Serena Serna introduces herself, highlighting the challenges she faced as a non-typical biotech founder.

• Serena is a brown woman without the advanced degrees typically seen in the biotech industry.
• Despite feeling underqualified, she never gave up on her vision.

Serena shares her personal health experiences that motivated her to start her company.

• She recounts a painful health incident from high school involving ovarian cysts.
• The lack of reliable diagnostic methods for ovarian cysts deeply affected her and her family.
• Inspired by her experiences, she aspired to improve women's healthcare.

Serena discusses her early career and the founding of Envision Medical.

• Worked as an engineer at Abbott Vascular and a device startup before founding her company at 24.
• Motivated by her high school health scare, she aimed to create an early detection mechanism for ovarian cancer.
• She faced challenges in getting her idea validated by the medical community.

Serena speaks about validating her medical device concept and the difficult process of seeking funding.

• She consulted gynecologists to validate her concept, starting with her own doctor.
• Serena leveraged her personal network for introductions to industry professionals.
• She faced at least 50 rejections from investors, partly due to biases against her background and the Women's Health market.

Serena recounts the development of her medical device and its clinical success.

• After initial funding, she built a world-class team and raised more venture capital.
• The device went through prototyping, clinical studies, and received FDA clearance.
• It became the first device cleared to collect cells from the fallopian tube for cancer evaluation.

Serena details the acquisition of her company by Boston Scientific.

• She had no initial interest in selling, but the clinical data attracted several companies.
• Boston Scientific made an offer of $275 million to acquire the company.
• Serena describes the emotional moment of signing the deal.

Serena explains her transition to becoming a YC partner after selling her company.

• She was introduced to Jared Friedman at YC and invited to speak at an event.
• Relaying her story to other founders, she found fulfillment in helping them succeed.
• Serena looks for founders who are passionate about solving big problems, regardless of their formal qualifications.