Business of the V

This is How the Dripstick Went Viral

This episode of Busine$$ of the V features Frances Tang, the forward-thinking founder of Awkward Essentials, a startup devoted to taking the taboo out of post-sex cleanup. It might not be the easiest of entrepreneurial concepts to sell, but with her flair for social media and creative pitching, Frances has turned an intimate personal care challenge into a viable and thriving niche enterprise.

 

Individually packaged and easy to use, the company’s flagship product, the Dripstick, is a super absorbent sponge that makes quick work of cleaning up fluids after sex. With her down-to-earth approach and candid language, Frances has garnered attention not only from investors and the media but also was named a Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas finalist in 2020. Her mission is to normalize and address awkward bodily realities – which she does with a good dose of humor and an eye for products that serve practical needs.

 

You’ll learn about how Awkward Essentials came into being, why it’s important to be fearless in soliciting help and where this innovative “crotch care” company is headed as it develops new products along with new marketing vocabulary to go with them. If you’ve ever had an entrepreneurial idea, this episode will give you a front-row view of Frances’ journey – from her initial thought to incubating a concept to developing a viable business proposition to plans for an emerging suite of “weird” products you’ll wonder how you once did without.

 

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

2021 Recap From Alyssa & Rachel

Alyssa couldn't have said it any better. It's been an unbelievable year in the world of vagina's and business. 

This podcast was born from a desire to educate themselves and other people about the intersection of businesses creating solutions and solving problems for vaginal health.

We've released 30 episodes in 2021 with many more to come in 2022.

We've been overwhelmed by the excitement and the response to this podcast and can't wait to share what's coming up next!

If you found this podcast useful to you, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. You can listen for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube and more!

View previous episodes and show notes on our website at https://businessofthev.com

 

OhNut - The Most Downloaded Episode of 2021

As we come to the end of another year  we wanted to take a moment to reflect. We are so thankful for all of our guests, our listeners and our sponsors that made Business of the V possible this year.

Here is a re-release of our most downloaded episode of the year featuring OhNut.

Look for all new episodes dropping in January of 2022!

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In this episode, Dr. Dweck and Rachel interview Emily Sauer, founder of OhNut, female entrepreneur, maker, IRL community leader, and sexual health advocate with a passion to empower women who are co-creating a deeper understanding of how sexual identity informs our individual and collective lives.

Emily shares how after years of painful intercourse, also known as dyspareunia, why and how she invented the OhNut, wearable rings that feel like skin to control the depth of penetration during intercourse. The OhNut is backed by renowned surgeons, pelvic floor physical therapists, sexual health educators and guided by a medical and scientific advisory board.

This Fem-Tech Startup is Providing Relief for Your Vulva

If you’re interested in the ultimate lemons-to-lemonade startup story, then this episode of Busine$$ of the V is for you. It features a woman who has channeled second-degree burns from a Brazilian wax gone wrong and a punishing round of breast cancer treatment into a hot new women’s health product. Suzanne Sinatra, CEO & Founder of Private Packs, shares with us her remarkable entrepreneurial journey – an inspiring success story built on resiliency and fire. Her wearable, reusable cooling/heating packs are designed specifically for the V – and women are scooping them up direct online and nationwide in retail outlets such as CVS.

 

Learn how Suzanne took a nascent idea (pain relief for female genitals that have suffered some kind of inflammatory injury or stress) and bootstrapped it into a position of strength that has attracted mature VC funding and attention from members of the startup community who want to know, “How’d she do it?” The answer is: with ingenuity, common sense and fearlessness. She also got valuable help from an accelerator that set her on the path to expansion. Private Packs has plans in the works to create soothing hot/cold packs for other personal areas. Put another way, says Suzanne: “Enough with the peas anywhere on the privates!”

 

Private Packs can be used repeatedly and their unique mix of carefully vetted ingredients combines to offer hot, cold and moist heat options that afford comfort to those suffering anything from acute vaginal dryness to pain following a long bike ride, from childbirth recovery to esthetic treatment injuries. The real secret sauce, however, is the CEO herself. Suzanne took her breast cancer diagnosis and the ensuing rounds of treatment as a timely opportunity to step back, grow her business and establish her vision without input from outside funders. She’s a powerhouse who invites all women entrepreneurs with FemTech ideas to join her in exploring this dynamic and growing business sector.

 

Click here to learn more about our sponsor Kindra, the radical self-care company that makes estrogen-free essentials thoughtfully designed to relieve the symptoms of the menopausal journey. Take the Kindra Quiz to prepare for and manage your body’s natural hormonal shifts.         

 

And use promo code BOVPODCAST to receive 20% off your first order or subscription!

 

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

What Women Need to Know About Vaginal Odor

This episode of Busine$$ of the V introduces a dynamo who proves that anything is possible with bootstrap determination. Deeannah Seymour, CEO & Founder of pH-D Feminine Health, shares the story of how she founded her company and grew it from limited online sales on Amazon (where the rave reviews came in an avalanche) to availability at some 35,000 retail outlets nationwide. It’s a profile in persistence and tribute to a woman who turned an undergraduate degree in biology and her experience working in the pharmaceutical industry into a highly successful – and growing – entrepreneurial powerhouse.

 

pH-D Feminine Health Support grew out of the need Deeannah identified for natural solutions to bothersome feminine issues. She looked at the scientific research and expensive, inconvenient products available on the market and decided to find her own holistic way to address vaginal aroma. She partnered with a highly respected health and wellness company, Vireo Systems, Inc., to commercially produce boric acid vaginal suppositories beginning in 2014 and has since become the #1 best-selling brand for feminine odor and balance.

 

Dr. Dweck and Rachel host a fascinating conversation about the pH-D product line, its development and the many factors that go into building a successful startup. Deeannah shares resources and some funny stories that demonstrate the influence of serendipity, the power of bouncing back from mistakes and the importance of banishing negative self-talk. Enjoy getting to know Deeannah and pH-D, an inspiring example of woman-owned, women-led success!

 

Click here to learn more about our sponsor Kindra, the radical self-care company that makes estrogen-free essentials thoughtfully designed to relieve the symptoms of the menopausal journey. Take the Kindra Quiz to prepare for and manage your body’s natural hormonal shifts.         

 

And use promo code BOVPODCAST to receive 20% off your first order or subscription!

 

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

How Kindra Built Community Through Education About Menopause

Communities are built in all kinds of ways, but when it comes to menopause it’s education that knits the fabric together. In this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Dr. Dweck and Rachel learn about how Kindra has created space for women navigating this stage of life. As CEO Catherine Balsam-Schwaber explains, Kindra’s platform and products are all about destigmatizing and managing symptoms throughout this important – but too often shrouded – life passage.

 

More than a billion women will be in menopause by 2025, a tidal wave of experience that demands quality information and support. But there remains a common disconnect between chronological age and symptoms, in large part because “the change” for so many generations has been a hush-hush topic. That’s where Kindra comes in.

 

This innovative, exciting company has launched an entire line of products that speak directly to symptoms. They’ve also very intentionally made critical information accessible to the broadest possible audience. In direct response to the most common perimenopausal and menopausal complaints (sleep disruption, brain fog, hot flashes and vaginal dryness) Kindra has developed a suite of options to bring life back into balance. And all without the use of replacement hormones such as estrogen!

 

Sleep disruption appears to be at the core of many other cascading perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms. Catherine observes that the Kindra community weighs in frequently about the ways in which lack of quality sleep impacts every other facet of daily functioning, including mental clarity, focus, energy and anxiety. But there are options – and the menu is expanding exponentially as this previously hidden stage for women becomes a fact of life not only personally but in a professional context as well.

 

Women have dealt with the menopausal journey through all time, but contemporary women’s views of themselves in their 50s don’t align with the “Golden Girl” stereotype. Kindra has taken this discrepancy head-on to provide an entirely different approach. The goal isn’t to medicalize the transition but to offer alternative solutions that don’t require pharmaceutical intervention and capitalize on self-awareness and partnering for optimal sexual health.

 

Kindra provides the information, support and tools to manage menopause as a natural stage of life that need not slow us down. The whole landscape is changing and opening up, allowing women to integrate work and life in ways that were unimaginable just a generation or two ago. Join this exciting conversation!

 

Click here to learn more about our sponsor Kindra, the radical self-care company that makes estrogen-free essentials thoughtfully designed to relieve the symptoms of the menopausal journey. Take the Kindra Quiz to prepare for and manage your body’s natural hormonal shifts.         

 

And use promo code BOVPODCAST to receive 20% off your first order or subscription!

 

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

How Rosebud Woman Created an Intimate Skincare Brand

Who doesn’t want to know more about a company whose mantra is: Joy and pleasure are your birthright? On this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Dr. Dweck and Rachel offer robust conversation about an intimate skincare company that embraces self-love. Christine Marie Mason, founder and CEO of Rosebud Woman, shares her journey from successful B2B tech startup guru to femtech entrepreneur.

 

Rosebud Woman makes effective, sustainable, beautiful products designed to enhance satisfaction and reduce suffering across all the stages of a women's sensual, sexual and reproductive life. Built with an integrative approach that includes bio- and psycho-social elements, this product line has been growing exponentially. Why? Because it offers an integral, organic, non-toxic approach to women’s health and well-being. It also emphasizes a body-positive, sex-positive, normalizing and liberating ethos that is part of what Christine believes is a necessary, transformational movement.

 

Where women have historically felt compelled to “flatten” themselves (in every respect) while dealing in male-dominated board rooms, Christine is helping to spread a new model that holds space for mindfulness and soulfulness within a business context. She believes we can take recent strides as a hard-won silver lining legacy of Covid19, which forced our homes and work lives to intermingle in a way that was humanizing across the enterprise.

Tune in for this fascinating conversation that covers everything from women’s empowerment to the social and sexual impacts of trauma to exciting new low-cost lending models that are lowering barriers of entry for entrepreneurial efforts like Rosebud Woman. Primarily sold direct-to-customers in all 50 states in the U.S., their products are also available at Saks, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and clean beauty outlets nationwide as well as in Canada and Australia.

 

Today’s Episode is Sponsored by Kindra

To learn more about estrogen-free peri/menopause essentials for women like you, check out our sponsor Kindra here. You can also take a quiz designed to help you prepare for, manage and embrace your body’s natural hormonal shifts by clicking here. And if you’d like to purchase products, be sure to use the code BOVPodcast to save 20% off your order or subscription.

 

Click here to subscribe, review or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast.

Sustainable Solutions to Menstruation and Incontinence

On this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Dr. Dweck and Rachel welcome Toni Brannagan, whose work as content editor at Thinx Inc. is generating an exciting conversation about menstrual underwear. This innovative company has transcended the “ick” factor with candid advertising, multi-platform communications and an emphasis on education. We’re saying goodbye to the granny panties and hello to a new alternative to tampons and pads!

 

Toni explains the design and intent behind Thinx’s  unique menstrual underwear, including game-changing odor and moisture wicking technology. She also highlights the many ways in which Thinx  is fostering community, the exchange of valuable information and a space for women to “get to know your flow.” Committed both to diversity and science-based product development, Thinx  sets itself apart by offering a new period option within a space that has otherwise been static. Post-partum and under doctor’s orders not to use tampons? Or interested in being kinder to the planet by reducing waste? Perhaps you’re wrestling with incontinence? There are all kinds of reasons that women are trying menstrual underwear with positive results.

 

Taking on the status quo is always a challenge, which is why Toni has stories to share about the media reaction (and resistance) to Thinx advertising campaigns with provocative slogans like, “What would the world be like if men had periods?” Tune in to hear Dr. Dweck, Rachel and their guest talk about the power of community, education and what’s on the horizon for this leading- edge femtech company.

 

As referenced on this episode, you can check out Dr. Dweck’s book, “The Complete A to Z of the V,” here.

 

Click here to subscribe, review or listen to previous episodes of the Busine$$ of the V podcast.

Empowering Women to Restore Their Pelvic Health

Once again, Rachel and Dr. Dweck are hosting a conversation that brings to light a topic little discussed but pervasive in the world of women’s health. Their guest on this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Tracy MacNeal, explains why dilators have an important role to play for a huge number of women who are suffering – usually undiagnosed – with pelvic floor-related issues. President and CEO at Materna Health, she shares the ins and outs (so to speak) of the products they have on the market and in development to treat and prevent pelvic floor issues.

Materna Medical is a novel OBGYN platform company, defining a $6B market in the most common pelvic conditions women face. Their first product, Milli, is a vaginal trainer (known as a “dilator”) with adjustable, incremental sizing for women who are trying to achieve intimate health. Their second product, Materna Prep, is currently in clinical trials and having tremendous success protecting mothers in labor from pelvic muscle injuries during childbirth. It doesn’t hurt that early indications also suggest that this device, for use in-hospital, also shortens the length of delivery and could help reduce unwanted C-sections.

A huge percentage of women suffer near-term pelvic injury during childbirth that leaves them with long-lasting consequences such as incontinence and prolapse. Tracy and her hosts also highlight the difficulty women have in getting diagnosed correctly (while more than 80% of sufferers don’t seek help at all). Education is key to helping patients self-identify often overlooked, little-known conditions like vaginismus. Their guest is a medtech dynamo who is combining her expertise as a medical device engineer with scientific rigor and marketing savvy. Materna Medical is a company you’ll want to watch!

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

How Your Hormones Are Affecting Your Skin

So many of us have spent years trying to figure out the riddle of our skin. On this episode of Busine$$ of the V, Dr. Dweck and Rachel welcome someone who is helping us to figure it all out by connecting the dots – starting with the many hormones at play. Learn why Allie Eagan’s career trajectory made her uniquely positioned to launch Veracity Skincare,  a personalized skin suite of testing and products like none other on the market today.

 

Based in scientific data, Veracity’s advanced formulations deliver clean beauty products designed to optimize each individual’s unique biochemistry. As Founder & CEO, Allie’s vision embraces a theme that comes up regularly on the podcast: The interconnectivity of factors that impact our overall health. Veracity is built on the understanding that skin problems are often a symptom of deeper systemic issues, which for women are frequently hormonally-related.

 

Veracity was conceived as a horizontal platform that approaches skin wellness from many angles: hormonal testing, education and superior products developed to the highest standards – vegan, cruelty-free and not tested on animals. Veracity rejects the endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in the manufacturing of cosmetics of all types because the company’s No. 1 commitment is to providing skincare that is hormonally safe for all life stages.

 

Instead of relying on “skin types” or generic quizzes, Veracity offers a way to determine your skincare routine through a simple at-home hormone test that gathers data about the state of your skin and with recommended products targeted specifically for each individual. Going one step further, Veracity also donates a portion of every Skin + Health Test to independent women’s hormonal health research projects – to help develop better answers faster – as well as contributing 10% of every merch sale to the Black Women’s Health Imperative for the equal treatment of women of color in the healthcare system.

 

As Dr. Dweck sums up: Veracity is providing health, medicine and beauty – all in one! To learn more about your unique biochemistry, check out Veracity’s Skin + Health Test here.

 

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