Lisa Kinsella of LUWI on the Contraception Option Women Don't Know Exists

What happens when women design contraception for women?

In this episode of ROAR, host Danielle Davies talks with Lisa Kinsella, founder of LUWI, and Samantha Feingold, LUWI’s product coordinator and educator, about creating a revolutionary internal liner that empowers women with autonomy over their bodies.

They discuss the challenges of launching a new product in the FemTech space, the need for non-latex and hormone-free options, and why inclusive, women-led design is essential to the future of sexual health.

💥 Topics we cover

• Why LUWI was built—and how it’s changing the conversation about contraception

• The importance of women’s autonomy in sexual wellness

• How innovation in FemTech is addressing unmet health needs

• What it takes to bring a revolutionary idea to market

00:00 Introduction to Roar Podcast

00:26 Meet the Guests: Lisa Kinsella and Samantha Feingold

01:19 The Mission of LUWI

02:18 Challenges in Women's Personal Safety

03:30 Introducing LUWI: A Revolutionary Product

07:16 Sam's Journey and the Importance of Education

09:46 The Rise of STIs and the Need for Better Protection

16:34 Lisa's Personal Journey and Founding LUWI

20:41 Challenges in FemTech and Fundraising

24:29 Facing Doubts and Challenges

25:33 Funding Success and Crowdfunding

27:56 Collaborations and Partnerships

30:25 Sexual Health Education and LUWI

34:15 Future Goals and Expansion

40:20 Advice for Aspiring Innovators

45:53 Conclusion and Call to Action

Listen to ROAR with Danielle Davies: Women, Culture & Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. New conversations every Tuesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imwh71HXp40

Full Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio (without punctuation) and lightly cleaned up. It may contain small errors.

I'm not where I'm hey I'm Danielle Davies and you're listening to ROAR a show that amplifies the voices of women breaking barriers leading change and making real impact keep listening for bold ideas and stories that inspire you to find your voice and make some noise hi everybody this is Danielle Davies with the ROAR podcast today I'll be speaking with Lisa Kinsella founder of LUWI Samantha fold product coordinator and educator of LUWI Lou is an internal liner for contraception and STI protection and possibly my favorite part

Is that the name is an acronym for let us wear it there's no better time for women to have autonomy over their bodies and agency over our choices so I'm really excited let's talk to Lisa and Sam welcome hi Danielle great to be here thank you so much for having us thank you for being here I really appreciate it I'm excited part of the reason I did this pod is because people women in particular advocate for change in so many different ways and we advocate for

Ourselves and whether we're comedians or we're politicians or we're authors or we're app developers there's so many ways we can help women go forward live our best lives so I'm trying to talk to people from all different spaces but I love this and Lisa I would love if you could tell me the mission of LUWI and how it stands out in the realm of personal safety for women absolutely so we are I mean you know LUWI stands for advocacy right it's all about advocacy because advocacy

Is personal choice it's personal protection it's safety on your terms right so this product is essential I mean not just because there isn't another option on the market for women it's crazy how this aisle at CVS and Target is completely outdated I mean haven't seen another category that is equally as stagnant over 60 years right and so it's so important today to be able to bring this forth and to be able to perpetuate advocacy personal choice safety all of those that's at our core absolutely and

It's interesting too because you know I know you have a daughter I have a daughter and just the things they bring to the table are a whole new era of things and it's like this thing is completely missing yeah I mean you know condoms put women in this space the space of a of a role that requires women to rely on someone else that is not a powerful space and we've got this generation I mean you Danielle you're raising I'm raising this Sam is this of

Women that are equal it's it's this egalitarianism everywhere they're equal at home at work at school intimately we need that as well they're expecting that right this isn't you know my daughter is shocked that 1974 was the first time women could have a bank account right and that's the situation we're in where we want this next Generation I mean I guess we're looking for the younger genes that are not yet you know in college and the J to come to this Sexual Health aisle and recognize

There is an option for them there was never a time where there wasn't an option that enabled them to have advocacy exactly and you know what we should actually Jump Ahead to exactly what it is right because it's a female liner it's different and it's not just for females it's a liner right it's an STI preventing contraceptive and hormone free latex-free liner so we so it's essentially it's the opposite of a condom right it forms a second skin on the inside and it's designed for women

However it is loved by men and so it is very versatile because you can use it on it or in it so we have this excitement from the commun we have this excitement from the non-binary folks right everybody wants to have agency they want an option they want to be able to say hey I've got me I'm in charge of me and that's what LUWI enables right it's not just for a woman it's not just for on the inside it can be put on a penis

To be inserted inside anally or vaginally yeah I love the us and let us wear it because it really provides that agency to everyone and there's so many options to have protection and pleasure so and protection my son's gonna love this but you know I shipped him off to college with a box of condoms and I don't want to have to ship that same thing with my daughter because it puts in the position of saying hey can you that's why I love the name let us

Wear it like it's so clever it's such a good it's such a good name but okay yeah that it really is limiting women's control a just inherent in that product is there's a limitation of women's control and that's not okay I mean especially today just what you're talking about in today's environment this is essential I mean I we can't find another category in the world where there is such stagnancy you know we have our daughters the only option they have is the same option that our

Mothers had isn't it crazy too and Sam it's got to be crazy from your perspective because Lisa and I are you know we have kids approaching your age right so for us and I don't know how you feel about this Lisa because you've been so involved in it but for me I'm like this is so cool this is so great look it look what we can do I it's like the same way I probably felt about the internet when it first came out I just you

Know it's something new and exciting but for our girls and younger Generations they're expecting this is what they've come into I mean my daughter does not back down and I'm so proud of that because she and why should she why should she I mean yes we encourage her to listen to us but we encourage her to speak up and to speak out and to have an opinion and a voice and this is giving those girls that voice and some of them may not even have been

Aware that they weren't possibly going to have it and now it's going to be available exactly I mean exactly you know Danielle I think I mean you and I Sam doesn't remember this wonderfully but you and I do when we first learned to shave our legs we had to use our dad's shaving cream yes we didn't have a product for us and of course I mean would you know go to Target whatever she would never consider using her dads there's a product made for her for

Her skin that's the same situation there like how Preposterous that there wouldn't be an option and that's where this next generation is going to be when LUWI's on the market which is awesome and Sam we keep mentioning you without asking can you tell us how you got involved in your own journey and what Drew you to LUWI yes I would love to Danielle so when I was an undergrad I was Premed majoring in BIO minoring in ethics and I was working in a fertility clinic for

About two years and I learned a lot while I was there it was interesting seeing how much work needed to be done before people got to the doctor's office and how much education needs to be done about one's body and understanding that a doctor it's just not feasible for them to provide in a consult about how your body works how to protect yourself how reproduction works but the passion for Reproductive Health was very apparent to me and I ended up working for a period underwear company

Called Pier Rosie which is actually how I met Lisa and even before this like when I was in college I was meeting friends in my sorority who thought that they could just take Plan B once a month and that would cover them so that kind of just blew my mind of how there's such a lack of education and people really need to be you know harnessed with the knowledge the power that is knowledge and such incredible options that they can have control of and understanding of

To protect themselves so having that Lisa and understanding and seeing like yeah why isn't there an option for women as someone who has a latex allergy why is everything latex why is everything latex when women have three times the risk of a latex allergy and latex is so irritating why are condoms constricting and why is LUWI not accessible already you know like that is just there was so much that just made sense meeting Lisa and feeling the material and being like wow like this is going

To be big and something that I want to be a part of and we need more people like you in the world but also you know you just reminded me too when you said like a lot of people would use Plan B what and can you guys address the idea that some women will say okay well you know what I take the pill like the pill works for me I pop it in my mouth every day I've taken it for years and that works for me

Yeah well we see a big trend of the women moving away from hormone based contraceptive due to the side effects right we're seeing that but we also are seeing this incredible increase in STI right it's one in four today and over half are impacting 15 to 24 year olds so that so gen Z are really hit with this and you know it it's just something that they're going to experience if they don't have an STI prevention option and we also see that 62% of young men

Are refusing to wear condoms and it is 16 to 62% of young men you know 18 to 24 are not wearing condoms because of the desensitization because they're not able to maintain interaction with a latex condom I mean as you know Sam mentioned there are many know faults with condoms right and latex is not a transmitter it's an insulator so yes it is dramatically desensitizing so we understand that and we need to give everybody an option so I would love to add on to this something

Else that I learned in the fertility clinic was that cyia is known as the silent tube killer and this was something that a lot of my friends or I feel like the average individual who doesn't work at a fertility clinic might not realize is that cyia is often asymptomatic in women and undetected it can cause scarring and damage the Fallopian tubes which connect your ovary to your uterus so a lot of these women needed fertility treatments because they didn't know that they had chyia for a

Few years they finally treated and then they had this blockage in their tubes and needed IVF and fertility treatments to be able to have a child so I think that you know using a contraceptive method that works for you is what's so important but there's also this element of needing to protect ourselves from STI and understanding that not everything's asymptomatic like you should be getting tested annually or even more often than that depending on what risk factors you may have and so often Things Are asymp

Atic that could be such especially as a woman so damaging to your health to your future fertility like having this protection is so important because just because your partner doesn't have symptoms or you don't have symptoms doesn't mean that there's not this potential damage that you know is really affecting you so whether you're taking the pill and using another method to have protected sex such as LUWI or something like that like it's just so important to be protecting you from STI because it's not just having

To take antibiotic or some sort of medication it's real potential impact you know yeah thanks Sam and you know you're probably familiar with Evie Danielle Evie evv y.com it's run by prianca Jane yeah so she is awesome and she is you know the whole premise of eie is to protect the vaginal biome to understand you know that's the largest system in our whole body and when there is dbio or a pH imbalance in the vaginal biome a lot of things can happen you know depression not

Just increased STI rates or yeast infection or bacterial vaginosis or you know UTI but depression precursors for ovarian cancer right all of this stuff and the quickest way to change the vaginal biome pH is with seman semen has a 7.0 pH in the vaginal biome is 3.5 so the vaginal biome is more acidic and so immediately when something more alkaline enters it's going to change that balance and that's where things become ripe for infection and virus transmission even if you're in a monogamous relationship right so

That's what we're learning we have with this AI technology pryanca Jane is able to really identify all of these details about the vaginal biome and it's crazy and it's fun you know when I was asking the question about the pill because I remember when back in my college days it was AIDS AIDS was the big prevention so we were schooled in a different way in terms of like our Fear Factor was up I remember them passing along something and you were like now every single person

Has like color on their hands like a germ and that's how oh my gosh we were raised what an exercise yeah oh my gosh I went to I went to a Catholic college so could you imagine yeah well the shame the sh like you're going down that's it that's all there was to it but sorry I'm distracted now but so we had that Fear Factor built in and so you know you thought about more than pregnancy there were you thought condoms you thought the pill for

Pregnancy and that's all you thought about you thought there were AIDS and pregnancy and these are the things that you have to worry about because the education just wasn't there for the other sexually transmitted disas diseases I mean HPV now we've got gardisil but prior to that Danielle I mean the rate was different it was different when you know you were in college I mean the rate of STI was one in 162 well probably because well yeah I mean it was just a different world then

Totally so but I feel like once there was a and thank God but once there was any kind of way to slow AIDS down and go into remission and like that it was like people had a false relaxation because they weren't thinking about all these other things and I'm you know obviously I'm so glad for that but in ter I remember when my kids got gardisil and even the you know my pediatrician is explaining to me that HPV can is the leading cause of cervical cancer

And that 95% of people have one strain or the other of and I don't know if that is an accurate statistic at this point but it was so prevalent that and a lot of times Sam like you were saying it's unseen it's silent so I mean some strains aren't and some strains are and the risk factor increases when there's a second STI so if the strain for HPV exists and then is activated by another and then an you know another STI comes into play that's where

The real challenge is that's where the disbiosis happens that's where you have a greater proliferation of these this bacteria and this virus the virus transmission Lisa I'm totally changing gears here but you know you just said disbiosis two times in the past few minutes and let me ask you what is your history before you started LUWI because a lot of times I notice that when I talk to women you know I love men I have a husband I have a son I have a father I

Think they're awesome but I notice a different type of entry into any field so a lot of times men just happen just seem to happen along you know I just happen to become president of the company and that's great awesome for them but for women it seems like you sense a problem you sense like you said an absence of something in the field and you decide it's going to take me if no one else has done it I'm gonna have to do it myself so can

You tell me how you got to the point where you're saying this about the vaginal biome I mean is this your history yeah no I mean prianca I mean I'm a sponge so I learned from all of our tremendous Cadre of launch Partners eie is one of them and I'm a sponge I mean I just learned so I learned all of that from a from a couple of calls with banca Jane she's fantastic prior to LUWI you know I was raising my kids coaching soccer and

Selling Enterprise sass to cios you know I mean I was on planes I was giving presentations and you know leading a technical team and right it was Enterprise software I mean it wasn't very it wasn't sexy but I mean that's how it was and so and then I went through these life-changing experiences right I with these two young kids I was all of a sudden diagnosed in the same week with breast cancer and I file for divorce and it was hard I mean it was really

Hard and what I learned later is it was really a gift and when I so when I came out you know years later of that those complete shifts in life as I knew it I was I went online and I thought okay well I had hormone receptive breast cancer so I can't take hormonal contraception so what should I do and when I went online I saw that the there were no options the only option was to was for a man to use a condom and I

Thought wow this is this is really kind of crazy and that's when I also saw STI rates and I thought geez I got two really big problems here and the only option I have is to rely on a man to wear a condom this is this just doesn't make sense so that was in my mind for a long time you know as a hobby it's kind of a I would read up on it while I was doing my life right and selling enterprise software and then

One day I came home from work and my son who was playing with his dinosaurs he said to our babysitter oh hi Mommy Christina can you give Mommy a hug for me you know he was so busy with his toys right and I stood there and I said hey mister you know you come hug your Mommy because some things are way too important to Outsource and in that moment I don't know what happened it was like Shazam Almighty Isis Isis right it was this aha moment

I thought yeah some things are way too important to Outsource and if not me who if not now when I'm going to do something about it I'm sure everybody's got something like that but those moments and I and it's interesting too because not everybody they speak to is a mom and not everybody wants to be but if you are sometimes you have those moments where you look at your kid and you're like well I guess I'm gonna have to do this thing I don't necessarily want

To yeah so what's that like now I know you've got this team and you guys are you know you're going full throttle we're hoping to have this in college campuses in August but what have been some of the challenges you faced at a team as a team and how are you know how are you managing them in the world I mean there are a lot of different FemTech companies starting up there's so and the awesome thing I think about FemTech is like there is so

Much room for growth you know we're just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of women's health and the studies that are going into women's health so it can be really exciting but it can also I imagine for you feel extraordinarily frustrating because all of these different places and great ideas and these women are all trying to get the same piece of the pie and it's a very small pie right now well I think that you know I can share a quote I was in

An event years ago with Rah Emanuel he's the former mayor of Chicago he was the mayor for 10 years he's now the Ambassador to Japan and he said he was speaking to all of us and he said you know when you're running a startup you have to be idealistic enough to know that what you're doing matters more than anything else and tough enough to get it done and that's where we are I mean that's just where we are and I've been so fortunate to have Sam

And Marissa and Rachel and lesie all of these people come forward to help support who believe the same thing who are so invested and excited about this vision and bringing it to fruition so that helps you know on hard days to have that support from the team so I'm so grateful for the team but in terms of challenges you know you dig in you're gritty you just get it done you find a way you know you just keep going forward the biggest challenge though that is

So tough is the fundraising right I mean if we were all you know white alpha males I mean shoot this be on the market already we'd be you know heading for exit I mean this would be amazing but we're not and so I think starting this journey in January of 23 was probably not the easiest time to raise for no matter who you were and it still remains a little bit challenging for most but I think it's harder for us and what I've learned is that

When you're doing something so important so revolutionary so needed so challenging of the status quo you are met with a lot of doubters a lot of denters a lot of naysayers and if you're doing something that maybe doesn't much really matter you don't have that those obstacles you don't have that brick wall in front of you all the time and people aren't threatened right I mean I'll give you a really good example you know that period app that they just raised $200 million it's a period

App it's run by Two Brothers right two brothers okay two guys running this period app company and they just raised two 200 million ion dollar I mean Sam what could we do wow and the valuation is over a billion and guess what there's over a thousand period apps in that space thousand and so they're not they're not it's not a threat it's not lifechanging it's it's just it's a me too it's kind of like oh it's a copycat it's a copycat and that is safer for

Investors copycatting oh of course right what can I ask you what is some of the dissent just I mean if you can give us an example and if you can't that's okay too it just seems so maybe it's because Sam and I have talked about it before or I've you know I've been reading about LUWI but like it seems very obvious well I mean yes and they say you know what this seems so obvious there's a reason it hasn't been done before what yeah that's what

We get a lot or yeah I don't know if there's going to be adoption yeah I don't know if there's demand yeah there's so many condoms you know over 180 condoms on the market yeah I mean I don't think there's room for another option like this is what we're it's just yeah it's really interesting and that's where I've come to this space of wow when you're doing something so impactful you're going to be faced with doubters when you're doing something that doesn't much matter it doesn't

It's not life-changing it's okay people can flow like a river ah sure that sounds cool right I'll invest in that right so it has been challenging although I have to say the funding we have been successful right funding has come in this summer in particularly we had just finished our first our tooling to be able to make LUWI this was in July and we were so excited so the first LUWI were going to come off the line and these were going to be for our FDA

Testing and we were so excited but I was so tress because I didn't have money for the invoice and it was you know pressure and then I met this I'll call her an angel desire Vargas Wrigley she runs Josephine Collective out of Chicago and it's a women's fund and she is it's a Syndicate of all women you know put money in and we were chosen so was it a huge check no but it was the timing of that check felt huge to me and Sam and

Marissa I mean we were just like okay it's Christ thank God you know so it's little things like that just buoy us to the to the next right yeah and can you guys did some crowdfunding as well which is kind of I think a unique way to go about it especially because it's literally talking about women's agency I mean what better way to go about it than women to have a agency over where they want to put their money or anybody to have agency over where

They want to put their money but especially because not a lot of people are not a lot of people are necessarily walking around talking about their Investments and their investment strategies all the time some people are I wish I were one of them but I'm not so how do you think how did that help or how did that feel to know that like individuals were giving because they believe so much in it yeah that was really exciting we ran that for 90 days and I mean

Sam did a lot of work to support that to make that a success we were grateful we were grateful to reach so many people and exactly that for folks to say Hey you know I don't have the funds to be an accredited investor but I want to have some equity in this company I want to see it successful and I want to have that success too so yeah that Financial Equity I think that was really fun to be able to provide to people yeah I liked

It a lot I wish that I saw more of that and hopefully we will see more things like that as we go forward in you know just continuing to empower women let's talk a littleit about the collaborations and the Partnerships that you've put together to kind of bring LUWI to the marketplace and I know Sam are you're part of this right yes I am the product coordinator in campus growth manager for like education on campus all stuff like that which is really exciting and in terms

Of developing Partnerships just having met people in the space like they are so excited for LUWI and honestly this was my same reaction when I met Lisa first of all when she said it was latex free I was like okay that's important for me I'm glad that's been established but when she told me that there wasn't an over-the-counter option for women I was just like I like couldn't believe that like it hadn't even occurred to me that there wasn't you know this hormone free over-the-counter option

For STI protection and contraceptive for women and when we talk about that to launch Partners to college campuses Health Educators that are handing out contraceptives on campus or even I did this I went to this conference with the Sexual Health Alliance and I met so many launch Partners there who are passionate about sexual health sexual health education and it's just really incredible the excitement the demand that we can already see from all these different connections that we've made and people who are eager to help us

Amplify and support us as we launch you know the whole strategy to grow launch Partners what we're calling launch Partners these are folks that are in the space or in a related space or complimentary to LUWI that want to promote and support and drive demand and awareness was due to lack of funding right when you're when you have a really tight budget you have to look to others to help you and so that's what we've done we've said hey how you've got you know 20,000 50,000

Followers on Instagram well we don't how can we share LUWI with you and hear your thoughts and that's been really exciting to share LUWI and to get the feedback from them saying just Sam is relaying wow this is amazing can I help you how can I help you I want to talk about this I want to spread the word I think that's really what has burgeoned in that space for us you know it started out with a couple conversations and then we thought wow geez there's

A lot of these people that want to help us I think one category of those launch partners that's really impactful are the sexual health Educators there are a lot of sexual health Educators and most of them are third parties providing sexual education to universities right so the universities are Contracting out to them and these folks are so eager to have a Health Equity option something new something fun something exciting to talk about so they're offering for free to add LUWI as a sample to their events

And to add Lou in their programming as they you know speak to all these kids and that in itself SE sexual education has really shifted too because it used to be like Danielle we remember when it was you know reactive oh somebody on the lacrosse team did something on Saturday night and all of a sudden the University's under scrutiny and they got to call in the sex Educators absolutely well now it's flipped it's prev V ative it's proactive it's hey you guys got to know this

Stuff before you get your dorm assignment your resident Hall assignment right and that's what's so exciting because there are so many of those folks that are lining up to talk about LUWI and to help us sample and promote I was just going to say so it's not available yet but they're able to get their hands on like a sample we have shared some samples so that they can at least talk about it and kind of you know lay the groundwork for when we do launch gotcha

And what are what is the feedback of people because I know Sam actually walked me through it before she showed me what's feedback from people who were actually seeing it's one thing to hear it I know on the website you've got the little packet like you just want to pick it up and just be like here it is here it is it's available what's the feedback of people who've actually kind of for lack of better words seen it in action but just gotten to see oh

Okay here we go yeah this is our my blurred background is going to be difficult our Sparkle vulva demonstration model this is LUWI and the other thing I have so many favorite parts to LUWI one of them is that this additional service area is being protected on the vulet and when Lisa told me like yeah condoms don't you know completely protect that surface area from hsv1 and2 which is herpes and HPV I was like what do you mean like everyone is like put on a condom

And you're fine you know having this additional surface area protected is huge and that I think is really exciting to people because that's something that's not known that there's this room for additional protection from those STI yeah feedback has been phenomenal Danielle I mean everywhere we go people want not only Lou they want to know when they can get it but they also want the LUWI Sparkle Volvo they also want to purchas this to be able to demonstrate to their students to their campus to their

You know high schoolers right so that was kind of a happy accident here you know we just made this LUWI sparkela to help our team we first only made four of them and then one was stolen at a meeting I don't know and so we had to make four more but it is our plan to be able to scale the production of LUWI Sparkle vola because we've already received pre-orders for over 700 of these so clearly the vulva models that are on the market today are

Really bad they're very clinical and difficult to use to educate and kind of engage young people so that's been exciting and just out of curiosity you know just and this is I'm just throwing this out there but you know we're talking about educating at the college level are you at some point hoping to educate in high school and even grade school I mean frankly I feel like you should be doing that all the time anyway as a family and just talking again much to my children's

Mortification but I could just picture me walking around with one of those and being like let me show you this yeah but are there goals to roll out to younger you know throughout the high school educate the public education system or is The Sweet Spot is college for you no yeah it's absolutely High School too because that awareness has to start I think that's going to help drive more success when the kids get to College you know helping them understand what it is and be aware

Of it you know fifth grade is when they begin that sex education in fact just today I got an article it was about representative Rachel Hood she's in Grand Rapids Michigan and she just came out and said that Michigan is going to completely dramatically increase the amount of condom distribution and she's going to increase education and it's not just going to be you know abstinence focused right which is so crazy so all of a sudden you've got 600 public high schools in the state of Michigan

And another 500 fifth through eth grade public schools in the state of Michigan so now you got 1100 schools where all of a sudden they're going to increase the condom distribution and the education well guess what the head of Chicago public schools in Chicago has already told us that she is she's already you know placed her order for LUWI her pre-order for LUWI and for LUWI Sparkle Bas because she says I can't be discriminatory I can't just hand out condoms are predicated on the male anatomy

I've got to have Health Equity I've got to have something that is not only for women but for lgbtq for transgender for non-binary and she said and that's what LUWI is so that's what we're what we're seeing is happening just you know the state of Michigan is a good example of where we'd be able to partner with them and be able to provide l from you know from the low from the fifth graders now are they using it or they just showing it right that's fine

The sampling is going to be a tremendous you know challenge but it's going to be exciting yeah I think that it's important to be aware of all the options early I think that's a huge part of education is understanding what options are out there for when you're ready and honestly like when I'm on college campuses whether it's to talk to the health educator or the person who purchases the contraceptives for campus or whether I'm visiting my sister and talking to her friends like the students I

Bump into that I'm talking to about LUWI are so excited to have someone who isn't projecting shame or stigma onto something that's a normal part of life that it's only weird because Society has made it weird or made it feel shameful like I had done a tedex talk at Emy on the stigma projected onto to girls around their periods and I was like this is something that we're not choosing and yet that society makes you feel embarrassed and shameful about it and if we just didn't

Act that way it wouldn't be so stressful when going through puberty and these changes and all of that so I think that a huge part of just having LUWI and being able to answer questions and educate these individuals on it like they're dying for someone to talk to about okay like they're like this might be a stupid question I'm like there's no stupid questions like I want you to have the information you need and know how to use the options available for you and I think

That's so beneficial and I think too it's interesting because while we're working at you know while Sam you're focusing on the education of younger women I think a lot of it is the re-education of older women and to so that we're comfortable talking about this and you know comfortable having these talks with our sons our daughters their friends that are over I mean maybe not all the time but some of the time to make yourself accessible and so that people have confidence and agency and all

The good things we know there can be around this topic so it doesn't have to be this like again I'm thinking about my own college experience and going to a Catholic school which I had never gone to before it just coincidentally this college was Catholic and I was there and I remember being like this is a bizarre sexed conversation because it was basically like just don't yeah just don't and I was like okay like we have two options you either do or you don't so it's

Interesting and yeah I think enabling like one of our lunch Partners Caris Dennison she's out of Marin County she's a tremendous sex educator and youth Advocate educator and she has shared that her whole mission and we love this too this is part of LUWI is to help young people make more decisions that end in joy and honor versus guilt and shame and regret and that's what LUWI is all about make your choice but protect the vaginal biome right protect yourself and by the way hey it

Feels good to him too right that's what it's all about it feels great for everyone I was also gonna add that our other launch partner Dr AA Park specializes in STI and the thing about that lesson that you had in college was it was very shame driven like yes you want to be protected from STI but without putting a shame and stigma on it like that fear-based intention I think can be approached in much more productive ways as well 100% And I think you are right

At the Forefront and I am so grateful that there are people like you out in the world let me ask you a question some people have these ideas Lisa like you said you know there was kind of like a flipping Point like that aha moment what do you tell people who are what whatever it is however they want to speak up and kind of find their place to help Humanity but women in particular how do what advice would you have for somebody who's just starting to

Think has the seed of an idea whatever that idea may be because it can be a scary thing like you said for as much love as you're receiving there are people who are like what you know why bother what do we need this for so do you have any words of advice for them well I think I would go back to what I shared earlier from that event where I attended that Rah Emanuel spoke when he I mean it felt in that moment he was talking

To me you know you've got to be idealistic enough to believe that what you're doing matters more than anything else and you've got to be tough enough to make it happen and so that's I mean you'll find a way you'll find your grit if that's the place you're coming from you will find your grit and you will overcome any obstacle that is put in front of you absolutely will and I know some people will if you have doubt I don't know what to do well you

Know I don't know how to what the antidote of that is I never had an ounce of doubt I I still don't it's it's like a true fact it just hasn't happened yet you know I mean it's that's it now it's hard it's been hard and you know there have been some times where I've cried right and like you know stamped my foot this is why you know but I've never I've never had any doubt have there that's just what I was going to say have

There been times where you've second guessed it but you've never had any doubt how long have you been in this process that's a long time that feeling yeah I mean you know the first that aha moment with my son that was years ago and then it took years to like create this prototype and do all the research and understand the substrate and figure out the material and where was I going to launch how was I you know all of that took years and then we launched

This because we couldn't launch at the time in the United States it was too costly we chose to do a proof of concept we me and my you know Shadow Self here my clone no anyway we went to I went to London and launched a proof of concept in London in 2017 and had to shut it down a year later because it was just too much travel it was too hard my life I mean how like who runs a startup it's hard enough let alone you

Know plus six hours like crazy still yeah weren't you also you know still working full-time I was still working full-time I you know my 2k kids I was I don't know if I was coaching soccer still at that time yeah it was yeah it was crazy I had to put it on hold I did cancer came back ah so that was a little bit of a challenge there and so you know radiation and all the things and healing and whatever and life you know it was

Busy so it was on hold for about five and a half years that proof of concept and then it was kind of you know in these bankers boxes in my basement for five and a half years and then roie Wade June 22 roie Wade which was the day after my birthday June 24th 2022 is the day after my birthday and I thought that's it this is my signal this is my lightning bolt again how many light thank you thank you how many lightning bolts do I

Need yeah and that was June of 22 so that's when I said that's it I got to do it so January of 23 is when we so it's 22 months the last two women that I've spoken to for this podcast that is their date of no return it's interesting one of them wow galvanizing date yeah she created the first private by default period tracker so it's a whole new system like if you're on your phone even if you get a new phone it doesn't come with

You I mean it's that locked into just you and that she said it was roie weade and she was out for her 10 year anniversary and she just was like so Furious and so it's interesting what comes out of you know your spark what started it has nothing it had nothing to do with what you were doing like you have a career you're a soccer coach you're a mom you're doing this you're doing that and all of a sudden it's like these things you know they

Just enter the Consciousness and you're like you know what I'm gonna have to it's like a little seed and now look where we're at so it's very exciting I'm so excited for you guys and this is rolling out Lou is going to be on college campuses in the spring this August well maybe we'll see we'll see what happens with funding if we can you know get out that soon with maybe a soft launch but yes August back to school that's a big market right everybody's going

Back to school and that's when the universities are purchasing you know their condoms for the year so that's when they're going to be purchasing LUWI for well for the first semester and then they purchase again in January so yeah so what can listeners do at this point so your crowd funding closed what can listeners do to kind of support you because I'm sure even I've read an email about you guys before and even then I was getting responses back and it you know people were like

What is this thing this is that's so awesome thank you Danielle so awesome because I was like people are reading these newsletters and it's not just my mom so that yeah that's great I love it so what you know what can people do yeah I mean follow us atg lou.com e t l UWI right atg lou.com Lou is our Instagram and then get lou.com is our website so there's a newsletter you can sign up for that to be the first to know when we launch U

We are going to run some promos with some merch when you know for the first folks that order when we're available and then you know follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn right or I think even Facebook is a good way to understand what we're doing and yeah we're getting there stay tuned you're getting there it's going to be there and I just was thinking I'm friends with a few authors and they're always like ask your librarian for my book if it's not covered can people ask

At their schools once they go back in the fall can they say hey do you I was about to say that yeah I was gonna say if you go to a college or university and or if you work for a college and university and think that LUWI should be available I would love to be connected ask for LUWI reach out to me I'm happy to reach out to the university myself whether you're you know whether it's a school or a launch partner like I'm so happy

To connect and answer any questions that one may have so just reach out to us we'd love to hear from you all Sam has a running list of the first universities we're gonna be rolling out to because they've reached out to her so yeah that's a big deal yeah it's awesome well you guys thank you so much for your time I cannot thank you enough this was exciting and honestly it's like the best thing that's happened all week for all you listeners out there I've got

All I will have all of their contact information at the top of the show notes thank you so much have a have a great day you too thanks