Five Questions with a Startup CEO: Nancy Tye Murray of clEAR

Nancy Tye Murray, CEO, clEAR

clEAR allows audiologists to provide game-based training to patients with hearing loss, enhancing speech recognition and cognitive function.

What does your company do best?

clEAR provides audiologists with a new clinical tool that allows them to provide effective and engaging auditory training for the 35mm Americans suffering hearing loss. clEAR auditory training teaches patients to recognize speech and exercise their cognitive auditory skills. With clEAR, audiologists can easily monitor progress and customize training to a patient's particular listening needs in a manner that is efficient and cost-effective.

If you could change one thing about your product/service or industry-what would it be and why?

I wish audiologists were more open to change—they are often reluctant to try new products and to offer new services.

Startups sometimes experience growing pains, what helps you get through these startup cycles?

I talk to people who are experienced with start-ups, read business books, and brainstorm with my team members about how to proceed. Five books that have been influential in my thinking are 1) “Lean Start-Up: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radical Success”; 2) “Good to Great”; 3) “Everyone Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People like Family”; 4) “Inside the Tornado: Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets”; and 5) “Can’t Buy Me Like”.

What has surprised you during your time with this startup?

I’ve been an academician all of my working career and never realized how much I would enjoy becoming an entrepreneur. I find it very satisfying because you have tangible results and it’s usually easy to tell if you’ve accomplished something at the end of the day, which isn’t always the case with academics.

What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur?

1) Spend your cash judiciously and take time to deeply understand your financials; 2) don’t ignore bad news; 3) get the right people on your team; 4) cultivate within yourself the wisdom to know when to be humble and open for a different direction and when to be very self-confident and determined to persist in what you believe to be the best direction; and 5) have a (flexible) 3-month plan, a 12-month plan, an 18-month plan, and a 5-year plan.

For more information, please visit their website clearworks4ears.com.