Persevering Through Life Challenges: Femly & Infant Mortality
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Show Overview:
September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month! Founder Arion Long of Femly Box talks with Dr. Joia Perry, National Birth Equity Collaborative, and the hosts concerning her own personal experience and her own desire to help women navigate the issues we have as women around women’s health including child birth, fertility, infant mortality and health. Arion discusses the loss of her child and hosts share personal stories of their own.
About GFGF:
The Get Found Get Funded podcast is at the intersection of entrepreneurship and social justice where we focus on entrepreneurship as a possible path to wealth creation — specifically for Black and Latinx communities.
Featured Guest: Arion Long & Dr. Joia Crear-Perry
Arion Long, Founder and CEO of Femly, LLC
Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, MD, FACOG & Founder and President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative
Dr. Crear- Perry is a thought leader around racism as a root cause of health inequities, Speaker, Trainer, Advocate, Policy Expert, and fighter for justice – is the Founder and President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative.
Key Takeaways:
- There is a huge distinction between being a business owner and an entrepreneur – and it’s not just mindset
- Relationship Capital is our networks and who we know
- Extracting value from a business is where true wealth is made
- Being exposed to ideas is the first step to doing better
Timestamps:
00:59 Intro
03:44 Femly’s Evolution
08:00 Funding Femly
19:08 Feminine Care
24:48 National Birth Equity Collaborative
33:33 Help During Pregnancy
39:12 Arion’s Story
54:48 Self Care
58:39 Finding A Balance
1:00:30 Outro
Items Mentioned in the Show:
Quotes from the Show:
- “So that's really our ideal client. Anyone in need who doesn't have the time or doesn't feel like sourcing chemical-filled products from stores.” (Arion)
- “What led me to the box service was the success of companies like Dollar Shave Club. I'm not sure if you're aware, but they had $1 billion exit. So one conversation that I always had with investors was the fact that we don't have No Period February, but guys can opt out and have No Shave November. Therefore the market opportunity for Femly was larger.” (Arion)
- “The top three things that I could say for anybody who's thinking about raising funding through pitch competitions is to one know your numbers, know your market opportunity, know the market validity and proof of concept and know who your target customer is.” (Arion)
- “For the subscribers that I do have in Cape Town, South Africa, we saw an increase of 78% in school attendance simply because some of these girls did not have access to disposable feminine care products and weren't going to school.” (Arion)
- “What are we doing as a community to support black women and the impact of racism on our bodies and sexism and classism. And so that was [National Birth Equity Collaborative] really listening to the barriers that the women had. (Dr. Crear-Perry)
- “Knowing that you are not the problem. There's nothing broken about women of color. It is not that we are inherently or genetically different or flawed, we are amazing and powerful and beautiful. And so what are we doing collectively to change the country to value us and see us in that way?” (Dr. Crear-Perry)
- “And so the truth is we have to start having those honest conversations within our own communities and not blaming the women that they're broken.” (Dr. Crear-Perry)
- “I think one of the things that we need to do better as a country too is to support women after this happens. Because I haven't had counseling yet. No one reached out to me, nothing. And even less for my husband, right?” (Arion)
