In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Kate Dilligan, CEO of Cooler Heads.

Cooler Heads is a commercial-stage company addressing a problem affecting many chemotherapy patients undergoing treatment for solid tumors: hair loss and the loss of privacy that comes with it. The company's FDA-cleared medical device, Amma, makes scalp cooling accessible by fitting into infusion center workflows rather than disrupting them.

Kate brings an unconventional background to medtech — from political fundraising to developing classified software for the U.S. government. As a solo female founder who had never worked in hardware, she started Cooler Heads in 2018 after her own experience with breast cancer. By mid-2025, the company had raised $11 million in Series A funding and placed devices across 27 states, with most accounts having never offered scalp cooling before.

In this interview, Kate shares how to design for health system adoption by solving workflow problems first, why saying “no” to scope creep protects your first-generation product, and how political fundraising tactics translate directly to building investor relationships in medtech.

Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:

First, if you’re into learning from medical device and health technology founders and CEOs, and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter.

Second, if you want to peek behind the curtain of the world's most successful startups, you should consider a Medsider premium membership. You’ll learn the strategies and tactics that founders and CEOs use to build and grow companies like Silk Road Medical, AliveCor, Shockwave Medical, and hundreds more!

We recently introduced some fantastic additions exclusively for Medsider premium members, including playbooks, which are curated collections of our top Medsider interviews on key topics like capital fundraising and risk mitigation, and 3 packages that will help you make use of our database of 750+ life science investors more efficiently for your fundraise and help you discover your next medical device or health technology investor!

In addition to the entire back catalog of Medsider interviews over the past decade, premium members also get a copy of every volume of Medsider Mentors at no additional cost, including the latest Medsider Mentors Volume VII. If you’re interested, go to medsider.com/subscribe to learn more.

Lastly, if you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Kate Dilligan.

Solve the Workflow, Unlock the Market: Interview with Cooler Heads CEO Kate Dilligan

Medsider: Learn from Medtech and Healthtech Founders and CEOs

Solve the Workflow, Unlock the Market: Interview with Cooler Heads CEO Kate Dilligan