Do you know what area of health tech just crossed the $1B VC investment mark?

(Photo credit @nci)

This has been a strange September for me. It’s the first time in over a decade that I am not participating in some type of back-to-school programming as part of my full-time job. I forgot how much fun it is to meet new students and help them get their careers into high gear. I have signed multiple new clients recently (and a few are current students) so it’s similar but not quite the same. The bittersweet aspects of change. It’s also the 20th anniversary of 9/11/01 tomorrow, which takes me back to the beginning of my career in NYC. It was a devastating day to be a New Yorker. I lost friends that day. I walked home from my midtown office, along with hordes of other NYC residents, and spent the night huddled around the TV with friends. I am surprisingly still thankful for AOL IM, which was the main method of communication that worked that day, when phone lines were overwhelmed. I still take time every year to remember the brave men & women who died that day and in the aftermath. #neverforget 

#techsoundbite

One of my current clients is looking for roles in female-founded/female-focused companies, which got me thinking about femtech as a topic for this week’s newsletter. Femtech (aka ‘female technology’) is used to describe a category of digital health companies that focus specifically on women’s health. 

The term is not without controversy as some are worried that by labeling these apps/technologies with a gendered term, it will have an adverse effect on growth, funding, and product pricing. I mean, has anyone ever used the term ‘ManTech’? It’s also not lost on many in the industry that one of the first male-focused health tech companies Hims immediately got plenty of VC funding in year one to help cure ED, whereas other female-focused companies founded years earlier got very little to help with supporting the everyday challenges of menstruation and pregnancy. (Hims also changed its name at some point to Hims & Hers to expand services to the other half of the population.) And another male-focused health company Ro acquired Modern Fertility earlier this year to do the same. 

“2021 is a landmark year for the femtech industry, with global VC investment crossing the $1 billion mark for the first time, according to PitchBook data.” Maven Clinic became the first unicorn to be focused on femtech by closing a $110million series D round last month. In the same month, my friend Paris Wallace’s company Ovia was acquired by LabCorp for an undisclosed sum. (Yes, I know that one was founded by a man.) Then earlier this week, Flo (a period tracking app) raised a $50million series B round. 

Right now, the majority of femtech funding has gone to companies that focus on fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood, despite the fact that less than 45% of the US female population is able to take advantage of these services. There are calls to step back and evaluate where the next femtech companies should focus their efforts, namely on menopausal and senior-aged women who have their own specific sets of health needs. They also tend to have even more disposable income available to them to pay for these services. 

If you’d like to explore further, as always, CB Insights has done a great job with a femtech market map to help demonstrate the variety of companies that are operating in this space. And their 2nd annual 2020 Digital 150 list includes 10 femtech companies. Also, this Forbes article has identified 52 female-led startups focused on building femtech and healthtech companies. It is inevitable that there will be an increased focus on women’s health companies in the next few years, as women spend $500billion annually on medical expenses. 

Are buy-now-pay-later apps helpful assistance or debt traps?

(Photo credit @harrycunningham)

Everyone, this has been a great week. I signed new clients I’m excited to work with, my physical therapist helped me figure out why I roll my foot when running, and I made headway with a pile of paperwork I’ve been ignoring. I hope that all of you have had a great week too - or are heading into a fantastic weekend! 

#techtopic

Back when I was a kid, layaway was such a fascinating concept. Put a little money down now, and get a toy at Christmas! I kinda missed the part about the other payments that needed to be made. It was common to see lots of people lining up at layaway counters to stockpile gifts, clothes, major appliances, etc at stores like Sears, KMart, Ames, JCPenney, etc. (You may have noticed...most of these stores don’t exist anymore or are failing miserably.)

Recently, there has been a resurgence of this concept, in the form of ‘buy-now-pay-later’ apps (BNPL for short). If you’d like a bit longer description of how these BNPL apps work, check out this LATimes article. Basically, it’s the same concept: use one of these apps as you checkout from online shopping, make a small down payment, and then owe them 3-4 more payments in the future. The difference is you get your item now vs having to pay it off *before* you get to access it as in the layaway model. 

I was surprised to learn that roughly 42% of Americans report using the apps at least once, according to a Feb 2021 Credit Karma survey. The apps indicate that they offer a way to expand access to a credit product for individuals who have bad credit scores or little credit history. And since it’s only for one purchase, it doesn’t damage your credit score and might help you build up good credit history if you make all the payments on-time. There is even one app Octane which caters solely to the ‘passion purchase’ market (namely motorcycles, RVs, boats, and other powersports) and recently raised a $52million Series D round.

It’s a trend that Square wants to capitalize on with their recent purchase of Afterpay for $29billion. The target audience is mainly younger consumers who have been fans of using the BNPL apps. Some of those users claim that credit card companies allow them to rack up huge debt before stepping in, whereas the BNPL apps are used on a per-purchase basis so it’s easier to control spending. And while they can be right, it hasn’t always turned out that way. 

What many young consumers are doing is building up a ladder of debt with successive purchases, and getting the immediate gratification of the item purchased and ‘forgetting’ the payments that will come later. US regulators are still gauging the impact, but European and Australian regulators have increased scrutiny. With Square’s recent acquisition, US regulators can’t be far behind. ​​But the U.S. BNPL market is expected to grow by 41.7% on an annual basis to reach over $126 million in 2021 and it’s great for a company’s transaction volume -- so more to come on its impacts on consumer lending/credit cards/etc.

Can Instagram overshadow TikTok?

(Photo credit @purzlbaum)

Welcome to all the recent new subscribers, and a thank you to those who have been here from the beginning. I’ve been outdoors a lot this summer, taking waaay too many photos of my random hikes & adventures, partly to share, partly to serve as a ‘physical’ memory. Since I didn’t travel as much this past year, I’ve also been (digitally) flipping through old photo albums too, dreaming of when I can do another big trip abroad. My guess is that many of you are doing the same thing. You may also want to take a few minutes to think about where you are sharing & storing all those memories! 

#techtopic

With 2 big photo-related announcements recently from Google and Facebook, I’m curious to see the impact on how individuals/consumers experience and store photos & memories moving forward. 

A few weeks ago, Instagram officially announced it is trying to become TikTok. It’s not surprising that Facebook has decided to ride the increasingly popular video wave that Tiktok unleashed. Completing its transition from just photos to an entertainment app. (Will FB now go the route of original content development (ala the ill-fated Quibi)? Or only stay as a platform for creators of all types to share their own content?) 

If you want to keep sharing just photos, here is a great list of Instagram app alternatives for photographers -- and fascinating that Twitter is first on their list. And if you want to try an app where you can share photos but that bans selfies, check out Poparazzi. 

This article makes an interesting point tho: is this pivot to video something users want, or is it simply the next step in an ad-driven social media model? I also wonder if there will be a user rebound back to photos, once the majority of us are not in lockdown. My guess is that video has increased in popularity because we’re all stuck at home, it’s more engaging/entertaining, and what else did you have to do? But when you’re engaged back in life again someday soon, will you have the same amount of time to surf videos? Or will you naturally revert back to consuming more static content again? Facebook, TikTok and others are betting on the former. I recently joined Faves which has a different take on content sharing/curation -- more on that in a future newsletter. 

The other big change came from Google who imposed stricter photo storage limits as of Jun 1. We all know that with a phone, you take zillions of crappy photos and keep them all “just in case.” Very few of us curate our photo collections (especially when you include snapshots, selfies, etc), and with Google Photos machine learning, I can search for my dog and all the cute photos appear (without me having to curate). With this new photo storage limit, consumers may be searching for alternatives. The Verge and Tom’s Guide have two comprehensive articles to help with evaluating new services. Or if you’re really motivated, try self-hosting your own photo storage site. Either way, you could do your own analysis of your photo habits, and try to determine what you photograph more: objects or selfies? And ponder what that says about you?