The Market They Said Didn’t Exist And Why I Built Anyway
They told me women’s health wasn’t worth investing in. I couldn’t let that be the end of the story.
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At a dinner a few years ago, I found myself seated across from a respected investor. We were discussing sectors of interest, and when it was my turn, I said I was exploring women's health.
He paused. “Ooh,” he said, half-smiling. “Not a lot going on there. I’d be surprised if you find something worth investing in.”
I pressed a little. What about diagnostics for women? Women’s cardiometabolic? Brain health? He shrugged. “There’s no market.” The table moved on. But I didn’t.
Everyone else forgot it by dessert. I’ve been unpacking it ever since.
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The Moment That Stayed With Me
Something about that exchange stayed with me not because it was rude (it wasn’t), but because it was final. The kind of statement that closes doors before they can even be built. The kind that erases not just opportunity, but imagination.
Still, I understood where it came from. When capital looks at a market and sees fragmentation, unmet clinical need, and a lack of exits, it calls it high risk. When I looked at that same landscape, I saw innovation hiding in plain sight.
But for months, I sat with the doubt: Was I seeing something that didn’t exist? Was I trying to solve for a market that no one wanted to build?
What I Found When I Started Digging
I didn’t set out to build anything. I was just following a hunch. I started reading; clinical trials, white papers, regulatory pathways. I spoke with founders building in pelvic pain, hormone diagnostics, fertility, menopause, brain health and cardiometabolic health.
I wasn’t chasing unicorns or headlines. I was just mapping the terrain and what I found wasn’t a lack of innovation. It was a lack of translation. Strong science without a valuation language. Real clinical need without a capital framework. Teams dismissed because the system didn’t know how to price it.
At the same time, something else kept showing up.
People, often women, often professionals, were telling me: “I want to invest a portion of my capital in women’s health but I don’t know how to evaluate it.” “I don’t want to invest blindly.” “I just want to understand how real investors think.”
That’s when something clicked. This wasn’t a pipeline problem. It was a learning gap.
The Part No One Talks About
Most people assume investing begins with money. In reality, it begins with conviction and conviction doesn’t come from enthusiasm. It comes from understanding:
what credible science looks like
how regulation actually shapes timelines
where exits realistically happen
why some business models scale and others don’t
Very few spaces exist where beginners or aspiring investors can learn this without pressure, performance, or expectation to deploy capital.
So I created one.
The Monthly Investment Committee
Alongside this newsletter, I convene a private monthly Investment Committee. It’s a small, closed group designed purely for learning. It’s a way for others to see how investors deploying capital think, what frameworks they use when looking at a deal and how they evaluate opportunities.
There is no pitching, no expectations, just structured learning. Think of it as sitting inside the room where questions are asked before money moves and you get to listen in.
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Why I Built It
I didn’t build this because I had spare time. I built it because I kept hearing the same thing, again and again:
“I don’t want to sit on the sidelines forever.”
“I want to learn properly.”
“I want to build confidence before I ever write a check.”
This committee is for that moment. For curiosity before commitment. For learning before action. For people who sense there’s something important happening in women’s health and want the tools to see it clearly.
The market exists. What’s been missing is a place to learn how to recognize it.
If This Resonates…
If you’ve been reading along, curious but unsure where to begin, you’re not alone. You are exactly who this room was built for.
👉 Join the Monthly Investment Committee
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Are you building or backing similarly credible, under-the-radar solutions in women’s health?
We want to hear from you. Reach out privately or reply to this post. We curate brands and breakthroughs that deserve broader attention in the women’s health ecosystem.
Coming in July 2025:
🎧 Blindspot Capital: The Podcast
Formerly FemmeHealth Founders, our podcast relaunches this summer under a sharper lens and a bolder name. Blindspot Capital explores the undercurrents shaping health innovation from the deals that stall to the systems that silence. This season, we speak to the people shifting what gets seen, funded, and scaled. Confirmed guests include:
Ida Tin (Clue, FemTech Assembly) on founding the femtech category
Lisa Suennen (Venture Partner & Healthtech strategist) on how institutional capital moves.
Sabrina Johnson (CEO Daré Biosciences) on what it takes to build a publicly listed women’s health company
👉 Subscribe to Blindspot Capital wherever you get your podcasts, or listen directly on Substack.
I write weekly about capital, care, and the future of overlooked markets. If you are building, backing, or allocating in this space, I’d love to connect.
Disclaimer & Disclosure
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or medical advice, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. Opinions expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the views of affiliated organisations. Readers should seek professional advice tailored to their individual circumstances before making investment decisions. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
This is spooky. I am in the midst of writing a research article about disparities in menopause care and research and your post popped up first today. I think you’re right. The interest is absolutely there. Coordination is the issue.
The fact that we’re still citing the SWAN study from 1994(!) and dealing with vague answers about menopause is wild while investments in men’s health have resulted in a great deal of breakthroughs, most notably, a medical solution for ED.
I refuse to believe that researchers can’t find a way to cure hot flashes.
I'm really interested to see where this goes. In my 50's I was diagnosed with a couple of Autoimmune conditions, all of which occur 4-5 times greater in women than men, and most commonly in perimenopause. "Could this be related to hormones?" I asked. "No".
Zero explanation, zero interest.
While I was being told to get my husband to help with the housework (how many assumptions can we unpack in that?!) men with the same condition are given support with a loss of libido.
Seriously?!
So it's great to hear that you're looking to build better funding for female healthcare. I'll be watching those opportunities.