Founder of women’s body literacy app, Femtek, Olivia Orchowski shares her inspiring entrepreneurial journey and explains how identifying her customers’ pain points was the key to her startup’s success.

Every single entrepreneur brings valuable skillset to the table. Whether it’s the ability to network, sell, coordinate, resourcefulness, or having million-dollar idea after million-dollar idea.

It was hard to take a step back and reflect on what my own skillset is. Truthfully, when I was first asked this question, head-scratching ensued.

After scratching my own head for what felt like a day and night, and then staring at a brick wall for another day, it was only by working through a business idea with a friend that I realised where my skills lie. I find the pain point of a consumer and action it into a plan.

Pain points: The secret to business success

As soon as I realised (and was almost embarrassed at the fact that it had taken so long to figure out), I recognised how important this skillset is.

In 2015, with my first venture, I created an app called InstaSnoop which was a viral success.

InstaSnoop was built on exactly what it seems like – snooping on Instagram profiles. It was only after (ashamedly) stalking my ex’s new girlfriend and almost accidentally liking one of her older posts, that the idea came to me to create a third-party app which allows users to view profiles with no ability to ‘like’ images.

The app allowed users to zoom in on images, save them, create snoop lists of users. My pain point (and so many other women’s pain points, based on how viral the app went) was that I wanted to engage in some light-hearted viewing sans heart attack. I thought this would be the end of the journey for me in terms of tech and startups – but boy was I wrong.

Fast forward to 2022, FemTek has been my largest brainchild of my life. It has completely changed my life and provided numerous lessons and opportunities. All this before the first Basal Body Ring has even launched!

To truly understand how FemTek came to be the beast that it is today, we must do a bit of a rewind in history – and keep in mind, this journey spans over a decade.

My own health journey

FemTek doesn’t necessarily hinge on my own health issues having been misdiagnosed and gaslit. And it’s not one of those sappy ‘I couldn’t find answers, so I gave them to others’ stories. It was more about my own issues with my menstrual cycles that I was never able to find the appropriate support or answers for. This is an important contributor to FemTek.

For many years, there was a huge lack of disconnect with my own body, and several misdiagnoses of my own conditions through the years. Had there been more data, more knowledge and more equipped practitioners, I truly believe that my auto-immune condition would have been discovered much sooner than it was. Moreover, I wouldn’t have been slapped with an oral contraceptive to ‘manage’ my issues.

Having worked with so many women with their own health issues in my profession as a personal trainer, it soon became evident that I was not the only one who had been let down over the years.

It’s clear that there is an astounding lack of body literacy for women; the education system has failed them and the professionals they have sought haven’t been able to ask them the right questions.

So, in I came with my skillset superpower and I started to identify the pain points.

Pain point 1: Lack of body literacy and education, with a disconnect between practitioner and client

My own health issues had a spotlight shone on them well before I stepped into the realm of working with clients and their health. I wasn’t the first, and I wasn’t the only one who had been let down with the first pain point; nor would I be the last.

When I first qualified as a personal trainer, it became painfully clear that many of my clients would never experience the results they were seeking. PCOS, Endometriosis, no cycles, missing cycles, thyroid conditions, numerous gut issues – they were all coming up against the same pain points I experienced.

At the time, it wasn’t in my scope to help them as deeply as I now can – but what I was able to help them with, I constantly found myself with roadblocks.

Frustratingly, software systems weren’t built to provide the data I needed to help my clients. When they were, I found myself working between five different programs or platforms and dreaming of a day where everything would be streamlined. That said, when there was a way to streamline, it cost either myself or my clients a small fortune.

Nothing was easy. I was limited with how many clients I could service, and clients weren’t in a financial position to purchase different products to provide me with raw data that I could use to help them.

Even IF clients were able to purchase products, there was no way that data could be streamlined for me. This kept me on a frustrating merry-go-round.

Pain point 2: No ability to streamline my services and clients could not afford to purchase numerous products to provide data

The biggest and most difficult pain point to work through was the fact that even IF there was a client who could afford all the things, and even IF there was a way to streamline it; it didn’t fix the biggest issue which was just how busy the working woman is.

Perhaps one of the biggest leaps in the last two generations is how much more women are showing up in the workforce. We are motivated, we are skilled, and, in many instances, we absolutely can do the same job men do. But this has unfortunately come with a cost – our time, and in so many cases, our health.

For even my most successful corporate clients where money was no issue, it was always the same roadblock. They were time-poor, and their values always tipped in favour of work.

That five minutes I needed from them each morning to collect some oral temperatures was im-poss-ib-le. From the second they opened their eyes, they were locked into work mode.

Trying to gather oral temperatures from their morning routines was like pulling teeth. It always resulted in a cycle of apologies, trying to do better, values shifting to work, and back in the same routine two weeks later.

I didn’t believe that my request was unachievable on their part, but for whatever reason, it just wasn’t working.

The most successful way to build a new habit is to stack it with a current habit. It was through this part of the journey that I realised that my clients needed a way to collect the data I needed, in ways that didn’t require more time from them.

Pain Point 3: My clients needed faster, non-invasive ways to collect data where it can be stacked with a current habit

All these pain points finally came to a crossroads, and I had the choice: I could either work with them and create something which works through them; or I could continue down the path and under-service my client base because of all these issues that don’t have an answer.

Perhaps it was the naivety of thinking tech startups would be easier than they are (hint: they’re not, and there’s a reason so many fail), or perhaps it was knowing that I had a unique skillset in terms of creating and bringing projects through to their full potential.

Either way, FemTek began to pull on all the pain points I had suffered through over the past ten years, and the Basal Body Ring was birthed into the world.

Pain point problem-solvers

We often hear of entrepreneurs having million-dollar idea after million-dollar idea and we think to ourselves, “How did they even think of that?”.

It’s not about making millions of dollars; it’s not about trying to tap into a market with a novel product.

It’s refining the ability to identify what the actual problem is, and what gap you’re trying to fill in the market. It’s about identifying the issue, wanting to help fix the issue, and hoping to God that your hair doesn’t fall out from stress in the process.

Trust the process and enjoy the ride.

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Now read this:

https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/reading-minds-how-to-boost-sales-by-working-out-what-makes-your-customers-tick/