The elevator pitch really is a thing.

“Even when you’re in an elevator with someone and you’re having a conversation, what do you do? It’s a pitch,” says Lisa Lavin, founder and CEO of Ōmcare, the Minneapolis-based medtech company that launched a Home Health Hub for remote monitoring of patients taking meds.

Lanvin shared the decade-plus journey to launch Ōmcare on a new episode of TCB podcast By All Means. She also shared some hard-learned lessons about starting and scaling a business.

On raising money: “I think it takes intestinal fortitude…because what you have to be able to accept is 99% nos.”

On mentorship: “Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. Have your ears open.”

On fundamentals: “The first round to trying to develop the product failed because we didn’t have the core that we needed. You need to understand the core of what you’re developing.”

On perseverance: “Never give up. Because on a daily basis, there are moments where you just go…I don’t know if I can continue to do this. And yet, you push on and you push through that.”

On seizing secondary opportunities along the way: While getting the Home Health Hub ready to launch, Ōmcare secured related patents. They also sold the initial test product, which provided remote dispensing of pet treats.

On thinking big: Today, Ōmcare is providing remote monitoring of meds through an interactive telehealth device. Tomorrow, it could be something else. “We have big visions on how we can actually change the way the world cares. And it is beyond what we’re doing today.”

Listen: More advice from Lisa Lavin on Episode 132 of By All Means