The FemAging Project and Keiretsu Forum Southern California are providing a unique opportunity for founders in the U.S. and Worldwide 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+.
Fast Pitch Competition
May 2021 - Results
Grand Prize Winner
10 Finalists
Amazin Sides & Nape LLC
Bone Health Technologies
Caire Beauty
COSM Medical
GlycanAge, LTD
Madorra
MoxyPatch
Nesa Medtech
InControl Medical
Articulate Labs
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.
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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.
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
Immediate Past President, Medical Board of California
SPEAKERS
Hadine Joffee
Executive Director, Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology
Founder, First in Women Precision Medicine Platform
Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc, is a psychiatrist and women’s health researcher based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, whose work focuses on mental health and aging health in women, especially in healthy midlife women and breast cancer survivors coping with hot flashes, insomnia, and depression. At Brigham/Harvard, she is the Executive Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, where she has launched the First.In.Women Precision Medicine Platform to ensure that women benefit equally in the development of novel therapeutics, including drugs, devices, and digital innovations. First.In.Women stimulates medical research and partners across the bioscience ecosystem to advance sex-specific and sex-differentiating knowledge in treating diseases that are exclusive, predominate, or differential in women.
Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc
Menopause Society, Professor, Harvard Medical School
Julie Catherine-Elise Hakim, BSc, MSc. MD FRCS(C), FACOG
Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College Medicine Co-founder FemTech Focus
Dr. Julie Hakim is the Co-founder and Medical Director of FemTech Focus, a non-profit dedicated to advancing technology, services, and products that improve women’s health and wellness. Dr. Hakim is a Canadian and U.S. board-certified OBGYN and Assistant Professor in OBGYN at Baylor College of Medicine and Pediatric Gynecology at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Hakim is also the co-inventor on a patent for a vaginal stent designed to help the vagina heal following surgery and radiation treatments. This invention has been achieved by Dr. Hakim and her all-women research Lab based in the largest medical center in the world – Texas Medical Center. Dr. Julie Hakim is also the first Pediatric GYN in North America to also run an all women science lab. Her mission is to treat the patients, start the conversations, and create the products that improve the reproductive health and well-being of girls and women across the planet. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook at @DrJulieGYN.
Julie Hakim MD, FRCS(C), FACOG
Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College Medicine
Co-founder FemTech Focus
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
SPEAKERS
Dr. Shubhra Jain
Cota Capital
Dr. Shubhra Jain is a Primary care Physician by background and has her MS Eng from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton School of Business.
Until recently, she led healthcare investments at a $1B fund in SF and has invested in very successful companies including Berkeley Lights, Zymergen, and Mission Bio.
She is passionate about mentoring and investing in under-represented founders and serves on the advisory board of The Femtech Collective.
Dr. Shubhra Jain
Cota Capital
Marylou Garcia
Limited Partner, Halogen Ventures
Marylou Garcia is the Area Director for Expense Reduction Analysts, a worldwide network of more than 600 consultants in 30 countries specializing in delivering extra profits and cash flow for mid-sized companies through cost reduction. ERA’s 18,000 successful client projects show that many supplier costs can be lowered by another 10%-30% without jeopardizing existing supplier relationships or forcing them to change suppliers.
Marylou has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton Business School. She has held senior positions in Finance, including Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Finance Director for various multinational hotel chains such as, Hyatt Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels, The St. Regis and others. Her global and multicultural experiences include 18 countries in Asia, Caribbean, North/Latin/South Americas. She has helped many companies in the US and internationally increase their operating margins and cash flow.
Marylou leads the Women’s Initiative of Keiretsu Forum. She is a limited partner at Halogen Ventures and is a sophisticated angel investor. She coaches and mentors entrepreneurs, especially those seeking early stage capital.
Marylou Garcia
Limited 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
SPEAKERS
Lyndsey Harper
CEO, Rosy
Dr. Harper is a Board Certified Ob/Gyn and the Founder and CEO of Rosy, a women’s health technology company that connects women who have sexual health concerns with hope, community, and research-backed solutions. She has been named Forbes Top 53 Women Disrupting Healthcare, People Newspapers’ 20 Under 40, a Top Innovator in North Texas for 2020 and a DBJ Top Women in Technology honoree.
Lyndsey Harper
Founder & CEO, Rosy Wellness, Inc.
Holly Rockweiler
Co-Founder & CEO, Madorra
Holly Rockweiler is co-founder and CEO of Madorra, a women’s health company dedicated to changing the treatment paradigm for vaginal dryness. She co-founded Madorra 6 years ago as a spin-out of the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship. Prior to Biodesign, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Boston Scientific where she developed therapies to enable more efficient care for patients living with heart failure. Her work has led to 16 pending and issued patents. Holly holds a M.S. and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
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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Adrianna Samaneigo
Investor, Female Founder’s Fund
Adrianna Samaniego is an Investor at Female Founders Fund, an early-stage fund investing in female-founded technology companies across B2B, Consumer, Healthcare, and Fintech. Female Founders Fund has invested in some of the fastest-growing female-led start-ups including Zola, Billie, Co–Star, Eloquii, Maven Clinic, Rent the Runway, Peanut, Tala, WinkyLux, and more. In her role, she sources, invests, and supports portfolio companies who are building category defining technology businesses.
Prior to joining Female Founders Fund, she worked as a Summer Investment Associate at JetBlue Ventures, Harlem Capital Partners, & New Media Ventures. Adrianna spent eight years in tech, formerly as Co-founder & Co-CEO at Area 120 Google’s Startup Incubator. In this role, she led a team to rapidly build and launch a B2B marketplace for Fortune 500 companies to procure from diverse-owned companies. Adrianna also formerly led and created Google’s Global Supplier Diversity Program that created over $1B in opportunities for diverse-owned businesses.
Adrianna is passionate about removing inequities and increasing diversity in VC and Tech ecosystems. Adrianna Samaniego is of Mexican descent and was born and raised in the small border town of Douglas, Arizona. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from University of Georgia.
Adrianna Samaniego
Female Founder’s Fund
Alice Zheng, MD, MBA, MPH
Consultant, McKinsey & Company
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.
Alice is currently a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she advises clients across the pharmaceutical, health services and global health sectors. Alice also leads the internal knowledge center on women’s health.
Previously, Alice’s passion to improve lives for the underserved led her to work in East Africa and Asia in reproductive health and family planning with a variety of international and grassroots nonprofits. As a clinician, she focused on women’s health globally and published articles and case studies examining healthcare in low-income countries.
Alice holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and MD from the University of Michigan Medical School, where she was a Dean’s Merit Scholar. She also graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan with a BS/MPH dual degree in Biochemistry and Global Public Health. She completed post-graduate medical training in internal medicine with Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Mount Sinai West.
Alice currently lives in San Francisco with her husband, daughter and dog. In her spare time, Alice enjoys dancing, group fitness and talking to anyone who will listen about women’s health and FemTech.
Alice Zheng
McKinsey Silicon Valley Office, Leads Women’s Health
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
Faz K. Bashi
MD, Lead Venture Investor, Portfolia
Faz K. Bashi, MD, has a research background in Immunology and Virology from UCSF. He is an active member of Life Science Angel’s (LSA) in Silicon Valley. He is also Lead Venture Investor with Portfolia’s FemTech Fund I & II, focused on female health and wellness. He is very active in the Animal Health space, and is co-Founder, Board member, Investor & Advisor to Anubis Bio; an all-natural patented food-tech platform called DoggyStat (www.doggystat.com). He is Advisor to One Health Group (www.onehealthgroup.com) with 72 issued patents providing non-contact, highly accurate, medical-grade remote-monitoring animal health data !
He served a 3-year term as Board Member of the Angel Capital Association (ACA) where he continues to be Chair of the ACA’s Life Sciences Syndication group. He is active with UCSF’s Entrepreneurship Startup 101 and Lean Launchpad, external advisory board member for UCSF’s CTSI and Johns Hopkins’ CBID (https://cbid.bme.jhu.edu/), Mentor for women entrepreneur leaders at both CSweetener.org and Springboard Enterprises (www.sb.co) Life Sciences Council.
Faz Bashi
Portfolia
Tracy Dooley
Venture Partner, Avestria
Raised in the melting pot of the Bay Area before attending USC to major in biomedical engineering, Tracy took to heart Theodore von Kármán’s famous quote: “Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was.” In pursuit of creating a better world, she headed to medical school at Stanford where she quickly experienced firsthand the challenges of getting innovative products into the hands of clinicians to ultimately improve patient care. Pivoting to industry, Tracy spent several years in healthcare M&A, then moved to Novartis Diagnostics, where she worked with Linda. As Chief of Staff to the President, she led strategy and built out the innovation pipeline, then headed global operations. More recently Tracy has been focused in digital health, where she advised a range of organizations, from early-stage startups to the Novartis Digital Accelerator Lab and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, before joining Avestria. She is also a member of the Women’s Health Executive Committee at Springboard Enterprises. A classically trained violinist, Tracy believes that art & creativity is a critical underpinning for “STEAM” education. She’s a fan of swimming, baking, and impromptu dance parties with her daughter. Tracy earned her BS in Biomedical/Biochemical Engineering from the University of Southern California and her MD from Stanford.
Tracy Dooley M.D
Avestria Ventures
Dr. Shubhra Jain
Cota Capital
Dr. Shubhra Jain is a Primary care Physician by background and has her MS Eng from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton School of Business.
Until recently, she led healthcare investments at a $1B fund in SF and has invested in very successful companies including Berkeley Lights, Zymergen, and Mission Bio.
She is passionate about mentoring and investing in under-represented founders and serves on the advisory board of The Femtech Collective.
Dr. Shubhra Jain
Cota Capital
Marylou Garcia
Limited Partner, Halogen Ventures
Marylou Garcia is the Area Director for Expense Reduction Analysts, a worldwide network of more than 600 consultants in 30 countries specializing in delivering extra profits and cash flow for mid-sized companies through cost reduction. ERA’s 18,000 successful client projects show that many supplier costs can be lowered by another 10%-30% without jeopardizing existing supplier relationships or forcing them to change suppliers.
Marylou has an MBA in Finance from the Wharton Business School. She has held senior positions in Finance, including Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Finance Director for various multinational hotel chains such as, Hyatt Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels, The St. Regis and others. Her global and multicultural experiences include 18 countries in Asia, Caribbean, North/Latin/South Americas. She has helped many companies in the US and internationally increase their operating margins and cash flow.
Marylou leads the Women’s Initiative of Keiretsu Forum. She is a limited partner at Halogen Ventures and is a sophisticated angel investor. She coaches and mentors entrepreneurs, especially those seeking early stage capital.
Marylou Garcia
Limited Partner, Halogen Ventures
Abby Miller Levy
Managing Partner & Co-Founder, PrimeTime Partners
Abby has spent her career helping businesses and consumer brands grow as an operator, entrepreneur and advisor, most notably in the wellness sector. Prior to Primetime Partners, Abby was an executive at SoulCycle, where she oversaw business development and revenue growth outside the consumer studio business, with an emphasis on building new digital products as the Senior Vice President of Strategy & Growth. Abby has also been a Founder herself, teaming with Arianna Huffington to launch Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company focused on employee productivity and wellness. Abby served as President of Thrive Global and remains on the Thrive Board. Abby began her career at McKinsey & Company then led product development at OXO International. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.
Abby Miller Levy
Managing Partner & Co-Founder, PrimeTime Partners
Amy Coveny
Quake ventures
Amy Coveny has extensive experience building revenue, products, and market strategies for startup companies. Since the beginning of her career at the newly-launched Fox News Channel, she has contributed to six acquisitions, three IPOs, and two early-stage fundraising cycles. During her tenure as the Global Head of Audio for Rubicon Project, she worked with Spotify to extend programmatic audio to international audiences. Her years as Vice President of Catch5 saw her develop a video content syndication model in the health and wellness space in order to customize brand experience. Amy has been an adviser to Quake Capital since the launch of its accelerator program in 2017, providing market insights and tips to companies including eSports One, DataGran, and Frenzy.
With experience in media, AdTech, emerging technology, and sales globally, Amy has played an instrumental part in a variety of successful ventures. Consistently ahead of the curve, she knows what it takes for startups to reach and exceed their goals.
As Managing Partner of the New York office, Amy focuses her efforts on growing and expanding Quake’s Accelerator program, investor network, and fundraising efforts.
With experience in media, AdTech, emerging technology, and sales globally, Amy has played an instrumental part in a variety of successful ventures. Consistently ahead of the curve, she knows what it takes for startups to reach–and exceed–their goals.
As Managing Partner of the New York office, Amy focuses her efforts on growing and expanding Quake’s Accelerator program, investor network, and fundraising strategy.
Amy Coveny
Quake Ventures
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.)
