WoW Woman in Women's Health I Stephanie Boms, CEO and co-founder of Nessel
Stephanie Boms is the CEO and co-founder of Nessel. She is an executive with over 20 years of experience leading brands, marketing, and strategy, creating an award-winning brand that launched in Apple stores, nationally and internationally, in 13 languages and 16 countries. She graduated with a degree in Community Health from Tufts University and earned her MBA from Yale School of Management with a concentration in Marketing and Organizational Behavior. Stephanie lives in CT with her husband and daughters and enjoys travel, scrabble, and skiing.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
Nessel offers complete solutions for any organization needing lactation accommodations. Everything a company may need to create the perfect lactation space, Nessel provides. This includes a line of eco-friendly, ergonomically designed furniture specifically made for mothers’ rooms and wellness rooms, custom furniture design services, and consulting services.
Our furniture offerings include the first and only all-in-one Lactation Station, complete with a portable sink for sanitation and a private refrigerator for the safe storage of breastmilk. It also comes with a proper ergonomic pumping chair, designed to promote an optimal pumping session with its stability and wide armrests and to reduce the spilling of breastmilk with its custom bottle holders. Nessel is currently the only company that offers this robust, comprehensive set of offerings.
Our team is able to service a wide range of clients, with a resident Architect and an MBA/former consultant leading the charge. Our custom design services allow us to meet the needs of clients for whom our off-the-shelf products don’t meet their precise needs. This custom work ranges in scope from small adjustments or specifications to larger build-outs. Our consulting services are often focused on executive education and change management initiatives related to creating lactation space standards and establishing company-wide lactation space policies.
We are proud to work with pioneering organizations that value inclusive workplaces and wish to enhance their culture by holistically supporting women employees. Our customers range from large corporations, to manufacturing companies, financial services providers, start-ups, health care providers, universities, and even multiple branches of the US military and beyond. Our clients range in size, with some very large companies seeking our products and also servicing some small and emerging businesses. A select client list includes Telsa, Volvo, the US Military, US Smokeless Tobacco, Exos Financial, Guardant Health, , Boston College, Swarthmore, National Parks Service, Oakland A’s, and many more.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
The inspiration for our business and our products were born from personal experience. Recognizing the lack of options for employers to provide safe and sanitary lactation accommodations, we set out to develop a solution that was easy for organizations to embrace. The most difficult aspect of getting into the industry has been not letting the supply chain and shipping issues that were so prevalent during the pandemic impact our business.
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?
We’ve been in the business for a few years now. While the global pandemic was an initial setback in that many individuals were not working in their offices, the pandemic has positively changed the way many think about safety and sanitization. In addition, during the height of the pandemic, we were grateful to be able to focus on lactation accommodation for industries with essential, in-person workforces, and offer our stand-alone, portable hand washing stations. These proved to be of great value in enhancing safety and sanitation options for corporate, institutional, and educational institutions alike. Emerging out of the pandemic, we are finding a heightened awareness for keeping communities supported and sanitary. For these reasons, providing a clean and comfortable place for breastfeeding parents to pump has become a topic that is no longer up for debate.
There are still challenges within the industry. One of the primary ones is financial. Since many organizations are looking to create lactation space for the very first time, there is often not a pre-established budget line for this work. The good news is that the Nessel solutions are designed to be affordable for organizations both large and small.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
We are most proud of two things: first, landing some well-known and unexpected clients. For example, building out lactation space for the National Parks system to support female rangers was deeply meaningful for us. The same goes for breaking into the sports world, installing 2 units for the Oakland A’, and working closely with various branches of the US Military. Being able to support women in uniform who serve our country with loyalty and dedication is something that drives us to do what we do, every day. We are proud to work with so many institutions that truly value creating more inclusive workspaces and want to do their best to recruit and retain top female talent.
A second accomplishment is not just supporting mothers and parents in the workplace, but creating an internal team of strong, capable women. Earning our own Women-Owned Small Business certification meant we are truly living our mission, both with our team and our products.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We are pursuing with passion the 4 tenants of our business: building lactation accommodation furniture and equipment, adding a custom lactation pod to our offerings, doing custom design work for clients in need, and providing executive education and consulting to help transform organizations. One exciting initiative we are working on is launching new pieces to round out our lactation room offerings. Stay tuned, they are launching soon!
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
We anticipate a spike in demand for proper lactation accommodation in the next 5 years. Our hope is that lactation space becomes a norm for breastfeeding employees across industries and geographies, not a privilege enjoyed by an elite or lucky few. The underlying forces driving this are 3 fold:
1. The number of women leaving the workforce is staggering. As companies struggle to recruit and retain top female talent, our expectation is that they will awaken to ways they can better support female employees, proper lactation accommodation being one of them. Here are some statistics:
Over 3 million women have left the workforce in the last year (CBS News)
Of those still left in the labor force, 1 in 4 women are now considering leaving the workplace or downshifting their careers (McKinsey / Lean In Women 2020 Report)
The female workforce has already dropped below 47% - the lowest levels since 1988 (National Women’s Law Center)
2. The passage of the PUMP Act, passed in December 2022, details what organizations are now legally required to provide for breastfeeding employees. As organizations scramble to meet compliance requirements, we expect to see a large number of existing spaces enhanced and many new lactation spaces created.
3. The American Academy of Pediatrics which provides expert guidance on breastfeeding has recently, as of June 2022, changed its perspective on how long women should breastfeed. For the last 10 years, they stated that if the health of the baby and mother allows, breastfeeding should take place for the 1st year of life. After extensive research substantiated the benefits of continued breastfeeding, they changed their guidelines, now suggesting continued breastfeeding until two years or beyond, as mutually desired by mother and child. The impact of this is that employees are likely to be breastfeeding for longer than before, thus requiring the use of proper lactation accommodations for a longer time.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
First, securing a good relationship with your manufacturing partner is critical. Second, make sure there is market demand for what you are building. If there isn’t, be sure your budget is large enough to pay for long inventory turns and do adequate brand awareness campaigns.
Find out more about Nessel on their website.
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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.