Urska Srsen

Next up, we have Kka Sersen, who is the co-founder of Bella Beat. Bella Beat helps pregnant women have a healthy pregnancy using the Quantified Self Technologies, and Bella Beat has recently been recognized by Fast Company as one of the most innovative products of the year, thanks in part to Eska's amazing branding strategy. Now, Ura offers a different perspective to the stereotypical Silicon Valley founder. She attended the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, and by the age of 22 had exhibited her work throughout the world.

So welcome! [Applause] Eska: "Um, hello! My name is Ura Kasin, and I'm the co-founder of Bella Beat. Bella Beat is a company developing systems for self-tracking during pregnancy in order to help expectant mothers lead a healthier lifestyle during pregnancy. So Bella Beat, as a product, is a device and an app that allows future moms to listen to their baby's heartbeat and share the experience with their loved ones.

So, in other words, we're bringing the Quantified Self movement to pregnancy. Thank you very much for inviting me, as I'm very happy that I've gotten the opportunity to share our story with you. Um, Sandra and myself started the company in 2012, so a year and a half ago, um, somewhere between Slovenia and Croatia because that's where we're from. Writing this pitch was actually a really hard thing to do, as you often hear. And also, PG said that having a startup is like being repeatedly punched in your face.

So, writing this speech was basically reflecting upon the beating that we have already received then and that we know won't stop for a very long time still. So, and it was actually also Sandro that was supposed to write a speech for me, um, because I'm the head designer, head of product. So, as we're going into prototyping of our new products next week, I literally didn't have a second to think about anything else than just that.

Um, Sandro, on the contrary, as the CEO, could afford a little bit more time, but anyways, even as he is the main, um, the bigger visionary behind our company and a bit more experienced founder, like the only thing he could come up with was just 'Good luck.' So, I'll just start to, I'll just try to describe how we started. We are still a pretty early-stage startup.

So, as I said, we started a year and a half ago. Right now, we are a team of 20 people, um, we are present on the European, American, and Australian market and have sold our devices in thousands, um, but still, that's still pretty early stage, and I'll just try to describe, um, from the beginning how we started and how we managed to survive through this year and a half.

So, um, my background is a bit... Sorry, how did I get myself into this? So, um, I've always thought that I am the most unlikely person to start a tech company. Um, I dropped out of med school to study fine art sculpture. Um, yes, my parents are very proud about it. And because I thought that you can only work on something that you really, um, love and care about, um, that's the only way how you can reach up to your full potential.

And I thought that everything else is just a waste of mine and everybody else's, um, time. So, when I got myself into med school, I kind of let myself down because that was one of those decisions that you easily make when, um, things are expected of you. Um, anyhow, I never repeated any of the conformist mistakes again, and I was well on my way to become a sculptor.

In my work, I was really obsessed with, um, like imprinting my body strength upon physical material, and I wanted to transfer my thoughts and emotions, um, into other people's minds. And as it happened, I liked doing that with a chainsaw. Um, yes, I did this intro just so that I can show this picture, but I also wanted to talk about my background a bit because I think, um, it does reflect upon my work as a founder today.

It has taught me a few things, and that is that working as a founder or as an artist is very personal. So, um, that's why it can get very emotionally stressful, and also you can find yourselves, uh, you can find yourself very alone in it. Um, it's also very hard to let go, let other people's people see your work and..."