On Building a Global Ecosystem for FemTech Pioneers - Women's Health Series with Marija Butkovic

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] CLAIRE

Hello, and welcome back to Narratives of Purpose. You are now tuned into a new episode showcasing unique stories of global changemakers who are contributing to make a difference in society. For those of you who are listening to Narratives of Purpose for the first time, my name is Claire Murigande. I am your host on this podcast, which is all about amplifying social impact.

If you want to be inspired to take action, then look no further. You are in the right place. Get comfortable and listen to my conversations.

[00:00:34] MARIJA

Women's health by many today is still seen as a reproductive health category, unfortunately. And women are not just reproductive machines. We are not here only to give birth to children.

And we cannot deny that many women will still be in their reproductive years, but won't go through pregnancy and childbirth, but will go through menopause. And with menopause, for example, comes a lot of different comorbidities from, you know, higher risk of osteoporosis, dementia, Alzheimer's. Women face a lot of these illnesses down the line. They have greater risk of getting them than men.

[00:01:10] CLAIRE

My guest in today's episode is Marija Butkovic. Marija is the founder and the CEO of Women of Wearables, based in London. Marija began in 2016 by bringing together women in wearable technology. And today, Women of Wearables has become a leading global organization and ecosystem that brings together like minded women and their allies in health tech, digital health, And women's health from over 50 countries worldwide. From lawyer to entrepreneur and feminist and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech sector. Marija's journey is a very fascinating one.

Remember to rate and to review our show wherever you listen to your podcasts. We are really grateful for everyone who has taken the time to share their thoughts. Thank you for your feedback. And we also want to hear from you. So please tell us what you think of these conversations. All right. Now let's jump right into the discussion with Marija. Enjoy.

[00:02:11] CLAIRE

Today in my virtual studio, I am joined by Marija Butkovic. Who is the founder of Women of Wearables. And Women of Wearables is an ecosystem and a global organization. for innovative companies, female innovators, entrepreneurs, and ally in the health technologies. And they provide community connection, knowledge to grow and succeed.

So we'll learn a lot about that. But before I'd like to welcome Marija. So Marija, welcome to the podcast.

[00:02:41] MARIJA

Thank you so much for having me, Claire. Uh, so great to be with you today.

[00:02:44] CLAIRE

It's a pleasure to have you and all the listeners. So I've been focusing this year on women's health.

So speaking to founders who are supporting the advancement of women's health. And I think what you're doing is quite interesting because you have really this ecosystem perspective and this view. And I really like to understand, you know, from all your experience and the platform that you've created, how is that contributing to helping women's health today?

But before you tell me about that, uh, just to make sure that all our listeners, you know, will understand what we talk about, there's this term, Femtech. So can you just give us a definition, if there is one, that is really a definition that everybody agrees upon, and what does that entail, actually?

[00:03:25] MARIJA

Let me start with a brief introduction. Then we can deep dive into Femtech, which is a topic, obviously very close to my heart. So, um, my career has gone through many changes over the past, what, 18 years since I graduated, uh, from my university. I've worn multiple hats, I would say, uh, eight years I spent as a commercial lawyer back in Croatia, where I lived my whole life.

Even back then I was a startup mentor, supporting startups in one of my local startup incubators with. a bit of a legal help around incorporation, IP, stuff like that. And then 10 years ago, I moved to London to pursue some other avenues. Uh, I got into the world of technology and, um, after a few, Less or more successful and successful jobs, whatever you want to call it.

I decided that, uh, there was a big gap in the market in terms of community support and community in general, when it comes to women in wearable tech. So that's why I call my community women of wearables or simply wow, because there simply weren't enough female founders and innovators in the wearables tech space.

And bear in mind, that was 2016, 2017. So, still very, you know, early stage for wearable tech, even for, you know, heavy lifting companies like, you know, Apple and Fitbit and many other ones. And over the years, we started noticing a trend around, um, you know, health and digital health, um, which were growing industries back then.

And then there started to be a tendency towards more innovation within women's health specifically. And the coin was termed, uh, by Ida Tin, who's the founder of Clue, one of the pioneering femtech companies, uh, focusing on period tracking. And it's a term coined for, uh, services, products, technologies that aim to solve an issue or challenge female consumers are facing, right?

So it's in this intersection between health as a category for and of women, and then technological innovation on the other side. And we started as a community at WoW, we started focusing on Femtech and covering it through our content and events and webinars back in 2017, when no one even knew about Femtech.

Even now, and especially then, people were associating Femtech with FinTech, and people were assuming that we are dealing with financial technology, and then I had to explain to everyone that it's not FinTech, it's a new term, Femtech. Uh, today the awareness is much greater about these new technologies for women's health.

I think that through the, you know, advocacy, uh, raising public awareness, media coverage, um, lots more, lots more innovation than earlier and way more investment going into Femtech than before. Um, people have seen in some shape or form. Um, Femtech technology or campaigns or innovative products or businesses, um, already.

And I think that's a great thing. So one of the key areas of focus for us at WoW is, uh, Femtech these days. And we have done a lot of work through a lot of our activities, uh, knowledge sharing sessions, workshops, conferences. And just recently we had a very, very successful conference about Menopause, which is one of the Key areas within Femtech that, um, is finally emerging as one of the big potential winners maybe in the years to come because no one has been talking about menopause as much as we talk today and there certainly hasn't been enough innovation and investment in that space.

[00:07:02] CLAIRE

Absolutely. I attended that conference actually, and it was really, really rich in the sense that I think it was only just even half a day, but there was so many interesting conversations and so many key stakeholders because it's not only like the founders, the entrepreneurs that were there, but you had really like the whole ecosystem to have this holistic approach and I really loved it because It kind of opened up my perspective on even organizations I didn't know were considering how to support women in the workplace that are now addressing menopause, are seeing how important it is, and that you really need to invest in that.

And to that point, I mean, menopause is one thing, but you mentioned that the person who coined the term Femtech was the founder of Clue and that was period tracking. How do you see this Femtech space evolving in terms of addressing different health aspects?

[00:07:51] MARIJA

Women's health by many today is still seen as a reproductive health category, unfortunately, and women are not just reproductive machines.

We are not here only to give birth to Children and We cannot deny that many women will still be in their reproductive years, but won't go through pregnancy and childbirth, but will go through menopause. And with menopause, for example, comes a lot of different comorbidities from, you know, higher risk of osteoporosis, dementia, Alzheimer's.

Women face a lot of these illnesses down the line. They have greater risk of getting them than men. So I would say the beginning of the femtech movement was seen as in a very, you know, plain way as a way to just emphasize that women have periods. So the period tracking was almost a natural starting point for the femtech movement, because when you see a woman, one of the key Um, differences between men and women is that women have periods and somehow with periods everything starts, you know, when we get our first period, that's when you kick off almost everything in your life because that's the time where, okay, you're getting into your reproductive years, you're becoming a woman and then all the other challenges regarding hormone health that women might be facing.

Start with that, right? And actually, you never get rid of that, so to say. It might sound rude, but you know, I always say, Oh, um, everything that that we do in life once when we get our period is dictated by our hormones even before, right? So even when you when you decide not to have any more Children, if you had them and you get into your perimenopause and menopause, everything is still dictated by your hormones by dropping hormones, right?

And even postmenopause, You will still be affected by your hormones, probably way more than men. So we cannot deny that women are different than men. Our bodies are different. Our hormone health is different. Our biological systems are different. There is a narrative in the femtech space that the term is not good, that it's actually discriminatory. That it's not, it's not describing what it should be about. I do understand that sentiment, but I still think that it's needed because women are not small men and we need to differentiate our health versus men's health in many areas. And there's no one size fits all.

We cannot deny that there is different kind of service or product needed to tackle women's health issues and challenges versus men's.

And I think that if we go just a little bit back as well with the Femtech movement, I think it's really important to highlight that Femtech in its core is a dissection of technology and health, but we can start talking about women's health as a broader category in so many other different ways. Because when we think about, you know, very basic things of and many of these things has have been covered in an excellent book that I can recommend to everyone by Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women, is that our life and the world around us is designed by men for men.

And we see this in many things that we use on a daily basis that might not even cross our mind. That it's biased or discriminatory from car safety, you know. Cars, for example, are less safe for women than men because they've been designed using, uh, male dummies.Or office temperatures are too low because, uh, they've been using, you know, body temperature. What's an average body temperature by men? You know, women always feel a bit colder.

[00:11:31] CLAIRE

Even I think I heard about the size of, you know, uh, smartphones, like how they fit in your hand. That was not also designed like for women.

[00:11:39] MARIJA

Correct. Definitely. Medication, you know, women have been excluded from clinical trials or medication doesn't work when women have their periods. Or maybe voice recognition, right, like, you know, voice recognition is, has been proven to be less accurate because they less accurately understand women than men in many cases, because they've been using male data sets all the way to Siri.

I think I read this as well in the book that, you know, when Apple launched Siri in 2011. You could easily ask Siri, Oh, you know, where's the nearest Viagra supplier, but you couldn't, um, ask for an abortion clinic, which, by the way, you probably cannot. Yeah, which you cannot do today as well. We all know what happened in the U.S. regarding that matter, but that was the case in 2011, right?

So all these little things that you wouldn't even think about, you know, are still present. Uh, and it shows that women's health hasn't been taken into account by design. into many products. So that's why, you know, there's this pushback and the growth of female specific products, because number one, nothing existed in many categories at all. And something had to be invented.

Secondly, what was out there wasn't good enough. So you have to, you know, reinvent the wheel a little bit. And this doesn't mean that there are still not many categories that have to be changed. That's why we see a great number of non invasive menstrual health products, for example, pads, tampons.

There's a big movement now towards using tampons and medical devices, and using them to insert drugs into your vagina, because vaginal insertion of drugs In many cases, can be, you know, not maybe, maybe not lifesaving, but definitely outcome changing because you can, for example, insert, um, drugs that will, um, help you contain medicine that you maybe use when you're going through IVF process. So you won't be leaking. So you will have higher chances of conceiving.

There are really some great companies in that space that we have in our community, you know, Calla Lily, um, Day has, is doing some, some great work in this space, so I would still say that Femtech term is needed. Long story short.

[00:13:45] CLAIRE

And to that point, you know, you just mentioned a couple of companies that are in your ecosystem, in your network. So how were you able to bring all these founders together, all these companies, and how has this platform served them so far?

[00:13:59] MARIJA

Everything that we have done was always organic growth and, uh, organic activities. We always wanted to bring people together that genuinely need the support of our community and want to meet people in our community and want to benefit from everything that we do.

So many companies find us through our events. Many companies find us through our content. Many companies find us through our newsletter, social media activity. And we do have very wide range of companies in the healthcare space that are our members and, and community members. So service providers, pharmas, big consumer brands, um, you know, small startups, big startups, um, packaging companies.

And we have a lot of individuals. So we have membership both for businesses and for individuals. I think people who. Um, want to get into the industry, people who want to, you know, learn a bit more about the industry, connect with other like minded people, benefit from our job board, benefit from the key, like, events list that we have, where we compile, you know, put all the events in the ecosystem that we can find, um, you know, we have a list of 100 plus 50 VCs investing in Femtech and women's health that, you know, founders can tap into, we have a list of key startup programs, uh, in the ecosystem, all sorts of different ones.

And I think people that are running their businesses, uh, need as much support as, as they can get. And I think also that businesses need the same support because a lot of businesses don't have our small or medium sized businesses that don't have unlimited budgets for marketing and advertising and, um, but they still want to tackle, you know, and tap into these communities where they can find either female consumers or startups or, or brands that they can work with.

So advertising through WOW is definitely one of the ways they can achieve that because membership is really affordable, I would say, for companies and they can benefit from, you know, exposure on our channels and newsletters, blog and social media, and we always want to work with really mission aligned companies, so companies that are pursuing the same values as we do, which is supporting diversity and inclusion into space, supporting female founders, female innovators.

Really other businesses that are innovative, groundbreaking, paving the way for next generation of, of products in this space, whether it's a wearable tech company, again, whether it's a digital health company or women's health company. So companies more often than not find us and we get great number of companies speaking at these events and sponsoring our events.

And, Out of that, some really great collaborations over the years have happened, I have to say that. So we are really proud of the community that we have built.

[00:16:37] CLAIRE

And you mentioned that you had over 100 VCs, you know, investing in Femtech, who are part of your network. And it's a recurring topic when we speak about female founders, especially the investment there is still still very, very low.

The question is, how do you see the uptake or at least the evolution of women founding innovative companies and then in terms of financing them or funding them? You know, what role are you playing there in terms of advancing that ?

[00:17:06] MARIJA

It's a multilayered question, and the answer is equally also multilayered.

There's Very obvious lack of funding in women's health, but this hasn't happened overnight. This is a systematic problem. I would say of tech ecosystem in general, lack of funding to women. I think I've seen this statistic at one of the Rock Health's reports recently, that out of the whole funding for digital health, Femtech takes maybe single digit, maybe a few percentages.

And then obviously, or luckily, most of the Femtech founders, I would say two thirds of the founders are women. So by investing in Femtech, we see industries supporting female founders, but it's still a single digit number. Challenges are multiple. Lack of awareness within investor space about the importance of women's health because they don't see what's the fuzz about, you know, it's the same Women's, men's health. They don't understand.

Investors need to understand the business value of the proposition, see the data, see the stats and, and, and see the business opportunity to be able to invest. And for me, it's obvious because I've been in the space and there's 50 percent of women is on this planet.

So we are half of the population. So only on that number, you can see the business opportunity. Secondly, VC world is very male dominated world. There's not enough women and it will be illusion to expect for men to understand periods, miscarriages. infertility, menopause, because none of that they are facing directly.

They are facing some of them indirectly, uh, which is the reason why I think they should at least care about investment in women's health because all men have a partner, sister, mother, a woman in their life. Last but not least, there's not enough women, as I said, especially female, you know, general partners, LPs.

So those who are putting the money in the investment world, it would make a difference if we had more women or female angel investors. Now, in order to have more female investors. Women need to be given bigger budgets. Women need to be invested in through LPs. So, uh, limited partners and women need to be invested in through workplace as well, because to be able to invest as angel investor, you need to have disposable income.

And the only way you can have disposable income, if you have enough income and you are covered through all other areas in your life, so you're not struggling financially. So you can actually invest. And we know that there's a very obvious gender pay gap in the world of work. in general. Women do earn less money than men.

Women are penalized through their career because of motherhood penalty and becoming mothers and taking that break from, uh, from the world of work. It's a vicious cycle. It's like a, you know, a wheel that's rolling on a never ending basis. And, uh, Unless we pause that a little bit and see, okay, can we enforce in this, this chain here, can we enforce in this chain, so can we change this and this and this, and then, you know, roll it again, things won't change.

So, change will happen, and it's already happening, but it's happening at a very slow pace. Because I read somewhere that only if we look gender pay gap, it will take 100 plus years for women to achieve equivalent income in many, many industries. Simply, it's, it's not happening, unfortunately, yet. So that's the basic thing.

And then, in parallel with that, we have to bring more women into the investment world. We simply have to do that. But it's not only about the investment world, Claire. I think it's also about, you know, female founders having more confidence to ask what they deserve being at the same level as male founders.

More often than not, women won't ask the same amount of money. Women won't be secure enough or confident enough to present themselves in a way With that, I can attitude presenting the right stats, data, uh, building the business case around what you're building in Femtech world, same as in any, any other sector, there's a lot of, you know, gimmick and there's a lot of, you know, stuff that might not be that useful and that filters out through time, but there are really also equally some great, great, great founders that deserve to get money and we need more exits ultimately.

Once when investors see more exits, they will also understand the business case for investing in, in Femtech. And it's, it's same as any, as any other industry. When you see that, you know, these companies have been acquired for incredible amount of money that gives you confidence that you should be investing in the same sector.

And there have been some really great exits and many more, uh, have been happening over the years. But let's not also not forget that Femtech is still a very young industry. It's like a blink of an eye. And when, when we see the whole tech ecosystem only in the U S maybe it's what, 50, 60 years old, that's nothing.

And then Femtech is what, seven, eight years old, maybe 10 tops. That's nothing.

[00:21:57] CLAIRE

So Women of Wearables, at least to my knowledge is one of the I would say global platform that I know of. And by the way, I mean, you're all digital, right? Your members and partners are all over the place and it's not like you have a physical building somewhere.

But are there other organizations who are also pushing for that and, you know, elevating these innovators and bringing more highlights onto what they're doing?

[00:22:18] MARIJA

Absolutely. And I think that's one of the great things in this ecosystem is that it has grown on all fronts. It has grown with number of startups. It has grown with number of investors. It has grown with number of communities.

So we also have Some really other great communities within our network, um, some that come to mind are, you know, two great startup programs that we support, Femtech Lab in the UK, which they did an amazing conference, um, this week decoding the future women that I attended.

And then there's this other great program in Switzerland Tech for Eva, which is a, I believe, nine month program for innovative startups. And then there are many other communities, you know, Femtech Focus has a great podcast, um, Femtech Insider is a media platform, and there are some other great communities out there, you know, whether it's menopause, whether it's fertility, there's definitely a lot of them.

And then there are, there's this also growing, I'm under the impression, number of these micro communities on different universities as well, and Some other, uh, exciting programs in the U.S. we also work with springboard enterprises, which runs multiple programs for innovative startups and giving away grants.

Um, so there's, there's definitely a lot of great work happening. And I think it's excellent because I see a lot of these other organizations as, um, you know, complimentary partners and many of them are our members. So, um, I wouldn't say that we are in because the industry is so big and so vast that Any kind of support and community is welcome because it's needed.

There hasn't been anything until the last maybe few years, right? So we can use anything that we can get now. And I think through these communities, these great networks are built of investors and startups and innovators and designers and technologists. So people can tap into these and find a mentor, a team member or an employee.

And I think it's excellent. Um, and I think through the network of also farmers and mentors that these communities have, especially if they are run on startups, incubators or accelerators, they can really support your business. So I would definitely recommend anyone who might be running an innovative company and is looking for support to check some of these programs because Um, they can really make a difference, I would say.

[00:24:27] CLAIRE

And what's your vision, uh, for Women of Wearables? So obviously, you know, you've grown and you're contributing at different levels. Let's say in five years from now, where do you see WOW, women of wearables being? And is there like something specifically you say, this is my vision, this is where I see WOW, and I'm actually working towards that ?

[00:24:45] MARIJA

I ask this question myself every single day. I think that probably in five years for now, you know, maybe we can get acquired. I wouldn't be against that. I've been running WoW for what, like seven years now. I think, I think that would be a nice conclusion, you know, because our community is really big and vast.

So the value of our platform is the community. I always say there are two types of companies. One is a product company. One is a company that doesn't have a product, but has a community. So our community is our product, so to say. I think that what I've learned is that, um, big changes can definitely happen in many different ways, and, uh, maybe one of the sectors that we at WOW!

want to tap a bit more into is the First of all, education, something that we have been doing a lot over the past few years. And then the second one is investment. We cannot achieve much until more money gets into this space. In general, female founders in, in healthcare space and consequently, uh, women's health.

So I think we might want to get a bit more and more into that space with the community and with the, with the offering and what we provide to our members. And through my other work, uh, alongside while, although it takes majority of my, my time and my working hours. Anya, who's my business partner and I, we are also EIC, European Innovation Council jury members.

So through this, we will get a bit more exposed to funding that innovative companies can get from, um, so your European Union, right? So Horizon Europe program. And I know it's applicable to EU countries, um, only, um, and we do have. the community elsewhere. But that will give us a pretty good, um, insight into how can companies apply for these grants, because there's a lot of money out there that companies can get through grants.

It doesn't have to be a dilutable money through VCs or angels. EU also through It's own programs is struggling to give more money to female founders and to female CEOs and female innovators. So we want to see on our end, you know, how can we tap into that and how can we maybe support female founders in our community by providing them with more information on how do you apply for grant funding within the EU?

How do you get that money? Because it's a substantial amount of money. Companies can get millions of non dilutable money. And obviously VCs love that. They see it as a stamp of approval, right? As a sign of credibility, once when you get millions of Public money, because in a nutshell, that's public money. Right.

So, yeah, so I would say maybe my personal goal and Anja's goal in the next couple of years will be let's dive a bit more into the investment space and see what we can do to support our community, especially founders. And I'm hopeful that through this, we'll also get some answers on what are other key players, industry, key players that.

Should be maybe thinking about joining forces and supporting innovation because not all responsibility, so to say for the growth of the ecosystem should be given to VCs and startups only, you know, let's not forget pharma companies that have credible amounts of money and innovation and resources that also could be interested in supporting startups and investing in them.

Let's not forget in this realm of Femtech, incredible number of different service providers. We're also playing a key role in supporting innovative startups, whether our, you know, agencies, lawyers, marketing experts, and stuff like that. And then last but not least, let's not forget that a lot of great innovation happens at universities as well, because a lot of companies come out as spinoffs from university projects.

So how can we maybe support this innovation happening at universities at the earliest stage, because a lot of successful business people. Have already become business people at the university, uh, when they've been even students. So is there a way to collaborate with more universities through their curriculums, agendas?

And there are really some great programs now covering women's health, for example, I think at UCL here in London. Is there a way for them to grow beyond just educational role and to serve as a catalyst for collaboration? Uh, future innovative companies and where does that come in the, in this equation of FEMTECH ecosystem.

So I'm hopeful that maybe in 10, 15, 20 years from now, we'll see greater impact of all these organizations and, and industry players that I mentioned in supporting a better FEMCEC ecosystem.

[00:29:07] CLAIRE

And maybe just to conclude on a more personal level. So I did say in the beginning, you know, you're a lawyer turned entrepreneur. What would be perhaps your advice to our listeners who are probably contemplating the same thing as you did?

[00:29:19] MARIJA

The key thing is always, you know, to think about your mission and the what do you want to change? What do you want to achieve? Where do you See the problem in the, in the industry, where do you see the biggest issue?

Where do you see the biggest gap? And is there a way through what you do or what you want to do to change that? And then secondly, I would say you won't have all the answers immediately. You won't even know the right questions immediately, right? You know, a lot of these things evolve over time and it will unfold in front of you as you grow your business, as you change.

And I think it's really important to get to know. yourself before you decide in which direction you will go, um, at least, uh, in some way. So, um, as you can see, that's why I'm doing all these things because I never wanted to, um, put myself only into one bucket of bucket of community building. I'm a, you know, I worked for Forbes as well for three and a half years.

I also, I was a journalist and you know, I, I think it's really valuable if you can tip, you know, tap into as many pools as you, as you can to figure out what really is important to you and what really makes you happy. Because I think ultimately, You, you don't want to leave, let's say you leave your full time job that maybe wasn't fulfilling anymore for something else where you will work presumably even more than nine to five and not feel fulfilled.

So I think the, the essential thing here is. at least you need to be really fulfilled and not to see it as a, as a job, even because you will be working more hours, or at least you will mentally be preoccupied more hours. I sometimes say, you know, at five o'clock when I was a lawyer, I could have leave my office and I would just, you know, Shut down my brain at least until the next day now you think about your job and everything that you have to do as an entrepreneur it never stops because this is a CEO is the founder your responsibility is not how do I run this business you know as as a business it's also you know.

Salaries and admin and accountancy and, and legal stuff and, and, and all sorts of other things, right? So you have to enjoy it. I think whatever you decide to do, you have to enjoy it. And I think the community is very important and being present. That's why from the earliest days, you know, I was present on LinkedIn.

I was present on social media. I started connecting with people. I started, you know, thinking about who are the key players that I should be connecting with, you know. And really being genuine, you know, be genuinely interested in what other people do, be genuinely engaged with them. You know, you can always learn from someone.

I've learned so much. I've learned more from other colleagues and people in the ecosystem than from anyone else. Peer to peer support and peer to peer mentoring and learning is super important. And just observe, observe what's happening, read, you know, take notes. research, be present as much as you can.

You won't be able to be present everywhere because this industry, God has grown so much. I cannot keep track of everything myself, but you will be able to see, you know, what's worth of your attention and what's not worth of your attention. And, you know, in, in that big maze and, or woods of All sorts of possibilities.

You will find, you know, one of those avenues that will really fit into what you want to do that makes you happy. And, you know, don't think of failure as a, you know, Oh, the world will collapse and I will die because that's a, that's a, just a lesson and a way of learning new things and I don't, I don't see anything as a failure.

And I think we in Europe should start to see failure in a more relaxed way, so to say, because U. S. entrepreneurs are very used to failures and very used to not running successful companies and maybe succeeding with their exits after 5th or 6th or 10th attempt. Well, here, if you fail, it's seen as, Oh my God, the world will collapse.

And I will never again, you know, be able to do anything because I fail with my business. We have to stop that narrative. So failure is good.

[00:33:34] CLAIRE

It's actually part of the learning. I think even the word failure shouldn't exist in that sense in that context, because sometimes we make things so complicated, just make it simple and have like a simple parallel.

You know, I always say this. When you see a toddler who's trying to walk. When they fall down, you don't tell them, Oh, you're never going to walk at all. They will fall so many times until the point that they can stand and even start running.

[00:33:56] MARIJA

Absolutely. And I think that's absolutely true, right? And I think that's the key point of being entrepreneur as well.

You will fail. That's inevitable. But what matters more is that you continue from there. You learn something and continue from that point and, um, that you don't see it as something that's inevitably, you know, change you for the worst and you will never be able to do anything again. And I think that analogy with the toddler is really, really good that you mentioned.

Um, no one was born with. knowledge and all the answers on how to succeed. We all learn along the way. Everyone learns along the way. And, and the sooner you accept that, that that's the regular, uh, way of doing things. you will feel way more relieved and less anxious as an entrepreneur, as someone who's building something.

That's the mindset that I think people should implement more.

[00:34:47] CLAIRE

Excellent. Thank you so much for joining me today. And I will obviously continue to be an avid reader of the newsletter. That's how I actually came across Women of Wearables. Now it's been maybe two, three years, I think. And it's just so full of interesting information and so many great events that you're organizing.

So I'll make sure that we'll have the link to everything, to the website for our listeners and hopefully contribute to grow the community through the podcast. Thank you so much, Marija.

[00:35:14] MARIJA

Thank you so much.

[00:35:19] CLAIRE

Thank you so much for tuning in today. I appreciate you taking the time. That was episode 71, a conversation with Marija Butkovic On connecting businesses in Femtech and health tech to opportunities. If you wish to support and partner with Women of Wearables or even become a member, head over to their website for all the details at www.womenofwearables.com. You will find the link in the show notes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it in your network. And if you want to learn more about women's health from fascinating conversations on our podcast, be sure to listen to our special series released earlier this year in March, over five episodes, in episodes number 66 to number 70.

You can also listen to episode 38 talking about women's heart health plus episode 42 focusing on midlife health.

 oin me again in two weeks as I continue to showcase female innovators moving the needle in the women's health space. Until the next episode, take care of yourselves, stay well and stay inspired.

This podcast was produced by Tom at Rustic Studios.