The Femtech market is expected to reach $3 Billion by 2030, and yet there is a huge historical gender bias in medicine. Issues such as postpartum, pelvic floor therapy, incontinence, and painful sex have traditionally been overlooked, deemed taboo, or tackled via invasive procedures. On a mission to provide affordable physical therapy to women across the US, co-founder Carine Carmy launched Origin, to use movement as medicine.

Did you know that on an annual basis, over 1 in 3 adult women in the US experience health issues that can be treated via pelvic floor physical therapy? “1 in 4 women have painful sex and 1 in 6 women have chronic painful sex. So much of it has to with the over-activation of the pelvic floor muscles which you can treat with physical therapy”, says Carine Carmy, co-founder of Origin.

Carine struggled with her own health issues for many years which included ulcer colitis and painful sex. “No doctor could tell me what was going on and when I went to see them it would involve giving me a biopsy and highly invasive procedures to try and figure out what was happening. Finally, I went to physical therapy and after two sessions I was feeling much better.”

The Aha Moment

*Co-founders and besties: Nona (on left), Carine, and David (on right).*

It was early 2018 when Carine connected with her longtime childhood best friend, Nona Farahnik Yadegar. Nona has just had a baby and was experiencing postpartum incontinence and pelvic pain. “No one had prepared her for this journey and she was left in the dark and told to return back to work and everything would be fine. But it wasn’t fine.”

Nona ended up finding a physical therapy clinic called Bebé Physical Therapy in LA and was completely healed. The founding team then grew to include Nona’s husband, David Yadegar who had a background in healthcare and finance to build the business. To test the market, the team partnered with Bebé Physical Therapy and retained the clinical team via a formal partnership. This also allowed them to gain an existing database of customers and clinicians.

By engaging in this strategy early on, Origin (launched in early 2020) is able to claim that they have treated “thousands” of women in Los Angeles and have more than 250 referring providers such as OB-GYNs.

“We always thought there was going to be a digital component.”

During March 2020 and with the pandemic causing physical stores to shut down, Carine was able to pivot the business model to launch telehealth in less than 48 hours. “We now have 3 physical locations in Brentwood, West Hollywood, and San Francisco that are owned and operated by the Origin staff with a proprietary training program.” By going digital Origin was able to tap into the daily routines of busy moms who sometimes can’t come in for physical therapy, are looking for autonomy or don’t want to be touched by another human during COVID. The digital component increases convenience and retention due to empowering customers to learn the moves themselves.

The team currently consists of 50 employees, with the first hire being a healthcare operator to set up systems and processes that scale.

The Marketing

“What we have found is that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tactic. People are really excited about what they are going through and want to share it with their friends and family. We have an NPS score of 96 which is completely unheard of in healthcare. Not only are we supporting women who have been told for a long time that their pain isn’t real, or doesn’t exist, but we are providing them an opportunity to do something about it. We are currently setting up a referral system to amplify the voices of our clients.”

Origin does a lot of partnerships with doula groups and fitness instructors around women's health. “We also have something called Real Talk in which we speak about sex and pain and how to navigate it with our clinicians.”

The Name

“Amma was the original name, but we found it too limiting. We didn’t want a name associated with the specific phases in life. When choosing a name, we wanted a name that was inclusive of women's journeys from maternity to menopause. We landed on Origin as this idea that through different phases of our lives, we have new beginnings and you can take that origin moment and regain strength.”

“I think in another life I would have become a writer. I encourage people to study what they love in college.”

A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, with a major in economics, Carine Carmy grew up in LA with immigrant parents from Israel. “My dad sold used cars and my mom was an Architect. Being around small businesses my whole life gave me the spirit of what it means to work for yourself, but also scared me in a big way due to the immigrant small business stories you hear versus the VC-backed startup narrative. It was very different.”

However, if we backtrack to Carine’s childhood, she mentions that she was always “organizing people and things. In high school, I started a radio station and graduated when I was 17. I ended up launching a tutoring program with a friend of mine for SAT prep because I had a hard time getting a job.” Carine’s work experience ranges from being the VP of Sales and Marketing at Amino, a healthcare financial wellness platform as well as previously working at Shapeways before starting Origin.

The Advice

Carine mentions how when she was at Shapeways she did a one-hour session with author Jeremy Colonna. His best piece of advice, “know what role you are in and take the authority and responsibility for the ups and downs.” Carine further goes on to say that every founder should have a therapist as a MUST! “The biggest shift for me has been to try and have fun while building this company. I could look at things and say this is high pressure and freak out or say what a gift I have been given. The opportunity to build something for people.” For those in the midst of setting up a venture, Carine advises the following:

Make sure you want to start a company. The likelihood of success is very low from a financial standpoint and it is very risky. There are a lot of factors working against founders such as pattern matching, and timing.
Have obsessive conviction.
Start small, test products, and talk to lots and lots of customers.
As a founder, be able to constantly adapt to new modes of business such as going from being the head of HR, to head of product to head of marketing and so on.
Venture capital is not the only way to finance your company!
Some books to check out: Crossing the Chasm, The Great CEO, and The Invisible Woman.

Interested in improving your pelvic floor? Visit Origin today and let Carine know we sent you. Services span a range of offerings that include sexual health, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause.

Photo courtesy of Origin.

Written by Alysha Malik.