WoW Woman in FemTech I Anke Sinnigen, founder of wexxeljahre
Anke Sinnigen is the founder of wexxeljahre.
She is passionate about digital healthcare and improving solutions for menopausal women. Anke has worked successfully in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry (Roche, AstraZeneca, ALK-Abelló) for many years and headed departments like communication and marketing, business development, patient partnership, and digital excellence. She had already founded a startup within a pharmaceutical company and is co-founder of a startup in the field of medical education. She has a lot of experience in implementing innovations in patient and physician communication and collaboration and is now using this experience to build and expand wexxeljahre.
wexxeljahre is a startup from Hamburg and wants to empower women to take their menopausal health into their own hands. The startup connects women with experts and offers new, digital services for health in menopause, e.g. a physician search for menopause experts in Germany. They also work to remove the taboo surrounding menopause in public and in companies - because one in ten women quits her job during menopause. wexxeljahre was founded at the end of 2021 by healthcare and digital expert Anke Sinnigen. Gynecologist Dr. Sonka Heimburg has been advising the wexxeljahre team from the beginning.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I worked for many years in the media, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industry and initialized many digital projects there, always with the aim of building or intensifying new relations with customers and learning more about them. One focus of my work was also digital patient communication and marketing. There is a lot of potentials to reach patients and create added value for them with well-researched medically verified information and new digital services. Now I'd like to use my expertise for building up new offerings and applications in the field of women's health, an area that is very close to my heart.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I was working on other indications such as allergies, oncology, cardiovascular disease and asthma. Over the last years, I discovered for myself the field of women's health and particularly menopause, which I found incredibly exciting. I was eager to learn more about it, talked to many menopausal women, read many studies and books. Still, the more I investigated the medical issues, the more I was shocked at how little is known about menopause, e.g., how little women know about it, and how few innovative services are available. Menopause is still a taboo in our society and most women suffer without others noticing much about it. Although I have been working in the health field for many years and I am a woman of menopausal age, I too was not aware of it. At the same time, of course, I realized how underrepresented women are in medical research in general and the consequences that have on our health. Namely, poorer medical care than men.
At first, my idea was to join a company that offers or develops products and digital solutions for women's health because I was eager to get involved. However, despite many positive initiatives, my experience is that larger companies are still too sluggish. Existing internal structures in particular are an obstacle to implementing a business or startup idea quickly and agilely and, e.g., putting the interests and needs of users first. On the other hand, a founder’s journey is also not easy, because you can't fall back on resources within a company and every Euro invested has to come out of your own pocket first. You have to think very carefully about whether this or that measure will really pay off in terms of success. That's why the biggest challenge is always financing.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
I launched wexxeljahre in October 2021. One focus was and is to build up the community and learn from it. So, we started offering paid webinars to learn which topics work, what are women willing to spend money on, and what topics are burning the most. Menopause is still a big taboo in Germany, but other countries like the UK are already further ahead. Here, there are hardly any companies that offer support for menopause, for example. Many are interested when we approach them about it and I have lectures in companies, which are perceived as a great enrichment. However, most companies are still reluctant to offer support for menopausal women. There's a lot of convincing to be done and it will take some time before the topic is present in HR departments. After all, one in ten women quits her job because she doesn't feel up to the tasks due to menopause. And about a third do not accept a promotion. When we talk about a shortage of skilled workers and we want more women in management positions everywhere, the topic of menopause absolutely belongs on that table. Companies can't afford to just let women go.
On the funding side, there seem to be two obstacles. First investors mainly deal with men. And second I (and also other women involved in the menopause business) do not have the typical age for a founder. Yet we bring a lot of professional experience and can act and share our experiences authentically with our target group.
Menopause itself is also still underrepresented in the femtech area; there are far more offers for topics such as menstruation, fertility, and the desire to have children, which are all addressed to women younger than 45. Yet menopause affects every woman. Menopause is not a niche!
What are your biggest achievements to date?
wexxeljahre is still a young startup. The launch of the website, our social media channels, and the growth of subscribers for our newsletter were of course the first highlights. Also the feedback on our first webinars, where we connect women with experts and empower them to make the right decisions for their health. It's great to get that encouragement from our users that women are thanking us for what we're doing, connecting them with experts, educating them, and expanding our offerings. Our new physician search for menopause, which we launched in July 2022, has also been very well received. We asked women if they knew a good doctor for menopause and to share their contacts with us. Because probably the biggest problem for women going through menopause is finding good advice. Menopause is not part of the medical training of doctors in Germany, so most women still hear the saying "You'll have to go through it." Yet menopause is a crucial phase in the life of every woman, during which the course is also set for her health in older age. We want to close this gap and we are working on further offers with which we can empower women to take more control of their health during menopause.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We want to further expand our search for physicians, as contacts are still lacking in some areas of Germany. In addition, we are looking for doctors who also offer video consultations, as this is a particularly useful addition to rural areas. We are also preparing additional new digital services to educate women and connect them with experts. "Menopause at the workplace" is also particularly important to us. For this, we are looking for cooperation partners and companies that would like to join us in supporting working women. One major project is a kind of digital companion for menopause, which we are developing together with doctors. One challenge is to adapt the offering to the German healthcare system, and we are also looking for funding for this.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Absolutely! #WomenInTech is innovative in itself: The fact that women are appropriating technology and using it for women-specific purposes is innovative because the technology was dominated by men and made by men. Women set different priorities. As in my field of women's health, we can use technology for women made by women. Women have been neglected in the health sector in particular. Until the 1990s, drugs for women were hardly ever tested on women. There are many other examples of the gender health gap. We can only narrow this gap if women themselves become active and develop new products and services because this will automatically result in products or solutions that are more specific to women. Furthermore, there are also too few women in science and we can set new directions here. And finally, #WomenInTech also relates to founding itself: because we are underrepresented as founders as well. All in all, #WomenInTech is a huge opportunity to develop better offers for women!
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
AI certainly plays a big role. In other words, the development of algorithms in women's health. In Germany, there are so-called “DIGAs”, medical apps that can be prescribed by doctors. For example, there are services for women with breast cancer that make a lot of sense and are free of charge for the women because the health insurance companies cover the costs. More will certainly be developed in this area; the obstacle here is rather the doctors, who have been somewhat hesitant to prescribe DIGAs so far. The costs for the studies that are necessary for approval are also hard for startups to cover.
In Germany, there will (hopefully) also be more video consultations; we have a major problem with medical care in rural areas. Yet the Corona pandemic showed how well medical care can work virtually. It would be a stupid step backward if this service were not expanded.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Find a topic that you stand for and can sell authentically. The more you identify with it, the more doors will open for you.
Put on your customer's shoes, understand their problem, and develop an offer that solves that problem. The simpler, the better.
Build a network with others who are also passionate about topics like yours. Connect with them and share ideas.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Ida Tin, founder of Clue – because she is the "mother of femtech"
Maxie Matthiessen, founder of Ruby Cup and Femna Health - because she is passionate about women's health
Prof. Dr. Sylvia Thun, head of the Core Unit eHealth at Charitè, Berlin – because she advocates for more women in the field of digital medicine.
Find out more about wexxeljahre on their website.
Follow wexxeljahre on Instagram.
Connect with Anke on LinkedIn.
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.