Women’s body endures many changes on different levels due to the impact of menstruation. This menstrual cycle states a lot about a women’s health condition on physical as well as mental level. Periods between puberty and menopause outline the good condition of the body. Similarly, having an irregularity or painful period shows the sign of a serious health problem. Ignoring these signs can lead to major health problems, including pregnancy problems. Bearing in mind these women’s problems, and to alleviate the pain and suffering Mrs. Lea von Bidder, the Co-founder and President of Ava Science, Ltd. is delivering significant solutions through her company towards women’s health safety.
An Admired Personality
Lea has earned a master’s degree in global entrepreneurship from EM Lyon in France, Zhejiang University in China and Purdue Krannert University in the US. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of St. Gallen and at HEC Montreal in Canada. During her studies, Lea worked in the Marketing Department of Procter & Gamble in Frankfurt and for a strategy consulting firm in Paris. Lea was also a co-founder of L’Inouï, a company that produces and distributes high-quality chocolate in Bangalore, India. Ava was founded in 2014 by Pascal Koenig, Philipp Tholen, Peter Stein, and Lea von Bidder after Lea’s return to Switzerland. The company specializes in new developments in the field of medical technology related to reproductive health.
Ava was voted as startup of the year in Switzerland in both 2017 and 2018 and won the Swiss Medtech Award in 2018. The Ava bracelet is the firm’s first product for the consumer market and uses state-of-the-art sensor technology together with clinically proven methods to pinpoint a woman’s fertile days in real time. The Ava bracelet has won several international awards such as “The Bump Best of Baby Tech CES 2017” award in the fertility and pregnancy category and the “Editor’s Choice” Award from Women’s Health magazine. Lea was awarded Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018 and will become the CEO of Ava in January 2020.
Emphasizing on the Importance of Decision
Decision making is the most essential trait which is critical skill for effective management and leadership. Indecision is a downfall for a person who wants to become a leader. Lea strongly believes that speed in execution is a critical success factor in fast-changing times and in order to bring true speed to an organization, decisions are needed to be taken non-centrally. And only leaders that communicate a clear vision and mission will be able to trust those decisions and get success.
A Visionary Approach
Ava has the vision from very beginning of what AvaScience will be one day. Lea believes that the company, the team and the organization will develop together and an inspiring company’s vision and mission is to solve a problem. She also firmly believes in “hiring smart people, people that are smarter than you.”
The tracking of a woman’s cycle, fertility, and pregnancy is just the start of many exciting possibilities. In Ava science, Ava intends to further develop its technology, so that the Ava bracelet can also be used in the future to detect pregnancy complications and be used as a hormone-free method of contraception. Lea is conducting several ongoing clinical trials to these ends. With the Ava bracelet, the company is adding quality in women’s health effortlessly. The bracelet is designed with comprehensive technology which has many features such as
- It tracks sleep, physiological stress levels, and resting heart rate—so woman can see whether her lifestyle is supporting optimal health.
- The device helps to understand how the cycle impacts the health with features like symptom tracking, trend analysis, graphs, and more. Trend analysis shows how the menstrual cycle impacts the way someone feels throughout the month.
- Ava bracelet is clinically proven to detect the very beginning of the fertile window—in real time, as it happens. That’s totally different than LH tests, which only detect the last day or two of the fertile window, and the temperature method, which only confirms ovulation after the fact.
- After getting pregnant, one can get a whole new app experience with detailed explanations about what to expect in each week of pregnancy.
- During pregnancy the device will continue track sleep, physiological stress, and resting pulse rate, as well as compare weekly weight gain to standard recommendations.
Encouraging Emerging Women Leaders
Being a businessperson, Lea advises emerging women leaders that, “Find your tribe – It’s easier to not do this alone. It’s so important to do something you have a strong connection to and that really gives you fulfillment, because founding a startup comes at a price.” She believes that for empowering women for leadership position it is necessary to reduce gender bias. There are perceptions which should be changed such as women who bring their kids to work couldn’t find a babysitter; whereas men who bring their kids to work are adorable, and when kids grow up boys are good at math, girls good at languages. To encourage women it will be more effective if there are more female role models and mentors in workplace.
