Advancing Women’s HealthTech Innovation and Investment
The FemAging Project and Keiretsu Forum Southern California are providing a unique opportunity for founders focused on innovations/ business opportunities relevant to women ages 40+.
FemAging Tech: Innovations (e.g., software, diagnostics, devices, nutraceuticals, wearables, pharmaceuticals, clothing and other products and services) developed specifically for women ages 40+.
9:00 am to 11:00 am PDT
Fast Pitch Competition
Oct 2021 - Results
Grand Prize Winner
Second Place Winner
People’s Choice Awardee
Thermaband
Thermaband Zone provides personal comfort on demand – through cooling and heating sensations on your wrist. It was founded by a mother-daughter duo (Debbie and Markea Dickinson), after being frustrated by cooling relief solutions for debilitating hot flashes.
Cosm Medical
Cosm Medical is a clinical-stage medical device startup developing and commercializing, Gynethotics, or the world’s first personalized pessary platform. Cosm will modernize care for women suffering from common, growing, and underserved pelvic floor disorders by combining proprietary diagnostics, AI-driven cloud software, and 3D printing so more women can live and age with dignity and grace.
Aquafit Intimate
Aquafit Intimate is pioneering a new approach to sexual wellness, self-care. For women, by women. Their intimate gel stick product line enables pain-free intimacy for 2 in 5 women who experience painful sex across all ages – young, bloom, and prime.
At Aquafit they are bringing together science usability and design to make sexual wellness accessible to women, for pain-free intimacy – it’s in your hands.
Egaceutical Corporation
Egaceutical Corporation is a longevity company presently introducing a patented trademarked product “EGA” onto the world market. In human clinical studies, EGA has been demonstrated to be safe and effective at measurably reversing biological age by both inflammation markers and DNA Methylation Age Clocks.
LifeSense Group
As the global leader in Digital Health solutions for Continence conditions suffered by hundreds of millions, we applied our Award-winning, Patented & Clinically proven Wearable Sensor technology for developing our breakthrough product Carin, to Cure urine loss by women, within 8-10 weeks, while eliminating the massive worldwide Use of environmentally very Impacting billions of Diapers, and thus also contributing to a more sustainable world.
MyUTI
MyUTI is a digital wellness platform to empower women suffering from recurrent and chronic Urinary Tract Infections through consumer-directed access to molecular diagnostics and UTI specialists to conveniently diagnose and treat their chronic and recurrent UTIs. By leveraging the digital health revolution and creating a community for people to direct their care, MyUTI plans to disrupt the $14B UTI market.”
Respect Wellness
Respect Wellness, based in Santa Fe, NM, designs premium artisanal CBD-based products for the wellness routines and needs of women 45+.
We are creating a high-quality brand with proprietary formulations informed by the large body of knowledge on herbal extracts and complemented by the benefits of CBD.
THE FEMAGING ERA:
Advancing Women’s HealthTech Innovation and Investment
Watch Here!
Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful group.
Women’s health is not just about fertility. Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful population. However, the unique health, wellness and innovation needs of 53 million U.S. women ages 40-65 have been largely ignored. This population is worried about their health, particularly in the era of COVID-19, as well as hormonal changes and its effects on their day-to-day lives.
Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful group.
Women’s health is not just about fertility. Women over the age of 40 represent a growing, diverse and economically powerful population. However, the unique health, wellness and innovation needs of 53 million U.S. women ages 40-65 have been largely ignored. This population is worried about their health, particularly in the era of COVID-19, as well as hormonal changes and its effects on their day-to-day lives.
KEYNOTE
Kathryn “Katie” G. Shubert
President & CEO, Society of Women’s Health Research
Kathryn G. Schubert (Katie) is President and CEO of the Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), where she leads the organization’s efforts to promote research on sex as a biological variable and improve women’s health through science, policy and education. Prior to joining SWHR in April of 2020, Katie served as Chief Advocacy Officer at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), where she oversaw the organization’s advocacy and communications activities.
Prior to joining SMFM, she was a Senior Vice President at CRD Associates. Her clients included patient advocacy organizations, physician organizations and coalitions, helping them achieve their public policy and communications goals through focused government relations strategy targeted at Congress and federal agencies. Her areas of expertise include Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and quality, women’s and children’s health and public health.
Katie previously served in key staff roles for U.S. Representative Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), and brings a unique perspective of working across party lines to achieve policy goals. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance and as an advisor to the John E. Lewy Fund for Children’s Health. She is a past president of Women in Government Relations (WGR), the premier professional association for women in the government relations profession. She holds a Master of Public Policy degree with a concentration in health policy from The George Washington University and attended Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she earned a B.A. in Political Science. She lives in Virginia with her husband, three children, and dog George.
Kathryn G. Schubert
MPP, President and Chief Executive Officer
Society for Women’s Health Research
Beyond Fertility: Exploring the Why Behind the Women’s Health Gap
Leading physicians in women’s healthcare discuss how we can push past the ignorance, fear and stigma that prevents women from living their fullest lives as they age.
MODERATOR
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Denise Pines
Immediate Past President, Medical Board of California
Denise Pines is a trusted resource for women as they pursue midlife wellness. She’s the immediate past President of the Medical Board of California. She is the co-visionary and head task master for Tea Botanics and the inspiration behind Hot Flash Tea. She is founder of WisePause (www.wisepause.com), a pro-aging health and education platform and co-founder of The FemAging Project (www.femaging.com), a research and education that helps drive global innovation focused on the health and wellness needs of women ages 40+. Denise cofounded of Women in the Room Productions who produced the award-winning film PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in School. She has a BS in marketing and an MBA in international trade.
Denise Pines
Board Member
Federation of State Medical Boards
SPEAKERS
Jane van Dis, MD, OB/GYN,
Assistant Professor of OB/GYN, University of Rochester
Jane van Dis, MD is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Rochester. She is Co-Founder of Equity Quotient a consultancy for equity analytics both in and outside of healthcare. She co-founded OB Best Practice (in partnership with OBG Project), co-founder of Diana Consulting. She was recently Advisor and Medical Director to MavenClinic, the nation’s first unicorn digital health start-up for women’s health. She assists in the administration of the non-profit OB Mom Group – a group of 5400+ women ObGyns. She advises multiple health care startups (Modern Fertility, Bobbie, FLEX, Biorithm), advises FemTechLab in London, and is a Lead for the FemTech Fund II at Portfolia. Dr. van Dis is a national expert and speaker on equity in healthcare and she is a single mom to twins.
Follow her on Twitter @janevandis.
Jane van Dis, MD
Assistant Professor
Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Rochester
Shoma Datta-Thomas, MD, FACOG
Robotic GYN Surgery, Aesthetics & Wellness Specialist
Moushumi Shoma Datta – Thomas, MD is a Johns Hopkins trained board-certified gynecologist with fellowship specialization in advanced robotic surgery. She is part of a private practice in New York City and focuses on endometriosis, infertility and fibroid surgical management. She performs surgery at Weill Cornell – NY Presbyterian Hospital, ranked #1 in New York City for the past 17 years by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Datta also founded a private boutique office practice where she practices a holistic approach for women’s wellness including bioidentical hormone therapy, acupuncture and aesthetic energy devices. Her past 15 years of clinical practice have focused on advancing best practices by incorporating new technology.
Dr. Datta completed the prestigious accelerated seven-year BS – MD joint program at The College of New Jersey and the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, one of the few of its kind in the country. Her obstetrics and gynecology residency training was at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes. Upon graduation from residency program, she was named the Outstanding Laparoscopic Surgeon of her class by the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons (SLS) and received the Resident Achievement Award in laparoscopic procedures from the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL).
Dr. Datta was then accepted to an AAGL fellowship in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City with internationally renowned GYN laparoscopy pioneer Dr. Farr Nezhat. This was one of just 13 programs in the US at the time for this type of training at the forefront of surgical technology. Dr. Datta first worked at the St. Luke’s – Roosevelt Medical Center (now Mount Sinai West Hospital) where she served as Assistant Director of the Division of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery. She then went on to work at her current position at Maiden Lane Medical as well as open her open boutique practice in Westchester, New York.
Dr. Datta has authored several gynecologic surgical outcome and emerging trends studies presented at national conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Datta has been an invited reviewer for the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics since 2011. Her current academic interest is in surgical devices and digital health. Most recently she has taken consulting roles such as subject matter expert consultation with the Gerson Lehrman Group and Aspira Women’s Health.
Dr. Datta, her husband and their 4 girls enjoy an active family life. Their downtime on weekends consists of fitness, activities with their large extended family and the latest Marvel movies.
Shoma Datta-Thomas, MD, FACOG
Robotic GYN Surgery
Aesthetics & Wellness Specialist
Weill Cornell – NY Presbyterian Hospital
Women’s Health Investors on the FemAging Opportunity
Women’s health investors discussing the types of products and services investors will be interested in funding over the next several years.
MODERATOR
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Connie Harrell
President, Keiretsu Forum Southern California
Connie’s unique business sense and creative vision is the blueprint for her proven successes in various industries as both a serial entrepreneur with retail, telecommunications, printing, graphics and forms design, technology, Internet community development, and CEO/COO over companies in publications, telecommunications, technology with enterprise management systems, public relations, and private equity fundraising. With a belief that people and relationships are the most vital part of life, along with her pioneering attitude and an insatiable desire for new experiences, Connie supports the growth of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities.
Connie Harrell
President
Keirestu Forum Southern California
SPEAKER
Jesse Draper
Founding Partner, Halogen Ventures
Jesse Draper is a mother of 3 boys, founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Among her 65 portfolio companies are the Skimm, Carbon38, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Squad (acquired by Twitter), Eloquii (sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). She stars on SET’s television series Meet the Draper’s currently in it’s fourth season.
Draper was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. Draper has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including TLC’s Girl Starter, The Katie Couric Show, Fox’s Good Day LA, CNBC’s Who Wants to Be the Next Millionaire Inventor? & Freeform’s Startup U.
She proudly sits on the board of directors of Carbon38, Trust & Will, Preemadonna (creator of the Nailbot) and the non-profit boards Bizworld and Project Glimmer. Draper supports the Parkinson’s Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA’s female entrepreneurship community.
Jesse Draper
Founding Partner
Halogen Ventures
What Does Agile Innovation Look Like in the FemAging Era?
Discussion with innovation, product development and design specialists on how to develop products and services for women 40+ and their strategies and tactics for innovating successfully in the FemAging era.
MODERATOR
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Fard Johnmar
Founder and President, Enspektos, LLC
Fard has extensive experience in digital health innovation development, commercialization, marketing, research, diffusion, implementation and related areas and has worked with a range of leading health organizations and well-funded startups.
His extensive client list includes Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, Humana, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the United Kingdom and Canadian governments.
Fard is also co-author of the number one global bestseller, ePatient 2015: 15 Surprising Trends Changing Healthcare.
Fard Johnmar
Founder and President
Enspektos, LLC
SPEAKER
Sreekar Kothamachu
Founder & CEO, Nesa Medtech
Sreekar Kothamachu, Founder & CEO of Nesa Medtech, A women’s health company that develops scarless micro invasive technology to treat uterine fibroids. Nesa Medtech has been recognized final 4 by Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific & also as one of winner as Mass Medic Ignite, Boston.
Prior to this Sreekar worked at R&D divisions at Siemens & Philips developing cutting edge imaging systems leading multi-disciplinary team from India & Israel.
Sreekar is also trained in Stanford Biodesign engineering process to identify clinical unmet needs & has keen interest in democratization of healthcare through technology.
Sreekar Kothamachu
Founder & CEO
Nesa Medtech
Heather Ritchie
VP, Product & Marketing, Embr Labs
Heather Ritchie (VP Product & Marketing at Embr Labs) has 15 years of experience defining and bringing business and consumer digital and technology solutions to market. She has spent her career in healthcare and wellness, holding a variety of roles in health technology, biopharma consulting, payer, and biopharma companies, and even state government. She held senior product management roles at WebMD Health Services, Anthem, Eliza (an HMS Company), and Real Endpoints prior to joining Embr Labs in June 2019. Heather has a BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and MS in Healthcare Management from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Heather Ritchie
VP, Product & Marketing
EMBR Labs
MODERATOR
Denise Pines, Immediate Past President, Medical Board of California
Women’s health investors discussing the types of products and services investors will be interested in funding over the next several years.
MODERATOR
Connie Harrell, President, Keiretsu Forum Southern
Discussion with innovation, product development and design specialists on how to develop products and services for women 40+ and their strategies and tactics for innovating successfully in the FemAging era.
MODERATOR
Fard Johnmar, Founder and President, Enspektos, LLC
SPEAKERS
Lyndsey Harper (Founder & CEO), Rosy Wellness
Holly Rockweiler (CEO), Madorra
FemAging Fast Pitch Innovators
FemAging Innovators given 5 minutes to present their product/service and market success.
JUDGES
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De’Havia Stewart
Early Stage Investor Softbank Opportunity Fund
De’Havia Stewart is a part of the early-stage investment team at Softbank’s Opportunity Fund, which is a fund dedicated to investing into founders that identify as Black, Latino/a, and or Native American.
Prior to venture capital, Stewart worked in strategy consulting at Accenture, in which she assisted Fortune 500 companies with developing their strategic vision across Retail, CPG, Financial Services, and Media & Telecom. In addition to client work, during this role, she was also able to assist startups through Accenture Ventures, with a focus on pairing startups with Fortune 500 companies for corporate innovation.”
De’Havia Stewart
Soft Bank Opportunity Fund
Maria Velissaris
Founding Partner, SteelSky Ventures
Maria Velissaris is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. She is the Founding Partner of SteelSky Ventures. SteelSky Ventures invests in companies that improve access, care, and outcomes in women’s healthcare. Their innovative approach allows the team to invest across the spectrum of women’s health indications and in technology infrastructure that supports new and innovative care delivery models. Current fund investments include: 23andMe, Zipline, Lark, Motivo, Origin, Twentyeight Health, OnCall.
Maria obtained a B.S. in Information Systems from Wake Forest University and an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Maria Velissaris
Steel Sky Ventures
Ananya Chandra
Managing Partner, Innopact
Ananya is Managing Partner of Innopact – an early-stage investor in high-impact technology startups across emerging markets. She also leads Women Prosperity Lab, a startup ecosystem enabler backing the future of womentech.
Previously, Ananya co-headed Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi), the flagship innovation initiative of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. Here, she collaborated with key national and international stakeholders to promote commercialization and scale-up of innovative technologies across India.
Prior to AGNIi, Ananya has been an entrepreneur. She was co- founder and COO of Just Move, an award-winning health-tech startup with marquee investors, that she led to exit in 2016. Ananya has also led the expansion of India’s largest womentech startup, Sheroes, into Southeast Asia.
Ananya started her career with international law firm Clifford Chance LLP in London, with stints in Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Ananya is an alumni of HEC Paris (Msc. In Innovation and Entrepreneurship), Stanford University’s Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies and National Law School, Bangalore (B.A., LL.B) and has lived and worked in 8 countries.
Ananya Chandra
Managing Partner, Innopact
Sasha Spellman
Director, AARP Innovation Labs
Sasha Spellman is the Director of Startup Collaboration at AARP Innovation Labs. AARP’s inaugural innovation lab is the Hatchery – a 10,000+ square foot structure in the heart of Washington DC, where breakthrough innovation is fostered, incubated and accelerated. In this role, Sasha is responsible for developing the AgeTech Collaborative™ which is the home to the AgeTech ecosystem bringing startups, forward-thinking investors, enlightened industry leaders and creative testbeds together to innovate and introduce smart solutions into the $8 trillion economy fueled by people age 50 and over.
Prior to AARP, Sasha was at Consumer Technology Association where she fostered entrepreneurship and growth of small business by managing the startup program at CES called Eureka Park. She helped grow investment of early-stage startups from 100 startups at CES 2012 to over 1200 startups at CES 2020.
Sasha Spellman
AARP Innovation Labs
Ankita Vashistha
Founder and CEO, Saha Fund and StrongHer Capital
Ankita Vashistha
Saha Fund
Alice Zheng, MD, MBA, MPH
Prinicpal, Rhia Ventures
Alice Zheng is a Principal at Rhia Ventures. Alice has been a women’s health enthusiast throughout her career spanning global health, clinical medicine and the private sector. She is also passionate personally, having experienced the patient perspective many times herself.
RH Capital is a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of Rhia Ventures. RH Capital’s venture funds invest in early and growth-stage companies that are driving innovation, access, and equity across the reproductive and maternal health landscape while delivering strong financial returns to investors. As impact investors, our unique mission of seeking both financial and social returns attracts inspiring and talented entrepreneurs who share a common vision—to improve the health of all women in the US. Underlying all of our work is a continued commitment to gender and racial equity.
Alice Zheng
Rhia Ventures
Kate Brodock
Founding Partner, W Fund and CEO of 2.0
Kate Brodock is Founding Partner of the W Fund and CEO of Women 2.0, one of largest global brands focused on gender and inclusion in startups. She’s been active in the tech startup ecosystem for 15+ years, and has played a central leadership role in representation in the sector, having led a global organization of 60+ chapters focused on women in entrepreneurship as its President. She’s also an EIR at LaunchNY, and a long-time mentor for Techstars.
Kate has spoken at and been featured in 100s of places, including SXSWi, Web Summit, Collision Conference, Fast Company, Techcrunch, MSNBC, IBM, TechCrunch and Al Jazeera America.
She has a BA from the University of Rochester, an MBA from Emory University and an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She’s a very non-professional (but adventurous!) athlete and musician, loves a good meal with bubbly, craft beer and friends, and lives with her husband, a startup-web-developer-turned-beer-guy on a hops farm in Upstate, NY and their two boys.
Kate Brodock
Founding Partner, W Fund
Stephanie Cherrin
Principal, Porsche Ventures
Stephanie Cherrin
Porsche Ventures
Madhuri Vegaraju
Sr. Software Architect, MCG Health, Part of the Hearst Healthcare Network
Madhuri Vegaraju is a startup advisor and software engineer with over 15 years of experience building healthcare applications and managing high-performing talent by innovating creative solutions with a focus on implementing highly available, scalable, and distributed services to achieve organizational objectives. She’s currently a Senior Solutions Architect at MCG Health, a Hearst-owned business that provides healthcare solutions and informed care strategies to help move patients toward health most efficiently. Madhuri speaks extensively on application architecture and for enterprises. Madhuri serves as a Scout for HearstLab, where she focuses on investing in and supporting women-led startups. As an “intrapreneur,” she’s currently pursuing a new business to improve health outcomes for people with food insecurity after winning the AI Solutions Design Contest 2030 for United Nations. She is also dedicated to serving her community, producing videos to help with fundraising and evangelizing others to support Sophia’s Way, a local women’s shelter. She also founded Seventh Hill Entertainment, a production house based in Seattle whose mission is to champion local talent.
Madhuri Vegaraju
Sr. Software Architect, MCG Health
Caitlin Wege
Partner, MooDoos Investment
Caitlin is a partner at MooDoos Investments, a private family-owned investment fund that invests in early-stage companies throughout the US and Canada. MooDoos is industry agnostic and invests in several industries including life sciences, manufacturing, and education technology. Caitlin is an experienced angel investor and fund manager that serves as Chairman of the board of portfolio company Contract Pharmaceuticals Limited, and its sister company, Glasshouse Pharmaceuticals as well as serves on the board of Neuralace Medical and Pumpspotting Inc.
In addition to her work with MooDoos, she is President of the Tech Coast Angels, San Diego Chapter. Tech Coast Angels is the largest Angel network in the US. She is also a Trustee, finance committee member and Chair of the Governance Committee for the Wege Foundation, an environmentally-focused family foundation based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a board member of The Ecology Center, in Orange County and serves as a mentor and advisory board member for the ZIP Launchpad, the business accelerator at San Diego State University. Caitlin is passionate about fostering entrepreneurial and investor education and learning.
Caitlin Wege
Partner, MooDoos Investment
JUDGES
Adrianna Samaniego, Female Founder’s Fund
Alice Zheng, McKinsey Silicon Valley Office, Leads Women’s Health
Maria Velissaris, Steel Sky Ventures
Faz Bashi, Portfolia, Portfolia
FemAging Fast Pitch Applicant Criteria !
- Business solutions must serve women ages 40+
- Company may operate in any industry, with the exception of nonprofits
- Must participate in the Fast Pitch Event on May 20th
- Early-stage plans are welcome (need to show some indication of customer interest, such as customer sign-ups, LOI’s, etc.)
