On Investing in Women's Health - HIMSS Europe Series with Ida Tin

If I could make people sitting in the room feel that femtech and women's health is relevant to them no matter what gender they are, that would be such a big win because women's health really does impact everybody. It is a societal thing and if we could start thinking about women's health as societal infrastructure, I think that would help the conversation.My name is Ida Tin. I am a tech founder, started a company called Clue.

Hello dear listeners. Welcome to a new episode of our HIMSS Europe special series on Narratives of Purpose.This is the final week of our series and I am bringing you interviews with three speakers of the HIMSS Women's Health in Focus track from the session titled "It Starts with Data: Closing the Gap".These interviews were recorded in Paris back in June at the HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management System Systems Society European annual flagship event, also considered as Europe's number one digital health conference. For those of you listening to Narratives of Purpose for the first time, my name is Claire Murigande. I am your host on this podcast which is all about amplifying social impact by showcasing unique stories of global change makers who are contributing to make a difference in society. My guest today is Ida Tin. Ida is a co founder and the former CEO and chairwoman of Clue, a menstrual app used by millions worldwide.She is also known as the mother of the term femtech, a term you have heard me use more times than I can count on Narratives of Purpose. Ida is currently founding the think tank Femtech Assembly. The focus of this think tank is the link between investing in women's health, economic development and planetary regeneration.Remember to rate and review our show wherever you listen to your podcasts or simply share your thoughts and feedback on the Narratives of Purpose website using this short bit.ly/narrativesofpurpose. Then select the review page. For now, get comfortable and let's dive into the conversation with Ida.

My name is Ida Tin, I am a tech founder, started a company called Clue, which is a women's health app back in the days and now I sort of care about femtech as a sector.So I started a think tank around this area, finishing a book and then I'm gonna work on a grand challenge that I'm gonna lead for a German public agency. So a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Finishing a book. That sounds exciting.

Yes, it is. It's been a long project. I kind of wrote it three years ago. It's really time that he gets out.It's been a bumpy road But I'm here because I have been invited to speak about women's health, which I'm always happy to do.

And about that, a lot of people refer to you as the mother of the term femtech. So basically you coined this term in 2016. That's almost two years, 10 years ago. Can you tell me how things have evolved since then?

Well, I think now there is a sector. Back then, there wasn't really a sector. Now there are events for femtech and there are venture capital funds and newsletters and podcasts.So there's a lot happening. Women are building all over the world. It's really so encouraging to see.And there's also more awareness that, oh my gosh, we really need these products, we need more funding, we need more research and many other things.

And you just said before that you founded a think tank. What is that about? Tell our listeners what should they imagine what you're doing with this think tank?

That's a good question. I'm still imagining it myself to some degree, because. So it's called femtech assembly.And the idea is to make it kind of just obvious that if you invest into women's health, you will make money, save money as society, and you will be part of creating a healthier planet. Like, in its broadest sense.There really is a link between these three things, and that could be an investment thesis for private people, governments, and it isn't. So I'd like to try and work for that.I don't really want to create a traditional think tank where you publish a report once a year and it kind of feels a bit dry and you're mostly busy kind of creating your own organization. I'm thinking it more a little bit like a social movement, almost just something like a hashtag.Because I meet so many people, say, oh, I'd love to do something in women's health, and, you know, really skilled and amazing people who want to put their energy there. And I would love if I could somehow just help them sort of channel all the good stuff they're doing anyway and give us some sort of shared voice.But I haven't quite figured it out yet, so it's still information still open for many good ideas.

So we'll be following closely, and I hope you can come back sometime to explain to us how. How you've progress.And speaking about reports, you know, there's been this couple of reports now since I think the first one came out last year, 2024, with the WEF and McKinsey.And since then there's been more and more of these reports from this, you know, consulting companies, making the case for women's health as something to invest in.So from your perspective, do you think that now we're at a sort of inflection point where things will really change or we're still just talking about it too much?

I think there is some sort of inflection point because I think it's culture that is changing. It's becoming easier to talk about some of these things. And women, we are ourselves becoming more aware. But do we still lack funding? Yes. Do we lack political will? Yes. Do we lack research? Yes. But I don't think women will forget that technology should work for them, too.I don't think they're going to start thinking that it's, it's not okay that it takes 10 years to get diagnosed with endometriosis or something like this.So I think those changes have happened and I think that's going to drive the change that women want something else.

So do you think, like being here at this conference, and particularly because, you know, they have this women's health in focus track for the first time at HIMSS, would that make a real difference? Are we going to have more initiatives, like more tangible things coming out of it?

It's never one thing. That's the magic sort of moment. I think it's an accumulation of everybody doing many things all the time, including you asking me to be here. You know, it's like everybody do their bit. And I do think it matters.I also think that for the really big systems to change and for the world to kind of care about women's bodies and recognize that we are the infrastructure, you know, that drives society in many ways. For that to change, I think men need to really deeply understand what it feels like to have a woman's body. And that's really challenging. Right?There are some really big gender gaps. Instead of just sharing our life experiences and a conference like this, putting it on the agenda is part of helping bridge that gap.But it will take both very brave men to listen and very brave women to share.

And I fully agree with you. This is something we don't talk about a lot. It will take a collective effort. Do you still see, like, specific things we can do?I'm thinking about our listeners, right, who are just, you know, tuning in right now. What can you tell them to maybe do in their daily lives? To also involve men, whether it's also men to get curious, but also women. How can we also involve men? Because sometimes, you know, we feel like we're talking in silos.

Yeah.

And it can be perceived as well by men that, oh, now women are taking their revenge somehow, if I'm exaggerating. Right. But we need this collaboration basically. So how do you think we can do that?

It's a really big question. I think women have to first have the awareness of feeling their own body. That's already a big step, I think, for many people.And then we have to find the courage and the safety to share what's actually happening in our bodies.And I fully recognize that people have different boundaries around what's possible in different settings, but everybody can push a little bit on what's possible. And some people can push a lot, and some people can hardly push.And then I think we need to also give more space and culture for the stories that men have around women's bodies they've been close to. Because every woman has a story about her body. Right. Everybody has had something going on, but actually many men have a story too.They've been close to maybe a partner not getting pregnant or have been part of an abortion or, you know, somebody they cared for having breast cancer. So these stories are very silent in our culture.And I think giving more space for men to share these stories is part of normalizing and kind of bringing this whole kind of shadow area of our life, which doesn't really have space and culture back in so we can see it and talk about it. You know, I think men are suffering too, in this gender divide we have.There's too little space for men to be full humans, too, the same way that there is too little space for us to be full humans. So I think we need to somehow, very tenderly try to meet each other.

Yeah. And listen to the men's stories as well. Right.

Yeah. Because I do think many men, they do actually care, but where do they start? You know?And many men become part of systems that don't give enough space for these life experiences without wanting to. They become part of something they also don't like.And I think recognizing that and not making them our sort of enemies, but actually really talk about these things in a way that is hyper inclusive.Because it's very easy for women to say, oh, you've never tried to have a period, you have no idea, you know, and then the conversation ends and we need to do the opposite. We need to really invite them in as much as it's safe to do in every context that we're in.

Going back to the HIMSS you will have tomorrow, a keynote, and then we have fireside chat. What are your objectives or what do you like people to take away from what you'll be sharing on stage?

If I could make people sitting in the room feel that femtech and women's health is relevant to them no matter what gender they are, that would be such a big win, because women's health really does impact everybody. It is a societal thing. And if we could start thinking about women's health as societal infrastructure, I think that would help the conversation.You know, we talk about energy grids and pipelines and stuff like this, but we are, you know, we are the physical energy grid. It's. Our bodies are right. That's where our energy flows into society.And we need women to be fully participating in society to solve all the huge challenges that we have as a planet.So if men could start recognizing that investing, innovating and supporting women's health is part of creating a really strong health system society, that would be a great, you know, goal to have as well. If I could somehow plant that thought.

One question about investing, you know, do you have some examples maybe of companies or startups that are quite successful in the femtech area and how these companies can sort of set the scene for upcoming smaller companies? So how to support these new founders who are trying to find their way in this space?

Some of the founder stories that I really love are the ones where a person started with some. Something she experienced herself or he.But many of these founders are women, even though in brackets, they only raise 10% of all the money being invested, even into femtech. That's crazy. But, you know, when people really understand an area deeply, like even something like tampons, right. Day is a. Is a company where she's like, why is there no regulation around what kind of chemicals you can use in tampons or how they're produced? And she's like, I'm going to change this. And then she made a company and they're doing very well.So, you know, it's possible to find an area and think, no, I could do this better. And then people do, and they do it all over the map of female health because there are so many gaps.I met somebody, she was like, you know, the way we diagnose and screen for osteoporosis, the protocol is really broken. The data is not based on women. And, you know, she's like a really amazing scientist, and she's like, I'm gonna do better.And then she stands there and she has like, her new ultrasound machine and the data and the science and she's like, I can do this better, and she will. Now we see this deeper integration into the healthcare systems and it's so encouraging.And honestly, almost everywhere you look in female health, you're like, really? We're still doing this? Come on. And there's so good stories all over.I think where I get sort of impatient is when I see people who have built amazing companies for maybe like eight, 10 years. They have the IP, they have the users, they make money and then they cannot raise their growth rounds.And then the founders get tired after 10 years and then these innovation actually drop. And this is a problem, of course, for the founders. I feel sorry for them, but that's what it is. But this innovation is so needed.So we have beautiful innovation, but sometimes it doesn't reach mass market and then it doesn't matter. Then it doesn't have impact. We need scale for this to matter. So that was the opposite of the question you asked.

But it's interesting because then it again, it comes back to funding and investing. What would change the game in terms of funding and investing in such innovative and meaningful, impactful innovations?

Yeah, it's a little bit chicken egg because the investors will say, where are the big exits? And it was like, well, until you invest a lot of money, you will not build big companies. Right. It takes a lot of money to build big companies.And unfortunately we can see that the ones who get really large investments in are men in this space, which then creates other problems. If these products are built without women fully participating. You end up with things.That feels a little bit off, but I think it's a transitional problem. I am very hopeful.And I was at this random dinner that JP Morgan had organized for their infrastructure fund and they were doing really well, investing into these power grids and water plants, you know, stuff like this. And I was like, why don't somebody like these folks make an investment fund for women's health? I really think they could, and I'm sure somebody will pretty soon. I think people are starting to recognize that we could, you know, we could help more people invest into women's health as a category. So many people want to.

So I guess it's time that we have some pioneers do that.

We need pioneers in the financial sector, in the investment sector, in the policy sector, in the media, like everywhere. And that's also the beauty of it, right? Everybody can pick up wherever they are and do something.

So I guess that's going to be the main message then for this Congress. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

If you wish to follow Ida Tin's activities, be sure to connect with her on LinkedIn. You can learn more about the clue app at helloclue.com. All the links are available in the Episode Show Notes. I will also include a link to IDA's FemTech assembly newsletter on Substack. Make sure you check it out. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I appreciate you taking the time.Join me again in a couple of days for the second episode featuring another speaker of the Women's Health Track session titled It Starts with Closing the Gap.I will speak to Thao Nguyen, the founder and CEO of Equal Care, a health innovation company with a groundbreaking certification model for precision and gender equity in healthcare.Until then, take care of yourselves, stay well and stay inspired.