Oceanside Meet: In this episode, Indu Navar shares her inspiring journey from Silicon Valley CEO to a healthcare innovator driven by personal loss. Following her husband’s ALS diagnosis, she launched Everything ALS and the Peter Cohen Foundation to leverage AI in advancing research and support for ALS patients. Through her work, Indu exemplifies compassionate capitalism, resilience, and visionary leadership, advocating for systemic change in neurological disease treatment and championing purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
Indu Navar has over 20 years of experience as a CEO, founder, board member, and investor in Silicon Valley software companies, leading to successful exits. After losing her husband to ALS in 2019, she redirected her expertise to health ventures, founding the Peter Cohen Foundation (EverythingALS.org) to advance technology-driven solutions for neurological diseases. She also serves on the boards of Global Genes and Answer ALS. Previously, Indu was a managing director at Woodside Capital Partners, advising on financing and M&A for software companies, and founder and CEO of Serus Corporation. She holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, an M.S. in Computer Science from California State University, Chico, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at King’s College London.
Key Learnings:
🔥 Transforming Personal Loss into Purpose: Indu Navar turned her husband’s ALS diagnosis into a mission, creating initiatives to drive tech solutions for neurological diseases, showing the impact of channeling personal challenges into purposeful ventures.
🩹 Perseverance and Compassionate Leadership: Indu's journey reflects the importance of resilience, adaptability, and empathy in leadership, especially when navigating hardships and pioneering systemic change.
🩺 Embracing Technology for Health Innovation: By integrating AI with patient data, Indu's organization, EverythingALS, revolutionizes clinical trials, showcasing how digital biomarkers can accelerate diagnosis and treatment.
🤝 Negotiation and Adaptability in Entrepreneurship: Indu emphasizes negotiation skills and strategic adaptability, particularly in male-dominated fields, which helped her build meaningful relationships and navigate professional obstacles.
🏛️ Compassionate Capitalism and Community Impact: Indu’s approach to “compassionate capitalism” highlights the value of ethics and community support in business, demonstrating that profitable ventures can also prioritize positive societal impact.
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