WoW Women in Women's Health I Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese, co-founders of Sequel
Greta Meyer is the CEO and co-founder of Sequel, a women’s health company focused on product innovation addressing the unmet needs of women. The company’s first product, a redesign of the tampon, is designed to be more fluid mechanically efficient, more comfortable, and safer. Greta was recently named to the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. With a background in product development and product management, Greta is passionate about finding simple solutions to complex issues that lie at the intersection of engineering and design. She has worked in furniture engineering, AI-enabled consumer electronic devices, and hardware design.
Greta studied Engineering Product Design at Stanford University, where she was awarded the highest honour in the department alongside Sequel co-founder Amanda Calabrese for their work developing a redesigned tampon. She was also a D1 lacrosse player at Stanford.
Amanda Calabrese is the COO and co-founder of Sequel. Amanda was recently named to the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 List. With a background in product design engineering, Amanda is an intensely driven founder and high-level athlete motivated to create for impact. She holds a B.S. in Product Design Engineering from Stanford University and was awarded the highest honour in the department alongside Sequel co-founder Greta Meyer for their work developing a redesigned tampon. Amanda represents the United States in the sport of Lifesaving, is a 9x National Champion, and consistently ranks in the top 5 in the world in her discipline.
Sequel is engineering better health and wellness experiences for women starting with a leakage-preventing tampon that relies on a proprietary, fluid-mechanically-efficient design. Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese are building the products they wish they had on game day and elevating the standards for products long left behind.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
Amanda: We have a lot in common: We studied in the same program at Stanford, our parents run small businesses, and we both have backgrounds as high-level athletes. But before Sequel, we spent our time pretty differently. Greta worked at a chair factory and on AI voice software during her summers and I ran an all-girls surf camp and swim lesson business in The Hamptons (where I grew up). Greta’s strong product background combined with my small business experience gave us a complimentary combo that helps us run Sequel today.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
Amanda: We started as Stanford students and female athletes trying to figure out why period products were so unreliable. I was a competitive lifeguard and Greta played D1 lacrosse - sports where a leak in a tiny bathing suit or white uniform can be distracting and fear-inducing. After doing a ton of user research we recognized that our future users didn’t want a different type of menstrual product experience, they wanted to be able to depend on the products they already had and were used to. That’s how the idea of re-engineering the tampon came about, and we dove head first into a complicated space of big companies, monopolies, and no real innovation in over 80 years. Greta has such a natural curiosity and asks the best (and toughest questions) from the very first conversation, which has gone a long way with breaking into the industry and gaining the respect of many of the key players involved in making the Sequel tampon a reality.
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?
Greta: We started Sequel at the end of 2018 (during our senior year of college), so it’s been a few years. The biggest obstacle for us has been being patient throughout the development process. Tampons are regulated by the FDA as medical devices and so not only has development taken some time but ensuring that we are creating a tampon that is safe and effective while implementing the design changes we know will be impactful has been a meticulous and multi-year process. We’re approaching our launch date so we’re excited for the year ahead!
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Greta: We’re very proud of our patent portfolio. The tampon space has a tight patent landscape, so having several patents clear has been a huge win for us and an important foundation moving forward. Also, automating our manufacturing was a big milestone moment for us. It’s one thing to make something awesome that we know people will love, it’s a whole other thing to make them at 100 per minute - that’s when we knew we could have the business we wanted at a scale that was going to be impactful from launch day one.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
Amanda: We have product number two in the pipeline and are excited to kick off the development for that once we launch the Spiral Tampon. Also, stay tuned for the Spiral Tampon availability in 2023, we have some cool partnerships in the works as well.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Greta: To us, having more #womenintech is important so that we can properly solve the needs of half the population. With our backgrounds in design thinking, we deeply recognize the importance of understanding your users with empathy. Women in tech have better founder-product-fit when they are solving problems for users like themselves, and have even experienced the addressed need first-hand.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Amanda: Even since we started Sequel, we’ve seen an immense shift in openness in this space. More conversations are happening out in the open about things that have normally been considered taboo. Periods, hormones, female sex and pleasure and menopause are all things that have emerged as wide-open spaces where little innovation has occurred, ever. In the next 5 years, we are going to see more companies than ever emerging in this category but many will lack true technological differentiation - consumers will need to adapt to be more skeptical of marketing in order to determine who is actually innovating.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Greta: Ask questions, early and often! Don’t be afraid to sound inexperienced or uninformed, the best way to address those two things is to learn from the experts in women’s health. Pull in people who really believe in your vision early on, and make sure to keep them updated on your progress! At-scale development and getting ready for an FDA submission have been a long road for us, but being backed and supported by patient partners that understood our road to success has helped move us along and hit milestones consistently over the past 4 years.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Both:
Claudia Kotchka - the former VP of Innovation at Proctor and Gamble. As a close advisor to Sequel, Claudia has made sure we understand the importance of staying close to your customer - a practice that has kept P&G at the top of their game for as long as anyone can remember.
Serena Williams - an incredible example of a sportswoman that has used all of the qualities that make her an amazing athlete to drive success and impact in the business world.
Sallie Krawcheck - the founder and CEO of Ellevest is one of our favorite examples of founder-product-fit. She established herself as the most powerful woman on Wall Street and was able to identify a problem countless people overlooked. Her perspective enabled her to redesign a product and system that has always underserved female users.
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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.