WoW Woman in FemTech | Hannah Samano, the Founder and CEO of Unfabled
Hannah Samano is the Founder and CEO of Unfabled, the first marketplace for menstrual wellbeing. Hannah started her career at Unilever and worked in tech teams across the business. She spent time in VC at Unilever Ventures, before moving into Global E-commerce Innovation where she launched Unilever’s first in-house DTC brand. She left Unilever in 2018 and moved to Kenya to head up Product and launch an African FemTech company, Kasha (e-commerce for women’s health and personal care in emerging markets).
She has been nominated as a Future Star of Tech in the E-commerce category and is passionate about brands, online businesses and women’s health & wellness.
Unfabled is the first marketplace for menstrual wellbeing. They curate quality, sustainable wellness brands, and their e-commerce platform allows menstruators to discover products and information for their period, period symptoms, and self-care. Unfabled believe that menstrual care is self-care, so that’s why they’re building the first wellness platform which centres menstruation within how we build our wellness rituals. They launched in the UK in February and the response so far has been phenomenal.
Hannah, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I’ve spent the past eight years working in tech and e-commerce in the consumer space, launching brands and e-commerce businesses at Unilever, startups, and agencies. I’ve immersed myself in these different professional worlds because I’ve always known that I wanted to build my own company and wanted to gain as much experience as quickly as possible. In 2020 I started thinking about the consumer experience for menstrual wellness. In a world where mainstream menstrual brands are garish and where sterile supermarket aisles labelled ‘feminine hygiene’ are usually next to the pet food aisle, I used to spend the least time possible thinking about my period and period products. It just didn’t make me feel good. And it’s not just me – 58% of menstruators feel embarrassed by their period.
In January 2021 I decided to overhaul this experience by building a modern consumer platform that allows you to discover products not just for your period, but for your symptoms and for your self-care throughout your cycle. At Unfabled we want to overhaul sterile language like ‘feminine hygiene’, ‘sanitary napkins’, and ‘personal hygiene’ – all terminology which compounds period stigma. Having a menstrual cycle does not make us dirty! We’re putting menstruation at the heart of how our community builds their wellness rituals, banishing shame from the consumer experience through beautiful branding and a slick digital interface.
Unfabled was up and running in the UK by the end of February and it’s been a crazy few months, to say the least.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I’ve always been incredibly passionate about women’s empowerment but it took a while for me to figure out how to marry that with tech. When I was 20 I interned at a tech startup in Paris, and from that moment on I knew I wanted to work in tech and to build my own startup. Luckily I was then offered a place on Unilever’s Technology leadership programme, which was a fantastic launchpad into the tech industry for which I’m really grateful!
I’ve personally found the tech industry to be very welcoming and supportive – especially the women in tech communities. I don’t have an Engineering or Computer Science background, but it hasn’t in any way prevented me from building a career in tech (even though some people said it might).
I discovered the Femtech space in 2018 and fell in love. With the purpose, the community, the innovation. Using technology to solve real problems for women just makes so much sense. Will the world benefit from yet another food delivery app? Or will the world benefit from dismantling the stigma around women’s mental and physical health? I found my purpose with Femtech and am sure this is just the beginning!
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’m 28 now, and sometimes I feel like I lived a lot very quickly! In my 20s so far I’ve lived in 5 countries and had 10 professional roles. The intensity of this meant I came close to burn out a couple of times, but it taught me to care for my mental and physical health and to build good habits around looking after myself.
I’m super excited to now be starting my founder journey! I’m so passionate about women’s health and dismantling the stigma around menstruation, and I feel grateful that I can now apply the skills and experience I’ve gained through the years to building Unfabled and solving a huge problem: a totally inadequate consumer experience for menstrual care.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
I started working on the idea for Unfabled in January and by the end of February, the business was up and running. Just one week into trading I had to restock and had sold out on lots of products. I was stunned by the initial response – customers from all over the UK and requests from overseas! The silver lining of a UK lockdown has meant I’ve had lots of time to move really quickly with building the business, and I’m over the moon with the Unfabled community which has mushroomed so quickly.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
Now that I’ve launched the website and have strong initial traction I’m working to scale the business. I’m constantly analysing data and interviewing users and experimenting with various digital marketing strategies. Building an online business is so exciting – constantly testing things, figuring out what doesn’t work, having your assumptions and your ego shattered, and then having a mini breakthrough before starting the cycle again.
I’m preparing to fundraise at the moment, which means taking a step back from the frenzy of launching Unfabled to think about where the business needs to be in 1, 2, 5 years time. In between packing orders, I’m putting my pitch deck together!
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Wow, absolutely. I’ve spent my tech career in male-dominated environments, and I think that’s partly why I loved the Femtech space so much when I first started working in it. A women-dominated tech culture! I was recently in a Clubhouse room with Mark Zuckerberg, Daniel Ek and Tobias Lütke on a stage – the founders and CEOs of Facebook, Spotify and Shopify. People who have built and are shaping huge parts of modern society. And I thought – it sure would be nice to see a woman up on that stage. That old adage ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’ felt particularly sore at that moment.
I believe that the more women build and innovate, the more society will be built around our actual needs. Apple Health launched without thinking about tracking menstruation; women are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car crash because cars and seat belts were designed for men; 10% of women worldwide have endometriosis yet the average time to diagnose the condition in the UK is 7.5 years. It’s not good enough. We can’t upheave the patriarchy overnight... but the more women make decisions about how things should be built, the more equal and healthy society will become.
What will be the key trends in FemTech in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Innovation and conversation relating to perimenopause and menopause are bubbling up, which is very exciting. There is a lot of stigma surrounding menopause which is preventing women from getting the support and information they might need when experiencing menopausal symptoms. One in four women considers leaving their jobs because of the impact of their menopausal symptoms in the workplace. Products and services which support women’s mental and physical health during these key life stages will continue to grow, and in turn, I imagine and hope that the stigma will begin dissolving.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
It’s great to ask for advice, but try not to get derailed by listening to other people more than you listen to yourself. Also, get on Clubhouse. It’s an incredible place to connect with individuals you want to learn from – founders, VCs, experts in any field. And most of the rooms aren’t just run by Mark Zuckerberg and his pals, I promise.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Whitney Wolfe – the Bumble story and IPO are legendary.
Anna Baskerville – Director at Unilever Ventures. I was lucky to work for her and she taught me three important things: as a founder to focus and not get distracted by spreading yourself too thinly; to never underestimate the power of speedy email replies, and to remember your values in career – whether that’s prioritizing family time, or doing whatever makes you feel full.
Cashmere Nicole – super inspirational founder who shows that if you put your mind to it and work hard you can achieve anything.
Find out more about Unfabled on their website.
Follow Unfabled on Instagram.
Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn or Twitter.
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.