Hormones 101: It's Not Just About Fertility

Join us as we chat with Aagya Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Aavia, the game-changing hormone health app. We're busting myths and exploring how hormones impact your daily life - far beyond just fertility. Discover how this MIT grad turned personal struggle into a tech solution, navigating the challenges of women's health entrepreneurship along the way. From pitch competitions to partnering with Mayo Clinic, Aagya shares insights that'll change how you think about hormones and startups alike. Get ready for some eye-opening revelations about your body and the world of fem tech!

Learn more about Aavia at https://aavia.io/

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Transcript

Angelica Maestas (Host): ​[00:00:00] Welcome to She's Ambitious AF, the bold and empowering podcast that turns up the volume on female entrepreneurship. Join us as we dive headfirst into the wild world of boss babes, where we spill the tea on all things ambition, success, and the occasional hilarious disaster. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Welcome to another episode of she's ambitious AF today. I'm joined by guest Agya Mathur. Agya, why don't you say hello and introduce yourself?

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Hi, thanks so much for having me. I am excited to be here. I'm Agya Mathur. I'm co founder and CEO of Abya, and Abya is a daily ovarian hormone health app for people with ovaries. We help people get better care from their doctors and improve their quality of life.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wonderful. Well, we're going to definitely dive into how [00:01:00] you even got to the point of starting Avya, but let's backtrack a little bit. I believe you started the business while you were still at MIT. Is that right? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I went to business school at MIT.

Angelica Maestas (Host): and how did the idea come about? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Avya really came about from personal experiences as well as professional experiences with the healthcare system. From a professional standpoint, I studied neuroscience in undergrad. I was building artificial arteries as part of my PhD program. Thesis in undergrad, and I started a business in undergrad as well, which is what I realized. I wanted to bring the two worlds together. That's a much longer story. We can save for another time. And I really wanted to get the inventions, the research out to the people who actually wanted and needed them. And from there, I went into consulting where I worked across the payer provider, pharma, pharmacy, you name it. And I. Found again, that a lot of companies were really focused on [00:02:00] top line, bottom line as they should as businesses, but a little bit less on who the end user is, what they want, what they need, what their incentives are. So I talked about this enough when I went to business school, that one of my now best friends from business school introduced me to my co founder and said, Hey, you guys talk about healthcare the same way you should really meet. little did I know, we would also have similar personal health experiences. Mine is a little bit longer, but longer story short, I started my period when I was 10 years old. I didn't have a normal period ever. My pediatrician told me that it's because I was an athlete and over half of my life later at age 24, a new doctor said, Mm. not an Olympic gymnast. This is not normal.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And so after a number of other challenges, I started thinking, I was like, one is telling me the whole truth about my own health. And that was the way I truly [00:03:00] felt.

Angelica Maestas (Host): yeah.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I started doing my own research, started looking into things and came across the world of ovarian hormones, where I learned that actually, Ovarian hormones impact so much more than your period infertility. And that's all that's ever talked about or all that we're ever taught. And in fact, actually they, they impact our quality of sleep, quality of muscle toning, energy levels, sex drive, skin, mental health, mood, risk of injury. The list goes on throughout the entire body.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Yeah, we only ever focus on being baby makers, basically. for my co founder, Aya, she was having migraines where she would lose her vision

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, my God.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): every month or two. And we're at MIT, they're looking for brain damage, they're looking for eye damage, they're looking for different disorders. Not one person asked her, when in your menstrual cycle does this happen?

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It was only with her own [00:04:00] tracking, thinking like, was it something I ate?

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Is it I'm not getting enough sleep? That she learned that actually this happens right before my period every time. And it's with our now medical advisor that she knows that they're actually hormonal migraines, which are not uncommon. And Our two worlds coming together as well as realizing that, you know, women's health is half the world's

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Don't tell me that it's niche. And this is something that we want, we're two people, it impacts literally, as I mentioned, half the world's population. We want to do something about it so that nobody else has to go through the same things

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Well, that's, that's incredible. And how awesome that you two found each other. Is, so does Avia allow for tracking to be able to prevent some of these things? Or is it just better knowledge on how to manage it? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): little bit of both. So, a quick rundown of what we actually [00:05:00] do at Avya. We We help you get better care from your providers. And a big part of that is that feel like they go to their doctors and they leave feeling like they don't get the answers that they need and that they oftentimes are getting gaslit. many doctors that we've talked to feel I have 10 to 15 minutes with a patient. I hear them. I ask as many questions as I can and I get fragmented answers. Because they recognize that we're not human computers, we're not going to rattle off. Oh, I have depressive symptoms only in the fourth quarter of my cycle. And it's 52 percent of the time it's in, in that quarter of my cycle. That's just not the way our

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It's not the way that we think of

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Mm hmm.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): the work for you and creates a heat map of when in your cycle, you're feeling different symptoms. And how that translates into when a doctor can actually see it is that they can look at [00:06:00] it in 15 to 60 seconds and from there be able to use the rest of their time actually providing the care that they want.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And we actually take that to the next. level as well and provide flags for different hormone conditions. So the first one that we started with is premenstrual dysphoric disorder. The reason that we started with this is because we had an entire thread in our community forum people thought that it was normal to have suicidal ideation before their

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh my god.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It's not

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And so that's where we can actually flag. If you have PMDD, we give you all of the information that you need in order to take it to a doctor. We don't diagnose. You have to still go to a doctor for that for treatment, all of that. But what we do do is according to any. that you tell us you have PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, something that like when left undiagnosed and untreated, higher [00:07:00] risk of type two diabetes, fatty liver disease, stroke, heart disease, and oftentimes it takes seven to ten years to diagnose.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Gosh.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): We can actually flag these in three to six months of data.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And this is really improving your quality of life, as well as decreasing healthcare costs and also increasing your self confidence. A lot of people leave feeling like, I don't know what's going on.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I feel like I'm going crazy, that kind of thing. But we then take that to the next level that even if you've been diagnosed with a condition or not, on a daily basis, we give you predictions across many different attributes. different body symptoms that you may experience, et cetera. So it really helps you understand what's coming up for the next seven days to the next 30 days, and then we give you recommendations accordingly. So these recommendations, we help you understand what to eat, how to work out, what, how to think about productivity and social activities [00:08:00] so that you can really make your bad days better and then also optimize the good days. Silence.

Angelica Maestas (Host): and then also to the point where you said women feel gaslit.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And it's almost like they are led to believe that The things they are feeling or thinking are not real based on, on the provider. And a lot of times it's, it's men. I am, I shared with you just before we, we began recording, I'm having my own issues around mobility. And I was at a provider's office week before last, and he looked at the knees, did x rays, saw nothing.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And he said, well, I'm a knee doc, and I don't see anything wrong with the knees, so I don't [00:09:00] know what to tell you, and I just,

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Oh my gosh, I'm so

Angelica Maestas (Host): it was I did burst into tears. I will, I will disclose that to which he then said, well, I don't have a magic wand that can fix you. So just. The things that we experience at the hands of, of some, some pretty awful providers, not all are like that, but a lot of it is just lack of knowledge and lack of resources.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Like what you are all trying to bring to the market. It's certainly needed, but I would like to talk a little bit more about what have the challenges been to get Avia going and successful.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): you in the future. Absolutely. And one thing I want to build on what you were saying as well is that are, of course, exceptions to this and women's health oftentimes is an elective in many medical schools. And so I, at the end of the day, I feel like you can't actually even blame the doctors because it's like their time that they're [00:10:00] spending with us is getting crunched. to be shorter and shorter. And so that's really a big part of the data gap that we're trying to fill is so that you can use the rest of the time, you know, take 15 to 60 seconds, depending on how much time you need to look through different attributes, and then actually spend the rest of your time providing the care that you want to.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Most doctors want to, of course, there's always exceptions to the rule, but most want to provide really great care. And you know, It's just that their time is getting squeezed. The research hasn't been there. If it's been there, then they haven't been taught it. There are a lot of these different elements there that we want to help support them.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And we feel lucky to work with so many different doctors to understand their challenges, work with so many of our members, understand their challenges and really help move both of them forward together in ways that are productive for

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yes. Good call out. I'm glad you said that.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Of course. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): going back to what you said about what have the challenges been a big thing here is also [00:11:00] just population knowledge of what we are doing, right? So this is something that I've been dealing with for decades now, personally, and there are many people out there who've been dealing with different hormone conditions or different challenges. As long as they can even remember a big part of it is that it hasn't always been talked about. And so there was a level of stigma around anything to do with periods or anything to do with women's health. And you're supposed to put on a smile and deal with it. That's one part. But then another part is a lot of times, as we were just talking about, people are told that their symptoms are normal and it's not necessarily from doctors.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It's actually, Oh, I'm your

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I had the

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. It is good.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): like passing out from your period, it's not actually normal. Having that suicidal ideation that I mentioned, it's actually not normal. And there are different things that can, you know, [00:12:00] You can do to help help with those as well. And so understanding, you know, trying to break through to that group of people as well. So a lot of this is why we lead with education and everything is science backed. We make sure everything's reviewed, has sources. We like, actually, we always say that our members love that we cite our sources because they want to dig in deeper, and that's something that we appreciate about our members as well, because that's something that allows us to be held accountable 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): There's like hormone Jedi's on tick tock, who have had their own experience with what works, but that doesn't mean it works for everybody either. And so that's where being personalized is really important that obvious as well. Also, just like on an entrepreneurial journey itself. I think that one of the things that we always think about is having our community. And as I was getting started, yes, I was at MIT and there's a lot of people starting [00:13:00] companies out of there, but not necessarily always in the consumer space, especially coming out of Boston, not necessarily, definitely not in women's health, and different things like that. And so initially that was a little bit isolating.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): there was nobody to really bounce off of like, Hey, what types of questions will investors ask you? Or what do you do when someone asks you this stupid question? Whatever it might be. now I feel like I've really built that. We have such a large community of women's health companies and founders where I feel like they're all my friends and we really bounce. Bounce ideas off of one another, and that becomes really powerful. then also on the education side, of course, there was the the end user themselves, but also then there's the investor side, and I'm proud to say that over my years building Avia, it has gotten better. Each time, with the launch of more and more female funds or more having more and more female

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I [00:14:00] remember there were investors who brought their wives to our pitch meetings initially, or people who said, Oh, we're invested in a fertility company. That's a competitor. And I'm like, we do nothing in fertility things

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And so that's where I've really seen that grow. But not to say it was not a challenge

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow. Well, I'm, I'm glad to hear that you're educating and that you're not just Men are receptive and listening and learning. That's a big part of how we change. This is yes, getting more women to invest, but also getting men educated on this. You just reminded me of a, a recent conversation I had after judging an event and a gentleman came up to me after.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And he said, Angelica, can I share something with you? And he was like, you know, it was, it was very odd. I didn't know what he was about to tell me. I said, sure. And he said, when you said that you invest in women's health beyond [00:15:00] fertility, Because women have other health issues beyond reproduction. I literally asked myself like what, and then I felt like such an ass because then you went down the list of mental health, bone density, cardio issues, anxiety, he said, and those things just never occurred to me.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And I thought, well, kudos to you for even having the guts to say that, but it was enlightening. I mean, just we're, we're so lucky.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Absolutely.

Angelica Maestas (Host): up of our own experiences and men don't have our experiences. And so they just don't know a lot. 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And I, you know, I love using sports analogies. I was an athlete growing up and a lot of times that helps, right? Like if you ask somebody, could you imagine, you know, if someone's a basketball player or a tennis player? that your training and your risk of injury differs based off of where you are in a 28 day period, you would want to train according to [00:16:00] that.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): In fact, the U. S. Women's National Soccer team trains according to that. And so, By helping them see like in their eyes as well, oftentimes of, you imagine that, or actually we're not little men. So my heart is not just a smaller version of your heart. disease presents differently in women than it does in men. A lot of different things do, right? And so this is something that I do believe that a lot of them A lot of women don't even know, right? It's not even just men oftentimes. And so the education part, we really do lead with that, whether like, you know, actually we don't spend any money on paid media and all of the work that we do is on actually educating the audience on what's going on, how is it going on?

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Things like that. And that's how then people actually start to learn that AAPIA exists and then they want to download it and then they want to tell their friends about it, which has been great to see.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, well, I, I love that you're, you're [00:17:00] science backed and that you're transparent about that. I think that's wonderful. And that's good for educating the community. I'd like to learn a little bit about how you've been funded. How have you gotten to this state where we're obvious now? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Absolutely. So our first our first tranche of funding actually was all non diluted while we were at M. I. T. and we won some Pitch competitions. We got some grant funding. Feel very lucky to have done that. And from there, we then have been raising from either angels or institutional funds. that's been, it's, it's, Own experience.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): But what's been great about that is that whether it's an institutional fund or an angel, everybody comes with their own experiences. And I find that that's really valuable. That's actually how we curated our, our list of operating investors is always like, okay, the next 18 months, what are we going to be up against? Who are the best and the brightest who've done these [00:18:00] things and that's who then like when we are up against challenges, we can reach out to them and they've been so wonderful to help in so many ways.

Angelica Maestas (Host): That's awesome. I think I also saw that you did some collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and also an ASU accelerator. So I would love to hear a little bit more about that. 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Sure. So we were one of 10 companies globally who are accepted to the Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator. And through that, we've worked with dozens of doctors and then we're also forming a more formal partnership to come, which I'd love to share more about when actually formalized.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Very exciting. and the accelerator process, was it, were they kind of incubating you or what was that process like? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It was the actual accelerator itself was about two weeks on site in Phoenix, Arizona. this year, and the great part about it was that we had access [00:19:00] to so many different types of doctors, so many different types of people on the ASU side as well, where there's on the data science side, on the publication side, on the nursing side, and they all were able to bring a wealth of knowledge and ideas.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): We also had access to people who are from billing, people who are from insurance, you name it. And that was the opportunity to, from the doctor's side, get a sense of, okay, they're all excited about what we've built. I don't have to explain to any of them why we're different from what's on the market. if anything, they're actually saying like, I can't wait to build these things out with you because they need it and they want it. And then the other thing that's great there and felt very validating is that they are also saying like, Hey, I want. My patients using this before they come in for my appointment so that it is much more efficient as well. And then on the ASU side, it's been really wonderful from [00:20:00] learning about research opportunities to actually like hopefully diving into some of them soon as well as They have an entire nursing program where they actually do capstone projects, different things like that as well. And so we will continue to build these relationships.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And that was just the beginning, but there isn't like any formal obligation going

Angelica Maestas (Host): Got it. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you're getting direct provider feedback. So that, that was, must've been incredible. Is there plans to integrate with the HRs? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I will let you know if and when that

Angelica Maestas (Host): Okay. So what about plans for for growth? Where are you at now? What are the next biggest things on your horizon

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Yeah, the biggest thing is we just launched curated commerce. So we have a free version of our app and then we also have a premium version of our app that we launched at the end of last year. As I mentioned, we've been doing everything [00:21:00] completely organically. That's been growing month over month, which has been wonderful. But ultimately our goal is for, to have revenue many revenue streams as possible that don't rely on the end user. And that's where the next thing that we actually launched is curated commerce. And we've never wanted to do blanket ads in the app, only if it's helpful to the end user and what we've been seeing are our members.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And what we've been seeing is that over time with getting more and more requests. Do you have a suggestion for tampons I can use, or do you have suggestions? You've recommended that I take magnesium at this time. What brand magnesium should I take? Two, I've been flagged with PMDD. Who should I go see for this? And so by actually knowing what are the questions they're asking us, what are the things that they're interested in, we're bringing these brands and these companies to them. In an ad like fashion, that's more curated [00:22:00] than just, you know, I had this period checker at once that there was a that they were advertising that was a crab game. And I was like, nothing about my health makes me want to think about

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And so never wanted to do anything like that and just make it an experience that actually makes sense. And then it also makes for the brands as well, because we we are a platform that people are using very regularly, weekly, if not daily. And so then this is an opportunity for other companies that have maybe it's point solutions or it's different elements that we can actually integrate into the life cycle of a person with ovaries. and women's health journey.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Okay. I love that. Well, that's exciting things to come. 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Thank you. Yeah, we just launched our first partnership. And we have a few more that we'll be rolling out very shortly here.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And you are how many years now into this journey with [00:23:00] Avia?

Aagya Mathur (Guest): we launched the app that we're working with now in 2021.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Gotcha. What would you say now that you can reflect back on a couple years as an entrepreneur, what have been some of the most, maybe unanticipated lessons along the journey? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): How much time do you have?

Angelica Maestas (Host): Give me your top two.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): I, I think one of the things which I already mentioned is to have a cohort of friends who can be on that journey with you. Some who are at your stage, some who are a step or two ahead of you that you can bounce ideas off of, who you can go to for advice, whatever it may be. I won't belabor that since we've already discussed it. Another that I always share with people is that. Your ideas and your business are only as big as you express them to be. And I really think that storytelling is a big part of this in not downplaying anything that you've achieved. Like we have over a hundred thousand active users. And I like [00:24:00] to share that

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): we've done that without spending any money on it. And so these are the things that the more that we're able to get comfortable with it, but then also share the more that people actually think bigger and are willing to, whether it's invest, try out, tell people, whatever it might be about Avia or your business as well.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wonderful. 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Can I share

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yes, of course. Oh, I

Aagya Mathur (Guest): and celebrate them. I still remember the feeling that I had when I offered our, first of all, that we had an employee, but offered that first employee health insurance. That felt like such a big moment, and I still remember that.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): So take a moment to kind of take in each of those things, I think is really important. And so I feel like those are all more of the soft learnings. I [00:25:00] will say one other on the business side of things as well, is that I wish that we would have taken deposits when we built our first office. Wait list. Emails are cheap. Everyone puts their email address in, doesn't mean that they'll necessarily check that email and doesn't mean that they'll actually convert to even downloading your app. And I really wish that we would have said something to the effect of pay a dollar and you'll be the first person to learn about this and you'll get access to it.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): We believe that we would have had much better results. Stronger conversion back then, to actually having people go from email to download.

Angelica Maestas (Host): would have never thought of that, but I'm glad you shared that. I'm sure that that's hopefully impactful and influencing some of our listeners today. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): All right. Well, now we're going to transition to some rapid fire questions. You ready?

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Ooh,

Angelica Maestas (Host): All [00:26:00] right.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Yeah, let's do it.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Morning person or night owl? Night owl.

Angelica Maestas (Host): but trying to become a morning person. The morning workouts hit different.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): It's so true. Margarita, wine, or mocktail? Wine. Used

Aagya Mathur (Guest): to be a spicy margarita,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, I know. As I got an older heartburn, I'm like, oh, I can't do it. emoji you use the most? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Ooh, the one with the swirls in its eyes.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Your guilty pleasure TV show or movie? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Ooh, I would say Emily in Paris right now. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Favorite place to find inspiration? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Near the water.

Angelica Maestas (Host): What's the last book you couldn't put down? 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Boys on a boat,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Most used productivity hack 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): time blocking.

Angelica Maestas (Host): and last but not least, what can our listeners do to support you

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Oh, would love for them to download Avia. They can [00:27:00] AAVIA it's available on the app store and coming to Android very, very soon. We have we're very much looking forward to releasing that. And The biggest thing is that everybody knows now that we build with our members very, very closely.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): And so once you do download the app, please share your feedback. Please let us know what else you would like, what you love, what you don't, so that we can keep building and improving for you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): wonderful and will include details on Navia as well in the show notes.

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Oh, perfect. Thank you so much.

Angelica Maestas (Host): was wonderful having you on. 

Aagya Mathur (Guest): Thank you so much, Angelica. This was a pleasure and so fun to chat with you today. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): And that's a wrap on another episode of She's Ambitious AF. Remember to dream big, hustle harder, and show the world that when it comes to success, we're not just ambitious, we're Ambitious AF.