At the Nov. 21 Female Founders Lunch, Anastasia Dor (Tisch ’24), co-founder of Mentivista, and Bakhtawer Baloch (SPS ’26), co-founder of Clairdoc, shared how they navigate building the right team, deciding when and how to fundraise, and managing time and personal well-being in the midst of entrepreneurial chaos.
- Clairdoc is the “Grammarly for medical billing,” using AI to flag and prevent costly claim denials before submission.
- Mentivista is an AI-powered learning management system reinventing vocational training for the beauty and wellness workforce.
Team Hunt
Both founders stressed the importance of finding the right collaborators. For Baloch, her first employee was her younger brother, who helped her build her billing and consulting company during her undergraduate years. Today, he supports Clairdoc’s AI development as CTO. Working with a family member comes with its own challenges and requires a clear definition of relationship dynamics.
“For me, I want honest feedback — the kind where someone says, ‘I don’t agree with this; I think you should do it this way,’” Baloch said. “Your team isn’t just your founding team, but the village around you.”
Dor’s search for technical talent at Mentivista came with turbulence. After two CTOs stepped away, she learned how damaging half-invested teammates can be.
“Startup is not for everybody. People need to have hustle inside them,” Dor said.
Fundraising
Both speakers offered advice on raising funds and on how founders can accomplish far more in the early stages with little to no money. Dor encouraged students to fully use university resources — MakerSpace grants, hackathons, 3D printers and basic AI tools — to build an MVP and validate demand.
“Start building, then go ask people, ‘Would you pay for this?’ The more people you ask, the more honest responses you get — and that momentum gives you leverage before you ever think about raising,” Dor said.
Beyond traditional venture capital, they discussed the “friends and family” route. For immigrant entrepreneurs, raising directly from family often carries emotional weight, so they urged students to expand their definition of early supporters. These can include industry peers who are in a position to give, mentors and people met at events.
“Go find your friends and family if your current friends and family have restraints,” Baloch said, emphasizing the importance of cultivating investor relationships long before asking for money by collecting emails and sending consistent monthly updates.
Time Management & Health
Amid the team-building and fundraising, startup life required unlearning perfectionism. Baloch, once determined to earn a 90% in every subject, realized that perfectionism is counterproductive. She described being so overwhelmed that she once ran two client meetings at the same time — two laptops open, two AirPods in her ears — before realizing she needed to reprioritize not just her work, but her life.
“Have some kind of plan — some sense of what your best use of time is,” Baloch said. “You can’t do it all.”
For Dor, seven hours of sleep recently became non-negotiable, and she worked intentionally to carve out space for joy outside the business. Even during work hours, she looked for ways to create a more collaborative and enjoyable environment. Startup work can be deeply isolating, so her team now meets for weekly in-person work sessions at the Leslie eLab to maintain momentum.
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