Dr. Darren Burke on Working With Women Founders in Wellness

By Dr. Darren Burke, PhD

The venture is still at an early stage. Our working relationship has been developing for nearly three years.

This photo captures part of that experience: working alongside three women founders as we develop a new health and wellness business together.

I enjoy this part of entrepreneurship. Bringing different experiences to the table, considering what might be possible and working through what it will take to make an idea work. There is a lot that happens before a business is ready to introduce itself publicly.

My contribution draws on a career that has taken me from sport to exercise physiology, teaching and building businesses. But every partnership brings something new. Previous experience can help you ask better questions. It also helps you recognise how much you still have to learn from the people beside you.

A working relationship built over time

Nearly three years of working together gives this team a history that predates the venture we are developing.

That matters to me. A shared interest can start a conversation, but understanding how people work takes longer. You learn how they approach decisions, what they notice, where their experience adds something and how your own contribution fits.

I have come to appreciate that time spent getting to know potential partners is part of building a business. It helps create a foundation for the decisions and responsibilities that follow.

There is still plenty to work through. Having an established relationship gives us somewhere to start.

Working alongside women founders

I am pleased to share this photo because these working relationships are an important part of my professional life.

The three women beside me are founders and partners. My role is to contribute alongside them: bringing my experience, listening to theirs and helping move the work forward.

I want to understand what each person sees that I might miss. A useful partnership makes room for that. It gives people space to question an assumption, offer another approach and take responsibility for the work they know best.

For me, that is one of the rewards of working with this team. I get to contribute to a new venture while continuing to learn from the people building it with me.

Bringing science and business experience to wellness

Health and wellness is a field I care about personally and professionally. My background in exercise physiology shapes the questions I bring to it. My experience as an entrepreneur adds questions about customers, delivery and the practical demands of running a business.

Both perspectives are useful, but they are only part of what a team needs. Building together means combining our experience and deciding how to put it to work.

We are keeping the details of this venture private for now. I wanted to share the people and the working relationship behind it, because that is a meaningful part of the story too.

Nearly three years in, I am glad to be working alongside these founders and looking forward to what we can build together.

About Dr. Darren Burke

Dr. Darren Burke is an exercise physiologist, former professor and entrepreneur whose work spans sports nutrition, health and wellness, and business development. Read his McMaster University profile for more about his academic background.

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