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Leading is Serving seeks to provide resources and connection for leadership and business development. Particularly focused on the south-side and Indy in general. Tune in as we share the stories of people and companies, not just doing good work, but also having a positive impact on the community.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:1
I'll, I'll take us on a lot of tangents. I love it. That's fine.
Jason Kempf - 0:0:3
You're welcome. That is totally fine. All right. Well, Amy, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining us today. We're so glad that you joined us. Yes. Thanks for
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:14
Having
Chris Wood - 0:0:14
Me. So thanks for hanging out with us.
Jason Kempf - 0:0:16
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:18
Um, so I am an Indianapolis native. I grew up, um, kind of in the Midtown North side area, went to IPS elementary schools. Mm-hmm. graduated from North Central High School and ended up, um, meeting my husband in college and , and we ended up moving to Hawaii for a little while.
Chris Wood - 0:0:43
Oh, nice.
Jason Kempf - 0:0:44
Great life
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:45
Decision. That's kinda of fun. Right? I know, right. ,
Chris Wood - 0:0:47
Where, where'd you go to college
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:48
Here? Um, I went to the University of Illinois. Okay. So
Chris Wood - 0:0:52
Did majored
Aimee Kandrac - 0:0:53
In, uh, majored in sociology and history with a minor in French.
Chris Wood - 0:0:57
Oh, wow. All right. And you used French every day?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:1:0
Uh, yeah. I think the last time I used French, the, uh, I was in France about 20 years ago, and the server was like, would you prefer if we speak in English
Jason Kempf - 0:1:13
? That's
Aimee Kandrac - 0:1:14
Uhhuh . I was like, yeah, that's probably the best. , uhhuh . So, um, anyway, um, good moved back from Hawaii. Uh, actually we, like, we were both doing random jobs. Mm-hmm. and teaching in a high school, and the whole state went on strike, um, because the teacher's union is the whole state. Oh, wow. And we couldn't afford to live there anymore. Gotcha. Wow. Um, moved back to Illinois for a little while. My husband decided to go to med school. Oh. I had two babies and my family was still here in Indianapolis. Okay. And got a call from my mom one night, um, that a loved one, my sister's very best friend, um, was diagnosed with brain cancer and she needed to kind of organize everything. Wow. Right. Laura was like my little sister. Oh, wow. And we wanted to do great things for her.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:2:14
Mm-hmm. , um, plus tell everyone what was going on. We were already, my mom and sister were like the people in the hospital every day sharing information from the family to kind of the masses, you know? Right. Mm-hmm. Laura was 25 and was just wonderful. Wow. Right. Oh, wow. And had friends all over the country. So we were emailing people, trying to get things going. And, um, as we were doing all of this, I got this phone call from my mom and she said, you know what we're doing for Laura, we need to figure out a way to do this for other people. Mm. Um, and so, again, like I've got two babies under the age of three. Oh, wow. I'm working full-time. My husband's in med school, and my mom calls and says, let's start a, a business. Ooh. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea.
Jason Kempf - 0:3:2
That's easy.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:2
Uhhuh . Yeah. I could totally do that. . Right. And let's start an internet business. Right. And the last coding class that I took was in eighth grade at Shortridge when it was a junior high school. Oh. Um, right. So coding, not really in my background mm-hmm. in that, like sociology history, French major. Exactly.
Jason Kempf - 0:3:24
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:24
Yep. So, um, anyway, I started a technology company and an online software service ,
Chris Wood - 0:3:32
Just because you had nothing else to do,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:34
Because, you know, that's what I was doing. Right. So, right. That was couple years ago.
Chris Wood - 0:3:40
Now I was gonna say, so when, when did that hit?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:43
So that went live,
Chris Wood - 0:3:44
Obviously you had plenty of things going on, but what mm-hmm. , when did that actually officially take
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:48
Off? So that actually started, um, like 2007, 2008. Okay.
Jason Kempf - 0:3:52
Okay.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:3:52
And started as a consumer company called What Friends Do mm-hmm. and, um, went, you know, live all, all across the country. Um, wow. Wow. Actually pretty worldwide. Mm-hmm. because everybody's connected. Right, right, right, right. And so you don't have people just in Indianapolis who are using your services when you're online, if your friends are other places, they mm-hmm. . Right. That was, that was one of the things we were trying to do was make the connections easier.
Jason Kempf - 0:4:21
Right. Now we want to dive into the business, but did, backing up, did you learn coding or did you find people, we
Aimee Kandrac - 0:4:28
Found people,
Jason Kempf - 0:4:29
I mean, cuz that's part of what we want to talk about is mm-hmm. , how did you get that start? What did you go through in those early days?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:4:35
So
Chris Wood - 0:4:36
Obviously it wasn't easy because there was plenty of other things pulling on you. So take us through some of that. Take us through that transition.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:4:44
Um, so it was a lot of hours in my basement at night after my kids went to bed thinking through how do I want to interact with this web service mm-hmm. and how do I want, like, this was in, you know, 2006, 2007, 2008, we're planning all of this mm-hmm. Okay. The number of websites and web services, software services, not anything like what it is currently.
Chris Wood - 0:5:12
Right, okay.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:5:13
Right. But looked at sites that had similar functionality and went through and started kind of storyboarding, like, what does this look like? Mm-hmm. , how, what do we wanna have? Um, and wrote down just so many details of what we wanted to do, what we wanted to have, how did we want people to experience this site. Um, and then started shopping it around to programmers to say, you know, we wanna build something like this. Mm-hmm. . Right. Um, how much is it gonna cost? Is this something that's feasible? How do we, how do we make this work? Hmm. Um, there were not a lot of off the shelf plugin options mm-hmm. at that point. Right. So we were doing, you know, pretty custom site development.
Chris Wood - 0:6:3
Yeah. Was there a lot of pushback from that? Just trying to figure that all out? Like, did you get a lot of people like, nah, I don't wanna do anything like that.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:6:10
Um, you know, I don't remember. I remember interviewing a lot of people and using kind of more of, do I really wanna work with this person mm-hmm. , um, which may or may not be the best choice. Um, developers are their own wonderful breed of hu human . Right. And I, um, , I, I love them, but they're,
Chris Wood - 0:6:39
They have their
Aimee Kandrac - 0:6:40
Gifts. They have their gifts mm-hmm. , so went through quite a few different developers at different points. Okay. Right. Um, you know, I, because I'm not a coder, I liken this, and I hope you can appreciate this analogy. I liken it to building a house mm-hmm. or doing a kitchen build mm-hmm. not necessarily just renovation. Right. And I know how I want it to look in the end. Mm-hmm. , I know that I want all of my toilets to flush and my, and the, to run lights to work and the water to run. And when I like, turn the light switch on the water shouldn't run. Right.
Chris Wood - 0:7:19
,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:7:19
You know, like I, I know that this is how I want it to go. Mm-hmm. , um, but I also know that I need like a contractor to do that
Jason Kempf - 0:7:27
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:7:28
Yeah. Um, and not only do I need a contractor to do that, I need a plumber and an electrician and a drywaller and a painter and probably a designer to help me with the aesthetics mm-hmm. . So I understand those kinds of things, but I think the same thing goes for building technology mm-hmm. . And I didn't necessarily understand that when I was going into it. That's good. Um, so, but I knew that in the end I was like, I want a green button here to say, go and collect this kind of information. Mm-hmm. .
Jason Kempf - 0:8:1
Yeah. So looking for that team chemistry mm-hmm. that, you know, you can communicate with that, you know, that you can communicate your vision mm-hmm. and get, I mean, you know, skills are skills.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:8:13
Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:8:13
Right. And when you don't know how to evaluate those skills, it's more about how can you communicate? And so that's brilliant. That's well done. Well, and I hear your sociology background shaping the interaction on the website. Yeah. Well, which is really cool.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:8:27
It, it has been really fun. Um, I've had the opportunity to kind of go back to quite a few colleges, um, especially in like the liberal arts area and say, I think your liberal arts degree is fantastic. Um, understanding how communities work. Mm-hmm. , I had no idea that it would take me to building, you know, online communities. Um, right. But it has. That's neat. It's been kind of fun.
Chris Wood - 0:8:52
That's awesome,
Jason Kempf - 0:8:53
Man. That's cool. So, all right. So, so take us into, um, you mentioned that there were some other services that you looked at that kind of do some of the things that you guys do mm-hmm. at what friends do, but how do you guys differentiate what, or tell us first, what do you do and how is that different from other things out there?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:9:10
Right. So, um, we are kind of a one stop shop for everything that you might need outside of the hospital walls. Um, and outside of whatever your, you know, crisis is happening, we tend to do a lot in the healthcare space. Um, cancer space, that's where people generally use us. So we know that the first thing that happens when something is going on is people wanna know what, what's going on. Mm-hmm. . And so rather than having to send 50 bajillion texts mm-hmm. , um, or tell your story a thousand times. Right. We have a blog to keep people updated on what's going on. Mm-hmm. . Um, we also know that the first thing people think of is, Hey, can I bring you food? Mm-hmm. . Right. And food is fantastic, but there's a lot of other stuff that can be done. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , um, people need help getting to and from appointments. People need help with their kids, people need help with their pets, people need help with their yard. Yeah. Um, and so we have a calendar that really was the first of its kind where people could go and see a need that was posted by the family and individually sign up to help with that.
Jason Kempf - 0:10:25
Hmm. That's cool.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:10:26
Um, and then we've also integrated, um, an Amazon wishlist because a lot of times you need things. Right. Um, you know, and people who aren't close by wanna be able to help as well. Right. So sending gift cards to your favorite restaurants mm-hmm. or, you know, if you've had some sort of medical accident, uh, you might need to outfit your house differently mm-hmm. . Right. Or you need a new pill box, or you just need something fun to do and, you know, distract yourself. Right. Having that Amazon wishlist is there. So, um, we are kind of, I like to say a combination of CaringBridge meal train, GoFundMe, and Amazon wishlist all in one.
Jason Kempf - 0:11:9
Oh, wow. That's cool.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:11:11
Um, so, and then the other differentiator that we have is we, um, being a B2C company is really difficult. Um, it takes a lot of marketing dollars and when we were really working hard on this, like 2015, we didn't have the marketing dollars, so we switched our business model and went more B2B and offered a white labeled service to, um, started out in healthcare mm-hmm. offering hospital systems, the white labeled service to for their patients. Hmm. Um, and in that like pivot, we, uh, realized that like we needed to upgrade the software and technology, um, needed to get a little bit, at that point we were using only contractors. Mm-hmm. wanted to be able to bring some stuff in house, wanted to be able to scale at a different level. Right. And went after venture capital. And I was actually the first woman in the state of Indiana to close venture funding over $500,000. Wow. Wow. And that was in 2016.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:20
Congratulations.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:21
Thank you very much.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:21
That's super cool. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:23
Yeah. Um, I, but I, I mentioned that because I hope that people in Indiana especially realize like venture funding is very difficult. 2016 was the first time a woman, founder, CEO closed venture funding over a half a million dollars.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:39
Wow.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:39
Wow. Um, and there are not very many of us since then.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:43
Since either Really?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:44
Yeah. Who have been able to do that. Um, Indiana ranks like 47 or 48 in venture funding for female entrepreneurs.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:51
Really? Okay.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:53
Huh. It is not great.
Jason Kempf - 0:12:54
Wow.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:12:56
Um, so just as a little side note for everyone, Right. Venture funding for, for female entrepreneurs specifically in this state, we really need to support them. Wow. A lot.
Jason Kempf - 0:13:8
Hmm. Those are things I've just Yeah. Never, never looked into. I agree. I much less, I mean, it makes sense. There's stats around that, but Yeah. , yeah, yeah. Lots of of stats around it. So there was a lot of work there that went into that.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:13:20
There was a lot of work there. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Kempf - 0:13:23
Well, what would be, what would be the, one of the easy ways for people to support that?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:13:29
Um, learn about venture capital. Okay. Right. Learn about investing in not only your friends mm-hmm. , but in the other organizations and other startups that are going on. Okay. Um, there are a lot of regulations around venture capital funding mm-hmm. , um, and I am not an expert in that, but there are a lot of organizations in town who are experts on this.
Jason Kempf - 0:13:56
Mm-hmm.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:13:56
. Okay. Um, there are a lot of ways that you can, well, I get nervous cuz I have too many friends who are lawyers who will probably be like, Amy, stop
Jason Kempf - 0:14:8
Scott. Yeah. , you crossed the line. ,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:14:10
The s e c regulations around Right. Venture funding. Like, like there are a lot of, um, rules, but there are a lot of groups in town that will teach you about venture funding. Mm-hmm. . Okay. I have quite a few friends who are working on teaching females specifically Okay. About cool. How to invest and how to invest in women owned businesses. But I think there's another issue here, um, which is I think a lot of female entrepreneurs don't realize that they have the opportunity to have a scalable company. Mm-hmm. that is investible.
Jason Kempf - 0:14:44
Right. Oh,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:14:45
Right. Um, and that's very Midwest specific. That's
Chris Wood - 0:14:52
Interesting.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:14:52
And so, so just starting to think differently mm-hmm. around how are you building your business? Is this something that could be scalable, that is investible mm-hmm. , um, do you have a market large enough for this?
Chris Wood - 0:15:5
Do you mind tapping into the whole, like, you, that whole mindset? Like I think that, um, how was that for you to be able to get you to that point? I mean, how'd you and I'm, did it take some growth for you to get to that point where you could be like, Hey, I wanna take this to the next level, I wanna think about this a little differently.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:15:25
Well,
Chris Wood - 0:15:27
Or did you already know from the beginning that you kind of, this is the way you were going?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:15:32
So when we started this, we really wanted it to be a largely utilized consumer product, but I had no idea what that meant Hmm. To make it happen. Right. Like, I knew, um, how communities worked, I knew how, what needed to happen to change one person's life. Um, but, but moving the scalability of that mm-hmm. , I didn't know the details of. Okay. And I think it took me a lot of years to learn all of that. I never sat in a business class mm-hmm. , um, until I was teaching one really . Right.
Chris Wood - 0:16:14
That's a great time to learn. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:16:16
Um, but, but, so I was learning things like, um, what what's your total addressable market in for like larger services as I was going mm-hmm. , I was learning about building a pitch deck as I was building my pitch deck mm-hmm. . Right, right. And getting myself to that point, realizing that I needed the money mm-hmm. to get somewhere was really the first step. Okay. Right. So I, we had been, you know, getting small loans, pulling from our savings accounts. Right. Um, doing all of this kind of stuff, trying to maybe figure out equity. We weren't making a ton of money. Like there's no equity to really give away at that point. Right. Yeah. Um, and so, so realizing we needed real dollars mm-hmm. to make this move. Um, and then, and, and I'm teaching a business class right now, and the thing that I teach my students, number one is you need to utilize your network. Um, there are people in town who know this kind of information mm-hmm. , you need to connect with them. You need to connect with the people who are the lawyers, who are the bankers who do invest in other things, um, and learn from them and lean on their expertise. Mm-hmm.
Chris Wood - 0:17:38
. Well, and you, I mean, you would say, would you not that you had to bring something of value to help them understand that they wanted to invest into it in the process of it too. Right. Right. You have to have, you can't be a a, um, it's great to tap into your network, but you also have to bring something that encourages that idea of investing into
Aimee Kandrac - 0:17:56
Right, right, right. Okay. So, so we had a product mm-hmm. , um, but I had to then show the value of it. Right. Right. Mm-hmm. , okay. So now I've got one hospital client, three hospital clients. This is how much money they are. Like, you just have to show investors the dollars. Right. Right. Yeah. Especially if you're going for real venture money. Right. And not just angel money,
Chris Wood - 0:18:18
Because then it's just all
Aimee Kandrac - 0:18:19
More, then it's like, okay, if I give you a hundred thousand dollars, how soon until I get a million mm-hmm. . Right. And you gotta have yours productions out there and I mean, they're not always Right. .
Chris Wood - 0:18:32
Right. . Right. Well,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:18:33
Like, let's, they're projections.
Chris Wood - 0:18:34
Let's have a plan best. Yeah. Right. Best for a reason. They're best case predictions.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:18:37
Yeah. Yeah. So, so putting all of that together, there are very, um, templated pitch decks mm-hmm. that investors are used to looking at mm-hmm. . Um, and they make a lot of sense. Okay. Right. They're, you know, nobody really cares about your product. Yeah. But you still need to tell them what it is. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , what's your total addressable market? Um, what are your projections? How fast until you get there mm-hmm. , what's your exit strategy? Right. Who's your team?
Chris Wood - 0:19:8
Yeah. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:19:9
Um, and I'm making that up off the top of my head. I know there are like Right. There's more like nine or 10 things that you really, really wanna have on those. Um Right. But if you can't answer those questions, you're not gonna be ready for an investor. Mm-hmm.
Chris Wood - 0:19:22
.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:19:22
Right. Um, and there are a lot of very, very smart and savvy investors in this town. Mm-hmm. who can teach you, um, okay. And places like, um, vision Tech, TechPoint, um, they, they'll teach you how to invest.
Chris Wood - 0:19:40
Okay.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:19:42
Um, and they will have open pitch nights. Um, powder Keg is great. Okay. For, um, going and learning about all the startups that are in town
Chris Wood - 0:19:51
Really.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:19:52
And they'll have a pitch night once, once a month at least. And you can listen to, you know, the 32nd or one minute pitch for all the startups, um, that are coming through. There are a lot of
Chris Wood - 0:20:4
Great, so this is like the modern day, um, shark Tank mini version for Indianapolis. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:20:9
Pretty much.
Chris Wood - 0:20:11
That's awesome.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:20:12
Pretty much. Um, and well, and there are a lot of them, right? Mm-hmm. , and there's a lot of great incubators that are happening in Indianapolis right now also. Mm-hmm. , G Beta has some really good stuff going on. They've got really fun, um, companies in their pipeline right now. Yeah. Cool. Um, and these incubators, if you're already familiar with them, I don't need to go into the detail, but in general, what they are going to do is, um, anywhere between just concept and small startup, they will bring you in with a team of really smart, savvy entrepreneurs mm-hmm. , who can come and say, okay, let's really work on your marketing strategy mm-hmm. , and let's get this ready. Let's really work on your financial projections because I think that your business model isn't solid enough. Um, how can we test it with people who are already in our network to say, you know, this is what you're charging is not gonna actually get you anywhere because you don't know what the other cost of goods and services are. Mm-hmm. , and, um, and then they'll teach you how to pitch. Mm-hmm. , right. There is a really a, there's an art to pitching mm-hmm. , there's an art to standing up in front of a hundred people who are, you know, judging everything you say. Right. Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:21:32
, every word you say is
Aimee Kandrac - 0:21:33
Fun. Every word you say it's fun, and you have 30 seconds, and then they're gonna clap you off stage. . Um, no, seriously. It's like you start with this legit slow clap and then by the, you gotta, you gotta be done. Um, and this is going on all over the city right now. That's cool. It's really great. Um, you know, the innovation showcase generally happens. I think Elevate Ventures puts that on Okay. Along with TechPoint. Um, and these places, again, they're not always open to the public, but a lot of these are, and they might have like a five or $10 entry fee for some of of them. Right. Cool. But if you wanna learn about them Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of opportunity
Jason Kempf - 0:22:14
That is super cool. So question then. Yeah. Yeah. So going back to 2016 when you got the venture mm-hmm. Capital, right? Mm-hmm. , what has that enabled you to do in the, what, six, seven years since?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:22:27
Yeah. So it enabled us to, um, revamp our technology. Um, in order to be scalable, we had to have a different backend that mm-hmm. really was, like I said, scalable,
Jason Kempf - 0:22:42
Not oh seven,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:22:43
Not oh seven tech. Okay. Right. Um, we needed APIs that could talk to all of the other APIs in hospital and pharmaceutical marketing clouds. Right. So that they could get the information that they needed. And, um, we needed to build APIs for iOS and apps. Yeah. Um, and so the money allowed us to build apps for the backend for our business partners mm-hmm. . Um, it allowed us to have a team who could start selling into, um, into businesses mm-hmm. and into healthcare and, and full transparency. Things were going really great until Covid Really. Mm-hmm. . Um, we, we got some of our largest clients, um, some pharmaceutical companies who were excited to have our product as a digital offering for, um, their patients before their drug launched. Oh, wow. Right. It's, they wanted to first of all, show we really care about you as a person. Mm-hmm. , we wanna be able to support you. Um, but for them it increases. Like that's a great for their brand.
Jason Kempf - 0:24:1
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:24:1
And twofold. And then, um, they, again, lawyers, please don't get mad at me for this, like, because I know that it was all kosher and above the board , um, right. But, but they could differentiate their patient from the, you know, 45 families, members and friends who were on there, and then they could send information out about other resources that they might have. Mm-hmm. . Um, and we launched with our then largest, um, pharmaceutical company on March 9th2020. And, um,
Jason Kempf - 0:24:39
Great timing. Mm-hmm. , Uhhuh, . Mm-hmm.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:24:41
, uh, and it went nowhere really fast. Oh yeah. Because the world shut down mm-hmm. , right. We had five in-person conferences. We were, we were supposed to present and launch this product to nurse navigators all across the country. We couldn't do that. Mm-hmm. . Wow. We were trying to figure out how to get this product in, like Zoom conferences, but e everybody was too overwhelmed. Yeah.
Jason Kempf - 0:25:10
Right. Right. There was
Aimee Kandrac - 0:25:11
A lot going. There was so much going on. Um, a and then additionally in the hospital networks where we were, um, we were in a workflow with, um, nurse navigators, social work, um, child Life Specialists, success, those types of people providing our service to the families mm-hmm. and that that just didn't, it just, people were overwhelmed,
Jason Kempf - 0:25:38
Right? Mm-hmm. . Right. And so it had to be frustrating and even just heartbreaking to know that when the world shuts down the, we need a digital resource. Right, right. But just getting the basic care mm-hmm. was so overwhelming. Mm-hmm. that those you're Yeah. It just gets pushed to the back.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:25:58
Goodness. Yeah. It just got pushed to the back. So that was a, that was a pretty big blow for us. Absolutely. I'm sure. And has been a really huge hit on the company. Yeah. Like, it's been a really huge hit on the company We have. Um, hopefully I'm gonna be announcing a really exciting new service line soon, um, that I think is gonna change care a little bit. Cool. And I think will help us differentiate from CaringBridge and Meal Train Oh. Course. And those types of places. Um, the care economy is really starting to take off digitally more. Mm-hmm. , especially as people are aging. Um, I mean, people are always aging. Right, right, right, right. But aging population increases, um, in numbers and they're looking for digital resources. Um, so we're hoping to, um, really soon launch something that can differentiate that and can help people a lot.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:26:55
Um, but in the process of all of this, I, I was in a kind of a sad spot with my company. Like, I didn't know what we wanted to do. I didn't know if we wanted to continue mm-hmm. . Yeah. Um, I was looking for buyers and looking for acquisition and had lunch with a couple of female entrepreneurs who were really good friends of mine. We got together on 4th of July, cuz that was the only day that, you know, we were all free. Right. Yeah. And I was, um, kind of sharing some of this, sharing that, you know, one day I kind of wanna write a book. I've got this idea, I've had this outline, but I haven't been able to get it outta my head. Mm-hmm. mm-hmm. . And one of my friends said, Amy, why don't you start a podcast? You can talk like nobody else. I was like,
Chris Wood - 0:27:41
This
Aimee Kandrac - 0:27:42
Is true.
Chris Wood - 0:27:43
Take my strength in
Aimee Kandrac - 0:27:45
. And, um, anyway, that was on 4th of July and on November 5th I launched, um, the first season with 13 episodes of my podcast. And we're in season two right now.
Chris Wood - 0:27:59
That's exciting. And
Aimee Kandrac - 0:28:1
I am loving it.
Chris Wood - 0:28:3
Yep. That's awesome. And so what's the name of your podcast?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:28:6
So my podcast is called What Friends Do Kitchen Chats.
Chris Wood - 0:28:9
All
Aimee Kandrac - 0:28:9
Right. And it is called Kitchen Chats because when something major happens in life, I call my friends and we sit in the kitchen and figure out what, what's next? Right. Nice. What do we need to do? Right. And so that's what I'm doing with all of my guests we recorded in my kitchen. And that's so fun. That's awesome. Um, , uh, and, and we just start diving into some of those really important topics that, um mm-hmm. need to be addressed when something major happens in your life. Right.
Chris Wood - 0:28:40
Absolutely. That's awesome. So that's been fun. Are you using that as, uh, as also part of your, your website? So they're, you're running them hand in hand together? Yeah. Oh, great. Very cool. That's exciting. Very cool.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:28:53
It is really
Chris Wood - 0:28:54
Exciting. Has it given new life to you, for your other, for your business that you Yes. That's exciting. That's super cool.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:29:1
It's been, um, I forgot how much creative energy that I had
Chris Wood - 0:29:7
Mm-hmm. .
Aimee Kandrac - 0:29:8
Yeah. Um, I think being an entrepreneur is way more creative than people like to necessarily give it credit. Yeah. And, um, it gets really lonely sometimes. Uh, I'm slightly more extroverted than introverted. Mm-hmm. and I get ideas from talking to people Yeah. And from talking to friends. Yeah. Yeah. And I needed that energy.
Chris Wood - 0:29:36
Yeah, absolutely. And Covid definitely killed that.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:29:39
Covid so much Killed it. Yeah.
Chris Wood - 0:29:42
Um, for the, for the extroverts in the world. That was a rough time. Yeah.
Jason Kempf - 0:29:46
Mm-hmm. , there were some introverts that were like, eh, this is fine for a little while. Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:29:49
Um, , oh, I think it was my husband's best years of his life. , I mean.
Jason Kempf - 0:29:53
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:29:54
He was like so excited. And every night my kids were like, oh my God, dad, are we having family dinner again?
Jason Kempf - 0:30:1
. .
Chris Wood - 0:30:4
I went, I went for drives and there was nobody on the street cuz I just had to get outta the house. Ah. I was like, I have to, I have to get out. Mm-hmm.
Jason Kempf - 0:30:10
, Uhhuh, . Yeah. So tell us a little bit about the scope of what friends do of, um, your team, uh, the people that you impact worldwide mm-hmm. . Um, tell us a little bit about the scope of where you guys are at today.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:30:23
Right now we're all virtual. Um, okay. And, um, which is, which is exciting. And luckily we went virtual before covid. Oh, that's great. Um, and we are kind of in a rebuilding phase. Um, we have people who are almost all contract mm-hmm. , um, but working, I actually don't even know where everyone's based right now. Hmm. Um, but I am really excited because right after this, um, I'm meeting my virtual assistant for the very first time, cuz she lives here on the south side of Indie. That's cool. And we've been working together for five years. That's awesome. And, um, we're gonna meet in person, like I said for the first time.
Jason Kempf - 0:31:1
That is so fun.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:31:2
Um, we have, like I said, um, users are worldwide and we have about 45,000 active users right now. Um, so that is people who are logging in, um, and interacting at least one time. Mm-hmm. on the website every month, um mm-hmm. . And so that's kind of how we look at, look at that right now mm-hmm. . And we're looking for, you know, we're always looking for new B2B partners mm-hmm. . So if anybody has, um, uh, any kind of helping organization that wants their own branded software, right? Mm-hmm. like churches, um, healthcare providers, there's a lot of different opportunity out there, um mm-hmm. to have this service for your, your clients and your patients and your constituents. Right. Right. So we're I'm ready to hire another salesperson. . There
Jason Kempf - 0:32:1
You go. Right. Um, yeah, that's
Aimee Kandrac - 0:32:4
A, to kind of move onto that,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:32:6
The genesis of all this has been how do we care for people better mm-hmm. , right? Mm-hmm. , and I know we've kind of got off on all the business stuff and venture capital, you know, all these fun things, right? Mm-hmm. , but when we think about serving others and we're through serving, we're leading them toward health, right? Mm-hmm. , that's exactly what you guys are doing. You're trying to catalyze a community around a person that's in crisis. Mm-hmm.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:32:32
, right?
Jason Kempf - 0:32:33
What is one of the things that, like, like you said earlier, we, we go right to food mm-hmm. , oh, I can bring a meal mm-hmm. . Well, you know, that that doesn't go well with us because, you know, we just don't like onions and food is not allowed in my house. Tell 5 million times. Yeah. Right? And so why is it not allowed in your house?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:32:52
Um, my son is deathly allergic to tree nuts. Like, he's been in the ICU for like anaphylactic nut allergies before. Oh, well. So unless like,
Jason Kempf - 0:33:2
You don't wanna
Aimee Kandrac - 0:33:3
Do that again, so, no, we just don't. But I can use help in other ways.
Jason Kempf - 0:33:7
Right. So what is, what is maybe something that you've seen that's frustrating in that process for families that just like world get this under wraps. Come on, . Well, we need to understand this.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:33:22
So I I've got a short story go for it that I'll share with you that I think kind of epitomizes what I see as the biggest hurdle. Okay. So, um, before my kids could drive, um, my husband was working outta town one night and I needed to go to the grocery to get something for dinner. And I was hit by a car in the parking lot as I was walking in, and I ended up with a broken foot and a broken wrist. Oh
Jason Kempf - 0:33:51
My goodness. Wow.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:33:52
And we've, I, I ended up having to have some surgery on my foot mm-hmm. . And when you do that, you know, you're like, I'm on crutches, but I can't really care my coffee cup even. Um, my kids can't drive. They still have to get to school. Right. They still have to get all of these things. I've maybe mentioned what my company does, um, but there was a small intervention in my house one night because I refused to need a, what friends do Paige to help me because I was like, no, no, no, I'm fine. Yeah. Nobody needs to help . I don't, I don't need, uh, to have a website to let anyone help me. Um, and that's the biggest problem that I see.
Jason Kempf - 0:34:36
Okay.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:34:36
People don't want to have to ask for help. Mm-hmm. when they are literally laying on their back mm-hmm. with their foot up and can't even get their own flipp and coffee cup. Right? Um hmm. I didn't need long-term help. Right. And I had my mom and my sister who the burden was falling on mm-hmm. to take care of everything mm-hmm. and I'm so fortunate to have a ton of friends who wanted to help me.
Jason Kempf - 0:35:5
Right. That's awesome.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:35:6
And I was like, no, no, no, I'm fine. , I don't need anything. But if I can do one thing, like long-term globally mm-hmm. , but I would love to be able to do is destigmatize asking for help and receiving help, it is so hard. Right. It is so uncomfortable.
Jason Kempf - 0:35:30
Yeah. What do you think the barrier is? That we would rather lie in our own misery .
Aimee Kandrac - 0:35:34
Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:35:35
I rather than to just ask for a simple help of like,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:35:39
Well, if I knew the answer to that, I probably would have a lot more going on. . I'm sorry, .
Jason Kempf - 0:35:45
That's
Chris Wood - 0:35:46
Probably true.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:35:46
I'm sorry. .
Jason Kempf - 0:35:47
But I mean, we think, I think about that all the time in terms of our pride and our ego. Uh, right. Why?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:35:53
Well, in the, and the, the hardest part is when the, when the situation is flipped, I want like, yeah, I'm helping you. Hello.
Jason Kempf - 0:36:6
You're frustrated because they won't
Aimee Kandrac - 0:36:7
Let me, I'm so frustrated because you won't let me. Um, it is an honor, it is a privilege for you to allow me to help you with something. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, and of course I wanna do this. This is not like, this is one of the highest priorities in my life is helping someone else. Mm-hmm. And it makes me feel good. Right. Like, there's some selfishness going on here, . It does. Let's
Chris Wood - 0:36:33
Just keep it real. I
Jason Kempf - 0:36:34
Love it. Absolutely. Keep
Aimee Kandrac - 0:36:35
Going. Like there is some selfishness where you're like, oh, I am able to help someone and I feel good about it.
Chris Wood - 0:36:40
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:36:41
Right. Um, but it just feels weird to let other people do it until it's happening. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And then you're like, well that was a lot better because I didn't, like, everybody feels good now. Like I have food mm-hmm. . Yeah. Like somebody brought us dinner tonight
Jason Kempf - 0:37:0
And there's a burden off your shoulders. Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:1
Burdens off my shoulders. And like there are real statistics out there from the World Health Organization that people who have stronger social support networks have better health outcomes.
Chris Wood - 0:37:14
Hmm hmm.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:15
So we know that when you have that social structure support network around you, you're going to do better. Mm-hmm. because you can't do it all alone. Mm-hmm. . Right. None of us have built our businesses by ourselves. This
Chris Wood - 0:37:29
Is so
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:30
True. None of us have, you know, none of us are really raising our kids by ourselves. Takes a village,
Jason Kempf - 0:37:36
It
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:36
Takes a village, ITA village. And if we can't lean into that village, um, when we really need it
Chris Wood - 0:37:43
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:44
We're not gonna be able to get better.
Chris Wood - 0:37:46
Or when we that way we need to don't need it that much. Just some, just just like you said, like a short time when you were hurt. Right. You needed it for a short time. Yeah. You didn't need it for the rest of your life. You just needed it for the time for you to heal. Right. And go through that process. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:37:59
Yeah. And, and, and a beautiful thing can happen from that. Right. Right. Like you can, the stories that we hear on a daily basis from people saying, oh my gosh, I had no idea these people cared about me. Like Right. Like, someone who I haven't had contact with in 10 years reaches out, you know mm-hmm. mm-hmm. or your next door neighbor who you now get to talk to more regularly maybe mm-hmm. , you haven't had a reason to talk to them before or it's weird or you think that you're not, I don't know. Right. I mean there's all kinds of stories that people tell themselves about why, why you're not supposed to rely on each other. Right. , um,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:38:39
Well, but, but seriously, like it is, so last week on my podcast I had, um, a friend on, and he is the vice president for the Red Cross for the Western United States. Mm-hmm. . And we were talking about how to help people when there's a natural disaster. And he was able to say that they have research showing that, um, they can predict the outcome of an individual in a natural disaster based on how strong or, and how close they are to their neighbors and how close they are to their, their support network. So they can go through different communities and say, wow, we know that this community is all like, they're all connected. Mm-hmm. , they're gonna be so much better off than another community.
Jason Kempf - 0:39:25
Wow. That's amazing. And by close you're not just saying proximity,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:39:29
I am not saying proximity.
Jason Kempf - 0:39:30
Connection and relationship.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:39:32
Same connection. There's absolutely relationship. Um, they, they can text each other mm-hmm. mm-hmm. , they can say, Hey, did you know there's a storm coming mm-hmm. and we should all be going to the basement because there's a tornado, right? Mm-hmm. , or there's a winter storm coming, I'm going to the store. Do you need anything? Do you need anything? Right. Or That's awesome. Or I'm, I know that your wife's about to have a baby, I'm gonna make sure your driveway's clear mm-hmm. So that you can get to the hospital on time. Right. That's all without having to think about that. Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:40:3
Right.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:40:3
These are things that any of us would be more than willing to do. Like you're not going outta your way to help somebody else. Right. I mean you are, but that didn't mean to sound flippant with it, but Right. They're little things that we can do and you can just say, wow, thanks. That really feels good to know that somebody cares
Jason Kempf - 0:40:20
About you. Yeah. Absolutely. So true. And what's cool with what friends do is that you're, you're basically bringing that, that community globally mm-hmm. into closeness digitally. Right. Yeah. Which amazing. You know, I'm thinking about, we've, we've got some friends that, um, lived in Ukraine prior to the war, um, helping with transition homes for kids that aged outta foster care, but they're not quite adults and they don't have the life skills to really succeed in life. And you can imagine where that goes. Right. You know, especially for the young females. And so they are working in these, this transition gap of helping, you know, and then the war comes and they actually happen to be stateside when it occurred. And so something like this that could have catalyzed mm-hmm. , their global community would've been really cool cuz they're back and forth to, to the check and, you know. Right. And just what a, what a valuable resource. I mean, that's really cool. And one of the other things that we talked about before we hit record , right. Um, is, is the busyness.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:41:22
Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:41:23
And this is something that, you know, kinda like, you know, you were saying, I I I owned the website . Oh wow. And I didn't want ask for help mm-hmm. , but I, I hear all the time, like, you know, oh, you, you know, I just didn't want to ask you because you're so busy, Chris. Yeah. You know, you're just so busy. I I didn't wanna put a burden on you. Yeah. And you know, and we
Aimee Kandrac - 0:41:42
And and what is your response? Are you, because when someone says that to me, cause they're like, Amy, you're so busy. I'm like you, sorry, I'm hitting the
Jason Kempf - 0:41:49
Table here. You're good. Go
Aimee Kandrac - 0:41:50
For it. But I do because I wanna just, I'm like, you are my friend mm-hmm. mm-hmm. , I care about you. Right. Nothing else that I am doing is more important than me helping you. Right,
Jason Kempf - 0:42:2
Right, right. Yep. We're busy because we fill our time up Right. Naturally when it's empty mm-hmm. . Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:8
And I can move things around for
Jason Kempf - 0:42:11
You. Right. And that's not a
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:12
Burden and that is not a burden. Not
Jason Kempf - 0:42:13
At all. Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:14
And if you ask me to do something that I don't want to do, like walk your dog. I don't walk people's dogs cuz I can't pick up the dog poop. I really hate it. . Um, then I will say, you know, I'm not sure if I can help you with that, but instead could I do X, Y and Z mm-hmm.
Jason Kempf - 0:42:33
. Right? Yeah.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:34
Um, I'll pay someone else to walk your dog so that I don't get like Yeah. That's my, that's my line though. Mm-hmm. , but I'll, but I'll do all kinds of other things for you. And one of the, and that's, um, another really lovely part about offering things more than meals that people can help with because maybe you're not a cook.
Jason Kempf - 0:42:54
Yeah. Right. That's one of things I don't do. I
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:57
Don't, do you, you don't, you
Jason Kempf - 0:42:58
Don't do, I don't enjoy cooking,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:42:59
But you might be willing to go mow their lawn. Yeah. You might be willing to help, like take their kid home from practice because you're already taking your own kid home from practice. Right. It's, it's not a big deal. Mm-hmm. and you would love to do it. And everyone has different gifts that they can offer and remembering that, um, people are pretty good about saying no when it's something that they can't do. Right.
Jason Kempf - 0:43:22
Right. Right. And that's a phrase that, that we've kind of picked up in our family is don't say no for me. Mm-hmm. , trust me enough to be able to tell you no when I truly can't mm-hmm. . So please ask, don't tell me no. Or don't say no for me. Right. Yeah. That's good. And so that's Yeah man. That's cool. Yeah. All right. Well Amy, thank you so much for joining us, being on here. How, so if somebody needs to set up a website for somebody in their life that's going through crisis, where do they go? How do they do that?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:43:55
Um, great question. Yeah, it is, first of all, it's free and they go to,
Jason Kempf - 0:44:0
Oh, that's even better,
Aimee Kandrac - 0:44:1
What friends do.com and they click create a team and we will step them through really quick and easy questions to get everything set up. And, um, here's, here's where they're gonna have hurdles. They don't always know where their friend needs help. Mm-hmm. . Um, but send us a message. We have a live chat available mm-hmm. and we help people all day, every day with this kind of stuff.
Jason Kempf - 0:44:27
That's
Aimee Kandrac - 0:44:28
Awesome. And ask us, we're really, really happy to say, well, what other things might your friend need help with? Um, do they have kids? Do they have pets? Do they have a house? Mm-hmm. . Right. Do they need transportation to and from appointments? Because again, maybe they don't need just food, right? Mm-hmm. . So, so if they have any questions, use the live chat feature and we'll help 'em out.
Jason Kempf - 0:44:50
Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, you, you've got a friend or a family member who's going through crisis Right. Who's having a hard time asking for help. Yes. You're trying to help them. Yes. Don't have a hard time asking for help there either because you guys have walked the road.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:45:2
We do this all day every
Jason Kempf - 0:45:4
Day. Y'all are idea generators. You've got Yes. You've been there. You've seen it. You know what helps. That's wonderful. And how do we find you on the podcast?
Aimee Kandrac - 0:45:12
Uh, we are on all of your favorite podcast places. Um, Spotify, apple Podcasts. Mm-hmm. , um, what friends do Kitchen Chats.
Jason Kempf - 0:45:22
Kitchen Chats. And I hear there's a very special episode on YouTube with a, with a lovely cat in the background. So
Aimee Kandrac - 0:45:28
If you, if you check out our YouTube channel, , um, the very first episode is, um, called The First Person You Call in Crisis. Mm-hmm. . And the first person I call is my sister. Um, she is my sister. So she, you know, gets special stuff like that. Plus she happens to be, um, a mental health therapist. So she has a lot of great strategies and we were diving into some really, um, I think we were talking actually about the night our dad died and when people came to the kitchen to support us mm-hmm. and super heartfelt, meaningful conversation, like we're both crying and, um, my cat's jumping up in the background in the window , um, because he needed to be let in right at that very moment. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It's, um, that's pretty much the story of my life right there. I
Jason Kempf - 0:46:15
Mean, all
Aimee Kandrac - 0:46:16
That
Jason Kempf - 0:46:16
Sums it up pretty well. All that to say people life is real. Right. Uhhuh. just because somebody's behind a microphone or behind a camera or either one, life is real.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:46:26
Life is real. Yeah. There's, there's cats jumping up in the background, bang, banging on the door to be let in. Um,
Jason Kempf - 0:46:33
All that fun
Aimee Kandrac - 0:46:34
Stuff. Yeah. All that
Jason Kempf - 0:46:35
Stuff. Is there a way to, um, you know, where, where can people follow you? Do you have any social, anything like that? Or are you just like, no, just leave me. I'm, I'm
Aimee Kandrac - 0:46:43
Proud. I would love it if they'd follow us. Um, we are most active on Facebook and Instagram. Okay. Okay. And, um, but for a conversation around business, uh, I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Okay. Okay. So please follow me there. So, um, what friends do on Facebook and Instagram? Instagram and you can follow what Friends do on LinkedIn or, um, connect with me personally. Yeah.
Jason Kempf - 0:47:7
Very cool. Very cool to put some links in the show notes. Yeah, we will. Well, thank you again. Thanks again. And, um, I, you know, if you're listening, I hope that you will lean into resources like this. Yes, for sure. This is amazing. You know, I've seen firsthand, I've been the recipient firsthand mm-hmm. and also, you know, helped other people, um, through these moments. And man, it's, it's hard to navigate. It is. And people like you, bringing resources to the world is amazing. Thank you for doing that. So much easier. Thank you.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:47:36
Thanks for letting me share. Yeah.
Jason Kempf - 0:47:38
Well you guys, thanks for tuning in today. Hop over to Leading is serving.com and uh, give us a rating or review. Um, go check out what Friends do Kitchen. Cats Kit, kitchen Cats. Kids
Aimee Kandrac - 0:47:48
And Cats. Oh my gosh. That's gonna be my, like that's the new one, the new spoof. Absolutely. My daughter who lives in Denver is gonna love this cuz she calls every day. She's like, I just called to FaceTime the cats.
Jason Kempf - 0:48:0
.
Aimee Kandrac - 0:48:1
Good to
Jason Kempf - 0:48:2
See you too. There. That's, that's the new Kitchen Cats. There you go. Kitchen Cats. There you go. Anyway, kitchen cats. Go check us out, , send us a message and uh, yeah, thanks for listening guys. Y'all are great. Thanks. See you time. Good day. Bye.