Published by Valley Voices Magazine
After Kara Wasser of Hermitage missed the birth of her niece, the former real estate lender was called to find a solution to a frustrating problem that many face — communication troubles. In a rapidly increasing digital world, Wasser found a solution through an easy-to-navigate app and today, the founder and chief executive officer of OhanaLink Technologies has created what she once called chaotic now communicative.
An Erie native, Kara Wasser completed her undergraduate studies in communication before moving to Hermitage for a career in banking. “I was in real estate lending for 13 years. I enjoyed the banking world for the most part, but I wanted something else and I wanted freedom,” the entrepreneur said.
She returned to school to earn her master’s degree, and from there her entrepreneurial mindset developed. “I started working on personal development and reading a lot of books. I was always inspired by the ‘you can build your own life’ and entrepreneurial spirit,” she said.
Unsure just what her ‘build your own life’ looked like, Kara continued on her path, even mentioning to her husband that she would one day have an office at the LindenPointe Innovative Business Campus, Hermitage, working for herself in some capacity. She knew the pieces to her puzzle were around her and made it her mission to find and piece them together.
One of those pieces was found in February 2016 and the first spark to building her own life flew. “What led me to OhanaLink was when my sister was having a baby and I missed my niece’s birth. I wanted to be involved. The labor was chaotic and I thought there had to be a better way to communicate. When I got home, I started looking in the app store for a mobile waiting room but couldn’t find any apps relating to that,” Kara said. “I sat on that idea until May 2016. I really didn’t know anything about technology, but needed a solution and felt pulled in that direction.”
The pull strengthened, and with every tug, Kara found herself nearing her vision. She remembers a moment of clarity while talking with a coworker who noticed that something was bothering Kara.“I said, ‘I have this idea for an app that I’m developing,’ and this is where the universe came into play. He had recently had dinner with a woman who was looking to develop an app with someone. He gave me her number. That one call, I always think back to this moment … a pivotal moment when I decided to call her. In two days I met with her and she said, ‘It’s great,’” Kara recalled.
She hit the ground running. Kara spent months on mapping her app and development — researching topics such as what people in labor and delivery want to know, creating its design and talking to the market. “At that point we created the “Baby Arrival Monitor” program through testing. We had expectant moms using it, totaling about 100 guests and 30 virtual waiting rooms. We did a lot of learning through that platform,” the founder said.
Although she knew her direction, Kara was still learning an unfamiliar industry. “At that point, I had this web-based platform and I didn’t know anything. That was my biggest challenge. Building from ground zero is like baking a cake, but having never done it before,” she shared. “From there I starting building a network and people began showing up to help me.”
That help came from support, resources and more, like when a colleague told Kara about a pitch contest hosted at the eCenter@LindenPointe. Kara said,“I knew doing those scary things were worth it.” It was. A second-place prize won her a spot in the accelerator program. “I thought I was just making an app; I didn’t even realize I was creating a business. Through the program, I was able to transition my thinking,” she said.
Support continued to funnel in. “Brian from Ben Franklin Technology Partners took me under his wing and saw my potential. He really helped me build my business out,” said Kara, noting that he helped her see her need to grow in planning and business strategy which nabbed her a grant to help bring the app to fruition. “I knew after my testing from my web-based platform that I needed to build my native mobile app. I used a $10,000 grant from Ben Franklin to build up the mobile app and to figure out my business model. I was building the groundwork for this platform,” she said.
By the end of 2018, through a series of interviews and a connection from the eCenter, Kara connected with Ukrainebased developer, StartupCraft. “It was a warm hand-off and they are still my developers today,” shared Kara.
In January 2019, Kara went all-in. “I left my job at the bank. I really loved the job, but I knew I needed to go all-in or stop … and stopping wasn’t an option.”
Once again Kara presented to Ben Franklin Technology Partners and the presentation secured her funding. “That was big for Ben Franklin to see my potential. I received $35,000 in March and $87,500 from them in June. At that point, I began building out our first version of the mobile platform and finished out at the beginning of December,” she said.
“I knew that the app still needed more work, but also needed more money and needed a team to help with seed funding. One day I was talking with Debbie Anderson at the front desk [of the eCenter] and I told her I really need a chief financial officer. That afternoon she was giving a tour to Janet Earle who is now my CFO. Janet started working sideby-side with me heading into 2020. I finished development, did testing and knew I needed to raise money to either go to market or continue testing. I didn’t know how to launch, so I walked into the eCenter for guidance. Truly, I cannot express how the connections through this place have helped my business.”
Kara continued, “Tom McKinley, who is now my chief technology officer, sat down with me and asked, ‘How come my doctors are not offering me this?’ Our market strategy became clear — to provide the opportunity to offer a solution to the medical field and to reach the millennial market.”
Tom joined the team as CTO in March 2020 and together, the trio worked to create a co-branding opportunity. Kara’s team of one grew to 10 with a common mission “to connect patients with their loved ones by providing mobile solutions that create connection, support and community within their trusted circle.”
Focused on family, Kara and the team rebranded in the first quarter to its present brand, OhanaLink. “Ohana means family, and this is the family link to health care needs,” she explained.
Sensitive information is made secure through OhanaLink Technologies’ apps, OhanaLink Baby and the soon-to-launch OhanaLink Health, while bridging the missing link between a patient and their loved ones.
Organized with icons providing updates in a message board format, a place for well wishes and more, “It’s creating this safe space for you to communicate with your family and closest circle,” Kara said.
“Family and friends are disconnected now more than ever. People are having babies alone and OhanaLink Baby creates that experience and circle for all to engage in that journey together. Mom can share bump-dates and updates, but what’s even cooler is that all the things that are saved can be exported to a physical takeaway through a memory album filled with virtual cards, flowers and well-wishes to look back on this journey,” said Kara.
A mother of two, the option for Mom to look back on her journey is extra special. “To be able to go back and look at timestamped updates I think is not only cool for me as a mom, but also for kids as they grow up,” she said.
OhanaLink Baby is available in the app store for $9.99 annually for the person creating the waiting room. Guest access is free. The OhanaLink Health app has also been fast-tracked to help provide a resource for individuals in a time of immediate need.
Although there is still much to be done, Kara has already achieved more as founder and CEO of a tech company than she ever imagined. “I think that has been the biggest reward — watching the process unfold and knowing that what I needed would come to me in some way. There are things that I’ve just seen come to life and it’s all part of the puzzle. Through this whole process, I’ve been so lucky and grateful every step of the way. Figuring out how to create a tech company was really difficult, but rewarding. Tom, Janet, me — we all have the same mission to help the next “Kara” who walks through the doors. OhanaLink as a whole, we are all very connected to this community.”
Through the process, Kara has learned success doesn’t come easy, but with a dream and a drive to follow it, anything is possible. “What I’ve found after having a great corporate career and checking off many of those boxes is that my happiness comes from intangible places — my kids looking at me as an example that you can do anything you want. Knowing that, as a company, we are laying the foundation and setting a standard for new businesses to follow in our footsteps and pay all of this knowledge I’ve gained forward so others can see their own greatness.”
Kara continued, “I feel so grateful that I get to work with amazing, talented people that believe in our mission as much as I do. Happiness is realizing you have the freedom and ability to be whatever you want to be and risking it all to find out what that looks like. I’ve looked for the opportunity in every stepping stone that has been disguised as failure and used that lesson to learn something new. That might sound cliché, but when you come out on the other side of just going for it, the happiness you will feel is something greater than you could ever imagine. It actually makes me really sad when I think about the opportunities people let pass by them because fear talks them out of it before they even start. It’s tragic, really.”
