We recently connected with Rashmi Raghavendra, Founder of HLWF℠ Alliance on taking a risk in her professional journey! We have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rashmi, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

In 2023, amidst a world reeling from poly-crisis, ranging from geopolitical conflict and the destabilizing onset of AI, to inflation and sweeping layoffs, I took one of the biggest risks of my professional life: I launched HLWF℠ Alliance, a nonprofit committed to transforming women’s roles across the entire spectrum of healthcare, healthtech, life sciences, wellness, and fitness.

This was not just another venture, it was a decision to build a platform for impact in a fundamentally different way. With over two decades of experience, including managing a $500M innovation portfolio at Philips Healthcare and leading successful acquisitions, it would have been easy, probably even expected, for me to lean on traditional venture capital routes. But I made a very deliberate choice not to. I chose to bootstrap the HLWF℠ Alliance with philanthropic capital to ensure full narrative control and long-term mission alignment.

The vision was clear but complex: to break down the deeply entrenched silos that divide our health and wellness ecosystems. Physicians, wellness coaches, policy advocates, technologists, caregivers – they often operate in parallel spaces, rarely intersecting in meaningful ways. HLWF℠ Alliance was my bet that by creating a radically inclusive platform rooted in empathy and personal experience, we could unlock a new era of dialogue, innovation, and systemic change.

The risk wasn’t just financial, it was emotional, reputational, and philosophical. Would people show up? Would they see the value in interdisciplinary collaboration? Would they trust a platform not backed by the usual power structures?

The result has been profoundly validating. In just one year, HLWF℠ Alliance has empowered over 160 women to publish thought leadership pieces, 78% of whom were first-time authors. We’ve fostered dialogue across racial, professional, and ideological lines. Our events, partnerships, and publications have sparked not just conversations but real change, at the policy level, in academic institutions, and across social media platforms.

Choosing to bootstrap HLWF℠ wasn’t just a financial decision. It was a vote of confidence in a different model of leadership, one that centers impact first versus profit first, empathy over hierarchy, and lived experience over credentials. It was a risk that’s not only paid off, it’s laying the foundation for a new way forward when it comes to taking control of our health and wellbeing.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. 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 was born in Bangalore, India, to a junior bank officer and a government accountant. Ours was a home filled with resilience, resourcefulness, and an unwavering belief in education. That foundation led me to pursue electrical engineering, eventually landing me in the lab of Nobel Laureate Dr. Alan MacDiarmid at the University of Texas. It was there, amid polymer chains and quantum theories, that I first discovered the transformational power of science. What I didn’t realize then was how deeply I would come to believe that innovation isn’t truly meaningful unless it’s inclusive, and that stories – not just data, can be powerful catalysts for change.

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve amassed more than 40 global patents in artificial intelligence, health data privacy, and diagnostics while generating over $500M in revenue for companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Harman/Samsung, and Philips Healthcare. At Apple, I was part of the launch of the first Apple Watch. At Philips, I led the development of the first offline AI model integrated with Apple HealthKit, a breakthrough that helped generate over $150M in annual revenue and elevated how we understand connected oral health and its impact of physical health.

But no accomplishment has been more personally defining than founding HLWF℠ Alliance, a women-led nonprofit aimed at breaking silos across the healthcare, life sciences, wellness, and fitness sectors. Inspired by my own near-fatal childbirth experience during the pandemic, HLWF℠ Alliance was born from the conviction that equity and innovation must intersect, and that lived experiences are as critical as lab experiments in shaping the future of health.

Most leaders in my position might have followed a familiar path: raise venture capital, build a for-profit business, scale fast. I chose differently. I bootstrapped HLWF℠ Alliance with philanthropic capital, intentionally creating a platform where the narrative remained ours. In doing so, I rejected not only traditional funding models but also traditional thinking. I built a hybrid structure that aligns the for-profit investments I make through rcubed | ventures, which supports women- and BIPOC-founded startups, with the equity-driven mission of HLWF℠ Alliance.

Together, these twin engines have become force multipliers for impact.

At HLWF® Alliance, we’ve:

• Published 110+ articles authored by women experts, 78% of whom were first-time writers, garnering over +1.2Million global views and 500+ citations across Medium, LinkedIn, and academic platforms.
• Created signature programs like Experts in Conversation® and Humans in Conversation®, Consumer Patient®, which amplify underrepresented voices across disciplines—from AI ethics to reproductive rights.
• Formed partnerships with institutions like University of Washington’s Engineering Innovation in Health (EIH) to research climate-driven health inequities and machine learning-based health access solutions.
• Building on my background in social innovation and healthcare compliance, I’ve helped guide projects like Push Start, which is developing a life-saving mechanical CPR device for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. My expertise in AI and consumer health products also helps translate individual health insights into broader population health strategies.

Through rcubed | ventures, I have:

• Invested in 16+ startups, including next-gen diagnostic platforms and AI-powered care tools like Deeplook Medical.
• Advised founders at Springboard Enterprises Women’s Health Council and conducted diligence for Portfolia’s Rising America Fund III, catalyzing early-stage innovation across underfunded sectors.
• Guided hospital-at-home, remote monitoring, and value-based care technologies that are reshaping access to health for marginalized communities.

In my public advocacy, I serve on the boards of World Affairs Council, 5050 Women on Boards, and University of Washington EIH, championing a new generation of inclusive, impact-first leadership. I’ve published a book on AI and Global Healthcare Regulation, contributed to ethical procurement strategy in healthtech, and spoken at forums including CES, World Economic Forum, BlogHer, and Kaiser Permanente’s Climate and Health Initiative.

In recognition of my technical contributions and advocacy for women in STEM, I was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2018. That same year, I was named a finalist in Crain’s Detroit 40 Under 40 and was more recently honored as one of 50 Women Executives to Watch for Boards by 5050 Women on Boards, and a Top 100 HealthTech Women Leader in both 2024 and 2025.

I truly believe that what sets me apart isn’t just what I’ve built, it’s how and why I’ve built it. I bring a leadership model rooted in empathy, data, and grit. I believe in building longer tables, not taller walls, spaces where patients, physicians, technologists, and wellness advocates sit side by side to reimagine what healthcare could be.

What I’m most proud of is this: I didn’t just rise through the ranks in male-dominated tech sectors, I have created a platform where others could rise too, many of whom never saw themselves reflected in traditional leadership spaces. I’ve brought policy conversations to grassroots communities, tech equity to the mainstream, and made space for voices historically left out of the health innovation narrative.

So, to anyone encountering me or HLWF℠ Alliance or rcubed | ventures for the first time: Know this – we are here to rewrite the story of health. We are proving that radical inclusion is not just aspirational, it’s operational. We are building a new blueprint for leadership. And we’re just getting started.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn, and what’s the backstory?

One of the most unexpected lessons I had to unlearn was how to pitch.

After decades in Silicon Valley and corporate boardrooms, raising venture funds, leading M&A, and pitching billion-dollar ideas, I thought I had mastered the art of persuasion. But when I founded HLWF℠ Alliance, a nonprofit born from lived experience and rooted in human-centric healthcare reform, I quickly realized that the polished, metrics-heavy pitch that served me well in for-profit arenas didn’t resonate in the same way.

People didn’t want a market-size slide. They wanted a reason to care.

I had to unlearn the instinct to lead with numbers and instead learn to lead with narrative. To anchor my pitch not in TAM or ROI, but in the WHY: my own near-fatal childbirth experience, the gaps I witnessed firsthand in our system, and the urgent need to break silos across the healthcare and wellness continuum. I had to reframe my storytelling, from strategic edge to emotional truth. From transactional to transformational.

That shift changed everything. Today, when I speak about HLWF℠ Alliance, I start with lived experience and wrap it in strategy. And the response? More connection, more buy-in, and more momentum than I ever imagined possible.

In this new era of leadership, I’ve learned that vulnerability isn’t weakness, it’s persuasion with purpose.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

If you had asked me early in my career whether I planned to lead AI innovation at Apple, architect connected healthcare platforms at Philips or launch a nonprofit transforming the future of women’s health, I would have said none of it. My path has been anything but linear. It’s been unconventional, uncomfortable, and unbelievably rewarding.

I’ve worked across three distinct industries, consumer tech, automotive, and healthcare, across startups and giants like Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, and Philips. Along the way, I’ve earned 40+ global patents, launched the first offline AI model for Philips Sonicare, and led a $500M insurance partnership rooted in compliance and patient privacy. Today, I lead both rcubed | ventures and HLWF℠ Alliance, bridging innovation and equity in one of the world’s most siloed sectors.

But none of this was planned. It emerged because I stayed curious, walked into rooms that made me feel unqualified, and learned that growth thrives in discomfort. I learned to balance my yeses with powerful no’s, and that the real magic happens when we build longer tables, not taller walls.

So, would I choose the same profession? No. I would choose the same mindset. Because it wasn’t the industry that shaped my success, it was my decision to stay open, stay brave, and keep building beyond the blueprint.

Contact Info:

• Rashmi Raghavendra LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rashmirao/
• rcubed | ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rcubed-ventures
• HLWF℠ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hlwf-alliance/
• AI in Healthcare Handbook: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-83526-1_14
• Other
  • HLWF Anthologies℠ Newsletter: Please subscribe here. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/hlwf-anthologies-7180609649879003137/

  • HLWF Alliance℠ LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hlwfalliance

  • HLWF Alliance℠ Publication: https://medium.com/hlwf-healthcare-healthtech-lifesciences-wellness

  • rcubed | ventures: https://www.rcubed.online/ventures

Image Credits
All these pictures have been taken by Rashmi Rao on her camera