BizTech Superhero

Joshua McNary [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the Biz Tech Superhero, the podcast that empowers you to unleash the technology superpowers within your business. I'm your host, Joshua McNary. I'm joined by today's superhero, Alyx Coble Frakes, CEO and founder of The Agenda based in Brighton, Iowa. I'm looking forward to discussing tech with Alyx as she runs her mobile application and platform to support women's health. Alyx, welcome to the show.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:00:23]:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here today.

Joshua McNary [00:00:26]:
So for folks that are meeting you for the first time, could you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:00:31]:
Absolutely. So, yeah, I'm the founder of The Agenda Period, which started off as a physical planner to show women how to work with the four phases of their menstrual cycle, which automatically people may be like, what? What the heck? What do you mean work with the phases of your cycle? And then we took all of that content and we turned it into a mobile application. And so we're really now building out a whole a hormonal health hub from your first period all the way through menopause. And we're really excited about what is unfolding and what's possible through technology.

Joshua McNary [00:01:00]:
And you've been doing this for a while. We met many years ago and you were getting this all going. So tell us a little about that backstory.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:01:06]:
Yeah. So in 2018, I started a health coaching company, and I found that I had higher sales during the ovulation phase of my menstrual cycle. And I was like, yo, I have a business degree. They did not teach me this in sales one zero one. What the heck is happening? What's going on here? And I thought it was very, very strange. So before I did any public announcing of my new fresh idea, I looked for studies and research and actually found a study that was a study of exotic dancers, and they split the cohort into a group of women on birth control and those who are not on birth control. And the women who are not on birth control all saw an increase in tips during ovulation up to 30%. And I said, hello, business use case.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:01:42]:
Who who wouldn't wanna add 30% to their bottom line by just understanding your maximum time for making sales or acquisition calls? And so I was like, we're really onto something. So in 2019, I finally launched a beta test. We had a hundred women in business sign up within the first week of just putting it on our Facebook pages. Like, oh, crap, we're really on something. Women find this kind of, like, intuitive and interesting when we start to think about it. So through that, our initial MVP building, which was on Google Spreadsheets, even before we made the physical planner, we just talked women through understanding how they're different. And now I even have more depth of that knowledge. Right? The first half of our cycle, we have prosocial hormones.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:02:17]:
So that's what makes it easier to go do new things, be in sales calls. And then the second half of the cycle, we're more pro self because our body is protecting a potential pregnancy. And so the more that I understand the science, the more that I understand and I've seen it on the ground with our customers, the more I've seen it of myself, the more excited I am, even though I'm now like six years into this, because there's still so much that most women on the planet don't know and that most men on the planet don't know. And it is causing a lot of unwanted friction in our relationships, in our marriages, in our working relationships. And so as we keep growing, we're excited to keep expanding our content and really supporting women in that midlife transition as they're going through perimenopause because it's a huge work issue, relationship issue, parenting issue that, again, we're all kind of ice skating around, but we're not really talking about in an open and serious way. And so, I like to talk about things in an open and serious way. So I guess I may be the gal for the job to kinda keep it going.

Joshua McNary [00:03:13]:
That's great. I mean, and it's it's it's interesting because you've went through this progression of that. You mentioned essentially a health coach and then moving into these initial test products that you had, and then you moved into the mobile app world in the the latter or this I guess, you could tell us how long you've been doing that. But as we're here on BizTech superhero, maybe talk a little bit about that progression in in your world and and how that happened. And I love how you started, with with with, you know, physical products and and such to learn what to do properly in the technology space.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:03:49]:
Yeah. It's so funny because my very one of my mentors early on actually runs a startup in Coralville and early on when I told him and I was like, and it's gonna be a planner. And he's like, no. Make an app. And I was like, bro, I'm not doing that. I literally don't know how to do that. I don't think it's a good idea. And he's like, k.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:04:04]:
Call me in six months when you're ready to get your head out of your ass and make an app. And I finally I was like, okay. So, I wanna make an app. And he's like, oh, yeah. No kidding. This this content lends itself in so intentionally and so well to an app because of that ability to distribute on a much higher level. And so he's like, of course, you were going to end up here, but I'm really glad that I didn't start there because we would have wasted a lot of money. We would have wasted a lot of time Mhmm.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:04:28]:
Because building a tech product is complicated. It's more complicated than build building a physical product. They're different. There's different challenges. And now we're kind of swinging back to the CPG world, which I'm really excited about. But there's a lot that goes into it. So we went through several different developers. I had a developer that we are like solo shop.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:04:46]:
I'm not I'm trying not to go offshore. This is gonna be great. Mhmm. And then I I think totally overwhelmed him looking back with, like, the scope of my MVP, and he just agreed to it because he's super kind. He's like, yeah. No. Like, that sounds great. I love the work, and this sounds really doable.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:05:00]:
And I was like, this was not what I now know of an MVP of a technology platform. Like, I had to learn a whole new language and skill set to do it.

Joshua McNary [00:05:09]:
It's a common problem there to have that want of more than what you really could have in those original MVPs. I mean, I see that across all technologies implement, whether it's mobile app type things or websites or ecommerce, whatever. Starting smaller helps.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:05:23]:
It does. And it's it's just like as a founder, it's I I knew even and I thought what we were bringing to him the first time was, like, within a scope of an MVP. And looking back, I was like, that was insane. And that's not an MVP because I had so many dreams for what this thing could be. And I would say even at the version now, we're at version three or four, like, kind of fully refleshed out, and it's still not at its final version. It's still not the place where I know it's gonna land eventually. And that's hard, but it's also really valuable right now as is, and it's delivering an incredible value proposition to our users. And I know that we're heading in the right direction, but we just keep getting it more close to being right because we're interfacing with customers, and we have that user feedback and that and getting feedback on the interface and getting feedback on all of these different components is the only way you actually get to the iPhone 15.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:06:15]:
Right? They talk about that a lot. Right? The app the iPhone one, embarrassing compared to the iPhone 15. Yeah. But you had to have the iPhone one to get to the iPhone 15 because you had to work it through different people and and get that understanding. And so I've really come to appreciate that as a nontechnical founder. I've learned as much as I have, and I'm glad that we have been working iteratively, and we will keep working iteratively because we're gonna get closer to really delivering what our customers need. And that kind of changes as our customers change and as they age and as kind of weirdly as they age with me, because I was 27 when I started this. I'm turning 34.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:06:51]:
This is like a little crazy to think about. I'm getting closer and closer to perimenopause. A lot of our content is shifting that way. And our kind of community is growing up with me in a lot of ways and like, oh, hey, we're needing different things now. And it's all kind of getting built built as we go.

Joshua McNary [00:07:06]:
Well, you're you're a visionary leader in what you're doing and you're passionate area here. And so you're always thinking to that next thing. And, again, this is a common problem for many of us to be thinking about that next thing. And, yeah, you've built already built some great tools and and technology and ideas, and you're just evolving with that and taking that next action, the next step to be able to kinda see around the corner a little bit to be able to figure out what the next action is makes a lot of sense in in your general business plan, but certainly within the technology as you as you as you've seen over the

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:07:37]:
Absolutely. I love this. Like, we we were actually kind of thinking last year, like, it's time. It's time to start pivoting more intentionally into perimenopause, but then we really just started running at that as our our new North Star, honestly, like to our biggest differentiator because there's a lot of pieces of technology that are kind of like for menopause and there's a lot for fertility and there's a lot for even like teens and tweens. But this in between this midlife section that can take ten to fifteen years for women to transition through. There's not a lot of support, and you really need something that's that is connective from point a to point c. So, like, through the middle of perimenopause and then still be able to support you on the other side. And so that's really the vision that we're holding.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:08:14]:
And I I love that we're running after this right now because our competition is not doing it because they don't really care. They're pretty niche down and excited about where they're at. And I know what's coming around the corner. We're five years out from this major event. We're gonna have a billion women on the planet who are either in perimenopause or in menopause with an additional forty seven million dumping into that category every subsequent year. And so the target is gigantic. The amount of money and disposable income in that population is gigantic. Women are control about 80% of health care spending.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:08:43]:
And yet the health care system is decades, if not centuries, behind on women's health because of the menstrual cycle. Literally having a menstrual cycle is the thing that that scientists will say makes us too complicated to put into scientific research as a cohort because it's just too many variables. And, like, literally, isn't that your job as scientists is to, like, figure out how to handle the variables? I don't know. But we're so far behind in this research that we know kind of with some of those market indicators, millennial women are demanding and are going to get demand a much different menopause and perimenopause experience than the generations have before us. Because, like, this is bullshit. It shouldn't be this hard for us to get access to basic health care. And it just still the reality on the ground is it still is that challenging to get access to that basic health care. So we know the wave is coming, and I'm so proud that we're gonna be there to catch it.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:09:33]:
We're there. We're we're early, which is a challenging startup world. But I have my eye on the prize, and I know where we're going, and I know what we're gonna be able to do as that wave really crashes. So I'm I'm super excited for the trip.

Joshua McNary [00:09:44]:
Well, I think our listeners, that maybe haven't met you before are probably already sensing you're gonna take this through fruition, and I'd have no doubt of that as well. I love the start up energy and, the your your passion around around your your passion area here, and it's awesome. I think I wanna transition a bit into we are in the BizTech Superhero podcast to talk about your technology a little bit more. We kinda touched on that already, talking about that process you've went through. But I can you tell us a little bit about what technology you're incorporating into the business? I mean, we you have the mobile app. Right? Of course. You can talk about that as much as you'd like. But also just what else are you doing within your organization, within those that we're working with you to make things go and actually be able to achieve these ends, that you're pushing towards?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:10:26]:
Yeah. So we are using the technology in an interesting way. We were the so the essentially, I think it'd be helpful to do, like, a high level of what I mean by working with the phases of the cycle. And, like, so if men are listening to this, you're like, what does this have to do with me? But if you have women in your life, in your home, employees or other people you work with, you need to know this information. Right? So men's hormones are like the sun. They repeat every 24. Like the sun comes up and it's like this very predictable, like up down versus the moon is every twenty eight days. It gets bigger up to the full moon and then it comes back down.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:10:57]:
So men's hormones are like the sun. Women's hormones are like the moon. And so when you understand for men, it takes them twenty four hours to repeat their hormonal process. For women, it takes twenty eight to thirty five days to repeat their hormonal process like the moon. So when we start to understand that, we can understand why maybe there's a discordance or a rub point between these two hormonal operating systems. And that's how we like to think about them. Like, even that, we're like, how do we bake in the tech there? Our body is on there are two pretty distinct hormonal operating systems. And when we don't understand how they communicate and interact with each other, that creates a tremendous amount of conflict.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:11:31]:
So for when what this looks like is, like, on on your period, that that first phase, this is a great time for planning. So a great time to look ahead for your schedule and kind of understand what your energetic inputs and outputs will be for the month. Follicular phase, we have a lot of high energy. So this is great for doing, being, getting out there. Ovulation is great for manifesting and that receiving energy. And then in the luteal phase, analyzing and organizing. So everything that we do kind of in the world of work pretty well fits into these different categories and boxes. And so when women know what to focus on when, they end up getting a lot more done because they're not trying to do stuff that feels pretty energetically or hormonally mismatched for them.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:12:07]:
And so when we start to bring this into organization, it helps, like, everyone just having that tool and knowing, oh, maybe I can't even change my schedule today. But this human self awareness really allows me to perform better even if I may not be at my optimal level or energetic level. And so we're we're really excited to be bringing that awareness for people. So in the product itself, we connect to Google Calendar. So this is, like, a great way to use that technology to integrate with the bio biology and the science. So people are getting a little reminder on their calendar for what is going on for them. And then when they're tracking their symptoms, we actually use our first base of AI to recommend products for them in real time to solve those challenges. Yeah.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:12:47]:
So we're the very first menstrual marketplace. So we're actually connecting them to products for all different phases of their cycle. And then if they're in our upgraded subscription, we when they're tracking their symptoms, we will give them a wellness score for that day. And if their score is kinda low, like, hey. Here's some recommendations. Here's a couple of things you could do that won't take very long, and you're gonna see your that wellness score is that indication of physically feeling better. So you're gonna see this in real time improving, and you're gonna notice that when you take those little moments to care for your health, even if you can't change your schedule, you're really gonna improve your productivity.

Joshua McNary [00:13:19]:
Well, what's interesting there is I've toyed with the idea of energy levels or energy categorization around my tasks. So I can at least relate to what you're talking about maybe Yeah. You know, and that faster cycle of the day for, males, but that concept that you're talking about. And I Yeah. Also love the idea of the integration and meeting your customers where they're at. Right? A lot of people live inside their calendar. I know my wife does with our day to day.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:13:44]:
All day every day. I'm, like, checking it.

Joshua McNary [00:13:47]:
Right. So having it be right there where, yes, of course, you're gonna be at a reference to application itself, but then coming out and finding them where they're at day to day and when they actually need that information to see it right there. And then furthermore, adding in the marketplace slash notification of kind of here are suggestions of things to get or things to do to improve your situation based on what we know about you and what you now know about yourself because we're communicating it to

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:14:13]:
Yes. Absolutely. And that's that's just really the customer feedback we've received, how how much better people feel about themselves, even if nothing actually changes materially in their world. But just understanding they're not like when I was going through these spaces without understanding that they were just these normal fluctuations, I felt like a crazy person. Like I was starting my first business and I would be like, on top of the world, I had just gotten three clients and then no one would hire me for two weeks. And I was like, my business is failing. I let my family down. Why would I do this? I was just in the luteal phase.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:14:42]:
It was literally just hormonally very like low estrogen. Estrogen boosts serotonin and dopamine. I just didn't have as many of the feel good hormones, so I thought I was doomed to fail. And then two weeks later, oh my god. I'm on top of the world. My business is incredible. Imagine this sounds kind of crazy making, and it is when when the whole world kind of tells you you should do you should be the same every single day. You consistency looks like showing up and grinding it out no matter what.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:15:08]:
And that advice is great for men because their bodies do the same thing every day. That advice is terrible for women because our bodies do not do the same thing every day. So women, there's a lot of additional guilt and shame that gets layered on top of this because you just don't, we just don't have a cultural conversation around the fact that our bodies are just different. They just are.

Joshua McNary [00:15:28]:
Yes. So Yes.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:15:29]:
Yeah. We're so excited to be able to be bringing this conversation to people.

Joshua McNary [00:15:32]:
That's great. That's great. Well, so can you share any specific example of how something maybe beyond what you've already shared as far in your technology, within your technological world that you've you've established for yourself in in your product has affected you maybe directly as a user story or customers in some way in a user way, like, beyond what you've already shared?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:15:53]:
Yeah. So I would say something really incredible happened, and I'm I'm free to share this story because our, developer, she let me know. So the the, our her one of our main developers, she kind of runs their team. She was using the app because we encourage all of our people working with us to use the app. And she said she started tracking. She had gotten on a new, a non hormonal or not a non hormonal, a new kind of birth control, but she was so she wasn't looking at for her exact period information, but she was tracking all her moods and symptoms in there because we've got a huge section on that. Because I always try to tell people, maybe don't look at birth control, but people are gonna do what they're going to do. So we're like, hey.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:16:27]:
Just still keep track of the mood, the symptoms, the energy. And she said over the first couple of months, she just started to realize her trend was going so low compared to her baseline of happiness, her her baseline of energy. And she realized that the birth control she had gotten on was making her depressed and very, very, very unhappy because she's like, I just was so different than what I was tracking before in the app.

Joshua McNary [00:16:49]:
And

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:16:49]:
so she went in, got off of that birth control, and was instantly feeling better again. And so there can just be birth controls that are not the right fit for a different person. They may work great for somebody, but they're not great for everybody. For example, I have ADHD. People with ADHD can have a harder time in the second half of their cycle because progesterone can be kind of have the opposite effect, for people who have ADHD. So typically progesterone makes you calm. And with people with ADHD, sometimes it makes them not calm. So I was birth control that was pumping me full of a high level of progesterone all of the time.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:17:22]:
And so it was messy. So instead of just, like, having maybe some impacts in the luteal phase, it was impacting me all of the like, my baseline was just, like, crabby now. And I was like, oh, now I realized this this pill with high levels of progesterone does not work well for but that's not something that I've ever gotten into at the doctor's office. I have been on birth control since I was 17. Well, I haven't been for the last, like, ten years. But before that, I had been on since I was 17. And it's nothing that a doctor talks to you about. They're not like, do you have any comorbidities that might make this specific kind of birth control challenging for you? No.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:17:52]:
So when we saw that user story and that testimony and that feedback come back, I'm like, man, this is really life changing because if you go from being a happy person to now being, like, depressed and your doctor told you you're not going to have any impacts from your birth control, you may just think there's something really terrible with your life that isn't going on because the our hormones impact directly our mood, our feelings, our energy levels. And so when we're introducing something that is not supposed to be in our body in those levels, it impacts our entire system.

Joshua McNary [00:18:21]:
Those used stories, both yours and the developer, it just it just highlights the importance of the work you're doing and how just having that little bit of technology applied to your life. In this case, essentially, tracking using these tracking just to help you see the trends is so powerful. And, again, because of the way you're doing it and applying the technology in a way where it's easily accessible on a mobile device, in Google Calendar, etcetera, you're you're just providing that connection of the knowledge that you have and the areas that you wanna make sure the world knows about to the technology, therefore, to the people that you're working with. And that's that's, that's a great great biz tech superhero story to tell. It doesn't have to be, you know, an earth shattering, totally new genre of technology. You're actually applying the technology to a problem that our work needs to understand better.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:19:07]:
Yeah. And it's so funny that you say it like that because we actually our team thinks of it compared to other apps. So a lot of the apps in this whole tracking market really exploded out to help women know when they're to expect their peer. Mhmm. And a lot of the apps weren't even showing the four phases of the cycle. Like, even all the big ones when they came out, they weren't. They weren't going into a deep dive because they, like the medical community, thought that this information was too confusing and complicated for women to pay attention. Like, y'all, there's four phases.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:19:32]:
It's not that complicated. Women are super duper smart. But we are current day humans. I heard this somewhere that we're getting as much stimulation in one day as we used to hit have in, like, our whole human lifetime because of the amount of screens and pings and dings. We're getting bombarded with content all of the time. And so it's really challenging for modern women to track everything about their cycle if they're not using technology because it's harder to remember those patterns when there's so much else that's going on. And so we really believe that the tech enabled solution is the way of the future in this field for sure.

Joshua McNary [00:20:07]:
So what is one challenge around the technology that you've metting that you faced that maybe you could share with the group and maybe how you

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:20:15]:
So a couple of interesting challenges as we had just kind of gone through re re releasing I had to go through a process to re release the app. So even though we had a version, the version that is kind of out there today didn't get relaunched until June of twenty twenty two. So we had had some initial learning, but we didn't have a lot of that traction. And so it's really kind of been like a couple of years since that since that relaunch. And we relaunched it, a couple weeks before Roe v Wade was overturned. And so, in terms of safety, security and desire and temperature for these kind of products, that has been a challenge because women have been fearful, rightfully so, about some curious and weird and dumb stuff going on at the government at all different levels when it comes to women's reproductive health and wellness. And so that was definitely a challenge. But a benefit is we came from a physical product first.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:21:05]:
And so we had stopped making that, but we have since relaunched our original physical planner. And so we know that if women aren't feeling comfortable, especially in the next couple of years using those products, we are someone on the solute on the market that has an analog solution for them. And so as we're continuing to go down the next few years and looking at some of those tech specific technology challenges, we're really going to maintain the agenda platform as that distribution channel, but continue to look for other disruptive ways to bring cyclical health and wellness to the mainstream that are maybe outside of our mobile app, even though our mobile app will always be a connection point into those other CPG products. But really looking at how can we maintain what we have, but then also find maybe some of those old school ways to get people involved during this time of uncertainty or frustration with the current lands current health landscape.

Joshua McNary [00:21:55]:
Well, it goes back to what you were saying about the mentor in our conversation and early on in your evolution as a as a organization business is the idea of that mobile application, the technology being able to expose these ideas to a greater

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:22:08]:
Masses. Yeah.

Joshua McNary [00:22:09]:
Greater masses out there. But, yeah, then some then there's times that maybe the market demands as as you're talking about or the the the actual knowledge you're gaining by taking the action and learning from it leads you towards kinda going back to the future a little bit here with regards to what you're what you're trying to do. And and then maybe think about new ways maybe combining those ideas or otherwise to to lead you forward.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:22:33]:
Absolutely. Yeah. We're kind of seeing how do we keep weaving and blending and making sure that the platform is always one that you can feel comfortable using, but always having those additional avenues for them. So what like, what we know based on the research or lack of research is that health and wellness as a category is ready to completely be disrupted and honestly kind of blown to bits because every product that's on the market right now, the information, the efficacy, and the way it's been presented to the general public has been based on the research and understanding of how these tools, medicines, supplements, regiments, recommendations impact men's bodies. And so all of those products need to get redone. And I'm thinking I'm talking literally everything you could think of in health and wellness, all supplements, all workout plans. And and we're starting to see it slowly come back in into that awareness. But then there needs to be a place to correlate and and put all of that in package that together in a way that's really easy for consumers.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:23:28]:
And so we see ourselves as that connection point, as that hub because we've already built out the technology, being able to recommend those new products and supplements to people. I mean, there's there's so much content coming out. There was even a book on fasting called Fast Like a Girl, Doctor Mindy. She was like, yeah. Fasting's okay for women if you do it with the phases of your menstrual cycle. But if you do intermittent fasting as the the boys club has recommended it, you're going to trash your hormones, and you're going to feel like crap. And you're probably not gonna lose weight. You may even gain weight.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:23:53]:
And so every recommendation we give to women is like the wrong recommendation pretty much. And then it's compounded by we feel guilty because we're seeing the men in our lives have fantastic results by following these protocols and we are not getting any results. And that's because they're not made for us. So that's when you look at for me from the real, real future, from the tenure out. Joshua, that's where we're going is cyclical wellness as a category disruptor and being able to redo, and I mean that sincerely, everything that's in the category in a way that actually is supportive for men for women's bodies.

Joshua McNary [00:24:26]:
And technology is going to be a part of that because, well, you're already doing it. And the AIs of the world and the the continued iterations of the devices we use are is going to be part of that story in some way. You just maybe don't know yet because you're you're the type of person that's making sure you're riding the right waves and finding those right Yeah. Technologies to help you. So what do you think is the biggest challenges facing businesses today with technology? I mean, you mentioned some privacy concerns and things that you're currently facing. But broadly speaking, what do you feel are the biggest technology challenges facing a a startup like you, or the health industry or whatnot?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:25:04]:
Specifically for us, we get caught in this paradigm a lot where investors or even customers sometimes will ask us, like, when's what's the research? What do we know is going on? And then if we can't produce amount of research, like, well, then this must not be a valid thing worth building. And, like, y'all, they we don't have the research because scientists don't think it's worth researching. And that's just like a a leap that's too far. And, like, well, then we then you can't actually prove that these things are happening. I'm like, well, they're happening to me. It's happening to all my friends. All the women I know are experiencing this. So, yes, I do not have a published white study, to show this to you, but but this is really happening.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:25:41]:
And the category I would say we fall directly under is femtech. And that is the biggest challenge of this entire category because essentially everything that's getting built in femtech has some kind of layer of taboo to it, requires a tremendous amount of education, requires a community because of the taboo. So it requires other people to be able to unpack this with and requires a fantastic product. So that's a lot bigger of a lift than if you just have to make a great product. And so that is one of the big challenges that is disproportionately leads to femtech products being underfunded is because there's a heavier lift in terms of education and community building that has to happen in conjunction with a fantastic product that other categories just. And so then sometimes I ask myself, Joshua, why didn't I, like, sell hair scrunchies instead of, like,

Joshua McNary [00:26:35]:
making it?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:26:36]:
Like, I think I could've still I could sell I'm pretty good at selling stuff. I could've done something easier.

Joshua McNary [00:26:41]:
You're passionate about this. That's why. You know, this this is this is what powers you. That's why. And and, of course, it's interesting to learn about some of the challenges you're facing and have seen directly in in your work, when we think about technology broadly speaking. You know, various people come on this this program and are talking about technology from their perspective. But when you're doing a startup in the world that you're in, I could see where these challenges, are unique to you. And, again, I have I have, belief that because of your energy and vision, you're you're you're gonna work through them, and you're gonna figure out ways to move forward and make make an impact because you already are.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:27:16]:
I was gonna say also, I've been at this for too long to give up now because I'm really persistent. And I'm like, dang, we got this far. We gotta just keep trucking up the mountain at this point because that was actually really hilarious. The first time we got an investment, one of the questions, like so this is kind of how the investor would phrase it because it was the cohort. We weren't an accelerate. And they're like, we are making we're placing small bets on all four of these companies with the hopes that maybe one of them, one of you will return anything to the fund. And if you do return some of these to the fund, it's probably not gonna happen for five to ten maybe fifteen years. So and and you could go all the way to ten years and still fail and still not return anything to us or to yourself.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:27:56]:
Knowing all of that, knowing what is stacked against you, knowing that 80% of you're gonna fail within the first two years. Is this something that's worth throwing your life at? Do you care enough about it knowing all of that information? Is it still worth a worthy pursuit for you? And I said, hell yeah. And I am going to be one of the four. I will make a return to this fund. So And

Joshua McNary [00:28:16]:
they're like, yes. Oh, yes. We do wanna invest in you. Yeah. That's that's how the startup world works. And, I mean, and even for folks that are listening to this that that aren't are male or are in a different angle in startups or not in startups at all, they've got an established business. There's lessons to be learned here with the the various themes that you've been picking up on today. And so I appreciate all that you've been sharing and and helping all of us, be inspired in wherever wherever we're at to figure out how to move forward and move through these challenges, whatever they may be for us that we're facing.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:28:46]:
Yeah. I that I was just like I got that early on. I was like, the only way that you're gonna quit is if you give up because you are the person. And there's a lot of people who have visionary stuff and then everyone thinks they're crazy until it works. Right? And then everyone's like, oh, no. I thought this was really cool right away. Like, did you did anyone think this was cool? I don't know. But you you and that's not a great business advice for everybody.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:29:10]:
There's some stuff maybe that doesn't make sense on paper. Maybe that doesn't make sense, like, for you financially. So I'm not saying mortgage your house to keep your business going if it doesn't really look like it's going to work out. But at the same time, I thought, okay, maybe this takes me till I'm 40 to get it to the place that I really wanted to get to. But I I'm gonna place that chip on myself rather than betting on somebody else's dream or vision because every time I if this resonates with you, you're in the right place for entrepreneurship. Every time I had a job, I was like, man, if they would just let me do my process, this would be better. This would be more efficient. I always wanted to bring the ideas and bring that passion.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:29:44]:
And you don't get to do that if you're working for somebody else because your your job is to build their dream, how they want it to be built in the world. And so I said, I can't do this anymore. I have to start my own company. And so I'm even if it takes me, you know, till, like I said, till I'm 40, that's okay because I think I'm a good bet to place. I know how hard I work. I know how persistent I am. I know how much I care about stuff when I get really passionate about something. And so I was like, I think I'm a I'm a good person to make a bet on.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:30:10]:
So I'm gonna keep betting on myself and this company because I know the impact that we can have here.

Joshua McNary [00:30:15]:
That's great. Okay. Well, we're getting down to our final question. So what is one actionable tip you would give to businesses looking to better leverage?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:30:23]:
I would say don't get distracted by the shiny object. There are millions of new systems and CPMs and blah blah, this and that and the other thing. I would say, if you if you find a new piece of technology that you like, is there a way to test an MVP in your own office? Is there a way to test it in some way or build something similar that's a lot lighter and then build that to something else because it's not always the right answer to build in tech first. So as a tech founder, I know that's weird advice, but like what MVP, what can you do first to prove out your technological theories before you invest in either the software or the hardware? Because you're going to save yourself a lot of heartache if you just take a little bit more time at the beginning. Trust me. Take the time and you'll you'll be fine. And you will thank yourself later for not wasting tens of thousands of additional dollars building something you didn't need to build.

Joshua McNary [00:31:10]:
And that's coming from someone that did do a paper planner first and still says that even after, you know Yes. You probably could have done three iterations of that paper planner and still have the same advice. So I've seen that same stuff over and over again. And it's a great way to end this conversation, wide ranging, learning about what you do, what and the your passion area, but also with regards to some start up advice and technology concepts all baked together here. So that was really awesome. Thank you.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:31:38]:
Thank you so much for having me on. This has been a lot of fun.

Joshua McNary [00:31:40]:
Alright. Alyx, where can people find you online so they can stay in touch?

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:31:45]:
The Agenda Period. That's our website, wwwtheagendaperiod.com. We're on linked I'm on LinkedIn a lot, but with with my name, Alyx Coble-Frakes, and then Instagram at the agenda period. And you can go participate in some unhinged TikTok fun at the agenda period as well.

Joshua McNary [00:32:02]:
Perfect. Thanks again for joining me today.

Alyx Colbe-Frakes [00:32:04]:
Thank you so much.

Joshua McNary [00:32:04]:
Alright, folks. That's it for today. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast on any popular directory. Tell a friend about what you have learned here on Biz Tech Superhero, and subscribe to my e newsletter at mcnarymarketing.com/subscribe. Thanks for listening. I'm Joshua McNary, and I hope you will join me again next time so you can learn how to become a biz tech superhero. Bye now.