FemTech represents a trillion-dollar opportunity. So why do all-female teams receive just 2% of early-stage venture capital?
In episode 155 of Women Disrupting Tech, I sit down with Beata Wandachowicz-Krason. She researched what is actually holding FemTech back and how to solve that.
In addition to her work at Organon, Beata has spent years researching the funding gaps, the cultural taboos, and the structural misalignment between how healthcare systems are built and what women’s health actually requires.
We cover the relatability gap between female founders and male investors, why pitching FemTech as a social cause is costing founders funding they could be winning, and why the data problem in women’s health is as much about taboo as it is about technology.
Our conversation is not about inspiration but about a broken system and what founders can do to fix it.
Hit play below to listen to the full conversation. Or keep reading for practical takeaways, highlights, and trends from the episode.
Practical Takeaways for Founders
The funding gap in FemTech is not just a pitching problem. It exists because the healthcare system was not built with women’s health as a priority, and most FemTech founders are trying to raise capital inside a structure that was never designed to recognize the problem they are solving. These takeaways won’t fix that system. But they will help you work inside it more effectively while the system catches up.
If you are a FemTech founder preparing to raise, these are the three areas worth getting right before you walk into the room.
1. Build a data-driven, economically aggressive pitch
The biggest mistake FemTech founders make is framing their startup as a social cause or a wellness initiative. Beata is direct about this: investors who might otherwise pass on a “women’s issue” will engage seriously when the pitch is built on hard numbers, clinical data, and a clear return on investment.
That means leading with the trillion-dollar market opportunity, not the personal story. It means positioning your solution as core healthcare, not a lifestyle niche. And it means showing a path to ROI that makes the business case impossible to dismiss as charitable giving.
The shift Beata describes is not about hiding the mission. It is about speaking the language that gets the mission funded.
2. Master the pivot on risk-based questions
Beata points to a well-documented pattern: investors tend to ask female founders prevention questions focused on risk and loss, while asking male founders promotion questions focused on growth and opportunity. Knowing this going in changes how you prepare.
The pivot technique is straightforward. Answer the risk-based question briefly, address the concern directly, and then move the conversation back to growth, scaling potential, and market opportunity. The goal is not to avoid the question but to refuse to stay in a defensive posture for the rest of the pitch.
Beata also recommends treating early pitches with less critical investors as rehearsals. Use them to hear the skeptical questions, refine your pivot, and build the resilience you will need when the stakes are higher.
3. Design for cross-border scale from day one
A FemTech solution built for the Dutch market is a niche product. A FemTech solution built to navigate multiple international legislations is a fundable business. Beata is clear that founders who limit their thinking to a small local market are making a strategic mistake that shows up in the pitch before they even get to the numbers.
This is part of what she means by building the right case before you pitch it. Cross-border scalability is not just a growth story for slide seven. It is evidence that you understand the size of the problem you are solving and have built the solution accordingly.
Do you know a FemTech founder preparing to pitch investors or an investor who should be paying attention to FemTech? Share this episode with them using the buttons below.
Or scroll down for magic moments.
Highlights and timestamps
| Time | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Introduction |
| 03:20 | Introduction to Women’s Health and FemTech |
| 06:15 | The Gap in Women’s Health Awareness |
| 09:13 | Personal Experiences and the Need for Open Conversations |
| 12:12 | Exploring FemTech: Opportunities and Challenges |
| 14:50 | The Relatability Gap in FemTech |
| 17:23 | Cultural Barriers and Education Gaps |
| 20:12 | The Role of Men in Women’s Health |
| 23:27 | Navigating Gender Bias in Investment |
| 26:38 | Systemic Changes Needed for Women’s Health |
| 29:54 | What Is Stalling Progress in FemTech |
| 34:50 | A System Optimizing for Saving Lives over Quality of Life |
| 43:12 | The Shift Towards Gender Equity in Business |
| 44:09 | Crafting Effective Business Pitches |
| 46:35 | Addressing Gender Bias in Investment |
| 47:38 | Leveraging Technology for Bias Mitigation |
| 51:20 | The Role of Women Investors in FemTech |
| 53:33 | The Importance of Male Allyship |
| 59:59 | Navigating Data Privacy in Health Tech |
| 1:02:31 | The Paradoxes of FemTech |
| 1:02:39 | Building Trust in Investor-Founder Relationships |
| 1:07:57 | Learning from Rejection in Pitching |
| 1:15:00 | Creating Bold Innovations in FemTech |
| 1:18:26 | Designing Tools to Combat Bias in Funding |
3 Magic Moments In The Episode
Fifty years ago, a Dutch doctor by the name of Pieter van Keep fought to get menopause taken seriously as a medical topic. Today, while we have the most advanced AI systems in history, social media platforms are censoring the clinical terms he spent his career legitimizing. That contradiction runs through this entire episode, and these are the moments where it surfaces most sharply.
1. The miscarriage that broke the silence
Beata shares her own miscarriage as the moment her research shifted from professional interest to personal urgency. When she started opening up about her experience, she realized that nearly every second woman she spoke to had gone through something similar.
She mentions that women are staying silent because the professional environment teaches them to keep health out of the room. That silence shapes what founders pitch, what doctors diagnose, and what investors fund.
2. The hackathon that revealed the bias
At a FemTech hackathon — an environment specifically designed to be women-positive — four teams reached the finals. The only team that included a male representative for the pitch won.
Beata does not tell this story to discourage founders. Her point is not that women need men to win. Her point is that subconscious bias does not disappear just because the room is sympathetic to women’s health. Founders who ignore that are walking into pitches unprepared.
3. Happy woman, happy life
When we talk about the role of men in women’s health, Beata reframes the familiar cliché. When the health of 50% of the population is treated as an economic and medical priority, the positive energy and productivity benefits the entire society and economy.
The larger argument behind it is that FemTech is not a niche market serving a subset of consumers. It is a fundamental pillar of global health that has been systematically underprioritized.
What was your favorite moment from the episode? Drop it in the comments!
The Quote from the Episode
“Stop trying to fit in the reality that we have and build the one we deserve.” — Beata Wandachowicz-Krason
FemTech has a trillion-dollar opportunity and a 2% funding rate. Those two numbers do not exist in the same world by accident. Beata’s closing call to action is not motivational language. It is a precise description of what needs to change structurally before the gap closes.
3 Trends I’m Seeing Across Conversations
One pattern runs through almost every conversation I have on Women Disrupting Tech: the discrepancy between the scale of the opportunity in women’s businesses and the capital made available to fund it. Episode 155 is a particularly clear illustration of that funding gap pattern. But the specific trends underneath it are worth examining separately, because each one points to a different lever that needs to move.
1. The data privacy barrier is more cultural than technical
Beata makes an observation that connects directly to my conversation with Sara Okhuijsen in episode 98: the reason women do not share their health data is less about not wanting anyone to know, and more about fear of judgment and professional consequences. The technology to anonymize and share data responsibly already exists. What is missing is the cultural safety to use it.
Sabrina Nowicki made a related point in episode 153. Cyclisity was built privacy-first not because the technology required it, but because the women using it needed to trust that their fertility data would never be used against them. Until that cultural barrier shifts, the data gap in women’s health will persist regardless of how good the tools become.
2. Prevention is still not how healthcare systems are built
Beata describes a healthcare system optimized for saving lives rather than improving quality of life. That structural bias creates a direct problem for FemTech founders, whose solutions often sit in the prevention and chronic care space rather than acute intervention. Carmen van Vilsteren made the same observation from a different angle: the system does not reward prevention, which means founders building in that space are constantly trying to prove value inside a framework that was not designed to recognize it.
The reimbursement problem Beata raises makes this concrete. A solution that has been on the market for a year cannot yet meet the five-year clinical research requirement for reimbursement. That is not a technology problem. It is a system design problem that directly limits which FemTech solutions can reach the women who need them.
3. Male allyship is a structural requirement, not a bonus
The hackathon story in this episode is worth sitting with. In a room specifically designed to be women-positive, the team with a male representative won. Beata does not tell that story to argue that women need men to succeed. She tells it because pretending the bias does not exist in sympathetic rooms is a strategic mistake for founders.
The broader point connects to figures like Luke Morris, who built a significant women’s health organization by standing alongside women rather than speaking for them. Getting FemTech out of the niche category requires men to engage with it as an economic and medical priority, not as someone else’s problem. That is as true in the boardroom as it is in the pitch competition.
These three trends matter because they show that the FemTech funding gap is not going to close through better pitching alone. It requires cultural shifts, system redesign, and active engagement from the people who currently hold the capital.
🗣️ Which of these trends feels most important to you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Coming Up On Women Disrupting Tech
Most brands are still treating AI as something to watch from a distance. Rachel Gilley thinks that window is already closing.
In episode 156 of Women Disrupting Tech, the CEO of Clarity Global makes the case that the shift from traditional search to AI-driven brand discovery is already underway, and that the organizations engaging with it now are building an advantage that will be very hard to close later. We also talk about what AI cannot replace in communications, why inconsistent messaging is now a technical liability, and what sponsorship actually looks like when it moves the needle for women in leadership.
In the clip below, Rachel explains why sitting on the sidelines of the AI revolution is a strategic mistake, and what it costs organizations that wait too long to engage. It is thirty seconds, but the point is sharp.
Curious about the rest of the conversation? Use the subscribe button below to find it in your inbox on 11 June at 8:00 CET.
What I Want to Leave You With
FemTech has the potential to unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity. That is not marketing language. It is the conclusion of serious economic research into what happens when women's health is treated as a medical and economic priority. The question this episode keeps returning to is why the capital to fund it is still missing.
Beata's answer is not a single villain or a simple fix. It is a system that was not built with women's health as a priority, a funding infrastructure where 90% of decision-makers don’t have the lived experience to fully understand the problem, and a cultural environment that has taught women to stay silent about the very conditions that FemTech is trying to solve. Those three things reinforce each other, and changing one without the others does not close the gap.
What I find most useful about this conversation is that Beata does not stop at the diagnosis. The practical advice in this episode is grounded in how the system actually works right now, not how it should work. Build the economic case before you walk into the room. Practice the pivot before the stakes are high. Design for an international scale from day one. And stop treating FemTech as a social cause when it is, in fact, a fundamental pillar of global health.
The system will not fix itself. But founders who understand its logic have a better chance of working inside it while pushing for something better.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
PS. When I posted about this episode on LinkedIn, Ida Tin was kind enough to share her Guide for men who want to invest in Femtech. See it as educational material;-)
About Beata Wandachowicz-Krason
Beata Wandachowicz-Krason is Director Third-Party Risk Compliance and ESG at Organon, a global healthcare company focused on women's health.
Beata has recently completed her Executive MBA at VU Amsterdam. For her thesis, she researched the systemic barriers holding FemTech back, including the funding paradox, the cultural taboos around women's health, and the structural gaps in how healthcare systems approach prevention and chronic care.
You can connect with Beata on LinkedIn, and you can find the executive summary of her research here.
Listen to Episode 155 on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube
How Female Founders Can Pitch FemTech to Male Investors with Beata Wandachowicz-Krason | Ep. 155 - Women Disrupting Tech
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: Understanding Women's Health - 24 June 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.
Men are expressly invited to join. In fact, send me an email if you want to be a women's health pioneer. More info and tickets can be found here.
Diverse Leaders in Tech Events
If you like being in the know about what is happening in the DEI space, Diverse Leaders in Tech is the place to be.
Every last Thursday of the month, they have monthly in-person meetups for tech people, HR leaders and supporters of diversity to exchange insights, tackle challenges, and take action. It's a vibrant, safe space where diversity is celebrated.
You can find their events on the website. Joining your first event is free.
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