FemTech Focus

In today’s episode, I interview Claire Schmidt the founder & CEO of AllVoices. AllVoices is an employee feedback management platform that is taking a modern approach to driving change within organizations by giving all employees a way to speak up, provide feedback, ask questions, share positive input, and report harassment, bias, or culture issues directly to their company’s leadership. Before founding AllVoices, Claire served as Vice President of Technology and Innovation at 20th Century Fox and she came across Susan Fowler's blog, exposing the toxic harassment she experienced as a software engineer at Uber. The story occupied part of Claire’s mind for months. She began speaking with CEOs, lawyers, HR professionals and other employees (including Susan Fowler) and discovered that the tools available to employees to share feedback or report issues were ineffective, ominous and rarely used. The whistleblower hotlines in the market were outdated and clunky. This lack of an effective and comprehensive employee feedback management platform, was encouraging toxic workplace cultures of silence and unresolved, systemic issues. So Claire began building AllVoices. Now, AllVoices is the leading Employee Feedback Management Platform, trusted by leading companies and preferred by employees. Learn more at www.allvoice.co Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Hana Janebdar, the co-founder and CEO of Juno Bio. Juno Bio is decoding the vaginal microbiome with its at-home vaginal microbiome test. To date, there has been very little attention to the vaginal microbiome event though it has massive implications for women’s lives. That's why this microbe-obsessed team from London developed a breakthrough test that decodes your microbes and powers up research for the betterment of everyone with a vagina. Disrupted vaginal microbiomes can cause everything from recurrent infections to infertility. Trouble is, it’s a bit of a black box because no one has really invested the time and effort to look until now. June Bio ran The Juno Study. Over 1000 women across the US registered to be part of the biggest IRB-approved study of its kind to power up women’s health research with the richest and most representative repository of vaginal microbiomes. This study shed light on patterns that will raise the standard of care possible for women across the world. You can get your vaginal microbiome test today at www.Juno.Bio Use promo code FEMTECH for 20% off your kit! Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Claire Siegel, the co-founder and CEO of Flourish. Flourish is a wellness platform that helps women “get healthy for good” with zero focus on weight loss or food tracking. Diet culture is so deeply embedded into the American psyche that it is difficult to find programs and platforms that don’t subscribe to the diet approach to wellness. Claire Siegel is a registered dietician and knows first-hand how damaging yo-yo dieting can be–both physically and emotionally. After battling 10 years with diets, food, health, and body image, Claire founded Flourish as the first truly non-diet platform, where she helps women heal from diet culture and sustain healthy habits that align with their values through accountability, community and education. To learn more visit www.weflourish.com Our listeners get a special offer for 1 free week on the platform and 1 free coach consultation meeting. Click the link below, create an account, and voila! Flourish! Enjoy the episode!

https://app.weflourish.com/dashboard?invitationCode=FEMTECH

In today’s episode, I interview Cheryl Hostinak, the Executive Director of American bone health. American Bone Health teaches people how to build and keep strong and healthy bones for life with practical and up-to-date information and resources to engage, educate and empower them to prevent bone loss, osteoporosis and fractures. They love bones and we should too! Bone health is something we should think about sooner rather than later. Many health conditions that women deal with, and treatments for those conditions, can cause bone loss and increase risk of broken bones. Everything from diabetes to breast cancer to lupus to mental health. People achieve peak bone mass by about age 30, so after that, you want to minimize net bone loss. Around menopause, bone loss increases significantly. “Primary osteoporosis” is a state of low bone mass related to age and loss of estrogen; “secondary osteoporosis” is low bone mass caused by something else, whether another disease or a medicine or factors such as smoking, alcoholism or an eating disorder. American Bone Health has a scientifically validated assessment tool called the American Bone Health Fracture Risk Calculator. This is a great tool for anyone over 45 to learn whether they are at low, moderate or high risk for weak bones. Take the quiz and learn more about bone health at www.americanbonehealth.org Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Soumyadip Rakshit, the CEO and co-founder of MysteryVibe. MysteryVibe invents category-defining products that combine the best of humanity & technology to create the most personalized pleasure experience. They want to make sexual health as commonplace as health. So anyone from post-natal to post-menopause, adventurer to ED solver, single to long-term couples…everyone can use MysteryVibes tools, talks & techniques to bring mystery back into the bedrooms. My favorite part of this interview is the revelation that this sextech company is truly dedicated to improving pleasure for women. Whether there’s pain during sex, dryness, or paralysis, MysteryVibes takes their engineering and research to the max to make sure everyone is experiencing mystery and pleasure in the bedroom. Get yours at www.mysteryvibe.com Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Dallas Barnes, the founder and CEO of Reya Health. Reya’s digital solution makes navigating birth control easy and effective. Their smart algorithms utilize in-depth user profiles to match members with the right birth control solution for them. They also have a Birth Control Boundary tracking system that supports users in managing any birth control side effects or symptoms. Dallas is from Ontario, where she resides with her cats and chickens. Before becoming an entrepreneur herself, Dallas consulted small businesses, working closely with Indigenous entrepreneurs to build business plans and strategies. Now Dallas' main focus is working towards revolutionizing the birth control experience for all birth control users, so females can feel more informed and confident. Our listeners get a special offer. Go to www.reyahealth.ca and use promo code FEMTECH15 for 15% off a monthly membership and find the right birth control for you. Enjoy the episode!

Today is a special bonus episode! I interview Katelyn Marini, Managing Director at the Bowdoin group. The Bowdoin Group is an executive search firm that specializes in leadership and strategic roles, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services, and major hiring projects for a wide range of companies, from small firms building out their executive team to larger firms sourcing talent for rapid market expansion. The Bowdoin group knows women’s health is an emerging market that needs thought leaders at every level to support and accelerator our growth. I am so pleased to see Bowdoin stepping up to the plate as the go-to femtech executive search firm. They have partnered with FemTech Focus one our upcoming jobs fair on March 23rd! In fact, the first hour of the event will be an in-depth talk about the current jobs market in the United States and what skills one needs to land a job in femtech. Consider this bonus episode as a preview to this excellent talk. Please be sure to register for the jobs fair at femtechfocus.org Learn more about the Bowdoin Group at www.BowdoinGroup.com Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Priya Oberoi, Founding general partner Goddess Gaia ventures. Priya is an entrepreneur, founder, and lawyer by training. She is also a cancer survivor passionate about investing in technology that improves women’s health. Goddess Gaia Ventures is a female-founded 100M Pound venture fund investing in pre-series A femtech startups in the United Kingdom. They align their investments with creating a sustainable and healthy planet and prioritize investing in underrepresented and female founders. If you would like your startup's fundraise to be considered by Goddess Gaia then go to www.ggventures.co.uk to submit information about your deal. Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Dr. Harpreet Nagra, a behavioral scientist, clinical researcher, licensed psychologist, and equity expert. She serves as the VP of Behavior Science and Advanced Technologies at One Drop. One Drop is a digital health company harnessing the power of behavioral science, mobile computing, and data science to transform the lives of people with diabetes and other chronic conditions worldwide. In this interview, we speak about techquity. Techquity refers to digital health solutions being more equitable, accessible, and inclusive. I know many of you listeners know about the systemic biases in AI/ML algorithms used in healthcare that aren’t being addressed – in just one example, most of the data used to power AI are from studies done predominantly with male subjects. In another example, a 2019 study found that an algorithm assigned the same health risk scores to Black patients who were considerably sicker than white patients. As we continue to see digital health exploding, these companies are based their solutions on biased algorithms. Dr. Harpreet and I discussed how we must prioritize the creation and refinement of digital health tools to advance “techquity” and cultural humility. Enjoy the episode!

In today’s episode, I interview Deborah Copaken, the author of "Ladyparts", a memoir. Deb is a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Shutterbabe, The Red Book, and Between Here and April, among others. A contributing writer at The Atlantic, she was also a TV writer on Emily in Paris, a performer, and an Emmy Award–winning news producer and photojournalist. Her photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Oprah Magazine, and many more. We speak today about her seventh book entitled “Ladyparts, a memoir” where she describes her real-life journey through female health issues in a world prioritized for males and systems that are supposed to support the sick but often keep them down. Be sure to get your copy of her book at your local book store. Learn more about Deb at www.deborahcopaken.com. Enjoy the episode!