Heather Fernandez

Started career in DC - Capitol Hill, McCain2000 presidential. Cal undergrad. Start up life post Stanford business school. Built Trulia over 10 years. Founder/CEO Solv, working to make same day healthcare available. Mom of three (11, 8, 5).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherfernandez/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/heathermirj
Member since June 07, 2019

CEO, Co-founder @solvhealth. BOD @atlassian. Fmr @trulia, @USGov . Laugher, runner, mom of 3. Quote_down

About

I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

Solv, Trulia

Companies I work or worked for:

Morgan Stanley, McCain 2000 Presidential, US Congress, Blanc & Otus

Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

Clarification - early team at Trulia, not founder

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

Other. Fill in your own...

My favorite startups:

WeCroak, Gixo, Marco Polo, Atlassian, Shopify

Why did you start your company or why do you want to innovate inside your company?

With Solv, I have the opportunity to build something that meaningfully changes peoples lives. Where my passion for shifting power to consumers and my ability to build consumer marketplaces intersected. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Frustrating - wanting to develop a perfect solution that solves and end to end problem...but recognizing the you need to get traction against a narrow problem first to earn the right to build further.

Rewarding - getting traction! Proof that you can make an impact and build a business.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Taking on too much cognitive load. For themselves and their teams.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Listen to the criticism (there will be lots), then make a call without regret. You can always change later.

Make entrepreneur friends. They will share in the small (seemingly insignificant) joys and understand your pain.

Find early employees and advisors that give you energy and believe.

Full bio

As Solv's CEO and co-founder, Heather brings more than a decade of executive management experience with leading consumer startups to the company.

After experiencing firsthand how dramatically the real estate industry could be changed by creating a transparent and simple consumer experience, she founded Solv to transform healthcare for consumers.

Prior to Solv, Heather served as senior vice president and general manager of business services at Trulia, Inc., where she led advertising product, market and sales strategy, which accounted for nearly $200M in annual revenue, through its acquisition by Zillow (NASDAQ: ZG) in 2015. She currently serves on the Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) board of directors and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.