Julia Cheek

In the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., Everlywell CEO Julia Cheek began to work on a way to test for COVID-19. As the founder of a lab-testing startup, she was well positioned to help address a national testing shortage; five years after launching Everlywell, Cheek had built the infrastructure to be able to respond to a health crisis within months. The company encountered some hurdles getting its product to market—including with the FDA—but in May was authorized to offer an at-home collection kit. The procrastination-averse 36-year-old founder may have been helped in her quick action by the adage she lives by: “If it can be done in five minutes, do it now.”