Anastasia Bonaccorso

Chapter I

The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.

Don’t die. That’s the mantra my co-founder and I repeat almost weekly. We’re two first-time female founders, each with two school-aged kids, building regulated OTC products in a stigmatized category. We don’t have trust funds or deep VC networks. We’ve put in substantial capital, including retirement funds we once thought were untouchable. That hurt. But we do not die. We fired a chemist and a manufacturer who refused to repay prepaid funds. Five lawyers told us we’d been wronged, but litigation would cost more than we’d recover. We cried on a couch, then got up and found a better chemist, a better manufacturer, and tighter contracts. We reformulate. We refine our POV. We rebrand because we’ve grown. We level up even though we hate that phrase or any other Valley jargon but actually, it's kind of a good phrase so fine - we don’t die and level fucking up. For two years, we’ve worked full-time without pay and assembled a team that can execute: two board-certified physicians, a stellar brand strategist, an ecommerce finance leader, and a seasoned strategic advisor. By summer, we’ll have two OTC products ready for manufacturing and are preparing to raise the capital to bring them to market. We tried last year and didn’t. Still, here we are - proof of life - stronger and more determined. Don’t die. Noted.

Chapter II

Your vision.

I believe the only real meaning in life comes from two things: cultivating joy and beauty, and reducing the suffering of others. Women suffer physically all the time and are rarely taken seriously for their pain. It’s easy to joke about hemorrhoids or anal fissures, but at best they’re distracting and at worst they’re debilitating. I’ve lived the full spectrum. By the time I needed surgery to cut my anal sphincter muscle, I was taking opioids that barely touched the pain. When I told my surgeon, “You saved my life,” I meant it. At Novel, our vision is simple: reduce suffering from common but painful women’s health conditions, starting with anorectal and perineal care. We bring dignity and a sense of beauty to every design choice, including our name, brand identity, messaging and packaging. Everything says: we see you and your pain is real. It deserves respect and not shame. Reducing suffering. Cultivating beauty. At Novel we've built meaning into everything we do.

Chapter III

The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.

Thirty years from now, Novel will be the dominant intimate care brand in the United States and a global standard-setter, known for holding the highest bar in evidence-backed innovation. We will have authored and contributed to original research that helped crack long-standing gaps in women’s personal hygiene and skin recovery science, reshaping how the category understands tissue health, barrier function, and long-term resilience. Our impact will extend beyond developed markets, partnering with organizations in developing nations to improve intimate health access, education, and dignity at scale. Novel will stand as proof that women are not niche, that our health concerns are real, and that building serious solutions for women can generate serious financial returns. And we will have done it in a way that feels right, meaning more communal than extractive, grounded in abundance rather than scarcity, operating with goodwill, collaboration, and a deep respect for the women we serve and the people who build alongside us.