Business of the V

These Patented Undies Let More People Say Yes to Oral Sex

Many of the most impactful products in the sextech space have grown up in direct response to an unmet need. As we learn on this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Melanie Cristol brainstormed her unique patented underwear technology because she wanted to enable more people to say “yes” to oral sex. You’ll learn how and why the CEO & Founder of Lorals stepped out of a successful partner-track legal career in order to launch an international venture that promotes not only more oral sex but more orgasms, sensual fun and exploration of all kinds.

 

This episode also features big news: While Lorals has been growing exponentially based on the comfort and utility of its underwear alone, a whole new horizon will be opening up as the result of impending FDA approval. In addition to encouraging great sex, Lorals will also at last be able to promote safer sex. Rigorous design and testing make this product (which is available in a range of styles and sizes) a highly effective barrier to STIs and invitation to increased intimacy. You’ll be fascinated to hear about Melanie’s journey, her experiences securing federal approval and lessons learned about the world of venture capital.

 

So say hello to a smart, sexy, innovative product in a fast-growing niche market – and say goodbye to the old dental dam solution. With women three times more likely to orgasm through oral sex as compared with intercourse, the target market is clearly there! Click here to learn more about Lorals and check out their blog, Lorotica.

 

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

About Melanie Cristol

Melanie Cristol is the Founder & CEO of Lorals, the new standard for oral sexual wellness. As inventor and CEO of Lorals, Melanie holds four patents, has been nominated by XBIZ as Entrepreneur of the Year and has been featured in the NYTimes, Fast Company, and Cosmopolitan. Melanie has also been a featured speaker at SXSW, Lesbians Who Tech, the Brooklyn Sex Expo, and at colleges and universities across the country. Prior to creating Lorals, Melanie studied Sociology at Columbia University and received her JD from Columbia Law School. She worked as a healthcare and consumer products attorney and was part of the legal team that secured gay marriage rights for the western United States. Melanie also fought for LGBTQ rights in California and Ohio as a field organizer with the National LGBTQ Task Force.

 

Understanding Inequities in Women’s Healthcare Research

This episode highlights inequities in clinical research due to a lack of both diversity and nuance within the industry. To understand the “why” behind this persistent problem, Dr. Dweck and Rachel welcome Dr. Ru-fong Joanne Cheng, Senior Medical Director in charge of women’s health projects in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson. It’s an overwhelmingly tall order, but this conversation breaks down many of the stubborn barriers to inclusive medicine one by one.

You’ll learn about the $100 million dollar commitment that J&J has made to correcting inequities in women’s health care over the next five years. Dr. Cheng and her team are sponsoring research that is taking a cutting-edge prism to everything from the astronomical (and disparate) rates of death in childbirth among Black women in the U.S. to the FDA’s acknowledgement that clinical research must incorporate and reflect the reality of gender variability. Topics covered also include research processes that Dr. Cheng believes warrant reconsideration, strategies for harnessing data-driven insights, key factors impacting access and quality of care among different female demographics and how a physician in private practice might go about pursuing alternative careers in the medical space, including within industry.

The bottom-line focus is all about diversity – diversity of study subjects, diversity among clinical researchers. Dr. Cheng contextualizes gender, racism and implicit bias –  and how acknowledging variability is elemental to determining the course, accessibility and equity of ongoing medical research that so deeply impacts the ability of women to thrive now and into the future.

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

About Dr. Ru-fong Joanne Cheng

Dr. Cheng was inspired at a young age to make a difference in the world, which led her to become a physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology. While working in academic medicine, she discovered clinical research, which provides an opportunity to make a difference on a larger scale. For the past 12 years, she has worked in the pharmaceutical industry in clinical development for drugs and medical devices, taking positions of increasing leadership. In her roles, she blends science and medicine with the business of pharma and delivers treatments to patients with unmet needs. She is energized by the variety of work and leading cross-functional teams across different therapeutic. She has experience across all phases of drug development, regulatory submissions and approvals with global health authorities, post-marketing activities and lifecycle management.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Website: J&J Office of the Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Cheng @LinkedIn

Unbound Breaks Down the Barriers of Discussing Women’s Sexual Wellness

This episode highlights the huge progress we’re seeing (at long last!) in the sextech industry. Dr. Dweck and Rachel invite their guest Polly Rodriguez to share the journey of Unbound, the sexual wellness company she initially founded to fill a market gap – only to discover its super-power: Breaking open the silence around women’s sexual health and wellness.

Diagnosed at 21 years old with Stage 3 colorectal cancer, Polly was thrown into premature menopause, with all its ancillary challenges. She was no more willing to accept being “put sexually out to pasture” than she was willing to succumb to cancer. “When you go through something like a cancer diagnosis, you feel like you have no connection with your body. I felt like I wanted to reclaim it,” says Polly. And thus Unbound was conceived as a direct-to-customer platform that makes body safe vibrators, lubricants and accessories.

The company’s product-level focus is on supporting women who – for whatever reason – want to explore sex-related products like lubricant and vibrators. It has been a very successful entrepreneurial venture of which Polly is rightfully proud, but she is just as proud of her larger contribution to advancing sex education and sextech as an industry deserving of a voice in the marketplace.

You’ll learn about The Women of Sextech, a group Polly helped found in an effort to break barriers to advertising and ensure equal access to capital funding and social media platforms.  It’s exciting to explore yet one more example of sextech leaders coming together, working collaboratively and changing business as usual in “very fem, non-binary ways.” As a bonus, Dr. Dweck and Rachel weigh in with information about the status of sex education nationally, marketplace trends in sextech and femtech advertising as well as the causes of and new approaches to early and premature menopause.

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

The Center for Intimacy Justice is Tackling Facebook’s Censorship of Health Ads

This episode of the Busine$$ of the V features Jackie Rotman, CEO and founder of the Center for Intimacy Justice (CIJ), a social change organization committed to equity and wellbeing in people’s intimate lives. You’ll learn about how CIJ is helping to rewrite the rules in tech companies' ad policies to allow ads for female sexual health and wellness – which are systematically censored today. She also shares the story of her journey to advocacy in the “sextech” space and the results of a compelling new study.

Among other things, CIJ's recent study reveals that 100% of 60 companies with a female sexual wellness focus were denied the right to advertise on Facebook. Jackie explains how such discrimination impacts educators and economics alike, a subject about which both Dr. Dweck and Rachel have thoughts. The conversation also highlights long-standing assumptions about – and the more recent medicalization of – women’s sexual wellness and levels of sexual satisfaction.

 

You’ll hear an interesting anecdote about the censorship Dr. Dweck herself experienced when she was promoting her book, "V is for Vagina: Your A to Z Guide to Periods, Piercings, Pleasures, and so much more," due to its plain-spoken title and language. Activists like Jackie have been critical to opening up discussion and bringing pressure to bear around sexual intimacy justice and the myriad related issues CIJ plans to take on. Visit this link if you’d like to request a copy of CIJ’s fascinating report, donate or find out more about their work.

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

Womaness Creates Modern Menopause Products

On this episode of the Busine$$ of the V, hosts Dr. Dweck and Rachel ramp up a conversation that has burst forth in recent years. No more is menopause a whispered word, suitable only for the gynecologist’s office. With some 20 percent of women in the U.S. at some stage of menopause — many of them in the workforce — it was time to break the silence, which is just what Michelle Jacobs and Sally Mueller, the co-founders of Womaness, have done.

As CEO and COO respectively, Sally and Michelle are all about taking the “pause” out of menopause. Their Womaness platform was developed specifically to provide modern, innovative products, essential information and unlimited inspiration to women transitioning through this stage. The overarching goal is to spark a radiant, dynamic outlook based on treatment options and education. They call it “menopositivity.”

Womaness’ complement of products zeroes in on a range of menopausal issues because every woman’s journey is different. They believe symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, fine lines, vaginal dryness, low libido, and bladder leaks should not slow anyone down. Their products are carefully vetted, backed by clinical data and made of clean ingredients. The centerpiece of this vision is the role that community has to play. They want Womaness to be a “first line of defense” for women in search of science-based, cutting-age information. Their platform is built not just to sell products (which are also available online and at a variety of retail outlets, like GNC and Target), but also to advance discussion through Facebook meetups, a newsletter, social media posts and Q&A’s hosted by trusted medical authorities.

It’s been a major leap for Sally and Michelle, whose careers were previously within traditional corporate environments. Hear all about their wild entrepreneurial ride and the in-the-trenches camaraderie that has kept their team going strong. You can learn more about their products and take their W Quiz here.

 

You can also subscribe and/or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

Pulse Transforms Personal Intimate Wellness Into A Warm & Luxurious Experience

It’s not often that we associate menopause-related products with high-end retail outlets like Nordstrom’s and Bloomingdale’s but that’s the feat achieved by Amy Buckalter, the visionary featured on this episode of the Busine$$ of the V. Hosts Dr. Dweck and Rachel get the full rundown on her burgeoning company Pulse, which has developed a bespoke dispenser for lubricants that is drawing fans well beyond its originally intended target audience.

“Gone are the days of cheap plastic tubes that look like they belong in the drugstore,” says Amy, who is founder and CEO of the Seattle-based business. “(Lubricants today) are in shapes, sizes, colors and materials that really feel like a beauty product.”

Pulse is revolutionizing the consumer experience in personal care and beauty with an innovative, hygienic new dispensing technology for liquid formulations including oils, lotions, creams, and gels. Using recyclable Pulse Pods, it’s an easy, touchless dispenser that is not only esthetically pleasing but adaptable to uses beyond the bedroom. Think convenient, mess-free, touchless access to your favorite formulations, whether in the kitchen, bathroom or nursery.

Best of all, Pulse products are designed with only premium ingredients – no harsh chemicals or irritating fillers. You’ll learn about how Amy has lofted her personal health care product squarely into the beauty and self-care space, and what lies ahead for Pulse’s bounds-breaking business model!

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

This is How Aspira Women’s Health is Detecting the Risk of Ovarian Cancer Early

With its lack of early diagnostics and greater than 50% mortality rate, ovarian cancer impacts enormous costs to women and society as a whole. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to Valerie Palmieri, a force to be reckoned with and the featured guest on this episode of Busine$$ of the V. As President and CEO at Aspira Women’s Health, she is not only overseeing the development of blood-based solutions that will improve gynecologic health outcomes, she is also fighting mightily to ensure that these non-invasive blood based risk assessment tools are available to women across the socio-economic spectrum.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common gender-specific cancer and, says Valerie, the most grueling of them all. But Aspira’s FDA-cleared bio-informatics products are able to detect with a high level of accuracy,  the risk for malignancy in pelvic masses – a breakthrough compared with the limited ovarian cancer diagnostics available to date. The company has also recently launched Aspira GenetiXSM testing, which offers both targeted and comprehensive genetic testing options. The trick is to predict personalized risk of this evasive cancer as early as possible.

Valerie shares her journey both personally, as a scientist and executive in the startup diagnostic space, and as a vigorous advocate for equal access to ovarian cancer diagnostics. A formidable leader, she is driving awareness for Aspira, building a niche for the company within the life sciences sector and fighting to save lives (along with enormous private and governmental insurance expense). She offers advice for up-and-coming life sciences entrepreneurs and a glimpse of a future in which genetic markers will play a big role in ensuring women’s health. As Rachel notes after reviewing Aspira’s study results: “The numbers are life-changing!”

Enjoy this hopeful conversation with a stand-out femtech pioneer! Visit https://businessofthev.com for more episodes, show notes and more.

Fem Foundry Connects Women Who Lead

What if women around the world had a single platform through which to support and “upscale” each other? That’s the goal for Dr. Dweck’s and Rachel’s guest on this episode of Busine$$ of the V. Amy Williams is Founder and CEO at Fem Foundry, a one-of-a-kind online resource of the sort she wished were available when she was navigating a lonely, challenging life passage.

 

Some 74% of women globally report that they have no role models from whom to draw inspiration – a troubling gap that Fem Foundry aims to fill with its free app, which is easily accessible to the 94% of women worldwide who own a mobile phone. Fem Foundry members convene at the intersection between community, learning and networking.

 

Amy shares a bit of her story and the series “of unfortunate events” that inspired her to create what she needed but could not locate on the web: a safe space for women to exchange support, ideas and learning. Fem Foundry is based around the pillars of health central its members’ lives: physical, mental, financial, social and spiritual. Learn how Amy marshaled her digital business skills to create an authentic, female-friendly platform on which information of all kinds is readily accessible to women in all circumstances.

 

With an entrepreneurial vision that’s expanding daily, Amy talks about her business model as well as the leading-edge, original research in which Fem Foundry’s conversations, classes and events are rooted. The women talk about role models as well as some breaking news regarding the reported impacts of Covid-19 vaccines on women’s menstrual cycles. There’s also a HOT FLASH report that will resonate with anyone who has felt down or anxious (and who hasn’t?) since the advent of pandemic.

You can subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast by clicking here.

This Website is a Judgement Free Zone for Sex Ed

How is it that so many of us are more sure of what we want on a sandwich than in our sexual pleasure? On this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Dr. Alyssa Dweck and Rachel Braun Scherl take on this question along with their guest, Andrea Barrica. Her sexual education platform, the O.School, has carved out a niche by providing a safe place for people in search of science-based and accessible information. Over the past five years Andrea’s team at O.School have compiled a treasure trove of data and insights about the predilections, fears and curiosity among a wide range of people who are sexually active – or would like to be!

 

Part of the magic at O.School has been creating a resource that offers judgment-free information and language that is not only familiar but inclusive. As a result, many other sites have introduced similarly candid conversation around sexual health and wellness. Andrea finds that the video content, polling and data analysis her platform provides creates a sense of community and tremendous engagement among people who find comfort (and shed shame) around a variety of behaviors.

 

The O.School’s “Orgasm Order Form” is a great point of entry for many first-time website visitors. The result of an “aha” moment while waiting in line to place a sandwich order at Whole Foods, Andrea and her team have put together a series of questions to help us figure out what we do – or do not – appreciate sexually at least as well as we know whether we want mustard and pickles! Enjoy this frank, fun conversation about the important work Andrea is doing and how O.School is poised to partner with reproductive- and sexual health-related businesses and provide data and access to voices in this quickly evolving space.

 

If you’d like to try out O.School’s sexual pleasure order form, just click here.

 

Click here to subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast with Rachel Braun Scherl and Dr. Alyssa Dweck.

This Device Offers a Pain Free Solution to Incontinence

This episode of Busine$$ of the V features a game-changing new FemTech response to urinary incontinence, a very common and largely unseen condition often linked to pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. As Dr. Dweck knows from her own practice, Kegel exercises can be very effective in restoring pelvic floor muscle strength, but many busy women aren’t able to make the commitment of time and intention required. That’s where Elitone comes in. It’s the brainchild of Gloria Kolb, CEO at Elidah, Inc., who dug into the research after herself experiencing the physiological impacts of delivering three large babies.

 

Elitone offers women a quick, pain-free treatment modality that has been shown to reduce urinary incontinence in 95% of users – for some in as little as four weeks. Using a comfortable gel pad no bigger than a panty liner, the device uses gentle, low-frequency pulses to tone pelvic floor muscles. The best part? Set the remote control timer and, hands-free, go about your day while the Elitone invisibly does its work.

 

It may be little discussed, but about a third of all women’s quality of life is compromised by either urge or stress urinary incontinence – often but not always as the result of childbirth. Many factors can contribute to this problem. Although there are some lifestyle modifications that can help in a limited way, sufferers still deal constantly with low-level stress over availability of bathroom facilities, odor and curtailed activities. Elitone, which is available direct or at CVS.com, is all about giving women a route back to their most vibrant, worry-free selves.

 

Learn how Gloria has navigated research, development, fundraising, FDA approvals and Covid impacts on the marketplace. Elitone now also offers a new tracking app for your mobile device. Click here to watch videos testimonials and demonstrations.

 

Click here to subscribe or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast with Rachel Braun Scherl and Dr. Alyssa Dweck.