How an innovative tampon brand leveraged TikTok

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Candace podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Celine Williams hosting for Montereo for Canada's podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: My guest today is Nadia Ladakh, the founder of Marlow, a new menstrual wellness brand that has launched the first ever lubricated tampon. Welcome Nadia.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to talk to you about this. I think it's a...
[00:24] SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to talk to you to hear a little bit about your journey, which is where we'll start, but also to hear a little bit about Marlow, because I think that we were talking a little bit before we started to hit record and the idea of a lubricated tampon is fascinating.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure a lot of people are going a lubricated tampon.
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: We're going to get into some of that as well.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: But to start with, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your journey to getting to where you are now, to founding Marlow and how you did this all.
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
[01:00] SPEAKER_02: So I actually started my university career in music, quite a non-traditional path in comparison to most people.
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: I was studying voice performance at the University of Western.
[01:09] SPEAKER_02: And from there, I applied to the Ivy Business School. It's a two-plus-two program.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: So you spend your first two years doing one program and your second two years in an accelerated business program.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: So from there, I was able to transition into the business program and learned a lot.
[01:23] SPEAKER_02: I spent my first year after graduating in management consulting, but really had this interest and entrepreneurship, because I thought it would allow me to combine some of the creativity and passion that you learn in music and the arts.
[01:35] SPEAKER_02: With some of the business and financial management skills you learn in business.
[01:39] SPEAKER_02: And so in our last year of school, my friends and I had come up with an idea to launch Marlow for one of our school projects.
[01:46] SPEAKER_02: It was an entrepreneurship capstone project.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: And I remember sitting down with them and having a conversation about the menstrual health space.
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: It was something that affects 50% of the population, yet it's not talked about at all.
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: It's rather stigmatized.
[02:00] SPEAKER_02: And I remember during that conversation that one of my co-founders shared that she has a lot of pain when inserting a tampon.
[02:07] SPEAKER_02: And she's a very active individual. So she loves to play sports and go swimming.
[02:11] SPEAKER_02: And she felt that not being able to use a tampon really limited her in her daily active lifestyle.
[02:16] SPEAKER_02: And she would take time off training whenever she had her period.
[02:20] SPEAKER_02: And so she had gone to the gynecologist to try to find a solution.
[02:24] SPEAKER_02: And the gynecologist said the best thing would be to spit on the tampon to make it easier to insert.
[02:30] SPEAKER_02: And I remember just being blown away by that advice and thinking there must be some better way than just spinning on it.
[02:37] SPEAKER_02: And that's what kind of sent us into a deep dive of the space and discovering that there was a need for a lubricated tampon.
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: I think that I can't, first of all, can we just acknowledge how insane it is that in the stand-aids the advice is to spit on a tampon.
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: I mean,
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: holy disconnect with what the real world is all about. I just can't even.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: So I'm just going to acknowledge that because I'm sure anyone who's watching this on my massive I roll.
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: But you know, I think that I think it's I want to acknowledge something else. And that is that it's so fascinating how anytime we're talking about women's health in any way.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: There's so much stigma attached to it.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those spaces that is additionally stigmatized for a lot of women and a lot of men who just don't talk about this.
[03:32] SPEAKER_00: And we've, you know, how long has it been since the actual product space has really been disrupted. I like menstrual cups is probably the last thing that was disruptive in the space and how long have been before that.
[03:47] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tampons were invented about 90 years ago. The biggest switch that we've had is going from cardboard to plastic applicators and then no applicators like that's kind of the only innovation that's happening.
[03:59] SPEAKER_02: Now we're starting to see a bit more innovation in terms of reusable applicators.
[04:02] SPEAKER_02: What we're doing at Marlow menstrual cups, but before that it was no innovation in the last 90 years, which is just shocking since it's a space that impacts so many people and it just seems that everyone is on autopilot when it comes to this space.
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: For sure, I remember the first time I think I was in the state somewhere and they're in a women's bathroom. They had bio degradable entirely biodegradable environmentally friendly tampons that weren't like, you know, most of the stuff that we have now, which no fence to plastic applicators, not so great for the environment, not so great from a, you know, resource.
[04:47] SPEAKER_00: And that seemed like it was mind blowing. So to have something that, you know, like a lubricated tampon is even next level.
[04:56] SPEAKER_00: So I can only imagine the process to get a product like this because it's considered a health care product in some way, correct? Like it.
[05:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's correct. It's considered a class to medical device, which sends rather fancy, but it's in the same class as rubber gloves or condoms.
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: So similar to those other products, which meant we had to test our product, make sure it was safe to use go through health Canada and FDA regulatory approvals.
[05:22] SPEAKER_02: We partnered with both the research lab and a regulatory consultant. So they were really helpful in guiding us along through that process as well.
[05:30] SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious. So anytime we have someone on anytime that I'm speaking to someone who has a product that has had to go through an approval process, I'm always curious what you learned that you would do again, and you would tell someone absolutely do this, like working with a regulatory consultant might be one of the things.
[05:51] SPEAKER_00: And what you learned that really didn't work that you're like, avoid this at all costs if you're trying to do something similar.
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, spot on with the regulatory consultant. I remember we tried to look through some of the policies ourselves.
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: We were spending hours reading health Canada's website and it's full of jargon and if you're not in the space, it's just so complicated to understand.
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: And so once we partnered with the regulatory consultant, they could actually break down everything that we needed to do. It really accelerated our pace.
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: And I think as a startup, one of our biggest advantages is speed and working quickly. And so if we can partner with someone to accelerate that and you know figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are, then it's better to do that.
[06:29] SPEAKER_02: So I think if we had partnered with that regulatory consultant, even sooner, maybe we would have accelerated our pace even faster.
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: So that was one thing.
[06:37] SPEAKER_02: And then I think the other thing would be around just making sure that things don't always go according to plan.
[06:43] SPEAKER_02: We were facing additional challenges in the fact that we were trying to go through the approval during COVID when both regulatory bodies were quite tied up understandably with COVID and vaccine rollouts and all these different things.
[06:54] SPEAKER_02: But things that were supposed to take a couple of weeks to complete, we're taking months to complete.
[06:58] SPEAKER_02: So I think just knowing that when things are out of your control, always have that buffer timeline, always add contingency beyond what you might even imagine and just paying attention to that external environment to see how that might impact your business as well.
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: I think that's really important.
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to overlook that in the moment.
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
[07:20] SPEAKER_00: So I am not 100% sure of your journey.
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: So this might be worded somewhat awkwardly bear with me in working with someone bringing on like a regulatory consultant.
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: Was that something that you had funding that covered that cost?
[07:40] SPEAKER_00: Was that something that you created a partnership with them longer term?
[07:43] SPEAKER_00: And I asked this because anyone who is thinking of starting a business or an early stages, they're often hesitant to either spend the money or say here's, you know, here's how you can have equity in the business in this way if it's something that someone might be interested in.
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important that organizations, companies who've done that share their experience because there's so much.
[08:10] SPEAKER_00: I mean, how long did you hesitate to bring someone on or spend the money or make that partnership? I think it's really common.
[08:18] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were definitely hesitant at first.
[08:20] SPEAKER_02: Luckily we had received some funding from different pitch competitions that we had done in different grants.
[08:25] SPEAKER_02: And then we actually did raise a $500,000 precede round through angels.
[08:29] SPEAKER_02: So part of the cost of that went to funding the regulatory consultant and all of our regulatory approvals.
[08:34] SPEAKER_02: So we were really lucky to have support of angel investors who wanted to help us achieve that milestone. And that was kind of one of the major milestones from that pre-seed round.
[08:43] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm, have you done any funding since that is at the the funding that you've done thus far?
[08:50] SPEAKER_02: That's the funding we've done thus far and we're about to kick start our seed round. So we're very excited about that as well.
[08:55] SPEAKER_00: Amazing. So what were some of the lessons you learned from the the angel round that you did?
[09:01] SPEAKER_00: What, you know, in retrospect and in kind of reflecting what, what, what, what would you take away from that?
[09:10] SPEAKER_02: I think one of the things we got really good at is learning how to tell our story and explain our problem for someone who maybe doesn't experience the problem themselves.
[09:19] SPEAKER_02: And that's especially important for any industry where it's maybe a bit complex or maybe not everyone would be familiar with it.
[09:25] SPEAKER_02: We were pitching to a bunch of investors who don't actually menstruate themselves. And so they would go back to other people in their lives and try and speak with them say, hey, is this a problem you experience?
[09:35] SPEAKER_02: Like what can I learn about this? And so we got really good at adding analogies, adding testimonials, adding data. We had found a stat that one and two girls will drop out of sports because they don't have products that work for them around puberty related to menstruation.
[09:49] SPEAKER_02: We also did our own survey and learned that 86% of menstruators have experienced some kind of insertion pain or discomfort in the past.
[09:56] SPEAKER_02: So being able to bring in some of those stats for someone who maybe doesn't even know this, this, that this is a problem, but can now see this and can have comparisons that really help to tell the story and show it's not just us saying this.
[10:07] SPEAKER_02: There's a bunch of people will also experience this problem as well.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: You think that's incredibly important to emphasize is especially, and let's call this for out for what it is for a second, if you are pitching a product for women when still most investors are men, there are real barriers to understanding the experience that you're that women are sharing or products designed for women are sharing.
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: So I think what you're saying is really important because so many of so many companies that are being started now are being sort of by women for women and yet still the investors are men.
[10:44] SPEAKER_02: Exactly and it's funny because so many times through our pitches and even now we get questions saying isn't this a niche space isn't women's health in each space.
[10:52] SPEAKER_02: And we think no, you know, women or other menstruators get their period for one week every month for 39 years of their life.
[11:00] SPEAKER_02: So it's anything but need to it's a $50 billion industry and it's just kind of funny to the kinds of questions we got throughout our pitching process.
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: The joy of the niche space question when it's just the any other gender just another gender period.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: It's it's need some way fascinating.
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: So I am curious and I want to talk about the you know for people who are still like lubricated tampons what is the what is the beside is I mean maybe they're there I'm assuming there's other benefits besides easier insertion.
[11:42] SPEAKER_00: There's other reasons that people might want to use these so tell me a little can you tell me a little bit about about that about what some of the the story is and what some of the benefit is and and what you see the opportunity for Marlo is.
[11:58] SPEAKER_02: For sure yeah there was a bunch of different use cases that we had identified one was for menstruators who are very new to using tampons they maybe have a bit of anxiety their muscles will tense up when they're trying to insert a product for the first time.
[12:10] SPEAKER_02: So for them this really helps to make it smoother and easier and more comfortable there's some people who have medical conditions so conditions like vaginismus or a bunch of other ones we partnered with some kind of colleges in public physiotherapist who kind of walked us through some of the patients that they see that this might be helpful for.
[12:26] SPEAKER_02: We also talk to them and learn that a lot of menstruators experience vaginal dryness especially post pregnancy and if you have a lighter flow or you're on birth control and some of these conditions can cause vaginal dryness as well.
[12:41] SPEAKER_02: Even if it's maybe just the first day of your period or the last it can make insertion really really uncomfortable and if you can't use a tampon and you can't you know go play sports or go swimming especially in the summer.
[12:52] SPEAKER_02: We wanted to find an opportunity for these people to still live their lives and not feel held back while on their period and not feel that they can't do the things that they love because they have something that's limiting them from using products that work for them.
[13:03] SPEAKER_00: I love that and thank you for sharing all that that's why I was like I'm guarantee there's more it's more specific than just easier insertion.
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: And I and it is it is a it's a big market and I'm curious what the response has been thus far because I know you're doing direct to consumer right now we talked about this so eat and say online sales.
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: I eat commerce I forgot the word for a second what has been the response of far and how have you been have you been getting the word out there.
[13:39] SPEAKER_02: The response has been so overwhelmingly positive which we're so happy about the biggest channel for us which is interesting is TikTok actually so we have a really big Gen Z kind of consumer and audience and we've been going viral on TikTok I think this is a platform where everyone just speaks their mind it's kind of a shocking product and so it does really well on that platform and we partner with different TikTok influencers or Instagram influencers will share the review of the product and then you know we'll do at them or kind of.
[14:08] SPEAKER_02: Share our own experience I think that has been a huge way to get the product out we've had a bunch of press coverage on our brand as well again it's the first ever lubricated tampon so it's really exciting for press to share our story we're a young women founded team so that's also really exciting as well.
[14:24] SPEAKER_02: And then we also been really focused on building a community so we know that this is not just a product we really want to provide education and we want to be at the forefront of the movement around menstrual health and so we provide education we open up the conversation we have a campus ambassador program where we've done a bunch of workshops and panels with universities across Canada and the US.
[14:44] SPEAKER_02: And so I think having that community driven approach to everything that we're doing has been really helpful to get the word out there and show that you're contributing to the overall movement you're not just buying a product.
[14:57] SPEAKER_00: I am going to ask about TikTok specifically.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: Definitely because and I'll and I'll fully own why that is not an avenue that we hear a lot of yet right there's there's if you're on TikTok which is hilariously a big deal.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: If you are on TikTok if you are ever on that platform you can see that there are brands and there are services that do incredibly well and yet there's a lot of language in the marketing world about it you know not being can't really sell off TikTok which is not I want to acknowledge I know that's not true but there that's still it's very pervasive in the marketing world so I'm curious how
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: you know was it a happy certain happenstance that you discovered that this could go viral on TikTok was it in a strategy that you were using how did that come about as such a source of of influence marketing product awareness whatever you want to call it.
[16:02] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were speaking to our customers in our community and seeing where they currently discover products and a lot of that Gen Z audience kept bringing up TikTok a lot of our co founding team we are definitely addicted to TikTok to scrolling through all the time and so kind of based on some of our own experience of other brands we've seen or other products we usually see we decided to start our own TikTok and we do a combination of product reviews or product videos informational videos educational videos.
[16:28] SPEAKER_02: And so I think having a combination of all the different types of content has really allowed the brand to go viral on TikTok and people see us almost as the go to page to learn about menstrual and sexual health.
[16:40] SPEAKER_02: And so that's been really exciting just to see the growth and how quickly you can reach so many people on the platform I think one of our top performing videos got over 8 million views and to date we've achieved probably over 35 million views so the kind of reach you can get on the platform is just insane and it's all organic so that's just been wild to us too.
[16:57] SPEAKER_02: Now we can start to do some paid content as well if we wanted to and boost some of those videos but today it's primarily been organic which is very cost effective for us as well.
[17:06] SPEAKER_00: That's incredible how much time are do you put into creating TikTok videos or Instagram like whatever the because that's I think the other thing we hear is that people are like it takes we I've to spend so much time and I have to put out like eight TikToks a day to get or whatever that maybe true for some and not true for others.
[17:26] SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious what does that look like for you.
[17:29] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you definitely have to be consistent. I think we try and post four videos a day and some videos can take a long time whereas some can be just kind of quick snappy videos.
[17:38] SPEAKER_02: It's all about just being consistent and posting as many as you can one of our co founders was kind of doing a lot of this for us but now we actually just onboarded a full time content creator that we're hoping can kind of drive this channel forward since it's been our top performing channel.
[17:52] SPEAKER_02: So we'll see over the coming months how that full time content creator works out and I think if it's kind of been going how it is today we're hoping that this will drive even more engagement and traffic to the site as well.
[18:02] SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: I think that thank you for sharing that because it's like I said there's just a lot of misinformation it's a newer platform people are intimidated by it or I'm sure what to do with it a lot of times.
[18:16] SPEAKER_00: I mean still say with Instagram to some extent but it's a little bit more familiar at this point.
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: I'm curious what the future holds for you Nadia and also for Marlo.
[18:29] SPEAKER_02: Yeah I think for Marlo we have some other products that we're looking to launch so I'll keep them kind of a secret for now but we have some other ones we've been doing testing on and that we're really excited to bring to market in the future.
[18:40] SPEAKER_02: We have some geographic expansions our whole team has global ambitions so we really want to bring Marlo to the UK as our next launch and some other places as well.
[18:50] SPEAKER_02: Some retail partnerships that we're excited about launching and then just continuing to build our community and get the word out there as much as possible.
[18:57] SPEAKER_02: And then I think on my end something that I've always been passionate about in addition to the menstrual health space is just entrepreneurship in general I really believe in giving back to the community.
[19:06] SPEAKER_02: And so if there's ways that I can continue to support the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem.
[19:11] SPEAKER_02: I'm part of an organization called startup Canada and we have something called the startup women advocacy network and so continuing to advise on entrepreneurship policy working with the government and continuing to increase support especially for women entrepreneurs.
[19:24] SPEAKER_02: It's something that I'm super passionate about and I want to be able to do that and give back to others since we've benefited from so many people's advice and mentorship to get to where we are today.
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[19:35] SPEAKER_00: Given you are quite young and your sounds like your whole team is quite young.
[19:40] SPEAKER_00: What do you think that what how do you think that has worked to your benefit to date and what do you think has been challenging about that.
[19:53] SPEAKER_02: I think one thing is our appetite for risk.
[19:55] SPEAKER_02: We don't have a mortgage. We don't have kids or anything that we have to really worry about in terms of financially.
[20:01] SPEAKER_02: So we have the opportunity to take big risks and to invest some of our savings that we have to see what can happen and we're new.
[20:09] SPEAKER_02: So we have a lot of ideas and we're really energetic and excited about a whole lot of things that are happening.
[20:14] SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely helpful.
[20:15] SPEAKER_02: We also are our target audience. So the people that we're selling to we are building a brand that we've always wanted to see in the market.
[20:21] SPEAKER_02: And it's influenced by a lot of customer research and talking to our community, but it is also based on some of our personal experiences and the brand that we want to see as well.
[20:29] SPEAKER_02: So I think both of those things have really helped us in building it to where we are today.
[20:34] SPEAKER_00: And have there been any challenges that you faced because you are younger.
[20:40] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think one thing would be maybe around the fundraising side.
[20:43] SPEAKER_02: This is our first time building a startup.
[20:45] SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes certain funders will want to see that you've launched one in the past or that you've raised funds in the past.
[20:50] SPEAKER_02: I had a not for profit background where I really focused on fundraising and some of the volunteer and board positions that I had done.
[20:57] SPEAKER_02: And so that I think helped to have a foundation of how to do fundraising and what kinds of things people would look for.
[21:02] SPEAKER_02: We also completed two accelerators. One was called the next 36 accelerator and one was League of Innovators.
[21:08] SPEAKER_02: So that also helped us to kind of have more credibility in the entrepreneurship world and get connected to different investors and mentors that could support us through that fundraising journey.
[21:18] SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds like networking and relationships has been really important to get you to where you are personally or professional like in, you know, whether it's Marlow or you Nadia as an individual.
[21:30] SPEAKER_00: Do you have any advice for people around networking and building relationships?
[21:37] SPEAKER_02: I think the biggest thing is just never being afraid to ask.
[21:41] SPEAKER_02: There's been so many times where we'll build a web and say, okay, we want to get our product in this store.
[21:46] SPEAKER_02: Is there anyone who we know that could be maybe adjacent to that store?
[21:49] SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's my uncle's brothers neighbor who maybe has some connection to that store.
[21:53] SPEAKER_02: And so we just get really scrappy and resourceful about finding a way to do things.
[21:58] SPEAKER_02: I remember one time we weren't able to get a call back from health Canada and we spent so much time calling every single person on the database until we were able to get a call back.
[22:06] SPEAKER_02: And so finding ways to build those authentic relationships and being resourceful, not only asking for things but also providing value.
[22:13] SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of times where I'll say, oh, hey, I think this might be helpful for you.
[22:16] SPEAKER_02: You saw this panel and I know you're working on international expansion.
[22:19] SPEAKER_02: This panel might be helpful for you to attend or, oh, hey, saw this blog post about income stability.
[22:24] SPEAKER_02: Maybe this could be helpful for you.
[22:26] SPEAKER_02: And so I think finding ways to keep engaging with that relationship and taking notes.
[22:30] SPEAKER_02: We have a really big excel with all of the different stakeholders that we've engaged with.
[22:34] SPEAKER_02: And we say the last time we contacted them who's responsible for keeping up contact and just sharing any resources and things that we can with them.
[22:41] SPEAKER_02: So we really try and keep that community engaged throughout the entire time that we're speaking and building Marlowe.
[22:48] SPEAKER_00: How many found how many co-founders are there?
[22:52] SPEAKER_02: There's four of us in total.
[22:54] SPEAKER_00: Got it. I just wasn't sure I was like, it's clearly more than two, but let's just let that ask that.
[23:00] SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to ask this question.
[23:01] SPEAKER_00: How have you divided up and figured out who is doing what with four co-founders?
[23:05] SPEAKER_00: Because that it can be hard with two partners, let alone four.
[23:10] SPEAKER_02: I think it's nice that we all had our own strengths and weaknesses naturally.
[23:15] SPEAKER_02: So one of our co-founders came from more of a marketing and creative direction background.
[23:18] SPEAKER_02: She worked for a magazine and did a lot of photography and graphic design.
[23:22] SPEAKER_02: So she naturally took to more of the social media, marketing aspects of Marlowe.
[23:26] SPEAKER_02: And she's been really driving that forward and building our brand.
[23:29] SPEAKER_02: I had more of that not for profit background, also management consulting.
[23:32] SPEAKER_02: So I had more of the strategy and the fundraising side.
[23:36] SPEAKER_02: One of our other founders worked in financial asset management and then also worked in consulting as well, specifically operations consulting.
[23:43] SPEAKER_02: So she took more of the manufacturing, the regulatory, some of our financial projections and building that out.
[23:49] SPEAKER_02: And then our other founder, she worked in community building.
[23:52] SPEAKER_02: She worked with over 370 small businesses through one of the business improvement alliance networks.
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: And so she was able to really build our community, shape some of our mentorship advisory services and connecting with different individuals.
[24:05] SPEAKER_02: And that's been really helpful to have all those connections and building Marlowe as well.
[24:10] SPEAKER_00: So did you find that there was ever there were ever moments where there wasn't clarity in who was going to do what or has it always been very easy to say you're doing this I'm doing this you're doing this whatever the case may be.
[24:26] SPEAKER_02: I think we always reevaluate as the business grows and as the priorities shift we try to be really mindful of saying OK, who's going to be responsible for this.
[24:34] SPEAKER_02: This is maybe not something we considered in the past, but now it's going to be more of a priority.
[24:38] SPEAKER_02: For example, when we launched customer service and all the DMs emails we were getting are like OK, which role will this fit and best.
[24:43] SPEAKER_02: And so it's about continuing to evaluate and I think early on we had a lot of conversations about what does success look like what is our equity ownership going to look like.
[24:52] SPEAKER_02: How what is our life plan for the next couple of years if we have one that are and key milestones that we should be aware of so I think having a lot of those early conversations as a foundation really helped us to ensure that we continuously stay aligned and we have weekly reflections at the end of the week on Fridays where we review all of our metrics for the week as well as just personal team reflections and how we think our culture has been.
[25:12] SPEAKER_02: And so I think that's been really helpful to just be a checkpoint and to keep ourselves accountable to seeing are we all meaningfully contributing to the business.
[25:19] SPEAKER_02: How can we celebrate each other's wins and what are some learnings going into the next week as well.
[25:24] SPEAKER_00: I think that is I think that's great advice for anyone listening is to.
[25:29] SPEAKER_00: In general not only with partners and founders to do something like that some version of like that some version of that but definitely when you have multiple partners and you're not just a solo founder having that kind of connectivity makes a big difference.
[25:45] SPEAKER_02: For sure.
[25:47] SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to ask the question before we wrap up and that is that is there anything that we didn't get to that you wanted to talk about today or something that you want to emphasize before we.
[25:56] SPEAKER_00: Close this up.
[25:58] SPEAKER_02: I think one thing would just be the amount of excitement that's happening in menstrual health and women's health in general there's an area called femme tech which is essentially.
[26:07] SPEAKER_02: Any technology that's helping around women's health and people who identify as women and so I think just paying attention to some of the excitement that's happening in the space it's it's not a niche space there's a lot of stuff happening.
[26:18] SPEAKER_02: There's an organization called femme tech Canada they're highlighting a lot of stuff that's happening in this space and so just paying attention joining our community as well where you can learn more about your body and.
[26:28] SPEAKER_02: Just going through that own personal learning journey to get off autopilot because it is such an important part of our health and it impacts so many aspects of our lives so not being afraid to question the products you've used in the past to question how you received your menstrual and sexual health education and now trying to go through your own personal learning journey to maybe correct some of the things you've learned in the past.
[26:49] SPEAKER_00: I love that I think that's I appreciate you sharing that where can people find you and also Marlon line.
[26:57] SPEAKER_02: To find Marlow our website is we are Marlow calm our Instagram is at Marlow and our TikTok is at we are Marlow so definitely connect with us there you can connect with me as well on Lynn LinkedIn or Instagram as well or any of our co founding team we're always looking for feedback from our community both on the product side if you end up trying it or also on the education side a lot of our blogs that we have are all driven by our community and requests that they've had so things like does cranberry juice help with UTIs or.
[27:26] SPEAKER_02: Can you talk about this condition so definitely submit any questions you have and we'll pass it on to have it written on our blog as well.
[27:33] SPEAKER_00: Perfect and all those links will be in the show notes for anyone who is looking at the show notes to click on thank you very much for being a guest day Nadia I think this is a really it's a super interesting space and I appreciate opening up a conversation about something that we so often don't really like talking about unfortunately.
[27:54] SPEAKER_02: Definitely and thank you so much for having me as well.
[27:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah absolutely my pleasure and for everyone listening thank you for listening to cans podcast like comment and subscribe to all our channels to get the latest podcasts from entrepreneurs across Canada.