We were lucky to catch up with Cheryl Shao recently and have shared our conversation below.

Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I founded Sympal due to my own personal orthodontic journey. As a child, I did not know how my orthodontist was straightening my teeth. I just remember my jaw locking during orthodontic treatment and always being tired after a night’s rest. Studying dentistry only made me realize my childhood orthodontist did nothing wrong. She simply treated me at the standard of care. Before becoming a dentist, I did not realize how you straighten your teeth could affect your overall health, especially your airway and TMJ. It was only after becoming a dentist myself, doing orthodontic research, understanding my orthodontic case, did I realize the flaws in the standard of care in orthodontics. Like in any healthcare industry, standards of care change over time depending on new research that comes out. The orthodontic standard of care needs to change. We need a better way to do orthodontics. Instead of focusing on the teeth which is what current orthodontics standard of care does, Sympal takes the face, airway, and TMJ into consideration. We want to empower our patients through education. We believe that if we educate our patients on how they want their teeth straightened, they can drive the orthodontic market and change the orthodontic standard of care for the better.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Most of our funding is bootstrapped, family being early investors, and doing an accelerator program. Also, we were very frugal on how we utilized our funds. We went by referrals from experts in the field for our attorneys to not just find someone who is competent, but someone who is affordable. Basically, for every milestone we needed to achieve, we knew we had limited funds, so we will always find ways to cut down cuts, as much as 4x to up to 10x what we were quoted initially. We did this by shopping around until we found a good fit. We would get sponsorships to programs we got into as well. In the start-up world, a lot of people are trying to make a quick buck out of your start-up which does not make sense considering how limited your funds are initially. So you have to find people who are decent, competent, and charges fairly. The great news is, once you find great people to work with, you stick with them. As a return to them, you refer your fellow entrepreneurs to them to give them more business. So everyone wins in the end.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The funding environment right now is not ideal and especially in the beginning of a start-up, funds are limited. We were unable to get secure funding and as a result, we had to find a creative way to move Sympal forward without outside funding. Luckily, I have a skill set–practicing dentistry–where I can just go back to work to bootstrap Sympal. Dentistry is both a mentally and physically demanding career, and it has been very exhausting to both work and keep Sympal afloat. However, if the problem is great enough that needs to be solved, then pushing through even during the most tiring nights is necessary. Having a start-up is liking having a baby. It takes years to nurture it to fruition, so I was not going to let Sympal die because we were unable to secure outside funding. I also hate to say this, because as a minority woman, getting funding is even harder; the odds are definitely against you. Minority founders get 0.7% of all VC funding. I am well aware of this, but the numbers are not going to stop me, because bettering my patients’ overall health by improving the healthcare system matters most to me than giving up when investors tell me they won’t fund me. I consider myself an optimist even in the most trying times and I think staying focused on achieving your goals and meeting all your milestones for your start-up is key to success. I have hope that although the odds are stacked against me, if I am able to move forward without outside funding, eventually investors will see that there is something about Sympal worth investing in and not initially judge me because of my gender and ethnicity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesympal.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesympal/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesympal
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sympal
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thesympal

Image Credits
Dr. Tina Saw, Jessica Gore, Yin Guan, Alice Stone