[TLDR: The vision for Kisop grew out of something beautiful my son said to me in the face of a big change in our lives, and I’m really thankful for that experience.]
In January 2023, I woke up to the biggest shock of my life. I was laid off from a job I loved at Google Health. I had played a leading role in the implementation of two of our top priorities for our area. I opened my laptop screen at 7 AM to get ready for the day and it said, “Sorry, we no longer have a job for you at Google.” Our team had been laid off. I had moved my family across the country in the middle of the pandemic; we had all sacrificed so much – a home we loved, friends, community, great schools, a job I was really good at in an organization that I loved, Kaiser Permanente. My husband and I had stretched and purchased a home in Palo Alto four months earlier. I couldn’t speak for a day. I didn’t tell my kids until the next day; I was too shocked.
The next day, when I told my older son, a freshman entering college, he grew so excited when the topic of a startup arose. He said: “Go for it, mom!! You can do amazing things. Even if you failed, all the knowledge you would bring home and create would set all the kids in your life, in fact all of us, on a completely different trajectory.”
I cannot tell you what those words meant to me at that moment – not just for his optimism, but for his belief in me and for a better future for all of us. To say those words lit a huge fire inside me would be an understatement. I have spent countless hours since then trying to imagine something new that I could believe in and that could help us all.
I am so inspired by this younger generation. They speak the truth. They want the best for all of us.
See the original post I wrote a week after the layoff on LinkedIn here. I remain deeply grateful for everything I learned at Google Health. Those experiences shaped the way I think about systems, privacy, ethics, and care delivery.