Medicare spends as much on falls as it does on cancer—but 30-50% of those fall-related costs are preventable. Amanda Rees watched her grandmother develop a "goose egg" from a fall while gardening, then watched the shame make her stop gardening altogether, spiraling into depression and isolation. A decade of caregiving radicalized how this Princeton-trained engineer thought about aging. So she built Bold, a company now serving 10 million older adults—with a leadership team and cap table that's "very, very female" in a notoriously male-dominated space. But first, she had to stop making herself small.

"You're really good at making yourself seem small," someone told Amanda early in her fundraising journey. The irony wasn't lost—she was downplaying a Princeton engineering degree, $100M in energy investment experience, and a decade caring for her grandmother while running a company literally called Bold. She only needed to hear that feedback once.

What followed was a masterclass in building with intention. Amanda raised funding from Rethink Impact, the largest fund dedicated to investing in women, and assembled a predominantly female leadership team—not through quotas, but through mission alignment. "Women tend to be the frontline caregivers for a lot of families, and they see it. They understand that's a very real problem," she explains.

In this conversation, Amanda dismantles the preparation myth holding women founders back: "If you have the itch and you wanna do it, do it. Don't go get an extra degree or do this thing before I'm ready." She explains why your first pitch will be terrible, why pitch five is the hardest, and how objection handling refines not just your deck but your entire business model. She also shares why she only hires people who'll stay "when things are tough, when the challenges ahead look really big and scary"—because fair-weather teams crumble, and resilience must be embedded from day one.

Key Takeaways:

• Stop waiting to be "ready"—the best data comes from actually doing it, not preparing endlessly
• Making yourself small doesn't help anyone, especially not you—authenticity beats false modesty
• Build your team and investor base with people who deeply connect to your mission, not just the opportunity
• Your first pitch will suck; by pitch fifty you'll be excellent—you just have to survive pitch five
• The DNA of the people you hire becomes the DNA of your company—choose accordingly
• When older adults lose independence, it's the shame and isolation that does the damage, not just the physical limitation

About the Guest: Amanda Rees is the CEO and Co-founder of Bold, a pro-aging health company serving over 10 million older adults through Medicare partnerships with organizations like UnitedHealth Group. Bold's platform has demonstrated a 46% reduction in falls and 182% increase in weekly physical activity in peer-reviewed research. A Princeton graduate with a degree in biological and chemical engineering, Amanda previously managed a $100M renewable energy portfolio at The Schmidt Family Foundation and has been selected for The Aspen Institute's 2025 class of Finance Leaders Fellows.

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Chapters

00:00 - Introduction at Health Conference

00:55 - From Caregiver to Founder: The Bold Origin Story

03:35 - Keeping Humanity in Fall Prevention

08:12 - Building a Female-Led Company and Cap Table

10:08 - Fundraising Advice: Just Start Pitching

13:41 - The Feedback That Changed Everything: Stop Making Yourself Small

15:21 - AI and the Future of Aging

16:52 - Building Your Team: The DNA of Your Company

Guest & Host Links

• Connect with Laurie McGraw on LinkedIn
• Connect with Amanda Rees on LinkedIn

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