Your nursing background plays a huge part in the development of Azimuth as you’ve spent your career helping patients and families with sleep apnea. What parts of your professional background has helped you most in the accelerator environment?
Kristen: That’s an excellent question and immediately I think about the frustrations I had with the existing products. Every year, for 20 years, I’ve been going to sleep conferences. I started going in 1999 and was interested in people who were saying ‘Hey we can make this better.’ So I always, always, every year from the beginning, went to the main sleep apnea mask producers and other companies to say “What’s new? Show me your best!” And after 15, 16 years…nothing ever changed. They put some lipstick on it to make it look fancier but it never changed. For these past 20 years, I’ve been searching and so I feel I have a very in depth understanding of what’s out there, what’s available, what patients want and what doesn’t work. I feel like I know the market very, very well. I think that’s a strength for me, not being a business person particularly, or trained, but I have 20 years of experience with the market.
Liza: So, how did you hear about and get connected with Start Co. and the accelerator?
Kristen: I’ve been working with Chris West (President of Zeroto510) through his appointment as EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) at the UTHSC. Literally a week before the accelerator started he said “Hey, why don’t you come and do this.” So I am completely at a totally different level of non-awareness.
Most of the startups here are very organized and developed. Like, Winter Innovations has been doing this for several years and they are amazingly polished and progressed. So I’m like the exact opposite of that – I’m really a nurse and PhD academic and this is my first foray into business. Or at least, corporate business. In a college of nursing and academia, there’s business – departments to organize, grants to write, stuff like that. But it’s nothing like this.
Liza: So would you say that’s been your biggest challenge so far? Adjusting to the culture?
Kristen: Yes, and learning.
Liza: What specific learning challenge?
Kristen: I hope this doesn’t sound too silly but literally the vocabulary. It is one of the most challenging things for me because it’s assumed that people understand this acronym or that acronym, and I don’t know what it means, so I have to say “oh, what was that acronym?” Then I have to google it and understand. So I’m sort of – behind the ball. And I want to be able to speak the language! So I’ve been taking extra notes. It’s just sometimes I feel like…”what did they just say?” I have become a sponge…being a sponge is how I’ve conceptualized myself at this point.
Liza: What is one thing that has surprised you about Start Co. and Zeroto510?
Kristen: The surprise is seeing it out in the real world vs. academia. In the real world, there is a way to give this invention to other people, get it out there for use and I can lead that effort. So I think that’s my biggest surprise, realizing that it’s not something that existed in a vacuum of academia, we weren’t just fooling around in a laboratory and thinking maybe we can invent something. But in fact, there is a need for something like this out in the real world and you can be a part of that. You can do that. When we invented it we thought “this could be great if people could use this.” It didn’t really occur to me that taking it mainstream was even possible. Or there was somewhere out there that could help me do that. I never knew that as an academic. They don’t teach us about business and innovation per se, at last nursing they definitely don’t. So the biggest surprise was that there was this resource to show me how to do that.
Liza: Do you have advice for people like you, who are in a different field but see a problem, have a solution and want to be able to find a way to bring it to market in order to help people. What is your advice for those who are unfamiliar with an accelerator?
Kristen: If someone is out there that’s developed an idea, product, or potential product, that they believe in, cause you have to have that, the drive, the why… that they believe could change the world, a population, or someone, they should investigate accelerators. Just even google “what is a business accelerator?” I had never heard that term before Chris West said “we have this accelerator program.” I had to google it! I may be an exception, but I would say if someone has a product that they believe in, that, that is a good place to start. It helps to understand – well what would I need to apply? I’d need to organize x,y,and z in my head about the company or product and then apply. And there is not just one there are many, so it’s like applying to college. You know you have to apply to 8 or 9 and 1 or 2 is going to accept you.
Liza: What’s one thing someone who has never been to Memphis should know about the city?
Kristen: Personally, I believe that Memphis is incredibly historic and significant, for so many reasons, not the least of which is the civil rights movement. I really think the Civil Rights Museum [is great], and I’m not just trying to be a tourist. I’m saying that the energy of human social growth and struggle is so central to Memphis. And not in a heavy down cast sort of way, it’s just like this crucible of energy that is central to everything in Memphis. There are always people here, always trying to make things better for the rest of us.
Kristen wanted to close by addressing those with sleep apnea, “I’d love to say to anyone who has sleep apnea, parents, loved one or bed partner with sleep apnea, that there is hope – we are working to make using your CPAP a lot better.”
Kristen Archbold, RN, PhD
CEO and Founder, Azimuth Sleeping Solutions
Email: karchbold@azimuthsleepsolutions.com
Website: https://azimuthsleepsolutions.com/
Twitter: @AzimuthSleep
Instagram: @azimuthsleep
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Azimuth-Sleep-Solutions-593353927742784/