About Cancer U

After bootstrapping Cancer U for several years, we are raising a seed round of $1.2 million. We have a commitment of $500K contingent on finding a lead investor in healthcare/technology. We have a strong operational team with almost 100 years of combined experience in healthcare, finance, technology, B2B sales, and patient advocacy. We continue to recruit amazing members for our Medical Advisory and Patient & Caregiver Advocate Boards. We're discussing pilot programs with major pharmaceutical companies. But we have a huge strike against us ...

We're located in Birmingham. Alabama. Not the Birmingham located in the West Midlands region of England. We're in The South. A red state full of illiterate, uneducated, religious, deplorable fools who love guns, drink sweet tea and bless people's hearts. Or at least, that's how many investors from Silicon Valley see us.

"We don't invest outside of a major city." We only invest in companies located where we are, which is usually Silicon Valley/San Francisco, New York City, or Boston. And sometimes Los Angeles.
"Alabama may be neither the right place to start such a company nor the most exciting place." What does right mean? And why does a company's headquarters have to be exciting?
"It took Canadians four years to do what Silicon Valley did in four weeks." If Canada took four years, Alabama will take ten.
"Silicon Valley is ground zero for the most innovative people." You won't find the right team in Alabama or anywhere outside of NoCal.

What makes my co-founder and I shake our heads is ... neither one of us is from Birmingham. Not really.

Edward is from South Florida as in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. If you know anything about The South, you know Miami is not part of it. It's like another planet. When I was a kid, most Southerners (including those living in the Florida panhandle) referred to Miami as Cuba.

I spent most of my adult life in Los Angeles and I'm an Air Force Brat. As a kid, I lived in many places including California. But most of my childhood was spent in Arkansas (8 years) and Alabama (5 years). Four days after my 18th birthday, I left Alabama to attend the University of Southern California. All of my belongings fit into my car and I had $300 to my name. Neither my father nor my mother approved of me moving to SoCal. But I did it anyway.

Even though I returned to Birmingham seven years ago, my relatives still call me California Girl. I have strong ties to California. Aside from friends, my nonprofit is based in Burbank. I visit every year on Halloween, my sister's favorite holiday. Adrienne is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. After moving to LA to live with me when she was eight and I was 22 years old, Adrienne fell in love with the city. If she were alive today, I'm sure I would still be there. With her.

Why Birmingham?

Well, why not Birmingham? You can read more about my personal reasons for Leaving Los Angeles but let's talk facts.

The cost of living is 535% and 263% more expensive in Palo Alto and San Francisco respectively.
Homes are 4401% (PA) and 2006% (SF) more expensive.
Food and groceries cost 25% – 33% more and transportation is 59% – 79% more expensive.

The only things less expensive in California are utilities and wine. Healthcares costs are about the same.

Also, California is one of the most regulated states in the country. I experienced this first hand when I founded my nonprofit. It's a huge pain. Alabama is far more business and entrepreneur-friendly than California.

I understand if a firm doesn't invest outside of a particular geographic region. After all, if you don't know the area, the culture, and the people, it's may not be best not to invest because you won't bring the intrinsic value that startup companies need, which goes beyond money.

Speaking of money, the lower cost of living benefits startups in The South. Companies can make their cash last much longer. As for innovative people, I guess some investors have never heard of Shipt. Started by Bill Smith in November 2014, the company raised its $5.2 million seed round in February 2016. In December 2017, Target bought Shipt for $550 million. Three years! I don't think the process would have been any faster in Silicon Valley.

Not all Silicon Valley residents are snobby. I am deeply grateful to many people in NoCal who support us including Dr. Kevin Knopf, Tom K., Divya S., Karen B., and more. What I love about them is they don't judge Cancer U by the location of our headquarters. They look at who we are, what we do, how we do it, and where we want to go.

Lately, I found myself dreading calls with NoCal investors. Then, I realized I was doing to them what they're doing to Cancer U. I was being judgmental.

We may love to roll tide, praise the lord, and eat bacon in Alabama*, but that doesn't mean we aren't capable of building a healthcare-tech hub in Birmingham.

*This quote comes from a AAA employee when I tried to get a smog check for my California-registered Honda Element shortly after moving to Alabama. The full quote is, "Well, hon, I'll call around, but this is Alabama. We roll tide, praise the lord, and eat bacon. We don't do no smog checks."

P.S. Check out the Silicon Y'all SaaS & Internet Summit.