WoW Woman in Healthcare | Quitterie de Rivoyre, COO and Co-Founder of WholyMe
Interview by MarijaButkovic
Quitterie de Rivoyre is COO and Co-Founder of WholyMe. Throughout her studies, Quitterie developed a profound awareness of businesses' responsibility in shaping our future. She started working in Silicon Valley to focus on bringing clean solutions to market, advising corporates on their sustainability strategies and partnerships with start-ups. Most recently, Quitterie led projects to increase investments in the European clean energy market. Armed with substantial experience helping companies innovate across Europe and the US, she now brings her expertise and business acumen to build WholyMe, a business with a strong mission and that is responsible in all aspects of development. Quitterie holds two BAs in History and Philosophy, a Magister degree in International & Economic Affairs from La Sorbonne University and an MSc in Finance and Strategy from Sciences Po Paris.
What is the idea behind your project / product and how did you come up with it?
In fact, it all started with my co-founder Celine. The story began when she was trying to help her mother get better in every possible, caring way. Her mother suffered the hard consequences of a stressful lifestyle and was put on bedrest. Given Celine’s background in human biology and genetics of human disease, she made it her mission to get her mum back on her feet by taking a holistic approach to her wellbeing. Lifestyle and nutritional changes, but also new, all-natural products like CBD and a balm (that would become the WholyMe Relief Balm) made a significant difference in her wellbeing.
I came into the picture when Celine – who was a very good friend of mine - told me about the few months she had just spent caring for her mother. I immediately connected to the problem as I had observed the toll lifestyles and unhealthy habits had on close ones too. I myself had adopted a very healthy routine a few years ago, pushed by the necessity to solve minor health issues. We started brainstorming around the idea of providing high quality products like the balm Celine had formulated, to provide effective relief solutions. There is indeed an enormous gap in the market for relief products that are truly effective but don’t compromise long-term health.
When did all start and do you have other members in your team?
From thorough market research we did to understand the problem we had identified in more details, we learnt that people were indeed looking for alternative solutions for effective relief.
Looking at Celine’s mother’s experience and seeing first-hand the benefits of a holistic approach on her wellbeing, we decided to help others by building a brand that offers only highly effective and healthy products. WholyMe was born. We realized we would be the first clients of our own brand anyways: we both lived fast-paced, stressfully lives where work and exercise take a lot of our time (we actually started our friendship by being running buddies!), and experience daily aches and pains that cause a lot of discomfort. We decided on a first product range that would fit in the daily routine of active people: CBD drops, the Relief Balm and Epsom bath salts.
Right now, it is still just Celine and I, and we are enjoying ourselves a lot despite the mountain of work it represents!
How long did it take you to be where you are now?
It is soon going to be 2 years since WholyMe is in the works! It all started during the summer of 2018, when we both had full-time jobs. In October of the same year we incorporated the company, and, in the summer of 2019, we quit our jobs and started fundraising for WholyMe.
What was the biggest obstacle?
The biggest challenge, from the beginning, has been to navigate the regulatory frameworks in the health & wellness space. If you are not developing a drug, there are many obstacles that are put in your way in terms of communications and marketing. Basically, we know our products work to relieve pain induced by lifestyle habits, but we are not allowed to say it as clearly as we would like to.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
One big achievement is the successful raise of our seed round of funding, closed back in September 2019. We raised £500k from VCs and Family Offices. The whole process went very well, it happened faster than we anticipated. We were able to demonstrate the efficacy of the Balm and this is what seemed to have convinced investors to help us kick the project off the ground at such an early stage.
Having developed our first range of products with an uncompromising obsession for quality is another big achievement we are really proud of. They truly are the best quality you can find, and they are certified by the Soil Association in the UK, which has stringent criteria for delivering its certifications. The WholyMe Relief Balm is an excellent product that has no equivalent in the market. It was formulated by Celine and manufactured with the best in class suppliers in France. All the ingredients are organic certified, and the product is extremely effective, based on the feedback of 200 early adopters.
What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in? How about being a female founder / entrepreneur?
According to me, the main challenge of being an entrepreneur in this specific niche is that because of the nature of your products (which have wellness benefits) you end up competing with pharmaceutical companies. When you don’t have the same resources as the heavyweights in the sector and you are not regulated by the same rules, it’s an additional difficulty to promote your products.
In terms of being a female entrepreneur, so far I don’t see specific challenges linked to being a woman, although I am sure if we were part of a health tech focused accelerator for example, as female founders we would be a minority and maybe I would feel some kind of prejudice against my sex.
What are your projects you are currently working on?
I am very focused on the Relief Balm launch hopefully very soon (things have been delayed by COVID when our suppliers closed because of lockdown), so preparing our first ads & marketing campaign is my priority.
In addition to that, I work on building partnerships: exploring distribution and marketing opportunities with digital platforms in the health & wellness, fitness and beauty ecosystems; and also building relationships with naturopaths and physiotherapists.
Is #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
This movement is quite important to me because I started my career in cleantech. My first job was in a consulting firm in San Francisco, specialised in cleantech investment and sustainability strategy. I was the youngest, a woman, and without an engineering background, and despite all of that I wanted to work in tech and felt like I fitted in this world because of my passion for it and my will to make an impact. Over there I met successful and respected women working in tech, but I also learnt that it was a disproportionately men-dominated ecosystem. For me, it is like with every aspect of life: when there is an imbalance of power created by unfair, power-hungry behaviour or just a culture of prejudice, I think it should be corrected. It is a misconception that women are less interested in tech than men, so why shouldn’t they be more represented? In the health sector it is shocking that 90% of primary health decision makers are women, 70% of the healthcare workforce are women, but only 10% of investor funding goes to health companies led by women. The risk when you leave the world’s healthcare problems in the hands of men while women make up for 50% of the population, is that you end up with products that are bound to biases.
There is a series of issues to tackle one at a time, and I think the #WomenInTech movement helps communicate this urge.
What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there?
If I had to choose one single piece of advice right now, don't be pressured by the masculine culture and leadership style (I am using a stereotype here to make my point). No offense to my fellow men entrepreneurs, but quite often we hear stories of authoritarian, workaholic, military-style company cultures, and these companies happen to be managed by men. Because a lot of these companies are in fact hugely successful, it might seem like it is the only path to success. But we don’t hear about the success of many companies led by women or by less ‘alpha-male’ management styles. I believe that men and women have different qualities and more and more studies not only praise women leadership but also show that more diverse teams have better long-term performance. Don’t think that because you want to also start a family you can’t find and lead your own business and be successful. Everything is negotiable and possible. Listen to yourself, do it your way, just do it, and find compromises along the way if you need to.
What will be the key trends in the health tech industry in the next 5 years and where do you see it heading?
Personalization, big data, access to care, behavioural change apps, at-home services and women Healthtech are the key trends I have in mind. For me, the main transformation will be in mentalities: people will look for ways to take charge of their health and move away from being too reliant on a deficient healthcare system (and COVID has proven it’s the case even in the richest countries). On the other side, professionals will learn to work remotely and provide services digitally, which will help improve access to care, especially in ‘medical desert’ regions.
Who are your 3 inspirational women in health tech?
Ida Tin, the co-founder of Clue app has built a fantastic product - it’s the only app that I use everyday without exception (apart from whatsapp !), and I think that creating an app that people actually use on a daily basis is a performance.
Jenny Thomas, who leads the Digital.Health London Accelerator, is doing very good work by trying to bring innovation to the NHS.
Judy Murphy, Chief Nurse Officer at IBM Healthcare, has had an impressive career and is a reference in the digital transformation of healthcare space. She has such broad knowledge and experience of the key challenges in healthcare, both in tech innovation and policy making, that it makes her one of the key persons to listen to if you’re interested in this topic.
Website: https://wholyme.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WholyMe/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholyme_official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wholyme
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. Visit marijabutkovic.co.uk or follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic.