A couple of weeks ago many of you joined us for our Inner Circle webinar on the topic of innovation in women's hormone health. And I'm glad we finally managed to put got this webinar together, as hormone health is one of these areas of women's health that's more than ripe for disruption.
One of the reasons it took us so long to schedule this particular event was that I always felt that the hormone health space was so vast, so complex and far too big to break down in 45 short minutes, but.. We did it and I would like to invite you to watch the recording here or check out the slides we shared.
You might be particularly interested in our breakdown of the space into 4 categories, which I believe can be a useful framework when trying to make sense of the ecosystem, evaluating investment opportunities, and understanding how startups fit into the bigger picture.
Here's our breakdown:
- Hormone Health / Lifespan: Focused on natural transition points and hormonal changes
- Puberty & Menarche
- Fertility & Pregnancy
- Menopausal Transition
- Hormone Health & The Cycle: Of course there's an overlap, but in this category we're really focused on n=1 and the hormonal fluctuations throughout 1 cycle
- Menstruation
- Follicular Phase
- Ovulation
- Luteal Phase
- Hormone Imbalance: Caused by external factors
- Hormone Imbalance: Caused by "internal factors"
- Illness, Chronic Conditions, etc.
- Illness, Chronic Conditions, etc.
All of these areas are addressed as part of the larger women's health innovation ecosystem, and aren't always called "hormone health":
Most startups currently solve for one or more of these areas using (very generally speaking) one or more of the approached below:
- Education & Wellness
- Products
- Diagnostics
- Treatment
Companies, who address one problem area and use one approach usually branch out after they've reached initial product/market fit, and then expand with the goal to become hormone health platform companies.
Many of your are probably wondering now who some of these platform (potentially unicorn) companies are. At the moment I believe it's anyone's game really and a category leader is yet to be found, founded or funded. Many companies, who got started by addressing a single condition, have since branched out or added new offerings. Most will probably follow.
One thing's for sure: The potential, need and consumer demand is growing as the Google Trends graph below indicates.
And that's it with our short introduction for today. 🙌
If you'd like to learn more about the contenders and dig a little deeper into the topic make sure you check out the slides or the recording from our webinar below:
➡️ Webinar Recording: Innovation in Women's Hormone Health
➡️ Deck from Innovation in Women's Hormone Health Webinar
