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The tampon hasn’t modified a lot because it was invented over 80 years in the past by a male physician named Earle Haas. That may counsel the design was flawless — however ask the individuals who use them, and you may hear a unique story.
“Interval merchandise are unreliable in important moments,” says athlete and entrepreneur Amanda Calabrese. “For athletes, that could possibly be sporting moments, however for a mother, it could possibly be dropping your youngsters off at college, or working by means of the airport.”
As an alternative of accepting the status quo, Calabrese and her Stanford classmate and fellow athlete, Greta Meyer, got down to rethink the product fully. In 2019, they created Sequel, the world’s first spiral tampon, engineered by and for individuals who truly use it.
Associated: How This Tampon Company Overcame Investor Knowledge Gaps and Raised $11.2 Million
Engineering meets expertise
The concept for Sequel wasn’t born out of a want to earn money — it was about solving a real problem. Calabrese and Meyer met at Stanford, the place they each majored in mechanical engineering. However their connection ran deeper than teachers. Each had been high-level athletes: Meyer performed Division I lacrosse for Stanford, whereas Calabrese is a six-time nationwide champion in lifesaving, which is a complete different story.
“I’ve competed around the globe sporting nothing however a star-spangled Workforce USA bikini, generally for 10-hour occasions on the seashore,” Calabrese says. “You are working, sweating, consistently going from moist to dry, after which add your interval on high of that.”
Meyer had related frustrations throughout her time on the lacrosse crew. She and her teammates, typically sporting white residence skirts, steadily struggled with unreliable interval merchandise.
“Within the locker room, they had been at all times speaking about how they might enhance the expertise,” Calabrese remembers.
In the future in a shared entrepreneurship class, Meyer approached Calabrese with an concept: why not construct a greater interval product?
“She identified that we had been each engineering college students and athletes, and that this may be good for our Entrepreneurship mission,” Calabrese says. “I used to be instantly on board.”
Calabrese and Meyer had been so dedicated to the concept that they expanded it into their senior capstone. At Stanford, capstones require a working proof of idea. So the duo went above and past, elevating $50,000 in grant funding to proceed the mission after commencement and show its potential past the classroom.
Whereas most faculty grads spent that first post-grad summer time enjoyable or touring, Calabrese and Meyer traded in pool events for manufacturing plant excursions.
“We spent that summer time refining our concept and studying by means of Stanford’s accelerator, StartX,” Calabrese says. “We knew we might want funding to kick off R&D, so we centered on crafting our pitch, and never lengthy after COVID, we closed a $1 million pre-seed spherical to get issues off the bottom.”
Associated: WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie on Building Legacy Beyond the Game
From the lockeroom to the lab
Beginning with a clear problem gave the co-founders course, however there have been extra inquiries to be answered earlier than they might begin growing options.
“Now we needed to ask: Why aren’t these merchandise doing their job?” Calabrese asks. “And what precisely is the job they’re alleged to do?”
After conferring with numerous feminine athletes, they decided that the first concern was what the business calls “bypass leakage.”
Upon deeper reflection, the duo realized this concern was the byproduct of a design flaw.
“Tampons have vertical channels that go high to backside on the skin of the product,” Calabrese explains. “This successfully funnels the fluid away from the absorbent core and down the aspect of the product.”
Recognizing the mechanical inefficiency of this outdated design, the pair got here up with the idea for Sequel’s masthead product: the spiral tampon. By introducing a spiral into the tampon’s building, they created a horizontal movement path alongside the present vertical channels. This design will increase floor space, promotes even absorption and helps stop untimely leaks by disrupting the downward movement.
“We spent years testing the fluid mechanics behind the design,” Calabrese says. “I actually have a video from our dorm room the place we had been illustrating these ideas.”
Finally, they began hand-pressing prototypes.
“Greta was in a full cleanroom go well with, manually making use of warmth and stress to create and take a look at every one,” Calabrese remembers.
The capstone goes courtside
Since then, Sequel has flourished, changing into the primary tampon partnership within the historical past of the NCAA by sponsoring Stanford athletics. They’ve labored with Athletes Limitless, USL and Unmatched.
Now, the corporate is taking its subsequent huge step, partnering with one of many WNBA’s premier groups, the Indiana Fever. The founders reached out to Fever star Lexie Hull, who attended Stanford herself, and left with an NCAA nationwide championship and a bachelor’s AND grasp’s in administration science and engineering to indicate for it.
“Lexie remembered listening to about us for instance in certainly one of her entrepreneurship courses,” Calabrese shares. “We reached out to her to be our first WNBA ambassador, and he or she was so excited.”
The partnership gives clear monetary upside for Sequel, however for Calabrese, the intangibles matter much more. “These athletes are function fashions,” she says. “Hundreds of little women throughout the nation look as much as gamers on the Fever and see themselves in these athletes.”
She notes that the primary interval product somebody makes use of is commonly the one they keep on with for all times.
“Attending to work with real-life superheroes like Lexie Hull means the whole lot to the younger viewers we need to attain,” Calabrese says. “However past that, we’re normalizing conversations round tampons and interval care, in the end aiming for them to be seen as important recreation day gear, identical to soccer cleats.”
After six years of analysis, testing, growth, and navigating FDA industrial requirements, Sequel is starting to make waves in an business that hasn’t advanced in a long time.
“We imagine Sequel can dramatically enhance the expertise of athletes and followers in all places,” Calabrese says. “From little women enjoying softball to the mothers cheering them on, everybody deserves higher.”
With its spiral design and athlete-driven mission, Sequel is not simply redesigning a product. It is redefining the dialog round interval care.
