Creating a femtech startup is not just about developing innovative products, it's about empowering the community you aim to serve. As someone who has spent years building companies and investigating contrarian methods for growth, I believe the model developed by Daya Ventures represents a significant paradigm shift in entrepreneurship by embedding customer buy-in directly into the fabric of femtech solutions. In this article, I’ll break down Daya’s approach to building sustainable businesses, share actionable insights, and explore how entrepreneurs can leverage such strategies while avoiding common pitfalls along the way.
The Daya Ventures Playbook: A Contrarian Approach to Femtech
Daya Ventures operates on a core philosophy that sets it apart from the conventional venture capital studios: building startups with customer buy-in at every stage. This means prioritizing real-world problems faced by customers over theoretical projections favored by traditional investors. By inviting those affected, patients, healthcare professionals, and even non-professional investors, into the decision-making process, Daya ensures its solutions are rooted in necessity rather than assumption.
What Makes Daya’s Approach Contrarian?
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Customer Ownership Model:
Daya Ventures raises capital partly through crowdfunding, allowing end-users to become shareholders in the companies they support. For example, its recent round raised €600,000 from healthcare professionals, scientists, and public backers on Seedrs. This approach fosters loyalty by giving stakeholders a literal investment in the company’s success.Learn more about Daya’s community-driven funding success through this detailed analysis on Seedrs.
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Deeptech Focus:
Many investors shy away from deeptech femtech due to long regulatory cycles and high clinical costs. Daya embraces these challenges, actively collaborating with researchers and clinicians to develop products that tackle the hardest problems in women’s health, such as neglected biomarkers and cutting-edge diagnostics. -
Redistribution of Ownership:
Their structured venture-creation model builds startups from scratch, redistributing ownership among founders, healthcare experts, and community members who contribute expertise. This leads to better representation and more informed product development.
Femtech Sector Statistics: Why Daya’s Approach Matters
The femtech market has been projected to grow to $75 billion globally by 2025, yet it continues to be undervalued by venture capital. Here's why Daya's contrarian approach holds promise:
- Funding Disparity: Women’s health startups received less than 2% of all VC funding in 2023, despite their significant market potential.
- Impact of Community Buy-In:
- A survey found that 70% of femtech crowdfunding campaigns resulted in better customer retention compared to VC-backed projects.
- Investor Diversity: Companies with community shareholders report 15-20% higher trust among their customer base.
These numbers reinforce the importance of democratizing ownership as a pathway to sustainable growth.
How Entrepreneurs Can Apply the Daya Ventures Model
Starting your own femtech, or any impact-driven business, can feel overwhelming. The lessons from Daya Ventures provide actionable guidance. Here’s how you can adopt their methods:
1. Define Clear Customer Needs
The hardest problems often reveal the biggest opportunities. Identify niche areas within women’s health underserved by the market. Tools like AI-driven market analysis platforms can help uncover these.
Example: Use platforms like FemHealth Insights to analyze gaps in menstrual tracking, menopause care, or pelvic health diagnostics.
2. Embed Customer Buy-In Early
Launch a crowdfunding campaign where early adopters can invest even minimal funds into your concept, establishing trust and commitment. Platforms like Seedrs or Crowdcube facilitate small-ticket investments.
Learn about crowdfunding innovations through Seedrs.
3. Expand Partnerships
Collaborate with clinicians, biologists, and universities to access real-world expertise. For instance, Daya’s partnerships with East African health organizations enabled access to localized insights on diagnostics.
4. Build for Long-Term Impact
Avoid trends like quick monetization (e.g., wellness apps without clinical backing). Instead, prioritize products that stand up to regulatory scrutiny and provide tangible health solutions.
5. Redistribute Ownership
Follow Daya’s lead in giving professionals, clinicians, engineers, researchers, a stake in your company. This attracts top talent and aligns incentives with innovation.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Adopting a customer-driven business model isn’t without challenges. Entrepreneurs should avoid these mistakes:
- Underestimating Customer Knowledge: Founders sometimes over-rely on market data instead of engaging directly with their target users. Conduct interviews or focus groups, and incorporate feedback into product design.
- Mismanaging Crowdfunding Expectations: Ensure transparency in how stakeholder funds are used. Crowdfunding campaigns require meticulous planning and consistent updates.
- Ignoring Long Solutions Cycles: Health-focused startups need time to pass regulations. Don’t rush your development process or skip testing due to financial pressure.
Deep Insights from Violetta Bonenkamp: Connecting Strategies to Missions
As a serial entrepreneur with experience in STEM and deeptech industries, I see parallels between Daya Ventures and initiatives like my own startup game Fe/male Switch. Both rely on engaging communities to redefine industries, and both require innovation, multidisciplinary thinking, and patience.
Startups often fail when they chase rapid VC validation rather than sustainable growth and real-world impact. Daya’s playbook turns this flaw into a strength. By focusing on redistribution, partnership, and hardship, they demonstrate that entrepreneurship can thrive not through competition, but cooperation.
One insight I’d share is that new founders should think beyond products, they should build ecosystems. Surround yourself with experts, investors, and customers who share your vision. Your company will become the nucleus of a collaborative movement, rather than a siloed venture.
Conclusion: Making the Shift Toward Collaborative Entrepreneurship
Daya Ventures is paving a new path, proving that there’s room for bold ideas in femtech and beyond. You too can integrate customer buy-in into your entrepreneurial journey by aligning stakeholder priorities, emphasizing collaboration, and innovating for long-term health solutions rather than short-term financial wins.
Whether you’re building a femtech startup, a health-oriented app, or an impact-driven non-tech business, Daya’s contrarian playbook offers invaluable lessons on engaging your audience, democratizing ownership, and reshaping industry norms.
Take inspiration from their journey, but remember, the road to impactful innovation doesn’t just rely on external funding. It thrives on communities who believe in your mission as deeply as you do.
FAQ
1. What is Daya Ventures and its main focus?
Daya Ventures is a Gothenburg-based femtech venture studio that builds startups addressing women’s health through customer buy-in and deeptech innovation. Learn more about Daya Ventures
2. How is Daya Ventures different from traditional VC-backed startups?
Daya involves end-users, healthcare professionals, and researchers as shareholders to ensure products address real-world needs rather than theoretical market assumptions. From Innovation to Ownership: Why Daya Ventures Is different
3. What is the femtech market size and potential growth?
The femtech market is projected to grow to $75 billion globally by 2025, yet femtech startups receive disproportionately low VC funding. Explore femtech industry statistics
4. How does Daya Ventures raise capital for its startups?
Daya uses a community-driven crowdfunding model, allowing customers and healthcare professionals to invest directly. Their latest campaign raised over €600,000. Discover Seedrs crowdfunding success
5. Why is deeptech femtech important despite challenges?
Deeptech femtech tackles hard-to-solve women’s health problems like neglected biomarkers and regulatory-compliant diagnostics. Daya collaborates with researchers to overcome long development cycles. Check out Daya’s approach to tackling difficult problems
6. How can entrepreneurs apply the Daya Ventures model?
Entrepreneurs can define niche customer needs, launch crowdfunding campaigns, develop partnerships, and redistribute ownership among experts and stakeholders. Learn strategic steps from Daya’s playbook
7. What role does customer buy-in play in femtech success?
Customer buy-in fosters trust and increases customer retention, with surveys showing 70% of femtech crowdfunding campaigns outperform VC-backed projects in loyalty metrics. Discover femtech crowdfunding benefits
8. What partnerships does Daya Ventures form to strengthen startups?
Daya collaborates with clinicians, researchers, and local health organizations to access expertise and develop innovative solutions for women’s health. Learn about Daya’s strategic partnerships
9. How does Daya’s crowdfunding approach affect industry equity?
By redistributing ownership to clinicians, researchers, and non-professional investors, Daya boosts female representation and democratizes funding access in femtech. Explore Daya’s equity redistribution model
10. What common pitfalls should femtech entrepreneurs avoid?
Avoid mismanaging crowdfunding campaigns, underestimating customer feedback, and rushing product development due to regulatory pressures. Discover lessons and challenges from Daya Ventures
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.