WeWork Labs Launch Week

With over 70 locations, WeWork Labs is The We Company’s global platform for early-stage startups and forward-thinking enterprise companies. During my time at Lasso, I had a chance to be a part of WeWork Labs Launch Week that brought together organizations doing work in various industries such as social impact, sports, media, entertainment, food, beverage, consumer product, women, Black, Latinx, and national/global founders as well as tech nonprofits.

In our conversation, I was able to share our hard pivot from a B2B and reactive medical device company (Better Walk Inc. later rebranded to BWHealth) to a D2C and proactive performance apparel brand (Lasso).

As Better Walk, Inc. we designed and developed a crutch that lessened force from a crutch user's underarm area and reduced the amount of direct force through a user's wrist. As we journeyed along our hope was to be an industry leader in disruptive medical devices. Our mission has always been to create something that would help people with products that were often overlooked but used often. Our thought was “sometimes you don’t realize you need something better than what you have until something better exist.”

With that in mind we sunset the company and pivoted to Lasso and turned to socks. Our graduated compression helps improve blood circulation and reduces swelling to improve performance and recovery time. Lasso's SmartSupport weave structure improves musculoskeletal alignment by supporting the arch, foot and ankle to improve foot load distribution and train your feet to perform as intended in order to prevent strain, pain and stress to the lower body.

As part of my experience within this thoughtfully designed space I was able to foster meaningful connections between start-ups and the educational, mentorship and financial resources needed to drive their businesses forward.

I shared the stage with some amazing co-panelist and an amazing moderator. My co-panelist were Jen Choi, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives & Growth Planning for the Atlanta Hawks, Umama Kibria CEO of Sweat Pack, and Ryan Johnson, Founder of Cxmmunity. Our conversation was facilitated by none other than Barmel Lyons, news reporter for CBS46, realtor, and personality.

This was such a wonderful experience. I met so many great people and would like to thank Joey Womack of Goodie Nation for inviting me out to take part.