Latest / Women Disrupting Tech / How Flouria Health is Healing Women and Shaping Workplaces with Anna Christie | Ep. 103

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How Flouria Health is Healing Women and Shaping Workplaces with Anna Christie | Ep. 103 · Women Disrupting Tech

0:00
The future we're working towards.
0:02
Women's Health is no longer seen as niche.
0:04
It's taken seriously, it's studied properly, it's treated
0:08
with the care it deserves. Diagnosis don't take years.
0:12
Days of unanswered questions and long wait lists, and women
0:16
paying 20% more out of pocket on healthcare than men, and years
0:21
spent living in pain and physical discomfort?
0:23
They're gone. That women feel safe being fully
0:27
themselves at work. They don't have to lie about PMS
0:30
and say they have a migraine. They can actually be honest.
0:34
That taboo is gone. They can reintegrate into the
0:37
workforce after childbirth in a way that's supported and not
0:41
rushed or dismissed. There are flexible, respectful
0:47
working conditions for mothers and for fathers.
0:50
There's space for hormones and cycles and the reality of our
0:54
biology without shame or stigma. I think that the world we work
0:58
towards is a system that's actually built for us, not in
1:02
spite of us. Welcome to Women Disrupting
1:15
tech. My name is dear Ken Lucas and on
1:18
this podcast I give the women who work in tech the platform
1:21
they need to inspire and empower each other.
1:25
Join me on a journey into a the world of entrepreneurship,
1:28
funding biases and role models to discover the strategies for
1:33
success in the tech industry. In other words, how women can
1:37
disrupt tech. Are you ready to listen?
1:47
Welcome back to women Disrupting Tech and thank you for tuning
1:50
into episode 103. In this episode I'm joined by
1:55
Anna Christie, the Co founder of Floria Health.
1:59
Her journey started when she faced unexpected fertility
2:03
challenges and couldn't find clear answers, so she decided to
2:08
share her own stories through a podcast called Bumps.
2:12
Along the way, that podcast became a space for others and
2:17
eventually the foundation for something bigger.
2:20
Now Anna and her Co founders are building a world of care that
2:24
truly sees women in a system that is designed for women.
2:29
What inspired me about our conversation is how personal her
2:33
journey has been and how intentional she is in turning
2:37
that experience into a company that serves others.
2:40
In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, we talk about
2:43
why women self is still treated as a niche and why that needs to
2:47
change. The true cost of burnout,
2:49
fertility challenges and bias in the workplace, and why male
2:53
allies are essential if we want to fix broken systems.
2:58
We also cover something that doesn't get enough airtime.
3:01
Finding the right Co founders. You'll learn from Anna that the
3:06
best Co founders bring complementary skills, different
3:10
lived experiences, and a shared sense of mission.
3:14
And while it's not in the episode itself, I think it's
3:17
worth saying that Anna and I both believe that it's better to
3:21
take your time when you're trying to find these Co
3:24
founders. Just like investors, the last
3:26
thing you want to do is spend the next 10 plus years of your
3:30
life with people you don't genuinely click with.
3:34
So when you're ready to listen and learn how Floria Health is
3:38
healing women in shaping workplaces, please welcome to
3:42
Women Disrupting tech Anna Christie.
3:46
Hey, good morning, Anna. Good to have you.
3:48
Question I always ask at the start is how you got into your
3:52
current position, in this case of Floria Health.
3:55
Yeah, so the start of my story is that I've been living in the
4:00
Netherlands for a few years and after marrying my husband in
4:05
2022, I unexpectedly ran into my own fertility and pregnancy loss
4:11
challenges whilst also working at a pretty fast-paced
4:15
enterprise tech company. And the pace and pressure of
4:19
that work environment, paired with I guess that monthly pain
4:23
of not falling pregnant resulted in a burnout for me.
4:26
So I was out of work. I was trying to make sense of
4:30
this fertility journey, which was something that I felt not
4:33
many people actually talk that openly about.
4:35
So then I thought, well, why don't I talk about it?
4:37
And I felt like the more you open up around these things, the
4:40
more you realize you're not actually alone.
4:43
So I decided to make a podcast to help process my own
4:46
situation, but also connect with other women and learn from
4:50
experts around how lifestyle changes could support fertility.
4:55
And so the podcast bumps along the way was born, and that
5:00
quickly grew into quite an engaged audience of regular
5:03
listeners and a social media community.
5:05
And that really validated to me actually how big this problem
5:09
is. You know, one in six women, one
5:11
in six couples, I should say, will have challenges with
5:14
fertility. Wow.
5:16
But that was. No, it was that prevalent.
5:18
Yeah, it is. So almost everyone you know will
5:23
at least know someone that has encountered A fertility
5:26
challenge and that to me was really staggering.
5:29
So I was on that journey and then meanwhile our Co founder
5:32
Janine was on her own journey. So she had run into her own
5:35
fertility challenges. That's her story to tell.
5:38
And she was also struggling to find information and support
5:43
within the current care system. How did you do a few meet?
5:46
Well, so we met through a new friends.
5:49
Janine basically had this idea. I want to build a platform.
5:54
I want to help women like me find that care and information.
5:57
And I think I'd like to position it as an employee benefit so
6:00
that I can get it into the hands of women at scale through those
6:04
conversations, getting the idea, having chats with people in the
6:07
industry. She met a friend of mine who has
6:10
an employee benefits company in the Netherlands.
6:12
He suggested that she speak with me because I was speaking so
6:15
openly about this topic on the podcast.
6:17
So sort of an organic coming together of people.
6:21
And Janine was working as a fintech investor at the time.
6:25
And before this, she actually tried to find a company that was
6:28
solving this problem that she could invest in.
6:32
And when she couldn't find, 1A colleague dared her to start it
6:36
herself. And so she thought, you know
6:37
what, I will, I will start it myself.
6:39
And that's actually where the concept came from.
6:43
Then you came along. Yes.
6:45
So Janine reached out to me to bounce ideas.
6:48
We went for coffee and yeah, we had a great connection.
6:51
She had a lot of strategic vision, vision and she really
6:55
from her work as an investor understood a lot around business
6:58
models and how you could build this in a scalable way.
7:01
I could bring my background, which is more commercial and
7:04
growth. But at first I actually walked
7:08
away and that was because I was still very deep in my own
7:12
fertility journey And I, I actually was making the podcast
7:16
and I was, I felt like I was already too busy with it.
7:19
You know, that saying, the more you focus on something, the
7:21
bigger it becomes. I felt like I was already quite
7:24
fixated on this. And I felt, I thought, look, as
7:27
much as that really hits my heart and I would so love to be
7:30
involved, I think it's actually not the right time for me.
7:33
I was had surgery for my fertility journey, but I still
7:37
wasn't fully pregnant. I was contemplating IVFI just
7:40
couldn't spend any more time in that world.
7:43
I walked away and I thought, oh, I really think I'm going to
7:46
regret that because I think that could have been really great for
7:49
me. But then actually a few months
7:50
later things shifted internally for Florida and my personal
7:54
situation was a lot better then reached out again.
7:57
By then I was very early stages pregnant with the sun that we
8:02
have now. Archie Janine had found Flutgo,
8:05
our Chief Technical officer so I met with them both.
8:09
We had long chats and then the timing felt right and the
8:12
mission of Floria still resonated with me very deeply.
8:14
So I jumped at the chance and that's how I became the third Co
8:18
founder of Floria. Cool, so out of curiosity you
8:23
started your journey podcasting. 2 questions around that.
8:27
One is did it help you deal with your own situation?
8:31
Yeah, definitely. The podcast helped me in more
8:34
ways than I even expected, actually, because first of all,
8:38
it made me feel less alone. A fertility journey can be very
8:42
lonely. Suddenly you stop going to
8:44
parties, you stop being 100% yourself.
8:47
People around you don't really understand what's changed.
8:50
So I was able to connect with women from all over the world
8:54
who were on similar journeys, and that gave a lot of comfort
8:56
because when someone says out loud what you've been silently
9:01
thinking, it's really powerful. You realize you're not crazy,
9:06
you're not broken. What you're feeling is really
9:08
normal. Yeah.
9:09
I can imagine that it's also giving you a bit of really like
9:14
a sense of belonging almost. Definitely, and what I found was
9:19
I was searching for resources not knowing that there are
9:22
literally Facebook groups and Reddit groups with 10s or even
9:27
hundreds of thousands of people in them all looking for
9:30
information and support on certain topics.
9:33
IVF, fertility, pregnancy loss. And those were not the people
9:37
who said to me, you know, you just need to relax and then
9:41
you'll fall pregnant. You know, those are the people
9:43
who understood. They understood how stressful it
9:46
was and they were validating me even though actually they were
9:49
complete strangers on the Internet.
9:51
So you do you find this online community and the podcasts tied
9:55
into that as well, OK. Yeah, I can imagine.
9:58
So yeah, second question I had is how does it help you deal
10:03
with users and investors today? Because I don't know about your
10:08
experience, but for me it makes me, it made me open up a bit as
10:13
also as a person. So a bit more chatty, a bit more
10:17
extrovert almost. Yeah, that's really nice.
10:21
Well, I think for me, I've always been in client facing
10:26
roles, sales, customer success, etcetera.
10:29
So I've always had that, I suppose, ability to connect with
10:34
people, but the podcast taught me a lot more about connection
10:38
because I learned that even when women or I guess just people in
10:43
general, you can be on a similar journey like fertility or
10:47
pregnancy loss or hormonal health, but their individual
10:50
experiences are so deeply personal and unique.
10:54
And even though you're on the same journey, the question
10:55
became, how do I speak to all of these journeys at once?
10:59
And how do I make sure every version of this journey feels
11:02
seen and understood? And I think that skill is also
11:06
really essential with Floria because whilst our core message
11:09
stays the same, what we do stays the same.
11:12
How do we bring it to different audiences and different women
11:14
who were on so many different phases of health?
11:18
Like the Women's Health, The life cycles that we go through
11:22
are so varied and complex. So when we're talking to users,
11:26
especially women navigating their health, we don't have to
11:28
explain the problem. They live that problem every
11:31
day. But instead, it's about how do
11:33
we hear them and then show them how we can help.
11:36
And I think when it comes to investors, well, Janine really
11:39
spearheads our investment efforts.
11:41
As I mentioned, she was an investor herself, but I have
11:45
learned that often Women's Health is still a blind spot.
11:48
So first we have to help them see the problem and why it
11:52
matters and why it's been so overlooked.
11:54
And then why solving it is a major opportunity.
11:58
And only then can we introduce the solution.
12:01
So the connection, the communication.
12:04
Yeah, you really have to talk about the why and deep in debt
12:09
before you can transition to, hey, I've got this wonderful
12:12
platform that connects women. Yes, exactly.
12:16
Why is it that it's still under research and underfunded female
12:22
health? Why do you think that is?
12:25
Yeah, I think that the core problem around Women's Health
12:29
and the reason why it's still primarily underfunded, under
12:33
research, underinvested, is because the roots of of that
12:37
problem, from my understanding, go all the way back to the early
12:40
foundations of Western medicine. And for centuries, almost all
12:44
medical research and studies were conducted on the male body,
12:47
which is a pretty staggering fact.
12:49
You know that women were excluded and just pretty much
12:52
labeled as smaller men, with the exception that we have a uterus
12:57
and we can be pregnant and give birth.
13:00
So there's this very narrow view, which means the full
13:02
complexity of Women's Health, especially like hormonal health,
13:05
menstrual cycles and how they affect everything from
13:08
metabolism to mental health, was either just ignored or
13:12
misunderstood or pathologized. So imagine for centuries women
13:17
being told again and again and again that what they're
13:19
experiencing isn't valid because it's not happening in the body
13:23
of a man. Therefore the belief was it's
13:26
not real. It doesn't exactly.
13:28
It doesn't need to be researched or funded or investigated.
13:31
And I think it was only until the 1990s that regulatory
13:35
changes in the US required women to be included in clinical
13:40
research. Before that, women were either
13:43
excluded entirely or too few were included to draw meaningful
13:48
conclusions. So you have this narrow view,
13:51
and then you have this very late entry of women into clinical
13:55
research. But I also think an important
13:58
layer is that Women's Health topics, periods, fertility,
14:02
menopause, were treated as taboo or niche issues for a very, very
14:07
long time, even though they affect half the global
14:09
population. Yeah.
14:10
So there's a huge cultural discomfort around these
14:13
conversations. And I believe that slowed down
14:15
innovation and funding and public awareness.
14:18
And even today, the gender disparities are huge.
14:20
Less than 2% of healthcare research funding outside of
14:24
oncology goes to female specific conditions like endometriosis or
14:29
PCOS or menopause. So it's still there.
14:34
Interesting that you mentioned that it's also 2% because that's
14:37
where for the funding gap, that's where my journey started.
14:42
But I wasn't aware that it was also in the same same level for
14:48
female health. That's quite interesting.
14:51
And you said except for oncology because they are more research
14:56
money is poured into also women's women's specific
15:01
conditions like breast cancer. Exactly, exactly.
15:05
And I think as well, especially when it comes to if we look at
15:09
health tech, most founders and investors in this space
15:14
historically have been men. And that may have meant that
15:17
products and innovation often maybe misunderstood the real
15:21
needs and that means that the solutions were not being built.
15:23
So not only is it being not properly funded, not properly
15:27
researched, but the solutions that were being built probably
15:31
didn't really meet the need. So.
15:35
Is it also in part, and maybe this is a bit outside the scope,
15:39
but is it also in part because like things like breast cancer
15:43
is like really, there's a lot of awareness about that.
15:47
Even I, I, I dare to say every man knows that this is an issue
15:53
that is affecting women whereas other specific female health
16:02
related diseases are not that well known.
16:07
Is it also a matter of awareness, you think?
16:10
Yeah, it could be. I mean, in Australia we have the
16:13
pink ribbon foundation, which is an enormous.
16:16
Is that the same globally pink ribbon I'm.
16:19
Pretty much sure that it's there in the US for sure.
16:22
It's there in the UK for sure. I think there's some sort of
16:26
pink ribbon here in the Netherlands.
16:29
I know from my own history that breast cancer has been on the
16:33
forefront here of medical research pretty much since the
16:36
90s I think. So it's really prevalent.
16:40
So everyone knows about it because it's.
16:42
It's something. That is talked about where is
16:45
like like endometriosis I didn't know about until a friend of
16:50
mine ran into that. Yeah.
16:53
And I think that's very common. It's the same with PCOS.
16:57
I think that maybe because for a large part there has been this
17:01
acceptance almost. Yeah, it's okay that your period
17:05
is painful, but actually it's not okay.
17:07
It shouldn't be. It's a monthly report card.
17:10
And if there's pain, that's a symptom.
17:12
And so many women, you know, I have two sisters.
17:15
I went to a girls, all girls schools.
17:17
My world was all built around women.
17:20
We all thought it was normal to have these symptoms, but in
17:24
fact, it's really not. And I do think there's a huge
17:26
lack of awareness and that's why it can take up to seven years on
17:29
average to be diagnosed with endometriosis.
17:31
Many women are not diagnosed until maybe their 30s or their
17:35
late 20s when they're trying to have children and it's not
17:37
working. And that's too late.
17:39
It needs to come much sooner. Yeah, yeah, I fully agree.
17:44
So I was wondering, Yeah, you you've recently given birth to a
17:48
son. Yes, Congratulations on that.
17:52
Thank you. What, what type of learnings or
17:55
what learnings did you have from that process?
17:57
Because you had quite a fertility journey, let's say in
18:02
the end it's, I dare to say end it happily.
18:05
Yes, it did, yeah. How did how did it shape your
18:09
own beliefs around around female health and the topics that?
18:15
You're discussing. Yeah, Actually, it taught me
18:20
something quite surprising, which was that, well, in a way,
18:24
pregnancy and childbirth is actually the exception to the
18:27
broader problem in Women's Health.
18:29
Because for me at least, it was one of the only times where I
18:32
felt like the healthcare system truly acknowledged what I was
18:36
going through and treated it with care and took it seriously.
18:39
Whereas even the fertility journey, I was often sent home,
18:43
Come back in half a year, you're young.
18:45
It will happen. It wasn't given any gravity.
18:48
And when you look at the history of Western medicine, that
18:51
actually makes a bit of sense because as we just talked about,
18:54
the only reason that women were looked at as unique was because
18:58
of pregnancy and childbirth. So that's the only attention
19:01
that women's self has had in the medical world for centuries.
19:04
And please don't get me wrong, because I'm incredibly grateful
19:07
for the support and the care that I received during pregnancy
19:10
and childbirth and postpartum. But it sort of did validate that
19:15
deeper issue, which is that we still tend to value a woman's
19:19
health the most when it's tied to reproduction.
19:23
It reinforces this idea that a woman's body is taken seriously
19:28
when it's making another human. But what about all the other
19:32
stages of our health? And that's where we at Floria
19:36
believe that women we deserve to be taken seriously in every
19:39
chapter, and that includes pregnancy and childbirth, which
19:42
shouldn't be limited to. Yeah.
19:44
So what is the cost if we don't? What happens if we don't?
19:48
They do that. If we don't care for women in
19:52
every phase of their health, yeah, I think an enormous ripple
19:56
effect and the gender health gap, it's not just a woman's
20:00
problem. It affects everyone.
20:01
It affects companies, it affects economies, it affects societies.
20:07
How? Well, if we don't diagnose and
20:10
treat early, we know that the average absenteeism rate for
20:14
women last year was 4%, compared to 2.6% for men.
20:19
Globally, female employees show 32% more burnout than males.
20:24
So there's absenteeism, there's burnout that directly impacts
20:27
productivity and career progressions.
20:30
There's a huge opportunity lost there.
20:32
I believe the chronic health issues without mental health
20:36
support leads to anxiety, depression, emotional
20:39
exhaustion. These are all things I
20:41
experienced during my own fertility journey, for that
20:44
compounds workplace costs as well as personal suffering.
20:49
The long term health care costs are staggering.
20:52
You know when you delay diagnosis and treatment,
20:55
conditions can often become more severe and more complex and that
20:58
means they're more expensive to manage.
21:00
There was a woman in Australia who estimated her expenses
21:04
living chronically with endometriosis was $400,000 / 2
21:08
decades, and that includes lost income due to unpaid sick leave.
21:13
That's just an example. 400,000 Australian dollars.
21:18
Yeah, the cost of living with endometriosis.
21:21
Yeah. And then put on top of that the
21:23
loss of income and the impact of that long term, because income
21:28
that you don't earn now, you can't, you don't, at least in
21:31
the Netherlands, you also don't earn a pension on that.
21:34
Exactly. So it compounds later throughout
21:38
your entire life as a woman. Exactly, Exactly.
21:43
Healthier women means stronger workplaces, more resilient
21:47
economies and more sustainable, manageable healthcare system.
21:51
50% of the global population. So of course earlier care is
21:55
going to solve a tremendous challenge.
21:58
So the, the, the business case is quite clear.
22:01
So let's talk about Florida for a for a period of time.
22:05
How do you solve for this? How do you solve for the lack of
22:09
awareness of and lack of knowledge, indeed of female
22:14
health issues that have such a broad rib or effect?
22:18
So Floria addresses the lack of knowledge in three ways.
22:22
We believe it all starts with education, the empowering women
22:26
with the knowledge to become their own health advocate.
22:29
And one of the biggest challenges both Janine and I
22:31
faced on our own journeys was the sheer amount of often
22:36
conflicting, contradictory, often harmful information
22:40
online. Instagram, TikTok, blogs, just
22:44
too much hits on Google. It became very overwhelming and
22:48
you just don't know which contents and information you can
22:50
trust. So by Floria, we develop all of
22:54
our content in house. It's all medically vetted by our
22:57
team of Women's Health specialists.
22:59
So it's content that you can read and you can trust.
23:02
And yeah, actually the feedback from our users really reflects
23:06
how valuable that is. OK.
23:09
So I've, I have a question around that because we just
23:12
talked about medical research still that say Women's Health is
23:17
really grossly under researched. So how do you ensure that you
23:22
get to the right information? Because to your point, there's
23:26
really a lot of misinformation, a lot of fake stuff out there.
23:31
I don't know why people do that. Maybe with good intentions,
23:34
maybe not so good, I don't know. But how do you affect this
23:38
information? How do you to ensure that it's
23:41
really the right information? Yeah.
23:43
So it's vetted by our team of Women's Health specialists.
23:48
So fertility, Dr. Integrity, Women's Health specialists,
23:52
perinatal mental health psychotherapist.
23:55
So these are people who work in the industry, are up to date
23:58
with the current science and research and information and are
24:03
trained extensively in this area.
24:06
So we of course trusting their sources and their knowledge and
24:11
their work that they do with women also every day, because we
24:15
also want it to have a tone of empathy and humanity as well.
24:20
So that's, that's how we vet it. Women themselves can also vet
24:25
it. So we didn't stop it, just
24:27
content and information because we know that once you start
24:31
reading and learning, you naturally have questions.
24:34
So if you're a user of Flouria, you can actually also chat with
24:38
one of these Women's Health experts and specialists and you
24:41
can ask them directly any question anytime, even if it's
24:45
just, well, what is the source of this information?
24:47
But it could also be around your own health and well-being.
24:51
They can help you make a plan, they can answer your questions.
24:55
So it also then leads to people taking action, which is really
24:58
nice. So it starts with education,
25:00
then it moves into conversation, and then it moves into actually
25:03
building a plan and taking action together.
25:05
And how do you use that data from conversations?
25:09
Do you use it at all? Also talk to mice content.
25:12
We obviously have built AI into the platform so that if you're
25:17
following a particular journey, let's say it is endometriosis,
25:22
you will be served more relevant content to you.
25:25
And that's deliberate because we also know if you're following
25:29
content around fertility, it could actually be quite
25:32
triggering to be fed content around pregnancy.
25:35
You know, that's something that you so aspire towards, but you
25:37
don't want to see it just yet because you're not there yet.
25:40
So yeah, we have built the tech in a way that is trying to feed
25:44
content that's the most relevant.
25:46
So you're using a tech solution that is for a topic that is
25:51
really, let's say, intimate. How do you ensure that it's also
25:56
empathetic to women? Because I think empathy is is a
26:01
really important driver of, of making that connection with
26:05
users with, but also with maybe other interest parties.
26:10
Yeah, that's that's actually something that's been very
26:14
important for us from day one. So we kept running into chat
26:19
functions claiming to support women, but actually they were
26:22
just automated bots. And honestly, that's incredibly
26:25
frustrating when you're dealing with something as intimate and
26:27
personal as your health. So what we did at Florida was we
26:32
wanted to feel like your best friend in your back pocket that
26:36
just so happens to be an expert in PCOS or neurodiversity or
26:41
sleep or whatever it is that you're navigating.
26:45
Because that sense of talking to a trusted friend, that's really
26:48
what we try and convey at Florida.
26:51
So our chat function isn't a bot, it is a real human.
26:56
It's a a certified Women's Health specialist.
26:58
These are real people who are trained to offer both clinical
27:01
advice but also speak with a human and empathetic tone.
27:06
And we keep all of that in house so that we can also ensure that
27:10
every interaction reflects that, you know, warm and safe tone.
27:15
And yeah, of course, we need the tech.
27:18
We need to streamline experiences, and we need to be
27:21
able to scale. But no matter how that tech
27:23
evolves, we won't ever compromise on that feeling of
27:26
being emotionally safe and able to open up and share.
27:31
How do you scale it though? Because you can't scale in
27:34
humans, at least maybe to a limited extent you can, but not
27:40
in the long run. If you want to take this, let's
27:43
say global, it's pretty difficult to to have that same
27:49
expert doing still doing all the typing and maybe.
27:53
Yeah, Yeah. I think that's how you scale.
27:56
It is really more the future of where we're heading towards with
28:00
Florida and unfortunately can't say too much around that.
28:04
But yes, you can scale it with human operations.
28:07
So I think what's important as well as if you do take a
28:09
solution like this within wider Europe or even globally, you'll
28:13
need specialists, regional local specialists who understand the
28:17
local system and understand the local advice.
28:19
So there would be a human level. But I also think that that's
28:22
where, you know, AI and machine learning can become a big part
28:27
of our platform, an even bigger part of our platform.
28:30
So we need to see where we take that, but there are some things
28:34
that will never change, and definitely that feeling like
28:37
you're talking to a trusted friend, that will always be a
28:40
part of it. OK.
28:42
I suggest we move into a bit more of the also of the
28:46
practical space of of what it go back also to the question what
28:50
what journey has taught you so far?
28:52
If there's one advice or one experience that you've had
28:58
building building Florida, what is an advice that you would pass
29:03
on to other start up founders in the same space?
29:06
My advice would be two things. Number one, find the right
29:11
people to build it with. You know with Janine and Vluck
29:17
Go. It was an instant feeling.
29:20
Janine and I were meant to have a quick 30 minute coffee.
29:23
I think we ended up speaking for nearly two hours, really
29:27
connecting over the experiences we went through and this problem
29:30
and how big it is and what an opportunity it is, but also what
29:33
would it take to really build something meaningful that can
29:35
solve it. And I could tell that we had
29:38
different but complementary skill sets, and that's really
29:41
what you want in a founding team.
29:42
And it was the same with Black Go.
29:44
So first of all, I had full trust in Janine that she would
29:49
fight hard to bring the best person on board that she could.
29:54
And when I met him, that conversation really only
29:56
reinforced that he was thoughtful.
29:58
He was mission driven. Again, my gut felt really good.
30:02
So I think, yeah, find the right people to build it with.
30:06
Find people that have skill sets that are complementary, fill
30:11
each other's gaps so you can challenge each other.
30:14
I think that's actually very healthy people that don't get
30:17
tied to their own ideas, but can actually step aside and really
30:22
see it from a user's perspective and people that you can trust
30:26
the way that they think, not just what they do.
30:28
I think that's really important. How do you because I understand
30:32
the the connection you had with Janine.
30:34
How did that work with flood go? Because that that to me is a bit
30:39
like a man working in female health tech is still rare, I
30:45
think. And I want to give also give
30:48
maybe if if there's any man listening to this also to give
30:52
them the perspective, hey, it can be done.
30:54
What makes him a good CTO except for the technical skills.
30:59
So there was mission driven part.
31:01
Yeah, he came across to me as very mission driven, someone
31:06
that actually really understands and believes that this is a
31:10
problem worth solving, someone like yourself.
31:12
Actually, I really appreciate the way he thinks and the way he
31:17
looks at this, and I think sometimes having the male
31:21
perspective, it can challenge you in different ways as well,
31:25
and I think that's really important.
31:27
He obviously has incredible technical skills, but it's more
31:30
the way he approaches things that really inspired me to work
31:34
with him. I asked a lot of questions.
31:38
I don't just rely on my God, although that is a big part of
31:40
it. And, yeah, seeing the way he
31:43
thought through it all made me very interested to see, yeah,
31:49
what it would be like to work with him.
31:50
And it still is. So I think you can be an ally in
31:53
this space and not be a woman. And you can have the passion to
31:57
solve the problem. You can have your own intention
32:01
and your own, you know, what's the word?
32:03
I'm looking for motivation. And that should be also OK.
32:07
If it's only women solving this problem, it becomes an echo
32:11
chamber. So you need male allies.
32:15
Yeah, well, that I fully agree with.
32:18
So you need indeed need the men also to, to start understanding
32:22
that the, the whole female health space is a bit broader
32:25
than just the two best known issues and and the most obvious
32:32
issues that women face in terms of fundraising.
32:37
How do you approach that? Because Janine was is in charge
32:41
of that. I think she's has an investor
32:43
background, but is there, is there a specific approach that
32:47
is needed to promote Famtech? Because I think Famtech sort of
32:52
within female health is still in even smaller quote UN quote
32:57
niche. Yeah, I think that's very
32:59
interesting that it's seen as niche when it's something that
33:03
affects half the population, but I understand that it is.
33:08
Yeah. So we, yeah, Janine leads all
33:10
our fundraising efforts and we're very lucky to have her
33:13
background and her skill sets. For me, it's something that I'm
33:16
getting involved in and I'm still learning.
33:20
Good to be challenged by people who have seen countless business
33:23
models over the years. Last year we raised within our
33:27
own networks, which of course is not uncommon for very early
33:30
stages. I think what I learned out of
33:33
that experience last year was that actually you can find
33:39
pockets of money in many places. And in fact we do get quite a
33:44
lot of interest. But if you want to do it right,
33:47
especially something as complex and yeah, as big as the
33:51
challenges this is, we want to solve it the right way.
33:55
And that's going to take time. And we need space and
33:58
flexibility to test and fail and then maybe pivot.
34:02
So it was about finding the right partners, investors that
34:06
don't just write a check but also think along with you and
34:09
believe in the vision. And they understand that
34:12
flexibility is everything. So what we at least didn't want
34:15
was to be pigeon holed into anyone mould of Floria, if you
34:19
know what I mean, because we still need that space and so
34:23
finding investors who agreed with that was really crucial for
34:26
us. Yeah.
34:28
So how do you, how do you do that?
34:30
What? What kind of characteristics are
34:32
you looking for? Yeah, I think that it all comes
34:35
down in the end to do they understand the problem that
34:41
needs to be solved? Are they willing to think along?
34:45
What types of governance and and controls are there in this
34:48
agreement? Is there opportunity and space
34:50
to pivot? It's a conversation that you
34:53
have. And then I think from there you
34:55
can really get a good feel for if it's going to be the right
34:57
partner. And in your experience is that
35:00
so far, is it more females or women who invest in your
35:04
proposition or is it is there are there also men, few good
35:08
men? There are, yes, there are a few
35:11
good men. I think the experience was
35:13
pretty revealing. I like I can't tell you the
35:16
amount of times I called someone in my network, perhaps a male
35:20
Angel or investor. 2 things happen.
35:22
First, they almost always assume that I'm calling for advice, not
35:26
to actually present a real investment opportunity.
35:30
And then when I explained, actually I'm not calling for
35:32
advice, this is what I'm calling about.
35:34
It's an investment opportunity. Almost like clockwork suggests
35:37
that I speak to a female investor because more their
35:40
thing or this is not something that they really understand.
35:45
And that one always makes me laugh because I think what's so
35:48
hard to understand about a platform that's solving a
35:51
healthcare challenge for half the population?
35:54
Yeah, it's interesting. But is it also, again, going
35:58
back to the that it's taboo for men that they just don't feel
36:03
comfortable talking about it and as a result not comfortable
36:07
investing in it? Yeah, it could be.
36:11
And I shouldn't generalize because it really depends on the
36:14
person. So aside from what I just said,
36:16
you know, there are incredible male allies in this space.
36:20
I think for a lot of men, perhaps the ones that we've
36:24
noticed that are interested maybe have a wife or a sister or
36:28
a very close friend who went through something themselves.
36:30
Maybe it was menopause, maybe it was a fertility journey.
36:33
So some people immediately understand the wider opportunity
36:38
that Femtech represents, whereas others still see it as this
36:42
niche or soft category. So it can create a bit of an
36:46
uphill battle, but I think it also is just a new and
36:50
developing category. I was about to ask, is this is
36:54
this a matter of awareness? Mostly people are are aware a,
36:59
that this is happening in their own backyard, maybe even and,
37:05
and, and, B also that this is a huge opportunity.
37:10
Because I I remembered that there was a McKinsey study that
37:14
solving for the female health gap would result in A10 trillion
37:19
U.S. dollar per year rise in GDP.
37:24
Yeah, exactly. So that's what's interesting to
37:27
me is that some people do still view it as a sort of soft
37:31
category when I I think towards, yeah, it's going to be billions
37:38
dollar industry and as you did say 1 trillion, I believe it's 1
37:42
trillion per year annually by 2040.
37:47
And it's so yeah, it's growing into a huge industry.
37:50
So I do think there's a lack of awareness and I do think that
37:53
sometimes the size of the opportunity is overlooked, but
37:57
it's then about people finding people that understand the scale
38:01
of the problem and therefore the size of the opportunity.
38:05
Do you see that group grow by the way in terms of of attention
38:09
and trends? Maybe also do you see the group
38:12
of interested health investors grow?
38:15
I. Do think it's growing?
38:17
Yeah, I do think it's growing. I think that part of the
38:20
challenge might be that some of these early femtech solutions
38:24
often miss the mark that might have wounded the image of the
38:27
sector earlier on. But I do think now that like
38:31
truly thoughtful, user centered solutions are being taken
38:35
seriously, you see a lot more attention, you see a lot more
38:39
conversation, you see a lot more events.
38:42
And I hope that earlier pioneers in this space would also feel
38:45
that. Yeah.
38:46
For ourselves, we're very excited to be a part of that.
38:49
We are actually hosting our own event on May 14th and which is
38:53
called Femtec Unite and it's really the first of its kind in
38:57
the Netherlands. We're bringing together
38:59
investors and startups and investors and corporations or
39:03
from the local and international Femtech ecosystem.
39:07
There'll be keynote from Ida Tin who really coins the term
39:11
Femtech. So yeah, I think the next wave
39:14
of progress is is coming. I think it's here.
39:17
Well, that's that is that is exciting news also from the
39:21
event. Yeah, if you haven't bought your
39:23
tickets, you can do that via. What's the app's name?
39:28
Illuma. Illuma, yeah.
39:30
Yes, yeah. And also via LinkedIn.
39:33
We're actually sharing a lot of information about it on
39:35
LinkedIn. OK, cool.
39:37
So we'll include those links in the show notes.
39:40
I want to move to the future. Let's suppose that Fluoria
39:44
becomes wildly successful. Really.
39:48
Beyond even beyond your dreams? What does the future of female
39:51
health look like? Then what happens if you are
39:55
successful? If if a female health just gets
39:59
the attention that it deserves. Yeah, I love this question
40:03
because that's what drives me and the team every single day.
40:07
The future we're working towards.
40:09
Women's Health is no longer seen as niche.
40:12
It's taken seriously, it's studied properly, it's treated
40:15
with the care it deserves. Diagnosis don't take years.
40:19
Days of unanswered questions and long wait lists and women paying
40:24
20% more out of pocket on healthcare than men and years
40:28
spent living in pain and physical discomfort.
40:31
They're gone That women feel safe being fully themselves at
40:36
work. They don't have to lie about PMS
40:39
and say they have a migraine. They can actually be honest.
40:42
That taboo is gone. They can reintegrate into the
40:45
workforce after childbirth in a way that's supported and not
40:50
rushed or dismissed. There are flexible, respectful
40:54
working conditions for mothers and for fathers.
40:58
There's space for hormones and cycles and the reality of our
41:01
biology without shame or stigma. I think that the world we work
41:06
towards is a system that's actually built for us, not in
41:10
spite of us, I guess, or because we can bear children.
41:14
Yeah, what? Why is it important to also
41:17
accommodate for fathers? Because I think if you only
41:20
accommodate for women, it again just becomes a women's problem.
41:24
And if there are more flexible, more flexible, more respectful
41:28
working conditions also for fathers, that promotes and
41:30
supports women, women's contribution in the workforce.
41:34
Yeah. And also you take it out of the
41:36
discrimination area because those facilities are available
41:42
to men and women equally. Exactly, exactly.
41:45
It's like we work in a system that understands that we go
41:50
through phases of health and and well-being, but doesn't right
41:54
hit the mark with supporting that.
41:56
And supporting men as much as women is also important because
42:01
yeah, it takes the load off, it only being the woman's problem.
42:05
Yeah, So what, what? What role can men play besides
42:08
being your CTO and being a supporter of of female health
42:14
issues or a promoter of of female health?
42:19
Yeah, I think it depends if you look at it from a societal view
42:23
or more of a workplace view. If we look at the workplace, you
42:26
know, men still primarily for the large percentage are in
42:30
positions of leadership. They're the ones setting the
42:32
policies, they're the ones making the decisions.
42:34
So first of all, educating yourself on these are not
42:39
excuses that women are bringing to get out of work.
42:42
These are real life affecting conditions that women are living
42:47
with. So how can you, as a company
42:49
leader or a manager or a position person who's in a
42:52
position to make decisions, take that knowledge and build
42:56
policies that support those women throughout their journey,
43:00
no matter what it may be? I think from a societal view as
43:04
well, it's similar. It's the same awareness,
43:08
education, support. Yeah.
43:10
Not being like, afraid of a taboo.
43:14
Speak about these things and ask the questions.
43:16
And also no judging. Exactly.
43:20
Yeah. Eliminate judgement, come from a
43:22
place of empathy. These are big things.
43:25
It's that's a huge cultural shift.
43:27
But it just starts with the individual person themselves.
43:30
And that ripple effect can be really huge.
43:33
Yeah, yeah, true. That's and also maybe also stop
43:38
with the jokes about oh, it's she's on her period or oh, it's
43:43
must be menopause. So if you the the final piece of
43:48
it is also what is the role, because we talked a bit about
43:52
the role of men in leadership. What is role of government
43:56
policy here? How can governments accommodate
44:00
this this more suitability? For instance, quota research
44:04
quota for for female health so minimum.
44:08
I think that when it comes to following the money, I suppose
44:13
for both public and private innovation funding, there
44:17
doesn't seem to be, from my understanding, any mandatory
44:22
reporting or accountability around gender and health.
44:25
So you have European and Dutch innovation funding programs like
44:31
Horizon or the EIC accelerator, and they often encourage
44:36
diversity or they ask for statements, but they don't
44:39
require any hard data or enforce any minimum thresholds.
44:43
So that's a bit of a loophole that allows funding to continue
44:47
flowing into male dominated teams and solutions.
44:51
Yeah, I, I talked to RVO before the weekend and they they said,
44:56
well, yeah, it's, it's an absolute plus if you have a
44:59
diverse team and we look at it through that lens.
45:02
And I was trying to tease them to like, OK, how do you enforce
45:06
if that changes, how do you enforce that?
45:09
Yeah, we have, what's it called, the disclosure requirements.
45:13
But we yeah, there's nothing really tangible done about it
45:18
because it's sort of seen as out of the hands of the government,
45:22
which to some extent I understand because you don't
45:24
want to over regulate. On the other hand, you're
45:26
putting money as a government, as a society into startups with
45:32
the objective to what may be support inclusive culture.
45:37
Then you need to also have to. How do you say really have to
45:42
stick in place? Yeah, exactly.
45:46
Yes, yeah, you'll see. Yeah, you'll see.
45:49
DEI plans in grant applications, but very few mechanisms to hold
45:54
recipients accountable. So yeah, imagine if to receive
45:59
EU funding or tax incentives, you had to show that you're
46:03
backing diverse founders and, and not just in in the gender of
46:07
the founding team, but also the kinds of problems that you're
46:09
solving. That would completely reshape
46:12
what's considered investable and it would fast track change.
46:15
So yeah, a regulation like this would change what gets funded
46:19
and where the money goes, and that changes what gets built and
46:21
who builds it and who benefits from it.
46:23
So yeah, I think that's would make a huge change.
46:29
And that sounds like a really great place to close.
46:33
And Christy, thank you very much for a really insightful
46:36
conversation. If people want to learn more
46:39
about you, connect with you and learn more about Florida Health,
46:42
where would you like to send them?
46:45
Yes, our website is a pretty easy one.
46:47
It's Florida dot Health. I'm always open myself to
46:51
connecting on LinkedIn as well, and we do post a lot of updates
46:55
and developments on our Florida LinkedIn page as well.
46:59
Cool. And we'll include those links in
47:01
the show notes. So once again, thank you very
47:04
much and to for the wonderful conversation listeners, thank
47:08
you very much for listening. And until the next episode, keep
47:12
being awesome. Well, that's wrap for episode
47:19
103 of Women Disrupting Tech with Anna Christie on how Floria
47:25
Health is healing women and shaping workplaces.
47:29
Anna and I hope that you found our conversation as empowering
47:32
as we intended it to be. And if you'd like to learn more
47:36
about or connect with Anna and Floria Health, please head over
47:40
to the show notes for a link. As usual, you can find the show
47:44
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47:48
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