A personal experience that led to the launch of an online community dedicated to connecting families of children with disabilities to search, buy, sell, and donate durable medical equipment, LittleWins was born.
Founder Lexis Serot is keen on helping at least one person struggling with the inability to access the necessary equipment to improve their quality of life to alleviate the burden of this problem.
Lexis reflects on her journey as an entrepreneur and leader below:
Sowing Seeds
Her company was born from a personal struggle when one of her twins suffered a skull fracture during an emergency C-section delivery resulting in a cerebral palsy diagnosis.
However, the information and resources available to her were lacking. This realization inspired her to create a solution for others facing similar challenges. Despite not having a college degree, Lexis was determined to make a difference. Over the years, she has met many parents and caregivers who feel the same way, and her solution has proven to be helpful. Lexis is proud to have created something that positively impacts people’s lives.
Helping Hand
As Lexis began to help more and more people, her vision expanded to a more holistic approach. The goal was to provide the necessary equipment and dispel the loneliness felt by families dealing with these challenges. Lexis saw that acquiring the essential tools was not straightforward and that many families felt alone in their struggles. LittleWins aimed to address both issues, providing a 360 approach that included one-to-one support and a community for families to share tips and connect. The problem of limited mobility was a common one, affecting people all over the world. However, Lexis believed the burden could be lessened by coming together and supporting each other.
Lexis saw many problems which needed solutions as she looked around, from essential equipment to adaptive silverware. The excitement of building the Little Wins community kept her motivated, and she always turned to the founding principles for new ideas. Lexis recognized that the solutions needed to come from a group effort and constantly asked for input and feedback from everyone involved. The pioneering spirit of LittleWins was in paving an entirely new way together, with the power of community behind it.
Integrity is a core value for LittleWins. Lexis asserts, “We believe in doing the right thing and being good stewards of the resources and relationships entrusted to us.” Little Wins also values empowerment, providing members with access to the tools and resources they need to improve their lives. Compassion is also critical, with the company caring about its members and their families and offering a supportive environment.
Lexis emphasizes the importance of integrity and doing the right thing to be resourceful and also relationship stewards. She also speaks about the value of empowerment and providing access to tools and resources that can improve the lives of Little Wins’ members. Another critical value for Lexis is compassion. She cares deeply about the members and their families and seeks a judgment-free environment that fosters community and generates more successful outcomes. Additionally, she values respect for differences and follows through on commitments while taking ownership of results, which is why accountability is essential to Little Wins. Lexis is committed to living by these values and making decisions that align with them, making LittleWins unique in its approach.
Lexis believes in creating a work environment more like a family, where everyone works together and understands that everyone is human. She encourages her team to take time off if needed and celebrates each other’s successes, regardless of their position in the company. Lexis hand-selects her team members, sometimes not necessarily because of their professional background but because of their passion for learning and willingness to work hard. In her small company, everyone wears many hats, and there is ease and flow to the work driven by a shared acceptance of the company’s values and cultivating each person’s interests. To Lexis, this is what makes her company unique and successful.
Driving Significant Impact
Lexis had a breadth of experience that took much work to come by. Having worked countless jobs since her teenage years, from being a janitor to a model, a housekeeper to a bartender, Lexis had gained an impressive array of skills that she knew could be applied to creating an online company. Having been unable to afford college, Lexis learned essential life skills on the job, such as cleaning, taking care of others, and organizational skills. This understanding led her to design LittleWins, a marketplace to buy, sell, and trade medical equipment and supplies that were free and designed for busy people. Lexis was proud of the flow of the platform, knowing that people needed more time to jump through hoops and answer endless questions. LittleWins was designed to make their lives easier. Its success in the niche market was because it catered to people who were trying hard. Lexis knew that her life experience had played a significant role in the design of LittleWins. She wasn’t sure if she would have been able to create something comparable if her life had been more accessible.
Lexis has been working on a project for the past three years that she is excited to roll out soon. One day while shopping for medical supplies for her daughter, she was reminded of a past sad event, which prompted her to come up with an idea for a medical supply subscription box. The box would eliminate the experience of feeling bummed out about buying medical supplies and instead bring a smile to people’s faces every month. It would also feature a new story or artwork every month. Lexis spent the last three years building Little Wins, getting people’s feedback, and ensuring it met their needs. Now that it is almost ready, she is excited to release it to the founding members before launching it to everyone. Lexis also plans a transportation solution to help people who have to take a bus to a train to walk when they can’t get their medical supplies, but that will be ready next year. Her driving force behind these projects is fairness and the desire for everyone to have an equal opportunity for a good quality of life.
What Comes Next?
Lexis is passionate about advocating for individuals who are immobile and nonverbal. She recognizes the importance of eye gaze systems as a means of communication and acknowledges that they are costly. Lexis has aimed to implement these systems and Braille, sound, vision, and other contact forms for a 360-degree approach to accessibility. She believes it is crucial to consider all the different ways individuals communicate, including smell, taste, sound, and sight. Lexis is excited about the incredible innovations and loves partnering with companies to make a difference. She reaches out to companies that she thinks do well and presents her ideas for serving the massive group of people who make up the community of LittleWins, and they are eager to collaborate with her.
Guiding Through
Lexis believes that when it comes to problem-solving in MedTech, it’s essential to focus on the root cause of the problem and stay calm with all the variables. To do this, she suggests imagining the solution; sometimes, the answer could come from the most unexpected places. She emphasizes the need to dream big and start small with the problem, focusing on that tiny part and building on it from there. Though the process can be frustrating and overwhelming, she advises observing what others are doing and looking out for potential solutions that might be right in front of one’s face. She believes that with the technology we have today, solutions are more accessible than ever before, and one should think outside the box to find them.
