Hela Health - Increasing Women's Health Literacy One Woman at a Time

I recently sat down with Cathy Sebag and Gal Brenner from Hela Health for a cup of coffee in Tel Aviv. It was inspiring to hear about their journey and decision to start Hela Health and their thoughts related to the biggest challenges they’ve faced thus far. I was excited to see their passion and commitment to take all their expertise and channel their energy into a product that is hoping to increase access for women to educational content and gynecologist approved products’ related to women’s health. As a big believer in awareness making a big impact on women’s health as well as the treatment and research about women’s health, I’m more than a big fan and looking forward to seeing where future leads them.

Below is an interview I conducted for Women of Wearables with Gal & Cathy:

Can you tell me about Hela Health and how you came up with and created your product?

Hela Health is a comprehensive platform powered by expert providers to get modern women the education, tools, and support they need to make informed decisions for their care.

We originally started because we were really excited by all of the innovations coming out from amazing innovators in Femtech, but felt that women did not know about all these great technologies. When we were validating our initial concept of a Femtech marketplace we kind of stumbled on a much bigger challenge around the fact that women in the US today have shockingly little knowledge around basic health concepts and what’s normal in their body.  When we dug deeper, we pivoted to solve a much larger challenge to focus not only on getting women access to innovations, but also education, information, and support from leading health and wellness experts other women like them to better manage their health and wellness journeys. We focus on curating information from medical experts, certified health and wellness providers, and leading Femtech products and services in a safe, approachable one stop shop that was for women of all ages and life stages, including menstruation, contraception, fertility, pregnancy, post-birth care, sexual health, menopause, and general wellness.

How did you connect and form your team?

We actually started working together on the very same day at our previous employer, MobileODT, that focused on getting women access to high quality cervical cancer screening, while also overcoming key barriers in cost, access, and infrastructure globally. Gal was a software developer and Cathy in business development, and we both ended up on the product management team together.

We were just a power team that complimented each other’s skill sets and were constantly pushing each other to grow in the best way possible. We designed and launched some really exciting products together, including the first ever tele-gynecology system and a clinical trial system for women’s health now used by the National Cancer Institute, and knew we had the right dynamics and skills to start something of our own to empower women to better manage their health and wellness. We kind of stumbled on this idea one night over drinks when we were looking for our next adventures, discussing some of our own personal health journey, and the next day had our first concept that we started to validate.

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?

It is tremendously important, especially as innovators in the women’s health space. Today there are just not enough innovators thinking about the needs unique to women and girls, anywhere from how our bodies have different symptoms of heart disease to how we save and invest our money. We are super excited that these networks help women support each other to grow in the tech field so that we can use our collective resources at all our companies and organizations to make real change across industries. That not only helps women get better experience, mentorship, and professional growth through new opportunities and access to capital, it makes us all more gender sensitive and inclusive.

What projects are you currently working on? What should we look out for in 2020?

We are launching our platform with innovative employers and payers in February 2020. The platform is powered by medical experts and certified health and wellness providers to get women trusted, evidence-based information to better manage their care. 

We are still welcoming employers serious about helping women thrive in the workplace into our special pilot program and our partners and users should be on the lookout for some initial data and lessons learned on the benefits we see when we get women robust, engaging resources.

What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in?

We spend a lot of time educating our partners, including employers, payers, and investors why investing in women’s health and wellness is so critical for both health outcomes and the bottom line across the lifespan, and not just around the getting pregnant, having a baby, and returning to work phase. It can sometimes be especially challenging working with men to explain the normal parts of a woman’s health and wellness journey that do not make her sick or unhealthy, just in need of preventative care and support. When we speak with women, mostly they will say, oh yes, I have had pelvic floor challenges or I never talk about my endometriosis, but it can be difficult for some men who don’t work as clinicians to understand what women face and how common it is for issues to go unresolved and unaddressed from menstruation pain to contraception and more.

What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there?

Keep going, stay focused, and find the right partners. There will be so many investors and partners who may not align with your vision or share the value that innovating for and with women is needed. That’s ok and you need to know when to say thanks and walk away. But if you stay determined and focused, you will find amazing partners on all fronts, and in turn you will be in a better place than you can imagine!

Who are your 3 inspirational women in FemTech?

Ida Tin for creating the Femtech word and her true thought leadership to has opened the space for so many new innovations and ideas, as well as excitement from the investor community.

Netta Levran really opened our eyes to all of the innovation happening in the Femtech space and was part of the inspiration behind the first iteration of Hela Health! You definitely don’t want to miss her Tel Aviv events!

Reenita Das at Frost and Sullivan who helped aggregate everything going on in the digital revolution for women in the startup space and has in turn inspired innovators, investors, media, and more to engage in this space.

Some more about Co-Founders Gal & Cathy:

Gal Brenner is a talented software developer and product manager passionate about using technology for social good. She has more than 8 years experience leading healthcare products from concept to launch and has delivered multi-million dollar software overhauls to quickly scale heavy AI in low connectivity environments in line with healthcare and HIPAA security standards.

Cathy Sebag is a development professional with 10 years of experience negotiating, launching, and leading public and private sector partnerships to bring reproductive health solutions to scale in all resource settings.