Ep. 33: Critical Decision Making Skills Every Manager Needs with Aimee Kandrac - a podcast by Stefanie Krievins

Do you ever wish that you could see that your CEO is a human being? That they are vulnerable? That they can mess up?

In today’s episode, Aimee Kandrac, CEO and Founder of WhatFriendsDo, tells us about a time where her close friend’s son was diagnosed with a cancer.

As her friend’s family waited in isolation in the hospital for 100 days, many stories were shared and stored on Aimee's database. About 6-months into this journey the WhatFriendsDo website crashed and none of the backups worked, Aimee had lost their whole story. On top of that 10,000 other users all over the world lost their data as well. When anyone has a technology crash it sucks. Users are upset and people get frustrated and wonder “Why isn’t this working?”

What Friends Do was holding people’s lives at a critical time for them. Losing this data was like losing their story - the story of the most intimate and critical times in their entire lives.

For Aimee, as a business owner, and as a friend personally impacted, it was hard to untangle herself from the personal side to be the business owner. Aimee was in full-on crisis mode…The questions going through her mind were:

• Who do we have to get to and by when?
• Who else do we need to bring in?
• What are the long-term ramifications of this?
• How do you continue to show up for the world while you were struggling through all of this?
• For the things that hit her emotionally, how much of that should she share with her team and when?

Aimee had lost all of the data, all of her users and the fate of her business was uncertain. Even though she hadn’t created the code, as the CEO, it came down to her. It took about 6-months of soul searching before Aimee made the decision to come back and restart her business.

About Aimee Kandrac

Aimee’s story began when a close friend, Laura, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor at the age of 25. Aimee, her mom, and her sister took charge and coordinated all of the non-medical care, and rallied hundreds of friends to show their support. Recognizing the need for a simpler way to coordinate care, Aimee co-founded WhatFriendsDo.

At WhatFriendsDo, Aimee is an innovator, instigator, advice giver, and leader. She excels at inspiring others to pitch in and help, and sees WhatFriendsDo as an incredible opportunity to take caring to a new level, but in a very personal, powerful, and viral way.

At her core, Aimee is passionate about running a technology-based company centered on helping friends and families going through a life-changing event. Her innovative leadership has earned her recognition as one of Indy’s Best and Brightest Finalists from Junior Achievement of Central Indiana and as a Top 50 Mompreneur of the Year from eBabble.com.

Aimee has been featured in print and online in Forbes.com, Fortune, Time, LA Times, Advancing Women, Oprah.com, Indianapolis Woman, and the Indianapolis Star, as well as many TV, radio, and podcasts.

What is WhatFriendsDo.com

WhatFriendsDo is a free platform that empowers friends to help loved ones in need. When an event like a health crisis occurs, people experiencing the crisis often feel overwhelmed and alone, and the friends and extended family members who love them want to help but frequently don’t know-how.

WhatFriendsDo channels caring into concrete action, enabling friends to organize meal delivery, household chores, childcare, transportation needs, fundraising activities, and more on a single, simple-to-use platform — and keep everyone involved and updated along the way.

Communicate, Coordinate, and Connect. 

• https://www.facebook.com/WhatFriendsDo

• https://www.instagram.com/whatfriendsdo/

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-kandrac-ab41989/

• https://www.aimeekandrac.com/

• https://www.whatfriendsdo.com

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Website of Stefanie Krievins