Laine Bruzek (Co-founder & CMO, Evvy)
Laine is co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Evvy, where her mission is to close the gender health gap, starting with demystifying and destigmatizing vaginal health. Laine is a creative brand builder and designer, previously at Google Creative Lab and Tribeca Enterprises, where she spearheaded initiatives across branding, marketing, emerging tech, data privacy, and product strategy. She has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc Female Founders 200, InStyle, Create & Cultivate, and more. Her work at Evvy has received top honors from Fast Company World Changing Ideas & Brands That Matter and The Webby Awards.
Can you explain your job in the simplest way possible?
I’m the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Evvy, where we’re studying the female body in new ways to make sure that everyone has access to empathetic healthcare and shame-free body education. We’re first studying the vaginal microbiome, which is the community of bacteria and fungi in the vagina that are related to conditions like BV and yeast infections, as well as overall health challenges like IVF failure, preterm birth, cervical cancer progression and more. Our at-home vaginal microbiome test is helping to transform testing and care for these crucial and often overlooked conditions!
What excites you most about your job?
While I’m incredibly proud that we’ve built the world’s first precision care platform for vaginal health, my favorite part of my job is making great destigmatized, science-backed sex ed.
From viral TikToks about yeast infections with millions of views, to hyper-personalized care for each person that goes through the Evvy experience, we’re already changing the narrative about vaginal health on the biggest and smallest scales.
We’ve built a community of hundreds of thousands of people who now understand their vaginal microbiome and how interventions can affect it—and in doing so have helped dispel stigmas and shame around things like vaginal discharge and smell.
Given that vaginal health challenges can affect mental health, sexual wellness, interpersonal relationships, reproductive health, and much more, the impact of our education can’t be understated. Our scientific but human approach brings much needed nuance and thoughtfulness to a space where women have often been told their symptoms should be a source of shame.
Which trend will change the future of medicine?
I’m not sure if I’d call it a trend, but enabling shared decisionmaking between patients and their providers will power the future of healthcare. We regularly hear from our patients that they’ve spent years being dismissed by the healthcare system or unable to access quality, empathetic care—this has to change. We can start by giving women and people with vaginas science-backed education so they can advocate for themselves at the doctor’s office, while simultaneously demanding providers take our concerns seriously.
Looking back, which trends have you missed or underestimated?
Tackling taboo topics (like we’re doing at Evvy for vaginal health) is an incredibly underestimated opportunity in healthcare. It’s amazing to see so many founders (many of them women!) across menstruation, menopause, vaginal health, sexual health, and more create revolutionary products and communities in stigmatized spaces.
Which MedTech initiative or startup deserves more attention?
Male birth control! Love to see startups like Contraline leading the charge, but there should be much more investment in this space.
Where would you put a million dollars?
Into women’s health research. Evvy was founded because the female body shouldn’t be a medical mystery—but to this day, it is. Women are diagnosed on average 4 years later than men across hundreds of diseases. We’re more likely to die from heart attacks, react poorly to prescription drugs, and have our pain and symptoms dismissed by doctors.
Why? Because women and people with vaginas were not required in US clinical research until June 10th, 1993—decades after many of the foundational studies on which most modern medicine is based. And without equal research, there can never be equal care.
Every year, Evvy runs a yearly campaign called Equal Research Day on June 10 to highlight these disparities in scientific and medical research!
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Write thank you notes! Everything (but especially entrepreneurship) takes a village—it would be impossible to build anything from scratch without lots and lots of help along the way from mentors, investors, fellow founders, colleagues, and more. When people go out of their way to help you, make sure to say thank you! Even better if you hand-write the note.