Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Ellen DaSilva, CEO and Founder of Summer Health which aims to increase the supply of pediatric care to care for the 75M children in the United States who need healthcare. Laurie and Ellen spoke at the HLTH 2024 conference.

Ellen lives, eats and breathes Summer Health ever since she, someone with access and means – was UNABLE to get the care she needed for her child. Ellen quickly understood the magnitude of the problem – a decreasing supply of pediatricians to support the 75M kids in this country. A third of children who live in places without any access to a pediatrician. Nearly 40% of children who have chronic conditions. And then there’s the wait….days, weeks, months to get care for your child to a pediatrician.

It may be a classic supply and demand conundrum, but Ellen was clear – there must be a better way. And so…Summer Health. On demand, asynchronous, text first, and always on, always open.

Ellen is rapidly growing the company with many lessons learned from her work at other large enterprises. And, it may be hard to build a company, but Ellen is no stranger to this hard work. What’s new with this time around of Summer Health? The market is moving fast, perhaps faster than ever. She is also impressed with the caliber of talent she is able to bring to Summer Health – based on their mission and innovative approach to the problem.

Ellen closes this conversation with advice for other women entrepreneurs and CEOs which is doubling down on your conviction that the hard problems are worth solving. And while it may not feel like it today – the hard journey of innovation, leadership, and vision…. well, it is indeed worth it.

About Ellen:

Ellen is the Founder and CEO of Summer Health, a company with a mission to raise the healthiest generation of children. Summer Health offers message-based pediatric services within 15 minutes. Learn more at www.summerhealth.com.

Previously, Ellen served as the Head of Business Development at hims&hers, where she focused on strategic partnerships and business growth. She's also an active angel investor, serving as a Sequoia Scout for Seed and Series A consumer tech companies.

Ellen earned her MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. While at HBS, she was a Partner at Rough Draft Ventures, General Catalyst’s pre-seed fund. Before business school, she managed a unit of the Business Operations team at Twitter, and prior to that, she worked at Barclays Capital.

Ellen co-authored "Pitching & Closing: Everything You Need To Know About Business Development, Partnerships, and Making Deals that Matter"—a guidebook for business development and revenue-generating partnerships at tech startups.