No brand or retailer is addressing.Getty
If you found out that every day, 6,000 women in America love your product or service and no one else is offering it, would you be excited about your business?
That’s the opportunity with menopause. Every day, 6,000 American women turn 51, which is the center of the curve for women in their menopause journey. The Mayo Clinic estimates that approximately 1 billion women worldwide have reached menopause.
In 1923, life expectancy for women in the US was 58. But in 2023, women who turn 51 in the US can expect to live to 82 and spend about 40% of their lives after menopause.
Almost every consumer-facing business refers to its customers with terms like Boomers, Millennials, Gen X or Gen Z, depending on their stage of life. But menopausal and post-menopausal women have no such reference or cute name. Almost no one is focused on this group of women and yet they have needs that could be huge business opportunities.
where are the opportunities
Opportunities are problems that creative entrepreneurs can find solutions to. Here are some of them:
According to a study by Carrot Fertility, the majority of menopausal women lost work hours or took time off work due to menopause symptoms. Most of them “hid the real reason” for their leave.
Nearly half of women say they were not or were not completely prepared for menopause. They get information about menopause from their doctor, internet searches, friends and relatives, in that order. For every obstetrician-gynecologist trained in menopause treatment, there are 33,000 women. Those numbers tell us that most women do not have access to guidance and information.
The symptoms that menopausal women find most bothersome are hot flashes, insomnia, fatigue, night sweats, and weight gain. Each of them is experienced by more than 70% of menopausal women.
Not only is there a solution to the problems, there is also a possibility of increasing the lifespan. “There is a solid argument that says menopause increases some of the diseases that shorten women’s lives,” says Alicia Jackson, CEO and founder of EverNow, a provider of personalized care and treatment for menopause. Jackson explains that the later women experience menopause, the longer their lifespan. They suggest that if it were possible to delay menopause, it could be a life-extending treatment.
Daisy Robinton is the CEO and Founder of Oriva Therapeutics, a biomedical research company focused on extending women’s health span. She explains that menopause accelerates aging throughout a woman’s body and increases the risk of heart disease, sleep disturbances, sexual dysfunction, osteoporosis, and changes in the skin and hair. Oriva focuses on controlling the rate of loss of ovarian reserves to delay the onset of menopause. If Oriva is successful, menopause symptoms will begin later, aging will be delayed and women will live longer.
Averno’s Jackson says menopause treatment and care “has been underinvested in research and training.” She says the OB-GYN “told me they got six hours of training on menopause in four years of medical school.” Jackson says things are going to change because menopause is “a whole category of health care.”
This is also an opportunity for employers. According to the Carrot Reproduction study, 8% of respondents say they receive significant support from their employer and 59% say they do not receive any support. Menopause advice, emotional support or therapy, medical care and time off were not available to more than 7.6% of respondents. 82% of respondents said menopause benefits are valuable and 92% said they would improve job satisfaction.
who will make money from this
Yanghee Paik, CEO and co-founder of feminine products company Rael, says discussing menopause is taboo but that women who are “more interested in understanding more about their bodies and health” are making a move and it’s bringing menopause out into the open. Is going to bring.
Ali Kole runs a billion-dollar premium beauty business for Amazon. She says that just as clean beauty used to have its own section in beauty stores and is now integrated into everyday products and basic to the industry, the same will happen with menopause products as discussion on the topic becomes more open. Has occurred.
But the conversation is still developing. Rochelle Weitzner, who founded skincare brand Pause, which focuses on menopause and post-menopausal women, says she “considered how long it would take to create a new category and break down barriers” and the associated costs and capital requirements. Underestimated. When the brand launched in 2019, Nordstrom immediately put it in all stores. But Facebook and GoogleGOOG won’t allow ads for menopause-related products, QVCQVCA won’t carry them in the US and many publications won’t cover the topic.
Women become more comfortable with changes in their bodies. Embr Labs
Sam Shames, COO and co-founder of Ambre, says there are many products that menopausal women specifically need, and some of them are already on the market for other uses, including moisture-wicking clothing, cooling pads, and more. Includes skin care for mattresses and lines. His company makes a device that users wear like a wristwatch (photo above), but it doesn’t tell time, it helps your body cool down when it’s hot and stay warm when it’s cold. Embr was not founded to focus on menopausal women, but it found them ideally suited for its wristband product, so it changed its marketing to focus on menopausal women.
A lot has changed in a short time. The MeToo movement has adjusted the way people think about women’s rights to meet their needs. This has resulted in the joy of many previously not discussed topics, including menopause, now becoming more publicly available.
The Carrot study states that 8% of women thought they were very informed and prepared for menopause. For the other 92%, changes in attitudes about women’s rights will have a profound impact on the products that help them cope with menopause and the information available to them before and after it arrives.
We are just at the beginning of awareness of the opportunity. Products, devices, services and information are now only being imagined and it is impossible to describe the extent of what will be created.
A few things are known:
It’s a huge market and a huge opportunity.
It’s not going away; In fact, it is increasing.
More women will feel more comfortable spending meaningful amounts of money to deal with menopause. More employers are going to offer assistance in many forms to help them. More professionals will be trained to provide more knowledge to women experiencing menopause. More companies will be created to make the experience better and easier.
And all this is a huge opportunity for legacy companies selling adjacent products and services. But the history of the last 20 years suggests that innovation will come more from startups.
It doesn t have to be that way. Menopausal women were always on the market. They were always buying products and services from old brands. They simply want to see companies offering products that openly address their issues and serve them.
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I am the co-founder and partner of Triangle Capital LLC (www.TriangleCapitalLLC.com), where we specialize in mergers, acquisitions, and capital raising for consumer-facing businesses. Our team has sold companies to Amazon, PetSmart, L’Oreal, AT&T, multiple financial buyers, and many others. We specialize in maximizing value and paying investors and buyers the most a business is worth. We can also advise on how to position your company for the best possible outcome in a sale.
Prior to Triangle Capital, I was a managing director at Financo, Inc. I was the managing director of a boutique firm called , where I ran most of the apparel industry transactions for that firm. Previously, I was a Partner and First Vice President at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where I co-led a group of 14 professionals conducting middle-market mergers and acquisitions. I have co-authored three books on finance and computer programming. I am a former adjunct assistant professor in the graduate program at the Stern School at NYU. I have a BS in Accounting from NYU and an MBA in Finance from Harvard. I am based in New York.
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Source: www.forbes.com
