From Founder to Infrastructure: Why I'm Pivoting to Close the Femtech Distribution Gap

I spent years building Nyssa — a women's health brand that worked, won awards, and changed lives. But I kept hitting the same wall: not a product wall, a distribution wall. Here's why I'm now building the infrastructure for all femtech brands, not just one.

Hi, I'm Eden.

If you've been in the trenches of women's health for the last few years, you might know me as the founder of Nyssa. I spent years obsessing over the "unmentionables": postpartum recovery, pelvic floor health, and the physical realities of being a woman that society tends to sweep under the rug. We built products that worked, won awards, and, most importantly, changed lives.

But along the way, I hit a wall. And it wasn't a product wall. It was a "pipe" wall.

Building a brand in this space is an uphill battle that feels less like a business journey and more like a permanent residency in a "shadow-ban" zone. I realized that as much as we need better products, we desperately need a better way to get those products into the hands of the people who actually need them.

That's why I'm pivoting. I'm moving from building a single brand to building the infrastructure for all brands in this space. Here is why I'm launching Femtech Distribution (or as we call it, EL Distro), and why it's the most important work I've ever done.

The "Inventor-Founder" Trap

As a founder, you start with a mission. You see a gap — like the lack of effective postpartum cooling or support — and you invent the solution. You become an expert in textiles, medical-grade materials, and manufacturing. You pour your soul into the "what."

But then comes the "how." In the current ecosystem, "how" usually means bowing at the altar of the social media giants.

We are forced to pay exorbitant customer acquisition costs (CAC) to platforms like Meta and TikTok — platforms that aren't even appropriately structured for women's health. I've seen it firsthand: ads for menopause care or pelvic floor therapy getting flagged as "adult content" or "sensitive topics," while ads for erectile dysfunction sail through without a second thought.

A woman's face on shattered glass, women's health rights in Sudan. Ahfad Reproductive Health Centre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

When the algorithms don't prioritize this kind of engagement, women are kept in the dark about the realities of what to expect throughout their lives. They are left to self-educate or, worse, suffer through the physical realities of womanhood in silence. As founders, we are essentially paying to be ignored. It's a systemic failure, and it's exhausting.

The Discovery: 100% Demand, 0% Access

I wanted to know if this was just a "founder problem" or if the practitioners felt it too. So, I surveyed over 120+ healthcare workers: OBGYNs, midwives, private practice administrators, and patient coordinators.

The results were staggering.

100% of those surveyed said they want better products. They are tired of handing out the same low-quality, outdated hospital-grade supplies that haven't been updated in forty years. They want products that are more effective, modern, and better designed for the actual problems they are meant to solve.

But here was the kicker: Nearly all of them are hamstrung by access.

They don't know where to find the new innovations. They don't have a centralized way to order them. Their procurement systems are archaic, and they don't have the time to vet 50 different startup brands. The practitioners are ready. The patients are desperate. The founders are building. But the bridge between them is broken.

Why We're Building the Bridge

I've decided to stop trying to force one brand through a broken pipe and instead focus on fixing the pipe itself. No one is making the change for us, so we're doing it ourselves.

The same motivation I had for starting Nyssa applies here: we deserve better. But this time, the goal is about empowering and strengthening all brands with great products.

Building the infrastructure: Eden Laurin at the EL Distro warehouse.

At EL Distro, we aren't just a warehouse. We are an operator-to-operator partner. We understand the tight margins and the gap between a great idea and a "shelf-ready" product. We've been there.

What This Looks Like in Practice

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  Fractional C-Suite Support: Most femtech brands are led by brilliant inventors who shouldn't have to be full-time logistics experts. We provide fractional support to help brands scale without the overhead of a massive internal team.

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  Strategic Market Access: We connect innovative brands with wholesale, retail, and clinical channels. We speak the language of hospital buyers and private practice administrators.

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  Low Barriers to Entry: We believe in shared upside. We've designed our model to lower the barrier for founders to get their products into clinical settings where they have the highest impact.

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  Untapped Clinical Markets: We focus on getting femtech products into the room where patient-provider trust is at its peak.

Moving From Theory to Execution

The World Economic Forum's 2024 report points out that closing the women's health gap could add $1 trillion to the global economy. But that doesn't happen through white papers alone. It happens when a woman leaves a clinic with a product that actually helps her recover from a C-section. It happens when a midwife can easily order the best period care for her patients.

We are moving from a "concept" phase of femtech into a "market-ready" phase. We are creating the tide together.

If you are a founder who is tired of fighting the algorithms, or a practitioner who is tired of settling for sub-par supplies, let's talk. We are building the infrastructure that this industry should have had decades ago.

The gap is real, but so is the opportunity. Let's be the change we want to see.

Ready to scale? Partner with us here and join our portfolio of innovations that are already changing the game.

Have Procurement power? Reach out to us.

Together, we're not just selling products — we're building the future of healthcare.

Eden Laurin is the founder of Femtech Distribution (EL Distro), Co-Founder and former CEO of Nyssa. She is dedicated to bridging the gap between innovative women's health brands and the clinical channels that need them most.

Image credits: 1. A woman's face on shattered glass, women's health rights in Sudan by Ahfad Reproductive Health Centre. Source: Wellcome Collection. 2. Menstruation, artwork. Mary Rouncefield. Source: Wellcome Collection. 3. Eden Laurin.