Meet the Founders – Nanodropper CEO Allisa Song
Meet Allisa Song. Seafood connoisseur. Bunny and dog mom. Snowboarding and outdoor enthusiast. Lifelong dancer. Board game nerd and aspiring homestead farm owner. Mayo Clinic MD candidate. CEO of Nanodropper.
From the four co-founders to the new hires, Nanodropper is excited to introduce you to its growing team as we expand to meet your eye health needs. Read on to learn all about CEO Allisa Song!
About Allisa
Allisa is a Korean-American entrepreneur and innovator with a background in neuroscience, harm reduction, and psychology. She is currently an MD Candidate at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, and is a thought leader in physician-led, high-value innovation in healthcare. In addition to her proven track record of successful fundraising, she has led her teams to dozens of business and design awards, including the USPTO Collegiate Inventor medal awarded by the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the 2021 list of Forbes 30 Under 30. As the visionary behind Nanodropper, Allisa’s patient-centered mindset drives Nanodropper’s mission of helping patients better afford their medications, one drop at a time.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Allisa and her family immigrated to the U.S. in 2001. Since then, she has lived in Canada, Oklahoma, and California. However, she has spent most of her adult life in Seattle, WA, which is where she received both her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington. She graduated with a dual degree in Psychology Honors and Biology.
After graduating, Allisa worked full-time in a research lab learning about the role of the Kappa Opioid Receptor in modulating chronic stress and addiction behaviors. Learning more about the sociopolitical aspects of substance use disorders and the resulting poor outcomes from secondary harm, Allisa realized she wanted to take more immediate action.
“It was my work with the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance that really solidified that I needed to be on the clinical side of things,” Allisa says. “It was incredibly rewarding to influence positive change in my community, and I realized becoming a physician was a way to facilitate healthcare reform systemically. I think this is also why I fell in love with entrepreneurship; using team building and innovation to transform our world within my lifetime.”
Her love for research and innovation has only grown. She is a peer-reviewed author in neuroscience, pharmacology, genetics, plastic surgery, and ophthalmology.
Finding Time to Build a Company and Solve a Problem
Reflecting back on four years of medical school while building a startup team, Allisa has grown a deeper appreciation for the value of teamwork and creating space for mindfulness and intention.
“It’s been so helpful to have an amazing team I can rely on — I couldn’t have gone through medical school and grow Nanodropper without having teammates you can count on, trust, and have 100 percent confidence in,” Allisa says. “I’m grateful to be surrounded by such amazing and talented people who support making my craziest dreams possible.”
In October 2017, Allisa’s biggest dream began to take shape. After reading an article from NPR titled “Drug Companies Make Eyedrops Too Big, and You Pay for the Waste”, Allisa envisioned a simple, patient-centered solution to a global problem. An eyedrop bottle adaptor.
The problem? Current eyedrop bottles dispense up to five times the liquid an eye can absorb. This even includes over-the-counter drops, as well as prescription drops. With 25 percent of patients running out of medication before their next refill, we are paying for these oversized eyedrops not only out of pocket, but with our vision. To make matters worse, bigger eyedrops have been shown to cause more severe side effects.
And here’s the kicker — prescribed eyedrop medications for diseases like glaucoma can cost up to $500 per bottle. Virtually no insurance company foots that entire bill. If you can’t afford to do that, your eye health suffers.
Allisa has her own experience navigating the complex web of our healthcare system to gain access to proper eyecare.
“Until recently, health insurance, doctors appointments, and financial stability were all luxuries for me. I often had to make decisions about what I could pay for. Including my healthcare.” Allisa says. “During a gap in insurance coverage when I was younger, I was in a situation where I could have lost my vision without treatment. I needed to see an ophthalmologist and pay for expensive medications. I had to weigh my immediate needs, like paying my monthly bills, versus my future vision. Vision is our primary sense, so the thought of losing that was terrifying. I had to make a hard sacrifice then, in order to maybe prevent losing my sight. People shouldn’t have to choose between their sight and making their rent.”
This experience sculpted Nanodropper to be a tool that can empower patients to take advantage of all the benefits microvolume dosing has to offer and reclaim power over their healthcare.
Cultivating an Idea
On the same day she read the NPR article, Allisa approached Elias Baker, who was working as an industry mechanical engineer, with a design idea to solve the problem. Together they began to sketch out potential prototypes on a whiteboard, and Nanodropper was born.
By December 2017, Allisa had gathered a team of talented students to develop and bring the idea to life.
“Allisa is truly the visionary behind Nanodropper,” says Mackenzie Andrews, Nanodropper’s Chief Commercial Officer. “She has an unwavering mission and has guided our team from the start of a little project at the UW campus to developing a product that is helping tens of thousands of people in our healthcare system.”
Since then, Nanodropper team has won multiple competitions and partnered with ophthalmologists and optometrists to bring the device to every eye in need.
“I am so proud of how far Nanodropper has come,” Allisa says. “Each member of the team has put in countless hours to produce an amazing product to reduce cost and increase access for eyedrop users.”
Click here to learn how the Nanodropper delivers you value-based care, one drop at a time. It’s time to take back control of your eye health.
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