This is the full transcript for Episode #326 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Sidney Collin – NexStride for Parkinson’s, De Oro Devices Co-Founder. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Sidney Collin 0:00
Try it out.
Max Branstetter 0:15
Why? Hello, welcome back to Wild Business Growth. This your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning who’s turning wild ideas into wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting. You can email me at
Sidney Collin 1:53
Thank you for having me. I am doing well. It’s beautiful and sunny here in Austin, Texas. It’s been like 85 degrees this week. Snowed last week, so you just never know what you’re gonna get here in Texas. How are you
Max Branstetter 2:05
I’m great. I’m great. Keep Austin weird. That’s what they say, right? I guess it applies to the weather too, everything. I’m super excited. I think it’s always cool when there’s an entrepreneur with, like, a medical or we’ll call it like a good vibes business. And I haven’t interviewed too many of them, so this is pretty cool and pretty unique. But before we get into everything with diora and nextride, I know that you are a geek in terms of brain research, we’ll call it. There’s something about the brain that gets you really, really excited. Where does that background come from? Like, why is the brain so interesting to you. Dude,
Sidney Collin 2:42
I don’t know, like, I don’t know what it is about the brain that has always just drawn me in, but it really has. I got really interested in understanding how the brain the body work, how they work together, how they can kind of modify each other. I think in high school, I remember, I was in a human anatomy and physiology class, and I think the teacher just like, didn’t feel like teaching that day, and she just put on a bunch of TED talks, and she’s like, here kids watch this, and there’s this podcast, or, sorry, there’s this TED talk about this team that was doing brain controlled prosthetics. And I thought that was just the coolest thing I had ever seen in my entire life. And I had already been pretty fascinated in biology. Before that, I had a really cool, really funky AP Bio teacher, Miss Haber. Shout out, Miss Haber. Berkeley
Max Branstetter 3:34
high. Real quick. My cousin’s names are havers. So shout out all the habers, all the havers.
Sidney Collin 3:41
She’s, yeah, she’s really just a great teacher, but also really funky. Like, she would like, I remember when we were learning about a specific type of bird, she would like, do the mating call of the bird at the beginning of the class. And we were all like, what is happening? Like, who is this woman? But you know, those teachers that are like, a little weird, they really like, stick with you, you know, like the information that you learn from them, it sticks in your brain. She definitely was very she got you hooked, you know, so, so I was interested in biology before that, but I remember when I was in this human anatomy and physiology class watching these researchers show this brain control prosthetic, I was just, I mean, completely fascinated with understanding. How does that even work? How do you take these signals that are sent throughout the brain, transmit them to signals that are battery operated, and transmit those signals into something that can move a machine like that? Is so freaking cool. So that’s how I really got fascinated in that, in that subject. And then from there on out, looked for every opportunity to kind of be in that space. So I ended up studying biomedical engineering at Cal Poly, because of that, because of my AP Bio teacher, because I loved math and science and building stuff. And I really was fascinated under. How the brain works. And it felt like biomedical engineering was, like, relatively new at the time when I started undergrad, and it felt like that was a way to kind of integrate all the things I liked, until one thing, and I was like, That sounds perfect. And then when I was in college, I did a couple of projects in school where I was able to kind of dive deeper into that. So I did some research for St Jude Medical Abbott. At the time, Abbot now doing research for Deep Brain Stimulation people with Parkinson’s. And then I actually took some time off of school and did some research in EEG Neurofeedback for children with ADHD. Worked for a company in Paris, flew out to France, stayed there for six months, worked with them for a little bit, published research in the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, and then came back and finished school. That’s a long winded way of saying. I don’t know exactly why the brain has been so fascinating to me, but I have done everything in my power to continue to learn about it since then,
Max Branstetter 5:57
and a lot of long words just to prove that you’re pretty smart, but I think the brain, it’s something I’ve always been fascinated in as well. It’s just like, I mean, the whole the whole body and biology in general, but especially the brain is like, so much goes on there. And like, when you add different considerations, like you’re talking about, like, prosthetics, and then how, like, the brain, like, adjusts, and things like that, it’s, it’s unbelievable, I guess, pursued that interest in the brain much less than you have. I’ll say, maybe it’s up for debate. But what is it like, from those early days of getting interested in the brain? We’ll call it that era, what’s kind of like a fun fact or something, just mind literally mind blowing about the brain that you’ve always thought was really, really cool.
Sidney Collin 6:44
That’s a hard question to answer, because there’s so many things about the brain. It’s more the understanding that there is this organ in the body that controls everything that we do. There’s this famous quote that that I really like that kind of I think is a good example of why I’m so fascinated with the brain and why I love to dive into it. It’s the same reason I love theoretical physics. It’s like so hard to understand. But anyways, the quote is, if the brain were so simple that we could understand it, we’d be so simple that we couldn’t. And it’s this idea that, like, we will never fully understand how the brain works because we are using our brain to understand the brain. So there’s this idea that, like, I don’t know, I don’t know why I love that so much, but this idea that, like, we are never going to be able to fully map this out and understand every single thing about it. It’s just not possible. And there’s something appealing about that to me. I don’t know, I don’t know how to explain it. Same thing with theoretical physics. It’s like, okay, there’s this thing called quantum mechanics, and like, we don’t really understand it, but we also kind of understand it, but it goes against everything that we think we know when we’re talking about Newtonian physics. And then we get into quantum mechanics, and you’re just like, and you’re just like, what this goes against all the laws I’ve ever been taught in physics. And yet we have all these examples to show that it’s true and it’s real, and it just feels very like hard to wrap your brain around. And there’s something really fun about that.
Max Branstetter 8:21
So we’re gonna table your business journey and just talk theoretical physics the whole time. If
Sidney Collin 8:28
that’s not the point of this,
Max Branstetter 8:29
yeah, that’s for another time. Let’s get to your business journey and your, you know, creation and everything you’re doing there. And so you got DRO. Am I understanding correctly, that like Dior is like the company behind it, and then next ride is kind of like the pillar core product. That’s correct? Yep. And I know this all ties back to the research kind of that you were alluding to in some of the work you’ve been doing, but for anybody who’s not familiar, I mean, unfortunately, you know, I think a lot of us are familiar with Parkinson’s, and it seemingly is like increasing and in so many places, and so many are affected by it. But can you just give kind of like a high level breakdown of, like, what Parkinson’s it? Parkinson’s is, if I could talk right? And then you know how it often can affect your body. So
Sidney Collin 9:14
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease, which basically means that it’s, it’s a progressive neurogene disease, so it’ll keep getting worse. There’s a specific part of your brain called the substantia nigra, where cells are dying. That area of the brain is what creates a neurotransmitter name called dopamine. Essentially, all the symptoms of Parkinson’s come from the lack of dopamine in the brain, which is caused by the dying cells and substantia nigra. We don’t exactly know why those cells start dying, but we know that they do. And then all the other symptoms of Parkinson’s come from that lack of dopamine. There’s all sorts of symptoms of Parkinson’s from like, having trouble swallowing, having trouble kind of talking, having trouble walking. This is the symptom that we kind of focus on, is the mobility. Aspect of things, there’s cognitive symptoms, there’s, you know, depression, apathy, there’s really all sorts of ways that it affects your body. You can think of it a very high level. Generally, it’s these automatic pathways in your body that get affected. So all the things that you do without thinking, like, breathe, chew, walk, swallow, like, blink, all these things that you do without, without thinking become very, very difficult for somebody with Parkinson’s, because their automatic system is affected really heavily. And in terms of the size of Parkinson’s, there’s 10 million people diagnosed with Parkinson’s globally, 1 million in the US, but it’s actually the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease. So Alzheimer’s is the most common. Parkinson’s is the second most common, but Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease. It’s very common. If you don’t know someone with Parkinson’s, I guarantee you you know someone who knows somebody with Parkinson’s, it’s hopping up a lot more.
Max Branstetter 11:02
Yeah, appreciate that breakdown there. I’m going to have a lot of science questions for you, so apologies for that. I know the automatic pathway, so that’s important, but that’s a that’s a great background, like understanding of it. How did you become interested in, like, wait a second, there’s actually, like, parts of, you know, this disease that I can actually create something and do something about.
Sidney Collin 11:29
So I started doing research in Parkinson’s in deep brain stimulation, which we talked about already while I was in school. And that’s how I started, kind of understanding the Parkinson’s space. And then I ended up meeting so the the head of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Cal Poly, Dr Lily Laiho, introduced me to a local veteran in the community named Jack brill. And Jack Brill lived with Parkinson’s disease, and he suffered from this mobility symptom called freezing of gait that affects his ability to walk. I met him, and he asked me for help building this product. So he actually knew, right? Like, I know that these visual auditory cues helped me, because I use them in my physical eye Jack rail, right? Use them in my physical therapy clinic, and I know that they work for me, but then I go home, I’m not able to use them so, so he reached out to the biomedical engineering department and said, Hey, I have this idea. I need an engineer who can help me build it. And I got connected to him that way. And so that was really the motivation was there was a person that I could help, that I could substantially improve his life by helping him build this product. And so I really It started as, like, you know, a school project. I stayed in slow in San Luis Obispo over the summer between, I guess, was after my second year of college, and just built this product with him. You know, stayed was working in the lab every day, and was kind of learning I had taken one intro to coding class I, like, got my advisor, Mr. Laho, Dr Lyles, husband. I remember him like coming into the lab and dropping this book on the tables, like, Intro to Arduino. And he’s like, all right, let me figure it out. Like reading the first chapter, doing the very basic like, I think it’s like blinking LED circuit. Like, I don’t know if you are familiar with Arduinos, but it’s like, this is the first thing that everyone does. Like, if you send your newly, almost newly born daughter to engineering camp. Like, this is the first thing she’ll do when she’s like, 10 years old. It’s like, the blinking LED thing. It’s very simple. Anyways, I walked through did that, and then just kind of like, figured it out from there, luckily, with our join notes, open source, so you can, kind of like, find code that does, like, generally, what you want, and then edit it. And you don’t really need to have a great understanding of computer science to be able to do it, thank goodness. And at the end of three months, I had a prototype for him that I was able to give him, and I could see him walk for the first time, which was a pretty, you know, life changing event to see that. You know, he had been in a wheelchair all the time before that, he could go to his physical therapy clinic and walk using visual on tour cues. But other than that, he was in his wheelchair all the time, and so that was the first time I had seen him walk. And that was a pretty crazy moment to be like, Oh, wow. This isn’t just, like this small thing that can slightly improve his life. This is like, the difference of him being able to walk or not and realize that could have a really big impact. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 14:29
that’s like, people talk about the, like, eureka moments that, like scientists and like chemists have, and all that, and like that. That’s one of the best I’ve ever heard, because you’re the amount you’re like, firsthand changing somebody’s life and seeing the impact right there, and then realizing, Wait, that we can affect and improve the lives of a lot more people with this as well. At
Sidney Collin 14:49
that point, I didn’t even know that there was, like, other people I could help. It was just jack, like, whoa. I could really affect Jack’s life and Jack, Jack’s wife, Sandy’s life, because, at this point, because Jack was. A wheelchair. Sandy was doing everything for him, you know, like he needed something in his office. She would go get it, bring it back. Like she needed to, like, walk with him to the bathroom. Like they couldn’t go on walks together, you know, it also affected her life. So at that point, there was no idea of like, Oh, I’m gonna make this a business. I mean, I was in college right after my sophomore year of college, so I wasn’t like, Oh, this is the start of the big business. I was like, Oh, wow. This was a cool project. You know, I think this
Max Branstetter 15:28
interview is just turning into, like, explain it to max as if he’s a second grader. So if Max is a second grader, not me, just, you know, some other second grade Max. How does nextride work? Like, how that, like, that seems like almost too good to be true. It seems unbelievable. Like, what connect the dots there?
Sidney Collin 15:47
No, 100% I mean, I remember Jack telling me, like, Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna take a laser light. We’re gonna take a metro. He was really, he really liked music. So he was, was less into the metronome, was warm, into the music, because he liked to play music from his walker. It turns out, the wider market doesn’t actually want music playing out of their canes, but that’s a different story. So he was like, here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna create an mp three player, we’re gonna get a laser light, we’re gonna put it on my walker, and then I’m gonna be able to walk. And I was sitting here, like, Okay, I mean, I will create this because I think it will be fun, and I would like to work with him, and I want to build something like, okay, cool, but I was not convinced that this was really going to help him. And during the process, I started to look into the research, and I found, okay, there actually are over 100 peer reviewed articles that have been published showing the efficacy of these visual and auditory cues. Visual and auditory cues being a laser line on the floor and a metro and there was also research behind music. And so I started to build a little bit of credibility in my mind of like, okay, this might be something that is real, but I had never really experienced it until I gave him the unit to try for the first time. That’s when I, like, really started to understand what was happening and dive into understanding the research. And essentially, what we found is that there is the reason that freezing of gait happens is there’s a specific neural pathway in the brain that gets damaged or disconnected, and it makes it so that when your brain is sending that signal to initiate movement. That signal isn’t getting to the motor neurons that are activating your muscles. But what we can do is we can use these external visual and auditory cues to activate the goal oriented part of the brain, and that allows you to bypass the dimensional circuits that are causing free significant and allow someone to be able to restore mobility. So let me simplify that a little bit, as we mentioned at the beginning, right? A lot of the symptoms of Parkinson’s are focused around the automatic movements. If you can do the same movement, but it’s a goal oriented movement, instead of an automatic movement, you’re able to bypass the damaged part of the brain. If you Max are walking, and you’re just saying, like, oh, okay, I’m gonna go walk over there. You’re not, like, that’s the automatic part of your brain. But if I give you, if I put a piece of tape on the floor and I say, step over this tape, you know, if I give you marching music and I say, march to this music, that’s a goal. And so that uses a different part of the brain to initiate the same exact movement that you would have done if you were doing the automatic movement. Does that kind of make sense? Yeah,
Max Branstetter 18:27
no, that was you just totally Wow. I did not intend to do this, but you literally unlock that in my brain by describing that. And so no, that’s that’s super helpful. It makes me think of a couple other things in the medical world. One is like, is it kind of like a, like, a bypass and heart surgery, or, like, almost, if you could go, I mean, I guess if you think about it, yeah, going around it, whatever, is there the blockage? And then the other question I had on that is that the way that Parkinson’s works, as far as affecting gait, like, to me, it sounds a lot like multiple sclerosis, and something that can happen with MS is that at least that part of Parkinson’s is that similar, or is it like totally different in terms of MS?
Sidney Collin 19:09
MS is also a neurodegenerative disease. So there’s, there’s a couple of different neurodegenerative diseases that are pretty common. Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, PSP, cerebral palsy, are just a few. So they are all neurodegenerative diseases in terms of what causes the symptoms. I don’t know as much in the other areas outside of Parkinson’s, so I wouldn’t be the person to talk about
Max Branstetter 19:34
that. Okay, I’m just proud of myself. I’ve officially stumped you, not you stumping me. That’s a bad question. On this part. This whole interview is just like light bulb moments, and warms my heart hearing about it. You mentioned that, like, at first you didn’t realize this could even be a business, or you weren’t like thinking about that yet. What were the steps you took to actually, like, start to like, create more than one of these devices, and to. Actually be like, Hey, we can turn this into a business. I can help more people.
Sidney Collin 20:03
Well, the first thing was, Jack brought me to a support group, a Parkinson’s support group, in SLO to show off the new technology that we had built together, but that he had on his locker. That’s where I met. Well, not only did I meet one of the like leaders in Parkinson’s research there, Dr Becky Farley, she happened to be presenting at that support group, and she was super excited about the technology as well. So that was like a green flag for me. But I also met 30 other people who had Parkinson’s and suffered from freezing of gait and had no solution for it. And so I remember, you know, we presented this with Jack. Jack stood up, he showed off his cool technology, walked around and and then after that support group was over, I remember these people coming up to me, one by one, saying, you know, Hi, my name’s Bob. My name is Jill Joe, so and so. I’m making up names, Jill
Max Branstetter 20:56
Joe as one name, I think could fly. That’s pretty cool.
Sidney Collin 21:00
Jill Joe, Billy, Bob, whoever it was. And and they all came up to me one by one, saying, like, Hi, my name is so and so, you know, how can I get one of these technologies? Like, when? When do I get to walk again? And I remember just thinking, like, Oh, crap. Like, how am I going to make 20 more of these? Like, I don’t. I don’t have the like funding to be able to build 30 more. And so I started looking into, okay, well, is there, like a grant, is there something that I can do to make 30 more of these? And what I found is that at Cal Poly, there were two, like business competitions. There was the innovation quest IQ, which was, I think it was like the number one prize was like, $15,000 $10,000.05 $1,000 like, first, second, third place. And I was like, okay, cool, that would be enough. And then there was this other opportunity, that was the accelerator, where all the people that get into the accelerator get a $10,000 grant. I was like, okay, great, that would be enough. So I went and pitched innovation class and lost really badly. Like they the judges came up to me afterwards, and they were like, you have got some learning to do. I was like, you just came up there and just told us, just literally recited research. Like, that’s not a business. That’s just, that’s just research. It’s like, I don’t understand. I feel like it’s the same thing. And then I did and I did the accelerator, and I think the I learned a lot from the innovation quest first, and then got into the accelerator. And I think they also just kind of took pity on me. They’re like, Okay, this poor engineer has no idea what she’s getting herself into, but we think that there’s an opportunity here. So So ended up doing the accelerator, getting $10,000 at that that was enough for us to build a few more of those for the people that needed them. And of course, in that process, it’s a three month accelerator, so in that process, we’re learning about the business opportunity, and that’s when we started to realize that there actually is a business opportunity there outside of just jack, and that we could have a much bigger impact, not only in the Parkinson’s population, but this technology is also effective in stroke and cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis and PSP and the elder population in general, for people who are high fall risk. So there was a much bigger market opportunity out there. And
Max Branstetter 23:17
not to bring back bad memories, but what is it that you learned from the failed pitch? We’ll call it of IQ.
Sidney Collin 23:25
The funny thing is, they asked me to come back and judge it this year, to judge innovation quest. And then I’m like, I don’t know if you want me to judge it. I lost very badly, but I’ve learned a lot since. Why did I lose what? Oh, what did I learn from
Max Branstetter 23:41
it? Yeah, the first way of saying that sounds just like, I’m a total
Sidney Collin 23:47
So why were you so bad? Yeah, and we think it’s just the classic story of like an engineer trying to start a company, right? Saying, like, hey, this, there’s this really cool product. Here’s the cool product, and not the business opportunity. Like there was very little. I was uninterested in the market, the go to market strategy. I was not I thought it was all just like, well, if you have a great product, then it sells itself, right? This is famous last words. I went up there and was like, quoting all the research, talking about how effective the product is. And they were like, how are you going to sell this? I’m like, What do you mean? How am I going to sell it? Did you not see all this research of how effective it is? And they were like, Yeah, but who’s going to buy it? I’m like, people. I don’t know. Apparently that’s
Max Branstetter 24:38
not what they wanted to hear people. That’s always good answer, unless it’s like an animal product, then I guess not. But as it started to like, you’re in the accelerator and congrats on winning that all good things. And so it seems like that was, like, really formative for the business. What would you say looking back now, has been like. The biggest changes or decisions that you’ve made with the business that have, like gotten the momentum going with it?
Sidney Collin 25:05
Well, I think there’s a lot of inflection points. I think all of the accelerators and communities that we’ve joined have opened up doors for us, and every accelerator that we did had a very specific purpose, right? So this accelerator out of Cal Poly was really getting exposed to the business world. We joined StartUp Health that unlocked doors in the medical technology space and understanding right connections to people who understand the space FDA regulation, reimbursement, that sort of space capital factory here in Texas is we joined when we moved out to Texas, when I moved out to Texas, and that allowed us to kind of get connected into that space. So I would say those are kind of like minor inflection points. The big one that comes to mind is the transition from our business strategy strategy, from being primarily direct to consumer to being primarily B to B, which I think is pretty common for startups, to move from a direct to consumer to a B to B space. But I think that was made a big difference for us. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 26:04
that’s huge. Can you share like, what you’ve learned about pivoting to the B to B world,
Sidney Collin 26:12
generally, right? When you look at the LCD to cap ratio, right? Long Term lifetime value of a customer versus the customer acquisition cost, B to B sometimes makes more sense than direct to consumer. Often makes more sense when you’re in the space that we’re in, in the medical space. I think the cost per acquisition cost for us, like there’s a lot people aren’t familiar with visual long term cues. There’s a lot of education required to get somebody to understand the value of our product. If I go up to someone and say, Hey, I have a laser and a metronome, it’s going to help you walk, they’re like, Okay, how exactly does that work? You know, there’s a lot of education that’s needed to get somebody to understand and get someone comfortable with that. Not only do we have to educate them on what the product is, how it works, but also we need people to be able to self identify into the group of like, Hey, I’m a good fit for this product. I am the potential customer here. So that ends up being a lot of time, and sometimes it’s expensive, and so the lifetime value versus customer acquisition cost for that one customer, the ratio isn’t quite where we want it to be. But if we go on the B to B side of things, one customer like we work with long term care insurance companies, we just close this big deal with Prudential, which I can talk about because they published it already. So we have this one customer. They have hundreds of 1000s of people that they work with. Yes, we have to educate that customer, and it might take a little bit longer, but then the lifetime value of that customer is a lot higher for us. So the cocktail TV ratio just makes a lot more sense.
Max Branstetter 27:56
I think you said the cocktail ratio, I’m like that. That’s kind of more out of the business stuff, but that the customer
Sidney Collin 28:02
acquisition costs a lifetime value. Yeah, of the customer, what
Max Branstetter 28:06
would you say has been like the biggest challenge in terms of building this business so far?
Sidney Collin 28:13
I think it’s really like you have to be comfortable with uncertainty, and you have to be comfortable with rejection, and I think that’s very hard. It’s like, easy to say and a lot harder to do. Like anybody who’s gone through a fundraising round needs to be comfortable with people making you feel stupid, you know, and people being like, this is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard of. And you just need to be able to, like, take that, take what’s valuable out of it, leave what’s not and go do it again. And that’s hard. It’s hard to do. It’s easy to say, but it’s hard to do.
Max Branstetter 28:49
Oh, that was so stupid. No, I’m just kidding. That’s a wonderful lesson. I’ve grilled you enough for now about challenges and inflection points. Let’s switch it up a bit. The last couple segments are more dive more into you know, your personality and you it doesn’t have to be tied to the business at all. We certainly welcome to if you want. But first segment is called the unusual so pet peeves, quirks, weird talents. Let’s start with quirks. What’s something just a little quirky about your personality that, like friends, family, team, somebody calls you out for but it’s who you are.
Sidney Collin 29:27
I’m pretty bad about interrupting people. I think that’s my friends call me out for that. Oh my god, you strike my boyfriend insane. You mean like. You mean,
Max Branstetter 29:36
wait, I’m interrupting you now. Sorry. You mean, you mean like you are the interrupter.
Sidney Collin 29:40
Yes, like, I’m in the interrupter. So like, you’ll say something that I’m like, really excited about. I’ll be like, yeah, totally. And they’re like, I wasn’t done. I’m like, oh, sorry. I will have to, like, literally, like, put my hand over my mouth when someone’s talking and just be like, or like, write down what I was gonna say, because I’ll completely forget. Later what I was so excited about, but, yeah, that’s something that my I used to drive my boyfriend insane. He would get legitimately mad at me. Other people are just kind of like, oh, this is just like, a weird thing. So he does. I’m not, but my boyfriend would get legitimately upset. So I had to work on that. Well,
Max Branstetter 30:18
I would never guess that based on this interview, I think you’ve been a very non interruptive for the most part, for the most No, no. But there is, like, a wide range I’ve noticed with that in terms of whether it like ticks people off being interrupted, and whether it’s it’s totally fine. Yeah, that’s really it. We could do a whole deep dive into that. So all right, and also, I can’t believe I interrupted you as you were describing that. So sorry. All right, how about pet peeves? Speaking of what is something that just kind of grinds your gears a little bit?
Sidney Collin 30:53
I mean, I think in general, just stagnation, like being in one spot and not being able to grow or change or learn or whatever. Just I think that it really drives me crazy, but I really like need novelty in my life. I think that might be why I’m a startup founder, but that’s something that I just has always bothered me, just like feeling stagnant. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 31:19
I think that’s a great trait for a founder, as he alluded to and then weird talents. What is something that you’re really good at, but like, could literally be, like, a tiny, minuscule thing, but you just have a knack for it. Have you ever played the game set? I don’t think so. What kind of game is
Sidney Collin 31:37
that? Like a pattern matching game? I used to play with my family when we were kids, and I have always been very strangely good at it. And I tried to play with my boyfriend. He, like, legitimately will play with me because he gets so upset because I will. He just can’t. She just can’t.
Max Branstetter 31:59
Is that a board game or card game?
Sidney Collin 32:02
No, it’s a card game, but it’s like, specific types of cards I have ADD. I think it’s like, really good for people with AV, because it moves really fast. I think that’s also the thing. Like, I really like things that move fast. I like, like, same thing with like, Have you ever played flop, Jack or Egyptian War, where you, like, you see a pattern and you slap
Max Branstetter 32:19
it? Yeah? Egyptian rat, screw is that still? Is that? Yeah, same thing. Okay, yeah,
Sidney Collin 32:25
yeah, that’s the same thing. Same thing. Love that game. I love like, things that move fast, like that, things that are very like, I don’t know
Max Branstetter 32:37
you’re gonna hate this. We’re gonna wrap up with some rapid fire Q and A super fast you ready for it? All right? And I say hate this because I am very slow at asking these. So let’s get wild. What is the memory from living in now, I have to say is stuck at French accent, Paris. That what’s the memory that like makes you the most nostalgic?
Sidney Collin 33:06
I just loved it there. I want to move back to Paris at some point. I’m not being very rapid fire about the answer either.
Max Branstetter 33:13
Hey, I’ll just interrupt you. In a minute,
Sidney Collin 33:17
I’m just gonna say the chocolate croissants. That’s my favorite thing about
Max Branstetter 33:21
oh, it’s so good. Yeah, those are they look good, and then they’re somehow so much better than they look, even like it’s, it’s the next level. I heard a little birdie told me, speaking of bird meeting calls, a little birdie told me that you, at one point in your life thought you would become like a professional dancer. What’s like your favorite memory, or the best part of doing ballet growing up?
Sidney Collin 33:46
Well, the one thing that I really liked about it is that it was very structured, like I danced the San Francisco Ballet School, and it’s like, very traditional, very structured, very like, intense. And I really liked that strangely, even though I’m, like, not a very structured person at all, but there’s something about it that I really liked growing up. But I think in general, dance is just, it’s a very, I don’t think of myself as a very creative person in general. Like, I’m not someone who just gonna, like, sit down and draw one of my best friends, Sarah. She’ll just sit down with a blank canvas, and then an hour later, there’s like, this beautiful thing on it, and I’m like, How did you do that? Not something that I can do. I can, like, copy something else and recreate it, but like, just coming up with it out of nowhere is just not something that I’m capable of. But I think that dance can be very creative. I like that. It connects you with your body, like you’re really in tune with, like, how everything is moving and how you feel. And I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but yeah, the funny thing is, I stopped. When I stopped dancing with the San Francisco Ballet School. I haven’t taken a dance class, yes, yet. Since then, it’s been like, I don’t know, 1011, years. So I. Yeah, it’s quite cold turkey. You’re
Max Branstetter 35:02
due for it, for ballet, and then a night of playing a set in Egyptian, whatever it’s called now, too. All right? And then what was the the first thing like, when you moved to Austin that you were like, Okay, this is why seemingly everyone in the world is moving to Austin,
Sidney Collin 35:21
well, they’re really good tacos. I’m a big taco fan. That’s another weird thing about me. Like, 90% of my diet is tacos. That’s
Max Branstetter 35:27
not weird. No, those are delicious. Wait, wait, what’s your top taco place? Then in Austin, there’s
Sidney Collin 35:32
a place up the street called Las Trancas. It’s like, just like a food truck. It’s so good. Bear cruise. Also bear. Cruise is good. I mean, those are the top two. I think
Max Branstetter 35:43
I’m totally blanking on the name, but we did my bachelor party in Austin. Okay, you know, like everybody in the world, one of the best bites of food we had was just like the food truck taco place that we went to, just like the Friday at lunch when we got in. And it was just so good, like they’re just so fresh. There’s nothing like it. And I don’t know I would shout them out, but I totally forgot the name, but maybe it’s one of the ones you mentioned, so I’ll have to look it up afterwards.
Sidney Collin 36:09
Granny’s tacos is another good one. That’s my boyfriend’s favorite. That sounds
Max Branstetter 36:13
good. I would. Yeah, tacos. A tacos and tapas tour. No tacos tour is all for Austin, all right. And then last one you mentioned, so your AP, bio teacher, Haber, Miss Haber. Yes, Miss Haber.
Sidney Collin 36:27
So she listens to this. I brought her flowers when I was in college and told her she was the reason, I say, by my COVID hearing, she started crying.
Max Branstetter 36:34
Oh, my God, that’s so sweet. Well, if she doesn’t listen to this, out on her on this podcast, one other paper that listens to this regardless, so, but you mentioned she did like bird calls and like bird like mating calls and stuff like that. What? What is an example? You don’t have to do it unless you want to. But what’s an example of a bird that you remember her
Sidney Collin 36:55
doing? Honestly, I don’t remember what the bird was called. I don’t remember what the mating call was. I just remember her doing it, and me looking around and being like, what is going on? Oh, my God. So couldn’t tell you. She also walks her pet llamas around Berkeley. So that also gives you an insight into what she’s like,
Max Branstetter 37:17
pet llamas around Berkeley. That sounds like a, I don’t know, like a 60s rock album name or something, wow. Sydney. Thank you so much. This has been awesome. Just like, really appreciate everything you’re doing, and it’s so cool. And unlocking some some like things for so many where’s the best place, if people want to learn more about dioro or next stride, or just to, like, connect with you online, where’s the best place you can do that.
Sidney Collin 37:41
The best place to connect with me is on LinkedIn, just my name, and for the business, GetNexStride.com is where all the information is about our company. Perfect. I also am passionate about, you know, making sure people with Parkinson’s have the resources they need. So if people have any questions about Parkinson’s in general, they can reach out to me.
Max Branstetter 38:03
Awesome. Thank you. And unfortunately, I like started interrupting you as you were saying that. Like very heartwarming thing to wrap it up, so say Levy, thank you so much, Sydney. Last thing, final thoughts. It could be a quote. It could be just kind of like a one line, words to live by, whatever you want. Send us home here, Words To Live By no pressure. Yeah, no pressure. It just everyone will take them very seriously and literally. So no pressure.
Sidney Collin 38:28
If there is a product out there that you can create that can have an impact on people. I mean, healthcare is not the easiest way to start a business. It’s not the fastest way to make a million dollars become a millionaire, if that’s what you’re after. But it is impactful, and there are ways to do it, and there’s a lot of support out there to do it, through accelerators like StartUp Health, through the NIH funding SBIR is sttrs. So I would say one reach out if I can help and and to try it out. So
Max Branstetter 39:02
Sydney, so thankful that you are trying it out and creating those amazing things that you’re creating. Thank you so much, Sidney, for coming on Wild Business Growth, and thank you, Wild Listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow Wild Business Growth on your favorite podcast app and hit subscribe on YouTube for the video versions. YouTube is @MaxBranstetter you can learn anything you want about, well, pretty much anything about Max Branstetter, MaxPodcasting, Wild Business Growth, as well as the Podcasting to the Max newsletter at MaxPodcasting.com and until next time, Let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!