From Community to Venture-Backed Digital Health Platform
2023
Product
From Community to Venture-Backed Digital Health Platform
Client: SheMatters
Founder: Jade Kearney (Techstars alum)
Stage: Pre-seed to Seed
Focus Area: Sustainable Health
The Challenge
Techstars founder Jade Kearney built a passionate community around maternal health, but transforming that early traction into a scalable digital product required expertise the team didn't yet have in-house. With limited funds post pre-seed, SheMatters needed digital health industry knowledge, product management capabilities, and the right technical foundation to attract serious investment and customers, all while staying lean.
Our Approach
We became an extension of their team through a consulting retainer, delivering hands-on product strategy, product development, team enablement, and tactical execution support. Rather than just advising, we rolled up our sleeves: conducting market research, building their product roadmap, training the team in agile practices, sourcing vendors, and recruiting critical technical talent.
What We Delivered
Strategic Foundation
Market research and competitive strategy planning for digital health positioning
Complete product roadmap aligned with investor expectations and user needs
App user journey mapping and redesign for improved engagement
Team & Capabilities Building
Agile product management training including OKRs, KPIs, and best practices
Tech stack development recommendations for scalable infrastructure
Engineering and design recruitment to build core product team
Operational Execution
Learning Management System (LMS) vendor sourcing and selection
Ongoing consulting retainer for continuous product and strategy support
The Impact
Armed with a clear product vision and operational foundation, SheMatters expanded their offering into wearable technology tracking biometric data for preventative maternal care. This pivot help the team secure $2M in seed funding, making Jade Kearney one of the few Black women entrepreneurs to raise over $1 million in venture capital since 2023. SheMatters went from community-driven startup to venture-backed digital health platform, now positioned to transform maternal health outcomes at scale.
