Women-Owned Business Series: Lona from WOW Health

Welcome back to our Women-Owned Business Series! Today we’re featuring Lona, the founder of WOW Health (World of Women’s Health) — a global femtech database and discovery platform built to close one of healthcare’s biggest gaps: reliable, centralized information on women’s health innovation.

The inspiration behind WOW Health comes from a simple but urgent problem — women’s health has historically been underfunded and under-researched, leaving founders, investors, and industry stakeholders without a clear view of what’s happening in the space. That gap led to the creation of a comprehensive resource tracking startups, products, investors, and market activity across 15 categories of women’s health, giving the femtech ecosystem the visibility and connective infrastructure it’s long been missing. Read more about her story below!

First, tell us about your business and anything special we should know about it or you.

WOW Health (World of Women’s Health) is a global femtech database and discovery platform built to close one of healthcare’s biggest gaps: reliable, centralized information on women’s health innovation. WOW Health has grown into a comprehensive resource tracking startups, products, investors, and market activity across 15 categories of women’s health, giving founders, investors, and industry stakeholders a single destination to see what’s next in the space. At a time when women’s health has historically been underfunded and under-researched, this work is building visibility and connective infrastructure for the femtech ecosystem. Website: wowhealth.co

Why do you feel a connection to your work?

I built my career in health innovation so that is the primary connection but women’s health became personal after undergoing uterine surgery. That experience exposed me firsthand to how fragmented and difficult to navigate the women’s health landscape truly is, even for someone who had spent years working at the forefront of new product and venture development. Rather than accept that gap, I channeled her professional expertise into building WOW Health (World of Women’s Health). What began as a lesson learned through her my health journey has become critical infrastructure for an entire industry, helping founders, investors, and advocates find each other and accelerate solutions for problems women have too long navigated alone.

As a business owner, community is everything. In what ways do you serve your community and how has your community served you?

Community is force behind women’s health – advocates driving policy change, government funding early research, industry acting as strategic partners, universities promoting the science, and innovators building innovation. I personally support this community by working with organizations like Women in Innovation, Fierce Foundry, Springboard Women’s Health Accelerator, and Portfolia Venture Fund.

What advice would you give to others who want to start a small business?

One of the central problems young women face today is whiplash: industries and technology are moving at breakneck speed, while the broader culture is regressing. It’s a push and pull. Progress in one direction, backlash in the other. To navigate that tension, young women will need to trust their instincts even when the ground keeps shifting beneath them. They’ll need to treat rest as resistance refusing to burn out and refusing to comply with what regresses them. And perhaps most importantly, they’ll need to find each other because navigating this alone is far harder than navigating it as a community.

What women inspire you and why?

The women who inspire me carry a mix of boldness and heart that I try to bring into my own life. Tracee Ellis Ross embodies a creativity and independence that feels completely her own. She moves through the world with a free spirit, unafraid to be playful, expressive, and unapologetically herself, whether through her style, her humor, or the way she owns her choices. Carla Harris inspires me in a different but equally powerful way. Her grit and resilience as she broke through barriers on Wall Street show what it means to persist with grace, to keep showing up in rooms that weren’t built for you, and to open doors for the people coming up behind you. Together, they remind me that strength can look like freedom, and it can also look like tenacity, and that there’s room for both in becoming who I want to be.

What do you think are the most significant challenges for small business owners or women in leadership positions?

Simple. Belief in self.