Loewen began her journey in entrepreneurship as a healthcare and technology investor at Bessemer Venture Partners and Dorm Room Fund. She graduated from MIT with a major in Mechanical Engineering with Computer Science. After graduating, she designed the magnet factory for nuclear fusion startup and then founded and led the data prognostics team at GoogleX.
I got interested in menopause after seeing my loved ones go through it. It was absolutely awful for them. There was no guidance, there was no support and no products that worked. They were left in a constant trial and error spending thousands losing their precious time, energy and hope in the process. I then went about speaking to more women noticing the same thing but saw no real scientific or engineering process being made at the time. I left my cushy tech job at GoogleX to build the engineering team to make a real step in unlocking the blocked potential of women. Those women are my role models, they are the ones breaking the glass ceiling for the rest of us so it's critical they are given their full energy, full life force to do that. We give them that through the magical power of sleep.
I have so much more appreciation from how much work goes in after the prototype works to the product functions reliably at scale in consumers' varied environments. So many iterations, tweaks, redesigns that you could never have predicted are required to get to a robust and reliable consumer hardware product.
Our next big move is to ship out our first few hundred units. We began sending beta units to our first paying customers at the end of July, and we’re excited to expand that to many more women in the coming months. Now that we have the factory set up for larger-scale production, this marks a significant transition for us. We are an engineering team now shifting into becoming a commercial marketing organization. We’re eager to explore creative strategies to spread the word to the women who need our product the most. If you have any suggestions, feel free to reach out at loewen@amira.care.
Honestly, getting too hot ironically. I share my space with others and need to be kept at a much colder temperature at random times and a much hotter temperature at other times all in the same day. I do not have hot flashes but my temperature bounces around in ways I can’t explain, most likely due to hormonal fluctuations. During the night our product, Terra, keeps me calm, cool and asleep!
Taking on any new challenge outside of your comfort zone will come with a bombardment of setbacks often seemingly all at once. By looking at each blow, setback, or challenge as an opportunity to grow is a must. There is a whole spectrum from the victim mindset asking “why this happened to me”, to a genuine gratitude for the opportunity to grow into your more inspiring, more capable self. The further you can get towards the grateful embracing of roadblocks the faster you will grow, the faster you will overcome the obstacles and the less drained you will be at the end of it.
Gwynne Shotwell, the COO who propelled SpaceX from 7 to 6,000 employees has been a long time inspiration for me as a female mechanical engineer that struggled fitting in given the male dominated mechanical engineering industry I grew up in. Gwen was a blonde cheerleader from the midwest that decided to give engineering a shot after falling in love with the outfit of a female mechanical engineer speaking at a SWE event. Before SpaceX’s first successful flight, she brought in the record-breaking $492 million launch contract and sold 10 launches. Shotwell's unique engineering background and business and human intuition have been crucial in SpaceX's journey to revolutionize space travel, managing a $2.6 billion NASA contract and overseeing 40 upcoming launches while preparing for Mars colonization.
As Elon’s second-in-command, operations run as well as the world’s most cutting-edge novel rocket engines under her leadership. Often rocking 6-inch heels as she strides across the manufacturing floor, she blasts through glass ceilings and defies expectations each and every day.
I cannot survive without at least 8 hours of sleep. If I get less than that my next day is groggy, unproductive, and moody.
I just absolutely love all the increasing attention and conversation menopause is getting in the last year. This conversation is spanning multiple initiatives across government, medical professionals, new founders, and women experiencing menopause themselves. It is really inspiring to be part of such a movement and see the true change it is creating. It gives me a lot of hope for humanity and women that when we set our mind to something and create togetherness and collaboration that we can really create enduring change for good.
