Every Monday we share a quick “best of” from the week that was with our Inner Circle members. What’s trending in the Femtech Insider community and beyond? We’ve got you covered! In this week's brief we talk about Celebrities' Impact on Health Outcomes plus... Celebrities' Impact on Health Outcomes, Women's Mental Health and Innovation & Newsletter to Follow
- How Innovation Is Transforming Women's Mental Health (Virtual Conference)
- Newsletters we love and read each week
- Startup Spotlight
- And more!
Celebrities' Impact on Health Outcomes
One of the biggest stories we covered last week was menopause company Evernow's recent raise.👇
Evernow, a telehealth company dedicated to using science to transform care for women in perimenopause and menopause, closed $28.5M Series A led by NEA. Participants in the round also included a number of prominent angel investors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Carla Harris (recent Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Morgan Stanley), Sheila Marcelo (founder of Care.com), Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz (with others in-process).
The angel group will take an active role and is part of Evernow's so-called "First Circle" investor group. Evernow created First Circle as a way to bring together a diverse group of influential women with an interest in changing the conversation around women's health after 40. First Circle investors advocate for women, care about health equity, and are part of discussions to advance progress for women’s wellbeing. We turn to our First Circle for insights into how we might meet this moment so we can continue to elevate and broaden the conversation about women's health in midlife.
Evernow isn't the first company to look for "high-profile" support when it comes to their advocacy efforts: Just recently actor and filmmaker Jaime King joined Allara, Dakota Johnson started working with Dame, and Maven & Kindbody added investors, who can add value through advocacy.
Celebrities' Impact on Health Outcomes 🌟
Over the years much has been written about why celebrities can be effective advocates when it comes to health communication. There is a lot less evidence measuring the magnitude of this influence and the conditions that mediate it across different contexts though. A first attempt to better understand this space was a 2017 paper, that discusses the pros and coms, risks and advantages of celebrity advocacy. Worth a read!
Anecdotally startups in the women's health space seem to get great input and value from their prominent supporters. We'll be following the work femtech startups and their advocates so to drive the conversation forward over the next few years. And yes: We still have questions: What's the role of private sector in advocacy? What should governments and healthcare systems do? What's the role of the scientific community? Of advocacy groups and NGOs? And most importantly: How do we all bring them together? A coordinated effort might yield the biggest impact, and while we may not be there yet, it seems like our industry is slowly, but surely taking steps in the right direction.
Virtual Conference: How Innovation Is Transforming Women's Mental Health
🙌 Over the past weeks we've mentioned that we are working on re-designing our Inner Circle Events Program and it is finally happening! (A big thank you to everyone who's shared their feedback!! 🙏)
TL;DR: Instead of bi-weekly fireside chats we will be organizing Quarterly Mini-Conferences focused on a topic of interest in our community. And we're kicking it off this May starting with women's mental health. You can sign up here.
These quarterly conferences are free to attend for Inner Circle Members and recordings will be shared after the event.
So why women's mental health? 🤔
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a time to raise awareness of those living with mental or behavioral health issues and to help reduce stigma so many experience.
In the UK around 1 in 5 women struggle with a common mental health problem such as depression and anxiety. While there can be many reasons why these develop, some risk factors affect many women. Women are more likely than men to be carers, live in poverty or experience abuse. Life events and hormonal changes can also affect women's mental health. As you can tell: Lots to discuss!
What's on the agenda? 🗓️
Topics we'll cover include:
- Digital Therapeutics & CBT: Hype of Game changer?
- Vices x Mental Health: Psychedelics & CBD
- Novel Mental Health Biomarkers
- Precision Medicine meets Mental Health
Speakers will be announced shortly! 🤗
Sounds great! i'm in! How can I sign up? 👇
Newsletters We Love
Last week during our community event on careers in femtech and women's health innovation, a questions around "keeping up with the latest and greatest" came up. And of course we like to recommend our own newsletter to all of those just get started 💁♀️, but we also know that women's health doesn't exist in a vacuum and believe that following what's happening in research, policy and heathcare innovation in general is just as important for anyone interested in our space.
So this week we thought we'd share some of the newsletters that have become must-reads in our inbox each week. We hope you'll find them as insightful and helpful as we do!
➡️ Healthtech Nerds reports on news and trends in our industry once a week.
➡️ Exits & Outcomes: Come for the digital therapeutics insights, stay for the stealthy healthtech funding announcements. ^^ Run by former MobiHealthNews Founder & Editor-in-Chief Brian Dolan.
➡️ STATNews: Thorough. Long form-ish. Informative. Easy to read. Love to come here for background on a lot of the news in our space.
➡️ Beauty Independent: Love reading Beauty Independent for their great coverage of indie brands at the interection of health, wellness and beauty. A DTC must-read.
➡️ Out-of-Pocket: Healthcare insights. Fun, easy to understand even for n00bs like us. ;) Bonus points for the memes!
➡️ Acute Condition: Insightful Think Pieces on the Future of Healthcare and Healthcare Delivery!
Got any you'd like to add? Reply to this email and let us know! 💌
Startup Spotlight! 🌟
Wanna know which startups get us excited these days? Below are a few of our recent (femtech-healthtech-ish) discoveries.
Kensa Women's Health is building an interactive women's health platform to provide women with qualified medical information in the form of helpful and useful content.
Conceive (just closed a $3.7M seed round) is pioneering an integrated approach to reproductive health that combines cohort-based community, evidence-based education, and 1:1 coaching into a proven solution that changes health outcomes.
