WoW Woman in Women's Health I Kate Bache, co-founder and CEO at Health & Her
Kate Bache is the co-founder and CEO at Health & Her.
Originally a chemist (MChem), Kate quickly moved into marketing, gaining more than 15 years of experience in large pharmaceutical and consumer health companies. During this time, Kate became a specialist in international innovation, commercialisation, and marketing until she left the corporate world and set up her first business in menstrual care with the brand, KIND Organic. A quick exit to a competitor followed and Kate embarked on her journey to develop Health & Her® which is on a mission to improve the lives of millions of women around the world living with life-affecting symptoms of perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
Health & Her is an award-winning menopause platform with a supplement range, self-care app, and specialist online clinic that aims to empower women to take control of their menopausal health. Health & Her believes in what we call next-generation menopause care. That’s smart, data-driven ways to use technology, science, and evidence-backed natural approaches to support each menopause journey.
There’s no one-size-fits-all thinking either – everything can be completely personalised by stage, severity, symptoms, and personal preferences. Natural or medical. Structured and tracked or intuitive and free-flowing.
Healthandher.com is the home of balanced, holistic menopause support online. They were the UK’s first completely independent holistic menopause resource, and we empower women with self-care and medical care options. They also provide one of the UK’s most comprehensive free libraries of holistic expert advice from leading menopause thinkers.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I qualified as a chemist but decided to move into commercial roles and went on to have more than 15 years of experience in blue chip pharmaceutical and FMCG companies holding senior marketing and innovation positions in international functions across Europe and Australasia for Reckitt Benckiser, Kellogg’s and PepsiCo.
After I exited KIND Organic I wanted to delve more into female health. From the research we conducted with women, we found there was a lack of support for women going through perimenopause and menopause. So we made that the focus of our business. We found that symptoms were significant, but women were not educated enough to understand how to tackle their own symptoms.
Our initial research also told us that every woman has quite a unique and individual experience of menopause. With an average of 9 symptoms per person and between 30-40 recognised symptoms, you could imagine the permutations. My co-founder, Gervase Fay, and I decided to build an organisation to help navigate women through this complicated time.
We launched Health & Her in March 2019 and created a platform to help women educate themselves and navigate information and products personalised to them through our symptom tool. We recruited the best experts in their field to develop no-nonsense advice and content for the website.
From the aggregated and anonymised data, we discovered there were lots of opportunities for new product development as well as incredible learnings. With the help of leading experts, we created innovative holistic multi-nutrient products for premenopause, perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause.
We also launched a GP web clinic. The Health & Her clinic offers women the option to see a menopause specialist GP, in as little as a week, for a 35-minute consultation at an affordable price This provides the opportunity for an in-depth review of symptoms, answers to questions, tailored advice, a comprehensive post-appointment treatment plan including a treatment and/or prescription recommendation letter to their own GP to allow access to NHS rather than expensive private prescriptions.
Our main projects in 2022 have been focused on launching a new range of supplements. We launched the UK’s first live culture supplements, Health & Her Biome for perimenopause and menopause. This range has 50 billion live cultures and is suitable for women who are sensitive to phyto/estrogens or are taking other forms of estrogen.
We also created Omega+ for women going through perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause. The Omega vegan soft gel capsules offer women a source of Omega 3,6,7 & 9.
We also launched our first ground-breaking TV campaign to help raise awareness of perimenopause which appeared on Channel 4 and ITV.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I arrived in this industry by developing and exiting a startup in the world of menstrual care with the brand KIND Organic. I quickly realised that the need to support women in their hormonal health journey, especially perimenopause and menopause, was far more diverse and acute than the category KIND Organic was operating in.
One of the biggest challenges was the complexity of menopause and trying to help women with the 30-40 menopausal symptoms identified at this stage of life. We quickly realised that everyone’s experience was uniquely different, and had to build an ecosystem around that.
The other challenge we faced was building a technology business with founders from commercial and marketing backgrounds. We were creating something pioneering and were the first supplement brand in the UK to launch a self-care app alongside the physical product. There was no blueprint and we were consistently paving the way but this allowed us to deliver a really unique product in the market which we know women love.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
We started developing the concept in mid-2017 and it took us 18 months to get to launch alongside our day jobs to help shape our business, services, and products. Consumer research was critical during this time and we ensured every decision we took was based on these important insights.
Our biggest obstacle was getting early funding due to a lack of knowledge of the topic of menopause. The initial fundraising was in 2018 during a time people didn’t talk about menopause, it was still a taboo subject. As the majority of our investors were male, many didn’t understand our mission and business offerings so didn’t want to invest.
However, those who did invest and understood what we were trying to do were either female in the 45-60 age group or if they were male, they were married to wives going through menopause. We were able to raise our initial seed investment from a group of successful entrepreneurs that fit this exact description.
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
The lack of education around menopause continues to be a big challenge. It’s still a taboo subject, but thanks to celebrity pioneers, like Davina McCall, our industry is slowly coming into the spotlight.
We also found that women don’t openly speak up about their menopause. The main reason is that they don’t know they’re going through it and blame it on other things such as depression and old age. Our mission is to help these women understand their symptoms and empower them to take control by educating them on the options available to them.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
We’re extremely proud of the thousands of strong reviews from our customers telling us our products are really working for them. It’s one of the perks of the job reading all the terrific reviews online and knowing we are making an impact every day. We rate Excellent on Trustpilot, have an Amazon rating of 4.4/5, and have fantastic reviews on the app and our clinic.
Our other biggest achievements include being the Number 1 perimenopause brand in the UK according to IRI, Women’s Health category. We’ve won awards for our products including the recent Platinum Awards for our product Health & Her Perimenopause Multi-Nutrient, and we are the number two menopause app globally. We distribute our products in the top 13 retailers in the UK, including Holland & Barrett, Boots, and Superdrug, and are one of the fastest-growing brands in female health.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We are currently working on expanding our employee support offering to businesses. Our Health & Her Menopause Support Plan is perfect for organisations that not only want to help support their menopausal employees by providing them with ways to help manage their symptoms and get back to feeling themselves but also want to help create a culture that is inclusive and supportive of its key skilled employees.
We have teamed up with some household names such as NHS Health Education England, Sony, LQ Group, and Welsh Police who are implementing the support plan to help them create a culture where their menopausal employees feel supported, sustained, and encouraged in managing their symptoms alongside delivering top quality work.
We have also launched our supplements in the Netherlands and the US and are looking forward to growing the Health & Her brand in these markets.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
This movement is very special to us because, as a femtech business, we have always struggled to recruit female software developers as they are mostly male. We find that women prefer working in this industry as they are passionate and more eager to help other women.
There is a huge need for female developers to help female founders further research, development and technology to ensure female health support is advanced at pace. I believe there are a number of businesses focusing on this mission but there remains a skills gap among women in technology which is holding it back.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
I believe we will see a big trend in probiotics for menopause and other female health needs. We know that the transition to menopause will reduce the health and diversity of the microbiome in women and there is some really exciting emerging science that is suggesting that probiotics can have a significant impact on women's well-being during perimenopause and menopause
There will also be a greater focus on how menopause affects the brain - both in the short term and long term -, particularly its effect on dementia risk. I think advancements and availability of genetic testing could play its part as well as self-care solutions like omegas.
We’ll also see a desire for women to manage their symptoms with the use of technology. The next generation of consumers will be more tech-savvy and will rely more on technology to help them with their health than the previous generation.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
If you’re looking to enter this industry my one piece of advice would be to train as a software developer. There is a massive skills gap in the industry and the opportunities are endless for those who are trained in this role.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
My first inspirational woman from the industry is Joanna Griffiths from Knix. Not only did she close a series B funding round for her successful company Knix, but she also did it just days before she gave birth to twins. This really resonated with me as I was pregnant whilst I was securing initial funding for the business.
The second is Ida Tin who is the founder of Clue. She was the one who coined the term ‘femtech’ and she was one of the first scale-up founders to pioneer the 4 days a week. She likes to do things differently and I find her quite inspirational as a leader in the industry.
The third is Davina Mccall who has helped raise the profile of menopause through countless documentaries, interviews, and articles about her own journey.
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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.