Dr. Elizabeth Clayborne (MD ‘11) is the CEO and founder of NasaClip, a consumer health products startup focused on treating nosebleeds. NasaClip’s flagship product, the NasaClip, uses a miniature clamp and 2 sponges that can be medicated for an effective and easy to use at-home nosebleed solution.
What was the original inspiration for you to start NasaClip?
When I started my residency in Emergency Medicine, I was shocked at the number of nosebleed visits I saw. Turns out 0.5% of all ER visits, amounting to 500,000 visits a year, are from nosebleeds, even though they are simple to treat and rarely serious. As my residency progressed, I became more and more shocked at why people would wait hours in the ER room for something that you can treat at home in 10-20 minutes.
I did some research and realized there were 2 main factors contributing to this widespread mistreatment of nosebleeds. First, there’s a lot of misinformation online about how to treat nosebleeds, like tilting your head backwards for example. Second, most nosebleed patients are young kids and seniors, the age groups least likely to follow the proper treatment protocols.
I wanted to be able to give patients something to quench the bleed while they were waiting to be seen. Something that was comfortable and easy to use but also effective. If you mention epistaxis (nosebleed) to any ER doctor, they will roll their eyes and groan, so I created NasaClip to make my job easier by making it easier for patients to treat their nosebleeds.
If you had the opportunity to travel back in time to when you founded NasaClip with the knowledge you have today, what’s the biggest thing you would do differently?
I had a 5-year gap between when I first thought of the idea for NasaClip and when I raised capital. I had a lot of major life events going on during that period that caused me to put NasaClip on the backburner, but I wish I would’ve taken action sooner. Looking back now at the progress I’ve made over the last 5 years, and the progress I expect to make in the next five years, I realize that I could be a lot farther forward if I had started earlier.
What if you could travel back in time to freshman year of college? What’s the biggest thing you would do differently from then until now?
This is a really funny question because I’m actually driving to Duke this afternoon for my 20 year undergraduate class reunion!
The biggest thing I would do is reassure myself that it’s okay to take risks to pursue what I want. I started my undergrad on the BME pre-med track but realized freshman year that I didn’t really like the math and physics involved in engineering. I decided to switch to studying medical ethics and religion, while still on the pre-med track. At the time, I was really worried about my career path, since it was a big deviation from the more “traditional” path I had been on. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself to follow my passion, even if it’s off the beaten path, and reassure myself that my decisions would pay off.
I ended up going to CWRU because of my choices, where I got my medical degree and a master in bioethics. These primed me to be the entrepreneur I am today, and none of the success I’ve had would have been possible if I hadn’t taken the risks I did.
What’s something you think that you do right as an entrepreneur, but a lot of people in your industry do wrong?
I think there’s a lot of pressure on female founders to lead in an excessively masculine way. I’ve worked with an executive coach to write my own CEO manifesto, which has guided me into leaning into both my masculine and feminine strengths. A lot of entrepreneurs lead in a very tough and determined way, but I think there’s a lot of value in utilizing soft skills and emotional intelligence when facing challenges. Rather than bulldozing through obstacles, something I think I do well is taking a step back and finding a more nuanced and efficient approach to problems.
What’s something you think you do right as a doctor, but a lot of other doctors do wrong?
My masters in bioethics taught me the importance of looking at a patient as a whole human being, not just an object with a disease. A lot of doctors forget about the person they are treating and lose sight of the fact that every patient is experiencing their ailment in a broader personal context.
For example, a few months ago I was working with a resident to treat a young woman who came to the ER with a broken arm and a dislocated shoulder. The resident came up with a big treatment plan - what tests to conduct, what specialist to bring in, etc., but didn’t think to ask what caused the broken arm in the first place. Turns out she was in an abusive relationship, and the most important “treatment” we had to prescribe was making sure she received the appropriate counseling and resources to ensure she didn’t come back next week with another injury.
I’m really impressed by how successful you are in so many different areas of your life - as a doctor, a mother, and now an entrepreneur. What’s the #1 thing you want people to remember about you as a person?
I think it would be that I lived expecting my dreams to come true. The only limits on your goals are the ones you put there, and I think I’ve done a lot so far because of that mindset.
If you had to start a new company today, what would it be?
Despite being a doctor, I’ve always had a fascination with alcohol brands and would like to start my own. I have a secret idea for an enriched product with a very specific name that references my experience as a physician. I’m not going to share much more because I would like to seriously pursue my idea someday, but I think it would be very successful.
I think my NasaClip experience would prime me for this future opportunity. I would start by understanding the marketplace and what I would need for product market fit, and then build a team of industry experts around me to build what I think would be the first doctor founded alcohol brand, medicine of a different kind.
NasaClip is one of the CWRU-founded ventures in the CWRU Alumni Venture Fund portfolio.
This article was written by CWRU Alumni Venture Fund Fellow Amos Langsner, class of 2025.