Closing a major gap in women's health with Alloy Women's Health

Introduction (0s)

• Alloy Women's Health is a digital health platform for women in perimenopause and menopause, aiming to provide education, connection, and access to medical resources, addressing the lack of reliable information and accessible care for this stage of life (2s).
• The company connects women with dedicated doctors and resources, offering education, medical consultations, and access to prescription treatments, focusing on women's health and addressing associated medical issues (2m9s).
• Monica Molinar, one of the co-founders, was diagnosed with the breast cancer gene at age 40, leading to her early menopause, and discovered a lack of preparation and information, which inspired her to create Alloy Women's Health (3m32s).
• Monica Molinar and Anne Fulenwider, the co-founders, met while walking their dogs and discovered similarities in their lives, leading to a friendship and eventually the decision to build Alloy Women's Health together (4m22s).
• The company aims to address the significant lack of trained practitioners to address menopause adequately, providing a platform for women to navigate this stage of life (58s).
• Alloy Women's Health has been working on educating women about menopause and perimenopause for the past five years, connecting them with medical doctors and offering access to effective and safe treatments (2m46s).

Turning personal experience into a business idea (4m37s)

• The founders of Alloy Women's Health, including the speaker, met while walking their dogs and became friends, bonding over their shared experiences and transitional moments in life and careers (4m38s).
• The speaker had been the editor-in-chief of a magazine for seven or eight years and had been in the industry for 25 years, while also dealing with health issues in her family, including her mother's sudden passing and her daughter's health concerns (4m56s).
• Monica, the other founder, had been an entrepreneur and was thinking about her next venture, having experienced health issues in her own family and gone through surgical menopause at 40 (5m11s).
• Monica approached the speaker with the idea of addressing menopause, and they began exploring the topic, realizing that there was a significant gap in women's health and a lack of expertise in menopause care (5m27s).
• The founders discovered that a 20-year-old study had led to a decrease in the teaching of effective and safe menopause treatments in medical schools, resulting in a "white space" in women's health (6m11s).
• They realized that there was a huge expertise gap in menopause care and that not discussing estrogen with women during this time was a disservice, leading them to start a telehealth company with pharmacy and doctor services (6m34s).
• The company aimed to connect women with certified menopause practitioners, as there were only around 2,000 in the US, and to educate women about menopause and its treatment options (7m4s).
• The founders had to educate themselves on menopause, as there was a lack of information available, and it took one of them six months to get a prescription for menopausal hormone treatment after surgery (7m52s).
• Women are often left to search for information and solutions on their own, leading to the use of supplements and antidepressants, as doctors are not trained to address menopause effectively (8m21s).
• The founders' goal is to provide women with access to expertise and treatment options, addressing the significant gap in menopause care and education (7m14s).

The challenges of raising awareness about menopause (8m55s)

• Menopausal hormone treatment can be effective, as seen in a personal experience where the first night of treatment led to a full night's sleep after six months of sleep deprivation (9m2s).
• The journey to understanding menopause and hormone treatment can be challenging due to misinformation, but having passionate and knowledgeable doctors can help educate and provide the best care (9m23s).
• Access to quality care and treatment for menopause has been limited, often due to factors such as insurance or employer-provided care, but efforts are being made to democratize access and make it affordable, convenient, and easy to access (9m35s).
• Women, particularly in the post-fertility stage, have often been prevented from receiving proper care and treatment, highlighting the need for improved access and education (9m52s).

Why Alloy bypasses insurance (10m0s)

• Alloy Women's Health aims to provide accessible care to women, particularly those going through menopause, by connecting them directly with expert doctors who have the necessary training, (10m36s).
• The company chose not to work with insurance providers, as they found that insurance can often be a barrier to care, with misaligned incentives in the healthcare system, (10m59s).
• The healthcare system's incentives are misaligned, with doctors not being incentivized to counsel patients, but rather to perform procedures such as delivering babies, (12m42s).
• Women's bodies were not included in clinical trials until 1994, and even since then, very few women have been included, resulting in medical science being based on men's bodies, (11m58s).
• The majority of federal research money directed at medical research is not focused on women's health, with less than 11% of funding allocated to women's health, (12m23s).
• Insurance providers often operate on outdated science, refusing to cover certain treatments or cutting off coverage after a certain amount of time, (13m1s).
• By not working with insurance providers, Alloy Women's Health aims to eliminate barriers to care and provide direct access to expert doctors for women, (12m55s).
• The company's goal is to create a direct pipeline between doctors and patients, allowing for more effective and personalized care, (10m49s).
• Pharmacists can also be a barrier to care, with some refusing to fill certain prescriptions due to misinformation, (11m24s).
• Many new health companies are being built to fit into the existing system, but this approach is flawed due to the system's brokenness and misaligned incentives, leading to the creation of a new approach that prioritizes women's needs directly (13m11s).
• The focus is on providing women experiencing menopause with the best help as soon as possible, allowing them to move on with their lives, and this is achieved by making the woman the sole customer and priority (13m42s).
• A $50 yearly fee provides unlimited access to ask questions, request dose changes, and engage in a longitudinal relationship with a doctor, which has become less common in the current healthcare system (13m52s).
• The company launched in all 50 states to serve women nationwide, emphasizing the importance of being national from the start (14m14s).
• The affordable yearly price makes scaling seem easier, but the limited number of providers trained in this area poses a challenge, requiring consideration of both price and supply factors (14m31s).
• Scaling the company while maintaining the same level of service for new users is a key concern, particularly in a space with limited supply of trained clinicians (14m56s).

Scaling a telehealth model (15m0s)

• Alloy Women's Health has developed a backend technology that connects doctors and patients completely asynchronously through a secure portal, allowing patients to message doctors at any time with questions and doctors to answer on their own time (15m6s).
• This system has resulted in zero doctor attrition, with doctors even approaching the company at conferences to join the team, and has created a collaborative workplace where doctors can ask questions and get advice (15m43s).
• The asynchronous model has been a win-win-win for all involved, allowing doctors to scale their work, patients to receive personalized advice, and the company to maximize outcomes for everybody (16m31s).
• The company's culture is strong, with doctors leaning in and bringing people along with them, creating a collaborative workplace that they've never had before (16m43s).
• Menopause can be a complicated health issue, especially for women with complex health histories, but Alloy Women's Health is able to provide individualized and personalized advice in an affordable way (17m7s).
• The company is deliberate about solving problems for all stakeholders, including patients, doctors, and the team, to maximize outcomes for everybody (17m50s).
• The asynchronous model allows doctors to work with patients across multiple states, as many doctors have multi-state licenses, and incentivizes doctors to review medical intake forms, create treatment plans, and keep patients under care for long periods (16m7s).
• The company's approach has created a system where doctors are not incentivized to prescribe, but rather to provide personalized care and recommendations to patients (16m9s).

How the political landscape affects women’s health (18m6s)

• The topic of women's health has been under the spotlight, especially since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and has seen an increase in venture funding due to the current political landscape (18m9s).
• The new Administration's impact on women's health is expected to be significant, with many areas under a microscope, but menopause is not considered a controversial topic and is therefore less likely to be affected (18m32s).
• Menopause is a universal experience for people born with ovaries, but it has not received much attention in the past, partly because it is not related to reproduction and does not tend to be a polarizing issue (18m45s).
• Despite being a common experience, menopause is still underserved, with less than 2% of all women receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and less than half of 1% of black women being prescribed HRT (19m50s).
• The lack of attention to menopause is partly due to its perceived niche status, despite affecting 51% of the population, and the fact that it has not been treated well in the past (19m31s).
• The menopause space has seen an increase in companies addressing the issue, but it still lags behind the number of fertility companies, highlighting the need for more attention and resources (19m41s).

Addressing disparities in menopause treatment (20m0s)

• The current time is ideal for women to treat themselves to avoid chronic diseases that can arise during menopause, such as osteoporosis, which affects half of women, and estrogen is FDA-approved to prevent it (20m11s).
• Preventing fractures among women can keep them out of hospitals and nursing homes, prevent family members from having to take care of them, and improve their quality of life (20m32s).
• The focus is on improving women's quality of life and how they feel during the second half of their lives (20m45s).
• Alloy Women's Health successfully raised another round of funding, which was announced earlier in the week (20m55s).
• The company's approach to growing "slow and steady" is the antithesis of what most venture capitalists want, but it has been helpful in focusing the company's minds on building the business (21m7s).
• Fundraising for the company was challenging due to the area they are building in, the growing competition in the space, and the approach they are taking (21m15s).
• The company started in an environment where people were throwing money around to grow quickly, but the pandemic hit, and the market changed, making investors more focused on profitability (21m44s).
• The company had to think about getting through the pandemic and getting to profitability in the most lean way possible, which was helpful in training their minds on building the business (22m2s).
• It is still hard for women to raise money, especially for women's health and menopausal health, which is not considered a "sexy" topic, but the company was able to find investors who saw the opportunity (22m52s).
• The company had a ton of meetings with people who didn't get it, but they were able to find investors like Jane and Alex at Chrysalis HQ who were looking for a menopause company and saw the opportunity (23m9s).

Lessons from Alloy’s fundraising journey (23m26s)

• Alloy Women's Health was able to prove traction early on, which changed the conversation and made it easier to attract investors, as long as the company had good unit economics and the numbers were adding up (23m33s).
• Monica, one of the founders, has a background in magazine publishing and was an entrepreneur in a different space before starting Alloy Women's Health (23m54s).
• Monica's career path before starting Alloy Women's Health was non-linear, and she had to balance work and family responsibilities, which led to her leaving her job for a few years and working part-time or not at all (24m40s).
• At the age of 40, after having her ovaries removed, Monica decided to reinvent herself and create a business that would give her the experience and flexibility she needed (25m21s).
• Monica started her first business, Seed, in the food space, which she co-founded with two partners and learned valuable skills that she now applies to her work at Alloy Women's Health (25m54s).
• Monica's experience with Seed taught her how to call people, find money, and get things done, skills that she now uses in her role at Alloy Women's Health (26m9s).
• The founder of Alloy Women's Health drew upon her prior experiences as a working mother and professional to build a company culture that infuses the needs and wants of working mothers, resulting in an entirely remote company and culture that works for people from all over the world (26m48s).
• As a middle-aged entrepreneur, she has been able to draw upon her extensive network and experiences, making it easier to reach out to people and have fun while building the company (27m18s).
• Her experience working at magazines, such as Mary Clair and Vanity Fair, helped her learn about the lack of research in women's health, which inspired her to take a more hands-on approach to helping women (27m36s).
• She realized that she wanted to focus on helping women from the inside out, rather than just the outside in, which was a pivot from her prior work in fashion and beauty (28m7s).
• Her experience running a magazine and telling stories has been helpful in retelling the story of menopause and connecting with women in a way that they understand, making the topic more emotional and real (28m20s).
• She believes that representation is important, and showing what a 50-year-old woman can look like and how she can live her life is crucial in changing the perception of menopause (28m36s).
• The founder emphasizes the importance of having conversations about menopause and speaking to women of all ages, as it can affect women as young as 30, and being aware of the symptoms and solutions is essential for all generations of women (28m52s).
• Despite decades of data on treatments and solutions, women are often told that there are no solutions, which is not true, and it is essential to provide women with accurate information and support (29m26s).
• Women's health is often neglected, and their input and agency are not considered when it comes to their own well-being, which is a conversation that needs to be had with women (29m33s).
• It is essential for women to prioritize their self-care and take care of themselves, especially at the current time, to prevent potential health issues from arising in the future (29m44s).
• Failing to take care of oneself now can lead to the development of other health problems in the future that could have been prevented, but once they occur, they cannot be reversed (29m50s).

The benefits of a co-CEO leadership model (30m0s)

• Understanding the different phases of women's biological journeys is critical, and Alloy Women's Health aims to educate women about these phases, which has led to a significant positive impact on their lives, with many expressing gratitude for the help they received (30m1s).
• The company's co-CEOs, who have different backgrounds and experiences, decided to split responsibilities rather than having one CEO and another executive role, which has worked out well due to their ability to remove their egos from their work and mesh their working styles (30m46s).
• The co-CEOs come from opposite backgrounds, with one having a corporate ladder experience and the other having a more creative background, which has allowed them to complement each other's skills (31m12s).
• Monica, one of the co-CEOs, experienced menopause surgically overnight, while the other co-CEO entered menopause naturally, giving them different experiences and perspectives on the issue (31m31s).
• The co-CEOs have divided their responsibilities, with one focusing on external-facing tasks and the other on patient care and doctor relationships, which has been a natural division of labor (31m52s).
• Despite being on different continents, the co-CEOs have made their partnership work, and research suggests that women are generally better at being co-CEOs than men due to their ability to handle back-and-forth communication (32m7s).
• The co-CEOs value their partnership, which provides discipline, feedback, and camaraderie, making the entrepreneurial journey less lonely (32m40s).
• The co-CEOs have been working together for almost five years, and their partnership has been essential in helping them navigate the challenges of building a business (32m56s).
• The founders of Alloy Women's Health, Monica and Ann, had a friendly relationship before starting the company, but they weren't great friends, and their networks of people were similar but didn't overlap much, which helped expand each other's worlds (33m18s).
• Trust and respect between co-founders are crucial for a company's culture, and Monica and Ann's relationship has been the most important aspect of their company culture, influencing how they interact with each other and their team (33m39s).
• The founders have a good relationship with their team, which they've infused with their values of trust, respect, and conflict resolution, making it easier to navigate challenges (33m51s).
• One of the craziest stories about running the company was when they received a note from their backend partner saying they had seven days to get all their data off the servers, which led to a rallying point for the team and ultimately resulted in them building their own backend tech (34m56s).
• The team, including their engineer team, came together to resolve the crisis, and they were able to negotiate more time to get their data off the servers and eventually built their own backend tech, which was a better solution for their business (35m43s).
• The experience was a bonding moment for the team, and they now have a deeper appreciation for their engineering team, which helped them navigate a potentially company-collapsing crisis (36m2s).
• Thousands of people depend on Alloy Women's Health, and the team feels responsible and devoted to them, striving to provide important care and innovate in healthcare for sustainability (36m34s).
• The team aims to make a lasting impact, as menopause is a significant issue affecting thousands of women every day, and they want to be a reliable solution for them (36m55s).
• Monica and Ann appreciate the opportunity to discuss Alloy Women's Health, and the conversation concludes on a positive note, highlighting the importance of their work (37m3s).

Closing thoughts (37m17s)

• Alloy Women's Health does not work with insurance companies, which is unusual for a health tech company, especially one focused on women's health (37m24s).
• This approach is different from other health tech companies that typically try to work with insurance companies to make their services more affordable and accessible (37m40s).
• Alloy Women's Health has a relatively inexpensive pricing model, making their services more accessible to some people, but it's unclear who their target market is and whether their pricing is accessible to everyone (37m54s).
• The decision not to work with insurance companies may affect how people perceive the service, as some people may view insurance coverage as a factor in deciding whether to use a product or service (38m11s).
• The insurance industry plays a significant role in the US healthcare system, and if everyone uses a service like Alloy Women's Health, it may have a ripple effect on the industry, potentially reducing the importance of insurance companies in accessing certain types of care (38m35s).
• The lack of data from services like Alloy Women's Health may also impact insurance companies' decisions about what types of care to cover (38m48s).
• Insurance companies follow the money, and if people are not using them to access certain types of care, it may not become a priority for them (38m59s).
• Access to medical care is crucial, especially for women's health, and services like Alloy Women's Health may provide a way for people to privately access care without relying on insurance (39m22s).
• This approach may also help people avoid being on the radar of certain entities, such as states that are trying to restrict access to certain types of care (39m34s).
• By not relying on insurance companies, Alloy Women's Health can focus on the actual users of their service, rather than the insurance companies themselves (39m59s).
• This business model is similar to other industries, where the customers are not always the end-users, but rather the sponsors or partners that make the service possible (40m4s).
• Alloy Women's Health has had a surprisingly easy time bringing doctors on board, with doctors preferring to work outside of the insurance system and having no churn, indicating that insurance companies might be the problem (40m24s).
• Doctors may prefer to avoid dealing with the headache of insurance and paperwork, allowing them to focus on helping patients without these obstacles (40m55s).
• Insurance companies can sometimes hinder the doctor-patient relationship, with instances of doctors recommending a solution only to have the insurance company intervene and cause issues (41m21s).
• The insurance market has been a long-standing issue, even being referenced in children's shows like SpongeBob, where a character is denied treatment due to lack of insurance (41m42s).
• Alloy Women's Health is taking a unique stance by not working with insurance companies, which could be a way to differentiate themselves in a crowded market focused on women's health and menopause care (42m8s).
• The women's health category has gained significant interest in recent years, with multiple companies emerging to address the need for care, particularly for those going through menopause (42m20s).
• Alloy's approach may provide options for people who need care and want to avoid the insurance system, allowing them to stand out in the market (42m34s).
• There is a significant lack of information on women's health, particularly menopause, which can make it difficult for people to navigate and make informed decisions about their care (42m56s).
• More than half of the country will experience a significant life change that can be uncomfortable to discuss, but it's essential to have open conversations about it as it drastically changes people's lives (43m34s).
• Women often experience a period in their lives where they stop sleeping altogether, which can be incredibly challenging and may require support and navigation (44m1s).
• Alloy Women's Health aims to help women navigate the challenges they face during this period of their lives (44m14s).
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