- My name is Meghan Sharkus.

I am the Founder and CEO of Expression Med.

Expression Med helps long wear medical devices stay on more comfortably and be removed safely and without pain or residue while providing design options so that the device can represent the person that's wearing it and not just the condition they live with.

My friend, Jessica, had diabetes growing up and I noticed that she had overlapping tan lines in the summer that she didn't like and she informed me that nowhere in the world did they sale shapes or colors for this device.

And to me that was surprising because this is a device that millions of people wear 24/7 every day forever.

I thought it would be fun if she had hearts.

It would look more purposeful and trendy and it would just be more fun.

It started for kids because one in seven kids with diabetes also has clinical depression and a lot of my research found that even in adulthood people kind of blamed a lot of social anxieties and antisocial tendencies on stigmatized diseases like diabetes so I really wanted kids to be happy and expressive and everything so I began with kids in mind.

We're in the University of Saint Thomas' maker space and I love it here because there's a lot of resources that may be critical when prototyping or just trying to create something new and for me that was important because everything I prototype I still wanted to look professional because I have paying customers and a reputation and I didn't really wanna send people something that I cut up in my apartment.

I didn't wanna print on any tape so I tried going to different research facilities and kind of figuring out what materials they use for certain qualities and kind of matched it to the problem I was seeing.

So we did a lot of things that people just hadn't it done before.

- Entrepreneurs are people that when they see a problem don't get discouraged or annoyed by it, they just start immediately how can this be better?

Which is what Meghan did when she saw her friend dealing with diabetes.

- I'd worked with Laura all year and talked to her about what I wanted to do for classes and life.

- I absolutely love working with student entrepreneurs.

They're creative, they're passionate, they wanna make a difference, they're constantly challenging you and you have to, you have to learn along with them - We just meet all the time just to catch up and figure things out.

And it's always like, I like word vomit my problems.

And then she tries to help me.

That, too.

- She's got a lot of energy, a lot of zest for life and that's inspiring and fun to be around.

I think she takes on a lot and I think that can also be a challenge because I think she can wear herself out.

So sometimes my job is just been to say, take a breath, you know, you're doing fine, you know, slow down a little bit.

- I do everything from design, to social media posts to managing ad campaigns, to working with manufacturing, and I work with a fulfillment center.

We are at Fix Find which is my fulfillment center as well as a fulfillment center for the larger brand, Indie Do Good.

And I really like working here because they work with brands like Expression Med who have a social cause so not only do I get to interactive with great people, but I also get to see what other companies are doing and how they're helping the world though business so it's really exciting.

The teacher's amazing and every single person I interact with helps me in so many different ways beyond just picking and packing Expression Med material.

With my website there's always people who I can email right away if I need to fix something or integrate something differently.

The President here, Ben Barros, has helped me with planning, purchase orders, and figuring out a lot of logistical things.

Everyone here knows a lot about how I can work with Amazon in ways that are beneficial.

They're always super funny, they always have fun things to say, and always so sweet so I really love working with them.

And it's awesome to be around great people as your going through those growth phases.

- Right now is probably a pretty critical time for Meghan because she has, she's driven this whole thing herself.

She's brought in friends, she's had some interns, but it's all really been propelled by her energy, her passion, her willingness to go out there and learn.

And I think she sort of pushed it as far as she can.

If you really, really wanna grow, you've got to build your team, for sure.

- [Meghan] Yeah, because it's people, process, and product, and like, product is great, like, people and processes need to, I need to focus on that.

- [Laura] Right, because it's not good enough just to say, any growth is a win.

Probably should grow more than you are, right?

- I know, right.

- [Laura] At this stage.

- Because now you've got a lot of, you've got a lot of expertise.

You know the customers, you know how to produce the product, so now it's really about.

- [Meghan] I need to grow.

- Firing on all cylinders.

- I have two interns right now.

One of them works on my brand ambassador program, and then the other one works on social media so that I don't have to constantly be posting on social media and answering peoples questions 'cause that was one of the things that really bogged down my time.

- [Laura] But I think that you need to have that, that marketing person, who's got the depth of experience, right?

That can help you get that done.

- [Meghan] Then I can breath a little, 'cause they can probably more impact, and more traction, in less time, and I would take all this time learning things.

I know, just be kind of base up.

- [Laura] Well, there's a temptation I think when you're not really sure what's most impactful to sort of chase every shiny object, right?

But that doesn't necessary accumulate to a level of impact.

She's going to have to do differently, she's going to have to perhaps, take a bit more risk in terms of raising more money and hiring some people.

She needs marketing help I think.

I think it would be great for her to get an operations manager, somebody who can help manage the day-to-day.

You know, 'cause she's trying to do it all.

You know, she needs, developing the prototypes and designing the product and she's been packing boxes and sending them to people, you know, in the last year.

And so I think right now, she's at a point where she's got to figure out how to take this to the next level.

- I never broke it down exactly like that, I kept trying to pile everything on top of each other.

And sometimes, just like, knowing what your options are helps you, like, make a decision, a lot better than if you kind of just wanna make everything work, which is not what you should do.

- One of the things that Dick Schulze, who's the Founder of Best Buy, and a big supporter of the program here says about entrepreneurs is that they are people who like to take their own destiny in their hands.

You know, and I do think that is a real prominent characteristic of entrepreneurs and clearly of Meghan as well.

She is somebody who saw a problem and did not wait around for somebody else to solve it and has, she's just somebody who I sort of think takes, you know, what is that, takes life by the horns, and just really says, I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna make some impact, I wanna take control of my destiny.

So I think that's a fun part of her personality and a fun part of what entrepreneurs are all about.

- People ask me, like, what keeps me up at night?

What is, what is you, you know, goal.

And my first goal is to do the idea justice 'cause as I pitch it I know that there's a great product, it's a great cause, there's a great need that needs to be resolved.

But if I am focusing elsewhere, getting distracted, then I can't find the right people and the right processes to address that at the scale that I wanna address it at, and I still think I struggle with that.

We continue to grow but I think the next hurdle we go over is going to be a very large growth and it can either go really well, or it can be overwhelming and we want be able to meet demand.

- I think she's just done a remarkable job.

I'll be looking to see how she navigates that next set of steps.

- It's learning all the time and it's exciting.