#StartupsEverywhere profile: Javier Evelyn, Founder and CEO, Alerje
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Providing Treatment and Lifestyle Help For People With Food Allergies
Based in the Motor City, Alerje is a health management startup focused on improving the lives of people living with food allergies. We spoke with Javier Evelyn, the Founder and CEO of Alerje, to learn more about his startup’s efforts to help people coping with food allergies, his experiences as a Black founder, and his thoughts on what makes Detroit such a unique city in which to launch a startup.
What in your background made you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?
I’m originally from the Chicagoland area (Broadview, IL) and attended Illinois State University. I majored in mass communications, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after graduating. Due to the fact that I love to talk, I got into sales. From there, I bounced around a bit before settling into the insurance industry. I had family members who owned their own family-based insurance agencies, and that’s how I got into entrepreneurship. My biological father transitioned from an insurance agency to becoming independent, which meant he had to do his own branding, set up his own website, and grow everything. I was responsible for upkeep of the website, and when I saw the work between our company and the site developers I thought, “I want to be a part of that.”
I started following TechCrunch and reading about people who were changing the world with software. I didn’t have that background, but I thought I could figure it out. I attended what I called ‘YouTube University’ and watched videos from Stanford and Harvard computer science classes about development. And I began reading about how to create websites, which gave me some baseline knowledge. The real level-up, though, happened when I came across one of the early coding bootcamps in 2013 called Mobile Makers Academy. They offered an eight-week program to build iOS apps from scratch, and it involved a lot of work. I think my sales background kicked in when I was done, because I was able to get a coding job pretty soon after the program ended. I later ended up getting an app developer job in Detroit with Meridian Health Plan, which taught me a lot of fundamental knowledge that I still use now when it comes to approaching your patients, peers, and providers—the “triangle offense of healthcare”. I was there for about two and a half years, and then I had a crazy idea to quit and do something even more risky. But that bet paid off, because Alerje was born.
Tell us more about Alerje and how you’re helping those who suffer from food allergies. How does your food allergy management platform work?
The idea for Alerje evolved out of my love for technology and my own personal experiences. I have a lot of food allergies: pistachios, cashews, finned fish and casein. Growing up, I never carried an Epinephrine auto-injector but I had multiple family members in the medical profession who always reminded me not to eat certain things. So I wanted to build a health platform that would provide people who have allergies with a better way to administer Epinephrine, and also offer them resources to manage their food allergies.
I brought up the idea at a dinner party one day about how it would be great to have an Epinephrine auto-injector on your smartphone case, since people take it with them everywhere. So I tinkered with the idea and brought on some developers and designers to help create the product. And that’s our core product: a redesigned Epinephrine auto-injector on your smartphone case that also alerts the right individuals during emergencies.
We’ve also begun to expand out into other areas as well, such as offering health solutions to help allergists with emergency food allergy treatments. And we’re focused on instilling empathy and putting our mission over ego in everything that we do. We want to put things into development the right way by getting in front of as many doctors, parents, and patients as we can.
How has Alerje been affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
The pandemic has sort of created this digital health revolution and made connected devices even more necessary for most people. So that’s been some validation of the work that we’ve been doing. But it was a humbling experience. The day before my birthday last year, I had to let my entire team go because of the pandemic. Within the next month, though, we won a pitch competition and received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. We were one of the few Black-owned companies that I know of to actually receive a PPP loan, which I think had something to do with the fact that we worked with a Black banker. And, last year, we were also the recipient of a Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. Once those things happened, we were able to sit back a bit and think about what we could do immediately to add value to Alerje while we await regulatory approval.
What are some of the challenges you’ve had to face as a Black founder, and what can the startup community and policymakers do to address some of these issues?
After the lynching of George Floyd, there was an “influx” of inbound investments to Black entrepreneurs. I’ve spoken to a lot of Black founders and other underrepresented entrepreneurs, and we’re all playing offense now after playing defense for such a long time. Last year, almost $150 billion in venture capital was invested in companies, but only $1 billion of that went to Black founders. So far this year, though, more funding is flowing to Black and Brown founders. I think the tide is starting to shift a bit, but we can’t rest on our laurels and we need to continue playing offense when it comes to correcting this imbalance.
As an Afro-Latino I wear multiple hats, and I’m someone who represents what the U.S. will look like in twenty or thirty years when the country is majority Black and Brown. I think it’s important to give typically underestimated founders the benefit of the doubt now when it comes to accessing capital for their startups. So my top priority is making sure that people give underestimated and underrepresented entrepreneurs the benefit of the doubt.
I was also speaking with a tech executive a few months ago about the idea of the good ol' boys network in the tech sector. People with the right connections and networks are able to jump ahead of others to lead companies or take executive roles. So Black entrepreneurs also need to break through into these networks and have a fair shot at some of these opportunities that are too often given out based on knowing the right people.
Finally, when it comes to policy, I think lawmakers need to offer some sort of incentives to help industry leaders—for example, healthcare workers like nurses and doctors—connect with early-stage startups, especially those led by Black or Brown founders that might not have the same access to talented people. These workers often want to help support and guide emerging companies in their industries, but they’re burnt out from working multiple jobs and long hours. Alerje just created a medical advisory board to help give us the clinical validation we need to risk our new products. Early-stage startups often don’t have adequate resources to compensate these experts for their time, so if we could offer them some sort of benefit—such as a credit towards student loans—to incentivize them to work with startups, then I think that would help a lot of emerging companies.
What makes Detroit’s startup ecosystem so unique?
Detroit is a predominantly Black city, with around 80 percent of the people living here identifying as Black. And there’s an underrated genius here, with a lot of startups coming from different slices of life. Although the pandemic has slowed things down, it’s still a super collaborative environment. I speak with startup founders at least once or twice a week. The majority of us operate our companies without a lot of funding, but we do a lot with a little—and I think that’s indicative of the Midwestern mentality.
Lately, I think the equalizer with other tech hubs has been the new work from home world. Moving forward, I think we’ll have a lot more opportunities in this area as a result of this new reality.
What is your goal for Alerje moving forward?
We’re finalizing grants and fundraising that would help us expand our products further, particularly from a device perspective. And we’re also focused on commercializing our new platforms, and, in particular, commercializing a niche product that is needed for those who have food allergies.
Beyond that, we’re also looking at expanding into international markets. And we’re also working on lining up our commercialization partners and finding a company that allows our product to align with their vision.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email edward@engine.is.
