Early on, Karin was inspired by her mother, who worked in healthcare and helped define some of the requirements for the Obamacare rollout. Her mother worked at the federal level to define what it meant for digital health storage systems to talk to each other in a way that improves end-patient care. 

Karin saw a deep passion for changing patient care in her mother: she had empathy combined with leadership capability, which drove serious change. It made Karin hungry for an opportunity to get out into the world and make an impact of her own, which landed her at the One Acre Fund in Kenya. 

The One Acre Fund is a social enterprise with a mission to help low-income, smallholder farms grow their way out of poverty. In her role, she worked directly with farm families to help teach modern planting techniques, provide access to improved seed and fertilizer, and open them up to markets where they could sell their products. 

It was during this time that she began to understand just how important the human-element was when trying to create major changes to institutionalized systems. She also found a way to weave together the many threads of her youth, education, and career experience when she returned home after two years in Kenya. 

“Open your heart to some of these issues and, little by little, you start to care about people who aren’t your close family. But they deserve care and opportunity as much as anyone who’s in your family. That’s been a process of tying those intellectual pieces, like classes I’ve taken, to real experiences that have touched me and driven me to do this work.”

Karin would go on to found Verano Health, a digital health coaching platform for chronic disease. Currently, they focus on Type 2 Diabetes, and they work with low-income Americans and partner with community clinics to access those who are most in need of support. 

During a 12-week program with Verano, patients get weekly calls with a coach who has lived experience with the disease. They also get daily tips for glucose monitoring in an effort to better understand Diabetes and manage it better. 

In her work with Verano Health, it’s imperative that Karin remain respectful of every patient’s own journey. This is where she mixes in her lessons learned working with farmers in Kenya to meet Diabetes patients where they are. And to build this understanding, Karin spent hundreds of hours interviewing people on Medicaid. 

In those conversations she expected to hear that most patients couldn’t find access to a doctor. However, what she heard time and time again was that there was a major lack of empathy from the system. Patients didn’t feel heard by their doctors, and they didn’t feel their needs were met. 

The tech solutions Karin was excited to introduce to this population could help patients understand diabetes numbers, or how to manage their numbers on a daily basis. But, by itself, technology can’t give them hope for a diabetes-free future. The human element was crucial for success. 

“Having a chronic disease is an incredibly lonely place to be. Often, we don’t feel that we can talk to others about it or prioritize ourselves in putting our health first. That was a huge inspiration for how I chose to start and build Coach Me. At the center of it, we are a friend to the patients we work with.”

That personal impact is also one of the metrics Verano tracks to gauge how successful they are within their community. The way patients interface with Verano on a personal level is just as important as if they were able to improve their Diabetes from a clinical basis.  

“When people say that they’ve learned communications skills from their coach, and they’re now coaching all their family back in Mexico on how to improve their disease, it touches us personally.” 

Her journey certainly hasn’t been easy, especially given that Karin is working to make changes to the entire healthcare system. It’s important for her to find light in the darkness and realize that change, however slow it comes, is still happening. 

And for others who are interested in the path of an impactful tech nonprofit entrepreneur, Karin would leave you with a few pieces of advice. First, you’re going to learn through experience. 

Take your journey day by day and learn from what’s happening to you. Listen to what people say and accept what comes. Also, remember that you’re never alone in this journey—find aligned partners that want to support you, work with you, and join your team.

Even though you care deeply about a social issue and likely have a vision for how to support it, the way you achieve it is by bringing a team together that can help you get there. Spend your time early building the team of people who are going to be in it to win it with you. 

"I got some advice from Shannon at Fast Forward as I was telling her about a challenge we were going through and wondering how to orient our product. She said, ‘Look inside your heart. Why are you in this? Who are you doing this for? How do you build this around the patient?’ I’ve never forgotten that advice. Any time I face a tough decision I try to look inside my heart.”

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