WoW Woman in Women's Health I Peggy Reichelt, founder and CEO of XbyX - Women in Balance
Peggy Reichelt is the Founder and CEO of XbyX - Women in Balance.
She is an experienced entrepreneur and passionate digital female health and nutrition expert, based in Berlin, Germany. The engineer started her first company, the nutrition concept amapur, in 2004, wrote two books, and became a licensed Food Coach. Confronted with her own perimenopause, she quickly realized that there was neither enough knowledge nor suitable solutions for midlife women. Without hesitation, she gathered a reputable board of health experts, and joined by her co-founder she started her latest venture, XbyX - Women in Balance, supporting women in their journey through menopause and aging healthily. Besides her mission to liberate women from the stigma of menopause and to advocate the ProAge movement, Peggy is an avid ocean lover with a strong passion for Kitesurfing.
XbyX – Women in Balance is the leading menopausal nutrition brand offering science-based, holistic solutions for hormonal balance, menopause, and healthy aging. From the XbyX Check, a self-test with personalized recommendations, to comprehensive online video programs and scientifically formulated herbal remedies, XbyX offers a wide range of solutions to address the physical and emotional challenges of menopause and beyond.
The company was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Monique Leonhardt and Peggy Reichelt and is supported by an experienced medical advisory board. Their biggest drive is their passion for female health from midlife onwards and the vision of a world where women can go through menopause with confidence and serenity.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I have a technical background but very early on, right after my MBA in Switzerland, I discovered my strong passion for healthy nutrition and female health. In 2004, I started my first company, amapur, offering premium diet and metabolism supplements. Back then, I was one of the first female entrepreneurs in the Berlin ecosystem and also the first female member of EO, a US-based Entrepreneurs Organization, in Germany.
After a brief foray into a digital publishing and a year off for travel and inspiration, I returned to my passion for female health in 2018. Almost in my mid-forties, I was particularly triggered by the question as we as midlife women can age well and healthy. During my research, I came across the massive impact that the hormonal changes of menopause have on the aging process. And I was instantly stoked by the topic!
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
By passion! It was like a calling and started with my genuine interest in how I as a woman can live an active, happy, and healthy life up until old age. My grandmother died after suffering for years from Alzheimer's. So I really wanted to know how we can minimize or even avoid those terrifying age-related diseases and how we can support our aging bodies with nutrition, movement, and supplements. In the beginning, I was conducting tons of research, educating myself about all the aspects of the menopausal transition, hormonal health, and how nutrition and herbal remedies can support easing the various symptoms.
Getting (back) into the industry was rather easy for me. Because of my first business, I still had a lot of great connections. Those people helped me a lot in the early days when it was just me and a vague idea. Especially, my older female friends and friends from the medical profession encouraged and supported my idea and assured the need for more reliable education about menopause and female aging.
The biggest challenge back in 2018 was to pull together trustworthy and up-to-date information – and to make sense of it all. At times, it felt like I had thousands of loose ends and no idea of how to connect them. Every time I duck deeper into the research, new symptoms and implications started to pop up. Like most women, I had no idea how wide-ranging the impact of menopause is.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
The past 20 years as an entrepreneur have been a real-life learning curve and journey. I made mistakes and learned from them. By today, I know very well what my strengths and weaknesses are. I know better when and where to ask for help and thus, I am much better at freeing up the time for the things and tasks in which I excel. Over the years, I started trusting more in my gut and go with way more confidence for what I think is right.
The biggest obstacle when starting XbyX - Women in Balance was finding a business partner. I knew that I did not want to run a new business completely on my own again. So my search for the perfect counterpart began. The book “Rocket Fuel” was very helpful in this search. It details the integral roles of the Visionary and Integrator and explains how an effective relationship between the two can thrive. It helped me to point out exactly what my skills are and what my counterpart ideally should bring to the table. Introduced by business friends, luckily after only a few months, I met my Co-Founder Monique – the perfect match!
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
Compared to other markets, the European market has very rigid regulations for Health Claims for supplements. Basically, it’s almost impossible to say anything about the benefits of a product and the pathways by which it can improve the symptoms. This makes it hard to inform customers about the health outcomes when using a particular product.
Secondly, by focusing on menopause, we went into a market that has been a taboo topic for a long time. We start where there is a lack of time or expertise in the healthcare sector and provide our women with the knowledge they need to make educated decisions for their individual health. This has been a challenge and an opportunity at the same time.
And, like everyone else, the macroeconomic conditions like longer delivery times and shortages of various raw ingredients have increased the complexity of production and operations.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
I am very proud of bringing reliable menopause awareness to the German market and supporting over 50,000 women with knowledge and solutions. Our customers’ feedback makes me so happy – it makes all the long hours and worries while building a new business from scratch worthwhile! And we are not done yet: Our vision is a world where women can go through menopause with confidence and serenity. We want to democratize a previously unjustly neglected sector and establish a more positive ProAge attitude in society.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We just closed our seven-figure pre-series A round. With the investment, we will further realize our vision of a ProAge company. The funds will be used for team expansion, to develop new products and offerings, open up new markets and channels, thus financing further dynamic growth. One of our top priorities in the first half of 2023 is to launch our offerings in English, targeting other countries outside the German-speaking DACH region.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Super significant! It’s been neglected and underserved for far too long. Still, there is too little investment and research within the fine variations and needs over the female lifecycle.
Especially when it comes to the needs of us older women from midlife onwards – there is a huge gap in research, knowledge, and solutions. The impact of the menopausal transition on age-related diseases, longevity, and well-being has not gotten the focus it requires and deserves. Almost as if women are worthless after they surpass their fertile years.
It requires so much more effort and investment to maximize the health and quality of life for all those wise and experienced women. By 2025, one billion women worldwide will be peri- and post-menopausal – their specific needs and demands need to be acknowledged, both by research and society.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
We will see more specific research on female physiology, more study designs that include the various phases of the female cycle and hormonal changes. There will also be an increasing focus on age-related “silent” diseases that disproportionately affect women, like Osteopenia and Osteoporosis, Alzheimer, and Cardiovascular Health. And thirdly, with (bio)technological advancements, more precise and reliable personalized solutions will emerge.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Be passionate, challenge existing ways to do things, and be open. And like in any other industry: listen and talk to your customers! Women, especially older women, know very well what they want and need. It’s often that they are not asked or overheard. Listen carefully and develop solutions together with your customers. Involvement is a form of respect and also a smart way to build a successful business.
Don’t let people scare you off, who claim it’s a niche or a too-tiny market. At the beginning with XbyX, I was asked over and over why we were focusing on such a “small” niche. This only showed the lack of awareness, since menopause is a phase of life that spans decades, and its implications accompany women throughout the entire aging process. Moreover, it affects every woman with a uterus – and thus half of humanity.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first woman to head the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). She started the initiative that NIH only supports clinical trials that include both men and women and initiated the important Women's Health Initiative.
Elinor Cleghorn, author of “The Unwell Women”, her book about the history of women's health, shows in terrifying detail how misunderstood and deliberately misinterpreted the female body has been treated for centuries. How symptoms and organic complaints contributed to the “unstable, hysterical psyche of the woman” and her “wandering uterus”.
Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior, founder of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR). She was one of the first researchers to point out that menopause starts way earlier than commonly accepted – with perimenopause, often in a woman's early 40ies, while she still experiences a regular monthly cycle.
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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.