Grid110 Founder Spotlight: Mina Health
This month’s Founder Spotlight is about Nina Joshi and Lina Borgo of Mina Health.
An average of 27 million women between the ages of 45 and 64 experience menopause each year. Women do not know when menopause will start, how long it is going to last, or what phase of menopause they are currently in. The uncertainty with menopause leads to inaccurate treatment of menopause. Traditional treatment and testing are inconvenient, expensive, and overwhelming.
Meet Mina Health, your one-stop shop for all things menopause! Lina and Nina are both from the Los Angeles area, and since they basically had the same name, they hit it off instantly. Lina and Nina worked together for two years, launching several digital health products, specifically in women’s health and the mental health space. Mina Health was created because women should feel confident and prepared for menopause.
To learn more about Lina and Nina’s entrepreneurship journeys, check out the full interview below.
What is your venture? What do you do?
We are building a one-stop shop for menopause! Our platform focuses on menopause diagnostic testing, treatment, and education. We launched our at-home menopause hormone test in 2020, and our test provides insight into menopause timing and phase for women. When it comes to our at-home test, our mission is to make hormone testing affordable and accessible.
We decided to start with our diagnostic solution when we learned just how stressful it can be for women to navigate menopause symptoms. Many of the women we spoke to (including our mothers) could recount the struggle of having to determine if the unpleasant symptom they were experiencing was menopause or something else entirely.
What prompted you to start your venture?
In our role as consultants at a large healthcare organization, we spend a lot of time looking at the digital health market. When we conducted market scans on Women’s Health, we saw so much activity and so many companies that served the first part of a woman’s life (from menstruation to pregnancy). Still, very few companies focused on the second part of a woman’s life.
We saw this as a huge missed opportunity. When speaking to family and friends who are currently going through menopause or went through the transition, we noticed that this natural milestone was still so stigmatized. We knew we had to change this for our mothers today and for us as future-menopausal women!
What’s unique and advantageous about being in LA for you and your venture?
LA is home for both of us, and since we are dealing with a topic that is so personal for us, it only made sense for us to be close to home.
What advice would you give to Founders who are considering applying to Grid110?
You don’t need to have it all figured out to join Grid 110! Grid 110 not only gives us an amazing community and network of like-minded founders but also a massive wealth of practical knowledge regardless of company stage.
Now, time for some more FUN questions about Mina Health!
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Lina: Dentist
Nina: Journalist
If you could have a meal with anyone, living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Lina: Nelson Mandela
Nina: Anthony Bourdain
WILD round — share a random fact about yourself!
Lina: I cage dived with great white sharks
Nina: As a teenager, I was on a Disney Channel game show (and I won!)
News from the Mina Health team!
We recently launched our updated website that includes a new private and HIPAA-compliant dashboard to view and download menopause results, learn more about menopause in general, as well as a new shop page that has recommended products to manage menopause symptoms. We also have a new promotion for $10 off a menopause kit. Check out our new website!
Follow us and stay in touch through social media!
Instagram at mina.health
Facebook at itsminahealth
About Grid110
Grid110 is an economic and community development nonprofit dedicated to creating clearer pathways to success for early-stage entrepreneurs. Our mission is to foster the most thriving, inviting & inclusive community for entrepreneurs in Los Angeles by making the entrepreneurial path more equitable, inclusive, and accessible. We provide founders with a growing community of fellow entrepreneurs, expert mentorship, and crucial resources through our no-cost, no-equity accelerator programs.
