As we step into a new year, I want to begin with one simple but deeply important thing: Thank you.
Thank you for reading, sharing, questioning, challenging, and engaging with Better Woman Health over the past year. Thank you to the founders building solutions for women who have long been ignored, the clinicians advocating for better care, the investors asking harder questions, and the women who continue to demand more from a system that hasn’t always served them well. This community exists because of you and because of a shared belief that women’s health deserves better.
The start of a new year naturally invites reflection. It’s a time when goals are set, strategies refined, and bold plans announced. In women’s health and FemTech, this often looks like ambitious roadmaps, new features, expanded markets, and promises of scale. All of that matters. Progress requires vision.
But as we move forward, there’s one thing we cannot afford to leave behind: clinical credibility.
In the excitement of innovation, women’s health has sometimes been treated as a problem that technology alone can solve. But health outcomes are not growth metrics. And trust, once broken, is incredibly hard to rebuild. Clinical credibility is not “optional.” It is the foundation upon which sustainable, ethical, and impactful women’s health solutions are built.
As we enter this new year, my hope is that we don’t just ask, What are we building? But also, how sound is what we’re building? Are our claims backed by evidence? Are clinicians meaningfully involved? Are we clear about limitations, risks, and uncertainty? Are we designing with real-world women in mind, not ideal users in pitch decks?
This doesn’t mean innovation should slow down. It means it should grow meaningfully.
Which brings me to a simple idea I’d like to offer as a guiding principle for the year ahead:
Let’s aim to move at least two steps forward.
Not ten. Not perfection. Just two meaningful steps.
Two steps ahead might look like this:
A founder replacing vague health claims with precise, evidence-informed language.
A product team involving clinicians earlier in the design process.
An investor asking not just about traction, but about safety, validation, and long-term outcomes.
A company acknowledging what their product can’t yet do and being transparent about it.
In women’s health, harm often doesn’t come from bad intentions; it comes from oversimplification, assumptions, and shortcuts taken in the name of speed. Moving two steps ahead means resisting that urge. It means recognizing that women’s health is complex, contextual, and deeply influenced by biology, culture, access, and lived experience.
It's not about being ahead of competitors or racing to market; it's about being ahead of where the industry currently is in terms of clinical rigor and credibility. It’s about intentional, measured progress over speed.
Two steps ahead is realistic. It’s actionable. And collectively, it compounds.
This year, Better Woman Health remains committed to one core mission: helping women’s health innovation be both impactful and clinically credible. We will continue to ask uncomfortable questions, bridge the gap between medicine and innovation, and advocate for standards that protect women, not just markets.
If you’re building this year, build responsibly.
If you’re investing, invest wisely.
If you’re communicating, communicate honestly.
And if at any point the path feels slower because you chose rigor over hype, that’s not a setback. That’s progress.
The new year doesn’t just need grand resolutions to transform women’s health. It needs consistent, thoughtful steps in the right direction. Let’s commit to moving at least two steps ahead, together.
Thank you for being part of this journey. I’m deeply grateful to walk into this new year with you.
Here’s to a year of progress, integrity, and better health for women everywhere.
Let’s raise the bar together. Subscribe, share this with someone building in women’s health, or reach out if you’re ready to move at least two steps ahead, credibly.