Founder AMA: Helen's Unfiltered Founder Journey

In the latest event of YSpace’s Founder AMA Series, we had the privilege of hosting Helen, co-founder of Odeas, a Series B AI company transforming the pharmaceutical market, and now working on her new venture, Risen, focused on rebuilding human connections. With over a decade of experience teaching startup creation at the University of Toronto and mentoring hundreds of early-stage founders, Helen shared raw, unfiltered insights on her journey from the early days of uncertainty to scaling a venture-backed startup.

The Early Days: “We Had No Idea What We Were Doing”

Helen’s first venture, Odeas, was born out of academic research and a partnership with a colleague specializing in predictive analytics. Despite having no prior experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she identified a critical pain point: sales reps were spending 20+ hours per month manually planning doctor visits, leading to inefficiencies in drug adoption.

Key Lessons from the First Two Years:

• Pilots Over Perfection: Before having a polished product, Helen focused on pilots—small, paid experiments with real companies. One early conversation with Janssen (a J&J subsidiary) revealed a willingness to pay $200K for a pilot, validating the demand.
• Bottoms-Up Scalability: By calculating the cost of inefficiency per sales rep and multiplying it across the industry, she proved the ROI of her solution—reducing planning time from 20 hours to just 15 minutes.
• Industry Agnostic at First: Initially, Odeas explored multiple industries (e.g., e-commerce, insurance), but pharma’s urgent need during COVID-19 became the turning point.

*"If you can show even a 10-20% improvement in a massive industry, that’s a scalable business."*

From Pilot to Product: Navigating the "Death by Pilots" Trap

Many startups struggle with endless pilot cycles that never convert to real contracts. Helen developed a better approach. She started every conversation by asking potential customers what would make them switch from a pilot to a paid contract. This forced clarity from the beginning. She also learned that engaging actual decision-makers - not just innovation teams - was critical for success.

Helen avoided free pilots entirely. She believed uncompensated work only made sense if the data or opportunity was truly transformative, which rarely happened. When faced with bureaucratic delays, she took matters into her own hands by creating streamlined approval processes that moved deals forward faster.

Scaling Challenges: The Reality of Series A and Beyond

Reaching Series B with over 100 employees brought new realities. The constant travel and people management demands led to exhaustion. Cross-functional tensions emerged as sales commitments sometimes outpaced engineering capabilities.

Helen realized scaling fundamentally changed her role. The visionary founder had to become a disciplined operator focused on execution above all else.

Helen's Unfiltered Advice for Founders

Early in her journey, Helen made the common mistake of delegating parts of pitches. She now believes founders should master every aspect of their story. She also learned to cut losses quickly when pilots weren't converting, prioritizing revenue over vanity metrics.

In the pharmaceutical industry, she discovered substance mattered more than hype. Customers wanted practical, explainable solutions rather than flashy AI buzzwords. Through it all, she maintained one unwavering principle: when in doubt, focus on sales. Revenue solves most startup challenges.

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