S2E10: The FemTech Edge: Build and Train by Your Menstrual Cycle - Lizzy Palmer (Founder, SyncN)

Um, but I was just like, other women do not know this and the fitness industry does not know this. They're doing amazing things, but forgetting female physiology and forgetting that all of their guidelines are not for female physiology. So the creation of Sync In is blending all these parts of my world together to now advocate for women's bodies within their movements, within their fitness, to really feel aligned with themselves and and taking my tech background, vouching for the user. I want to build this for women, self-compassion, to feel fabulous in their body and know they can vouch for it and know they can speak up for it, whether in a fitness class, a doctor's office, or any other aspect of their life.

Welcome to Startups Decoded, the show that gets real about what it takes to build a successful startup. I'm Andy Walsh, 2x exited founder, strategist, and your host. Each week I talk with top founders, investors, and operators to unpack back the plays that drive real traction, not just headlines. If you're building something bold, this is where you'll get the honest insights to scale with clarity and confidence. Let's keep growing together. Hit subscribe and share with your community. It would mean the world to me. This podcast is brought to you by Cherub. Cherub connects founders and angel investors. Find the tools to fundraise seamlessly. The future of fundraising is here. Investwithcherub.com. Hello and welcome back to Startups Decoded. My name is Andy Walsh and today's episode, we are focusing on health and wellness for founders, which is something that is so important. Being a founder is a grind, but our topic today is going into something even more specific, and this is focused around health and wellness for females and aligning with the menstrual cycle. And to bring this to life, I've got Lizzie Palmer, who is founder and CEO of Sinking. Welcome, Lizzie.

Hey, happy to be here. Hi everyone.

This is so important. And when we first met, some of the data that you shared with me around the huge gap in research focused specifically on females is for me just shocking. And it goes way back. If you could go into looking at pharma and as far as vaccinations into health and wellness programs, into exercise physiology, there's so many areas that just stand out of a huge opportunity is the positive way to think about it, but historically is a massive gap. So to kick it off, I'd love to hear from you as far as your backstory and what led you to start this business.

Yeah, absolutely. You are optimistic of seeing all these opportunities and yes, there are huge gaps and all my other femtech founders out there are well aware of these insane stats. And so we can dive into it, but I first had a background actually of connecting with my body through dance. So that was how I actually got started, always listening to my body. And actually what I've named and created is Sync In, to sync in tune with your body and to listen to it. And then when I transitioned from performing, I got into tech cuz that's what happens when you move to San Francisco. And then was a user researcher at Meta and at Roblox and at startups. And that really was vouching for the user. I always saw it as like, vouching for the human being at the end of the day for what you're building. And then, uh, so I am 35 now and about 10 years ago I learned about my cycle and everything in my life changed after I learned about my cycle. It was this self-appreciation that I had for myself and an under— understanding, and it unlocked everything of my health. I changed how I ate. I changed lots of different things cuz I was just so curious. And I think why I kept learning about it was I was just so curious. To not be experiencing what I was. And I was like, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? And I kept learning as much as I could. And when I learned about my cycle, I was like, whoa, whoa, here's our jackpot here. So I just kind of went about my life the past 10 years connecting with my cycle and really appreciating it. And I would change my fitness around it and my approach. And then a little over a year ago, then I'm happy in my tech life. Yay, things are cool. And I'm just doing this on my own. But it all comes together when I do a really rigorous fitness training program created by male professional athletes, and this program causes me to lose my cycle. And when that happened, I just knew my health is now not okay, because when that happens, your cycle is a vital health indicator. Now, we— luckily I knew enough to reverse this, but I was just like, other women do not know this, and the fitness industry does not know this, or they're doing amazing things but forgetting blaming female physiology and forgetting that all their guidelines are not for female physiology. So this, the creation of Sync N, is blending all these parts of my world together to now advocate for women's bodies within their movements, within their fitness, to really feel aligned with themselves. And taking my tech background, vouching for the user— I'm a woman, so I want to build this for women. Really self-compassion to feel fabulous in their body and know they can vouch for it and know they can speak up for it, whether in a fitness class, a doctor's office, or any other aspect of their life. And then, um, so that's where— that's what has led me then to meet you and this whole New Founder World.

And I want to go into a little bit about how we started working together at some point, but as far as that exercise physiology research, I studied a double degree in marketing and exercise science, so I had firsthand view of that and we didn't even have in a 4-year course, I was doing biomedical science, cadaver work, like this was a really deep and micro-level program at university, yet I don't remember one focus at all around the menstrual cycle. And I'm gonna age myself a little bit here, but that was over 20 years ago that I did it, but it didn't even come up as far as understanding female physiology. How that the changes in hormone levels, in output, input, all the things you need to understand to optimize performance from a professional athlete standpoint, but even just in a day-to-day level. I think to fast forward to today, one of the things I want to look at is far as the shift in research, to understand that a bit more. 'Cause when we were talking, there was a stat you told me that 94% of sports science research, research rather, excludes female physiology, which is wild. If you think about the growth in professional female sport, which in the last, I'd say, 10 years has taken off and become huge, which is great to see, but there's still a huge void, right, in research.

Yes. And so all of this is because women have very unique hormonal systems, and we have— and everyone has their own relationship with our body. And there are technically 4 phases of the female menstrual cycle, and each one has a different— we're aware of energy level, levels and moods with it as well, but it also does affect, affect the metabolism as well as muscle recovery. And all of these different nuances when the male is essentially the same every day. And in these research studies, it wasn't until 1993 that women were even included because all of these different fluctuations that the woman would have would make it be very difficult for these scientists to have some formulaic and some control group. And so they just excluded and they were just like, we, we don't know how to regulate this, so you're out. And so just everything was done without it because it requires more care and more attention than if they're gonna work, uh, do some fitness research. Honestly, right now a lot of it's done on in the follicular and ovulation phase and not on the other phase that we're like, oh, look at this 2-week program. It's done only focused on those areas and not actually the So it's just a lot more work to have the research be appropriate for women. And so unfortunately it was just excluded and society just accepted it, or honestly, women probably never even knew. And so, and then you're correct, all of these standards that all these health professionals are going off of just says it's true for everybody. And that's not the case. Just like one small example. And it's also applicable for like life of Productivity things. We all kind of say morning, morning, do that hard thing. Do that hard thing in the morning. Right? Have you heard this? Yes. Oh, so this is because testosterone rises in the morning. So testosterone is then like a good time to, to try and achieve that, that, that element, tackle that hard thing. So for men, it rises every morning a little bit. For women, Testosterone only rises once during the 28-day cycle, and that is during ovulation. So just that habit, that habit-forming productivity tool that is now common knowledge to everybody was not built for women at all. That is only applicable for men. Yes, women have a circadian rhythm of 24-hour cycle as well, but we also have the 28-day cycle too. Also account for. So that's just like one small discrepancy out of many, many to tackle, but.

And it's this assumption, it sounds like that professors doing research putting it in the too hard basket because of the fluctuations. If they're trying to get a level of control and hit level of significance where their research actually is valid and can move forward, they're eliminating things because it feels too hard. So it creates a void. And I've been doing a lot of research recently because I've got friends who are going through perimenopause. And even at the other end of losing your cycle, understanding hormone levels, and I'd be fascinated to know how many women actually know the different hormone levels. I guarantee that a lot of women wouldn't even realize that they have testosterone and that they'd see it as a male-only hormone.

Yes, you're correct. Because also puberty, we're very associated with estrogen for females and testosterone for men, which is, which is true, but both genders have both hormones as well, just at different levels. But puberty's where we hear that. And then it does actually change in adulthood and not used in the exact same way. But it's 50% of ladies are unaware of their cycle. So even the thing about the testosterone mentioned, that would be even less. It's just— so there's, in your words, lots of room for opportunity. But for where the research has gone, you know, I'm not shaming these scientists because the scientists want to do their work, but they also have certain standards that they have to meet it at, and they also have limited funding. And so the funding goes to what is thought of as valuable. And so what this just shows is that they don't think that women's bodies are valuable for who is funding this research. And so it's just, uh, women are now actively and continuously standing up for their bodies, saying we are worthy of understanding ourselves and there needs to be more research for this. And so at 1993, then laws were included saying women need to be included because they kept trying to skirt around it. But the funding does need to— need to know that it's a worthy cause. And if it's seen as a worthy cause, then funding can go towards it and the work can be done. It's not impossible, not impossible to do. Sure, there are like a few more, you know, things to get squared away. It is not impossible. Um, and we're moving there.

And I say opportunity and not to be flippant as far as historically and, and there's so much prejudice and discrimination, but if we are facing forwards, which is what you are doing at the moment with Sinking in your app, for me, I, I see a few upsides and correct me if I'm wrong here, is that one, you're being for every woman who is going through their cycle through to menopause. When you're talking to half the population of the world, but then you're breaking it down to a menstrual cycle and whatever that number is, massive number of people. And at a foundational level, you've got people who could do simple changes in their life that complement their cycle that allow the impact to be less, right through to professional athletes, the best people in the world who, if they're not acknowledging and understanding that this is critical to their success and how they train at such extreme levels and the diet that they have, their mental health, etc., then they may not be able to succeed at the same level. And turning that into a question, in your research, as far as what you're reading and learning, how much do you think professional women's sporting teams understand about the difference between male and female physiology and how much are they using it as part of their training practice?

So this is where there is change and growth happening. This is how the US Women's National Soccer Team is training now currently, because especially in team sports, like, the team needs to be as strong as each individual, and how each individual can be as strong as is knowing what is best for that individual's time. So I also just want to mention too, before we get further, of ladies with their cycles knowing how many individuals are irregular or have unique circumstances with their cycle is also extremely common, and we need to also account for them as well. Between the ages of 18 to 35, 10% of people have PCOS, 10% have endometriosis, 4% lose their cycle. So there's a lot of even nuances just within cycle, and those are then true for those athletes as well. So then what does it mean for the person for PCOS who's trying to achieve this athletic goal and on the team and expected to do something at a certain time? So I very much see a lot of this as knowing the muscle recovery does change during different times, and so that is needing to be like adjusted by the individual, knowing What can I— is this an endurance day or is this a push day? Or do I need to give myself the self-care afterwards? Do I need to cancel other plans afterwards possibly to be able to extra support myself? So looking at these athletes, if we look at the individual, how can we make them be the strongest that they can be? And doing that is understanding and listening to their body and using— I see it as like using all parts. We already use sleep, we already use what we're eating, we're already using how's your mental health, you know, like we're using those other aspects, but no one's been including the cycle with that full training. And we want our female athletes to be absolutely as strong as possible as they can. And so like wanting to equip them with the most powerful and up-to-date tools and training tools that are appropriate for their body, for their muscles, for their recovery. And so that's what I'm really excited to get to be working on for them.

And I see it as what you're doing to be able to create a lot of foundational data, right? If you're able to have a feedback loop in the product and you can see the benefits and, and allow people to track and measure improvements and whether it's as simple as how do they feel, it doesn't have to be scientific, but you're creating a pool of people that become this dynamic experiment and you can monitor change over time. Pairing that with more formal research that allows you to understand more, and that connection of those two, it creates a body of information that then can be used to educate. Because it sounds like from what you're saying, the education is as big a problem as it is, is actually then using that to be able to help and benefit your life, right?

And what we're asking after the workouts are, what was your exertion level? Because women are incredible and we can show up and do everything. So maybe it's already been listening to this saying, yeah, but I know someone who ran a marathon And they got their best time and they were on their period. That's absolutely true. Women are awesome and we can show up and do, do anything at any time. That doesn't mean the exertion level is going to be the same. It might feel different in the body for how it's doing. And then the recovery time is going to need a different type of support system. And so that, um, that's what we're like asking and can track on that individual and to be able to realize. Your exertion level feels so much higher on this time. You can still show up for it, but also let's give you the care you need to support. But really the deeper level care is her self-acceptance that she is not the problem. It's not, oh my goodness, that run felt really hard. I think I'm not a runner anymore. 2 weeks ago I did this time and I felt amazing and I was awesome at it. This time felt so hard. I think now I'm, I think I'm the problem now. I think, and it's like, oh no, no, no, you are not the problem. You're body is just physically different and processing it differently. So not to compare those times against each other. So that's where everything's self-compassion, underrooted.

And that would be, I'd assume, demotivating for anyone. If you feel that you're training and you're making progress, and then there's a moment in the monthly cycle where you have some flat days, that could take away motivation. But if you have a scientific complementary reason to know at this point in time it's expected you're going to have less energy, be more tired, whatever those physiological effects are on your body, then it allows you to maintain focus and go, okay, I can accept that. And humanizing you in a way through science rather than feeling like that you're a victim of all the social stereotypes which come from males primarily, in that you just have to suck it up and deal with it rather than actually acknowledging that it's completely out of your control and it's a natural 4-week cycle for females.

Yeah. And the thing with it is some of the cycles get a bad rap. Some of the phases get a bad rap where in our society and in fitness, we always value the best. What was the best? Uh, my best time, my best thing, you know, like we always want that best. So everyone thinks, and I mean, I have thoughts too of like, be better than you were the day before, you know, like all these things. But for females, it is not linear like that. It is not linear. Yes, we have progression and moving forward, but we do it within a cyclical nature and each phase has something— I mean, I'm most excited— has, has something beautiful to offer for it. Was it your best time that you felt and you're like a champion on top of the world? Maybe not if you're in your luteal phase, but is your focus and your attention and the ability to execute and to zero in, that is there and that is strong and is just a different type of skill and leverage that you have at that moment in time. And then menstruation is a beautiful time to literally release and relax and let go and reflect. I mean, we'll do retros for a job, you know, like, how did that project go? Let's reflect on this. Let's take a moment and see, and what do we want to bring in to the next project type of situation? Our body naturally is doing that for us to say, hey, let's take a moment to look at the past month. What worked? What didn't? What felt aligned? What do I wanna bring in to my next month? So instead of looking at these phases that offer different aspects of ourselves, it's just a season and a time that we get to enjoy what that is and see it, see that moment for appreciation instead of saying, but I didn't do my best and this day felt typically less than my other one. So that means now I am decreasing. And it's like, no, we're just doing something else. Like if a retro was happening, are we judging the team based on the output that they did? No, because the, the output was already done. Now they're reflecting on it. So the thing is judging the wrong, the wrong aspect. And so instead judge the retro for the, what the retro was. Did we communicate? Did we reflect? Did we get to, you know, overlook and oversee it all? So you had to, what? I'm interested to do for females is shift that judgment level that we have instead of judging ourselves by our best, get to know ourselves and not judge at all. So I don't wanna be using this word, but to feel so strong in yourself. And so if you came to me talking about a retro and you're yelling at me about execution, I would feel strong enough saying, thank you, Andy Walsh. This is a retro. Here are what our goals are that we're doing here. So thank you for your feedback. However, not applicable right now. I will use that information for my, you know, for my execution that we are now about to do. So, but having that strength and knowing, sure, you're giving me certain feedback, but it's not the appropriate feedback at the appropriate time, so I'm not going to internalize it or channel it. However, women will internalize it and channel it because we don't know any different. We think that's the standard. We think that's what we have to do is perform our best and be better every single day than what we were. But there's different ways to be better.

Such a beautiful reframe and everyone needs to hear this. And I think females obviously, but males too. And one of the things that I see, and maybe it comes from my study at university, but there were so many terms that we would just use every day and menstruation as a term. I assume there'd be a lot of males that would be uncomfortable even saying the word, let alone having a conversation with a female. About the menstruation cycle. So I think terminology feels like a huge opportunity as well. And one of the phrases I love to use is normalizing the narrative. It's words. It's like teaching a kid to say penis and vagina rather than code words, right? Like the ability for people to talk so openly about this rather than sweeping it under the rug and avoiding the conversation. It's like, this is not going to change. This is part of half the population of the world. So having these conversations more and getting this information out there, it allows people to have more empathy. And empathy is what allows us to level out as humans and understand each other better. So I'm excited, like, one, for that normalization to happen, but two, for female athletes in all shapes and forms, whether you go for a walk each day or whether you're Mia Hamm and you're one of the best athletes in the world. This applies to everyone.

And what I really appreciate about what you just shared is the curiosity coming at it and just allowing to come with curiosity and exploration instead of being a must or should or a labeling. But that's also where when males engage in these conversations, you're allowed to be curious. The education hasn't been there. 50% of ladies don't know about their cycle. Sure. Men don't know either. Nobody knows. So let's come to this with curiosity and openness about it, as well as then ladies coming to their own bodies with curiosity of, I'm in pain. I'm curious. I'm gonna keep learning. My doctor said it's just what it is. No, keep getting curious and keep finding out why. Cuz our bodies are not meant to be in pain. That's not why we were created and we do not need to be in pain. Doesn't need to happen. So to keep getting curious. Curious around it. And the more curious we are, then we're gonna do research to keep finding out more. But luckily, research— there has been research being done and it's continuously being done. And the— where, where this shift is happening is enough foundational research has been done of knowing how these hormones are shifting, knowing how the metabolism changes. We are seeing that ACL tears in women's sports, unfortunately, the last— well, Unfortunately that they are occurring, but they are occurring. Elasticity changes also throughout. So ladies might be like, oh my goodness, I'm more flexible at a certain time than another. But there is a trend that they are happening at a certain time. And so can we notice this and be aware of this and give right training exercises to help prevent this? And, you know, game day you might need to show up and do it because you just gotta do it. But then training, we could absolutely do some different approaches to training to not overuse a certain muscle group that might be more fragile at a certain time. So being able to reduce injury, because women's sports is taking off and we are going and we want to see these ladies thrive in their body. And if they know their body, then they can thrive in their body.

This podcast is brought to you by Cherub. Cherub is an AI-powered investment platform matching founders and angel investors. The future of fundraising is here. Delightful data rooms, diligence, and deal flow. Founders, get your application fast-tracked. Use the word decoded. Invest with cherub.com. So powerful. And I'll tell you an adjacent statistic. I was talking to a friend the other day and he was talking about ACL injuries for NFL players playing at MetLife Stadium here in New York. And it's got a higher ratio because of the surface. And there's a whole conversation happening around it. I guarantee you a lot of people would know that conversation, yet what you just shared about female athletes aligning with cycles and an increased chance of injury, like, there'd be a tiny percentage of people in the world. And there's just a, a real, like, shift that needs to happen in, in research and education. So I love that you're doing that. And to extend that into more formal partnerships, you're talking to athletes and teams at the moment about being able to integrate Syncin into their health and wellness program so it becomes a standard across the board. Can you talk to us about what that looks like as far as a collaboration together with a partner?

Yeah, I've been so excited for partnerships. Also, to frame things also, because I know I'm speaking with a lot of founders here, people in my life have really been shitting on partnerships, saying don't do them, they're such a headache, uh, you just have to put so much work in, you don't get much out type of, type of stuff. So I say do what feels right for you and what you enjoy. That was that person's circumstances. I am extremely social, love collaborating with others. So like, this has been so much fun to work with others. And especially then, I intentionally wanted to make sure Syncin was ready to provide value. I didn't want to be a partner with someone where I just kind of was a little leech and I was like, you're cool, I'm hanging on. Um, I really wanted it to be a win-win for all involved, and that then Sync N can help these athletes with these injury prevention and muscle recovery and knowing how to show up. So then I am providing a value, and so it's a value share that we're able to give each other. And then looking at— I just was given— curious to hear your thoughts on this too— interesting advice from a fellow founder who had said to not to do a partnership for more than 6 months with someone, because especially part part of your goal is a shared audience, is to not do it for more than 6 months because you'll— you're going to tap out that shared audience in a way. Maybe it could continue, but like, do it in— do it for a quarter or do it for event. I'm very— I'm based in New York, and so— and again, I love doing things with people. I know this won't necessarily scale, but getting it off the ground, doing events in person and getting to connect, then I'm able to get feedback. I get to do a sample project with another company, we then get to share our audience. We get to see what it's like working together in the way of an event, becomes a win-win for all involved. And then we can continue the conversation later on if there's more to be uncovered and different stuff. So I'm also approaching it as baby steps and as feelers and knowing partnerships is sometimes key, but also knowing I have to keep the car moving and gotta keep it going. And if the partnership's willing to come in, then we can go together. Please jump on the train and let's go. But I also can't stop the world just for this like one event partnership. If they're not replying either, it's like, great, we'll try again next month. Great, we'll try again here. And so this is where it's like my longevity within Syncin and my longevity for showing up and for being open to these partnerships and like knowing and trusting I'll put it out there, I'll keep moving forward, but they'll come, they'll not come, then we'll continue moving forward. And then when we're ready, cuz I also do want to be the best partner to somebody else and want to provide as much as I can and support, but then also I can do that. And then if it's not matched at this exact month, then it's like, okay, instead of just like destroying you saying, how dare you, you then suck. It's like, no, I understand. You're also dealing with all these other things as a business owner too. Like, we'll just table it and continue, continue on to keep, to keep going. So that's kind of my, some of my thoughts right now on partnerships. But I'm so excited because obviously, as we've been talking, my product's about women understanding their body and owning it and showing up to their life in the fullest way, in whatever that is. And there are so many complimentary products and offerings and brands that align with that in their own, own way. You know, they're just doing it in a way of I just met someone last night who— it's skincare for athletes, you know, and understanding sweat is happening more. And so she has that same inner goal of wanting the ladies to feel the best in their body, in their skin, so they can show up to what they wanna show up for. And so it was like, we are so aligned on this, but it's like skincare's very different from what I'm doing. But those, like, so there's so many different potential partnerships to leverage. And now that I have the product ready, I'm ready to go full-blown into my partnerships for it to be a win-win.

For sure. And I can speak to partnerships. I've done it a lot historically. And, and the rule generally is that a partnership is a great acquisition strategy, but it's not for retention. So you look at something obvious like a Verizon and Netflix. So Verizon will say, come and join us and we'll give you free Netflix. It's just just a simple tool to offer a dollar value that is a simple transaction, right? You save $15 a month, whatever it is, by being on Verizon. So you can equate a dollar value, but typically existing customers are there because they like the product. So it works for a period of time, but people get over it. The novelty value of acquiring people through that wears off because people see the message over and over and it dilutes the value of what you're doing. So So it's a great acquisition tool initially. It has a shelf life, definitely. And then to be able to maximize it, you do need to broaden it. But one-to-many, where there's a mutual benefit, is so strong. Where there's existing audiences that could get value from your product, you could join a professional sporting league, offer it to everyone within that league. They're getting the upside of your product, which is so relevant, and you're getting a bigger opportunity. So you both win. So for the right people out there, there's so much opportunity with what you're doing because it offers very specific and inherent value to improve people's lives.

Right. And also I'm all about action. I'm all about action inside what my product is for. We're literally moving your body and feeling aligned, but then also I'm just action-oriented in general as well. So like, let's make it be an active partnership so we can actually see. And some of my first questions I'll ask people that I'm looking to partner with, I'm like, what are your goals? Like, what are your goals and what will be like most success? Like what will feel most successful to you and what you're trying to achieve in this? Because also in my early stages, I have certain goals. Like I have, I have a few. And so now I can assess which of these can I hit go on? Because some I'm looking for additional partnerships, some I wanna connect with my end user, some I wanna connect with the right investor. So I'm like, which Which are you doing? Because I, I can't address all of those in the same event or the same type of thing, but knowing what you are most excited by and what you are aligned with, then it's like, oh, does that match one of mine? Perfect. That's the one I'll, I'll activate. And so with my partnerships I'm seeking with and starting now is looking with professional athletes to be able to work with them both as beta testers as well as brand ambassadors. And so that then they're able to both use it. And with my user research background, I really care about providing value. That's the, that's the whole point. I really don't want it to be a, I got 'em and I got their money and now they're out. That won't be a success to me. Sure, financially cool, but like, I really want to provide this value and that will come from all the work I do and the listening that I do for the athletes, but they'll be able to see more of what I've done by using it. And so then it's a win-win because they're using it, they're getting feedback. I'll be able to understand what that is, see if other people are having the same situation, and then being able to make product adjustments based on that while they're able to share it with their audiences. And I also see it cuz this is for people who have a sport and are committed to it and want to use the fullest strength of their body for it, as well as those with hormonal imbalances of PCOS or endometriosis. Athletes who've never had a fitness plan before that ever takes that into account. So, and some are somewhere in between, really. And some then are professional athletes with those hormonal imbalances and they're like, oh my goodness, please, I've never had anybody understand my body in this. So we're wanting to go directly to the source to work with them, to learn from them. And all collegiate levels look at the best. So, you know, even if you're running for a marathon, people are gonna look at those who are the professional athletes and be like, well, the professional athletes do these types of gels. I don't, they, they use a liquid, so I should probably use a liquid to rehydrate. And it's like, okay, well, like what are the professionals actually doing? Why are they doing this? But everyone's gonna be looking to them. And so to be able to also connect with our collegiate level athletes, um, to, so that's part of the strategy. With it.

I see a huge opportunity for storytelling in what you're talking about there as well. We talked earlier around education being a really critical part of what you're doing. People need to know the terminology, they need to understand their body, and once people are aware of that, it creates desire to want to do it. And if you're partnering with a professional athlete, the collaboration that you can do to look at that person— people love human stories, and we're in a world where content has been been democratized so much that anyone can create stories. So there's more out there, but most of them lack a real human approach to what you're doing. They can be quite contrived for a very specific output. But what you're doing is able to put a spotlight on someone's training program and look at how historically they've trained, what they've adjusted, the input, um, that's come from the app, but then also how it's changed their life. Have they noticed better mental health? Have they noticed better recovery time? All the things that you know about it, and it makes it relatable. But you can also do it with your everyday athlete and taking the Nike approach of that every person is an athlete. It's whatever you choose to do, and it could be exercising 3 days a week, and, and people would think their story is not that interesting. But if you've got something that people suffer and no one's talking about, and you're able to tell the story about how they've been able to maybe just slow down the impact and the effects that it has, because that's so debilitating. For so many women, which means quite often you can't even get out of bed or work because the pain is so much. So that education part on both ends of the scale is really, really critical.

And then how many people with endometriosis are trying to sign up for the New York City Marathon and then saying, oh my goodness, I don't know, week 4 says I have to do this certain thing. I don't think I can show up for it. I don't know. Now, am I off my plan? Am I not? Can I even still do it? Like, and it's like, to get rid of that little headache and confusion around it and to, to making sure they know they still can achieve it. We're just going to achieve it with the, with the flow and rhythm of, of their body instead of fighting against it.

I think looking at you as a test subject, we met maybe a year ago, longer, and talking about what you're doing, like, I'm very passionate about exercise and sport. That would have been my other career career if I hadn't gone down the path that I'm in. And we talked about that, and I saw your mission, but I also got to know you and looking at how you use your own product to change your life. And you're one of the most passionate and energetic people that I know. And being a founder is, is not an easy game to be in. It's stressful and it's hard. And I see how you just have such focus and clarity with what you're doing, and your feathers aren't rustled very easily. Would you say that over time of learning and growing and understanding the space, that you've observed your own mental health and energy levels, etc., improve as a result?

I mean, all of this, it's always a continuous learning and acceptance of myself and knowing where I'm at and processing it. You know, things will come up and I have to process it, and then knowing what's the right way for me to process it at the right time and what's kind of going on. Do I have time to process it physically, to get it out? Because obviously I do love connecting with my body. So am able— I have a little trampoline that I will use in between things. I use it as my mood stabilizer sometimes because if I'm too ex— because you also have to be in the perfect zone to do certain work. You really gotta be right there for it. If you're too excited, my goodness, you can't focus, you know? But if you're like really upset by something, you also can't do it either. So if I like, probably like after this, I'm like, this was fun, this was so exciting. And then I kind of need to like get that out. It's like, how can I send like a little email that I have to put all these tags and links to? That's just kind of like, you gotta be right in the middle place for that. So I'll, I'll use my trampoline to get my energy out, release it, like, and, and not try to shove it and to be like, no, you're excited. Let's now get this out, do it, release it, and then come back to the task at hand that you're needing, needing to do. And sometimes the same will be the other direction if things are not going well and I'm not in a place and shifting my gear and knowing, you know what, I have to shift my gear down. And that's what I need to do because what, what I need and what Sinkin needs is for me to be okay. If, if I go, this goes, and this cannot go because women's sports needs this. And so I'll like need to shift down. There's a yoga instructor who had said, have your breath be louder than your thoughts. And also I was actor and performer, and it's always like, make sure in the scene your intention is bigger than any fear of the high note type of thing. Just like, play the intention, play the intention. And for what I'm going through now in Founder Life, it is, well, what is my, uh, what is the value I'm going to provide? And that is going to overcome any ridiculous remedial task of setting up Revenue Cat and sending the next version into the App Store. And it's like, but that value is bigger than what this task is. So sure, I will show up to this task and do this because of these bigger, the bigger intention behind it and the reasoning behind it.

Amazing. And even just at a human level, I hear the word trampoline and my brain goes back to being a kid and I immediately just think of play and playtime and that positive dopamine hit that you get from a positive experience in your life and just having the ability to stop and do that and know that big picture, it's helping you maintain mental health, but it also gives you moments of distraction where you can recalibrate and go back and be focused. That is really important too. To continue on, I want to make sure we can cover off all of our things today. Playtime for me is a whole episode. I think it's so important, but I want to be able to look at, um, what's happening right now. I'm an advisor on Syncin, and I love your mission and what you're doing. I think it's really powerful. And I'd love to talk about the impact that it, it has on you. And we talked a little bit about your change over the last 10 years of understanding and learning and ultimately creating what you're doing now. We're fundraising at the moment, which can be really confronting in so many ways as far as the energy and output required to get a meeting, let alone to close a deal. How do you approach the combination of your own mental health, physical health with the time that you need to invest into doing something like fundraising? How active are you in planning that out?

I think it's gone through different phases, and I'm also one who doesn't half-ass things. When I do something, I really do it, and I want to excel at it. And I also think that the more I— the harder I go, the more you as my advisor or someone else seeing it can give positive feedback. If I just tell you about what my deck would be like in theory, you'd be like, sure, in theory that interesting. Instead, it's like, here's as far as I got on my own. Now, now give me your feedback, cuz this is as far as I— this is as far as I got. And you're like, oh yeah, let's go further. I'm like, perfect. Now here's as far as I got on my own, you know? And so I really most prefer committing to it full out. I've then needed to really choose what's most important to me to commit full out at which time. And over the summer, while I wanted to be able to commit full time to fundraising, I had to commit to building the product because I knew that that is what was then of interest to the investors, that then is— was interest to the partners. And that's what I was wanting to do the entire time. I wanted to see this value, so I intentionally worked on that, but while building relationships. And so all these relationships have been compounding, and honestly, as fast as I possibly can, because I did not go to networking events or realize the benefit of them. Again, I need to not listen to what people say. People say networking events are the worst. I love them. They're amazing. I meet so many great people. That's how I met you. Like, so I just was like, ah, don't go because people say it. No, no. So now, now that things are in a place, I am— and also to love talking to my founders, clearly I love talking to my founders— that I call them scams. There's a lot of scams out there. It's like planning a wedding for the price goes up. Anytime someone says something for a founder It's just like price goes up, everyone's targeting founder stuff, like everyone thinks they can help unlock the founder. I get it, if you unlock the founder, you unlock all the potential of the company, so I get it, go to the root source. This root source has a lot of things coming at it and has a lot of things it needs to do, and if you're not actually providing value, I really do not have time and I will call you a scam even if you might not be. But earlier in this year, I was exploring and allowing certain meetings meetings with people that maybe shouldn't have because I just wanted to say it and wanted to practice it and wanted to get things out. But I was like, Andy Walsh, how much money to get connected with investors? Like, absolutely not. But now, because I had done some of those, I feel really confident in what I'm saying and how I'm saying it and the message that I'm coming across. And then now I'm being extremely intentional for the fundraising strategy and truly committing to it. And then because I'm fully committing to it, everything else is coming into line, even though I was like, why didn't that come into line earlier? When it's like, well, where was your full energy with it? If your energy is there and now I'm able to literally lead it, now I'm able to, um, it's all falling into place and the right individuals in the right way. And so I was like, Okay, so I just know it's— I need to show up for it. And honestly, okay, we'll keep talking about it, but now that I'm fully committed with it, I think this is really fun. I am also— I explained to my friend who's a Broadway performer, and I was like, this is like me trying to get 12 callbacks all on the same week, booking them myself without having an agent. Um, and I was like, the one good thing is it's all the same material. At least I have the same material and not different callback material. But I was like, but they're all going to give different feedback for it, so I need to be aware aware of what that is. But now that that's happening, like, are you kidding me? I'll pitch this all day long. I'll talk to everybody about it. And then I'm really just looking to connect with the right people who wanna be in on this at the ground level. And so it now, I feel really confident in what's happening. I'm really confident in the partnerships and the people that I'm collaborating with. I'm really confident in that I'm getting to show up as myself. I thought I had to be something other, or I wasn't allowed to be excited, or I wasn't allowed to put an exclamation point on something. And it's like, no, I to and I'm able to. And also that's how I— or, or send a voice memo to somebody. That's how I like communicating. I like speaking more. So I'm putting all of these things in my area of strength. And then if I'm able to come from a place of strength that is recognized, and that is what I'm needing to do as a leader and also with the people I'm interested to collaborate with for fundraising, is we are partners in this. We are going to be partners and I wanna partner with the best people, the best people people that they— I have criteria. They need to believe in Sync N and women's health. They need to believe in me as a founder, because obviously I'm the one here for all this. And they need to be smarter than me and in this for the long term, because I really want people— I'm only working with people who are smarter than me, because again, I can go so far and I will go so far, and then please unlock more. And so now that that's clear, I'm like, let's go.

I respect your energy so much and your ability to lean into things and make them happen, ask for help from people when you need to, pragmatism that not every founder has. So I think that's really strong. And, and I think it's important now to talk about the app itself. And again, your tenacity to get the app live. Anyone who's listening who wants to give it a try, tell us a little bit about about where to get it and that onboarding experience?

Yes, you can get it. We're SyncN, S-Y-N-C, then the letter N, and we're on Instagram at SyncN App. And then those are all of our handles so you can find us and download. And we do not collect any of your personal data, so this is the most secure women's cycle tracking app, as well as we will then provide you the right fitness plan aligned for your body, this compassion, and we put it into action. So you just get to come press play by our amazing, fabulous founding team of instructors, and then you are set. If it's a longer warmup, if it's not, we're right there for you. And, um, I'm also had the pleasure of getting to attend by Billie Jean King's Women's Sports Foundation event the other week. And Michelle Kang had said she gave her award to everyone saying, this is for people who did not wait their turn. And so to really step forward even before it's maybe time time or seems appropriate time, but just to, just to not wait, not wait your turn. So that's also what I want to say to the founders to keep moving forward because our turn comes from other people's timelines and it comes from when we're ready and we're ready.

Data protection. For anyone who read the headlines about Flow, there's lawsuits coming everywhere. They got fined $8 million. I think Google settled at $52 million. Meta, they're talking about billions because they were scraping all the data from that app. And it's awful when you see that happen, but people need to be aware about privacy and protecting what they're doing with that. But to go back though to the product, I also want to make sure that everyone listening gets a pretty good deal. I like to get mates rates wherever I go and being involved in the business, I feel like we can offer listeners something pretty special to today.

Yes, I'm excited to get to share that all the listeners are able to use the code DECODED and be able to get 6 months free for the app. And it takes 3 months to notice hormonal differences in a woman's body. So the changes you make that we'll help set up for you, it takes 3 months to see it. So we're really with you for the long haul and want to see those longevity changes that feel right for you. So the 6 6 months is, is a gift, honestly, to your body to, to stick with it and know that it's, it's beyond just a 1-week challenge.

It's amazing. 6 Months Free is a great way for females to help, 1, understand their bodies, but 2, see a noticeable shift. So that commitment is going to be worthwhile investment. So that's amazing that you're sharing that, and I'll put all the details in show notes on my social channels and you'll be able to reach out to Lizzie directly if you want to. Lots of opportunity in Syncin. So Lizzie, thanks again. This has been such a treat. I obviously work with you, but I feel like that I've learned a lot today too. So I appreciate that.

Thank you, Andy. Appreciate being here.

Thanks for listening to Startups Decoded. If today's conversation helped you think differently, share it with a founder in your network and don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe for real-world startup insights every week. We really value your support. If you're interested in partnering with us, email hello@startupsdecoded.com. I'm Andy Walsh. I'll see you next week.