Changing Women’s Health Care Through Entrepreneurship Accelerator

Funding from Dean’s Circle donors benefits initiatives and centers across MIT Sloan, in Cambridge—and beyond—including the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship’s MIT delta v program. Each summer, a handful of aspiring entrepreneurs are accepted into the unique accelerator program and provided with the resources to bring to life their ideas to change the world. One MIT delta v team from the most recent cohort is start-up nurtur. Started by Kristen Ellefson, SFMBA ’23, and Bindu Chanagala, SFMBA ’23, nurtur aims to predict and prevent postpartum depression using AI technology. Through MIT delta v, the robust entrepreneurship ecosystem at MIT Sloan, and support from Dean’s Circle donors like you, Ellefson and Chanagala are working to bring important changes to women’s health care. 

With backgrounds in nonprofits and health care, respectively, the MIT Sloan Fellows program surprised both Ellefson and Chanagala. “I thought, ‘I’ll apply to a local college to get a full-time learning experience and not shake things up for my family,’ but my husband said, ‘there’s this program at MIT...’” Chanagala recalled. “I didn’t think anyone would read my application, but he said, ‘give it a shot,’ and the rest is a beautiful history.” Ellefson said of the Sloan Fellows program, “It was the perfect fit for what I was looking for in terms of leadership development and in-person experience.

Though they both found a place to develop their business skills, neither thought much about entrepreneurship. “The [entrepreneurship] energy was great, but I used to slip away saying that’s not me, I’m a mom, I don’t have the bandwidth for this,” said Chanagala. “I never had entrepreneurship modeled so it never seemed like something that applied to me or something that was even attainable,” Ellefson echoed. “The Trust Center approaches teaching you that anyone can do this,” she continued, “and that it’s about the right idea and being willing to pivot as you go.”  

At MIT Sloan, students are immersed in an environment that encourages big ideas and thinking as far outside the box as they can imagine. And with the resources and other supportive, innovative students around them, Ellefson and Chanagala started to turn an idea into a company. “I was starting to ideate on postpartum depression,” said Ellefson. “A lot of my friends had been suffering with this and I wanted to make an impact in this space.” Chanagala added, “The beautiful thing about our cohort and especially the women in it is that we talk deep.” After talking with a fellow Sloanie, Chanagala realized she could make a difference in women’s health care. “I wanted to focus on social entrepreneurship and something with women and kids and my own experience with postpartum depression.”

With the support of their fellow students and professors and the backing of an innovative idea, Ellefson and Chanagala applied to the MIT delta v summer accelerator program. “The happiest day of my life was when I got into MIT Sloan, but when Bindu called me and told me we got into MIT delta v, that surpassed it,” Ellefson smiled. “This program provides a skillset you’ll take with you with whatever you do next,” Chanagala said. Through MIT delta v and expert counsel from the Trust Center’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, Ellefson and Chanagala were able to focus on the customer, the product, and the finances of running a business in a way they would not have been able to experience outside the program.

“What sets this accelerator apart is it’s not too thematic,” Ellefson said. “We were exposed to undergrad and PhD teams. We were all helping each other, we were opening our networks to each other, and we could be generous and support each other in unique ways. MIT cares about making a difference. They picked us and all the other teams because they resonate with the problems we’re hoping to solve, and we will do good for the world.” 

In the early days of nurtur, the community at MIT Sloan helped Ellefson and Chanagala every step of the journey. “One thing I appreciate from my cohort is the cheerleading they did for nurtur along the way,” said Ellefson. “You stumble a bit, you’re unsure of yourself, but around every corner was a Sloan Fellow saying, ‘oh my gosh this is a great idea,’ ‘wow how can I help,’ ‘have you talked to so and so,’ and that gave us the confidence to take the steps forward and apply to MIT delta v and be where we are today.”  

“The Sloan Fellows program had a motto— ‘no fellow left behind’—and that brought us all together,” Chanagala added. “I don’t have a finance background and when we were looking at business models for our company, I had access to CPAs, CFOs, and CEOs in my cohort who have done this, who can help with our business model. When I sent a random text asking for someone to weigh in, I had two or three people from my group saying, ‘let’s jump on a call.’”  

Ellefson and Chanagala proudly pointed out their cohort of Sloan Fellows had the highest percentage of women ever. “One thing that was really special was the support of women. MIT delta v makes a very concerted effort to have clear equity between male- and female-led teams, and they really achieved that,” Ellefson said. “They are supporting women in entrepreneurship in a way I can’t say I’ve seen elsewhere.”

As women entrepreneurs who are creating a product for women, the community and inclusion efforts of the Trust Center and MIT delta v are already making an impact on future generations. “No one talked to me about postpartum depression,” Chanagala said. “Three of my four kids are girls, and they are getting exposure now about how women are supposed to take care of themselves, why this is important, and it is crucial for me. I cannot put a price tag on this experience.” 

As a Dean’s Circle donor, you play an integral role in ensuring that students like Ellefson and Chanagala have the resources and opportunity to dive into entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan and bring life to industry-changing ventures like nurtur. “The Entrepreneurs in Residence, the resources we had access to, the space, the events we participated in, the networking events—all of that doesn’t come together overnight,” Chanagala said. “The MIT Sloan experience is this delicious cake and the most precious cherry on top is the MIT delta v experience.” 

Ellefson and Chanagala are confident in nurtur’s trajectory. “Our differentiator is prediction, bringing awareness and early intervention, and it is proven that we can predict postpartum depression 50 percent of the time. That’s one in two women that we can help,” Chanagala said. Ellefson echoed that, saying, “When I think about what success looks like, a lot of people want to think in terms of dollars, but I think we’re going to make such a difference in the US and in the world. This is such an important problem to solve.” And as a Dean’s Circle donor, you are right there with Ellefson and Chanagala on a journey to change the world for good.