We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do, but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kick-start the process, and ease some of those first-time founder nerves, we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their stories in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life profile. We’re getting into the nitty-gritty details—from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves—we’re not holding back.
Photo: Courtesy of Tania Boler
Tania Boler founder and CEO of Elvie
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what you were doing professionally before launching Elvie?
I’ve always been passionate about women’s health, and I studied the topic extensively during my time at Oxford and Stanford University earning a Ph.D. in sexual reproductive health. As a sexual health researcher, I spent most of my early professional life in roles that worked to provide women safe, quality care and access to health education.
While working for the U.N., I was stationed in Africa and launched the first-ever curriculum on sexual education. During this time, I began to recognize technology’s potential to disrupt the way we think about health—and even quicken the pace at which change can occur.
Before starting Elvie, I served as the global director of research and innovation at Marie Stopes International where I worked to improve sexual health among developing countries. Working directly with women across the world inspired me to advocate for women while understanding their unique health needs.
What was your “lightbulb moment” for Elvie? What inspired you to start your business and pursue this path?
Despite having extensive academic and professional experience in women’s health, when I was pregnant, I discovered that there was much I didn’t know about my body. It felt like the changes I was experiencing should have been something I knew would happen. This was particularly true about my pelvic floor health. In my studies, training, or personal life, no one described pelvic floor health’s importance.
At the time, I was spending lots of time in France with my husband’s family and learned that the women there were much more open to discussing their intimate health. In fact, pelvic floor exercise was part of their usual postnatal routine. After experiencing first-hand how pregnancy impacted this core muscle group, I was stunned that this cultural practice wasn’t more common in other countries. I began to do extensive research to understand better the intimate health challenges women face daily.
The “lightbulb moment” came from this exploratory phase. As I learned more about how women currently care for their pelvic floors, I began to think about how few products were available to promote women’s intimate health. This is especially true when you think about how many generations of iPhones have been developed in the past ten years. Astonishingly, there have been limited modern innovations to address women’s basic needs in the past few decades! I was determined to do something about this, starting by tackling pelvic floor health’s taboo status while creating a design that made caring for this muscle group easy, efficient, and fun. That’s where Elvie Trainer came in.
Since launching Elvie in 2013, you’ve raised over $50 million in funding from investors, garnering some of the biggest investments in femtech to date. What advice can you share for entrepreneurs on partnering with the right investors? What do investors need to bring to the table other than just money?
My best advice is to be your best advocate, never wavering from your mission or values. When I first started pitching Elvie Trainer to investors, most of whom were men and didn’t understand the need for the product, I would worry about making them feel uncomfortable when talking about the product’s purpose. After leading many meetings like this, where I put the investors first, I realized that I needed to prioritize Elvie. I didn’t want to work with the investors who just stared at the sample Elvie Trainers I’d leave out on the table, but those who’d immediately pick them up to better understand them. That’s why I’d recommend looking for investors who can not only offer capital but also provide partnership as your company grows. Suppose we at Elvie are going to realize our vision of revolutionizing women’s healthcare. In that case, we need investors who share our mission and values and will be open to putting more than just dollars behind it.
You’re not only the founder and CEO of a technology company that’s revolutionizing women’s health, but you’re also a mother. How has being a mom changed your priorities and your focus in terms of your career and business? Do you think motherhood has made you a better business person?
As many women know, being a mom completely changes everything. In the beginning, I struggled with how I would juggle my independent, career-driven life while caring for a baby. But after a while, balance comes—and at some point, you start to realize that hey, it’s okay to drop a few balls now and then.
Once I started Elvie, I did have the advantage of knowing the unique challenges that moms face. I’d say, get used to multitasking and improving how you prioritize aspects of your life. And definitely, get more efficient with your time!
Elvie’s mission is built around the need to support women, starting with moms. Unlike many other brands, we’ve created an internal culture that reflects these values. I enjoy being a champion for all the mothers and women who are a part of the team.
Did you write a business plan? If so, was it helpful? If not, what did you use to guide your business instead and why did you take this approach?
Writing a business plan was a crucial step for us to outline the opportunities in the category and ensure we stayed true to our promise to women to deliver the most innovative technology to improve their everyday health as we scaled the business. Once we designed the product and realized how many women we could help by bringing the device to market, we quickly launched it via an e-commerce site.
How did you come up with the name Elvie? What are some of the things you considered during the naming process?
Our name is the first definition of our brand. The word “Elvie” actually derives from the abbreviation for the levator muscles (“LVs”), the key muscle group on either side of the pelvis. We bandied some names around, but Elvie felt right. It simultaneously evokes strength and unabashed femininity. We also loved the name because it felt familiar yet unique.
What were the immediate things you had to take care of to set up the business?
My business partner, Alexander Asseily, recommended that the first step was to hire the best designers to bring our vision to life. From there, the business took off. What was once trying to convince naysayers that this tool wasn’t “too niche,” we were suddenly being endorsed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and even included in the swag bag for nominees at The Academy Awards.
For us, digital and social are essential channels. Both are a means of getting our brand to a wider audience and as a platform to start conversations around taboo topics and intimate issues. From a strategic standpoint, it was important for us to have a presence that women can connect with online from the word “go.”
What research did you do for the business beforehand? Why would you recommend it?
While I had a background in women’s health and had worked with women across the globe, I realized how much more I had to learn about women’s health when I became pregnant and experienced changes in my own body. I did extensive research to better understand women’s intimate health, the healthcare industry, and the technology already available to address these needs. To bring something to market that was truly innovative and could change women’s lives, I had to understand their health challenges and the products that failed them.
Research is a crucial step for any entrepreneur. However, it’s also important to recognize that you won’t have all of the answers you need before starting your business. The hard part is finding the confidence to take the leap and go from the research phase to market. If you feel strongly about your idea, commit yourself to it and sell your passion for it to your team, investors, and consumers. You’ll never know until you try.
Photo: Courtesy of Tania Boler
How did you find and identify the manufacturers that you work with? What was important to you during this process? Are there any mistakes you made and learned from along the way?
In the initial stages, we didn’t have any experience in manufacturing. Alex, my business partner, had plenty of advice, including adding a few names to the list of recommendations. But essentially, it’s all a case of setting out your manufacturing objectives; how many you need to make, the capabilities required to make it, and understanding your budget to get it done.
From there, it’s lots of heavy research to create a shortlist of companies you’d like to speak with, making approaches and discussing your goals while gauging if there are synergies between the two companies. It’s important not to underestimate the people side of things—they may be able to demonstrate capabilities, but you need to be sure that you can work together as a team. After all, you’ll be spending a lot of time working together to refine your design and troubleshooting manufacturing challenges. There will always be tough times, so you need to be able to detach from the work and have fun together.
Do you pay yourself, and if so, how did you know what to pay yourself?
Like many new entrepreneurs, I accepted that during the early days of Elvie, it wouldn’t be like a normal salary. That said, I recommend being as open and frank as possible with your investors, because it shouldn’t mean that you sacrifice essential things you need to pay for, like child care. It’s all about striking a balance between company needs and making sure you’re able to focus on building the business—not about whether you can pay your own bills! For me, I initially took 40% of my previous salary.
How big is your team now, and what has the hiring process been like?
Finding the right people to build our brilliant team has been vital to Elvie’s success and crucial from the beginning. This includes everyone from the talented engineers and designers who helped bring our ideas to life or the advisors who navigated the tech sector while Elvie was still a growing startup. Giving women leadership positions and hiring so many talented people with like-minded values has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
In 2020, we had 114 new starters, which represents a +80.5% growth. When any company is scaling this rapidly, there’s a significant risk of the cultural DNA getting diluted or lost. With COVID and remote working, this is exacerbated even further. So as we (hopefully) emerge from the stresses of the pandemic, our big re-focus will be on people and culture in 2021. As soon as it’s feasible and safe, we’ll be investing in making up for lost time—encouraging quality collaboration between team members and socializing in real life!
Did you hire an accountant? Who helped you with the financial decisions and setup? Are there any tools or programs you recommend for bookkeeping?
Quite early on, we were set on hiring an accounting firm, specifically one which had a record of working with early-stage companies in London’s tech ecosystem. That being said, we also relied quite heavily on the readily available internal expertise, who helped with financial decision-making on several things, from the selection of banking partners to the management of company share schemes and the like. We also handled the bookkeeping internally and used Xero. It’s really great and user-friendly accounting software that is well-suited for early-stage businesses. It’s simple to set up and even simpler to use, which meant that we could maintain internal control of essential aspects of our day-to-day financial operations instead of outsourcing.
What has been the biggest learning curve during the process of establishing your business?
Elvie was born out of a passion for women’s health, and it was not very cut-and-dry to carve out space in a very male-dominated tech and investor community. It poses unique challenges to female entrepreneurs trying to design with women in mind. And as a non-tech founder, one of my biggest pieces of advice is to surround yourself with people who can capture that passion with innovative products that meet a need. I mean, when I first started, the term “femtech” didn’t even exist—so it was a great leap into the unknown. If you’re looking to launch something new, the startup ecosystem is vibrant and friendly, with plenty of experienced individuals who are willing to offer practical help and support. There are always lots of meet-ups which can help short-cut problems as you go along and learn from others who have done it before.
For Elvie Pump, our greatest challenge was building the technology that could solve the breastfeeding problems women had been enduring for far too long. We also knew that we would have to convince investors that it was time to create a better solution for women than what’s been available to them so far. We did this by hiring world-class female designers who understood women’s needs and created a beautiful product that then spoke for itself.
How did you promote your company? How did you get people to know who you are and create buzz?
Given the number of taboos surrounding women’s bodies and health, the Elvie team is driven by our overarching mission of changing perceptions while pioneering life-changing health solutions for women. Our work encourages us to engage in these discussions, shift people’s views, and educate both women and men on important—often intimate—topics. We see this as an excellent opportunity to drive real change in the culture at large while addressing the often-ignored needs of 50% of the population.
With that in mind, we’ve always known we would need to be disruptive to grab women’s attention on a global scale. These moments opened the door to more significant conversations and helped to begin eliminating taboos on the topic.
One of the larger stunts we created was our massive vaginal blimp at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to raise awareness on pelvic floor weakness and incontinence. Our campaign was actually banned by the local council, which highlighted how taboos around women’s health and anatomy still run deep in our society. But happily, this led to the viral #LetFannyFly movement on social media—and it was empowering to see so many women get on our side and almost become activists for Elvie.
A few other buzzworthy moments for us included our #FreeTheFeed campaign when we placed five giant inflatable breasts across London’s skyline. We aimed to fight the stigma around breastfeeding and pumping in public. We knew it would raise a few eyebrows – but in so doing, no one could overlook this taboo that’s been used to repress women for so long.
Our stunt at London Fashion Week was another disruptive event that made headlines. To amplify our Elvie Pump launch in 2018, we partnered with London-based designer Marta Jakubowski to feature a model (and new mother) wearing our breast pump on the catwalk during her show. If it was talked about at all, pumping was considered a grind, an unpleasant necessity, or a punch line. By crashing London Fashion Week, we wanted to prove that women who happen to be mothers are still women: they can still be fashionable, walk the catwalk, lead businesses, run the world… and ultimately, they shouldn’t feel restricted or held back by anything (including pumping!).
Do you have a business coach or mentor? How has this person helped you, and would you recommend one? What advice can you share on how do you get one?
I’ve been involved in women’s health for my entire career, and along the way, I’ve been introduced to so many individuals who’ve both inspired me and helped me find my way to creating Elvie.
Carving out space in a male-centric world is never easy, and it can be intimidating to jump into something when you haven’t seen many examples set by other female friends or leaders. However, there is a growing network of extraordinary, like-minded female entrepreneurs out there who are willing to support you and help you to make essential connections. For anyone looking for a mentor, start by evaluating who you admire in your own circle and ask them for advice and guidance.
For advice and information around startups, “The Lean Startup” and “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” were great resources for me. Phil Knight’s “Shoe Dog” was also incredibly inspiring at the early stages.
There are a wealth of exciting podcasts out there, some personal favorites of mine include; “The Future of Everything” from the Wall Street Journal, “Masters of Scale,” and the “WIRED UK Podcast” to keep me up to speed on all the latest trends and stories.
I am constantly impressed by people who are challenging the status quo and introducing new ways of doing things. Tortoise is doing this by encouraging readers to consume information more slowly and with more purpose.
What is one thing you didn’t do during the setup process that ended up being crucial to the business and would advise others to do asap?
I would advise others to never skirt around topics or words that you feel might make potential investors uncomfortable. Take Elvie Trainer as an example. It took me a few fundraising meetings to realize that I needed to be upfront about women's issues and not shy away from words like "vagina" or other intimate topics. But, how can we create and sell in products that make women’s lives easier if we aren’t open and honest? Now, when meeting with prospective investors, I like to see their reaction once I say the "V" word. I call this the "vagina test!” It's a fun and easy way to gauge whether we'll be a good fit for one another.
What is your number one piece of financial advice for any new business owner, and why?
Beyond attracting investors, our most significant obstacles at the start of our business came with building our technology. For example, designing one solution that could truly solve breastfeeding problems that women have been enduring for far too long! My business partner, Alexander, encouraged hiring top engineers from the word “go.” As you scale, this is extremely important. You need to surround yourself with people who believe in the mission as much as you do and are the best at doing the jobs you need. So, we set out to hire world-class designers who understood women's needs, placed them in the heart of the design process, and created beautiful products that offered women the best solution out there.
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