Happy International Women in my life

Today being #InternationalWomensDay seems extremely fitting for an overdue Linkedin update. Because WOMEN and INTERNATIONAL are two words that summarise my founder journey at Zinc so far.

For those catching up, I'm in my last weeks of a startup impact incubator – where a carefully curated group of supertalent is brought together with needle-in-a-haystack chances of finding THE one – their cofounder – AND an idea that can be as commercially backable as it is impactful for humanity.

I found not one but two needles. Two cofounders, where our individual missions have forged to create a supermission: to close the women's health data gap by empowering women with insight into their biology and the ability to codesign their healthcare. More on that one day, but today about these two cofounders.

Let me introduce Liza Levy and Alexandra Oti .

Liza is the definition of global citizen and international businesswoman. As an Argentinian-Israeli-Brit, she speaks 5 languages (one of which is Chinese!) having spent a decade working in China. Her INSEAD business acumen is a total contrast to her natural creativity – and a perfect explanation for her career, which includes A-list brand & marketing agencies as well as growing a healthech startup from seed to IPO.

She brings human empathy and a "global from the start" approach to our business. What drives her is a visceral belief that when women are uninhibited by health issues, and can live their fullest lives, they will create a better world.

Dr Alex is a pandora's box of medical expertise. She's a doctor and clinical researcher having trained at Oxford, Cambridge, and UC San Diego. "Oh, I forgot to tell you I also have a Biomedical Engineering degree" was something she once told us! As if destined for our mission, she was previously a cofounder at a Cambridge spinout startup, using Ai for health data prediction. (We'll be using Ai to rapidly accelerate women's health knowledge. More on that in another post.)

Inspired by her clinic experience with patients, she was on a personal mission to tackle the many neglected conditions out there, that happen to mostly affect women. Conditions like UTIs, Migraines, PCOS, BV, Perimenopause... which are ongoing, and lead to debilitating life impact –?and yet because they are not life-threatening, and are tricky to figure out, end up dragging on for years.

Me – I bring big visions to life. For those who don't know I've been obsessed with hormones and health optimisation for years. I genuinely believe that when we understand what is going on in our individual bodies, we are empowered to choose, try and experiment with the many treatment options out there to find what works.

What's crazy is about 20 years ago I refused to 'take the pill' as the only solution to PCO(s) and hormonal acne. And two decades years later, now feeling the creep of perimenopause, I find myself once again being offered "the pill" (or HRT?– hormones in another form) as a solution to monthly, unusual symptoms.

This is crazy since in 20 technology has evolved to measure atmosphere on Mars, and yet no one can accurately measure the thing that is possibly most cetral and unique to women's bodies. One-off blood tests, taken on a single random day, are just. not. cutting. it.

"Every woman I know has a story about leaving her doctor's office with more questions than answers. Not because our doctors are withholding information, but because there's just not enough research yet on how to best manage and treat even common women's health conditions." Jill Biden, announcing the new White House Women's Health Initiative in Nov 2024.

I have been that woman. Too many times.

Liza has been that woman, and still suffers monthly debilitating migraines caused by her hormones.

Dr Alex sees women like this in her clinic hours every day.

Together, we're on a mission to change this.

We have founded UNRAVEL HEALTH – combining revolutionary female-centric diagnostic tech with Ai and the power of women's collective wisdom, to accelerate closing of this women's health gap.

In the wise words of ZINC CEO Paul Kirby what you want in a founder match is the energy equivalent of "1+1 = 11".

What our team has is 1+1+1 = 33.

Watch this space.