Founder Series: Carol Kim
Founder Profile
Name: Carol Kim
Company: Shasta Advisory, LLC
Role: Founder and Principal
Company Summary: The Shasta Advisory, LLC partners with CEOs and startup/tech founders on launch, market positioning, and policy/political navigation to effectively build brand equity and capture market opportunities for growth and retention.
Founder Bio: Carol Kim, founder and Principal of The Shasta Advisory, LLC , has her undergraduate degree in English and her Masters in Public Policy.
Q+A with Carol
Your extensive experience spans healthcare, public affairs, and advisory roles. You can see how current public policies are influencing funding and innovation in the women's health sector, what strategic guidance do you offer startups to navigate these challenges?
You need to build relationships early—with policymakers, advocacy groups, and industry stakeholders. Healthcare is complex and highly regulated whereby public policies influence funding priorities, value-based care, and innovation pathways. The long sales cycles in this sector require cultivating the right connections even more critical.
In your recent (LinkedIn) posts, you've highlighted the importance of executive management in healthcare. How can leadership within women's health startups effectively advocate for policy reforms that facilitate product development and market entry?
Effective healthcare leaders don’t just focus on their products—they pay attention to the political and policy environment. In women’s health, where there’s been a historic gap in focus and funding, leaders must frame their solutions in quantifiable terms, both financially and in healthcare outcomes. This means translating how their products or services address the needs of payers and providers. The most successful leaders I’ve worked with have integrated public affairs into their business strategy, recognizing that in any regulated industry, government relations aren’t optional—it’s a core function of the business.
Your involvement with The Hatchery at the University of Toronto showcases your commitment to mentoring entrepreneurs. What common policy-related obstacles do female health-focused startups face, and how can mentorship help overcome these barriers?
Mentoring entrepreneurs allows me to work with founders from ideation to execution, by helping to refine their vision into actionable strategies. Like many healthcare startups, those in women’s health often struggle with connecting with the right decision makers, positioning their company, and building strategic partnerships. In having the right mentors and experts, startups are better able to bridge the gap between innovation, connections, and execution.
Your advisory work emphasizes the intersection of startups and public affairs. How can emerging companies in the women's health industry leverage public affairs to influence policies that affect funding and the successful launch of new products?
Public affairs isn’t just for big corporations—startups need it too. Treating government relations and public affairs as an afterthought in a regulated industry is a misstep. It’s not a luxury; it’s a competitive advantage. Bring in a public affairs expert—whether as a board member or fractional executive— who is a trusted voice to engage with industry leaders and stakeholders.
For fun – you are on vacation and get to take 3 books to read, what books are you bringing?
I have stacks of “to read” books everywhere at home. But the three I would take to read poolside are:
Connie by Connie Chung
Seoulmates by Jen Frederick
March of Folly by Barbara W. Tuchman (a re-read given the times we are in right now)
Interview edited for clarity
