WoW Woman in FemTech I Eva Galant, founder and CEO of Hashiona
Eva Galant is the founder and CEO of Hashiona. After 6 years of struggling with Hashimoto's, Eva decided to start Hashiona and help another 480M diagnosed worldwide. Eva was an Expansion Manager at WeWork, where she was in charge of expanding the business into Australia and Poland. She has a strong technical and managerial background with 10 years of international experience in the technology and startup sector. She has been successful in strategy, marketing implementation, product innovation, and driving new business opportunities, and solutions.
Eva has professional experience working in places such as Warsaw, Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, Chicago, and Western Australia. She co-founded 3 startups. Before moving to London six years ago, she successfully sold Elite Card, a B2C Loyalty Program with more than 400 partners and 3000 paying customers.
She graduated from Westminster University of Technology with a B.S. in management and manufacturing engineering in e-technology and Birkbeck University of London with an M.S. in investment management. She also holds degrees from the Stanford Rebuild program, the MIT EF CEE '21 program, the Draper University x UNDP gas pedal, and the unique China Start program at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.
Hashiona is an all-in-one platform for people with Hashimoto's disease, with the goal of improving our users' quality of life by lowering the level of harmful antibodies in their blood.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
My career background and current role have been a combination of general manager, entrepreneur, and product manager. I have over 10 years of working in international markets across the tech and startup sectors with experience in product launch, strategy, marketing implementation, product innovation, and driving new business opportunities, products and solutions. My professional career has taken me to places such as Warsaw, Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, Chicago and Western Australia.
I also have experience co-founding 3 startups during my career. Before moving to London six years ago, I had a successful exit after selling one of my companies - Elite Card. Elite Card was a B2C Loyalty Program that had over 400 partners and 3000 paying customers at the time of sale.
I’m currently Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Hashiona, the online platform for Hashimoto's patients. My primary responsibility is to oversee the overall strategy and operations of the business, including identifying and executing our core objectives. I am also responsible for managing our investors’ relationships and developing a strong network of contacts within the Hashimoto's community.
How did you get into this Industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
Getting into the IT industry was not as easy as I thought it would be. Initially, when I started out more than 10 years ago, I was still a student and I had no prior experience and didn’t know much about the industry. But I was determined to learn more and make my way in.
So I started by organizing conferences and events, networking with the people who were already in the industry, and gaining knowledge through reading and research. When I was an IT student, I also worked in a startup, so this was my first exposure to the industry. It took a lot of time and dedication but eventually, I gained enough skills to take part in organizing meetings, conferences, and fairs for the IT industry members - starting from Geek Girls Carrot in Poland or SheWork in the UK helping women go into this field all the way to Polish Tech Day in London or Polish Tech Night in Germany giving startups an opportunity to showcase their projects for VCs.
Then I worked as an independent consultant. I traveled a lot, in 2018, I made 45 flights, which means I sat on a plane every 9 days. These flights were mainly in Europe, but they extended into flights in the skies of the USA, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. I realized myself professionally, led and helped projects in Berlin, Chicago, and Tel Aviv, and advised and mentored startup teams in India, Russia, and Los Angeles.
One day I got a link from a friend to an offer from a rapidly growing start-up, or rather an American corporation: they were looking for someone who would help them open new markets... That's how I became the Global Expansion Manager at WeWork.
Today, I am proud that I have been able to contribute significantly towards helping professionals enter this complex arena over the past decade. It has been an incredible journey full of learning experiences and fulfilling accomplishments!
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
It took me around two and a half years to get Hashiona to where it is now. This timeframe included a lot of trial and error, learning from mistakes, and hard work. The biggest obstacle I faced during this time was finding the right people to help build the platform. We needed professionals who could not only provide expertise in their respective fields but also verify the content we were providing to ensure that it was educational and up-to-date. It was difficult to find individuals with these combined skillsets that fit within our budget, so we had to take our time in order to make sure we made the best decisions for the future of Hashiona. We met with numerous experts and spent countless hours researching different teams before finally settling on a group that could meet all of our needs. Additionally, I had to develop an understanding of how the platform worked in order to be able to effectively manage and oversee its growth. This required me to spend countless hours researching the latest technologies, understanding their potential applications within our platform, and training myself on how they worked. As you can imagine, this process was both exciting and very challenging as it required me to stay up-to-date with numerous developments while making sure each decision would benefit us in the long run.
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
One of the biggest challenges in the field of health tech is finding reliable specialists that have a holistic approach to treating a disease. As technology continues to evolve, it can be intimidating for many medical practitioners who are accustomed to traditional methods. Even though technology has opened up new ways to diagnose and treat illnesses, some medical professionals may feel reluctant or unable to adapt to the changing landscape. Another challenge is keeping up with the latest advancements in medical research and treatments. To stay ahead of the curve, medical practitioners need to stay abreast with all the latest research, which can be quite time-consuming and difficult at times.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Our biggest achievements to date are definitely the successful implementation of our beta testing and clinical studies. We had 30k free-of-charge beta testers who tested the Hashiona recovery/lifestyle plan and provided us with valuable feedback. Since that time, we have sold more than a couple of hundred subscriptions and seen our user base grow significantly.
In addition, we’ve already conducted 3 weeks of pre-clinical study on a group of 20 women suffering from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This study examined the influence of the non-pharmacological dietary intervention on their quality of life and anthropometric data. We found that this intervention resulted in significantly improved symptoms for those involved, which encourage us to run full-time proper patient trials.
Furthermore, we’re now actively engaged in Patient Trials - a project which seeks to verify the effectiveness of the Hashiona diet system with 100 Hashimoto patients. These individuals will undergo dietary and lifestyle intervention over the course of 3 months with blood tests conducted. As part of this process, we will provide them with support to ensure they can successfully manage their diet regimen over this time frame. We look forward to the results - which we hope we can realise in the next months.
We consider these successes as major milestones for us as a business and demonstrate our commitment to providing comprehensive solutions for managing Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
Currently, I'm working on a Patient Trials as I mentioned earlier. We would like to begin a medical certification process later this year. We understand that Hashimoto's patients respond differently to various types of diets and treatments, so it's important for us to collect data from different sources in order to reach the most accurate conclusion about our diet system’s effectiveness. That's why we've gone out of our way to provide comprehensive home-based blood tests during this trial period. Ultimately, we hope that our findings will help inform how Hashimoto's patients can adjust their daily habits in order to better manage this condition going forward.
Of course, we apply to various accelerators and grants all the time so that we can continue to grow. We are also looking for a seed round.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Absolutely, the #WomenInTech movement is extremely important to us. We strongly believe in equipping women with the skills and resources they need to be successful in the technology industry. In such a male-dominated space, it can be difficult for women to find success but through the #WomenInTech movement, we’re able to challenge this status quo by providing a platform for women to unite and empower each other.
At Hashiona, we are proud to have female recruits at all levels of our organization and recognize that having more gender equality leads to better problem-solving and innovation within tech.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
The healthtech and femtech industries are both set to experience major growth in the next five years, as their potential to transform healthcare has become increasingly clear. Healthtech companies are focused on leveraging technology to drive better health outcomes, while femtech companies are changing the way women access and engage with care. With advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other automation technologies – such as machine learning, virtual reality, and robotics – these sectors will be greatly impacted by the influx of new technologies. Also, I think key trends will be telemedicine and the availability of services and access to the best specialists from every corner of the earth, DTx as a support for all chronic diseases, which will enter permanently into our lives and unification of systems and access to medical data about themselves for patients at the level of national health systems. This will allow better and faster diagnosis, treatment, and care for patients. Let's hope these trends will develop.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
The most important piece of advice I can give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry is to be true to yourself and to follow your passions. Although the road ahead may seem daunting, it's important to remember that hard work and dedication can often go a long way. One of our investors Tim Draper, founder of DU University put into his pledge something like “Make short-time sacrifices for long-term benefits” I strongly believe this is true. It's essential to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible by talking to experts, reading relevant literature, and getting involved with industry events. Networking is also very helpful - you never know who could help you in achieving your goals. Once you have established a foundation of resources, ideas, and contacts, it won't be long before people come knocking on your door with opportunities. Ultimately, there will always be obstacles in any career path but the important thing is to never give up and keep pushing forward even when things don't go according to plan. With persistence and resilience, anything is possible!
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
It’s hard to choose, but I will tell you more about Cathy Wood. She is an inspirational woman in the investment industry who I admire. She is the founder, CEO, and CIO of Ark Invest, a pioneering investment management firm that specializes in disruptive innovation and has been quite successful since its founding in 2014.
Wood has made a name for herself on Wall Street, not only because she is one of few women to hold such a powerful role in finance but also due to her unique approach to investing and partnerships with companies like Tesla, Uber, and SpaceX.
I have seen Cathy- speech first time last year during one of the conferences in SV and I completely fell in love. We need more role models like her.
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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.