Woman-Owned Spotlight: A conversation with Risa Arin, Founder of XpertPatient
This week's woman-owned business spotlight is Risa Arin. Risa founded XpertPatient as a true game-changer for those new to cancer. While treatments continue to make great strides, little has changed on the patient education front. XpertPatient is committed to providing a personalized experience, advancing far past today’s health sites to reshape patient education. Their goal is to help the millions of individuals diagnosed with cancer become "cancer smart." While Risa never envisioned her life path leading to one of entrepreneurship, she's says the impact she's able to make is well worth it.
Before we dive into your story, tell me how you help cultivate confidence?
I draw my confidence from the enthusiasm and appreciation I receive from launching the site. We are truly changing lives and there is nothing more rewarding than that. As a leader, I continuously share our wins with my team--big and small--to build their confidence. Working with a new team, partners, and customers, exuding confidence and enthusiasm is critical, contagious, in fact.
What does being a woman-owned business mean to you?
Being a successful women-owned business means I stand as an example to my two daughters, female friends, other women new to business, or those looking for something new, to stand tall. Don’t just imagine what you could do: go for it. Anything and everything is possible.
What was your business origin story?
I founded XpertPatient.com to help individuals & families devastated by a cancer diagnosis achieve better treatment results. In 2022, it is projected there will be over 2 million of us in the United States alone.
Everyone asks “how is XpertPatient different?” While all of the latest research shows that better-educated and involved patients experience less anxiety, less treatment side-effects; and ultimately achieve better outcomes, more than a half of them won’t feel confident having treatment option conversations with their doctors. XpertPatient is on a mission to change that. Our goal is to build active healthcare consumers.
In partnership with patients (including my mom), caregivers, cancer experts and health innovators, we’ve created an unprecedented site experience intricately designed to help those new to their unique cancer journey quickly become “cancer educated” and feel confident in being true partners to their doctors and nurses.
Our Next-Generation education experience uniquely integrates leading-edge technologies, including AI, with proven Cx and adult learning strategies to ensure complex information-recall and sharing. Every element of the site has been designed to help visitors better understand their diagnosis, compare the latest treatment options, and quickly take back control of their lives. That’s the critical part of this because with a lot of conditions, you have time to learn the ins-and-outs, but with a cancer diagnosis, you don’t. Every day truly matters.
Risa and the XpertPatient platform have been recognized by many organizations including PM360 as one of the Most Innovative Startups of 2022, the Clio Awards team, has been featured in a New Jersey Vicinity, and Risa was selected as a Finalist in the 2022 Women l Future Women Pitch Competition.
Okay, coming up with a great idea and actually taking the steps to become an entrepreneur and launch your company are two very different things. How did you know it was time to start?
I realized it was time to do something bolder for people new to cancer after hearing again and again how many people are devastated by a diagnosis but still rely on their doctors to make their health decisions. That’s not okay, especially when we know a more engaged patient, even a cancer patient, will achieve better treatment results.
With this in mind and armed with knowledge from helping pharmaceutical companies launch new oncology drugs for the past 10+ years, I realized it was a critical time to take everything I had learned and advance patient education.
Sometimes entrepreneurship can be a hard and isolating journey. How do you stay confident along the way?
Ongoing and honest feedback from patients, caregivers, and survivors keeps me 100% fueled every day.
If you had to list three traits or attributes that have been pivotal for your success, what would they be?
100% Focused
Persistence
High-energy
What's one myth you'd like to debunk about your line of work?
Being an entrepreneur is not all glamour, job flexibility, and awards. It’s incredibly hard work, challenging in every at time and exhausting. But no matter what, you need to stay positive and keep everyone around you moving forward.
What advice would you give to burgeoning entrepreneurs?
The key to success as an entrepreneur is to do something you are passionate about.
What words do you live by?
Life is short, go BIG.