Member Spotlight: Kristian Kimbro Rickard

Kristian Kimbro Rickard is a new to Nashville and the EC, joining us as a member of the 2017 PreFlight Program Cohort 1. 

While her company Doyenne360 has traction providing machine learning, IoT, data visualization dashboards, and other SaaS solutions and apps to customers, she found the EC to be the perfect place to evolve her company’s business model to more prominently reflect her social mission core. 

Selecting a project focus for PreFlight came easily for Kristian, especially after experiencing how a recent STEM, design-thinking and EdTech pilot project she led with customer collaborators demonstrated data-proven potential for a profound, positive social impact on our nation’s youth – and their teachers.  

Kristian is working on “#projectSTEMlex – collaboratively educating the next generation of inventors, critical-thinkers and creative problem-solvers with cognitive playthings, mixed reality, and advanced analytics.” 

Kristian took a moment to answer a few questions in this week’s EC Member Spotlight.

What is your personal motto?

Be good to yourself, be kind to others, and the rest will fall into place. 

What characteristic do you admire most in successful entrepreneurs?

When I meet an entrepreneur who has overcome adversity and is better, stronger for the experience, that tells me the entrepreneur is the real deal — has GRIT — hasn’t given up, will likely refuse to give up. Giving up is a choice for everyone, yet for entrepreneurs with GRIT, selecting that choice is never genuinely considered a viable option. 

What tool, object or ritual could you not live without in your workday?

Filters on insta, snap and other camera apps #AmIRight 

What advice would you give to someone seeking to create, launch or grow a business?

Entrepreneurship can sometimes be lonely; yet, it can never be successfully conquered alone. As entrepreneurs, I believe we are better, stronger, faster — together. Seek knowledge; share knowledge. 

What does the world need more of?

The world needs more critical thinkers, more inventors, more creative problem-solvers. Basically, if you’re reading this, the world needs you. 

Why the EC?

As humans, especially as entrepreneurs, we have an innate desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. When you walk into the EC, you feel like something big is taking shape here — something important. Then one day, you walk into the EC and realize you’ve become an integral part of it — and that feels amazing. 

The pace is fast, the interactions and resources are plenty, the lattes make this transplanted Seattle-ite blissfully happy, there’s a tricked-out Google for Entrepreneurs room, and everyone here is smart, driven, empathetic and keen to help each other succeed. If that’s not a recipe for next-level awesomeness, I don’t know what is. Except for my famous sangria recipe — obviously.