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Ep. 302 How I Raised It with Laura Epstein of Pulse Charter Connect

·35 min·2 clips

Pulse Charter Connect coordinates private jets and ground transport for organs and surgical teams.

1. How I Raised It follows Laura Epstein and Pulse Charter Connect, a Chicago-based organ transport logistics startup for transplant missions. 2. Laura Epstein is the founder, and Nathan Beckert hosts the show as an interviewer focused on how founders raise capital. 3. The episode asks how a specialized healthcare logistics company raised money through accelerators, angels, and VCs. 4. Laura says her background includes aerospace engineering, a pilot’s license, and about five years at the FAA in Washington, DC. 5. She explains that a consulting project with a private jet company flying organs and surgical teams showed her what could be improved. 6. Laura describes Pulse Charter Connect as coordinating private jets and ground transportation for transplant teams, while a federal system handles donor-recipient matching. 7. She says the company uses unused private-jet capacity for most missions, but some organizations donate time to move recipients such as a Chicago patient going to New York. 8. Laura gives organ timing examples, saying a heart can be outside the body for four to six hours and a kidney up to 24 hours. 9. She notes that kidneys are the most transplanted organ and also have the longest waitlist, especially for people on dialysis. 10. Laura says Pulse Charter Connect has operated since April 2022 and has transported 65 organs. 11. She states that organ transport averages about $35,000 because the trip often requires buying the aircraft both ways. 12. Laura says insurance pays through an organ acquisition cost that functions like a lump-sum CPT code including transport. 13. She says the company raised a little over $3 million through a 2023 pre-seed and a 2024 seed round. 14. Laura explains that the pre-seed used mostly angel investors and large variation in check sizes, while the seed round allowed more selectivity. 15. She says Tampa Bay Wave, Techstars, MassChallenge, 1871, Matter, Polsky, and Cedars-Sinai all helped in different ways. 16. Laura says TechRise, a Chicago pitch competition for underrepresented founders, gave Pulse Charter Connect $125,000 in non-dilutive funding. 17. She describes accelerator value as stage-dependent, with early programs helping on structure, later programs helping on investors, and Cedars-Sinai helping with a pilot. 18. Laura and Nathan discuss keeping investors updated with bimonthly notes, though she sometimes sent updates every three weeks when there was more news. 19. Listeners who raise capital for niche healthcare or logistics startups should find practical value here. 20. Founders looking for product-market-fit theory rather than fundraising tactics may skip it.

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