Never Be Afraid to Ask: Interview with Colleen Costello, Co-Founder and CEO of Vyv
I recently went one on one with Colleen Costello. Colleen is the co-founder and CEO of Vyv.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Colleen: When I was 9, my brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes which had a large impact on my family at the time with all of the necessary changes. After this experience, I had interest and a strong aptitude for STEM and committed to an intensive three-year science research program focused in areas that could actually help my brother. That work continued with several biochemistry internships at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College. And then I continued my studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where I studied Biomedical Engineering.
Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?
Colleen: I was working toward a degree in biomedical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (class of 2012), when my grandmother was admitted to a hospital after a fall. What was supposed to be an overnight hospitalization was extended nearly two weeks because she contracted a MRSA infection at the hospital. It was then that I thought -- what better use of my degree? I could literally engineer a solution to address preventable infections, which is a significant issue in U.S. hospitals. The surfaces that we touch, such as door handles, tabletops, sinks, are where germs are invisible and grow exponentially. We asked: What if we could hone in on LED characteristics and dose an indoor environment?
Nearly a decade later, Vyv is a health-tech industry leader and pioneer of antimicrobial LED technology. Our growth has been fueled by a quest to develop smarter ways to control microbial levels in the environments we live and work in — eliminating listeria from food processing facilities, inactivating viruses, creating cleaner elevator buttons by lighting them from behind to simply removing mold and mildew from your bathroom shower. Vyv holds patents for the world’s first single white light antimicrobial diode. This has driven applications for applying our violet and white antimicrobial lights to address the most challenging spaces and places. In all, the Vyv team holds 21 patents with 29 patents pending.
In May we announced independent test results confirming the efficacy of our antimicrobial light technology (405nm) for killing* viruses including the virus that causes COVID-19. The implications of this are vast because unlike harmful UV-C light, our patented technology can be used continuously and without restriction 24/7 around people, animals and plants.
Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea?
Colleen: At the outset, we began with large canvassing and surveying of potential hospital buyers to test and learn from the ideas we had, with all of these insights we knew that the problem was large enough and that our solution was being asked for by potential customers. Always talk to customers and users first and really truly listen to the feedback you receive. In less than a decade, multiple industries have responded and Vyv can now be found in healthcare facilities; food manufacturing and services; travel and hospitality; retail, commercial and public buildings; and many other places.
Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level?
Colleen: Nearly every day the news reports on a new outbreak in any given industry, whether it's professional athletics or restaurants or food processing. There's a significant need for new ways to address these germs as a public health issue. Our goal is to continue to grow in markets where we find the technology to be valuable to our customers.
When the pandemic hit, we doubled down on our efforts. Over the past six months, and in the middle of a global pandemic, we announced several high-profile business partnerships and investments with the likes of global companies and industry leaders like Middleby Corporation, Citi Bank, Amerlux, NJ Transit, Delta Airlines and Dorel Juvenile and most recently, The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), who is advancing a new approach to infection control and prevention by making interior environments continuously inhospitable to viruses, bacteria, endospores and other organisms.
Always be aware of unlikely places you might find new partners or team members that can help take your product and business to the next level. You may be surprised where you find the best partners for the next level of growth in your business, never be afraid to ask or explore.
Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?
Colleen: Our team embraces the role of trusted advisor with each and every partner. Vyv openly shares the team’s expertise, gained through years of experience in diverse markets. Multi-disciplined engineering is brought to every application including prototyping, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and material science engineering. And, as many partners are not set up to do their own laboratory testing, Vyv brings that to the table, too.
We are committed to be a leader and the best-in-class resource in the science of antimicrobial light. The team provides “white glove service” offering valuable resources and always making our team available and “on-call” for highly technical questions. This has been an effective sales tool for us to be there for all of our customers' specific needs.
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Colleen: I think there are four traits an effective leader presents:
They own their mistakes. I admire leaders that are willing to say that they made a mistake or that they're wrong. Especially in an early-stage company, there are going to be lots of mistakes, there are going to be lots of challenges. The leader should be the first to say: Look, maybe we shouldn't have done this. Maybe we should have done this differently. It creates an environment where people are open to be willing to do that.
They value diversity. A diverse group of people, whether it's race, gender, background - the diversity of diversity. The more perspectives you have in the room, the more ways you can attack a problem. You have diversity of thought.
They are adept at adapting. In a rapidly changing technology environment, you need to evolve. If you don't adapt, you're going to be left behind.
They communicate effectively. Knowing how people like to work and how they like to be communicated with can be a powerful tool. Assuming that everybody wants to be communicated with in the same way is a big mistake.
Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?
Colleen: I was 22 when I started Vyv and I had to be willing to listen, to be coachable, and to surround myself with smart people. I think that’s wise at any age. And as we continue to grow, I rely on different advisors in different scenarios from recruiting to picking the next round of investors, or markets to target. Those relationships have been invaluable for me as a first-time entrepreneur.
Team building is critical. It goes beyond hiring the best engineers and developing technology. The leader must create high-performing teams where everyone feels accomplished in their role.
Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Colleen:
Surround yourself with a strong support network
Don't try to be the smartest person in the room
Get comfortable with living outside your comfort zone
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Colleen: Some advice might be right for a certain moment and wrong in another, keep that in mind.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Colleen: I want to talk about mistakes. Embrace them. Through mistakes you learn another way not to do something. When you are introducing something new that the majority of people have not heard of, if you are an emerging technology, if you are trying to disrupt markets, there are going to be mistakes. You have an unwritten roadmap. You are going to have to write that map and you will often learn a lot more from your mistakes than you will from your successes.
Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
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