July 7, 2025 • 31 mins
If you’ve ever been told your symptoms are “normal” or felt dismissed when asking real questions about your health, you’re not alone. So many women are left to navigate painful periods, mood swings, hormonal acne, and fertility struggles without clear answers or support. In this episode, we’re digging into why that happens, what your hormones are really trying to tell you, and how to finally feel heard and understood. Our guest is Rachel Blank, founder of Allara, a platform built to bridge the gap in women’s hormonal healthcare. Together with Allara’s Medical Director, Dr. Tiffany Pham, we break down common myths, surprising truths, and practical ways to take charge of your hormone health today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Today on the bright Side, we're talking hormones, health, mysteries,
and the power of listening to our bodies with Rachel Blank,
the founder and CEO of Alara, so women's health tech
company that's demystifying hormonal care and making evidence based treatment
actually accessible. We get into why so many women feel dismissed,
what real support can actually look like, and how Rachel
(00:24):
turned her own confusing and very relatable experience into a
platform that's helping women everywhere feel more in tune with
their bodies and way less alone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
When I first started the business and I was first
fund raising, literally, I was told, probably nine times out
of ten, isn't this niche? Isn't this a niche market?
I'm like, oh, women's health is niche. Women like half
the world, and half the world it's like chronic conditions
affecting one in three women. Pretty Much every woman you
talk to has some sort of a story of this
is my medical issue, this is what I didn't get
(00:54):
care for.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm simone voice and this is the bright side from
Hello Sunshine. We're talking about women's health and specifically hormone
health on the show today, y'all, and I'm sure all
of us have a horror story that we can share
that took place inside of a doctor's office. I know
I do. One time I went to an obguin appointment
(01:18):
and the doctor left me spread eagle on the table
while she talked on the phone to her general contractor
about why her pool renovation was delayed. I am not joking.
I am not joking. This actually happened, and I was stunned.
I was just absolutely flabbergasted, and of course like mortified
(01:39):
and vulnerable. It felt violated. And this doctor, who was
a female doctor by the way, proceeded to tell me
that I had uterine scarring, which felt like a huge
bomb to drop on me while I'm spread eagle on
your table and in my early twenties. And she also
told me I may or may not be able to
have kids again, zero bedside manner when delivering life altering
(02:04):
medical information. That was two children ago, guys. So I'm
happy to report she was wrong. Needless to say, so
many of us have felt gas lit by the medical community,
and if it's happened to you, I am so sorry.
And this is particularly common when it comes to our
reproductive health. That's why our guest today is going to
(02:25):
be such a breath of fresh air. Rachel Blank is
the founder of Alara, a company working to make specialized
care more accessible for women dealing with hormonal health issues.
Alara offers hormone and metabolic testing, a process that measures
things like testosterone, ovarian function, thyroid function, vitamin deficiencies, and
(02:46):
many many other metrics to help identify imbalances and then
guide personalized treatment. I started looking into a Lara when
I was experiencing what I thought were extreme hormonal symptoms
in my own body. I was experiencing really and severe
hormonal acne, terribly painful periods, severe mood swings, and I
was basically just you know, going online and googling my
(03:09):
symptoms to see what was going on. So when I
came across a Lara, I was like, oh wow, this
is amazing a company that's actually making it easy to
understand what's happening in our bodies. And before she became
a Lara's founder, Rachel went through her own confusing, frustrating
health journey herself, and that's exactly why she knew she
(03:30):
was the woman who had to start this company. So
today we're diving into all of it her story of
raising forty six million dollars from a predominantly male venture
capital industry who thought women's health was niche at the time.
They couldn't be more wrong. Now you'll hear how Alara
helps diagnose and treat hormonal conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome
or PCOS, which is a very common hormonal disorder among
(03:53):
women who are a free productive age. And we are
also diving into my hormone results in real time with
a physician from Alara, And let me tell you, I
learned something about my own fertility in this conversation that
truly shocked me, and I have not stopped thinking about
it since. So if you've ever felt like your body
sending you weird signals that you can't decode, trust me,
(04:15):
you're not alone. And this one's for you.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Here's my conversation with Rachel Blank. Rachel Blank, welcome to
the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Thanks for having me, so happy to have you here.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You created Alara, and it's a company that helps women
solve their hormonal health problems? What was your why when
starting this company?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In a lot of ways, Alara is really just the
result of me being a really frustrated patient and wanting
something better for myself. I was diagnosed with PCOS or
polycystic ovarian syndrome about fifteen years ago now, and what
I found was that it was really hard to get
good ongoing care for my condition. I felt like it
was hard to find doctors who either wanted to treat
(04:56):
me because I was quote unquote not ready to get pregnant,
so what would they do, or I didn't look like
I had PCOS. And I realized actually that the concept
of a specialist for chronic conditions didn't really exist, and
so I spent many years kind of trying to figure
things out on my own. I would go on Reddit forums,
I would go on social media, I would try all
kinds of diets, and it just occurretinate one point that
(05:19):
in this day and age, women should not be resorting
to Reddit to solve very common hormonal health challenges. And
so Allara really was what I had always wanted as
a patient. It was bringing together the best of both
worlds of medicine and nutrition and lifestyle therapy, as well
as being a place that took women seriously and helped
them through their concerns.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Whatever they are taking women seriously is huge because I
know there are so many of us listening right now,
myself included, who feel like we haven't been taken seriously
in this department. I mean, speaking of not being taken seriously,
you were diagnosed with PCOS in the most unexpected way.
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, so my diagnosis is actually kind of a flu.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I had irregular periods pretty much ever since I started puberty.
I would get my period like once or twice a year,
And even though I'm the daughter of no Objian, I
somehow never thought to like ask about this. I actually think,
in hindsight, a lot of it was because I was ashamed.
I was ashamed of feeling different than my friends, of
feeling like the odd one out.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And I know a lot of women can relate to this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's almost like you kind of brush it aside or
don't look into it, because there's a lot of shame
around of feeling different, especially around things that affect your
fertility and things that we consider what make us a woman,
And so I just let all these symptoms kind of
get ignored. I had acne, I gained a bunch of
weight when I got to college, and I had a
bunch of gastro intestinal issues, which we actually know that
(06:44):
there is some thought that there's some overlap between hormone
health issues and GI issues. And in the process of
investigating those, I was getting an ultrasound and it was
the either the ultra CID or SONOGRAMO notch which one
it was. The tech for that that said do you
know you have PCOS? I was like, what are you
talking about? I even know what that is. She said, well,
your ovaries look like textbook PCOS ovaries. And I just
(07:06):
remember again feeling very alone and scared and ashamed in
a lot of ways, which, in hindsight to me is
so upsetting because it's such a common condition.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
It affects up to one in five women.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I've heard you say that receiving that diagnosis, while negative
and scary, you were able to reframe it as a
positive because it became this tool, this gateway for you
to learn more about your own body.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, I mean what to say, Knowledge is power, right,
and I think especially with women's health care, really we've
been left in the dark for a long time.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
If you look at research around women's health, it is underfunded.
We don't know enough about the female body, and so
I think any information you can have to help empower
you to make better decisions is valuable to you as
a patient. Something that we see a lot that I
find so frustrating is we'll see women who don't get
diagnosed with the condition like PCOS until they're in their thirties.
(08:01):
They've been going through an infertility battle. They they've been
trying for over a year to get pregnant, and it's
in the infertility doctor's office that they're being diagnosed with PCOS. Now,
at that point, you've been trying to get pregnant for
a year, you're probably going straight to IVF. You're like,
I will take any desperate measure I need to. But
in reality, had you known five ten years prior, you
(08:22):
might have been able to make different decisions or do
different things that would set you up more for success.
And so in a lot of ways, for example, I
feel like I haven't had kids yet, but going into
that process being equipped about what's going on with my body,
how do I best approach kind of pregnancy planning and
all of that, and not starting when I actually want
to get pregnant, but giving myself plenty of time to
(08:42):
figure things out first.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I think is such a powerful tool.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's the way it should be done. Yeah, we should
all be armed with that knowledge, and that knowledge can
just help us live better lives. It can increase our
quality of life because the reality is hormones touch everything.
We're not just talking about PMS or or mood swings
or hormonal acne. Can you elaborate on the link between
(09:06):
anxiety and depression and hormones.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, so, and I realized I just talked about pregnancy.
But I think that's such an important point that hormone
health is not just about your reproductive health. And in fact,
what we've talking about hormones, there are reproductive health hormones,
but there are also metabolic hormones and other hormones in
your body that affect so many different things for you.
So good example is a PCs patient, and I think
a lot of times we think about PCOS or historically
(09:31):
some doctors have thought about PCOS as a reproductive health issue.
How does it affect your fertility, your ovaries, your bloody
get pregnant. But it's not just your ovaries. We know
that a lot of women with PCs, for example, also
have insulin resistance. The vast majority of patients, and so
that sets them up for things like obesity diabetes. About
half of women with pcos will develop type two diabetes
(09:52):
by the time they're forty without proper interventions.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Staggering, yes, staggering.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And so by focusing just on, you know, the ovary
part of the we miss so much of the rest
of your health. Another big link is with mental health.
So we know that women with hormonal conditions like PCOS
have two to four times higher rates of anxiety and
depression compared to patients in the typical population. And again,
if you don't have the answer of why are you
(10:18):
experiencing all these symptoms, you don't know how to solve
them and how to get a handle on them, you're
just kind of left to suffer in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I just learned so much just now, and that is
truly heartbreaking, the fact that this negligence that stems from
the medical community just overlooking women in our needs is
actually leading to all these other conditions that are linked
to hormones.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I will say in defensive doctors for a second,
I mentioned my dad as an objin, but I think
really there were two kind of systemic things that I
was noticing that we're instrumental in how I built Alara.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I think one you know, I always say part of
the issue.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, there are some doctors who maybe don't care, but
there are so many doctors who do care. It's just
so hard in traditional practice settings to give the time
and attention that they want to to patients.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay, so explain that more, like why is it so hard?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So we think about the objian for example, they're often
practicing in hospital settings or in private equity backed roll ups.
They're operating in person, they've a ton of overhead, They're
seeing like five six patients an hour, right, They're jumping
from office to office. They're oftentimes treating somebody as their
primary care provider. I know so many women who use
their OB as a primary care provider. And so by
(11:28):
the time they've done your path, they've done your annual checkup,
they've talked to you about the really high level stuff.
They don't necessarily have time in that seven minute visit
to then go into the complexities of a condition like PCOS.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
In addition to providing patients with data on their hormones,
you also provide other suggestions as to how to treat
the hormones right exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So, something I had also noticed in the system was
that there was a lot of testing going on, and
you're seeing it all the time, right, You'll see startups
pop up all the time around testing. Testing isn't necessarily
that valuable in it and of itself. Right, If I
tell you that you have abnormal hormones, or maybe I
tell you that you have normal hormones, but you still
have symptoms that you're experiencing, how does it really help
you to just have that information. We need to give
(12:10):
you the tools to improve your symptoms, and we need
to give you tools that actually of licensed provider is
helping you with and not just saying okay, best of luck,
go figure it out on the internet.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, I've been really looking forward to this conversation today
because I am selfishly digging for information about my own hormones,
and our listeners know that I've gone through so many
hormonal issues and symptoms, from extremely painful periods to hormonal acne,
mood swings, thick dark hair growing in unwanted areas of
(12:41):
my body, and in an effort to destigmatize asking direct
questions about our health mysteries, we're actually going to discuss
the results of my hormone panel in real time. So
for this conversation a Laura's medical director, doctor Tiffany fam
is here to help. Hi, doctor Tiffany. Welcome to the
bright Side. Thank you so much for having me, Doctor Tiffany.
(13:04):
What's wild to me about hearing the results for the
first time is that I could have sworn that I
was going to get this hormone panel back and it
was going to be all over the map, that my
android is are going to be all the way up here,
my estrogen was going to be all the way down here.
So it's kind of dumbfounding to me that the results
were so normal, and yet what I was feeling felt
(13:27):
so extreme and so abnormal. Could you shed some light
on that gap between what we're feeling in our bodies
hormonally and what shows up in test results.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Some of the feelings that patients have when they are
experiencing their symptoms or they know that something is going
on underline, but their test results don't necessarily point to that.
Sometimes there can be a lot of disappointment because it's
much easier to say, yes, I can pinpoint one exact
thing that's wrong, and let's treat that and make you
feel better. At least you know internally that okay, there's
(14:02):
something that we can focus on. However, when the labs
come back normal, I think you're left with more questions
than answers, and that can be quite frustrating. So first off,
I think it's important, you know, as a provider, to
recognize that fact. And secondarily, I talk about the fact
that while you're experiencing these symptoms, your labs are only
part of the picture. Right. While we wish that labs
(14:23):
can be completely diagnostic, we're not always quite there yet
in terms of the science. So what I can say
from your blood work is that number one, testing your
hormones is a very nuanced thing to do because your
hormones are supposed to fluctuate and change throughout different phases
of your life, even throughout your minstrel cycle. So when
(14:43):
I'm looking at your hormones, it really is just a
snapshot of what is going on at that moment. And
if at moment I can't catch what that abnormality is
because the lab results come back normal or we don't
see any glaring underlying conditions that we can diagnose you
with that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have it. What
(15:03):
then we have to do is we have to address
the symptoms. So when we address the symptoms, we understand that, hey,
there is no PCOS that's causing your acne. So I
wouldn't want to recommend PCOS treatment for your acne. I
would want to look at your acne in a different
manner and make sure that I'm addressing other aspects of
your body, such as nutrition, stress levels, diet environment in
(15:27):
order to address your acne. Rather than saying, Okay, your
laves are normal. Let's move on.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
One last thing about my results. Can you tell whether
I'm in perimenopause or not.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
What we can say from your testing in and of
itself is that, in regards to your age, you're still
probably in the range quote unquote of what I would
expect your antibulaarian hormone level or IMH to be, but
probably a little bit on the lower end of the spectrum,
got it. So for someone like yourself, what I would
say is, especially if you're thinking about future fortility, when
(16:01):
do I need to start getting pregnant? Given what I'm
seeing with your AMH number, it's a conversation that I
would have with you and say, let's kind of think
about if you're interested in fertility, what that would look
like for you and whether your AMH is that going
to give us enough information of not whether you can
get pregnant or not, but what is that timeline you
have to get pregnant?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
If that makes sense? Yeah, wow, this is really interesting.
I didn't know that I was going to be thinking
about my fertility in this way today, Doctor Tiffany, this
has been so informative. Thank you so much for joining
us today.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Absolutely, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We've got to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with more from Rachel Blank. And we're back
with Rachel Blank. I know that you said that Alara
Health is almost like an homage to your dad.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, tell me more about that.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah. I think the thing that was most disappointing to
me growing up and learning more about how women experience
the health system is I actually had this very like
magical view of it when I was a kid. So
my dad does know what jin and growing up and
to this day, anytime we go to a restaurant, people
will be like, oh my god, doctor Blank, here's Johnny
who you delivered. Oh my gosh, you like helped me
so much with this And again to this day, he'll
(17:16):
stay up until you know, nine today night calling his patients.
He calls his patients on the weekend. He's so available
and attentive to them. And I think it's a very
old school style of medicine that isn't again isn't necessarily
able to be practiced anymore in the current setting. And
so it's that level of you have somebody in your corner,
you have somebody who cares about you. You have somebody
who will talk to you kind of all hours of
(17:36):
the night when you need it. It's that level of
care and devotion to patients that I'm actually really trying
to bring to more women because I didn't realize how
rare that was.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Actually, do you feel like growing up in a home
with a father who is an obguin really positioned you
to build this company and ask the right question?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yes, yeah, I mean we have a joke that like,
vagina's a normal world word at the dinner table in
my household, Like there really was nothing taboo or off
limits growing up.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And I think it really helped me in two ways.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I think one again, being able to tackle some of
these things without the kind of squeamishness let's say, right,
I mean I had to have a lot of conversations
with investors, by the way fundraising, about my irregular periods.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
That was not the most comfortable thing to do.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh my gosh. But you had to talk about this
in pitch meetings.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, well, because I would say, like, Hi'm Rachel, I
was Diagni's PCOS. Like, here's my story at irregular periods
growing up. I mean, there are symptoms of PCs. So
I was talking to mail investors to this day, I
talked to mail investors about periods, and so I think
number one that helped get me comfortable with that, and
number two, like I said, I really was able to see, Okay,
where is the traditional health system failing women, and where
is it feeling doctors? And what are the changes that
(18:47):
I could make in a new vision and a new
care model that could help address some of.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Those failures and do things differently.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I want to talk about how you built this company
and your conversations with investors. Yeah, because you raised forty
six million dollars in venture capital funding. What kind of
reactions did you get from investors when you were initially
pitching a.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Lara for as well, just set some context for listeners.
Most venture capital investors are men, especially the decision makers.
Only about two percent of venture funding goes to women
in general, not like women's health, but like women female
founders period. And so already it's an uphill battle to
fundraise as a female founder and CEO, and then layer
(19:28):
on top of it women's health, and you have quite
a mountain to climb. So I'd say, actually, what's been
really interesting has been seeing the evolution in the technology
and VC world around women's health. When I first started
the business and I was first fundraising, literally I was told,
probably nine times out of ten, isn't this niche? Isn't
this a niche market? I'm like, oh, women's health is niche?
(19:50):
Women like half the world, yeah, half the world, like
chronic conditions affecting one in three women. Pretty much every
woman you talk to has some sort of a story
of this is my medical issue, this is what I
didn't get care for, and so I really had to
do a lot of educating in the beginning around why
this was in need and why this was a problem.
It's actually the reason I started the business direct consumer
(20:10):
actually because I knew I was going to have to
have data points, both numerical data points around things like
acquisition costs and landing page views and things I could
point to, but also real human stories that I could
share with investors, because I just knew that if I
went to you know, these meal decision makers, whether they're
out a VC or they're at an insurance payer, and
(20:31):
I didn't have data with me, and I didn't have
real stories, that it was never going to work. So
I think that was actually one of the keys, was
going direct consumer and really going straight to the women
who needed the care and the problem.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
First, I would love to hear more about that. What
was the turning point for you? Because you were getting
these initial reactions from investors who weren't quite sure of
this idea or whether it was going to work, and
then eventually you raise forty six million dollars. So what
was the turning point? What was the breakthrough?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, well, so I didn't raise all of it once.
I started out raising very small amounts, and I think
that was the key, right, I would raise a little
bit and then I would go into the market and
I just I knew that women needed and wanted this,
Like that was something I always knew and was confident in,
and I just kept going back to investors and saying, well,
look at my data, look at how many women signed
up for this, Look at how many women are on
(21:16):
my waiting list, look at how many women are paying
this much money for this, and really being able to
show like, here is attraction I'm getting in market, and
just it's almost like you're unlocking steps right, Like you
raise a little bit of money, you go, show some traction,
then you go back, you raise more money, you show
more traction, raise more money, show more traction. I've been
very lucky for my last two fundraises that number one,
(21:37):
we were able to show enough traction that things kind
of flipped and then numbers really spoke for themselves. And two,
I think actually the really the world at large and
also the venture community has finally started to see that
women's health is real, that women's health is a real market,
that it's a big market, and that it needs more innovation.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I think you're a part of that legacy. I think
it's fair to say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They're not trying.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, are you? Do you look back at what you've created,
and do you feel a sense of.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, I would say I feel huge juster pride and
also a huge sense of like, I honestly like if
I had known at the beginning what it was going
to take.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And what the journey was going to be, I'm not
sure I would have done it.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It really was a lot of like one foot in
front of the other and just again just having truly
this feeling that I knew that women needed and wanted this,
and I knew that actually this needed to be in
the market. And I think that was actually what what
drove me. It wasn't like I'm starrying this thing because
I want to tell my friends I raised a bunch
of money, or I want to make a bunch of money.
It was I know that women need this and this
(22:33):
has to exist, and I think being fueled by that
actually allowed me to push through a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Talk to me about some of the moments that you
had to push through. I'm sure there were moments where
you're on your bathroom floor or wondering, oh my gosh,
what have I done. Can you give me an example
of one of those moments for you?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I mean, there were so many of these like startup
journey is riddled with crying moments, but a really tough
period was actually in twenty twenty two. The funding market
had like completely shifted. So in like twenty twenty twenty
twenty one, digital health was getting funded like crazy, like
you could raise crazy rounds, and then people realized that
maybe that was irresponsible use of capital, and so all
(23:13):
of the money dried up. And so I was sitting
there with a team of six patients who needed me
and relied on me, and a million dollars left in
the bank, which sounds like a lot, but when you
run a healthcare business where you're paying doctors and you
have legal fees and you're spending on Facebook ads like,
it is a little terrifying to have that little money left.
And I just remember thinking, like, are we going to
run out of money? How do I get my hands
(23:33):
on another like one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand. I
ended up cobbling together some angel investments from people that
I knew, and so we got another million in the bank,
and through that we just got really scrappy. We did
things really organic on social we did a lot with
a few people, and then thankfully because we showed how
much we could do with so little money.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
We ended up raising a Series A the next year.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
But I just I remember there was a point where
I was like, oh my god, this whole thing might
shut down, and I pations who count on me, like
how can I just abandon all of them?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So I know that the venture capital world is predominantly male,
but talk to me about some of the women who
came alongside you on this journey and helped you bring
this vision to life.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, I actually, you know, it's funny. My caftable is
predominantly men. My first couple investors were men. I do
have the when I said things really change around the
Series I. That was an incredible female investor at Google
Ventures who fought for the steal to happen, Like she
fought tooth and nail to make this steal happen, and
I owe so much to her. But the vast majority
(24:33):
of my investors have been men, which I actually think
sometimes there is this thought that I think, in a
lot of ways is false that if you're a female founder,
it's for women's health you need female funders. But I
actually think that ends up doing a lot of disservice
to a lot of women, because if you think about
the top tier funds, the decision makers, the managing partners,
those are men. And if you don't have men unfortunately
(24:54):
who are willing to back you and champion you, especially
at the beginning, I think it can be really hard
to be successful. And something else I noticed was that
a lot of the women at the VC funds I
was talking to would be more junior and so you
really have to be willing to go to bat for
a company that's a women's health company that's female founded
and they didn't always have the leverage at their firm,
or even like the confidence of I want to put
(25:16):
my neck on the line for this company, or I
want to really go to bat for this company in
a way that a managing partner at the firm just
doesn't have to do that. They don't have to stick
their neck out because they have what we call check
writing ability. I think we need not just more women investing,
but we need more women in senior positions of power
at funds because again, when if you think about only
two percent of capital goes to women, get to do
(25:36):
a lot of advocating to get that capital into the
hands of women and structurally, sometimes it can be hard
for women at these funds to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
More from a Lura founder, Rachel Blank after this shortbreak
and we're back with Rachel Blank. Is the experience of
being a female founder in a largely unexplored space, or
let's say, like a relatively new landscape is that isolating
at all?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I would say it's incredibly isolating. I mean, it's not
uncommon for me to go to an event, to dinner
or treat and feel very much like, oh, I'm one
of the only people who looks like me, and yeah,
it's very I think it can be very isolating when
you feel like there are not a lot of people
who look like you at the table, and I think,
you know, I also just want to call out my privilege.
I'm a white woman, right, Imagine somebody who's a woman
(26:29):
of color there are even fewer people who look like
them at these tables. And I think that actually is
another reason for me to do it though, right, I
need more women out there. For more women to be
out there, they need to see more examples of women
who've tried it and who've made it, And so I
think that's another motivating factor for me.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
It's clear that you are so motivated by the real
stories of women that you are helping as you're building
this business, and that you continue to help today. And
you mentioned that you would share these stories of real
patience with investors. Would you share one of those stories
with us of someone who is impacted by your work? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I have two that are coming to mind. One I
took a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
She had been trying to get pregnant for a year,
she had multiple miscarriages. We worked with her for over
six months on helping her regulate her period. We worked
both from a medical perspective, but also really importantly worked
with her on nutrition modification. So she met with her dietitian,
she did a lot of supplements, she did diet modification,
and I remember she emailed us that she had booked
(27:33):
a visit with her fertility doctor to start IVF and
when she sewed up to the visit, she was six
weeks pregnant.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Well she didn't need it. Yeah, Oh my gosh, talk
about success.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah exactly. Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, wow, wow, I have the biggest smile on my
I have chills talking about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And we have a number of those like we celebrate
the Alara baby, So anytime we hear something like that
we put in the slack.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Everybody gets so excited.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
But there's so many other ones right, Like we have
patients who've lost fifty pounds working with us, patients who
went from pre diabetic to normal insulin level ranges. There's
so many wins that you can have when it comes
to managing your health.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Rachel, have you ever thought about the fact that your
father is known in his community as this man who
brought so many babies into the world, and you're now
bringing babies into the world in a different way.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I mean, honest, I never thought about it, but that
is very cool. I love that for myself.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
You are continuing your father's legacy just in a different way.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That means a lot to me because I was way
too squeamish and bad a chemistry to be a doctor,
and I think for a long time I felt like, well,
how can I give back to the world in the
way that he has And it's amazing to see and
I think this is a good for a lot of people,
Like there are different ways to make an impact on
what you care about, So for me, it was being
on the business side. For some people it's being on
the medical side. For other people, it's like you, it's
(28:51):
you sharing your story with people and making people feel.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
More seen and heard. There are lots of ways that
you can contribute.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, speaking of contribute, I mean you and Alura have
already contributed so much to the women's health space. But
looking ahead, what do you see as the future of Alara?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
For me, the vision really is to be the trusted
platform in women's health where any woman feels that she
can come to for her health needs. I know we
talked a lot about hormones and hormone health, but the
truth is women have so many unmet needs and it's
not just about hormones, right. You might have symptoms that
are unrelated to them, you might have a chronic condition,
you might just need help getting pregnant.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
And so we really want to.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Be the place where if you feel like you have
a question or a need that's not being answered in
the traditional health system, you can come to us and
know that you will get help and get a set
of answers and set of tools to help you feel better.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And finally, as a founder, a boss, a friend, a
new wife, a woman in the world, what are the
ways in which you're looking on the bright side in
your own life.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Oh, I just got married, so that was amazing.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
And I will say, I know we talked about being
a founder being really isolating.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I give this advice.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think the most important business decision is who you
marry or who your life partner is. That has been
unbelievably supportive. So that's when we're going on our honeymoon
in a couple months. So that's on the bright side.
And I think overalls, I think about what we're building
in the industry we're in. I am actually so excited
about what's happening in women's health. I feel like finally
people are talking about it, Investors are taking it seriously,
(30:30):
even like insurers and employers. Everybody is really I think
recognizing that women's health has been underfunded, it has had
under met needs, and finally, I think we're seeing a
lot more innovation and attention being paid to it. And
so I'm just really excited to see what happens everywhere
in women's health and how we get women better healthcare access.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
The feature is looking bright.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yes, Thanks Rachel, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Rachel Blank is the founder and CEO of Alara, a
women's health company dedicated to making hormonal care more accessible, personalized,
and truly empowering. Check out Alara's website to find out
how you can join the community of women who are
prioritizing their health. The Brightside is a production of Hello
Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts and is executive produced by Reese
(31:18):
Witherspoon and me Simone Voice. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios.
Our producers are Taylor Williamson, Adrian Bain, and Darby Masters.
Our production assistant is Joya Putnoy. Acast executive producers are
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Maureen Polo and Reese Witherspoon
are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine. Ali Perry and
(31:38):
Christina Everett are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts. Tim
Palazzola is our showrunner. Our theme song is by Anna
Stump and Hamilton Lakehauser.
Today on the bright Side, we're talking hormones, health, mysteries,
and the power of listening to our bodies with Rachel Blank,
the founder and CEO of Alara, so women's health tech
company that's demystifying hormonal care and making evidence based treatment
actually accessible. We get into why so many women feel dismissed,
what real support can actually look like, and how Rachel
(00:24):
turned her own confusing and very relatable experience into a
platform that's helping women everywhere feel more in tune with
their bodies and way less alone.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
When I first started the business and I was first
fund raising, literally, I was told, probably nine times out
of ten, isn't this niche? Isn't this a niche market?
I'm like, oh, women's health is niche. Women like half
the world, and half the world it's like chronic conditions
affecting one in three women. Pretty Much every woman you
talk to has some sort of a story of this
is my medical issue, this is what I didn't get
(00:54):
care for.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm simone voice and this is the bright side from
Hello Sunshine. We're talking about women's health and specifically hormone
health on the show today, y'all, and I'm sure all
of us have a horror story that we can share
that took place inside of a doctor's office. I know
I do. One time I went to an obguin appointment
(01:18):
and the doctor left me spread eagle on the table
while she talked on the phone to her general contractor
about why her pool renovation was delayed. I am not joking.
I am not joking. This actually happened, and I was stunned.
I was just absolutely flabbergasted, and of course like mortified
(01:39):
and vulnerable. It felt violated. And this doctor, who was
a female doctor by the way, proceeded to tell me
that I had uterine scarring, which felt like a huge
bomb to drop on me while I'm spread eagle on
your table and in my early twenties. And she also
told me I may or may not be able to
have kids again, zero bedside manner when delivering life altering
(02:04):
medical information. That was two children ago, guys. So I'm
happy to report she was wrong. Needless to say, so
many of us have felt gas lit by the medical community,
and if it's happened to you, I am so sorry.
And this is particularly common when it comes to our
reproductive health. That's why our guest today is going to
(02:25):
be such a breath of fresh air. Rachel Blank is
the founder of Alara, a company working to make specialized
care more accessible for women dealing with hormonal health issues.
Alara offers hormone and metabolic testing, a process that measures
things like testosterone, ovarian function, thyroid function, vitamin deficiencies, and
(02:46):
many many other metrics to help identify imbalances and then
guide personalized treatment. I started looking into a Lara when
I was experiencing what I thought were extreme hormonal symptoms
in my own body. I was experiencing really and severe
hormonal acne, terribly painful periods, severe mood swings, and I
was basically just you know, going online and googling my
(03:09):
symptoms to see what was going on. So when I
came across a Lara, I was like, oh wow, this
is amazing a company that's actually making it easy to
understand what's happening in our bodies. And before she became
a Lara's founder, Rachel went through her own confusing, frustrating
health journey herself, and that's exactly why she knew she
(03:30):
was the woman who had to start this company. So
today we're diving into all of it her story of
raising forty six million dollars from a predominantly male venture
capital industry who thought women's health was niche at the time.
They couldn't be more wrong. Now you'll hear how Alara
helps diagnose and treat hormonal conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome
or PCOS, which is a very common hormonal disorder among
(03:53):
women who are a free productive age. And we are
also diving into my hormone results in real time with
a physician from Alara, And let me tell you, I
learned something about my own fertility in this conversation that
truly shocked me, and I have not stopped thinking about
it since. So if you've ever felt like your body
sending you weird signals that you can't decode, trust me,
(04:15):
you're not alone. And this one's for you.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
All right.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Here's my conversation with Rachel Blank. Rachel Blank, welcome to
the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Thanks for having me, so happy to have you here.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You created Alara, and it's a company that helps women
solve their hormonal health problems? What was your why when
starting this company?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
In a lot of ways, Alara is really just the
result of me being a really frustrated patient and wanting
something better for myself. I was diagnosed with PCOS or
polycystic ovarian syndrome about fifteen years ago now, and what
I found was that it was really hard to get
good ongoing care for my condition. I felt like it
was hard to find doctors who either wanted to treat
(04:56):
me because I was quote unquote not ready to get pregnant,
so what would they do, or I didn't look like
I had PCOS. And I realized actually that the concept
of a specialist for chronic conditions didn't really exist, and
so I spent many years kind of trying to figure
things out on my own. I would go on Reddit forums,
I would go on social media, I would try all
kinds of diets, and it just occurretinate one point that
(05:19):
in this day and age, women should not be resorting
to Reddit to solve very common hormonal health challenges. And
so Allara really was what I had always wanted as
a patient. It was bringing together the best of both
worlds of medicine and nutrition and lifestyle therapy, as well
as being a place that took women seriously and helped
them through their concerns.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Whatever they are taking women seriously is huge because I
know there are so many of us listening right now,
myself included, who feel like we haven't been taken seriously
in this department. I mean, speaking of not being taken seriously,
you were diagnosed with PCOS in the most unexpected way.
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, so my diagnosis is actually kind of a flu.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I had irregular periods pretty much ever since I started puberty.
I would get my period like once or twice a year,
And even though I'm the daughter of no Objian, I
somehow never thought to like ask about this. I actually think,
in hindsight, a lot of it was because I was ashamed.
I was ashamed of feeling different than my friends, of
feeling like the odd one out.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And I know a lot of women can relate to this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's almost like you kind of brush it aside or
don't look into it, because there's a lot of shame
around of feeling different, especially around things that affect your
fertility and things that we consider what make us a woman,
And so I just let all these symptoms kind of
get ignored. I had acne, I gained a bunch of
weight when I got to college, and I had a
bunch of gastro intestinal issues, which we actually know that
(06:44):
there is some thought that there's some overlap between hormone
health issues and GI issues. And in the process of
investigating those, I was getting an ultrasound and it was
the either the ultra CID or SONOGRAMO notch which one
it was. The tech for that that said do you
know you have PCOS? I was like, what are you
talking about? I even know what that is. She said, well,
your ovaries look like textbook PCOS ovaries. And I just
(07:06):
remember again feeling very alone and scared and ashamed in
a lot of ways, which, in hindsight to me is
so upsetting because it's such a common condition.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
It affects up to one in five women.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I've heard you say that receiving that diagnosis, while negative
and scary, you were able to reframe it as a
positive because it became this tool, this gateway for you
to learn more about your own body.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, I mean what to say, Knowledge is power, right,
and I think especially with women's health care, really we've
been left in the dark for a long time.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
If you look at research around women's health, it is underfunded.
We don't know enough about the female body, and so
I think any information you can have to help empower
you to make better decisions is valuable to you as
a patient. Something that we see a lot that I
find so frustrating is we'll see women who don't get
diagnosed with the condition like PCOS until they're in their thirties.
(08:01):
They've been going through an infertility battle. They they've been
trying for over a year to get pregnant, and it's
in the infertility doctor's office that they're being diagnosed with PCOS. Now,
at that point, you've been trying to get pregnant for
a year, you're probably going straight to IVF. You're like,
I will take any desperate measure I need to. But
in reality, had you known five ten years prior, you
(08:22):
might have been able to make different decisions or do
different things that would set you up more for success.
And so in a lot of ways, for example, I
feel like I haven't had kids yet, but going into
that process being equipped about what's going on with my body,
how do I best approach kind of pregnancy planning and
all of that, and not starting when I actually want
to get pregnant, but giving myself plenty of time to
(08:42):
figure things out first.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I think is such a powerful tool.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's the way it should be done. Yeah, we should
all be armed with that knowledge, and that knowledge can
just help us live better lives. It can increase our
quality of life because the reality is hormones touch everything.
We're not just talking about PMS or or mood swings
or hormonal acne. Can you elaborate on the link between
(09:06):
anxiety and depression and hormones.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, so, and I realized I just talked about pregnancy.
But I think that's such an important point that hormone
health is not just about your reproductive health. And in fact,
what we've talking about hormones, there are reproductive health hormones,
but there are also metabolic hormones and other hormones in
your body that affect so many different things for you.
So good example is a PCs patient, and I think
a lot of times we think about PCOS or historically
(09:31):
some doctors have thought about PCOS as a reproductive health issue.
How does it affect your fertility, your ovaries, your bloody
get pregnant. But it's not just your ovaries. We know
that a lot of women with PCs, for example, also
have insulin resistance. The vast majority of patients, and so
that sets them up for things like obesity diabetes. About
half of women with pcos will develop type two diabetes
(09:52):
by the time they're forty without proper interventions.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Staggering, yes, staggering.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And so by focusing just on, you know, the ovary
part of the we miss so much of the rest
of your health. Another big link is with mental health.
So we know that women with hormonal conditions like PCOS
have two to four times higher rates of anxiety and
depression compared to patients in the typical population. And again,
if you don't have the answer of why are you
(10:18):
experiencing all these symptoms, you don't know how to solve
them and how to get a handle on them, you're
just kind of left to suffer in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
I just learned so much just now, and that is
truly heartbreaking, the fact that this negligence that stems from
the medical community just overlooking women in our needs is
actually leading to all these other conditions that are linked
to hormones.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I will say in defensive doctors for a second,
I mentioned my dad as an objin, but I think
really there were two kind of systemic things that I
was noticing that we're instrumental in how I built Alara.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I think one you know, I always say part of
the issue.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yes, there are some doctors who maybe don't care, but
there are so many doctors who do care. It's just
so hard in traditional practice settings to give the time
and attention that they want to to patients.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Okay, so explain that more, like why is it so hard?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So we think about the objian for example, they're often
practicing in hospital settings or in private equity backed roll ups.
They're operating in person, they've a ton of overhead, They're
seeing like five six patients an hour, right, They're jumping
from office to office. They're oftentimes treating somebody as their
primary care provider. I know so many women who use
their OB as a primary care provider. And so by
(11:28):
the time they've done your path, they've done your annual checkup,
they've talked to you about the really high level stuff.
They don't necessarily have time in that seven minute visit
to then go into the complexities of a condition like PCOS.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
In addition to providing patients with data on their hormones,
you also provide other suggestions as to how to treat
the hormones right exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So, something I had also noticed in the system was
that there was a lot of testing going on, and
you're seeing it all the time, right, You'll see startups
pop up all the time around testing. Testing isn't necessarily
that valuable in it and of itself. Right, If I
tell you that you have abnormal hormones, or maybe I
tell you that you have normal hormones, but you still
have symptoms that you're experiencing, how does it really help
you to just have that information. We need to give
(12:10):
you the tools to improve your symptoms, and we need
to give you tools that actually of licensed provider is
helping you with and not just saying okay, best of luck,
go figure it out on the internet.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, I've been really looking forward to this conversation today
because I am selfishly digging for information about my own hormones,
and our listeners know that I've gone through so many
hormonal issues and symptoms, from extremely painful periods to hormonal acne,
mood swings, thick dark hair growing in unwanted areas of
(12:41):
my body, and in an effort to destigmatize asking direct
questions about our health mysteries, we're actually going to discuss
the results of my hormone panel in real time. So
for this conversation a Laura's medical director, doctor Tiffany fam
is here to help. Hi, doctor Tiffany. Welcome to the
bright Side. Thank you so much for having me, Doctor Tiffany.
(13:04):
What's wild to me about hearing the results for the
first time is that I could have sworn that I
was going to get this hormone panel back and it
was going to be all over the map, that my
android is are going to be all the way up here,
my estrogen was going to be all the way down here.
So it's kind of dumbfounding to me that the results
were so normal, and yet what I was feeling felt
(13:27):
so extreme and so abnormal. Could you shed some light
on that gap between what we're feeling in our bodies
hormonally and what shows up in test results.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Some of the feelings that patients have when they are
experiencing their symptoms or they know that something is going
on underline, but their test results don't necessarily point to that.
Sometimes there can be a lot of disappointment because it's
much easier to say, yes, I can pinpoint one exact
thing that's wrong, and let's treat that and make you
feel better. At least you know internally that okay, there's
(14:02):
something that we can focus on. However, when the labs
come back normal, I think you're left with more questions
than answers, and that can be quite frustrating. So first off,
I think it's important, you know, as a provider, to
recognize that fact. And secondarily, I talk about the fact
that while you're experiencing these symptoms, your labs are only
part of the picture. Right. While we wish that labs
(14:23):
can be completely diagnostic, we're not always quite there yet
in terms of the science. So what I can say
from your blood work is that number one, testing your
hormones is a very nuanced thing to do because your
hormones are supposed to fluctuate and change throughout different phases
of your life, even throughout your minstrel cycle. So when
(14:43):
I'm looking at your hormones, it really is just a
snapshot of what is going on at that moment. And
if at moment I can't catch what that abnormality is
because the lab results come back normal or we don't
see any glaring underlying conditions that we can diagnose you
with that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have it. What
(15:03):
then we have to do is we have to address
the symptoms. So when we address the symptoms, we understand that, hey,
there is no PCOS that's causing your acne. So I
wouldn't want to recommend PCOS treatment for your acne. I
would want to look at your acne in a different
manner and make sure that I'm addressing other aspects of
your body, such as nutrition, stress levels, diet environment in
(15:27):
order to address your acne. Rather than saying, Okay, your
laves are normal. Let's move on.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
One last thing about my results. Can you tell whether
I'm in perimenopause or not.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
What we can say from your testing in and of
itself is that, in regards to your age, you're still
probably in the range quote unquote of what I would
expect your antibulaarian hormone level or IMH to be, but
probably a little bit on the lower end of the spectrum,
got it. So for someone like yourself, what I would
say is, especially if you're thinking about future fortility, when
(16:01):
do I need to start getting pregnant? Given what I'm
seeing with your AMH number, it's a conversation that I
would have with you and say, let's kind of think
about if you're interested in fertility, what that would look
like for you and whether your AMH is that going
to give us enough information of not whether you can
get pregnant or not, but what is that timeline you
have to get pregnant?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
If that makes sense? Yeah, wow, this is really interesting.
I didn't know that I was going to be thinking
about my fertility in this way today, Doctor Tiffany, this
has been so informative. Thank you so much for joining
us today.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Absolutely, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
We've got to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with more from Rachel Blank. And we're back
with Rachel Blank. I know that you said that Alara
Health is almost like an homage to your dad.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Yeah, tell me more about that.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah. I think the thing that was most disappointing to
me growing up and learning more about how women experience
the health system is I actually had this very like
magical view of it when I was a kid. So
my dad does know what jin and growing up and
to this day, anytime we go to a restaurant, people
will be like, oh my god, doctor Blank, here's Johnny
who you delivered. Oh my gosh, you like helped me
so much with this And again to this day, he'll
(17:16):
stay up until you know, nine today night calling his patients.
He calls his patients on the weekend. He's so available
and attentive to them. And I think it's a very
old school style of medicine that isn't again isn't necessarily
able to be practiced anymore in the current setting. And
so it's that level of you have somebody in your corner,
you have somebody who cares about you. You have somebody
who will talk to you kind of all hours of
(17:36):
the night when you need it. It's that level of
care and devotion to patients that I'm actually really trying
to bring to more women because I didn't realize how
rare that was.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Actually, do you feel like growing up in a home
with a father who is an obguin really positioned you
to build this company and ask the right question?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yes, yeah, I mean we have a joke that like,
vagina's a normal world word at the dinner table in
my household, Like there really was nothing taboo or off
limits growing up.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And I think it really helped me in two ways.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I think one again, being able to tackle some of
these things without the kind of squeamishness let's say, right,
I mean I had to have a lot of conversations
with investors, by the way fundraising, about my irregular periods.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
That was not the most comfortable thing to do.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Oh my gosh. But you had to talk about this
in pitch meetings.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, well, because I would say, like, Hi'm Rachel, I
was Diagni's PCOS. Like, here's my story at irregular periods
growing up. I mean, there are symptoms of PCs. So
I was talking to mail investors to this day, I
talked to mail investors about periods, and so I think
number one that helped get me comfortable with that, and
number two, like I said, I really was able to see, Okay,
where is the traditional health system failing women, and where
is it feeling doctors? And what are the changes that
(18:47):
I could make in a new vision and a new
care model that could help address some of.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Those failures and do things differently.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I want to talk about how you built this company
and your conversations with investors. Yeah, because you raised forty
six million dollars in venture capital funding. What kind of
reactions did you get from investors when you were initially
pitching a.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Lara for as well, just set some context for listeners.
Most venture capital investors are men, especially the decision makers.
Only about two percent of venture funding goes to women
in general, not like women's health, but like women female
founders period. And so already it's an uphill battle to
fundraise as a female founder and CEO, and then layer
(19:28):
on top of it women's health, and you have quite
a mountain to climb. So I'd say, actually, what's been
really interesting has been seeing the evolution in the technology
and VC world around women's health. When I first started
the business and I was first fundraising, literally I was told,
probably nine times out of ten, isn't this niche? Isn't
this a niche market? I'm like, oh, women's health is niche?
(19:50):
Women like half the world, yeah, half the world, like
chronic conditions affecting one in three women. Pretty much every
woman you talk to has some sort of a story
of this is my medical issue, this is what I
didn't get care for, and so I really had to
do a lot of educating in the beginning around why
this was in need and why this was a problem.
It's actually the reason I started the business direct consumer
(20:10):
actually because I knew I was going to have to
have data points, both numerical data points around things like
acquisition costs and landing page views and things I could
point to, but also real human stories that I could
share with investors, because I just knew that if I
went to you know, these meal decision makers, whether they're
out a VC or they're at an insurance payer, and
(20:31):
I didn't have data with me, and I didn't have
real stories, that it was never going to work. So
I think that was actually one of the keys, was
going direct consumer and really going straight to the women
who needed the care and the problem.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
First, I would love to hear more about that. What
was the turning point for you? Because you were getting
these initial reactions from investors who weren't quite sure of
this idea or whether it was going to work, and
then eventually you raise forty six million dollars. So what
was the turning point? What was the breakthrough?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, well, so I didn't raise all of it once.
I started out raising very small amounts, and I think
that was the key, right, I would raise a little
bit and then I would go into the market and
I just I knew that women needed and wanted this,
Like that was something I always knew and was confident in,
and I just kept going back to investors and saying, well,
look at my data, look at how many women signed
up for this, Look at how many women are on
(21:16):
my waiting list, look at how many women are paying
this much money for this, and really being able to
show like, here is attraction I'm getting in market, and
just it's almost like you're unlocking steps right, Like you
raise a little bit of money, you go, show some traction,
then you go back, you raise more money, you show
more traction, raise more money, show more traction. I've been
very lucky for my last two fundraises that number one,
(21:37):
we were able to show enough traction that things kind
of flipped and then numbers really spoke for themselves. And two,
I think actually the really the world at large and
also the venture community has finally started to see that
women's health is real, that women's health is a real market,
that it's a big market, and that it needs more innovation.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I think you're a part of that legacy. I think
it's fair to say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They're not trying.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, are you? Do you look back at what you've created,
and do you feel a sense of.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, I would say I feel huge juster pride and
also a huge sense of like, I honestly like if
I had known at the beginning what it was going
to take.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And what the journey was going to be, I'm not
sure I would have done it.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
It really was a lot of like one foot in
front of the other and just again just having truly
this feeling that I knew that women needed and wanted this,
and I knew that actually this needed to be in
the market. And I think that was actually what what
drove me. It wasn't like I'm starrying this thing because
I want to tell my friends I raised a bunch
of money, or I want to make a bunch of money.
It was I know that women need this and this
(22:33):
has to exist, and I think being fueled by that
actually allowed me to push through a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Talk to me about some of the moments that you
had to push through. I'm sure there were moments where
you're on your bathroom floor or wondering, oh my gosh,
what have I done. Can you give me an example
of one of those moments for you?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I mean, there were so many of these like startup
journey is riddled with crying moments, but a really tough
period was actually in twenty twenty two. The funding market
had like completely shifted. So in like twenty twenty twenty
twenty one, digital health was getting funded like crazy, like
you could raise crazy rounds, and then people realized that
maybe that was irresponsible use of capital, and so all
(23:13):
of the money dried up. And so I was sitting
there with a team of six patients who needed me
and relied on me, and a million dollars left in
the bank, which sounds like a lot, but when you
run a healthcare business where you're paying doctors and you
have legal fees and you're spending on Facebook ads like,
it is a little terrifying to have that little money left.
And I just remember thinking, like, are we going to
run out of money? How do I get my hands
(23:33):
on another like one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand. I
ended up cobbling together some angel investments from people that
I knew, and so we got another million in the bank,
and through that we just got really scrappy. We did
things really organic on social we did a lot with
a few people, and then thankfully because we showed how
much we could do with so little money.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
We ended up raising a Series A the next year.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
But I just I remember there was a point where
I was like, oh my god, this whole thing might
shut down, and I pations who count on me, like
how can I just abandon all of them?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So I know that the venture capital world is predominantly male,
but talk to me about some of the women who
came alongside you on this journey and helped you bring
this vision to life.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, I actually, you know, it's funny. My caftable is
predominantly men. My first couple investors were men. I do
have the when I said things really change around the
Series I. That was an incredible female investor at Google
Ventures who fought for the steal to happen, Like she
fought tooth and nail to make this steal happen, and
I owe so much to her. But the vast majority
(24:33):
of my investors have been men, which I actually think
sometimes there is this thought that I think, in a
lot of ways is false that if you're a female founder,
it's for women's health you need female funders. But I
actually think that ends up doing a lot of disservice
to a lot of women, because if you think about
the top tier funds, the decision makers, the managing partners,
those are men. And if you don't have men unfortunately
(24:54):
who are willing to back you and champion you, especially
at the beginning, I think it can be really hard
to be successful. And something else I noticed was that
a lot of the women at the VC funds I
was talking to would be more junior and so you
really have to be willing to go to bat for
a company that's a women's health company that's female founded
and they didn't always have the leverage at their firm,
or even like the confidence of I want to put
(25:16):
my neck on the line for this company, or I
want to really go to bat for this company in
a way that a managing partner at the firm just
doesn't have to do that. They don't have to stick
their neck out because they have what we call check
writing ability. I think we need not just more women investing,
but we need more women in senior positions of power
at funds because again, when if you think about only
two percent of capital goes to women, get to do
(25:36):
a lot of advocating to get that capital into the
hands of women and structurally, sometimes it can be hard
for women at these funds to do that.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
More from a Lura founder, Rachel Blank after this shortbreak
and we're back with Rachel Blank. Is the experience of
being a female founder in a largely unexplored space, or
let's say, like a relatively new landscape is that isolating
at all?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I would say it's incredibly isolating. I mean, it's not
uncommon for me to go to an event, to dinner
or treat and feel very much like, oh, I'm one
of the only people who looks like me, and yeah,
it's very I think it can be very isolating when
you feel like there are not a lot of people
who look like you at the table, and I think,
you know, I also just want to call out my privilege.
I'm a white woman, right, Imagine somebody who's a woman
(26:29):
of color there are even fewer people who look like
them at these tables. And I think that actually is
another reason for me to do it though, right, I
need more women out there. For more women to be
out there, they need to see more examples of women
who've tried it and who've made it, And so I
think that's another motivating factor for me.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
It's clear that you are so motivated by the real
stories of women that you are helping as you're building
this business, and that you continue to help today. And
you mentioned that you would share these stories of real
patience with investors. Would you share one of those stories
with us of someone who is impacted by your work? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
I have two that are coming to mind. One I
took a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
She had been trying to get pregnant for a year,
she had multiple miscarriages. We worked with her for over
six months on helping her regulate her period. We worked
both from a medical perspective, but also really importantly worked
with her on nutrition modification. So she met with her dietitian,
she did a lot of supplements, she did diet modification,
and I remember she emailed us that she had booked
(27:33):
a visit with her fertility doctor to start IVF and
when she sewed up to the visit, she was six
weeks pregnant.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Well she didn't need it. Yeah, Oh my gosh, talk
about success.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah exactly. Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, wow, wow, I have the biggest smile on my
I have chills talking about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
And we have a number of those like we celebrate
the Alara baby, So anytime we hear something like that
we put in the slack.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Everybody gets so excited.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
But there's so many other ones right, Like we have
patients who've lost fifty pounds working with us, patients who
went from pre diabetic to normal insulin level ranges. There's
so many wins that you can have when it comes
to managing your health.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Rachel, have you ever thought about the fact that your
father is known in his community as this man who
brought so many babies into the world, and you're now
bringing babies into the world in a different way.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I mean, honest, I never thought about it, but that
is very cool. I love that for myself.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
You are continuing your father's legacy just in a different way.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
That means a lot to me because I was way
too squeamish and bad a chemistry to be a doctor,
and I think for a long time I felt like, well,
how can I give back to the world in the
way that he has And it's amazing to see and
I think this is a good for a lot of people,
Like there are different ways to make an impact on
what you care about, So for me, it was being
on the business side. For some people it's being on
the medical side. For other people, it's like you, it's
(28:51):
you sharing your story with people and making people feel.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
More seen and heard. There are lots of ways that
you can contribute.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Well, speaking of contribute, I mean you and Alura have
already contributed so much to the women's health space. But
looking ahead, what do you see as the future of Alara?
Speaker 2 (29:10):
For me, the vision really is to be the trusted
platform in women's health where any woman feels that she
can come to for her health needs. I know we
talked a lot about hormones and hormone health, but the
truth is women have so many unmet needs and it's
not just about hormones, right. You might have symptoms that
are unrelated to them, you might have a chronic condition,
you might just need help getting pregnant.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
And so we really want to.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Be the place where if you feel like you have
a question or a need that's not being answered in
the traditional health system, you can come to us and
know that you will get help and get a set
of answers and set of tools to help you feel better.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And finally, as a founder, a boss, a friend, a
new wife, a woman in the world, what are the
ways in which you're looking on the bright side in
your own life.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Oh, I just got married, so that was amazing.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
And I will say, I know we talked about being
a founder being really isolating.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
I give this advice.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
I think the most important business decision is who you
marry or who your life partner is. That has been
unbelievably supportive. So that's when we're going on our honeymoon
in a couple months. So that's on the bright side.
And I think overalls, I think about what we're building
in the industry we're in. I am actually so excited
about what's happening in women's health. I feel like finally
people are talking about it, Investors are taking it seriously,
(30:30):
even like insurers and employers. Everybody is really I think
recognizing that women's health has been underfunded, it has had
under met needs, and finally, I think we're seeing a
lot more innovation and attention being paid to it. And
so I'm just really excited to see what happens everywhere
in women's health and how we get women better healthcare access.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
The feature is looking bright.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yes, Thanks Rachel, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Rachel Blank is the founder and CEO of Alara, a
women's health company dedicated to making hormonal care more accessible, personalized,
and truly empowering. Check out Alara's website to find out
how you can join the community of women who are
prioritizing their health. The Brightside is a production of Hello
Sunshine and iHeart Podcasts and is executive produced by Reese
(31:18):
Witherspoon and me Simone Voice. Production is by ACAST Creative Studios.
Our producers are Taylor Williamson, Adrian Bain, and Darby Masters.
Our production assistant is Joya Putnoy. Acast executive producers are
Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Maureen Polo and Reese Witherspoon
are the executive producers for Hello Sunshine. Ali Perry and
(31:38):
Christina Everett are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts. Tim
Palazzola is our showrunner. Our theme song is by Anna
Stump and Hamilton Lakehauser.
Host
Simone Boyce
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