Greta Meyer Brokered the First-Ever Tampon Sponsorship in NCAA History

I finally cried yesterday. Don’t worry I’m more than fine. It just comes with the territory of finding your place in this bizarre universe. I’ve started to feel really unmotivated with working towards my goals. I’m one of those people that gets a high off of doing spontaneous things. I’ve always need something to look forward to, but I think where I loose myself not staying hyper focused on what I really care about manifesting in my life. I also continue to grapple with community because I feel like we live in a binary society where we can’t engage in real dialogue with people that really care. We are so invested in wanting to be right, wearing humble brag merch or being perceived as “old money,” being around the “right” people (aka people that give you the social capital that gives you access to all the experiences you would want on your social media feed). Like why do we care so much to the point that we just lose our real thesis? This especially applies when POC give into the white agenda. All this culture is what we created and we have to maintain autonomy over it.

Why can’t we just trust that the plot for us will be one makes us the most interesting person in the room instead doing things to fit the status quo or what is trending.

@amyrookes

Pls a blank street x melissaswardobe collab😭 this is so iconic i love when a collab just makes SENSEEEEE

The sexiest thing you can do is literally unapologetically own up to who you are and care about humanity - the rest of puzzle will come together around you. And I think Melissa checks all the boxes in the creator department. But you can too depending on the choices you make…

Greta Meyer is the CEO and co-founder of Sequel, a women’s health company focused on product innovation addressing unmet needs of women. The company’s first product, a redesign of the tampon the Sequel Spiral™ Tampon, is FDA cleared as a medical device. The product features a proprietary spiral design that is engineered to be more fluid mechanically efficient, meaning it is designed to absorb more evenly, not leak before it’s full, and be more comfortable. Greta was 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 honor 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.

Can you start with a brief introduction of yourself, the impetus for starting Sequel, and what you're currently spending the most time on?

I'm Greta. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and am now based in San Francisco. My co-founder Amanda and I met at Stanford, and we were both athletes in our own fields. I was on the lacrosse team at Stanford. The idea for Sequel came from our experiences as athletes and the distraction we felt because our tampon products weren’t reliable. We were often wearing white skirts and it was common to be asked, "Can you check me? Am I leaking?" We knew people never liked or felt confident in the effectiveness of their tampons, and that was a big insight for us.

Amanda, my co-founder, was also an athlete. She was a lifeguard growing up and did competitive lifesaving and swimming. In those scenarios, you're literally wearing a bikini, and you can't afford a mishap. When you're a lifeguard, you're sitting on the white chair of the beach, and you can’t afford that distraction when you're supposed to be focused on saving lives.

We met during a class project, and we started looking at the true menstrual experience as a whole, not just tampons. We did a lot of interviews, bought a lot of products, had people try them, and got feedback. We found that even though women don't like their tampons, about 70 to 80% of U.S. women prefer them, but 70% of those use some sort of backup method because they think the tampon will fail.

As mechanical engineering and product design majors, we were really interested in how tampons were designed and made. We realized that no one had actually changed the design or manufacturing in a long time. The incumbents have robust IP strategies, manufacturing defensibility, and FDA clearance, but as a small company, we saw that  founders coming to the space with new ideas  faced three distinct hurdles: design, FDA clearance, and manufacturing. Our hypothesis was that when we get on the other side of those challenges, that becomes our technical moat.

At what point did you and your co-founder know that this was potentially VC-backable?

That's a really important question. Especially in Silicon Valley, VC backing is almost a default and the process is romanticized. But there are so many other options that don't get headlines. We got some non-dilutive funding to start, which was really helpful to start the R&D cycle. We got some grants, which is always my tip to students: try to use that status as much as you can because it's awesome when you have it. We actually deferred our graduation technically for a quarter to continue our eligibility.

We knew we had upfront R&D costs and regulatory hurdles, and we couldn’t pre-sell these products. It became obvious that we had to raise some money. We're both first-time founders, so it's definitely a learning experience and it's something that should not be taken lightly. Once you go that route, you're agreeing to report to those investors.

What were lessons learned from that first time that you raised for Sequel's seed round?

It was such an iterative process. I learned about why an investor might be making their decision, what they are considering and who they are reporting to. At the time, if you are really just learning from other founders who are running their process, it can be an echo chamber where everyone is thinking about, “how can I get this person to write a check?” But what you really should be thinking of is, “is this the right investor for my company?”

Something we did really well, because we had this beginner mindset of never having done this before, was to ask for feedback. For example, when we got a rejection email, we would ask for feedback or what progress they'd like to see if we were to come back in 9-12 months.

How did you and your co-founder decide which investor feedback was worth taking and which relationships were worth maintaining?

We’d start to assess, is this firm a fit? Do we feel like this person is asking questions that make sense for our company? We met a lot of strictly software investors, and you just recognize it is obviously not a fit. They're not going to ask a really good question about the FDA or manufacturing or even our consumer or marketing strategy.

One piece of advice I got from a founder that stuck with me is thinking about your job as gathering data points. If you think about a chart of what related companies have done and advice other people may give, and plot them on a very fluffy graph, it's your job to take the dot product of all of those and decide a path for your company.

Can you walk me through the IP process? How does one go about getting something patent pending and then approved?

Yes, IP is another reason why we had upfront costs that we knew would create value, but not revenue, for a long time. The first thing we did when we came up with the idea of the shape, the better absorption pattern, and how it worked, was file a provisional patent. We did that on our own. We got some feedback from some people that we knew were in the IP space, and then we iterated on that.

The one thing about IP is that you want great counsel, but it is really expensive. So you have to be careful, especially as you're going through the R&D process and the actual product is changing. We have a robust IP portfolio and great counsel. It's definitely a priority for us. But we also think about defensibility as larger than that because we have manufacturing know-how that's really specialized to our team. We have FDA clearance for our design, which in itself is potentially more actionable in terms of defensibility because nobody else could import our type of product without the FDA stepping in.

We also have licensing as an opportunity down the road, which IP really helps with. We could license our technology to others who are looking to offer a differentiated product.

How have you thought about expanding beyond athletes to performance as a whole?

We are firm in our belief that our product is not only for athletes, but that this is the most extreme user in some use cases. So if a professional swimmer or tennis player uses the product and loves it, to me, as the average consumer, that is a perfect stress test of the product. It's kind of like Nike or Yeti where I might not need it on the same level as they do, but there’s a notion of “if it works for them, it'll work for me.” If you can prove the performance aspect with an extreme user, that shows other potential users that it will work for them going to work, being in a board meeting, during the day as a teacher, or a lawyer. Then those are the stories that our brand will start to expand with.

It is authentic to our founding story and why we had the idea in the first place. As a young product coming into the market, it can be tempting to talk about the total addressable market. But we need to have a clear point of view on who this product is for and how we are initially positioning it differently from a marketing perspective.

Can you tell me about your partnership with Athleta and what you learned from that activation?

We feel super aligned with them. They have a great "Power of She" focus that is definitely on-brand for Sequel. The takeaway from the activation is that the timing was great and you can't force it. As a brand, we are too small to be a title sponsor of the Olympics, so we had to think outside the box. Who can we partner with that might already be there? We had these little sample packs with two tampons that told our story, and we were able to give those out to people in and around the Olympics and at the Athleta house.

What are your thoughts on the recent Berkeley study about toxins in menstrual products? What do you think should be done from a regulatory standpoint?

We have a unique perspective because we actually did go through the FDA, and a lot of companies don't. The FDA is a double-edged sword because we really believe in the importance of safety and all the testing, but we also know firsthand how burdensome it is for a small company to have to maintain a quality management system and do a lot of costly testing.

My hope for the industry is for there to be more transparent communication from regulators and companies about what's going on. The reality is, yes, we need more testing and transparency. There are a lot of strict labeling requirements that we comply with, and that's improving things for consumers. States like California and New York have done a great job making everyone put the ingredients on the labels.

The part that pains me is the misinformation. It's hard to explain why a result might say this or why a particular test might not be the best way to do it. My hope would be for better communication and potentially more labeling to help consumers. We also saw customers holding brands accountable, asking for their stance and test results. In many ways, that is more powerful than regulations.

What are your thoughts on founders building personal brands on social media?

My co-founder and I have different audiences. I focus on product, engineering, manufacturing, and FDA, so my LinkedIn network is more saturated in those areas. She is our CMO and interfaces with partnerships and influencers. We handle it differently, and there's no right way to do it, but it can be a huge asset to the company.

I think it's about being honest about what energizes you as a founder and what is truly in your role. Also, not discounting that if you're taking six TikToks a day, part of your job description is content creation for the brand. It's not a negligible time commitment in your schedule. Consumers ask for that a lot and they like that a lot, but you have to be conscious of your skill set and audience.

If you had four years to train for the LA Olympics, which sport do you think you could qualify for?

It was just announced that Lacrosse will return to the Olympics in 2028, which was my sport in college at Stanford!

I'm also really excited about the heptathlon. I think that's an awesome sport. Weirdly, the heptathlon is in the Olympics for women, and the decathlon is for men. We actually sponsored the World Championships decathlon this year for women. My hope is that they can get it into the Olympics. I think that's so awesome because it's all-around athletics.

If there was an athlete that you could partner with for Sequel, who would it be?

Gabby Thomas is super impressive. She's just all-around very badass and amazing in everything she does. Sha'Carri Richardson is also amazing and has a ton of authenticity and relatability to people. She's super honest about her process and training.

When you're not working, what lights you up?

I love getting outside. I live right near Golden Gate Park, so I regularly go running, walking, and biking around there. I love playing spike ball with my friends. I also like doing small creative projects on my own. I made some coffee tables earlier this year. Having that creative outlet is so important for me personally, whether it's painting or taking up a new hobby.

What are you currently listening to, reading, or engaging with?

I am reading Dostoevsky. There's a series of short stories called Bad Business that I just bought at City Lights Books here. I've been reading that, which has been really fun and new, kind of interesting and dramatic writing, but also fiction. I also have been reading The Free Press recently as a news source, which has been good and interesting.

Is there another female founder, investor, or operator that you would want to amplify or highlight?

I'm inspired by Sheertex and what they have done. They are technology-focused in a space that is very commoditized, where everyone just makes subpar products. They have their own factories, and the founder is a scientist, which I love. A lot of medical devices also inspire me. One recently that I know through the Ferolyn Fellowship is Novocuff and their CEO (Amelia Degenkolb). That kind of stuff is super inspiring because it could change a lot of people's lives physically as they're going through childbirth.

Wanna be besties?

• Email me at [email protected] 

• Follow me on Linkedln

• Follow me on Twitter

• Follow me on Instagram