Community of people with chronic pelvic pain who want to build concrete solutions to feel good

Hale is a Femtech Platform founded by Gaia Sallizoni and Vittoria Brolis, helping women with chronic pelvic pain, such as endometriosis or vulvodynia, to improve their quality of life, with tailored home care. Despite challenges in the Femtech industry, Hale has built a strong community and been recognized as Europe's best social enterprise in 2022. They aim to launch their app, expand their user base, and become the go-to brand for intimate pain.

Are you unfamiliar with the topic of chronic pelvic pain? The taboo surrounding women's health conditions does not help get enough attention around this condition and related consequences, even though it is a common issue amongst women. Indeed, chronic pelvic pain affects 1 in 4 women, causing disabling symptoms such as the inability to work, mental health issues, and painful sex. Despite the proven effectiveness of digital psychosocial interventions for chronic pain, there are currently no accessible products specifically designed for these patients. Awareness and accessible solutions are needed, which is what Hale understood.

Addressing the issue of pelvic pain

Imagine a world where women who suffer from chronic pelvic pain have access to personalized mental health support and evidence-based digital interventions. That world is now a reality with Hale, a Femtech platform founded by Gaia Sallizoni and Vittoria Brolis. These two innovative entrepreneurs have combined their backgrounds in innovation management, business, and tech with impact ventures project management to create a drug-free solution for women with chronic pain conditions like endometriosis or vulvodynia.

With Hale, women can access a customized program that takes into account their specific symptoms, objectives, and challenges. The platform offers psychology, sexology, tracking, and peer-to-peer support to help women manage their chronic pain and improve their quality of life. And the results speak for themselves - in just eight weeks, Hale's beta version managed to decrease pain interference by 34% and improve sexual satisfaction.

By offering personalized mental health support and evidence-based interventions, Hale is making a real difference by improving the quality of women suffering from this condition.

Overcoming challenges

Hale's journey wasn't easy. One major obstacle is the limited access to funding due to investors' lack of understanding and misconceptions about women's health issues. Additionally, limited awareness and education increase the risks of low rates of screening and prevention and can result in women's health issues being ignored or dismissed by healthcare providers. However, Hale rose to the challenge by demonstrating real numbers, traction, and foreign best practices as of the margin growth. They also adapted their communication strategy to comply with advertising bans imposed on certain women's health topics such as menstruation and sexual health. This ban can limit the ability of Femtech companies to reach their target audience and advertise their products effectively. Finally, a lack of established models and standards for creating and marketing femtech products is another challenge. Femtech is a relatively new industry, and few established models and standards exist for how to effectively create and market products. This can make it challenging for start-ups to differentiate themselves from the competition and know where to start.

Femtech will keep growing fast and it's a matter of highlighting the huge margin in innovation there is left in this sector. By focusing on gaining constant validation and delivering products that match patients' needs, Hale was able to overcome these obstacles and pave the way for other Femtech start-ups.

Where is Hale heading and trends

With over 10,000 members and paying customers benefiting from its platform in private beta, Hale expects to continue growing with the integration of the Tech4Eva program. The team aims to officially launch its App on the market and rapidly expand its user base, becoming the brand of reference for intimate pain - starting from Italy and the DACH region.

They won the best social enterprise in Europe 2022 by the European Investment Bank Institute. They believe Femtech has the power to generate significant social impact, and that social enterprises driven by a higher purpose can lead to real change. This recognition and its whole ecosystem has given them the opportunity to bring attention to female healthcare in new networks and increase their social impact. Among the biggest trends in Femtech, they see a huge development in data-driven personalization, specialized tele-medicine, patient-to-patient support and focus on earlier stage of fertile life of women. Also, Femtech in southern areas of the world will have an incredible boom in the next years that will fill the accessibility gaps in healthcare.

As Femtech is a rapidly growing field with vast opportunities for innovation, Hale's team encourages individuals to find unexplored areas and work with innovators in the field to create meaningful solutions. Hale is actively contributing to closing the gender data gap in healthcare and providing accessible and stigma-free solutions for people dealing with chronic pelvic pain!

About the team

‍Gaia Salizzoni has a mixed background in International Relations and Innovation Management, has lived in more than 6 countries and worked at the intersection between business and tech - mostly in start-ups. She co-founded Hale to help close the gender pain gap through effective digital products.

Vittoria Brolis has a background in Economics and Social Sciences and experiences in project management roles in impact ventures, Vittoria has always been passionate about creating positive social change. She co-founded Hale to provide accessible tools to empower patients to take care of their wellbeing.

About joining the Tech4Eva program

Tech4Eva provides us with a valuable network of mentors and entrepreneurs in the Femtech industry. We look forward to learning from our peers' distribution and marketing strategies and their challenges and successes. We are committed to collaborating with the best and brightest entrepreneurs in the industry to drive meaningful change.

Piece of advice to young entrepreneurs: Be creative and keep testing your ideas: Femtech is a rapidly growing field with vast opportunities for innovation. There are countless problems waiting to be addressed, and creative solutions can make a significant impact. We encourage individuals to find unexplored areas and work with innovators in the field to learn and create meaningful solutions.

Website: www.halecommunity.com

Instagram: @halecommunity

LinkedIn: Hale