Since we first introduced Singapore-based femtech startup Ease Healthcare and founders Guadalupe Lazaro and Rio Hoe back in this Season 3 episode last year, they have grown in more ways than one on their mission to democratize women’s healthcare: launching private label products, expanding to the Philippines, evolving their app experience, and driving adoption through enterprise. They talk about all this and more on today’s call, recorded 17 August 2022.

Highlights and Timestamps

(00:57) Paulo’s re-intro to Ease Healthcare and founders Guada and Rio’s update on Ease;

“At the beginning, we were very much providing services and community spaces, but this year we actually launched our own product line of intimate health products as well as urinary tract health products… So far we have been offering our services and products in Singapore, but we just launched in the Philippines and it was a really great launch.” – Guadalupe Lazaro

“We’ve expanded our telehealth service offerings…Ease is working on a B2B2E service offering…” – Rio Hoe

(03:08) Rolling out Private Label Products and their Role in Ease’s Business;

“We wanted to [be more proactive], aside from providing services that target different women’s health issues, which are a little bit more reactive…the process to develop these products is actually quite data-driven…we test product ideas through our community…we do a lot of product sampling as well.” – Guadalupe Lazaro

“[Private label products are] going to be an increasingly larger part of the Ease ecosystem as we start to cover more categories of healthcare and more categories of preventive health…we also see this as quite an important aspect of our reach as we go into different markets.” – Rio Hoe

(06:32) Expanding into the Philippines and Building a Playbook for Regional Expansion;

“The biggest difference I think that we observed is that the Philippines is a market that requires more trust building, and more brand awareness. We had to do a lot of educational support in order for the market to kind of be ready to make a decision on the products that we offer.” – Guadalupe Lazaro

“[The Philippines is] really the market in which we are building our playbook, and that playbook is gonna be extremely crucial for growth…” – Rio Hoe

(09:51) Evolving App Experience, Driving Adoption through Enterprise, and the Reality of Women’s Health Issues;

“…a lot of the stories that we hear actually [come from] the community section of our app, as well as some community questions that we run on the weekends on Instagram…it reminds us of the importance of a platform like Ease that really transforms the access that these women have to these healthcare services.” – Guadalupe Lazaro

“There are a lot of employers can do in order to provide women with the tools, support network, and access to services. They can go a really long way in making them feel more supported, more engaged, and lead healthier and better lives. And we want to be part of that.” – Rio Hoe

(13:59) Developing Ease Healthcare’s Leadership and Future Impact;

“These two years have been huge personal and professional growth for myself…So it has helped me learn a lot about change and how to deal with making decisions in those difficult times, and just adapting to new opportunities and kind of growing from there.” – Guadalupe Lazaro

“The femtech market…has been relatively less affected by the current market conditions, mainly because it has been a rather, more slowly, steadily growing industry over the past say five years as compared to some other industries. Furthermore, these problems it’s trying to solve are problems which are relatively fundamental, relatively complex…” – Rio Hoe

(17:13) Rapid Fire Round; 

About our guest

Guadalupe Lazaro is a co-founder of Ease Healthcare. She is a serial entrepreneur and sexual and reproductive health rights advocate. Prior to Ease Guada worked in business development and consulting from the UK to Singapore. She grew up working for women’s health and women’s rights, being involved with the likes of Red Cross and Amnesty International, and now she’s married her passion for women’s health and skills in UX/UI design, marketing, and brand strategy at Ease.

Rio Hoe is a co-founder of Ease Healthcare. He is a lawyer-turned-founder, holding a law degree from the University of Oxford and graduated as the university’s top student in Medical Law. Prior to Ease he had co-founded a socio-political media outlet in Singapore and worked at leading global law firm Clifford Chance. His entrepreneurship and law genes now come into play at Ease where he manages its finance and operations.

Transcript

Paulo: Just to give our listeners a sense of where our call is gonna be headed today, you can share with us what has happened with Ease since our chat last year. Rio or Guda take it away.

Guada: Thanks so much. So I think the biggest change is that we have been really focused on building the ecosystem for women’s health that we were set out to do. 

So in the beginning, we were very much providing services and community spaces, but this year we actually launched our own product line of intimate health products as well as urinary tract health products. Both products are supplements as well as skincare products for the vulva area in order to help women with different types of health and wellness issues. So we’re super excited to continue building the ecosystem through our product lines. 

And the second really big update is that we actually expanded into the Philippines. So far we have been offering our services and products in Singapore, but we just launched in the Philippines and it was a really great launch. We had been sort of testing the market for a few months and in May this year, we made the decision to go in. So those are two key updates from our end.

Rio: Aside from that as well, we’ve expanded our telehealth service offerings. So not only are we having more doctors and more appointments on the platform, we’ve also expanded into doctor chats on the Ease app, which means that people can now access care on-the-go through a very convenient channel. At the same time, Ease is working on a B2B2E service offering in order to bring our ecosystem and its benefits to employees through various work programs.

“At the beginning, we were very much providing services and community spaces, but this year we actually launched our own product line of intimate health products as well as urinary tract health products… So far we have been offering our services and products in Singapore, but we just launched in the Philippines and it was a really great launch…we’ve expanded our telehealth service offerings…Ease is working on a B2B2E service offering…”

Rolling out Private Label Products and their Role in Ease’s Business

Paulo: So just to recap, you guys now have private label products, you expanded to the Philippines, which as a Filipino, sounds very exciting. You guys have also built new features on the app, which guys launched last year and then you’re also exploring more of the employee side of things as well, which actually runs quite similar to one of the other startups that we’ve spoken to on this podcast, Intellect, which has also branched out their mental health platform into employees and enterprise as well. 

So we’ll talk about all these things, but let’s start first with the private label products. You mentioned different bundles that you guys have launched. What was the thinking behind starting out these products and in particular the kinds of bundles that you guys have put together? 

Guada: So we wanted to [be more proactive], aside from providing services that target different women’s health issues, which are a little bit more reactive. So for instance, when women have a specific symptom, they will come to us and we will help them with medication. But we wanted to create products that actually prevent a lot of these issues that we deal with.

So the process to develop these products is actually quite data-driven. We collect and analyze a lot of data submitted by our users on symptoms that they experience on the Ease app. We also do a lot of community research. We test product ideas through our community. We put out social media posts just sharing what we’re thinking of and trying to get a sense of [if] this would be something that our community would be interested in.

And lastly, we do a lot of product sampling as well. So once we have a few ideas for products, we actually sample the products with our beta testing community. So we send out products [and] we ask for their honest feedback. And from there that’s kind of the approach for the idea and the approach for developing our product line.

“We wanted to [be more proactive], aside from providing services that target different women’s health issues, which are a little bit more reactive…the process to develop these products is actually quite data-driven…we test product ideas through our community…we do a lot of product sampling as well.”

Paulo: You talked about building upon the data from the interactions on the app. So maybe you can share a little bit more about how the bundles — urinary tract essential bundle and also the intimate care essential bundle — how those build on what’s available on the Ease app right now.

Rio: So a lot of our product development actually ties into our existing services and what’s happening in the Ease app. So for example, our urinary tract health line was inspired by the amount of activity we saw on the app, in the symptoms logging feature, as well as the amount of service requests that we see from our consumers for urinary tract health. 

For example, our urinary tract consultations actually grew a lot in demand over the last few months, which is why we noticed that this is a particular pain point and we wanted to be involved in a preventive part of the process as well, and therefore launched our urinary tract health products.

Paulo: Do you also see it going the other way as well? Because I know they go into the app, then they find out about the products based on the symptoms that they have. Does it also perhaps work in the other direction where they find out about the products and then learn about the app as well?

Rio: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s really wonderful how it works both ways, whether or not someone has an existing issue. And they learn about the preventive products we have or they discover our preventive line and then learn about our other services as well, and know that they could turn to us in the future if they need help.

“For example, our urinary tract consultations actually grew a lot in demand over the last few months, which is why we noticed that this is a particular pain point and we wanted to be involved in a preventive part of the process as well, and therefore launched our urinary tract health products.”

Paulo: And just to run out a discussion on the private label products, how do you see this particular segment of your product line or your business planning out in the future with regards to how it, will drive growth for.

Rio: Absolutely. I think it’s going to be an increasingly larger part of the Ease ecosystem as we start to cover more categories of healthcare and more categories of preventive health. At the same time, we also see this as quite an important aspect of our reach as we go into different markets. We see ourselves not just expanding across the region on our telehealth side, but also in the product offering in order to help women all across Asia and beyond.

“[Private label products are] going to be an increasingly larger part of the Ease ecosystem as we start to cover more categories of healthcare and more categories of preventive health…we also see this as quite an important aspect of our reach as we go into different markets.”

Expanding into the Philippines

Paulo: Definitely excited to see what other products you guys are going to be releasing in the next few months and year as well. But moving on to the other — just going down to the checklist, right? So after private label products, you guys have also expanded into the Philippines as well. There are many markets in Southeast Asia and I’m sure they share a lot of the different pain points that you guys first observed in Singapore, but why the Philippines in particular that you guys decide to expand to?

Guada: So we had done actually a lot of research in terms of the Philippines as a market. We saw a lot of potential based on market size, customer sentiment, and sensitive healthcare services, especially sexual and reproductive health. 

We also knew certain things about the market such as the fact that they need a prescription for birth control and the fact that most women actually use modern contraceptive methods such as the pill, which is our main product. We were quite confident that from a research perspective, it was the right market for us to go into, which is why we went into the second phase of our international expansion strategy, which is to test the market.

And the test that we carried out was actually social media seeding in which we essentially create content that might be relatable to local audiences and find out how people react to the content. And we actually went really viral on our TikTok. We gained over 200,000 followers pretty much overnight.

And that led to us opening a waiting list which also ended up getting about 5,000 sign-ups. And it kind of told us that people were not just interested in these products and services, but they were ready to purchase from us. So that gave us a pretty good sense that the Philippines was our next market to go to.

“The test that we carried out was actually social media seeding…we actually went really viral on our TikTok. We gained over 200,000 followers pretty much overnight. And that led to us opening a waiting list which also ended up getting about 5,000 sign ups. And it kind of told us that people were not just interested in these products and services, but they were ready to purchase from us.”

Paulo: That reminds me of a strategy that we’re seeing with a lot of verticalized commerce platforms which is to really put out content first to really build that trust and, and brand before actually selling anything. and that’s what you guys did. and after a few months of doing that you officially launched your app and all the other services that you offer.

So compared to how you guys started Ease in Singapore, what are some of the biggest differences that you’ve noticed between Singapore and the Philippines in terms of how you’ve built up the brand and community in these two markets?

Guada: So the biggest difference I think that we observed is that the Philippines is a market that requires more trust building, and more brand awareness. We had to do a lot of educational support in order for the market to kind of be ready to make a decision on the products that we offer. So we worked through these challenges by partnering with local governmental organizations to increase trust and legitimacy.

So we actually launched indeed our press release with the Population Commission of the Philippines, which actually helped a lot in building trust around the brand. And the second thing that we did to tackle this was to create a lot of content on social media that was educational, that was easily accessible, that was very local, in order to reach more people and educate them on women’s health topics.

Paulo: I think emphasis really on building a local distribution in terms of the community and the different organizations that you were in touch with. You guys now also have a Philippine team, is that correct? Or is it still mostly in Singapore or…?

Guada: So we do have a team that’s leading the start of the market.

“The biggest difference I think that we observed is that the Philippines is a market that requires more trust building, and more brand awareness. We had to do a lot of educational support in order for the market to kind of be ready to make a decision on the products that we offer.”

Paulo: And so now that you’ve made headway into the Philippines and excited to see how that pans out in the next few months as well, what does this particular expansion mean for overall Ease’s growth and product development, and maybe even future, expansion into other markets?

Rio: The Philippine market is gonna definitely play a huge part. It’s really the market in which we are building our playbook, and that playbook is gonna be extremely crucial for growth because it gives us the tools and the strategies that we need to expand to our other target markets. 

“[The Philippines is] really the market in which we are building our playbook, and that playbook is gonna be extremely crucial for growth…”

Evolving App Experience, Driving Adoption through Enterprise, and the Reality of Women’s Health Issues

Paulo: Definitely I think in a future call that we’ll have, maybe we can do a little bit of a retrospective on some of the learnings that you guys have on the Philippines in terms of how you’ve expanded. 

But I’d like to move on to the third point in the checklist of things that have happened with Ease over the past year. And that’s how the app has evolved. You guys can share how the experience now for users has evolved in the Ease app.

Rio: It has been quite a big shift since our last chat last year, because the Ease app has really transformed the Ease experience for all our users. It allows everything to be in one place where [users] can easily access telehealth services, preventive products, chats with doctors, community as well as educational content in order to ensure that they get a well-rounded, supported healthcare experience. And we find it to be extremely helpful in order to give people the tools to take control of their health all in one place.

“[The Ease app] allows everything to be in one place where [users] can easily access telehealth services, preventive products, chats with doctors, community as well as educational content in order to ensure that they get an well-rounded, supported healthcare experience.” 

Paulo: And you mentioned it’s just really adding on the right tools that they need and allowing them to access all of them at scale. For example, doctor chats and telehealth and things like that. So really a super app for everything women’s health.

And the last thing on the checklist that you guys mentioned earlier at the start was expanding into B2B2E or reaching out to customers through businesses, through enterprise, specifically to employees. So how are you approaching that, especially considering the nature of the services that you guys have at Ease Healthcare?

Rio: This has always been a very big, gap in the market, a big problem that we wanted to approach because the truth is that women experience very complex health journeys, ranging from pregnancy, fertility and menopause. And there is a lot that we can do to support them and there are a lot of employers can do in order to provide them with the tools, support network and access to services.

They can go a really long way in making them feel more supported, more engaged and lead healthier and better lives. And we want to be part of that. We want to be part of that service provision to leverage our ecosystem that were built through our B2C business, in order to deliver this service as well.

“There are a lot of employers can do in order to provide women with the tools, support network, and access to services. They can go a really long way in making them feel more supported, and more engaged, and lead healthier and better lives. And we want to be part of that.” 

Paulo: How do you see the current, obviously it might be different from market to market, but in the markets where you guys are now, how do you see the enterprise view or the company view on providing these types of healthcare services, for the women working in their companies?

Rio: I think it’s actually it is not gonna be much of a variance between markets because the challenges that women face are challenges are quite universal in many ways, things like fertility, pregnancy, and menopause, these are things that women all across the world face. These are challenges that they also face in accessing services that cater to these health categories. And therefore we see ourselves as being in a very strong position to cater to these needs, not just in Singapore, but beyond the region as well.

“…the challenges that women face are challenges are quite universal in many ways, things like fertility, pregnancy, and menopause…we see ourselves as being in a very strong position to cater these needs, not just in Singapore, but beyond the region as well.”

Paulo: So I think it would be really exciting to see maybe some people actually wanting to join a company because they offer services from Ease Healthcare, and they know that they’ll be taken care of by the company. So excited for you guys to eventually roll that out.

And one thing that our listeners always love to hear on our podcast are stories of customers and how their lives have been changed by the products that are being built. So maybe from your end, having already run Ease Healthcare for the past two years, what are some of the most impactful stories that you’ve heard either from Singapore or even now in the Philippines?

Guada: So a lot of the stories that we hear actually [come from] the community section of our app, as well as some community questions that we run on the weekends on Instagram. And some of the most impactful stories that I’ve heard are women going down to a doctor, who actually only provides contraceptive to married women, and having to explain themselves and their relationship situation with a doctor who’s not as sensitive towards their needs.

I’ve also heard stories of people judging their sexual history, how many partners they’ve had when they go down for a STI test, for instance, or girls struggling to cover their sexual reproductive health needs because insurance plans don’t cover them. So it’s usually out of pocket or for instance, they avoid going for tests like pap smears, just because they cannot afford it. So they only wait until symptoms arise.

So I think those are stories that we hear on a monthly basis. I think it reminds us of the importance of a platform like Ease that really transforms the access that these women have to these healthcare services.

“…a lot of the stories that we hear actually [come from] the community section of our app, as well as some community questions that we run on the weekends on Instagram…it reminds us of the importance of a platform like Ease that really transforms the access that these women have to these healthcare services.”

Developing Ease Healthcare’s Leadership and Future Impact

Paulo: And now with Ease, they’re able to access all these different products and services, importantly, judgment free, and then also on their own terms, so to speak. And we talk about all these services and products matter of factly, but for many customers, these are really very real challenges that they face on a day to day basis, at least before they find out about Ease Healthcare.

And you’ve been building the company for more than two years now. I still remember I made a post on your two year anniversary and thanks for the sending the gift and the card to the Insignia office. So really privileged to have been partnered with you guys. How has building Ease impacted you both as leaders and in your own personal lives, how has it changed maybe even your own worldview?

Guada: I think these two years have been huge personal and professional growth for myself. A startup changes all the time and pivots are very common. So it has helped me learn a lot about change and how to deal with making decisions in those difficult times and just adapting to new opportunities and kind of growing from there. It has been really a great experience, and it has given me a lot of tools that we’ll continue to use to grow the business.

Rio: I think for me one big highlight is the amount of resilience I think that it has given me because startups are always changing. They are always full of surprises and there are always ups and downs, but I think it’s having gone through all of these throughout our Ease journey that has really allowed me to become much more adaptable to challenges, adaptable to change, and more importantly, always looking forward towards our goal and staying resilient, staying confident, staying strong, regardless of all the ups and downs along the way.

“These two years have been huge personal and professional growth for myself…So it has helped me learn a lot about change and how to deal with making decisions in those difficult times, and just adapting to new opportunities and kind of growing from there.”

Paulo: How do you see Ease, as the company’s growing, obviously you guys are leading it, but at the same time, as you go into more markets, more business lines you’ll need more leaders to actually take the helm for some of these things within the company. What do you see being your approach to actually bringing in more leaders within Ease Healthcare as an organization?

Rio: Ultimately people want to be part of Ease because of what we’re building here in terms of our ecosystem and the mission that we have, and the pain points that we’re trying to solve. That’s going to be a big part in terms of, where we come from because of what’s gonna attract people to want to be a part of Ease, and lead the charge towards our mission.

“Ultimately people want to be part of Ease because of what we’re building here in terms of our ecosystem and the mission that we have, and the pain point that we’re trying to solve.”

Paulo: And zooming out now towards really the femtech and the femhealth market, and obviously if there are any folks who are founders or investors who are listening to the call, they’re probably also wondering what’s gonna happen with the sector, as obviously, tech markets are under a lot of strain in terms of capital and things like that. How do you see the femtech sector panning out within the region, and Ease’s role, within it over the next few years?

Rio: The femtech market is certainly going to continue growing, and it has been relatively less affected by the current market conditions, mainly because it has been a rather, more slowly, steadily growing industry over the past say five years as compared to some other industries. Furthermore, these problems it’s trying to solve are problems that are relatively fundamental, relatively complex, and as a result, once it makes this breakthrough, we do expect to see very, very significant growth in the market and much, much more attention towards it.

“The femtech market…has been relatively less affected by the current market conditions, mainly because it has been a rather, more slowly, steadily growing industry over the past say five years as compared to some other industries. Furthermore, these problems it’s trying to solve are problems which are relatively fundamental, relatively complex…”

Rapid Fire Round

Biggest un-learning from being a founder? 

Guada: For myself, it has been that crazy viral growth happens from one day to the other. I think scaling and exponential growth takes a lot of foundational pieces to be put together. That’s something that we’ve been working on very sustainably at Ease.

Rio: I think for me, it’s about unlearning planning too much. Planning’s important, but at the same time being a founder has really made me learn that one has to be really adaptable to change. So as a result, it’s a little bit about tweaking those habits and always being nimble and ready to change your mind, change your worldview, and pivot in order to overcome challenges and continue to grow.

What digital technology/innovation excites you the most today? (apart from your work at Ease Healthcare)

Guada: I’m super excited about drones. I think they will improve the delivery of services and goods tremendously. And I think it will create a great impact, especially in our industry in healthcare help grow access to basic healthcare, services and products. So I’m super excited about where that’s going.

Rio: For me, the metaverse is something that has been on my mind for a very long time. And I’m really excited about what it holds for the future, the way we connect with each other, the way we consume and experience the world. And it marks almost a necessary and inevitable point of our advancement in technology to experience the world in this very, very different and very new way.

What podcast / book / resource would you recommend for people to learn more about femtech / femhealth? 

Guada: Rio and I both read the FemTech Insider’s newsletter quite often and inside is really great research just for FemTech news, to kind of know what’s up and coming in the space. So I would say we both like the writing [there].

How far away would you say is your current work at Ease different from your childhood dream?

Guada: I always dreamt of being an entrepreneur. From a very young age, I was selling jewelry to my friends. So I think that’s always been me and making an impact in women’s rights was also very important for me as a teenager. So I would say that I’m actually pretty, pretty close. I manage to merge both my passions.

Rio: Well, for me, entrepreneurship actually wasn’t something I thought about a lot as a child. but I did always want to do something in my life that had a great impact that actually makes a positive change to people and people’s experiences. And I guess I could say that it ended up being that way with entrepreneurship and with Ease because what we’re doing right now does impact people’s lives, and we have made a positive change to the way healthcare is accessed. 

What’s your favorite go-to destination in Southeast Asia? / What trip are you most looking forward to taking in the region? 

Rio: For both of us, I think our top choice has always been Vietnam. We’ve gone quite a couple of times. We have colleagues there, and it’s always been a nice place for us to get away, when it comes to the nature, when it comes to the people, the food, the experiences. And I guess also for us, it’s also a nice, not too far away and yet far away enough place such that it’s a nice experience. We like Hanoi a lot, especially. 

Bonus

Paulo: Maybe you guys can share, how you met Insignia and what has been the biggest impact the partnership has had on Ease, and how you guys have been working as founders.

Rio: For us, we were quite fortunate to get connected to Insignia on two levels, actually. I think Linh who was working at Insignia at the time, reached out to Guada at the same time as Yinglan reached out to me, without each other knowing, and so I think it was a good sign, and then they both realized that they did the same thing.

Then we had a chat and we initially had a meeting at your offices, followed by a further meeting at IC, and then, of course, they shared their offer with us and it has been a really positive experience so far. I think we’re really, really glad. At that point in time, we were speaking to a number of investors and we’re really glad that we chose Insignia because it’s been such a wonderful and supportive experience so far.

I think one of the key things is that you and the Insignia team have been extremely helpful in helping us, especially because we’re first-time founders. So I think there’s always this support network when it comes to, for example, with the tech team, for example, with HR, and of course Paulo yourself as well. You helped us as well with a couple of things and it’s exactly that kind of support and networks that we really appreciate from Insignia.

Guada: I think for myself, I really appreciate the availability of the whole team. I think whenever we wanna catch up with Yinglan to brainstorm or portfolio managers to just share updates with them and kind of get their feedback on projects that we’re thinking of or if we need PR help or tech help — they’ve always been there for us. and I think that availability and that support is really valuable.