Pioneering Women's Health and Wellbeing both at Work and Beyond | Founder and COO @ Hertility | Dr Natalie Getreu

Dr Natalie Getreu and the Hertility Team are revolutionising the female health landscape, providing personalised reproductive health solutions tailored to each woman's unique needs, from menstruation to menopause, offering customised testing and services based on individual circumstances through their letterbox home test kits and trailblazing research teams.

Hertility collaborates with companies like Channel Four and Edelman to provide reproductive health benefits for employees, including testing, services, and education, as well as providing the invaluable service direct to consumers.

Australian born Dr Natalie Getreu talks through her personal journey of how she got to developing this product and service, highlighting the importance of supporting women of all ages in the workplace through valuable and impactful modern-day benefits such as Hertility, as well as unpacking the journey for her customers. A business with both a B2B and D2C offering, Natalie unpacks the challenges faced on the development of her businesses from inception to launch, including:

• Raising capital for a female oriented product in a male dominated investment world
• The hurdles in developing a medical device 
• Why tracking female reproductive organs and hormones is just as important as tracking any other aspect of your health 
• The importance of diversity in your team
• How to balance holding onto what you love doing as a Founder vs other business demands
• Work life balance
• The culture shift in businesses slowly addressing the taboo subject of appropriately supporting women in the workplace 

The Start-Up Podcast Diaries Season 9 is proudly partnered with UK Cyber Week 2024.  Taking place on 17th-18th April 2024 at Olympia London,  join 3000+ cyber tech professionals, to explore the latest developments and equip attendees with the knowledge to protect their businesses.

PodMatch
PodMatch Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Guests and Hosts For Interviews

Follow The Start-Up Diaries Podcast on LinkedIn, Instagram, or find more free content from the Tech Recruitment Specialists powering The Start-Up Diaries - Burns Sheehan.

Chapters

• 10:35 [Ad] PodMatch
• 11:12 (Cont.) Pioneering Women's Health and Wellbeing both at Work and Beyond | Founder and COO @ Hertility | Dr Natalie Getreu

Transcript

 Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Startup Diaries podcast, brought to you by Burns Sheehan, a leading insights driven technology recruitment business located in Manchester and London. In this episode, we have Dr. Natalie Gertrude, CEO and Chief Operational Officer at Hertility. Hertility are reshaping female health with personalized reproductive solutions from menstruation to menopause through home test kits, and groundbreaking research they offer a tailored service like no other to meet individual needs.

Natalie is a global health expert in ovarian biology and honorary research fellow at UCL. Her career in women's health and female reproductive science has been built upon a fundamental drive for creating more equitable, accessible health care. After establishing multiple public health programs within the National Health Service, Natalie founded her team, partnering with corporations like Channel 4 and Edelman, Her charity extends reproductive health benefits to employees and consumers alike, emphasizing education and [00:01:00] empowerment.

In an age of information, women are opting for choice over chance. Natalie shares insights into the fact that women are living longer, and therefore are in the workplace for longer. The support that women need is vital. just hasn't been there. With menstruation and the menopause still being treated as taboo topics in today's day and age, Natalie and the team are breaking down boundaries and being the voice that every woman in the workplace needs.

Natalie shares her journey, bounding her tility, and highlights the significance of workplace support for women and the challenges of launching a dual B2B and B2C business. Topics include securing funding, navigating medical device development, advocating for reproductive health tracking, fostering team diversity, maintaining founder passion amid business demands, and promoting work life balance through a shifting workplace culture.

We think it's a great episode, we hope you enjoy it.

Natalie, thank you so much [00:02:00] for joining us today. How are you doing? Good, thank you. Thanks for having me. No, pleasure's all ours. So, can we start with a little bit of an introduction into one, yourself, and two, your fantastic products, which is Hertility Health? Sure. So, I actually am originally from Australia.

I came to London when I was 21 on an exchange program and never actually left, much to my parents dismay. Whilst I was here, I happened to stumble into a lecture on reproductive biology and absolutely fell in love and that steered me on a path. Of sort of pursuing reproductive health, women's health, and I ended up doing a master's in reproductive medicine and then a PhD in fertility preservation.

And I specialized in fertility preservation for cancer patients and worked on bringing these experimental treatment methods that were being worked on in the lab into clinical practice. So a cross hybrid between the NHS and academia, but. Very quickly, I realized that I was working on this very niche cohort of patients who of course needed, you [00:03:00] know, help with their fertility.

But actually all whilst this was going on, I had my friends, my friends of friends asking me questions because I worked in the field and I had nowhere to turn or nowhere to send them. And it wasn't just cancer patients who needed assistance with fertility. It was every woman and there was nothing out there.

And at the time I was about six months away from finishing my PhD and my co founder Dr. Helen O'Neill had just started as a lecturer at UCLA and we were co supervising a master's student and we both had these frustrations and, and wanted to sort of have ideas and frustrations and want to bring it together.

And so we said, let's give it a go. And her sister was a venture capital lawyer, so knew all about the cut side of commercial side of things. Yeah. So we formed a trio and we, and we started Fertility. And what started as a very simple idea, which was just giving women information about their bodies very quickly spiraled into an end to end journey because we realized, you know, we were testing women for their hormones related to, to reproductive health conditions and fertility, but giving them the information and [00:04:00] then not sending them on a treatment or a follow up.

Pathway wasn't good enough and so our journey now and our product is really triage, diagnostics and treatment and we, we sort of have created this whole pathway. Amazing. And how was your experience as a female founder producing an innately female centered product when it came to influencing investment?

It was a journey. I remember sitting in an investor meeting and being one of the investors turning around and saying, well, I just don't see the market for this. And I was like, Oh, so 52 percent of the population is not a big enough market for you, right? Okay. And I think not only were we three females, we were three females trying to sell a female focused product.

And we, it, We sort of, we, we went out to raise in 2020 when it was COVID. So the, the rise of at home diagnostics was becoming sort of more favorable in the, in the environment, but. The idea that you would [00:05:00] do it just for females or just for female related products was, was what they were skeptical about.

Okay. And they couldn't quite understand. And I think that has a lot to do with fertility and women's health being quite taboo. And so it wasn't talked about. So a lot of these men who I, you know, we, we nicknamed PMS, pale male and stale. You know. They quite widely used now in the world of marketing but we like the pun between the, the period symptom and the, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, they're definitely PMSing.

Yeah. You know, they hadn't even discussed with their wives about their wives own fertility journey and it was very private and very, very kept separate. It went, we've come a long way, but you know, we kind of had to educate investors as to why this was a product women would even use. Another thing which we had to battle was, you know, here in the UK, the NHS is, is fantastic and we're used to free healthcare, but we're not used to preventative healthcare and, and the NHS also doesn't fund fertility.

And so the concept of getting someone to pay for anything related to healthcare as well was something [00:06:00] that investors weren't sure would take on. Another barrier. Yeah. Yeah. And so we had like a lot of challenges. And then we met our great investors, Local Globe and Venrex they supported us.

Initially. And ever since then thankfully we've got a great sort of backing by lots of like minded investors. Last year we did a community round because we had so many people come up to us and say, how can I invest in Hertility? I had someone, I was manning the chat bot in the early days and someone's like, hi, I know this is a little bit strange, but I've seen your product.

And is there any chance you're taking angel investors? And, you know, someone through our chat bot ended up, you know, You know, she worked in private equity. She wanted to introduce us to women in private equity networks. She ended up investing, being one of our very early angel investors. And through that, it sort of snowballed and we were like, well, actually, let's open it up to the people, you know, that help them invest in a product they feel they really need.

Definitely. That's such an interesting journey that not, not many people, not many founders would find themselves in. I think maybe perhaps the nature of your product. I think the nature of our product, we are a direct to consumer product. Yes. [00:07:00] We have built a strong brand and we have relationships with our customers in a very different way.

And you know, women, women traditionally don't invest as much as men. And so we saw it as a really good opportunity to educate women about investing and about their health Simultaneously. And you know, community raising and crowdfunding, it's, it's, it's sort of not, not looked upon very well by the investment community, but actually it worked in our favor.

And you know, we had this, we have this tribe behind us now who are, who are very invested because not only have they put their money into our company, but they've also used our product and they can, they can testify to it. And you mentioned direct to consumer. Yeah. Did that bring up any skepticism, any barriers or did it need a different approach?

Investors don't like direct to consumer. They think it's too much work and the cost of acquisition is really high. But, you know, when Helen and I set out to start Hotility, we really had every woman in mind. And if you just go direct to business, then you cut out a whole chunk of women who can't access your services.

We [00:08:00] are twofold though. We do have a B2B component. We work with corporates on their employee benefit side. So Channel 4, Edelman, Wella, they all offer what we created a reproductively responsible badge and they allow for their employees to be reproductively responsible, which means they can take one of our tests, use our services.

They use all our policies. So we have menstruation all the way through menopause policies, which we provide and we provide a whole range of education series. So we have both arms. As well, because this isn't just about conceiving. Is it? It's the whole sphere of women's reproductive system, which does involve, well, basically a woman's, you know, reproductive journey is from menstruation all the way through menopause.

Yeah. Menopause is the one I'm looking for. It does include menopause. Yeah. And again, I do think this is such a taboo topic that only now is starting to sort of weave through marketing, weave through communications. It's still not openly being addressed. And women don't want to talk about it. And I think it's twofold.

There isn't. Clinically that much out [00:09:00] there traditionally we didn't live this long, so we weren't in menopause for this long. And so it's a whole new area that's coming about. But it has such a detrimental effect on a woman's body, that the changes that they, they go through affect everything. And so if we don't take it into account during work and during their work span, we're gonna lose women, you know.

Yeah. We're not gonna be able to retain them in the workforce. Yeah. You know, I think we, you know, The workforce did a lot to sort of retain women post maternity and all of that, but now we've got to worry about women at menopause because it's a different stage of life. Yeah, and we're all working longer.

Much longer. Living longer. And what does that space look like? You said some really exciting brands there who are onboarding Hotility as part of their benefits package, and I know we're going to talk about this a little bit later. In terms of in, you know, looking at your own business and what your benefits look like.

How does that look at the moment? Are you still seeing it on a really small scale or are we seeing, you know, those wheels really turning? What is the honest landscape looking like? It's, it's slow. Yeah. I think [00:10:00] we're moving towards the right direction, you know, 10 years ago, mental health benefits weren't a thing.

Yeah. The people who went out and pioneered, you know, mental health benefits and corporate companies probably face the same challenges we face. Yeah. Yeah. For a lot of. Companies at the moment, it's still a checkbox exercise. So whatever's the cheapest and easiest option to roll out as opposed to the best option for their employees.

And so we sort of battle that, but we are seeing a shift and this is why we do the education. And it's the same with a direct to consumer. We're not selling t shirts. We're not selling a product that is self explanatory. Why do you even need it? You know, like you said, most people say, Oh, well, I'm not thinking about having children right now, but actually.

By then it's too late. You need to be worrying about your reproductive health at a much earlier point in your life, not just because of your ability to have children, but because like any symptoms related to menstruation is also an indication of your general wellbeing and overall health. And so we're really trying to encourage women.

to track their ovaries. You know, we're tracking our steps, we're tracking our calories, you know, we, we track everything these days. Yeah, we do. Why are [00:11:00] women not tracking something as fundamental as their ovaries? Because we're taking a pill for 10 to 15 years and forgetting we even have ovaries. Yeah. And then hoping, crossing our fingers and our toes, that we get to 32, 33, that we can just conceive.

Yeah, we're very much taught to just dampen down any negative side effects or impacts and just get on with it. And you're right, it does definitely shadow the fact that. They're there and if you want to use them one day for, for having children, then you need to think about it before we go into other questions.

I wanted to actually, I want you to unpick exactly what utility health is so that if people are interested in using your products, Exactly what does it do? I know that we're not just talking about attracting your fertility, there are those other sides to the coin. So, can you just talk us through and unpack the product briefly?

Sure. The user journey happens in sort of three steps. You come onto our website and you take what we call our online health assessment. And you tell us why you're there. Whether you're just curious, planning for the future, experiencing symptoms, or actively trying to conceive. And depending on why you're [00:12:00] there, you'll be asked different questions.

So, the whole ethos of fertility is to personalize every woman's experience, because no two women is the same. And so you'll enter your pathway, you'll answer some questions, which is essentially gathering medical and reproductive history. Depending on what you tell us, we'll then suggest you which hormones you should have tested.

So, not everyone's getting the same panel. You know, whether you're on contraception, off contraception, you have a specific hormonal symptom that you want investigated. That will determine what package we suggest for you. Okay. We then send a at home collection kit to your house. You take the blood tests on specific day of your cycle, depending on where you're at send it back to one of our accredited labs, and we then interpret that and give you an actionable report with next steps.

So, you know, whether it's a lifestyle change, whether it's perhaps tweaking supplements or medication that you're on, or even a pelvic ultrasound. And, or, if relevant to you, going to a fertility clinic. Yeah. We have all those pathways available. Amazing. And so we have that whole [00:13:00] end to end journey. And depending where, what stage you're at, what's relevant to you, is how much you engage and how what point in the journey you stop.

Mm hmm. And then we encourage women to test recurringly. And again, it depends you know, your reproductive health is not static. Yeah. You know, it changes and so depending on what stage of the journey you're at and where you're at is how often you should be testing. Okay. Thanks And where does menopause or menopausal women where do they sit within this journey?

Because obviously some of the, the journeys that you're saying or the what you would prescribe us as such would be for somebody who is looking to conceive. So how would, if I was a menopausal woman, how would I be using your product? So one of the questions when you tell us what brings you here is I'm perimenopausal, I think I'm perimenopausal or I'm menopausal.

Okay. And you then answer a set of different questions. Mm hmm. Your journey is slightly different where your initial product is a consultation with a menopause specialist. Okay. And then they will advise whether or not it's testing we need to do or perhaps tailored HRT for you. Yep. Depending on your journey.

So that's actually slightly reversed [00:14:00] for those who are premenopausal the journey starts with testing And those who are postmenopausal we start with a consultation amazing. That's so interesting Thank you so much for sharing that and your product is so different to So many founders that we we have on here because obviously you're referred to as a medical device Which must bring a plethora of really fun.

Yeah of other, you know regulations and complexities And, you know, you grew through COVID times, changes within Brexit, you know, how has the company managed to stay one compliance what challenges do you face there and innovative because you must have to go through certain loopholes or push up against barriers that have been there before.

So yeah, talk to me about that. So I think we hired a regulatory manager very early on, which as a early stage company it was kind of. Perceived as odd. But having, you know, I have worked in clinical trials before, I knew [00:15:00] kind of, The regulations that were required and all the regulatory bodies that were needed and actually for one person to just keep on top of it whilst doing everything else was impossible.

And so we, we kind of prioritize that. And with the advent of COVID and, and the rise of all the at home tests, you know, there were murmurs going around the community that actually soon the kits would be regulated and all of this, and we're like, well, we don't want our business that's just taking off to be stopped short because of these regulations, let's get ahead of it.

So we actually. We started regulating our product before it was even a requirement, which meant that we were ahead of the curve. It's been interesting because, you know, every step is slightly different. You know, our physical kit boxes are one product, our software, which we use to interpret the results, is another product.

And, and that intertwining, and then with Brexit, you know, we had, we were CE we were like, Oh, now you have to be CEA marked because you have to be, you know, regulated across the whole of Europe as well. So keeping on top of that has been a challenge. And the way the audits are set up, they are set up for medical devices like hip replacements or echocardiac [00:16:00] machines.

And so they're now coming to this space where, you know, I don't have a hospital that is part of my supply chain and they can't understand how I don't issue purchase orders for every customer who orders from us. And they actually haven't caught up to the change themselves. And so I think the medical device space has a lot of potential.

work to do in the regulatory space and I think they're just constantly chasing their tail and making that as they go along. You're very lucky that you were obviously able to, to draw on your experiences in your medical educational background to help perhaps steer that, but I think it's fascinating that you definitely, you worked back, you very much worked backwards, didn't you?

You worked from right at the end. Yeah. And set that right at the beginning. Exactly. And also Deidre one of my co founders, she's a lawyer. And so compliance is always, you know, financial regulatory compliance is always top of mind. And so together, I think, you know, having that, you know, knowledge that actually medical compliance is really important, her with the sort of compliance background meant that we were ahead of it always.

And, you know, we, we, we fought investors cause it was a lot of money to get regulated [00:17:00] and then I'll just get out to market and then do it and actually know being the fact that we were regulated. It meant that we created trust with our customers, that they understood what we were doing. And I think that made a really big difference.

Huge. Let's talk about your team. Yeah. Tell me a bit about your team and how you've grown. Obviously, you said you started with the three of you ladies. We started as a team of three. Yeah. We hired interns and junior members of staff during COVID. It actually took almost a year for us to meet our first client.

Remember because of COVID which is really interesting. And we've now grown to a team of almost 50, which has been quite a, a journey and an experience. And. You know, we, we now have departments and heads of department and, you know, our roles have changed as, you know, we get bigger Very early on in the journey, someone said every doubling of employees is quite difficult.

So whether you go from 3 to 6, 6 to 12, 12 to 24, and it's so true, you know, we sort of went from about 25 ish to [00:18:00] 50 very quickly. And all of a sudden, you know, it's It's, it's a different, a different place to work. Definitely. There are people who I don't interact with on a daily basis and I'm used to sort of interacting with everyone.

Yeah. So that's been an incredible journey, but it's also really interesting at the more people you bring along different perspectives, you know, people with a fresh pair of eyes or people who have come from different industries and they bring their own expertise to sort of help advance fertility as a company.

And interestingly, you've got a 70 30 split female to male in your business. Yeah. Naturally, you're a female driven. So talk to me about how you built your team out, what's important to you, and also that diversity mix and, you know, what your ethos is at Hertility. I think we're a very mission driven company and most people who join us are there for the mission.

Most people also who apply or when we interview They've had some sort of experience and that's why they want to make a change, which is really interesting as well. I think we, we naturally have more women apply than men. Yeah. Most of the men who work for [00:19:00] us are in our tech team. And in our sales team, which is also quite a gender stereotypes.

We but I think, you know, diversity also is, is not just the Around gender, of course, really had to sort of ensure that we have a diverse workforce. But I actually find, you know, having a male perspective really helpful because in terms of, you know, does this make sense to you? And they're like, no, I don't understand.

Or they're like, you know, my wife said this, you know, when they go home and they talk about it. And so it's been quite interesting bringing that along as well. And, and quite a lot of our investors are male. And so I think we have that sort of sounding board around us. And it's super important because it all plays into the wider picture and the wider goal of the fact that we need to be talking about this.

And we is not a female. It's everybody. So no, that, that's really good to hear that, yeah, of course, naturally, perhaps you have had that more women applying, et cetera, but you still have, you know, ensured that there are males. Yeah. I think it's super important. Actually, you know, in certain roles I'm [00:20:00] like, Oh, I wonder what a male would say.

Yeah. You know, cause it brings a different perspective to the table. And so, you know, at the end of the day, it's about the right candidate. Definitely. Yeah.

your team are connected and understanding the consumers, you know, the, the customers that you're, you're selling this to. I know that you talked about your marketing campaigns being very, you know come, come, I don't want to say comedic, but, you know, really intelligent, really forward thinking. Very au fait with the language that is, that is often avoided and using that with also some, like, humor and you know, breaking barriers in that sense.

And I sort of see Hotility's marketing campaigns as evolving to be what some of those really big you know, like the big cheeses that you see on LinkedIn as, you know, great marketing campaigns. I personally really thoroughly enjoy them. So, yeah, talk to me a little bit about that, that, that connection with your, So I think for us it was something we implemented about two years ago now is make [00:21:00] every member of the team, no matter what their role is, do a week on customer service.

And I think that sort of brings everyone back down to sort of, this is who the end user is. I think it works twofold. Firstly, you know, for our tech team, they can see when there's friction and how they can improve the product and the user experience. For also the males who work for us, they can understand women's frustration or pain points.

And for those who are slightly more removed, they can just get a sense of what it means to be a Hertoghly customer. And so we make sure that everyone does that throughout the year so that they remain connected. Everything we do, every feature is user tested. And so we have a huge we have a huge engaged pool of users who.

Want to help us improve our product, who are willing to give feedback, who, you know, we're constantly with our clinical services, we have a survey and actually almost everyone responds and is willing to be constructive and give us, you know, helpful tips and things I'd like to see next time which helps them feel part of something as well.

And so that's how we ensure that everyone sort of stays [00:22:00] connected. I personally, if I've had a really bad day and I feel a bit disconnected or I'm like, what's the point. I'll just jump on the customer service and then I'll be like, okay, this is why we do it. That's why. Because you'll have an interaction with someone, you'll be like, okay, I understand.

Or you'll get a really nice email from someone who says, you know, two years ago you gave me a kit at a discount and because we met somewhere and now I've had, I have a child and you're like, oh, this is why, this is why we do it. And I think that's, that's for me the most important is ensuring that everyone has interaction with our customers.

So you've obviously been on a huge journey. Yes. From three to 50 now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I often speak to founders in here and they're not co founders. They're not building it with someone. They're on their own. And so they talk about the journey as being quite, quite lonely and quite isolating. But I don't think that is unique to, to solo founders.

So I just wanted to say that. I just wanted to ask you to share a piece about your journey for other listeners and potential founders that are listening to us. So I think I'm very fortunate that [00:23:00] the three of us are, you know, not only co founders but really good friends. We also have three very unique skillsets and sort of come at it from very different angles, which also works really well.

Yeah. But without a doubt, it is lonely. Yeah. You know, when I sit around a table with my friends or anything like that, they, they can't relate. Yeah. They have a very different perspective. But I think having co founders who you get along with, who are a support, we're very good. The three of us that sort of, we call it the relay race.

When one of us is down, the others can, you know, pick up the batons and we're very good at that because there are times in all our lives where there have been, you know, medical personal reasons where we haven't been able to step up to the plate in the same way and we've been able to carry each other. I think that's really important and it makes the journey a little less lonely.

I think it's also really important. When you're in this space to find other people in the, in the space and finding female founders hasn't been so easy. There isn't this huge network to tap into, but finding people who have been on the [00:24:00] journey, who maybe are a little bit ahead of you to sort of have a sounding board, sort of, they're not on the same journey as you and who you can just be like, listen, this is going on.

Did you go through this? That kind of thing. And I find myself now, you know, with some early stage startups, sort of doing the same thing for them because. It's how we all grow and evolve, and not everyone's on the same journey, so if you can find someone who understands where you're coming from, I think it's really helpful.

So you'd say that the advice piece and knowing who to turn to that perhaps isn't in that journey, on that journey with you as, as being the main difficulty for you? Yeah, I think, what, I haven't had it at all points but you know, sometimes you, you, as a founder, you're juggling so many things, both, you know, Work is probably 80 percent of your life and then 20 percent you've got, you know, also your personal life, your family and everything you're trying to juggle as well.

And so the idea of networking or spending more time talking feels a bit laborious. Mm hmm. But actually if you can find someone who, you know, who you trust, it can actually be really helpful. Yeah, [00:25:00] and you did mention that of course what you've built is your day to day life and you've invested so much of your time of your life in this, but there are other things in life going on.

So how do you, how do you. How do you balance it? How do you sort of keep stuff going and also maintain, you know, a good level to run, to run your business? I have definitely gone through phases. I think I've come to terms and I've accepted that you can't, you can have everything at once. You cannot, sorry.

Let's start again. Okay. I think I've gone through phases and I think I've accepted that you can have everything, but just not at one time. Okay. And I think once that sort of, I've internalized that. You know, there'll be times in my life where there'll be things that I'll miss out on because I'll be so focused on the business or about to close a raise or something's going on and I'll miss out on time with my family.

Then there are other times where actually I get, you know, there's flexibility. I can actually, you know, spend more time with my family and do the things that I want to do. And so I think, you know, internalizing and actually accepting that. I [00:26:00] can have everything, just not at once, has been a real big blessing because when you try and balance it all in a single day, you're all, you feel like you're always letting someone down.

Definitely. I guess that's trying to bring yourself back to being a realist and I think founders are often big dreamers, which is why you've achieved what you've achieved but it must be really difficult to just, you know, bring that reality. You can go through 24 emotions in a single minute at all the time, but I think, you know, that's been really helpful.

That shift where like, okay, there will be things that I. We'll miss out on and I won't necessarily get to do right now, but you know, two weeks later, actually I can take the morning off because I have that flexibility and so I can go and do what I need to do with my family. And so I think that's been for me that, that light bulb moment is that switch is that, okay, it won't always be every day.

I don't have that every day balance. Yeah. But, you know, overall. It's worth it. Yeah. Two questions we always close our podcast on, and one of them is, what do you feel has been your biggest challenge in [00:27:00] your career to date that you can share some insights into to our listeners? That is a tough one. I think the biggest challenge was having enough faith to take the leap.

Okay. So I think, you know, for a while it was like we all teetered on sort of having other jobs and doing this and at some point, if you're going to go all in, you've got to go all in and for me, it was like, am I going to, am I going to take that leap of faith or not? And I think that for me was the biggest because It felt like a huge risk and not knowing the reward and I really, I think I drove myself crazy over the decision but you know, I'm glad I did sort of jump over the edge.

And what one piece of advice would you give to somebody sitting in a similar position to yourself way back at the beginning of your journey who's looking to start their own business? [00:28:00] Don't be hard on yourself when you make mistakes. You're going to make mistakes. Just don't make them twice. So, you know, we all learn from our mistakes.

We've all had some epic failures, but as long as you learn from them and take that forward and don't make them again, then that's part of the journey. And I think as founders also, we're quite, you know, we're, we're big visionaries, but we're also perfectionists and we can drive ourselves crazy. And sometimes you just got to go out there and, and, and, Put your foot, you know, like, you know, put your product out there, get it tested, even if it isn't perfect.

And you're gonna make mistakes and you're gonna learn. Just make sure that you learn from them. Yeah. And are you able to share any next steps for Titility? What's on the horizon? What's the What are you guys focusing on at the moment? Is there anything you'd like to To, to pitch at all, or? Well, you know, Hertility is really at the front face of, of this employee benefits.

You know, we're really trying to, to sort of change the way the workplace view women's health in general. Whether it be, you know, period cramps you know, the number of women who take off a [00:29:00] sick day every month because of their period, but have no support, or run out of sick days, and then end up taking it as unpaid leave.

Women who don't feel supported coming back to work after maternity leave or through menopause, as we touched on briefly, is actually astounding. And, you know, all workplaces are working towards equality and diversity in the workplace. And I think starting with women and sort of encouraging your workplace to look into the women's health benefits that they offer.

And if not, you know, look into it. You know, how can you support women in the workplace, even if it's that small, to ensure that, you know, Unfortunately, our hormones are all over the place and that does affect us. And for too long, we've just been suck it up by the cup and actually we don't have to. Yeah. So I think that's, that's kind of for us, that's the big thing.

And for listeners out there, if you, you know, in your workplace, look into what your company's offering and encourage them to sort of start taking it seriously. Amazing. That's a great place to finish on. so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. This season is, in partnership with UK Cyber Week Expo and Conference, an amazing two day [00:30:00] event on the 17th and 18th of April, happening over at Olympia London.

Join over 3, 000 professionals, over 75 speakers, delivering world class speaker sessions over the two days. It is the event to be at for those working in the cybersecurity space or those looking to enhance their knowledge or network. Tickets are free. Head over to UKcyberweek. co. uk for yours.