Introducing The Family Innovation Challenge (and here we come CES!)

I usually use this newsletter as a way to reflect on my (often imperfect) personal and professional journey in hopes of helping anyone out there who might be on a similar path. This month, I’m mixing in two announcements from my professional life that I’m super excited about.

We launched our first Global Startup Competition!?

I am pleased to announce that we just launched our first Global Startup Competition from Panasonic Well. This startup competition focuses on family wellness and you can read more about it here. This competition means a lot to me, not only because family well-being is my mission, but also because I have been there as a startup founder looking for support. As an entrepreneur at heart, I’ve always seen the potential for building technology to help people vastly improve their lives. As an undergrad at UC Berkeley, where I was studying electrical engineering and computer science, I conceived of a tennis robot that could play tennis with me as I was recovering from an injury. By the time I was at MIT doing my PhD, my desire to help people evolved way beyond my own needs and I focused my work on helping people with disabilities to live better lives.?

One of the best experiences in my career was when one of my startups failed around 2008. At the time I was a professor at the University of Washington, I saw a huge pain point for people who had suffered from a stroke and lost their mobility - it was often impossible to get from their homes to a rehabilitation center. Health insurance didn’t cover the level of support they needed to recover fully. I believed there was a huge benefit to having a rehab robot at home. I did the research, built a team, raised funding, and created a tabletop robot that could help people with movement and rehabilitation. While this was only about 15 years ago, many who suffered a stroke did not have stable (or any) Wifi. My day-to-day challenge became about connectivity, which was not the obstacle I was ready to solve at that time. In addition, I completely underestimated the amount of time needed to tackle problems that arose as I was managing a large research lab, teaching classes, running a non-profit organization, and having three young toddlers at home. While I was disappointed that I could not help the people out there who lost their mobility, this experience taught me what not to do in a way that nobody could teach me in a classroom setting. I had to experience it and learn these invaluable lessons on my own.?

Soon after, I got a call from Google asking if I wanted to help start a new unit called Google X. I worked on the Google team building radical new technologies to solve some of the world’s biggest problems such as Loom and Waymo. From there I went to join a startup called Nest as their VP of technology in a tiny garage in Palo Alto. This was a true awakening moment for me, where I learned firsthand how much dedication and conviction are required to make a startup successful. I also learned, thanks to amazing mentors, how to put the customer first and create products that solve real pain points and are so useful that people can't live without them.

There have been many steps between Nest and Panasonic, but all of my experiences were no less than transformative every single time. It’s the foundation of failure and success that enables me to go after the big vision we have for Panasonic Well, and why we want to support incredible entrepreneurs out there through this Global Startup Competition.?

Just last week I gave a guest lecture at Stanford Business School for a class taught by my dear colleague Charles O’Reilly on Entrepreneurial Leadership within Existing Organizations. The room was filled with future entrepreneurs and for over an hour I answered incredibly smart and hard questions from the class. As I was answering questions, I remembered being one of them, eager to look for opportunities to do something amazing for my mission. I am so happy to now be in a position to support and help current and future entrepreneurs thrive.?

If you are a company whose solutions enhance family wellness please apply! The deadline is October 25th, 2024 so you still have time to go after this opportunity. The best part is that I will meet the winners at CES this year where you will be offered the dedicated space exhibit space included in the Panasonic Exhibition Booth.

Which leads me to our next announcement…

We are going to CES!?

The Global Startup Competition is just the beginning.?

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA)? also announced that my colleague (aka my boss : ) ) Yuki Kusumi, Group CEO, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, will be an opening keynote speaker for CES? 2025.? As Panasonic announced the CES 2025 keynote theme “WELL into the Future” we are continuing to fulfill our Panasonic’s Founder’s vision of making today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.”???

While I can’t share too many details of what we are doing at CES yet, Panasonic Well will be there as part of Panasonic's “WELL into the Future” story.?

As we continue to prioritize the well-being of people worldwide, we are investing in projects that truly make a difference. The future of innovation is bright, and I’m excited to see the role our team will play in bringing these solutions to market.?

October Me List

1. An hour of “device free” time in the evenings:? to create time for myself and my family after dinner. I often let work take over in the evenings, and I need to build a routine where I create dedicated time away from my computer.
2. Have more seasonal food: The fall is here and I want to honor healthy (and sometimes just yummy) seasonal food. Pumpkin flavored? Yes.?
3. Get more sleep as the day gets shorter: I love sleeping in, but it is impossible to do most of the time. I want to take advantage of the morning darkness before the time change again to get extra sleep this month

Yoky