WoW Woman in Women's Health - Katie Diasti, founder and CEO of Viv For Your V

Katie Diasti is the founder and CEO of Viv For Your V, a sustainable period care brand she launched as a class project at Boston College. Driven by a mission to make better period care more accessible, Katie has grown Viv into a nationally distributed brand offering eco-friendly, toxin-free products, including organic cotton tampons, bamboo pads, and menstrual cups/discs, now available in retail locations like Whole Foods Market and Sprouts. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Katie has built an inclusive, education-led community reaching more than 50 million across social platforms. Beyond business, she is deeply committed to menstrual equity, helping facilitate the donation of more than 200,000 period products to shelters, schools, and nonprofit partners across the U.S. and internationally.

Viv For Your V is the female-founded, sustainable & toxin-free period care brand setting a new standard of care for menstrual wellness. Viv provides clean, organic menstruation solutions, from medical-grade silicone menstrual cups and discs, pads made with compostable bamboo fiber, and innovative tampons with patented “Cottonlock” technology preventing fibers from being left behind. Available online and in-store at Whole Foods Market and Sprouts, Viv is bringing a new life to the once very sterile and boring period care aisle with an education-first strategy that makes period care more approachable. 

Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

In 2018, during my senior year of college, my business class assigned a project that led me to focus on the period care aisle. Every box of tampons or pads felt outdated and not something I wanted to spend my money on – or put in my body given the ingredients. I wanted to inject playfulness and approachable education into the period care aisle and offer women products with ingredients they could trust. Viv For Your V is committed to offering the highest quality tampons, pads, and menstrual cups and discs, all free of BPA, phthalates, and allergens. Over the past few years, we’ve built an incredibly strong lineup of clean period care made with the best ingredients, and we just launched a new tampon with patented “Cottonlock” technology that prevents fibers from being left in the body. We are reimagining and revolutionizing the period care aisle. 

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

The idea for Viv came to me during my college business class. Given the assignment to find a problem and make a solution, I zeroed in on the menstrual care aisle. Not only did the products feel outdated and sterile, despite women spending around $18,000 in their lifetimes on them, but I dug into the ingredients that made up period care and didn’t feel comfortable putting any of it in my body. A majority of legacy tampon brands use the same ingredients as what’s found in weed killer and contain traces of lead and arsenic. What started as a class project became a passion to create a better solution for women. There have been numerous challenges along the way, mostly from launching a startup in a category where there are a lot of big players. But I knew there were women out there who wanted period care products they could trust. Every challenge has been worth it if we can give women the solutions they deserve to use every month that protect their bodies and the environment. 

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

2018 was the beginning of the journey while I was in college and I launched the brand to consumers in April 2021. One challenge we faced was financing a fast-growing business. We’ve sold out of our tampons multiple times after viral moments, including when the UC Berkeley study came out about toxins being found in tampons – not only did we sell out, but we built up a 3,000-person waitlist. We had projected having six months’ worth of inventory but sold out in 3 weeks! While it’s exciting, that kind of growth can be daunting for a startup. Since then, we’ve built relationships with incredible investors and finance partners who back what we’re building and share our mission for seeing a new standard of care for women. 

What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

A lack of education is one of our biggest challenges. Despite 2 billion women having periods globally, they remain a taboo topic and one that’s under-discussed. Only 37 states require sex education, and only 17 of those require it to be medically accurate. For many girls starting their periods, school is the only place where they’d receive education about their menstrual cycles, yet it might not be happening. Surveys have found that 50% of women don’t know there are four phases of the menstrual cycle. If women don’t know enough about their periods, they likely don’t know what to look for in the products that support their periods either. 

This is why we have an active presence on social media. We know our target consumers are Gen Z and Millennials and 1 in 3 are getting their health information on social media platforms like TikTok. We don’t want to just have a brand presence on TikTok; we want to use it as our platform for education. The ~15 seconds we have to capture their attention while they’re scrolling is an opportunity for us to myth-bust a common misconception they have about their bodies, teach women about each phase of their menstrual cycle, or show how easy it is to use a product like a menstrual cup.  

We also face the challenge of ingredients – the harmful contaminants in these “default” period care products themselves. In 2024, UC Berkeley released a study finding that a majority of tampons contain toxic contaminants. Since the beginning of launching Viv, we have been on a mission to offer women nothing but the best for their period care: antibacterial, allergen-free, BPA-free, phthalate-free products like pads made from bamboo fiber, medical-grade silicone menstrual cups, and organic cotton tampons that don’t leave behind residual fibers. Our remaining challenge is standing out on shelves from the larger period care. Though the findings from this study are public, not all women are aware of the ingredients in their period care products when larger brands have a monopoly over the period care aisle.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

Our biggest achievement just happened this September when we became the first and only tampon in the U.S. with “Cottonlock” technology. 

Even tampons labeled “clean” and “organic” are leaving fibers behind associated with candidiasis, reduced fertility, and bacterial vaginosis, among other negative effects. Viv obtained the patent for updating all of our tampons to have Cottonlock technology – a protective veil that prevents fibers from being left behind. With the mission of making clean menstrual products more accessible, we are proud to have released Cottonlock tampons in multiple sizes across 526 Whole Foods Markets and 460 Sprouts, in addition to selling on our site and Amazon. We paired this news with $2M in new capital which is being used to create more products and get the innovative tampons out on shelves. 

What are the projects you are currently working on?

Releasing Cottonlock was our biggest product and we are overjoyed to have it out in the world as of September. Our focus now is expanding into new retailers so we can continue offering cleaner tampon alternatives to more people. 

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

“Tech” to me means more than just digital advancements. When I think of tech, I think of the Cottonlock technology we just applied to all of our tampons and how this innovative product design is setting a new standard of care for women's health. Tampons have been around for decades, yet no brand has solved the problem of fibers being left behind. I knew a solution existed and am proud to be a woman in tech who could chase after this patent and create a product that no other menstrual care brand in the U.S. is producing. 

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?

Consumers are smart and are craving authenticity from the brands they’re shopping. I think a key trend we’re going to see is brands in the wellness space being upfront and transparent about their ingredients, their claims, and needing to put more spend into research to back up their messaging. Consumers have taken a greater interest in their health now more than ever before, and what comes next is brands being upfront about what truly makes them a wellness brand and how they’re supporting the health of consumers. 

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

I would tell anyone to first become an expert on the problem they’re solving. It’s important to know where the gaps are, what the needs look like, and the context shaping the space. Becoming knowledgeable about the industry I was building in ultimately made me a better founder because I knew the needs of the group I was building for. Part of becoming an expert is talking to people – and really talking to them. What are the impacts the menstrual care category has on feminism, politics, and culture, and what does our community think about this? Hearing their thoughts enabled us to show up in the conversations our community was having, positioning us as more than a brand, but a partner in their reproductive health journey. It also allowed us to understand what the consumer cares about from the product side that would elevate their everyday experiences. For me, that was hearing my community wanted a comfortable pad that didn’t contribute to environmental waste and a reusable menstrual cup that wasn’t intimidating. Because I listened to the needs of my target consumer, I could build the product for them and establish trust. 

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

Nancy Twine, founder of BrioGeo 

Allison Ellsworth, founder of Poppi

Natalie Halloway, BALA

Siff Haider, Arrae 

Find out more about Viv For Your V on their website.

Follow Viv For Your V on Instagram.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn.