Portrait No. 001
Maria Lence
Founder and CEO
For Women's Health
Raised — Currently raising Angel round
I started this company out of necessity. It took five years of being dismissed and gaslighted, and fifteen health providers, to finally be properly diagnosed and treated for a common hormonal condition. What I experienced wasn’t an exception—it was a pattern. Most providers lacked the training in women’s health and hormones to recognize what was happening- only 20% of OB/Gyn are trained on Menopause!!! After speaking with over 500 women, it became clear the system is failing both women and healthcare providers. With my background in building and scaling solutions in tech, I knew this was a solvable problem. I’ve lived the problem, and I’ve interviewed over 500 healthcare providers to deeply understand the system, its pain points and get to the root cause. Why me, and why now: because I combine lived experience with operational expertise and determination to make it happen—and because women cannot afford to wait any longer for change.
In her words
“Every woman deserves a healthcare system that understands her unique biology. Every health provider deserves the knowledge, training, and tools to deliver that level of care.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
I’m a female immigrant founder, so saying that this journey is the hardest thing I have ever done, it is not an understatement —but it is also the most fulfilling. No matter how hard it has been, it is worth it when a women thanks me for helping her find a health provider that actually found the cause, or every woman that when I tell them what I am building says: \"OMG, that is SO need it\" How do I learn when you will launch? My mission is my North Star. I am deeply determined, and I believe that where there is a will, there is always a way. For the past 6 years, I returned to university to better understand the problem from the inside. I’ve attended medical conferences to listen to providers speak candidly about their real pain points. For the last five years, I’ve been traveling back and forth between Spain and San Francisco to manage resources—doing market research, interviewing, running surveys, iterating, designing solutions, building a team, doing a couple of Betas, implementing the learnings, being part of incubators and pre-accelerator programs—all while bootstrapping. Funding is always a challenge for Female founders and I am not exception, but I am resourceful and find ways: angel investors, IRA investments, grants, philanthropy.... This isn’t just a company I’m building; it’s a problem I’ve committed my life to solving.
Chapter II
Your vision.
I am driven to fix a system that is failing women at its core—where too many are left undiagnosed, unheard, and forced to navigate their health alone. This is not just an access problem; it is a knowledge gap. Women and healthcare providers lack access to trusted, science-backed education, and breakthrough innovations often remain out of reach due to systemic barriers in how information is shared. My vision is a world where every woman is seen, heard, and matched to the right care from the start—and where every provider is equipped with the latest evidence-based knowledge. For Women’s Health addresses this at the root by connecting women to specialized providers while delivering education, training, and access to innovation for both sides. We are building a system that is proactive, informed, and designed to truly serve women. A system that sticks on both ends
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
A whole new healthcare system based on prevention and precision with less than 10% misdiagnosis rate for either women or men of any ethnicity. Health Equity. Systemic change takes time, but can be achieved with the right strategy like Archimedes said: \"Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.\" Before him 100s of men were pushing \"the world\" unable to move it. You only needed 1 person with the right lever which is your strategy. You need the grit, the experience and the patience to go step by step to achieve it. Show the beauty of human race when we join forces to make the world a better place.