“Why has there been so little innovation in family planning methods since the pill came out?” Ida Tin’s question exposes an uncomfortable pattern in how we approach women’s health: we fix an urgent problem, then move on.
In my conversation with the woman who coined the term FemTech, we unpack what that stagnation has cost us, and what it would take to move forward.
We explore three themes:
- The missing data set in women’s health and why continuous hormonal data could change prevention.
- Why women’s health should be treated as infrastructure, not a niche category.
- How capital allocation and investor behavior shape what gets built and what does not.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Or scroll down to explore why women’s health might be the most overlooked piece of infrastructure in our economy.
3 Lessons From This Conversation
“There’s one data set that is really missing in women’s health, which is having continuous data on women’s hormones.” With that sentence, Ida Tin moves from frustration to diagnosis. If we rely on occasional snapshots instead of continuous patterns, prevention will always lag behind crisis. The real gap is not attention, but infrastructure.
1. The data gap is holding back prevention.
Without continuous hormonal data, women’s health is treated as episodic instead of cyclical. That means delayed diagnoses, misinterpretation of symptoms, and reactive care instead of preventive design.
2. Women’s health is infrastructure, not a niche.
When women spend a larger share of their lives in poor health, that affects families, companies, and economies. Health is not a side topic. It determines how much energy flows into society and how much leaks out.
3. Founders cannot scale without conviction capital.
The problem is not a lack of founders. It is a lack of capital that follows them beyond the early stage. Without investors willing to follow through, promising companies stall before they can scale.
These lessons point to a simple shift: women’s health will not improve through isolated products. It requires better data, conviction capital across stages, and infrastructure built for the long term.
💬 If this reframing challenges how you think about health, data, or capital, share the episode with someone who should hear it.
Or scroll down for magical moments, practical takeaways, and my own observations on the conversation that bring these ideas to life.
- 3 Lessons From This Conversation
- Highlights and timestamps
- 3 Magic Moments In The Episode
- Practical Takeaways for Founders
- The Quote From The Episode
- 3 Things That Changed The Way I Think
- Coming up on Women Disrupting Tech
- Listen to Episode 140 on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube
- About Ida Tin
- About Femtech Assembly
- Other ways to amplify the voices of Women Disrupting Tech
- Events that Women Disrupting Tech Must-Attend
- What I Want To Leave You With
- A Question for You 🤔
Highlights and timestamps
| Time | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 02:00 | The Journey to Femtech |
| 04:56 | Clue: Revolutionizing Women’s Health |
| 07:56 | The Importance of Men’s Understanding in Women’s Health |
| 10:22 | The Need for Hormonal Data |
| 11:17 | Challenges in Hormonal Monitoring |
| 14:20 | The Societal Impact of Women’s Health |
| 17:22 | Women’s Health as Societal Infrastructure |
| 20:04 | Investing in Women’s Health |
| 23:15 | The Future of Gender-Informed Healthcare |
| 26:23 | Europe’s Opportunity in Women’s Health |
| 28:39 | The Interconnection of Health and Environment |
| 29:24 | Innovations in Health Monitoring |
| 31:07 | Understanding Hormonal Health |
| 31:55 | Transformations in Women’s Health |
| 33:55 | The Importance of Data in Women’s Health |
| 34:25 | The Femtech Assembly: A Movement for Change |
| 37:49 | Building a Cohesive Femtech Community |
| 40:28 | Data Privacy in Femtech |
| 45:24 | Reframing Women’s Health as an Opportunity |
| 52:56 | Advice for Female Founders in Health Tech |
3 Magic Moments In The Episode
Where do I start? Getting to speak to Ida was magical in itself. And the episode is full of moments where her passion for women’s health comes to life. The moments below are the ones that give this episode its emotional and intellectual weight.
1. Coining the term “Femtech.”
Ida recalls how she coined the term years ago because there was no clear container for companies building in women’s health. The space was without a name and easy to ignore. Naming it created visibility and a category investors could recognize, and founders could rally around.
2. Femtech Assembly as an open-source movement.
Instead of building another closed organization or fund, Ida chose to create FemTech Assembly as a movement people can contribute to. It reflects her belief that this is bigger than one company or one exit. It is about building shared infrastructure, not guarding territory.
3. “There is nothing you can invest in that gives a better return than women’s health.”
It is a bold statement. Yet when you consider the cost of poor health, lost productivity, and delayed prevention, it becomes a serious investment thesis rather than a slogan.
Together, these moments reframe women’s health from an overlooked category to a foundational system shaping economies and talent.
💬 What was your favorite moment from the episode? Let me know in the comments.
Or keep scrolling for practical takeaways you can apply as a founder or women’s health leader.
Practical Takeaways for Founders
This episode is not only about systems and capital. As a former founder, Ida shares practical guidance for women building in women’s health and beyond. Here are three of Ida’s best tips.
1. Own your lived expertise in the room.
When you enter an investment meeting, remember that you often understand the market in ways investors do not. Especially in women’s health, lived experience is domain insight. Come prepared with clear market data up front so investors understand the scale. Do not let your category be dismissed as a niche.
2. Recognize that fundraising is a social dance.
Deals are not decided on numbers alone. Communication style, perceived confidence, who introduced you, and how familiar you feel with the investor all shape the outcome. Understanding this dynamic does not make it unfair. It makes you more strategic.
3. Keep an imaginary empty chair at the table.
Ida describes having an “empty chair” in board meetings that represents a user. If you cannot clearly explain your business model and data practices to that person, you should question them. Ethical data design is not a compliance checkbox. It is a long-term trust strategy.
These takeaways reinforce a broader point: building in women’s health requires conviction, preparation, and responsibility.
💬 If you are building in this space, this conversation is worth your time. And if you know a founder navigating rooms where this market is still misunderstood, share this episode with them.
Or scroll down to discover an inspiring quote and learn about my own takeaways.
The Quote From The Episode
“There is nothing you can invest in that gives a better return than women’s health.”
Ida Tin – Co-founder of Clue and founder of the Femtech Assembly
It is a bold claim. Yet today, only around 2 percent of venture capital goes to women’s health. That gap is not just a funding imbalance. It is a misallocation of capital at scale. And an economic lever hiding in plain sight.
3 Things That Changed The Way I Think
This conversation did not just add information. It shifted how I look at systems that most of us take for granted.
1. Complexity as an advantage for women.
Ida’s comparison between women’s biology and planetary systems stayed with me. Hormones move in cycles. Systems interact. Feedback loops matter. If women live with this kind of complexity every day, it raises an interesting question about who is naturally equipped to design solutions for interconnected global challenges.
2. Prevention Does Not Fit the Current Business Model.
The more we talked about continuous hormone data, the clearer it became that our health system is built around treating problems once they become urgent. Prevention requires long time horizons, patient capital, and incentives that reward keeping people healthy. That is not how most healthcare business models are structured today.
3. We still dose hormones as if everyone is the same.
Perhaps the most striking realization was this: we routinely prescribe hormonal medications in standardized dosages because we lack granular data. Without continuous measurement, personalization remains limited. That is not just a medical constraint. It is an infrastructure gap.
These reflections reinforce a simple idea: if the data layer is missing, everything built on top of it will remain blunt and reactive.
💬 What changed your thinking as you listened to this episode? I would love to hear from you in the comments.
Coming up on Women Disrupting Tech
Next week, Alice Pavin takes us into a different layer of performance.
We explore what happens when everything looks right on paper, yet something feels off. Alice Pavin shares how learning to listen to the body’s “whisper” changed the way she makes business decisions, designs her work, and defines success. From energetic silence in Sweden to morning routines that regulate the nervous system, from flow states to the role of microdosing as a complementary tool, this conversation expands what leadership can look like from the inside out.
At one point, she makes a distinction that reframes the entire discussion: the mind is an incredible tool, but it was never meant to choose the destination. The heart decides where to go. The mind helps you get there.
If you’ve ever wondered whether high performance has to come at the cost of alignment, this episode might shift how you think about building.
Alice’s episode is coming up next on Women Disrupting Tech. If you want to hear it when it drops on 26 February at 8 am CET, subscribe by leaving your email below.
And until the next episode, as always, keep being awesome.
Dirkjan
Listen to Episode 140 on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube
How a FemTech Pioneer Is Fixing Women's Health Infrastructure with Ida Tin | Ep. 140 – Women Disrupting Tech
About Ida Tin
Ida Tin is the co-founder and former CEO of Clue, one of the world’s leading women’s health apps with over ten million users worldwide. She coined the term FemTech in 2016 and is the founder of Femtech Assembly, a global think tank advocating investment in women’s health as a driver of economic growth and planetary well-being.
Ida has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Forbes, Der Spiegel, and Le Figaro. She has spoken at conferences including TechCrunch Disrupt, LeWeb, Slush, and the Forbes Most Powerful Women Summit. She is also a TEDx speaker and has received several awards for her entrepreneurial work.
She graduated from The KaosPilots, a social entrepreneurship program in Denmark, and now lives in Berlin with her two children.
You can connect with Ida on LinkedIn.
About Femtech Assembly
Femtech Assembly is a global think tank founded by Ida Tin. Its mission is to establish investment in women’s health as an indisputable path to economic growth and planetary well-being.
Rather than functioning as a traditional organization, Femtech Assembly operates as a movement and intellectual platform. It brings together founders, investors, researchers, and policymakers who believe women’s health should be treated as foundational infrastructure rather than a niche market.
Through research, public advocacy, and ecosystem building, FemTech Assembly works to close the data, funding, and knowledge gaps that have historically limited innovation in women’s health.
Learn more about Femtech Assembly by following them on Substack.
Other ways to amplify the voices of Women Disrupting Tech
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Follow the Women Disrupting Tech Podcast
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Events that Women Disrupting Tech Must-Attend
Some great events take place this spring. Below are three that you definitely want to check out. For a full overview of all events, including links to buy tickets, please check the events page.
Featured Event: Women in IT Gala 2026 – 6 March 2026
Want to celebrate International Women’s Day in a special way? Join a gala night filled with joy, strength and real connection for every woman in IT. The Women in IT Gala is for anyone who identifies as a woman and is hosted by She Unfolds.
📆 Date: 6 March 2026
🕖 Time: 20:00 – 24:00
📍 Location: Castle Woerden
🎟️ More information and tickets on Eventbrite
Featured Event: Understanding Women’s Health – 10 March 2026
Learn how hormone cycles or perimenopause impact your life, and discover more about conditions like PCOS or Endometriosis at the quarterly Understanding Women’s Health Events hosted by Kasia Pokrop.
Women’s health is a topic near and dear to my heart. Which is why I’m happy to support and attend the events that 3mbrace Health organizes at Equals every quarter.
📅 March 10, 2026
🕠 17:30–20:30
📍 Equals Amsterdam
🎟️ Tickets on Luma.
Men are expressly invited to join. Because women’s health deserves space for real dialogue and shared learning.
Featured Event: She Talks Money
Are you looking for an event about money where you leave feeling energized, connected and confident?
On 17 March 2026, Women Disrupting Tech is partnering up with Yoana Leusin and Tiffany Aude of impowr and Equals to host ‘She Talks Money’, an informal, fun-to-attend event about money, careers and investing.
What to expect:
- Panel discussion with experts who remember what it’s like to be a beginner
- Interactive table rotations where you can deep dive into the topics YOU care about
- A room full of women who get it, because we’re all figuring this out together
No question is too simple. No topic is off-limits. Just clarity, community, and coffee.
- 📅 March 17, 2026
- ⏰ 9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
- 📍 Equals Amsterdam
- 🎟️ More information and tickets on Luma (early bird tickets available until 4 March 2026).
What I Want To Leave You With
This episode is an invitation to think bigger. Women’s health is not a niche category. It is foundational to how we design our economies, capital systems, and future.
First, her own transition. Ida moved from co-founding Clue to launching the FemTech Assembly. From building a product to building a movement. That shift signals that this is bigger than one app or one exit. It is about creating a global container for an industry that was previously overlooked.
Second, the move from curing to preventing. Continuous hormone monitoring is not only a technical ambition. It represents a shift in mindset. From reacting to illness once it becomes urgent to understanding patterns early enough to act differently. Prevention requires infrastructure, patience, and aligned incentives.
Third, the idea that societies should be designed according to the principles that sustain life. Ida describes women as the fabric and glue of society. When women are healthy, families, companies, and economies function differently. The goal is not survival. It is thriving.
You can listen to our entire conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
A Question for You 🤔
💬 What do you think about Ida’s position that women’s health should be treated as infrastructure for our society?
👇 Share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s keep this conversation going and discover new truths.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 
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