WoW Woman in FemTech | Lisa Krapinger, CMO at Carbomed Medical Solutions
Lisa Krapinger is a Chief Marketing Officer at Carbomed Medical Solutions, the company behind breathe ilo - the world’s first fertility tracker that uses breath analysis to identify a woman’s ovulation pattern and fertile window in a way that is easy and comfortable.
breathe ilo is a small handheld device synced to an app that reads the breath’s CO2 saturation to determine where a woman is in her cycle with incredible accuracy and can be done at any time of the day. Launched in 2019, breathe ilo is an Austrian female empowerment tech start-up on a mission to break the taboo which surrounds speaking out about trying to conceive and cycle tracking.
breathe stands for the methodology of breathing into the device and is the core of their company, specialised in breath analysis. Ilo stands for ‘I love ovulation’.
We talked to Lisa about breathe ilo, their vision and mission, as well as her journey in the FemTech industry.
Lisa, tell us about yourself. What inspires you, what are your passions and how you ended up in FemTech?
My name is Lisa Krapinger, I am 29 years old, studied International Business in Vienna (Austria) and Leuven (Belgium) and started my career in large corporates like Red Bull & Heineken. I learned a lot about Businesses and Marketing there and decided I need to go to a company, where I can really make a difference. I was always keen on femtech, because I saw that there is a lot of potential and need. So, when I identified breathe ilo in 2018 in its early development phase, I took the chance with incredible pleasure. The innovative technology to help couples on their way to their child is very fulfilling.
My overall vision is to fill the gender data gap as much as possible. When I read and researched this topic over the last couple of years, I was shocked how fewer women were taken into account in clinical trials. I know we have the responsibility to catch up and I felt I have to do something about it. I think we are on a good way with breathe ilo, because we are taking into account the differences in cycle patterns and saving data in a very secure way to help to understand the female body better.
I am very proud of what we have achieved so far. For example, we got a design award for our handheld breathe ilo, we are styrian export newcomer of the year and we were invited to two prestigious accelerator programs: The Merck Accelerator Program and the EIT Startup meets pharma program. Furthermore, I would like to highlight our presentation at the german TV Show “Das Ding des Jahres”, where we gained a lot of media attention.
What’s the story behind breathe ilo? And how does it work exactly?
breathe ilo’s Co-Founder Dr. Horst Rüther had an unfulfilled desire to have children over 5 years. After adopting their first child, his wife got pregnant with Bastian. Years later he met Prof. Dr. Ludwig Wildt, who researched in the field of CO2 and fertility tracking. Together they started breathe ilo as a side project, but they had their full-time jobs and wanted to be advisors, but not the ones to implement the idea. So Bastian, the son of Horst and I took over. Bastian is our CEO and has a strong experience in the Austrian start-up field with the desire of helping people with fertility issues, always having in mind his parents, who told him his whole life everything about their fertility journey.
At this time my sister and her husband had an unfulfilled desire to have children and I have seen what a personal burden this can be for couples. It was a very emotional time and in retrospect, it was a very lucky coincidence that I started to launch breathe ilo exactly at this time. My sister participated in the first breathe ilo studies and she now has the first breathe ilo baby. My nephew Felix is now 1 year old and he is everything for the whole family.
breathe ilo’s technology is based on measuring the PCO2 parameter, which means the partial pressure within the carbon dioxide. In fact, we measure a decrease in women’s breath before ovulation. What most women don’t know is that they have a type of hyperventilation 4-5 days before ovulation. We have managed to bring the technology of measuring this into a small handheld device. breathe ilo learns the cycle pattern of each woman in a learning cycle. Our users love about breathe ilo that it is the easiest and most comfortable way of cycle tracking. Through consistent daily use, our fertility tracker empowers women to understand their body and cycle phases better. Additionally, the breathe ilo app, which is compatible with iOS and Android, features a calendar that displays a clear overview of fertile days and a cycle diary to learn more about individual cycle patterns. breathe ilo’s cycle diary also enables users to document further cycle symptoms like breast tenderness, PMS, cervical mucus, or headaches to help prepare women for their next cycle.
What are the challenges of being in the FemTech industry?
For me, as a marketeer, the biggest challenge was how to market a taboo topic. It seems to be very difficult to speak about cycles in public and also via digital platforms. When it comes to digital ads it is forbidden to do remarketing or a lot of ads get disapproved due to adult content restrictions. Also, we don’t have strong word of mouth marketing, because most people don’t want to talk about their problem with trying to conceive. They even don’t talk about it with their best friends. That makes it a lot more difficult to gain a lot of attention.
In general, I would say for any health tech company generating study data became a more difficult challenge in 2020 due to COVID. On the one hand, it was harder to find test persons willing to see the clinical partners frequently. On the other hand, medical institutions could provide less focus to support clinical research, as a result of increased workload due to the pandemic and the increased safety measures.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Since I am very intrinsically motivated, it is not the awards we have won or the media attention we have received to date that is my greatest successes. It's the little things that we get by email every day, like when we helped someone get pregnant,. The best thing for me was when a user was in contact with me several times because she, unfortunately, lost her first breathe ilo baby in the 6th month, but she took the courage to try again to get pregnant and it actually worked after 3 months. To be this physical and psychological support and to really make a difference in other people's lives is the daily driver for me.
What are the projects you are currently working on and what’s next for breathe Ilo?
We want to continuously improve breathe ilo and make it truly accessible to every woman. Unfortunately, there are a variety of different diseases such as PCOS, which haven’t been well researched. Therefore, we are trying to research different areas to try and have a holistic view of women's health. We really want to help all women to fulfill their desire to have children, even if there are physical impairments. However, this requires very expensive, time-consuming studies.
Additionally, we also want to strengthen our focus on helping couples on their fertility journey with other products like supplements and community advice. We want to create a platform where couples can feel safe and informed when they have an unfulfilled desire to have a child
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Yes, I would say that #womenintech movements are important because companies with a higher diversity rate do have in fact a higher success rate. We also get more male applications than women. I try to empower women to apply for tech jobs and go for higher positions - thereby I hope the gender divide improves in the future.
What will be the key trends in FemTech in the next five years and where do you see it heading?
With femtech being forecasted to become a very important future market we expect the industry to grow in yearly double-digit growth rates in 2021 reaching 50 billion USD market volume in 2025. I expect femtech to become one of the top attractive fields for investments. As a result, some of the global leading VC funds will declare femtech to one out of their top 3 investment focus areas in 2021.
I would say the key trends are in maternity products and female health. We have seen a trend of innovations to help women to integrate pregnancy better into their career path. Either by the growing demand for products like breast pumps etc. that allow a faster re-integration in the job after pregnancy or by company-provided pregnancy plans to allow more flexibility during this important phase in life.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in FemTech?
Find a mentor right at the beginning of your startup journey, who helps you to go through the rollercoaster life. There will be ups and downs for sure and it is easier if you have someone you can call anytime for advice and knows exactly how you feel. It’s a tough industry and a community, a mentor or any kind of business friend can help you on your way.
Who are three inspirational women in FemTech you admire?
Lea- Sophie Cramer- Founder of Amorelie
Tania Boler - Founder of Elvie
Linda Wonneberger- Founder of Cuca by Linda (The first Femtech
Follow all the latest updates and news from breathe ilo on their website, Instagram, and Facebook!
Read about Lisa and breathe ilo in Forbes!
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.