Meet solo female founder Valentina Milanova. Creator of the Diagnostic Tampon and the CBD Tampon.

After years of hard work in an underfunded industry - Valentina shares her experience and desire to 'de-glamorize' the founder experience. 

She is the founder and CEO of Daye, a gynae health, research and development company seeking to close the gender health gap with proprietary medical and diagnostic devices aimed at common, yet under-served gynae health conditions, ranging from period and pelvic pain to cervical cancer prevention. Valentina's research has been published in The Journal of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders as well as The Journal of Human Reproduction. Valentina was featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 two years running (!), and The Daye Diagnostic Tampon was named as Invention of the Year by TIME Magazine in their 2024 list.

In this episode we cover: 

• Being brought up to be the ‘perfect little immigrant’ 

• Starting a business using credit card debt 

• The harrowing experience of launching during COVID 

• Healing trauma as a company 

• Ending Cervical Cancer by 2040 

• Seed Syncing for your cycle 

• Being a recovering workaholic 

Mentions:

East of the West - Miroslav Penkov 

Anastasia - Disney Film 

Ophelia - painting by Sir John Everett Millais  

Links:

https://www.yourdaye.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentina-milanova-🇺🇦-13899564/ 

https://time.com/7094682/daye-diagnostic-tampon/

Season 3 of The Slow Down is created in partnership with period and cycle tracking app Clue. 

Especially for The Slow Down listeners, CLUE is offering a 75% discount on the annual Clue Plus subscription via their website. To redeem, go to helloclue.com and enter the code SLOWDOWN at checkout). So, download Clue today in the App Store or Google Play, and start making space for the signals your body’s been sending all along.
Link to sign up with discount already included: https://helloclue.com/login?discount_code=SLOWDOWN