Hilla Hascalovici, the founder of Period Ally, joins the Chad and Cheese podcast to discuss how her company helps companies support their menstruating employees. Period Ally offers high-quality products, pain management, menstrual leave and rest policies, training, events, and more. Julie Sowash takes over for Chad, as it's smarter to have smarts over snark on this episode. Hascalovici plans to raise money in the future and expand globally. The podcast hosts commend her for addressing an important issue and see potential for success in the market.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION (Blame AI for erros)
Joel Cheesman (00:22.493)
All right, all right, all right. What's up, boys and girls? It is your favorite guilty pleasure, AKA the Chad and Cheese podcast. This is Firing Squad. I'm your cohost, Joel Cheeseman, joined as always by Chad Sowash and special guest, Mrs. Julie Sowash is in the house as we welcome Hilla Haskolovici, the founder of Period Ally to the podcast. Hilla, welcome to HR's most dangerous podcast.
Chad Sowash (00:34.524)
Hello. What?
Hilla Hascalovici (00:51.96)
Thank you so much for having
Joel Cheesman (00:55.617)
Very, very welcome. Well, before we get to the nitty gritty of the show, let's hear a little bit about you. Let's get a Twitter bio about what makes HeLa
Chad Sowash (01:06.288)
Long walks on the pier, whatever.
Joel Cheesman (01:09.153)
You're a New Yorker, so I'm expecting a lot of interesting things that you do in your personal
Hilla Hascalovici (01:12.59)
Yeah. Well, I'm actually, my name's Hilla. I was actually raised in California. So I'm a California girl, but I, in my heart, I've always been a New Yorker. So I've spent almost 10 years in New York city. My favorite things are looking around the food scene here. I think we have the best restaurants in the world. And a fun fact is I like whole milk in my
Chad Sowash (01:34.524)
What? Yeah, that is definitely not California. That is definitely not New York City. That is Midwestern. You might be an Indianapolis girl. You just don't know it, Hilla. You just don't know.
Hilla Hascalovici (01:40.663)
Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (01:45.559)
Well, she loves it with some avocado toast. So she does throw some California in there. Now, before we get to the bell, our listeners are going to be unexpectedly entertained and enlightened by Julie Sowash, who was on the podcast. Now, why is Julie on the show in addition to Chad? Well, Period Ally is a focused, targeted product to the female consumer, if I will. And we thought that Julie's take in questioning
Hilla Hascalovici (01:45.632)
I guess I have to come by and visit.
Chad Sowash (02:00.765)
Yes.
Joel Cheesman (02:15.265)
would be much more insightful than say my questions as a middle -aged white guy. So I think the listeners will appreciate Julie and lot less Chad on this show, but I wanted to point that out. So Chad, before you leave us, why don't you tell Hilla what she's won
Chad Sowash (02:17.574)
Much better than mine.
Chad Sowash (02:33.512)
Oh, I get to do this part? Okay, great. Okay, here we go. Well, Hilla, welcome to Firing Squad. This is how it's gonna go. At the sound of the bell. There it is. You're gonna have two minutes to pitch, period ally. At the end of two minutes, we're gonna hit you with about 20 minutes of Q &A. Be sure to be concise, or you're gonna get hit by the crickets. That just means to tighten up your game. At the end of Q &A, you're gonna receive either a big applause. Hilla.
Joel Cheesman (02:35.062)
You do.
Chad Sowash (03:03.398)
This product is needed period. No, mean full stop. Golf clap.
It's warm, but it's not hot. You're going to need several allies to make this one work. And last but not least, the firing squad. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 period full stop. Go back to the drawing board. This is it. That's firing squad. Hilla. Are you
Hilla Hascalovici (03:31.147)
I'm ready.
Joel Cheesman (03:31.989)
All right, Hilla, your two minutes starts in three, two.
Hilla Hascalovici (03:38.126)
So Period Ally helps companies support their menstruating employees. We do this by helping them offer really high quality products, which includes pain management, helping companies implement menstrual leave and rest policies, and helping companies offer things like training, events, signage, and more. Why do we think this is important? Because almost 90 % of people who menstruate feel anxiety around their period at work, and 80 % feel less productive. And we know the problem is only getting more important.
56 % of college and graduate students are women. And in a recent study, almost half of women that were Gen Z and millennials said that they would leave their job for one that better supported their period. We're well aware that menstrual support at work is in its infancy and Period Ally is here to lead and shape the way that it goes.
Hilla Hascalovici (04:40.184)
Did I cut out in the middle there?
Joel Cheesman (04:43.245)
You froze up. pick up where you thought you left off.
Hilla Hascalovici (04:45.486)
no.
Can I just start from the beginning? Is that okay?
Joel Cheesman (04:50.343)
If you want to I'll ring the bell again. I mean, it's not going to guarantee that you won't freeze up again She froze it for you, right Julie Okay, but in that internet in New York is having some issues. All right We're gonna ring the bell again in your two minutes. We'll start
Hilla Hascalovici (04:52.571)
Okay. Perfect.
Julie Sowash (04:59.036)
Yeah.
Hilla Hascalovici (05:03.616)
Yeah, always. Perfect, I'm sorry about
Period Ally helps companies support their menstruating employees. We do this by helping them offer high quality products, like including pain management, helping companies implement menstrual leave and rest policies, and helping them offer things like trainings, signage, events, and more. Why do we think this is important? Because almost 90 % of people who menstruate feel anxiety around their period at work, and 80 % feel less productive. And we know the problem's only getting more important. 56 %
college and graduate students are women. And in a recent study, almost half of Gen Z and millennial women said that they would leave their job today for one that better supported their period. Period Ally is well aware that menstruation support at work is in its infancy, and we're here to guide and shape it into the future.
Joel Cheesman (06:00.507)
Fair enough. was tight. That was tight, Hilla. I appreciate that. So I always ask about the name and I'm going to be maybe a little bit mean here. I thought it was Periodally. It's Periodally. All you'd have to do is capitalize the A to kind of end that confusion. So I would certainly do that, but it auto -corrects to periodically. Also, you don't own the Periodally .com domain.
Hilla Hascalovici (06:04.058)
Thank you.
Hilla Hascalovici (06:13.314)
That's okay. Yeah.
Joel Cheesman (06:29.493)
It seems like that would be an easy one that you could get. And maybe that was part of the reason that to do that instead it's my period ally .com. So talk about the convince me that the name is awesome and I'm just missing
Hilla Hascalovici (06:30.254)
That's
Hilla Hascalovici (06:42.486)
I think that it's fun that it doesn't have the capital letter because people have to pronounce it about three times before they get it correct, which means that it stays in their brain for longer. Right? If you said pure Dalai the first time, the next time you said it, you'd be like, what was that girl's company's name again? But you said it three or four times to get it right. So it sticks forever. I'm well aware that our SEO needs to be better. We are mostly focused on B2B sales. And so right now all of our customer leads get our website directly. As we look into the future, we will make something that either has
better SEO or get a new domain name.
Joel Cheesman (07:14.125)
Okay. And then having period in the name, does that, do you feel like that restricts you from doing other healthcare initiatives for women? Does it kind of pigeonhole you in something? did you, you okay with
Hilla Hascalovici (07:26.678)
Yeah, so I think that as we look forward into the future, there's certainly room for partnerships or possible, you know, us providing other kinds of support for women in the workforce and healthcare in the workforce. I think that as that happens, we'll get DDAs. And I think that that will be a really great problem for us to have in the
Joel Cheesman (07:42.891)
Okay. And you're, you're a brand new company still in diapers, if you will. you haven't raised money. looks like you're bootstrapping this thing. are you, is your, you, independently wealthy somehow? Like talk about the money. Are you going to raise a seed round at some point? Like what's going
Hilla Hascalovici (08:02.656)
Yeah. So I spent about six years working on Wall Street and this was really my, would you do if money didn't matter, you know, answer for years. And so one year ago, I kind of felt like, okay, I needed to pull the trigger. I needed to do it. I have been personally bootstrapping this from, you know, my past work experience. We will certainly be raising money in the future. I really want, because we're not building a better mouse trap, because what we're doing is so new. I really wanted to
you know, a better grip on the industry and understand what our actual offerings were before we get there. And I think we're really there. So we will probably be raising money either later this year or early next
Julie Sowash (08:40.668)
Okay, so first I want to say congratulations for being brave enough and commend you. have so many challenges to get female founders out and talking about the work that we're doing so young in your journey on Period Ally. So this is maybe the first, but hopefully not the last of many, conversations that you have like this. I think my question really goes to kind
Hilla Hascalovici (08:45.26)
Thank
Julie Sowash (09:06.322)
who is the target market and a little bit more about your business model in terms of, know, product solutions. I see consulting on the site. I see healthcare on the site. And it drilled down for me really what those ratios look like and who really you're going after for purchase.
Hilla Hascalovici (09:23.436)
Yeah, so we're really focused on in -office companies. So as we kind of see the shift from work from home back to the push to being in office, we think that companies really have to focus on that experience. So whether that's products like pads and tampons, or whether that's pain management in the office, things like signage and understanding that period sick time is sick time just like having the flu. That's really what we focus on. So one thing that we do,
is we create heating patches, are like disposable, discreet. They're the same technology as hot hands, if you've ever used it for skiing, but it's adhesive and it's sized for a period. So you put it over your underwear, it goes under your clothes and it lasts all day so that you don't have the thing where you have to plug a heating pad into the wall. Now everyone knows that you're not feeling well. We also help companies do things like if they're willing to offer menstrual leave and rest, that's amazing. But if not, you
offer things like unlimited sick time, make it really explicit that people are able to take that time off for period related symptoms. And then just, you know, the kind of more, I don't feel like fun things, training, events, signage, just, you know, getting rid of the taboo around periods at
Julie Sowash (10:36.592)
And so who are you selling to? it SMB? Is it enterprise? Kind of give me that kind of target.
Hilla Hascalovici (10:43.47)
Yeah, so our target market is companies with over 100 employees in office.
Julie Sowash (10:49.544)
Okay, and so of those ratio, how big are the big ones and how small are the small ones? And the reason I ask is just if I'm thinking about leave policy, does a smaller company have the ability to have that kind of a leave policy versus a big fortune 1000?
Hilla Hascalovici (11:10.55)
Yeah, that's such a good question. I think a lot of companies are already offering things like unlimited sick time. And so helping them implement things that just make it really explicit in the policies as opposed to a new policy where they're offering, you know, an extra X number of sick days. But right now what we're really focused is like the in -office experience that where we started. So the main thing that we're working on right now is making sure that people have access to actual physical products in the office.
And that I would say is really, you know, the kind of small companies and big companies have budget because it is so cheap and the ROI on it is so high.
Julie Sowash (11:45.256)
So what do sales look like now? What's ARR, MRR, where are you guys at?
Hilla Hascalovici (11:50.38)
Yeah, so our sales are still somewhat small. launched our product in May, but we have seen, you know, in the last few months, couple months, like five X growth month over
Julie Sowash (12:02.12)
Great. Thanks.
Joel Cheesman (12:03.623)
Here's dumb guy question alert.
Hilla Hascalovici (12:08.588)
hahaha
Joel Cheesman (12:11.171)
How does this work today? Is there stuff in the bathrooms today? What kind of stuff is in the bathrooms? Walk me through a corporate bathroom environment as a
Hilla Hascalovici (12:22.904)
Yeah, sure. So some companies will have nothing. Some companies will have these kind of like really antiquated pads and tampons in these old dispensers from the 80s. Like no one wants to use them and studies that came out just a couple weeks ago show that they actually have things like lead and arsenic in them. And then some forward thinking companies are offering organic pads and tampons. There's another company that works in the workforce employer space that does a really good job of offering
organic pads in tampons. you whether they have those things in office, it's kind of, I would say like, depending on the employer, but very few employers, if not none, offer things like heating pads, over the counter pain medication. And that's really why we're focused there. Because if you think about it, it's so cheap to offer. And if you can get even, you know, like another half an hour of productivity out of it, the ROI on it is so huge. Other than the fact that it's just the right thing to do.
Joel Cheesman (12:59.277)
Mm -hmm.
Joel Cheesman (13:19.213)
First of all, bad mouthing the eighties will not score you any points on this show. Just FYI. the second thing is do, do women have brands that they prefer? So even if they see something like your product, they're like, you know what? I have my stuff. That's what I like. Or is this something that they, they really want an option or is it like, shit, I forgot my tampons today. I just gotta have something like talk. I feel like it's a personal product that I
Hilla Hascalovici (13:23.222)
I'm
Joel Cheesman (13:49.143)
brands that maybe I enjoy or I prefer like, I wrong there or
Hilla Hascalovici (13:53.934)
You're completely correct, but the vast majority of women have found themselves in a position where they start their period and it's unexpected. I know that it sounds silly, but it can start, you know, it's not really every 28 days, it's starting 23 days, start 32 days. And so you often see in those situations, like someone in the bathroom or someone talking to the female employee, like, have a tampon? Do have a pad? And that's really what having it in the bathroom is for. So people don't have to leave in the middle of the day to get one, right? They'll use one that isn't their preference that day, and then they'll pack a different one for
Joel Cheesman (14:23.905)
And is it safe to assume that like heating pads are not a common option? Like here's some tampons, like fix it and like go on with your life. So heating pads are definitely unique. Now you talked about, competition and this, this was sort of a really new thing, but me as one who did my homework, going to Amazon. Okay. Let me get the numbers on this correctly. So I can get, a bulk order of tampons.
even the organic ones are the fancy ones. I guess pretty cheaply. I can also get a 24 pack of heating pads for $32. And it looks like yours is six for 60. Am I right there six like $10 a pad or $10 a box of six.
Hilla Hascalovici (15:10.286)
No, those are six boxes, so it's 30 patches for 60, but our wholesale pricing that goes directly to employers is different.
Joel Cheesman (15:15.043)
So 30.
Okay. So my fear would be like, maybe someone HR goes to the budget people and says, Hey, we need this. And they go, yeah, go to Amazon and buy a bulk order and we're done. Why are we messing around with this other product? Like to me, that would be your ultimate competition. Tell me how you're going to cut through the clutter and be the choice that companies make.
Hilla Hascalovici (15:29.901)
Yeah.
Hilla Hascalovici (15:40.672)
Yeah, so I think that that's a really good point. But one of the things we do is we wholesale, you know, we bundle for them and we do things like subscriptions and make it for their bathroom. we really, and I would say like the main thing there is the wholesale pricing, right? I can't remember exactly what the pricing that you mentioned was, but our wholesale pricing is quite a bit cheaper than that. And it'll, you we can do subscriptions and we can make it specific for their bathroom.
But yeah, mean Amazon is a huge competitor for any office supply space. It's
Julie Sowash (16:17.586)
So let's just talk about distribution model. So I think back into the days where I went into the office, which was a hot minute ago, and these same things happened to me, absolutely. And available, not available, there was always a different situation. But when it was available, it was because a nice, thoughtful HR lady said, hey.
We have a lot of women who work in this office who have periods and they put out products or they made them available to us, that kind of thing, just from a product perspective. If you sell to a company that has multiple offices, sort of what's the distribution model in terms of how do I make sure every one of my locations is providing the service and providing the product out that you are selling them?
Hilla Hascalovici (17:03.714)
That's a really good question. So there is situations where we talk to, you know, the head of a certain office and we'll just sell to that office. And we ask them, like, do you have connections to the person who makes the buying decisions, you know, in all of the United States? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. So there are certainly situations where we're just providing for one region of a company that has multiple. And we hope to expand that, but that happens over time, I would say.
Julie Sowash (17:28.696)
And one of my big concerns about anything related to reproductive, having the autonomy to do that and just data protection is if I use the service as an employee.
how is my data collected and then how is it protected if at all? And I would say like, you know, maybe that goes a little bit more into your consulting, but that's the first thing that kind of jumps out at me when we think about these kinds of solutions.
Hilla Hascalovici (17:59.682)
Yeah, so that's a really good question. And that was actually my top concern also. It was, you know, we don't want to do something that's well -meaning and have it, you know, increase discrimination against women, know, to say like the road to hell, right? And so one of the things we do is none of our products right now will capture any data. And we are really explicit with companies that if you're offering men's relief and rest, when people are, you know, logging that in, make sure that they're logging in at sick time. that when...
you the person goes into the employer, goes, you don't know if you have the flu or a stomach bug or anything else. You know, the products, obviously they're not collecting data as to who's using them. They can't, it's in the bathroom. And then when we do things like trainings, events, and so on, we're really specific that this should be offered to everyone, not just people who menstruate. So, you know, that's like how to make the workforce a better place for people who menstruate. That's inclusive of people who do and people who don't. It's really education of everyone.
Julie Sowash (18:54.29)
So I think that's a really good point. And so I just want to kind of clarify that you're not suggesting that there's a public menstruation policy, menstrual leave policy that you're training managers and leaders to say, you have sick time, you have leave time, you have vacation time. It's yours to use as you please. And you don't need that documentation to say, hey, this is why I'm using a sick day boss.
Hilla Hascalovici (19:21.44)
Exactly. And one thing I do want to mention is there are some countries that have men's relief and rest policy is, and as we were not currently operating there, but we are thinking about expanding into let's say Spain. And as we think about it, they have specific laws that actually do require people to say why they're taking time off. So we're thinking about ways to anonymize that to their manager to make sure that they're not discriminated against in their workplace.
Julie Sowash (19:47.558)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that is, you know, how do we make sure this doesn't perpetuate stereotypes of women's values? And I think Joel asked a nice question earlier. It's not just women who are of childbearing age. It's women who have children, who don't have children, who are too old to have children. Really, where you think about a targeted strategy towards menstruation could potentially cause further ostracization.
you know, in the workplace and perpetuate some serotypes. So I appreciate that answer.
Hilla Hascalovici (20:18.798)
Absolutely, and one more thing to note is that the studies show that the decline in productivity around periods is due to presenteeism and not absenteeism. There's nowhere else where people who are suffering from really severe sickness symptoms are expected to continue working.
Julie Sowash (20:34.478)
And you talked a lot about the office, which doesn't surprise me. That's my primary work history. That's where I think, too. What are your thoughts around really going after retail, warehouse distribution, those types of things to where women can't sit at a desk and have their heating pad on no matter what because they're up and moving around? What do you really see as the market opportunity there?
Hilla Hascalovici (21:02.112)
It's so funny you say that because I was getting a spray tan the other day and the woman was like, what do you do? And I was telling her and she was like, I get the worst cramps. Yeah. And she was like, I get the worst cramps, but I'm up all day. So I can't sit with a heating pad. And so I actually gave her a box. She was like, this is amazing. And, you know, as we think about that exact thing, things like construction, things like, you know, people who are up and about all
Joel Cheesman (21:07.287)
Me too. What a coincidence.
Hilla Hascalovici (21:26.304)
it's really going to be important there too. And so we're actually talking to some companies that do things like that and seeing if they're willing to spend the money in the budget. think that that's going to be really important.
Joel Cheesman (21:37.251)
How does a product like this fit into a more remote work environment? I would think it'd be a good thing to get a little care package of your period ally stuff every month, but talk about what companies are asking for and where you guys fit in into that world.
Hilla Hascalovici (21:46.808)
Yeah.
Hilla Hascalovici (21:51.842)
That's a really good question. So I the exact same thing when I started this company and we did launch it with an in -office and an at -home kind of pilot, but the at -home pilot actually didn't really take off because even though employers were willing to pay for it, I found that employees were really not wanting to share that information directly with their employer. And so we kind of scrapped that idea. Maybe we'll revisit it in the future when we can be a little bit more thoughtful about it, but right now we're really focused on in -office.
Joel Cheesman (22:19.107)
Okay. Talk about the, go -to -market strategy, the sales. You're one man, one woman show, excuse me, from what I can tell, but talk about the sales process, the go -to -market, the marketing. for example, your social media is, is fairly sparse. You've kind of focused on Instagram. And I would think that at this point, you'd have a lot of women fans, frankly. I mean, even if it's just friends you went to college with and like New York is a big place. You probably have a lot of friends. Like I would think you'd have a lot more.
traction in terms of social media. So tell me what I'm missing in terms of your marketing strategy or sales strategy just to go to market. mentioned Spain is more global targeting part of the future as
Hilla Hascalovici (22:58.67)
Yeah, so global targeting is definitely part of the future. But what we're really focused on is getting the word out in kind of more professional spaces where, you know, Instagram might not be like the target place where people are going to get information about us. We do things like partner with other companies in New York City to plan events for female founders and funders with the hope that they'll ask for it in office. And that's really how we've been getting our leads. So, you know, getting the word out to actual employees and them saying
I deal with this every month. We have a QR code, send us your HR people's information and we'll reach out directly. It's really our go -to -market strategy. And the reason we're using it is because I had spoken to a few business development or founder people at kind of like women -centric employer networks. And they said that this is really the fastest way to get in so that we kind of go around that vendor fatigue.
Joel Cheesman (23:46.467)
A lot of this stuff is anecdotal. I'm wondering if you have any data points, anything around retention or feedback from companies that are in the program that are really positive, probably too young for hard data, but what are you outside of like, this is a nice product that women will feel good
Hilla Hascalovici (24:06.858)
Yeah, so I've had some of our customers who are actually offering this say things like, will really help us support our women at work mission. Or we had a customer or client come in and they said, this is the most inclusive bathroom I've ever seen. And we've also heard from the actual employees, like this is providing real value or I would have had to go home today if we didn't have this. And so while we don't have hard statistics because we are so young, we are seeing really positive feedback.
from our customers and that's really what we're using to kind of grow and guide our strategy.
Julie Sowash (24:43.874)
So just kind of wrapping up my set of questions is talk to me about, excuse me, I just lost my train of thought because there's things happening over here. Some of the common objections that you're hearing. So, and I would love to hear common objections from males and common objections you're getting from females in terms of buying.
Hilla Hascalovici (25:08.458)
Yeah, no, that's, I think that people don't typically tell their objections to necessarily me specifically as a buyer, but I can tell you what I've heard as I'm like thinking about investors. And, you know, we've heard a lot about like, this is too new, it's not validated. And we've heard a lot about like, this is going to be a really difficult strategy to execute. Or, you know, like, if this was so important, why doesn't it exist already? That's something I get a lot from, I would say.
you know, mostly people who maybe haven't experienced a period. And the objections that I get from people who have experienced periods is the same one that you voiced and the same one that I had going in, which is like, how do you make sure that this does not increase discrimination? And you know, if an investor was to ask me what keeps me up at night, that's the question. That's the answer. It's like, I am afraid that, you know, our really well -intended idea will do harm. And so that's kind of at the foreground of everything that we're doing is making sure that that's not the outcome.
Julie Sowash (26:06.342)
And do you think that the backlash against DEI and sort of the corporate shills, as I will call them, who've really walked away from real inclusion since it's gotten easy to do so, how do you think that that's gonna impact your go -to -market?
Hilla Hascalovici (26:26.198)
Yeah, so I might be incorrect, but my understanding is a lot of the backlash is based on hiring practices. I would be surprised if any of these people say like, we shouldn't make the office, you know, more comfortable. And also because they're all pushing a back to office strategy and the ROI here just makes so much sense. So even if you're someone who thinks that DEI is the worst thing to ever happen, and even if you think that, you know, it's unnecessary.
You can understand that your female employees that you already have and your menstruating employees you already have, if they're leaving the office for 30 minutes to buy something that it costs you 25 cents to provide, that's bad
Julie Sowash (27:08.774)
And then last question for me, cause I'm just curious is, you you talked a little bit about partnerships in terms of networking. What do you see, who do you see as valuable partnerships for actually scaling the business out? Is it insurance companies? Is it EAP programs? of, you know, do you, have you gotten that far yet?
Hilla Hascalovici (27:27.616)
Yeah, so it's not. So as we think about partnerships for growth, we don't plan on being with manufacturers of products other than heating patches. So, you know, finding really core partners around pads and tampons, and those are in the works. They're really, you know, exciting ones that are coming. And then looking to partners that do other stuff of like women at work, you know, for a growth network. And the space is extremely collaborative. You know, and as we think of expanding
Further, as we think about maybe a healthcare offering down the line, it'll certainly be insurance companies, payers, and so on. We're not there at the
Joel Cheesman (28:03.245)
Julie, I don't know about you, but this sounds really expensive, really, really pricey. So, Hilla, talk to me about your pricing and maybe even a little bit about your margins, because this is a hard product as opposed to software, which we usually talk about. Like, how much is your take on this product?
Julie Sowash (28:07.77)
Hehehehe.
Hilla Hascalovici (28:20.911)
So it's actually quite cheap, right? If you think of things like offering fertility benefits that could cost tens of thousands of dollars per employee, you can offer, you know, menstrual support for a few hundred dollars a year at the most. That includes trainings, that includes products, that includes events. So if you want to do things like just offer products, it'll cost you just, you know, maybe one to $2 per month per employee. It's extremely cheap.
Joel Cheesman (28:47.555)
Okay. Okay. I can dig it. All right, Hilla. It is time to face the firing squad. Are you ready? All right. All right. I'm to go first and leave the red meat to the woman to go last because she's going to have a lot better insight than I probably will. Little story about how I met you. You're at Transform, a conference that we were attending and I was like, period -ally, what in the world is that? You corrected me on the name, period -ally. Okay. What the hell is that? And then you went on
Hilla Hascalovici (28:55.222)
I'm ready.
Hilla Hascalovici (29:14.217)
No.
Joel Cheesman (29:16.813)
to describe what the product was. And it was something that I had never heard in our space. Everyone has a software. Everyone has something that is, you know, kind of whiz bang. This seemed to me like something real world, that made sense. But again, as a man, I don't, I don't really have a lot of context to the importance of this. I called you after I said, explain this to me. And you did. said, you got, you got, we to get you on the firing squad. You know, since then I've done a little bit more research, but to me, like ultimately women are crushing
If I look at some of the metrics, 59 and a half percent of college students are now women. 58 plus percent are master's degrees or women. 52, 53 % are PhDs. Women are crushing it. They're starting companies. They're more in the workplace than they ever have before. I also know that productizing things that are commodities is cool.
I promised myself I wouldn't drag my wife into this conversation, but I am. She gets Stitch Fix. She gets like this cocktail box. Like if you can make something cool that isn't just like I bought it off the shelf at CVS, like that is appealing. And if companies can provide something that is sort of hip, cool, customized, feels good, I think women would eat it up. And I think companies aren't looking at a big difference in price.
from going to Amazon for bulk, whatever, versus what you guys have. I like the set it and forget it. I like the subscription. Like just send me every month what I need. If we hire more, I'll get more. If we open up a new location, I need to add that, et cetera. I love that part of it. I even love the opportunity, although we didn't talk about it was what do you want to be when you grow up? You're talking about raising money. So I assume there's either some sort of liquidation event in there.
we talked this week on the week on the show that, a company called deal who's crushing it bought a, a, compute like an equipment company because they're dealing with people, you know, employees all over the world. Those people need printers, they need computers, they need screens. Like this would be such an easy sort of acquisition to plug into like, Hey, you got employees all over, all over the world. Like let's set them up with, with, you know, feminine hygiene products.
Joel Cheesman (31:37.219)
If I'm saying that correctly, sound like my mom on that one. But anyway, so for me, like I know I'm not a woman. I know that I'm coming at this from a different angle, but I have a hard time explaining how this would not work. If you keep doing what you're doing, go raise some money, make the product awesome, make it cool that when people see it like, wow, this is a quality product. What a great thing my company is doing for me. They are awesome. I'm going to stick around.
And the retention rates, hopefully you'll get some numbers around that and then it could really take off. So for me, this is a big applause. Keep doing what you're doing, but I'm only the man. Let's let the woman sound off on this female product. Julie, what do you
Hilla Hascalovici (32:15.456)
haha
Julie Sowash (32:19.961)
I am so glad you've realized finally that you are only the man. So Hilla again, I want to just commend you on coming out, doing this pitch, getting behind something that you believe in and that you also think can make money. As a woman, I really want to be a hundred percent on board with this, but also as a woman who's been in a leadership position, I know
Hilla Hascalovici (32:23.967)
Hahaha.
Julie Sowash (32:44.22)
We have to have tough conversations with each other to be able to do that. And so I think there is opportunity here. Absolutely. I think some of the things that you're going to need to grow on in terms of your overall strategy is really bringing a business case to this conversation. You're really good about talking about the how I feel as a woman.
And that's important because male leaders and female leaders need to be reminded that their employees are humans and that we have needs that exist that are outside of just showing up and making them money. So I appreciate that. What I really felt like we needed to hear more of in your pitch is not necessarily your data, but the data that exists around why this is a good investment for me as a business leader and how it's going to help me.
with retention, how it's gonna help me with productivity. And I think the other thing that is probably just because we only had two minutes is a little unclear for me, is really truly where your product fits in the market. So you don't wanna be manufacturers. You have the heating pads and then you have some what I think, at least in my brain are the nice important pieces
education, consulting, policies, those pieces. Now, those aren't the sexy things to Joel's point. Those aren't what make periods cool, even though nothing makes a period cool. And so I think really helping your investors, your buyers understand the business case, where we're at with margins as you grow, what's a scale look like, but also
part of this is going to be human intensive versus being able to ship something out from an overseas manufacturing site. think that provides some opportunity for weakness in your overall model. And depending on how that ratio happens, really that's where being a couple hundred dollars a year is probably too cheap. And there's probably some undervaluing of what you bring to the table in that regard.
Julie Sowash (35:01.344)
and I think that our current market, at least in the U S does also provide some uphill battle. right now I do love that you're thinking ex -US kind of the first thing I did this morning was jump on and go, what countries have period leave? Spain was the first in the EU. A lot of Asia pack has it. I think that's smart as you're thinking about how do you offer those services elsewhere? So I'm excited to see what the future brings and I'm excited to see how you grow.
For right now, I'm going to give you a golf
Joel Cheesman (35:35.883)
Not too shabby, Hilla. How do you feel?
Hilla Hascalovici (35:39.16)
Thank you. I feel great. Thank you guys so much for having me. I really appreciate it. It great talking to
Joel Cheesman (35:43.821)
You're very welcome. All right, before we leave, let our listeners know how they can find out more about you. Any special deals as listeners they can get? Where do you send
Julie Sowash (35:44.518)
You too.
Hilla Hascalovici (35:53.358)
Sure, so you can find us at myperiodallied .com and if you type in code CNC, capital, you'll get 20 % off our product.
Joel Cheesman (36:00.459)
Woo, look at that. I love discount codes. All right, Julie, Chad may be out of a job or at least he's hopefully at the bar getting some drinks while you're doing the heavy lifting on the show. That is another one in the can. We out.
Julie Sowash (36:08.625)
Hahaha
Julie Sowash (36:15.325)
See ya.
Hilla Hascalovici (36:15.584)
So thank you,