Coming Back and Giving Back: From MIT Sloan and Beyond

Since MIT delta v Demo Day 2023, a team led by two Sloan Fellows has continued to thrive. Kristen Ellefson, SFMBA ’23, and Bindu Chanagala, SFMBA ’23, founders of nurtur, have grown their startup aimed at mitigating postpartum depression through AI using skills honed at MIT Sloan, their innate drive and savvy, and the MIT Sloan network. And because MIT Sloan Annual Fund Dean’s Circle donors provide generous support to the people and programs across the school, including MIT delta v and other entrepreneurial resources, you are an integral part of nurtur’s success.

Coming Back Stronger

The company’s trajectory has been upward and to the right since the Demo Day 2023 pitch. “Thank goodness for all the great things associated with MIT delta v,” Ellefson said. “It set us up with the tools to better understand the marketplace and how we could differentiate ourselves within it, and we came out with a great idea of where we were going.”

Despite relocating to Florida and California, respectively, Ellefson and Chanagala come back to MIT Sloan often. “Any chance to speak within the MIT ecosystem is always so fruitful,” Ellefson said. This includes networking with professors, speaking in entrepreneurship classes, and talking to women at MIT Sloan about their product and journey. And it’s even helped them to expand the nurtur team.

One Sloanie who heard their pitch was Clemence Couteau, MBA ’25. “In my Entrepreneurship and Innovation seminar, I heard Kristen’s nurtur pitch and immediately I felt like I had to go talk to her,” Couteau said. “I was working in healthcare before I came to MIT Sloan and wanted to complement my science background with a business perspective, and nurtur hit the intersection between my interests within women’s health, digital health, and mental health.” 

Couteau had never encountered a company working at such a confluence of her interests and knew that she wanted to get involved. “I wanted to talk to Kristen because it seemed like a super interesting idea,” Couteau recalled, “and I wanted to learn more about product management at MIT Sloan. So when I learned nurtur needed help with their product strategy, I fit perfectly into that role.”

Couteau’s interest in nurtur came at a good time for the company and its founders. “As entrepreneurs, we don’t have time to post jobs. There are so many résumés coming our way, it’s difficult to filter through them,” said Chanagala. “But as soon as I see a résumé from someone from MIT Sloan, I know the school has already done the vetting for us.”

Now head of nurtur’s product strategy, Couteau embodied the MIT Sloan spirit of persistence, too, following up with a busy Ellefson a few times before they were able to connect. “Clem really wanted to meet with us and knew exactly how to position herself,” Ellefson added. “Great business school students know how to pitch themselves, and she pitched herself perfectly. It's been a fabulous experience supporting her.” 

Mel Frank, MBA ’25, current chief of staff at nurtur, followed a similar path. “I’d been talking to a few startups, but then Kristen came for a fem tech panel, and I knew Clem had worked with them and said they were great,” said Frank. “Kristen and Bindu were amazing and captivating to listen to. I loved their story.”

Becoming Role Models

Having had few women entrepreneurs to look up to as they were starting out, Ellefson and Chanagala are making it a priority to be there for other women in the space. “We see ourselves as stewards of MIT Sloan students, especially women who want to be entrepreneurs,” Ellefson said. And they are already making an impact in this area, as their growing team can attest. “Watching Bindu and Kristen network has been really influential,” Frank said. “It’s something I struggle with, but Kristen would introduce me at every meeting and want to make these connections for me. She’d remind me, ‘You’re just as important as every other person here.’”

Chanagala and Ellefson grew their confidence in themselves through their summer of MIT delta v and through the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. The Center helped to launch nurtur and gave the two co-founders a framework of entrepreneurship to follow, something they’d never had before.

“MIT Sloan helped us to go through this experience, inspired us to push ourselves, and gave us confidence,” Chanagala said. She and Ellefson are sharing their experience as widely as they can so that others feel empowered to approach them to learn and collaborate and feel a renewed confidence in their own work. 

“There was a kind of energy and passion that you could feel behind Kristen’s pitch and conversations with Bindu,” Couteau said. “They felt genuine and down to earth and really wanted to solve a problem, which you don’t always see in the entrepreneurial space.”

That remarkable tenacity, a trait common among Sloanies, went both ways. 

“When we talked to [Mel and Clem], we could see that they resonated with our mission. They not only were passionate about the problem we are solving, but also stayed curious to know more about the problem,” Chanagala said. “That’s what differentiated them. They saw how they could help us and how their skillsets could add to what we’re doing.”

“Kristen and Bindu knew I didn’t have a product management background, but they still gave me that role because they knew I could learn on the fly and trusted that my research in the product would bring the company forward and inform their own ideas,” said Couteau.

Frank is also getting hands-on experience with venture capital. “I was an engineer. I don’t have a sales background, but to be trusted with that for the company shows how much Bindu and Kristen believe in us and the rest of the team.”

As alumnae, Ellefson and Chanagala understand just how much MIT Sloan students have to offer and are not taking Frank and Couteau’s expertise for granted. “We know Sloanies could be doing a million other things and yet they feel called to work with nurtur,” said Ellefson.

“We are so humbled that they chose to work with us,” Chanagala echoed. 

Blasting Off

With the help of Frank, Couteau, and the MIT Sloan network, nurtur is maintaining its positive trajectory. “We were lucky enough to join Techstars, which is another well-known accelerator focused on healthcare,” Ellefson said. “From that, I heard about a MassChallenge event from an MIT Sloan contact, and from there we found our pilot site via a MassChallenge mentor who took an interest in us and passed us along to the healthcare folks in his network. Our pilot clinic is live, we have an agreement that will generate $1 million in ARR [annual recurring revenue], and we’re currently fundraising.”

With its roots in the school’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, nurtur has seen much of its success thanks to MIT delta v, MIT Sloan, and inspired Dean’s Circle donors like you who support the school’s people and programs through the MIT Sloan Annual Fund. “We are continuously grateful for the connections we’ve made and for the experience we had at MIT Sloan,” said Chanagala.

As for Frank and Couteau, they are looking forward to continuing to work for Ellefson and Chanagala through the current academic year and possibly beyond. “I’m excited to see where we can take the product, using AI especially,” said Couteau. Frank added, “I hope one day in the future, when I go to my own OBGYN, that nurtur is part of the process.”

Dean’s Circle donors’ generosity through the MIT Sloan Annual Fund makes an impact every day and, by providing support to MIT Sloan’s entrepreneurial landscape, student clubs and programs, and so much more, that impact will be compounded for years to come. 

If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to learn more about nurtur’s next MIT Sloan presentation, please email Meg O’Reilly at oreillym@mit.edu.