Brand Knew is a creative collective and strategic advisory that partners with media companies, causes and consumer brands, towards meaningful audience and growth.

Brand Knew

“We believe in breaking the rules. We believe in bucking the trends. We believe in Living Different.” These words are emblazoned on the website, and they capture the spirit and strategy that CEO, Zach Frantz, has used to build and grow his business. Tempered with experience and rationality, this unconfined mindset has made Wildland Coffee a reliable business that caters to an overlooked and lucrative customer base. His central creed is to grow organically and maintain profitability. He asked how can you be profitable when you’re big if you can’t prove yourself when you’re small. His departure from established norms can be seen in his branding, team building, and marketing. Wildland Coffee The Power of Organic Growth When thinking of any well-known business, the things that immediately come to mind are the essence of the brand. Whether it is jingles, logos, mascots, menu items, or the clientele, many corporations and businesses seek to create a rewarding brand, which generates a flood of images and memories that encourage a consumer to choose their product over a competitor. In fact, many people view the brand as synonymous with the business it represents. It is difficult to argue with anyone actively pursuing a recognizable and memorable brand. The sight of McDonald’s arches can send a car full of kids into a frenzy, that will only be satiated by Happy Meals. Chevy and Ford owners proudly bash each other, with a lifetime dedication to their vehicle of choice. The same can be seen between Miller and Budweiser. Businesses that have nothing to do with interior decorating or apparel can sell mountains of novelty mirrors, lamps, rugs, shirts, and hats. A good brand can capture a loyal customer base while opening opportunities for merchandising and other partnerships. Despite all the benefits listed above and the encouragement of numerous mentors and colleagues to develop a brand, Frantz knew that the cost could cripple his business before it had a chance to start. Hiring a market analyst and graphic designer to develop logos, mottos, and fonts, buying t-shirts, stickers, and hats to give away, and purchasing ad space are all expensive investments without any immediate return. Frantz stated that his previous venture fell victim to exceeding its boundaries in this way, hence his propensity to natural, justified growth. He also understood that these brands didn’t magically materialize overnight. They earned their reputation over years of business and millions in sales, which some people can forget or take for granted. In line with this thought, he focused on a very specific product for a very specific audience. In this case, convenient and tasty coffee for outdoor enthusiasts. This decision was not made hastily or impulsively. Frantz knew the people he was targeting. He understood their interests, their frustrations, their budgets, and how to endear his coffee to fit their active, outdoor hobbies and lifestyles. From his passion and his subject matter expertise, his brand would organically emerge from continued exposure and customer interaction, as the number one coffee brand for outdoor enthusiasts. Collective Knowledge and Skills Another topic that arises is that many successful entrepreneurs tout the crucial importance of a solid team for growing a business. It is not uncommon for a CEO to directly credit their company’s prosperity to the effort and knowledge of those who work for them. When faced with an unfamiliar problem or an ever-expanding list of obligations, many people immediately seek out workers with the skills to fill the gaps that they cannot. Aside from issues requiring reaction, fresh eyes and differing viewpoints are often the source of proactive measures. This can help in a multitude of ways, such as finding new customers, reducing costs, or generating brand interest. There is no shortage of success stories, where massive credit is bestowed upon the team, and the business leader charged headfirst into growing their team. However, this is another area where Zach breaks from the crowd. He is in no hurry to start hiring people, until the growth and profits demand it. Currently, he single-handedly manages all aspects of Wildland Coffee, performing all day-to-day tasks with his own hands. He stated that team building will happen once he can no longer scale, and as long as there is a direct return on this investment. As mentioned before, many company leaders default to finding those workers who are strong where they are weak, often at the first sign of difficulty. This has a domino effect. Costs for desks, phones, and renting office space increase. Hiring people to support the front-line workers drives up overhead, such as pay roll accountants and human resources to name a few. Frantz understands that this is a pitfall, if the demand doesn’t justify the cut into the profits. A second motivator is a desire to learn. Frantz embraces the challenge to become proficient in the areas of business where he is inexperienced. He believes a good boss must understand the processes and struggles that each employee faces. In a way, organic growth in his capabilities is just as important as the organic growth of Wildland’s profits. That is not to say that Frantz doesn’t utilize the expertise and reach of other people. He has sought out other entrepreneurs for mentorship, as well as engaging experts on Linkedin. Through these connections, he is able to leverage a wealth of knowledge and great ideas, from outside his organization. Precise Advertising Expenditure Another crucial field in expanding a business is marketing. The amount of reverence corporations place on advertising and outreach is impossible to miss. Anywhere from 15% to 25% of television time is dedicated to commercials. This is even being seen in places that were once thought free from their influence, such as movie theaters or premium cable channels. Entire networks, like the QVC, exist for vendors to showcase their products to potential consumers. Newspapers and magazines are loaded with ads, and countless billboards line the streets and highways of countries around the world. Although market research and targeted campaigns are used, it is clear that businesses take a shotgun approach to gaining views and traffic, all in the pursuit of making sales. The amount of money spent is staggering. Sometimes this investment pays off, but it can be a major risk for newer companies with smaller budgets. Frantz understands the limitations he has for investing in advertising and has done so in a cautious and calculated manner. This includes purchasing Amazon ads, where he mitigated his risk, by controlling his spending. Coordinating with Youtubers and other social media influencers was also a method to get Wildland Coffee in front of new potential customers. Overtime, he turned these agreements into more formal partnerships, making sure they yielded a certain return on investment. Establishing a detailed plan ensured that ambition and overly optimistic projections wouldn’t eat into his profitability. Along side these advertising efforts, Frantz engaged in a traditional, grass roots outreach, calling vendors and wholesalers. This also included attending events and conventions for outdoor enthusiasts, and directly engaging attendees. Through these interactions, he was able to overcome two major obstacles to his product, namely confusion and skepticism. Wildland’s products are a new, unique style of coffee, utilizing single use bags that are more a line with tea. After educating people on the product, they naturally became skeptical of the quality, which Frantz was able to quickly assuage. Unorthodox Avenues of Success Despite his unorthodox stances or counterculture approach to these critical business elements, Frantz has developed a successful method to grow his business. His desire to grow organically, with his brand, with his sales, and with his own skills, has placed Wildland Coffee on a steady, reliable path to becoming a highly respected and sought-after product for his target audience. He is a firm believer that there is no single path to success, which has empowered him to break rules, buck trends, and grow his company the way he sees fit. His final words of wisdom were, “the contradictory voices in one’s head are a creation of their own, and they don’t have to listen to them.” Based on his decisions and the benefits he has reaped, he has shown that he didn’t have to listen to the contradictory voices outside his head, even when their intentions were good.

How to build a profitable business using natural justified growth

The most convincing argument I ever heard for why organisations should not go down the road of building apps is because once they build it they in effect become app developers. From that point on they need to manage the updates for two operating systems, manage bugs, feedback and changes, and unless they want their app to stagnate, update and release new features. Like many web and digital builds often an organisation only finds funding for the original concept. That’s mostly the fun bit — build something new, learn, create, share. The difference between a web build and an app build however, is where websites can be iterative can you can add content and features overtime, apps will require you to have inhouse developer knowledge or lean much more heavily on a developer for content and function changes. There are a lot of ways to build apps and a lot of technologies out there. The chances of you building something that another developer finds very difficult to unpick and make changes to is high. In tech, you aren’t paying for software (well in open source tech), you are paying for time. Time shouldn’t be undervalued, and complicated things, bugs, new features, and mistakes take time. Enterprise and organisations are increasingly looking to digital as part of their offering, and why would you not? But the minute you start building you become a digital product developer, it’s your job to build, support and maintain that product. You are responsible for the privacy and the security of the data that users trust you will keep safe when they upload. Going “agile” and prototype and releasing early may have great appeal, but how will you support those earlier versions? Or are you just going to export the data out and import it into a future stable version? These are questions we ask when we manage developer teams and product development. Whether you are building an app or a websites, once you start to get a mass of sites under your umbrella — or you want to build products to sell — the choices you make and how you set up your platform will impact you and others for a long time. Last week I had an interview with a large corporate looking for a Drupal developer, they need to migrate 16 Drupal 6 and 7 sites into Wordpress. Two years ago the manager was hired and started looking at platforms. They have a distributed set of brands, and they found their brand managers knew Wordpress so they chose this as their platform. Ok. Except they need the functionality and look of their sites to work exactly the same as it does now. In my experience it’s much quicker and cheaper to rethink than to replicate. The most concerning part was their concept of putting in a user access function over the top of wordpress to restrict role function and access to pages. User access is complicated in systems, when its a function within the system core it’s a-ok, when you need to start using add ons it gets messy. I’ve used Drupal user access tools that have conflicted with each other, and the management and implementation of user access gets messy. Underlying this is the problem that managing 16 websites is a considerable technical debt regardless of the technology. A core concern I have in this case will be that the user access function will restrict their ability to take advantage of Wordpress’ auto update function. They have swapped one set of technical management issues for another. At some point in the future they will have the exact conversation they started two years ago. There is little you can do to sway a decision on technology, especially not once a manager has spent considerable time and energy doing their best to assess within their capacity. Actually, made me think of this tweet… My advice to them (essentially) was that they did not need a Drupal developer, they needed an excellent WordPress developer and a person with content skills that could help with the manual transfer they needed. It’s going to be a tedious project, and that’s ok, lots of tech projects are tedious, but bringing in an over qualified developer to any project just busts your budget and minimises the chances of them sticking out the job. And also it needlessly tarnishes a platform like Drupal which from this point on is considered even more expensive and costly. Now I could have talked to them about taking a product approach to building out their Drupal sites. I could have explained how they could create a system that allowed them to replicate and roll out new sites, and create features that could be shared within their sites. After all their brands are going to grow, evolve and change, because that’s the nature of their business model. I could have also explained that Drupal can be locked down with user access and we can simplify the editing interface so that managers felt comfortable with it. But once the decision has been made it’s difficult to get people to budge in my experience, however technology is actually a long game and I would consider this a winnable client in the future. Especially if a distribution or model was created specifically for this industry’s needs. Technical debt, continuous improvement and updates, and how you will structure your developer team and futureproof the development process is critical to not only developing a digital product you can share or sell with other communities, it will be critical to the financial viability and sustainability of the product, and therefore your organisation or business. Next time you chat to a tech person ask them about their experiences managing different technologies and platform versions, if they start ranting stake stock, if they tell you it’s easy run for cover! Lyndsey builds, creates and connects people, places and things using technology. She’s a community girl living in a digital world. e: t: lin: hi@lyndseyjackson.com.au Lyndsey lyndsey-jackson www.lyndseyjackson.com.au

Technical Debt… It’s Itchy and Hard to Manage

Introduction Remember when Femtech was a brand-new term nobody knew? It feels like we have been using this word forever, but it has been around for less than a decade! Yet the history of products, technologies, and services addressing health issues specific or prevalent to women started long ago, ages before this umbrella term was first used in 2016 to address this rapidly evolving market. Since then, this industry has had major plot twists, from Maven Clinic becoming the first unicorn in 2021 to venture capital infusions shaking up the game; the sector is sizzling hot! Femtech And let us give a thumbs-up to the growing acceptance and issues. It is no longer a niche but a booming market, with its size estimated at over $55 billion in 2022 and . de-stigmatization of women’s health expected to surpass $100 billion by 2030 Why is it important to me? I am a digital tech specialist coming from the Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning field with a rich background in building and successfully deploying voice recognition, AI cameras, and virtual assistant products catering to millions. Lately, I have shifted my focus, stepping into the intriguing world of Femtech and healthcare drawn by the promise of AI to simplify and enhance healthcare solutions, changing stagnant approaches to women’s healthcare through daring initiatives. With this article providing a thoughtful inquiry into how advanced technologies like LLMs shape modern healthcare and Femtech, I invite you to join me on this exciting journey. Together, we will take a look at how boosts the Femtech market and sift through the new directions and strategies reshaping this burgeoning sector. Our aim will be not only to learn about the tendencies of the industry but also to identify key patterns that could offer thrilling opportunities. And so, if you are curious like me about how novel technologies improve healthcare experiences for women and what strategic footholds exist in the Femtech market, let us dive in and explore. AI/ML Current trends and thrilling developments in Femtech In the last few years, the Femtech sector has been undergoing a transformative shift. Gone are the days when Femtech products predominantly focused on menstrual cycle tracking and fertility planning. Today, the industry is blossoming with more specialized solutions, from advanced home-testing kits to cutting-edge wearables. Technological advances have attracted a range of strong players in a multitude of niche markets, each aiming to revolutionize different aspects of women’s health. 1. From Basic Tracking to Comprehensive Health Solutions Take Sonio, a Paris-based Femtech firm. They recently received FDA clearance for their AI product, Sonio Detect, which aims to redefine prenatal ultrasounds. What sets Sonio apart is its manufacturer-independent tool that simplifies the screening process while raising its efficiency and accuracy, offering an easy-to-use yet powerful solution. San Francisco startup Mira is pioneering another monumental shift in Femtech by embedding lab technology into a handheld fertility monitor. With a user base exceeding 76,000, Mira’s advanced fluorescent detector goes beyond traditional ovulation kits. The technology allows for daily health checks and has accumulated an impressive amount of data — over 8.5 million hormone data points and analysis of more than 670,000 menstrual cycles. With AI-driven insights into hormone fluctuations, Mira is offering more personalized and accurate predictions than ever before, quite literally putting a mini hormone lab in the palms of its users. Recently, The Inc. placed Mira at number 437 on its 2023 list of fastest-growing private companies in the US, ranking it the highest among Femtech companies. More complex products that require significant medical research are also quickly gaining momentum. Teal Health exemplifies this with its recent $8.8 million seed funding round, backed by prominent investors like Emerson Collective and Serena Ventures. The funds aim to build a comprehensive platform, starting with the crucial issue of cervical cancer. women’s telemedicine 2. The Rise of Wearable Innovations Wearable technology is another frontier where Femtech is making significant strides. One famous example is Bloomlife, a clinically validated diagnostic device for pregnant women that allows future mothers to track contractions, giving them a better awareness of their progress. Movano Health has captured attention with its Evie Ring — a wearable gadget currently under examination by the FDA. Upon receiving FDA clearance, the Evie Ring will have the potential to set new standards in women’s health monitoring, offering an integrated, round-the-clock health monitoring and tracking solution right at the user’s fingertips. Ava, a fertility and pregnancy tracking bracelet with an accuracy rate of over 90%, has already been cleared by the FDA. Established in 2014, well before we even started using the term ‘Femtech,’ Ava is a prime example of a successful Femtech startup. Having attracted over $42 million in funding, the company reported to have helped over 70 thousand women in 36 countries to get pregnant by 2020. 3. The Expansion to Different Age Groups One of the noteworthy trends in Femtech recently is the surge in startups focusing on menopause. According to Female Insights, over 30% of companies in this sector were founded in the last three years alone. This uptick is accompanied by increasing diversity in the types of solutions being offered to tackle menopausal symptoms — from mobile apps that track hormones and symptoms and platforms facilitating user interaction and community building to consumer goods and therapeutic medications. According to Pubmed, by 2030, up to 1.2 billion women will be in or approaching menopause globally, with 47 million new women joining every year. By 2025, it is estimated that over 1 billion people worldwide—about 12% of the population—will be going through menopause. Financially, the menopause product market was valued at $15 billion in 2020 and is projected to skyrocket to $23 billion by 2028. These figures illustrate a maturing market with significant financial potential, underscoring why it has become a magnet for innovation and investment. An Irish startup, IdentifyHer, offers menopausal women sensor solutions. Controlled through a smartphone app, the sensor passively gathers information on menopause symptoms without interfering with the wearer's daily activities. The app also makes use of the data gathered to track progress and assess the effectiveness of lifestyle changes. The collected data is presented in periodic reports and can be used by medical professionals to diagnose and treat menopausal symptoms. AI-driven Midday is another customized menopause product developed by US-based startup Lisa Health that offers comprehensive management of the menopause journey. Midday’s solution, including a wearable device, an AI-based symptom tracking system, and a decision support tool for hormone therapy, uses advanced tracking to determine the menopause stage and anticipate symptoms. The app is used by doctors to manage the entire menopause process and provide decision support, while users are provided with a variety of therapeutic options and informational resources to give them personalized insights and get them ready for every stage of menopause. 4. Going Beyond Just Health Although Femtech is considered, first of all, a rising star in the Medtech industry, the possibilities of women-oriented digital technology products are not limited to healthcare alone. Recently, the term started to see new applications, one of which is Women’s Safety. Indian startup Shakti Wearables manufactures Shakti, a women’s defensive wearable device that increases women's safety in dangerous situations. When the wearer activates the button on the device, a small, non-lethal current is released, electrifying an attacker, while the internal insulation of the bangle keeps the wearer safe; this gives women a chance to flee their attackers and call for assistance. Additionally, Shakti sends the wearer's most important three contacts a WhatsApp message with their most recent live location. Another interesting personal safety app is being developed by Australian startup Safely, offering women peer-to-peer support in tense or frightening circumstances. With their contacts, users of the app can create private groups or circles for internal communication and location sharing. In case of emergency, users can also switch on the high-alert mode and notify each of their designated guardians. The app then uses live monitoring, records live video and audio, sends GPS updates, and saves all of this data to the cloud for later use as evidence. Additionally, users receive safety alerts from locations of interest to help them plan their commute or travel safely. Expanding healthcare’s reach with new technologies The world of healthcare is rapidly evolving, especially when it comes to Femtech. This dynamic transformation is powered by modern innovative technologies that are reshaping how women engage with healthcare and how healthcare providers offer services tailored to them. 1. The Personalization Revolution Fueled by LLMs One of the most disruptive advancements in this domain is the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and GPT-4. Far from being a mere tech fad, LLMs are revolutionizing healthcare, with Femtech embracing this new technology. LLMs have the potential to serve as virtual nursing assistants, supporting busy doctors in responding to patients' basic queries about medications or health conditions. As you will see from the examples below, LLMs are proving to be instrumental in facilitating the creation of highly promising Femtech products, from personalized consulting products to innovative community engagement tools. One of the most intriguing examples of the implementation of this technology in Femtech is Soula, a Cyprus-based startup that provides women with support during pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood with its "AI-powered" assistant. Powered by Med-PaLM, an LLM developed by Google to generate answers to medical questions, the app is expected to be able to respond to inquiries about pregnancies and maternity issues and provide information on a range of health-related concerns. It will also be able to answer questions about diet, sleep, physical activity, and emotional self-care, as well as track fetal movement and kick frequency. Mexican startup Kuna utilizes an LLM-powered chatbot to give women a secure way to access information and advice on parenting and sexual health. The startup's , Kuna Chat, offers details on sex, reproduction, pregnancy, and parenthood. The startup also provides online consultations with experts for more complex or difficult questions. In this way, Kuna encourages sex education for the uneducated while offering trustworthy, practical, and concrete answers to users' queries. AI-powered chatbot 2. Cost-Effective Health Management An extraordinarily important aspect of building successful medical products is to make services affordable to the customer, reaching broader but less solvent user segments and geographies. In this vein, Femtech offers not only personalized but also cost-effective healthcare solutions. Apps often provide free basic versions, with premium services available through subscription fees. Quite obviously, the use of LLMs trained on medical data sets and specialized in specific product cases can provide a boost to the more affordable cost of the products themselves. For example, the Ava fertility bracelet mentioned in the previous section of this article costs around $249 in the U.S., and the accompanying app is free with the bracelet purchase. When considering that the average cost of infertility treatment in the U.S. is around $11,000—often not covered by basic healthcare plans—Femtech presents a more affordable starting point for many women. 3. Breaking Barriers in Remote and Rural Areas Digital technology in Femtech is also crucial for improving healthcare access in remote and rural areas, especially in low- or middle-income countries in Africa and Asia — two regions with the highest female populations. Femtech provides innovative solutions such as virtual prenatal visits and remote monitoring, to manage their health more cost-effectively, regardless of their location. empowering women One successful example of such a product is M♡THer – a virtual care product facilitating the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus by measuring blood glucose levels, blood pressure, weight, and more. GDM affects up to 20% of pregnant women, leading to various birth complications, and M♡THer, developed by the Australia E-Health Research Centre, has already benefited thousands of women in remote areas of the region. 4. A Multifaceted Approach to Chronic Diseases Femtech is not solely about reproductive health; it also targets female-specific chronic diseases through a mix of prevention, societal change, and technology. Mobile apps and wearable devices make it easier to manage and monitor conditions over time, a vital component of tackling chronic diseases that affect women disproportionately. To name an example of a health issue specific to women, it is estimated that 1 in 10 women have endometriosis – the growth of endometrial tissue outside of the uterus that can cause significant problems from pelvic pain to infertility. DotLab, a US-based medical diagnostics company, pioneers medical tests in this area, applying machine learning mechanisms to diagnose and assess this currently incurable disease. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Kheiron Medical Technologies, a UK Medtech startup, combines data science and radiology to help with the diagnosis of breast cancer, another terrible disease affecting predominantly women. According to published clinical trial results, the company’s breakthrough technology achieves previously unseen heights in malignancy detection in breast cancer screening. Applied Conclusions Recent years have shown rapid exponential growth in the number of Femtech companies and products, both through the use of innovative technologies and through the discovery of more and more new applications and solutions. With the Femtech market estimated to reach an imposing $100 billion globally by 2030, it is one of the areas of the modern technology economy that is expected to provide maximum lucrative opportunities for new bright ideas and prosperous businesses in the coming years. While deciding whether to follow this attractive route, aspiring Femtech entrepreneurs should consider the following market characteristics. While there are highly competitive niches in the Femtech market, specifically well-established fields like menstrual cycle and pregnancy tracking, there are also areas that are more attractive for entry. Examples of such areas include app-controlled wearables and menopause management. The largest share of the global women’s health market surprisingly pertains to chronic women’s health conditions (forecast to reach $218 billion by 2027), and only 1 percent of existing Femtech companies address this area. Did you hear that? That is an opportunity knocking. AI and specifically Large Language Models can be a powerful boost for Femtech products as (a) with proper customization, LLMs assist in scaling the product or service itself and strengthen the core part of the product, and (b) they provide magnificent tools for community development, and the community is said to be the most important part of a product! Organic communities built around products are both a way of monetization and a tool that increases retention, helping build durable community-led growth. Taking into account the fact that the Femtech market is rapidly developing with a simultaneous increase in competition, and given the general market conditions (in particular, subscription applications revenues are currently declining; even if positive dynamics have remained in the Medtech segment, it has become more difficult to attract and retain users), companies need to be cost-efficient and provide a highly personalized, secure service to survive and rise above the competitors. A relevant and extremely effective tool employed by more and more technology startups for achieving these goals, again, is AI technologies. Whether it's addressing questions about menstrual health, pregnancy, or chronic conditions, LLMs can fill the information gap quickly and efficiently. Statistically, only 6% of Femtech companies used AI in 2021, mostly in diagnostics and data analytics, and while this share has seen stable growth over the years, there is enough room for new inspired ideas and success stories in this area. All in all, the advent of heralds an exciting era for Femtech entrepreneurs. LLMs have the potential to revolutionize user engagement and content delivery, supporting busy healthcare professionals by handling preliminary patient communication, serving as virtual nursing assistants or health advisors, and simply bringing a personalized touch to technology. With cutting-edge AI technologies charging Femtech products, humanity has the chance to drastically improve the efficiency of the entire healthcare system catering to women. Finally, there is a chance to overcome the millennia-old barriers plaguing this area of medicine, such as high costs, gender bias, stigmatization of women's health-related topics, and a lack of resources. Large Language Models Powered by the latest technological advancements, Femtech waits for its next hero — and it may be you!

Beyond Wellness: How Femtech is Shaping the Future of Women's Healthcare

সুস্থতার বাইরে: কীভাবে ফেমটেক মহিলাদের স্বাস্থ্যসেবার ভবিষ্যত গঠন করছে

Beyond Wellness: Wie Femtech die Zukunft der Frauengesundheit gestaltet

Más allá del bienestar: cómo Femtech está dando forma al futuro de la atención médica de las mujeres

Au-delà du bien-être : comment Femtech façonne l'avenir des soins de santé des femmes

कल्याण से परे: कैसे फेमटेक महिलाओं के स्वास्थ्य देखभाल के भविष्य को आकार दे रहा है

ウェルネスを超えて: フェムテックが女性のヘルスケアの未来をどのように形作るか

웰니스를 넘어서: Femtech가 여성 건강 관리의 미래를 형성하는 방법

Além do bem-estar: como a Femtech está moldando o futuro da saúde feminina

За пределами здоровья: как Femtech формирует будущее женского здравоохранения

Wellness'ın Ötesinde: Femtech Kadın Sağlığı Hizmetlerinin Geleceğini Nasıl Şekillendiriyor?

Ngoài sức khỏe: Femtech đang định hình tương lai của ngành chăm sóc sức khỏe phụ nữ như thế nào

超越健康：Femtech 如何塑造女性医疗保健的未来

Technically, it was four days, but we were working on it in between taking customer calls and fixing bugs so, let’s call it three ;) OneBar Day 1 Idea Slack has recently released the — a new view within the Slack app where you can create advanced UIs. You can use blocks from the , show , maintain the state, etc. We were tinkering with it, trying to design an admin dashboard for OneBar. App Home Tab block-kit modals A few days before, I was telling Andrew, my co-founder, how I like how Apple products seamlessly integrate together. It’s magical to be able to draw a note on the iPad and then see it next second on my Mac. It’s so unfortunate not to be able to use Apple notes on an Android phone or a Linux PC. One app that works consistently across all my devices is Slack, and I find myself using it as a simple notetaker more and more often. When in a rush, I just DM myself stuff I want to access elsewhere and then move it into a more appropriate app later. My DM also serves as a mini-TODO list. What if it was just a little bit more convenient? What if I could mix it up with the Home Tab? - Hey, Andrew, wanna build a mini-app? We’ll make it free, make it go viral, and maybe it’ll help us drive some traffic to OneBar too! - Sure, let’s do it! Block-kit builder Slack has a beautiful tool for prototyping interfaces — it’s called the . After 20-minutes of tinkering, we had an idea of what the TODO app in the Home Tab would look like. Block Kit Builder A classic app like this would have checkboxes to the left of the todo items. Unfortunately, Slack only allows us to put buttons on the right, and there can be exactly one button combined with a text caption. We wanted the user to be able to perform multiple actions so, we had to resort to the “overflow” element. It’s a “…” button that hides several menu-items underneath. Overflow adds an unnecessary click to the workflow, but there’s no other way around it. We faked checkboxes with an ◽️ emoji for now, hoping that Slack would one day implement them and we’ll make our app behave like a proper todo ;) Choosing a name This is arguably the hardest part of building anything. ? Nope, already exists. ? ? ? ? ? Todobot!? Todobot sounds pretty good! Let’s see if there are any domain names available! Ughh… all s are taken, there’s something ugly in and , there’s also an odd … It seems like we have to go with a prefix... Todoist Checker Chckr Todo-ninja Todo-panda Todofu .com .org .net todOObot.com or ? thetodobot.com gettodobot.com Let’s get both of them! Infrastructure It’s not worth it setting up Kubernetes for a small project like this, but… we already have it behind OneBar. Also, seems to be meant for the apps like ToDoBot, but… we already know and use Django, no time to learn NodeJS! The stack has been chosen. Slack Bolt The rest of the Day 1 we spent setting up webhooks, configuring SSL, defining database schema, and putting together the rest of the bot plumbing. Day 2 Coding We spent the entire Day 2 coding the bot logic. We’re going through an acceleration program with OneBar right now, and it’s pretty intense. ToDoBot was an experimental side-project, so we worked on it in between meetings, customer calls, on a commute, and late in the evening. I didn’t mean this to be a deeply technical article or a tutorial, so I’m going to mention a few Slack API features that we used only briefly: — Slack sends this event every time someone opens the ToDoBot’s App Home. We react to it by sending back a bunch of JSON that represents the current state of a person’s todo list. app_home_opened — This is how you actually update the App Home. We do it reactively when someone opens the Home Tab or proactively when we know on the backend that the state has changed for a given user. views.update — We receive this event every time someone sends a DM message to the ToDoBot. We then simply add every message to the list and acknowledge it with an emoji. messages.im — This is how you react with an emoji. reactions.add We’ve also registered a , “Add to my TODO” , and implemented a few simple for adding and editing items. /todo slash-command message action dialogs Somewhere during Day 2 came up the idea of shared TODOs. We tag each other in messages all the time, hoping that the other person will not forget to do what we asked them. This naturally translated into tagging people in TODOs. A shared TODO would appear in each person’s Home Tab, and anyone mentioned would be able to close it. We started using shared TODOs for our own needs way before the rest of the ToDoBot was completed, and quickly got hooked on the feature. Day 3 Debugging By Day 3, most of the bot mechanics were completed, although we still had a few issues. I spent several hours debugging . Even though ToDoBot is super light-weight and there was no load on the server whatsoever, our gunicorn workers were dying left and right, and the bot behaved very unpredictably. It turned out that the AWS ELB that we had in front of the app tried to maintain and re-use the same connection when possible, and this didn’t play well with that we used by default. It took me time to understand what’s going on, but simply tweaking the timeouts seems to have helped. this one sync workers An interesting observation came up while debugging the gunicorn issue. Our servers were getting quite a bit of traffic already, even though the domain was brand new and nobody knew about us yet. It turned out our ELB happened to get an IP address which has constantly been poked by a bunch of security scanners somewhere in Russia, check this out: Website We wanted to submit our bot to the Slack App Directory, so we needed a website. We didn’t intend to spend much time on, though. Our designer helped us put a few stock pictures together and crafted a standard single-page layout. Andrew has then implemented everything in . Webflow Day 4 App Directory review There was a little bit back-n-forth with the review team. First, they pointed out that we’ve requested the OAuth scope but did not actually use it. It turned out that I forgot to include it in the OAuth link. Then they asked us to add a reaction to /todo help because it’s the default way how people learn about Slack commands usage. We tried to react to comments as soon as they came back so, by lunchtime, ToDoBot was live in the . commands App Directory Final touches Before launching it publicly, we shared the app with some of our friends, and, of course, they immediately found bugs and inconsistencies. For example, Joe from pointed out that the bot keeps saying but he didn’t know what the he** the was. We decided to work around this by adding a short welcome message that our bot would send to any user on their first interaction. Unmeeting “Home Tab,” “Something has been added to your Home Tab,” “Home Tab” Product Hunt launch By the late evening, everything was ready for a public launch. We asked our friend to hunt us, scheduled the launch for midnight, and sat down waiting. As soon as it got to the front page, people started checking it out. We didn’t get a super crazy amount of traffic, but signups kept coming consistently. , and this was a great result for us, considering how small the product was and how little effort we put into the launch. Three days later, and we’re still getting a signup every hour or so. I personally call it a success! :) Michael We finished 6th Finale We’ve got a bit under a hundred signups so far, and about 300 TODOs created. People keep coming, and we’re yet to see it the bot sticks.At least one team is using it very actively, and it’s the OneBar team! Of course, we’re biased as makers, but we found ToDoBot naturally fitting into our workflow, and my own list is already multiple screens long. At least one person has discovered through the ToDoBot launch. We started a conversation with them that we hope to continue. We also expect more people to come :) our main product We consider doing a little codebase makeover and open-sourcing the ToDoBot eventually. Would you be interested in contributing? It was exciting for us to be able to do something from start to finish in such a short timeframe, and we wanted to share the experience. It feels very refreshing, especially after being bogged down in the never-ending backlog of bugs and features of a bigger product. It’s a great way to relax without pausing the big work, and get a good shot of dopamine. If you’re feeling burned down, definitely consider completing a small project for yourself. Slack is going to host an , and I’d highly recommend everyone applying! online hackathon in March Thanks for reading this clunky story! Previously published at https://blog.onebar.io/how-weve-built-todobot-for-slack-in-3-days-bc42324dce14

How we built ToDoBot for Slack in 3 days

Kris Beevers has raised over $40M in VC, sold to the most important companies in tech, and is sharing four key lessons! Four years ago, founded to deliver superior DNS and internet traffic management solutions. His previous work as a principal software architect and chief scientist equipped him to handle the technical challenges, but as a first-time CEO, he had to master the dark art of sales. In the two years since we’ve invested, NS1 has collected an amazing customer list that includes Riot Games, Dropbox, Linkedin, Yelp, Salesforce, Imgur, and The Guardian, among many others. He’s also just raised a $20M Series B1 less than a year after raising a $23M Series B based on the outstanding early success of the business, and he was willing to share some tips on how he got there. Kris Beevers NS1 Differentiate Yourself Let’s be honest, DNS is kind of invisible — most people don’t have any idea typing brings them to a treasure trove of tiny animals — it just happens. But that doesn’t mean companies built around it have to be. When Beevers was building the brand for NS1, he knew he could shine a light on this overlooked technology, and stand out from competitors, by taking calculated risks with design. He avoided the cliche network diagrams and dull color palettes preferred by his competitors and built a corporate identity that looks more like and than B2B software. how http://cuteoverload.com/ throwback Nike streetwear $2,000 Saint Laurent silk blouses worn by Kardashians This is not your typical DevOps aesthetic! The eye-popping color and minimal graphics even filtered down to the logo. “We looked at three versions of the logo with techie swoops,” he says. “But it never felt quite right until we stripped it down to a simple logo with a pink dot.” An early version of the logo that looks like a standard B2B trademark. NS1’s hot pink became a trademark, even influencing the T-shirts the team wears at trade shows. “Companies spend a lot to figure out how to brand themselves,” says Beevers. “The answer can be as obvious as walking around a conference in bright pink T-shirts.” T-shirts are an undervalued B2B marketing resource. Hunt Logos According to Beevers, the secret to high dollar B2B sales is simple. It’s also slow, grinding work that requires huge amounts of preparation, planning, and execution. The primary goal is to win high-profile customers, earn their loyalty and advocacy so that they will allow you to display their logos on your homepage, and use those trust marks to continue to earn new customers. Repeat until the IPO. Win customers, show their logos, repeat until IPO. This is a small sample of NS1’s customers. It’s simple advice to give, but incredibly challenging to implement. In the early days, founders have to tap investors, friends, and former colleagues for intros. Beevers does offer one growth hack. “At the start of a process, ask for multiple introductions to a sales target,” he says. “It’s easy to ignore one intro, even a warm one, but if they hear about your from several people they’ll feel like you’re someone they have to know.” Always Be Closing is BS “Always Be Closing” is a great mantra for a salesperson with a quota, but not customer service agent tasked with managing a high-dollar value customer. Beevers advises startups to skip upsales on customer service calls, a surprisingly prevalent B2B tactic that leads to an uptick in short-term revenue while tending to turn off customers. Used car dealer’s pressure tactics are a bad match with technically-focused clients who expect a highly consultative sales process. Customer service teams should focus on customer satisfaction and advocacy. If the customer service team learns of a need that can be filled by their organization, they refer that to a sales team, but sales should remain responsible for the revenue relationship. Nice praise to receive from a customer like Pinterest! Beevers best sales tip is to listen—with a goal to understand the potential customer’s business environment and unique technical challenges. Often, the best long-term move is helping to solve the client’s problem, even if that means introducing them to a service provider in another product category. For instance, if improved DNS or traffic management solutions aren’t the client’s most urgent problem, Beevers is happy to make an introduction to another company that can solve the customer’s pressing needs. Acts like this generate no revenue in the short term but build the foundation of a long-term relationship. How a $200 Conference Pass Led to Signing LinkedIn Signing up customers is hard, yet sometimes you get lucky. According to Beevers, the highest ROI marketing spend in NS1 history was a $200 exhibit hall pass to an O’Reilly conference. While walking the thinly-carpeted floors of this tradeshow, Beevers met a decision maker at Linkedin and laid the groundwork for what would become a company defining sale. NS1 didn’t have a team of sales reps working the floor, and there was no wining and dining of key accounts. However, Beevers was armed with a strong product and had perfected a pitch that was powerful enough to pique the interest of someone who was previously peeking at a competitor’s booth. The lesson: Kris was lucky to meet the right person at LinkedIn, like the saying goes, luck comes when opportunity meets preparation, so spare no expense when it comes to developing a compelling product and a narrative around it. If you found these tips valuable, follow us on Twitter, clap( ), and subscribe to our newsletter for more information. Need a DNS or traffic management solution? Check out NS1’s website and Twitter and this 👏 video explaining how Yelp benefits from superior DNS solutions . Seriously, if it’s good enough for Yelp, it’s probably good enough for you!

Four Lessons Learned Selling to Dropbox, Salesforce, LinkedIn & Yelp

What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . CONCERNING TOBACCO here CONCERNING TOBACCO (Written about 1893; not before published) As concerns tobacco, there are many superstitions. And the chiefest is this—that there is a governing the matter, whereas there is nothing of the kind. Each man’s own preference is the only standard for him, the only one which he can accept, the only one which can command him. A congress of all the tobacco-lovers in the world could not elect a standard which would be binding upon you or me, or would even much influence us. standard The next superstition is that a man has a standard of his own. He hasn’t. He thinks he has, but he hasn’t. He thinks he can tell what he regards as a good cigar from what he regards as a bad one—but he can’t. He goes by the brand, yet imagines he goes by the flavor. One may palm off the worst counterfeit upon him; if it bears his brand he will smoke it contentedly and never suspect. Children of twenty-five, who have seven years of experience, try to tell me what is a good cigar and what isn’t. Me, who never learned to smoke, but always smoked; me, who came into the world asking for a light. No one can tell me what is a good cigar—for me. I am the only judge. People who claim to know say that I smoke the worst cigars in the world. They bring their own cigars when they come to my house. They betray an unmanly terror when I offer them a cigar; they tell lies and hurry away to meet engagements which they have not made when they are threatened with the hospitalities of my box. Now then, observe what superstition, assisted by a man’s reputation, can do. I was to have twelve personal friends to supper one night. One of them was as notorious for costly and elegant cigars as I was for cheap and devilish ones. I called at his house and when no one was looking borrowed a double handful of his very choicest; cigars which cost him forty cents apiece and bore red-and-gold labels in sign of their nobility. I removed the labels and put the cigars into a box with my favorite brand on it—a brand which those people all knew, and which cowed them as men are cowed by an epidemic. They took these cigars when offered at the end of the supper, and lit them and sternly struggled with them—in dreary silence, for hilarity died when the fell brand came into view and started around—but their fortitude held for a short time only; then they made excuses and filed out, treading on one another’s heels with indecent eagerness; and in the morning when I went out to observe results the cigars lay all between the front door and the gate. All except one—that one lay in the plate of the man from whom I had cabbaged the lot. One or two whiffs was all he could stand. He told me afterward that some day I would get shot for giving people that kind of cigars to smoke. Am I certain of my own standard? Perfectly; yes, absolutely—unless somebody fools me by putting my brand on some other kind of cigar; for no doubt I am like the rest, and know my cigar by the brand instead of by the flavor. However, my standard is a pretty wide one and covers a good deal of territory. To me, almost any cigar is good that nobody else will smoke, and to me almost all cigars are bad that other people consider good. Nearly any cigar will do me, except a Havana. People think they hurt my feelings when they come to my house with their life preservers on—I mean, with their own cigars in their pockets. It is an error; I take care of myself in a similar way. When I go into danger—that is, into rich people’s houses, where, in the nature of things, they will have high-tariff cigars, red-and-gilt girded and nested in a rosewood box along with a damp sponge, cigars which develop a dismal black ash and burn down the side and smell, and will grow hot to the fingers, and will go on growing hotter and hotter, and go on smelling more and more infamously and unendurably the deeper the fire tunnels down inside below the thimbleful of honest tobacco that is in the front end, the furnisher of it praising it all the time and telling you how much the deadly thing cost—yes, when I go into that sort of peril I carry my own defense along; I carry my own brand—twenty-seven cents a barrel—and I live to see my family again. I may seem to light his red-gartered cigar, but that is only for courtesy’s sake; I smuggle it into my pocket for the poor, of whom I know many, and light one of my own; and while he praises it I join in, but when he says it cost forty-five cents I say nothing, for I know better. However, to say true, my tastes are so catholic that I have never seen any cigars that I really could not smoke, except those that cost a dollar apiece. I have examined those and know that they are made of dog-hair, and not good dog-hair at that. I have a thoroughly satisfactory time in Europe, for all over the Continent one finds cigars which not even the most hardened newsboys in New York would smoke. I brought cigars with me, the last time; I will not do that any more. In Italy, as in France, the Government is the only cigar-peddler. Italy has three or four domestic brands: the Minghetti, the Trabuco, the Virginia, and a very coarse one which is a modification of the Virginia. The Minghettis are large and comely, and cost three dollars and sixty cents a hundred; I can smoke a hundred in seven days and enjoy every one of them. The Trabucos suit me, too; I don’t remember the price. But one has to learn to like the Virginia, nobody is born friendly to it. It looks like a rat-tail file, but smokes better, some think. It has a straw through it; you pull this out, and it leaves a flue, otherwise there would be no draught, not even as much as there is to a nail. Some prefer a nail at first. However, I like all the French, Swiss, German, and Italian domestic cigars, and have never cared to inquire what they are made of; and nobody would know, anyhow, perhaps. There is even a brand of European smoking-tobacco that I like. It is a brand used by the Italian peasants. It is loose and dry and black, and looks like tea-grounds. When the fire is applied it expands, and climbs up and towers above the pipe, and presently tumbles off inside of one’s vest. The tobacco itself is cheap, but it raises the insurance. It is as I remarked in the beginning—the taste for tobacco is a matter of superstition. There are no standards—no real standards. Each man’s preference is the only standard for him, the only one which he can accept, the only one which can command him. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Mark Twain (2004). What Is Man? and Other Essays. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70/pg70-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

CONCERNING TOBACCO

Elon Musk Made P&G Think Like Tesla

Once upon a time, in a bustling city, there lived an ambitious named Alex. He dreamt of building a successful business that would bring value to people's lives. Alex knew that was crucial for his venture's success, but he soon realized that converting those leads into loyal customers was the ultimate challenge. entrepreneur generating leads With determination in his heart, Alex embarked on a journey to discover the most effective strategies to turn prospects into customers. He began by understanding his target audience inside out. Hours of market research and creating buyer personas unveiled their pain points, needs, and preferences. Armed with this knowledge, Alex tailored his approach and messaging, increasing the likelihood of converting leads into customers. Alex's next step was to create visually appealing and user-friendly landing pages that clearly communicated his unique value proposition. With persuasive language, compelling headlines, and relevant visuals, these landing pages engaged visitors and encouraged them to take action. But what was a captivating landing page without a compelling call-to-action? Alex crafted irresistible CTAs that were action-oriented and conveyed a sense of urgency. Phrases like "Get Started Now" and "Limited Time Offer" enticed potential customers to take the next step. To attract more leads, Alex offered valuable lead magnets like e-books, whitepapers, and exclusive webinars. People loved receiving valuable content for free, and these lead magnets helped Alex capture qualified leads. Understanding the importance of real-time assistance, Alex implemented live chat support on his website. He was prompt in addressing potential customers' queries and concerns, building trust and confidence, which in turn increased his chances of conversion. Alex understood that generic communication could put off potential customers, so he personalized his emails and messages based on prospects' preferences and actions. Addressing them by name and tailoring his messages to their specific needs made a significant impact. To further build trust, Alex leveraged the power of testimonials and case studies from satisfied customers. Social proof swayed potential customers towards making a purchase, knowing that others had experienced positive results. As Alex's business grew, he decided to create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time deals and discounts. Prospects were more inclined to take action, fearing they might miss out on a fantastic opportunity. To maintain a long-lasting relationship with potential customers, Alex implemented a well-planned email marketing campaign. Providing valuable content, relevant updates, and occasional offers kept his brand top-of-mind. However, Alex knew that not all leads would convert immediately. So, he used retargeting ads to reach out to those who had previously visited his website. These ads reminded them of his offerings, encouraging them to give it another shot. To optimize his website for conversions, Alex ensured fast-loading pages, a mobile-friendly design, clear navigation, and an intuitive checkout process. But Alex's secret weapon for lead conversion was exceptional customer support. He responded promptly to inquiries and went above and beyond to resolve any issues that arose. Finally, Alex offered a money-back guarantee, removing the risk factor and persuading hesitant prospects to make a purchase. This instilled confidence in his product and services. Throughout his journey, Alex meticulously tracked and analyzed data to identify areas for improvement. He continuously refined his approach to stay ahead of the competition. As time passed, Alex's business flourished. He had successfully mastered the art of converting leads into loyal customers, and his venture thrived in the competitive market. And so, the story of Alex, the prospecting entrepreneur, became an inspiring tale of perseverance, innovation, and customer-centricity, proving that with the right strategies and dedication, dreams could indeed come true in the business world. The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt "business"

BRAND KNEW

brand-knew.com

11-50 employees

Since 2009

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BRAND KNEW

brand-knew.com

11-50 employees

Since 2009

COMPANY RANKING

BRAND KNEW

EVERGREEN INDEX #2192

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