Nov 6, 2017
On the show today we have Dr. Karin Hehenberger. Some of you might know Dr. Hehenberger from her amazing work with her venture LyfeBulb, but for those of you who are not familiar with her, Dr. Hehenberger is a type 1 who is no longer type 1.
Dr. Hehenberger has a list of credentials and professional accomplishments that make her the ultimate multi-hyphenate. She was on the Swedish National Tennis Team, she earned her Medical Doctorate and her PhD in molecular medicine, she was a post-doc fellow at Harvard, a consultant for McKinsey & Company, has worked in big pharma and start-up biotech companies, and the list goes on and on.
What's remarkable about her story is that she navigated all of those challenging environments, and succeeded on a large scale, with type 1 diabetes. But as the years went on, and she experienced a period of significant burnout and poor control of her health, all the complications anyone with diabetes fears, started to set in. Dr. Hehenberger ultimately found herself with significant damage to her vision, and her kidneys were failing. She was on the edge of complete physical breakdown.
Ultimately, it was her father who saved her live with an incredible gift, and then a few months later it was a donor, and a very talented transplant team in Minnesota who would provide Dr. Hehenberger with a chance to experience life without type 1 again.
Dr. Hehenberger is the ultimate patient-entrepreneur and you’ll learn through this interview that she is all in when it comes to finding and supporting the next generation of budding patient-entrepreneurs through her venture catalyst LyfeBulb. As I release this episode, Dr. Hehenberger and her team are over in Copenhagen Denmark for this year’s LyfeBulb/ Novo Nordisk Innovation Summit where they will be working with some of the best young innovators in the world of diabetes.
There's a lot to this story and our conversation is a deep look into denial, motivation, personal drive, an individual’s love of science, and a belief that those impacted by a chronic condition should be at the center of creating ventures that will help minimize the impact of that condition on the world.