Adrienne Ammerman
Arclet – MICRO Spring 2024
Published November 13, 2024
As part of our ‘Meet Our Founders’ series today, we introduce Adrienne Ammerman, Founder and CEO of Arclet based in Asheville, NC. Arclet is a B2B SaaS platform that empowers health communicators to locate, localize, test, share, and measure engaging, evidence-based, and culturally competent health information in their communities.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve and what influenced you to start your company?
A:During the pandemic, I led a collaborative COVID-19 communications response in western North Carolina. It was frustrating that the frontline workers I supported lacked the information and tools to keep their communities safe – and these challenges weren’t unique to our region. Despite having the idea for Arclet since 2019, I struggled to gain support, hearing again and again: “I’m not sure whose job that is.” I realized if I wanted this tool to exist, I had to build it myself. I learned my strengths lie in uniting diverse partners, identifying shared pain points, and co-designing solutions. I’m proud of our progress in bringing this much-needed dream to life, and couldn’t do it without my partners in North Carolina!
Q: What are you most excited about right now? What keeps you up at night?
A: I’m most excited about expanding Arclet’s impact as we prepare to onboard more users and roll out new features. Watching our platform evolve to better serve health communicators and seeing how it can make a tangible difference in public health energizes me daily. What keeps me up at night is ensuring that we meet the needs of our users as we scale, balancing the demands of growth with maintaining the platform’s high quality and user-centric design. My users are my peers, and I worry about letting them down. Fortunately, these are the same folks that help remind me that they’re rooting for me every step of the way.
Q: What have you enjoyed most about starting your own company?
A: What I’ve enjoyed most about starting Arclet is learning how to use technology to scale the innovations we piloted in western North Carolina. It’s amazing to realize that the sky is the limit, as long as I can find the resources—and fortunately, my background in nonprofits has taught me how to be scrappy. I know I’ll be successful as long as I can build something that my users love.
While visiting Asheville, Adrienne recommends:
- Asheville has been my home for 12 years and is an amazing city, but I highly recommend exploring beyond Asheville to see all that western North Carolina has to offer! Sylva is a beautiful town with delicious spots like Ilda and Dalaya. In Cherokee, visit the Museum of the Cherokee People and Oconaluftee Indian Village. In Marshall, take a walk along Laurel Village, then soak in Hot Springs and grab a bite at the Old Marshall Jail. One of my favorite spots is Lake Santeetlah in Graham County—it’s truly a hidden gem.
Support Arclet and Adrienne by:
- You can support Arclet by spreading the word to public health communicators and agencies in your network. Sign up to try our platform, share feedback, or recommend Arclet to those who would benefit from our tools. Every referral, demo request, or piece of advice helps us grow and refine our services for maximum impact.
