In this episode, the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard is joined by Ida Tin, co-founder and chair of the board at Clue. The conversation is about building Clue, which today has more than 11 million active users, and about being the woman behind the Femtech industry.
Ida opens the conversation by describing herself as a stubborn, visionary and persistent woman. She has always done things her own way and has an unshakeable drive. That drive comes from her conviction that society needs the product.
Creating the world’s fastest-growing app for period and fertility tracking
Ida talks about the journey from a loose idea on a Post-it to a technological breakthrough in women’s health.
As a young woman, Ida dreamt of becoming an artist, but fate took her off course in the corridors of an art academy in London, and from that day on, she was an entrepreneur. Ida shares all the experience she has picked up along the way as an entrepreneur: from raising capital as a startup to handing over the reins.
Ida describes how the idea for Clue came from wondering why contraception hadn’t moved on since the pill was introduced in the 1960s. Today Clue has 11 million active users and is FDA-approved as a method of contraception on a par with the pill. It has been important to her that women have a relaxed relationship with their own biology. With Clue, she wanted to build an app that could offer information and understanding, and in doing so remove the taboo she sees all over the world.
The woman behind an industry valued at $1 billion
The conversation moves on to the term Femtech. Through her work, Ida saw that others were making products that combined technology and women’s health: sister products to Clue, in a way. But no one had brought them together under one name. She saw potential in creating a category. The category would bring together entrepreneurs in women’s health and technology and give them a term to see themselves in and to stand stronger with. It would also make the products easier to understand for people outside the target group.
Ida explains that she came up with the term Femtech on the back of a micro-analysis at a tech conference. The term was meant to remove the taboo around women’s health and include everyone. Ida says that the Femtech industry has made it easier to attract investment today, because it has created a shared frame of reference.
“When your body has been running in top gear for many years, it takes a long time to bring it back down”
Life as an entrepreneur is rarely a bed of roses. Ida talks honestly about the flip side. She describes a constant sense of chaos, both personally and professionally, that left her without a safe harbour where she could relax. On top of that came the guilt of having to put her children second.
Even after two years as chair of the board and after handing over the reins, Ida still feels a deep urge to create. Some days she wakes up anxious, feeling that she has to create something, because her body has been running in high gear for so many years. The next thing she creates should come from pure desire and passion, not from an adrenaline-fuelled need or from anxiety.