WoW Woman in FemTech I Hilla Shaviv, Inventor, founder and CEO of Gals Bio
Hilla Shaviv is a biomedical engineer, a serial inventor, and entrepreneur in the women's health arena, with more than 20 years of experience in medical device R&D.
Over the last 13 years, she focused on researching and developing women's health devices. Hilla’s education and early experience concentrated on bio-fluid dynamics where she developed various devices, including a heart assist device, as well as carrying out computational blood flow and in-vitro simulations.
Hilla earned a BSc from Caltech (Mechanical & Fluid Dynamics Engineering, cum laude) and an MSc from Tel Aviv University (Biomedical Engineering).
Gals Bio was established in Israel in 2016 by Hilla with the goal of developing Tulipon – a new vaginal platform for women’s wellness and health. Gals bio is based in Haifa where it runs all of its R&D facilities, including class 8 regulated clean assembly room. It’s team a group of 8 people including engineers, OBGYN, and marketing experts. All are highly professional and fully devoted to the success of the company and bringing Tulipon all the way to the market.
Hilla, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I’m a biomedical engineer with degrees from Caltech and Tel Aviv Universities. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I worked for a few years as an R&D engineer within the field of cardiology. In 2006 I had decided to make my own course and to start my own company. In my first company GalMedics, I developed a new kind of tampon that treats dysmenorrhea, or in other words menstrual pain. Nonetheless, the company was too early for its time and in spite of achieving very good clinical results, it never got to the market. In 2016 I open my second startup called GalsBio, where we developed a new kind of tampon called Tulipon. Tulipon is an evolution of both the menstrual cup and the tampon, and we added some new advantages. Moreover, in the future, Tulipon will be able to provide women with the ability to monitor and screen their health from home, based on biomarkers within the menstrual fluids.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
My education and initial experience were in cardiology. I even was part of a patent related to a new kind of heart assist device. Nonetheless, when I decided to make my own path in 2006, I made a list of all my ideas at the time, and I started researching each idea. From technological aspects possibilities and market size. Most of my ideas were from cardiology, and since it’s a very populated arena from looking at the patents it seemed that it would be very hard to find new ideas. Nonetheless, When I got to the idea of a new kind of tampon that treats dysmenorrhea it was like entering a void, instantly I knew that this is where I want to innovate.
I like to refer to my situation as the Bermuda triangle of entrepreneurship where the three pilers are:
a. Women’s health, in my case - women’s hygiene
b. Female engineer, solo founder
c. Consumer product
While each one of these issues is problematic by itself, in my case - all three apply. Women's health, in general, had been traditionally neglected over the years, funding, research, and innovation-wise. A lot of basic data was never researched such as menses biomarkers, vaginal forces, vaginal length and how it changes over time, and more. In order to develop any vaginal device this data is crucial for the R&D, nonetheless, even today thus data is still not widely available in a statistical and accurate manner. Moreover, B2C products are usually considered very risky products since usually, they require more funding than B2B products. Finally, data shows that female founders are getting much less funding than men. Due to these reasons, I believe my journey as an entrepreneur is extremely hard even much harder than other entrepreneurs’ journeys.
How long did it take you to be where you are now?
I have started my journey in 2006 when I left my job as an R&D engineer and decided to follow my dreams and become an entrepreneur.
What was the biggest obstacle?
I had lots of great obstacles: as described above all the gender gaps and taboos within the field that I choose to work in. On top of that, not having the right background and education of managerial and MBA posed another obstacle. Finding doctors and engineers with the relevant background and experience was another problem since there is hardly any research done on menstrual health. Not being a native English speaker and dyslectic, this possesses a problem for me in expressing myself requiring prolonged time investment. All of these resulted in the biggest obstacle of raising funds.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
As the founder, inventor and CEO of two companies, I feel privileged to say that I have a lot of achievements, from writing four patents that were accepted (and more on the way), to developing two completely different technologies from idea state to a working product tested on women. From raising about 6MUSD for my ideas from different sources including government grants VCs and angel investors, to publishing my genuine research work in an academic newspaper and getting acknowledgement from the academic arena. And finally - taking part in the revolution of women’s health and being one of the pioneers to innovate in this arena.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
As mentioned above, I’m currently working on GalsBio, a new vaginal platform for women’s wellness, and health screening and monitoring.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
#Womenin Tech movement is highly important to me in bringing women’s problems to the awareness and to the day-to-day discussions. I’m sure that with time we’ll also see thanks to this movement more and more funding and research going into this field baking all taboos, misunderstandings and gender gap. And finally, we’ll see money invested not only in fertility and pregnancy-related companies.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Within the next five years, vaginal secretions will become a natural way for women to monitor and screen their health from home. Initially samples will be sent to a lab and then with R&D it will be transferred to home analysis. In the future based on this early detection and monitoring of health, new kinds of medications will be developed.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
In spite of all the available technology, people and relationships with them are the most important factor in starting a new innovation, regardless of what field. So my first advice is to collaborate with the right people and be careful from people who over sale themselves.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Rachel Braun Scherl: A KOL in women wellness health and sexuality. An expert on managing and marketing serving the biggest brands in the industry.
Keren Leshem, OCON’s CEO. Keren is an inspiration to me not only as a great manager but also with a good and kind heart and in spite of being very busy also she always finds time to help other women in the women's health industry.
Reenita Das, Senior Vice President of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Frost & Sullivan.
Find out more about Gals Bio on their website.
Follow Gals Bio on Facebook.
Connect with Hilla on LinkedIn.
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.