Clue’s Post

Here is my take: There are issues that are general to the tech sector and some that are specific to Flo. Let me start with Flo: it was two men who (and I have this directly from one of them who told me this directly to my face last year) didn’t know much or care much about female health but, as serial entrepreneurs, spotted a commercial opportunity. I found my own vision statement copied on their website, and over the years they have been great executors of many ideas that came from Clue… but of course what cannot be copied is the DNA of cultural inclusion, ethical data privacy behavior, and many other such things. They did get a flying start to their fundraising as the CEO’s own capital was injected at a sky-high valuation through another company that made it look like an outside investment… and drove further investments (the first commitment is always the hardest). The story continues with a similar lack of transparency, like making it near impossible for a user to see that the company was based in Belarus, so outside the European Union and its data privacy regulations, or that their team photos showed a lot of women when in fact there were none in the leadership. All that said just to illustrate a way of being as a founder that paid off really well. At least for them as founders and maybe for their investors. However, when they produce content for millions of women with the headline “How to make your vagina smell better,” or their user’s data privacy was trespassed, I am not sure users are so well off with products built by people who don’t deeply understand what the lived experiences of women’s lives are like. And by the way, I think they meant the vulva. We need men to be involved in all aspects of building Femtech, as co(!)-founders, investors, team members, and much more. BUT: The systemic issue is that it pays off to be a confident (white) man, with money, to get more money, from men, to do things to make money. And even if we took out all the gender issues (which are real, but let’s try for a second), it is still a problem in my mind that we reward a kind of entrepreneurship that cuts corners, disrespects regulation and data privacy, and forms culture in gender-stereotypical ways… the list is so long that I notice myself taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly… Yes, this does make me angry - there are SO many brilliant, smart, brave, deeply passionate female entrepreneurs (with males along their sides) out there right now building, innovating, and driving Femtech, and they are fighting so hard to exist, to get any or near enough funding. Why did these two men make it so big? Because they played the game well. Let’s change that game. #femtech #clue #flo #vc #funding