Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Kristina Cahojova of Kegg On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Get to know your colleagues well so you can recognize their strengths and areas for growth. By recognizing their full potential and helping them pursue their passions, they will grow alongside you. As a result, you will be challenged in new ways and able to tackle new obstacles. Communication is key, and while time-consuming, I think one-on-one time with each team member is vital to the company’s success.
As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristina Cahojova.
Kristina holds a double Master’s Degree in International Management and Business Administration from CEMS in Europe. She was named the Student Entrepreneur of the year in 2011 for her first business venture, TailorMySuit.
She continued her career in London, where she led growth at AppyParking. Following that experience, she joined the marketing team at Amazon, later moving into the C2C marketing space at eBay in San Jose, California.
Inspired by her personal difficulties with cycle and fertility tracking, Kristina began prototyping kegg in 2017; she launched the brand under the Lady Technologies umbrella in 2020. Over time, Kristina hopes to expand Lady Technologies’ reach beyond fertility, and innovate in the service of perimenopause, menopause, postpartum, and more.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have always struggled with tracking my fertility; my cycles are irregular due to stress and traveling, so ovulation prediction tests and temperature methods always provide me with limited information about my ovulation and fertile window. Later, when I refused to “fix my cycle” with hormonal birth control, I was told by a fertility specialist to track my vaginal fluids. I was shocked that there was no technology to help me with this.
After 7+ years spent working at Amazon and eBay, I decided to pursue kegg. For decades, we’ve accepted that our fertility is only good for conceiving. In reality, it is the rhythm of our being and our fifth vital sign — so I set out to create kegg, the first convenient and accessible, easy-to-use, modern medical device, to help women understand their fertility cycle with tangible data.
More information can be found here.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Early on in kegg’s journey, I hired someone who misread requirements for an impedance device and frequency, which caused us to struggle with the development of the product for more than 6 months. We eventually righted the ship with a new team.
I learned that attention to detail is the key to success at a company. And while it wasn’t funny at the time, it’s definitely humorous in hindsight!
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
We are trailblazers in the vaginal and intimate women’s health space. We are the first company to offer a convenient and accessible, easy-to-use, modern medical device that offers women a large scale of tangible data on their cervical fluid and fertility options. The data kegg provides on vaginal fluids is key to understanding natural birth control, affordable fertility management systems, menopause, infections, and many other women’s health conditions.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are excited to extend beyond analyzing fertile window prediction and further into the health and wellness space, by detecting and alerting the kegg user to possible infection, such as a UTI or BV, as well as working toward helping users by providing feedback so they can proactively work to maintain a healthy vaginal environment.
Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
No, but I try to lead by example. I had an idea and a passion and with hard work, it came to fruition. I think encouraging young women to be passionate about femtech is a step in the right direction — this can be done by making women’s health and sex education mandatory topics taught in schools, offering more resources to young women, so they can learn more about their bodies, etc. I have and currently do employ students striving to work in this space. I also encourage my team to think outside the box for ways we can not only work well as a team, but also be pioneers in the science and technology field for future generations to come.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
I think women in STEM face similar challenges to women in any other field where they are a minority — I think we can fight these challenges by encouraging women to follow their dreams and passions. I strive to create a working environment where all of our team members can pursue their passions and fulfill their potential. I hope to help women realize that anything is possible if you set your mind to it!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
The myth is that women have equal opportunities as men — this is not true. Many men’s health brands do not struggle with the same issues (or at least not to the same degree). It is way more difficult to fund a company led by a woman, proven by the fact that historically, brands helmed by women receive less funding from investors, meaning that these companies are being asked to do more with much less (VCs have invested 98% of their capital in startups led by men). We need to work to change this statistic to better the system!
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
Get to know your colleagues well so you can recognize their strengths and areas for growth. By recognizing their full potential and helping them pursue their passions, they will grow alongside you. As a result, you will be challenged in new ways and able to tackle new obstacles. Communication is key, and while time-consuming, I think one-on-one time with each team member is vital to the company’s success.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Again, I think the success of a large team results largely from effective communication and organization. A company is successful if the team is collaborative and works as a united front.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
It is impossible to launch a product without tremendous support from others in the field. kegg and other women’s health brands have supported one another, mutually resulting in beautiful collaborations and friendships. For example, I recently started a petition regarding unfair social media censorship of women’s health brands — in less than a week, 25 likeminded founders signed on board to instigate change. It’s clear that we’re stronger together than we are on our own.
Beyond this, I am thrilled that kegg has helped so many women receive data that was never easily accessible before — allowing couples to grow their families. On average, most couples are able to get pregnant within six months to a year. However, a study of couples using a cervical fluid-tracking method (known as the Creighton Model) found that 76% of the couples conceived within the first month of trying. 90% of the couples conceived after the third month and 100% after seven months. Focusing on cervical fluid allows couples to recognize when they are fertile and therefore, when they are most likely to conceive. The positive results and feedback we receive from so many couples using kegg that were struggling to conceive (or even just women trying to understand their cycles!) fuel me; we are making a difference in so many lives. kegg users were surveyed in the first six months from launch, and 27% of respondents noted that they had successfully conceived. In Spring 2021 the first kegg baby was born, and since then over 15 women have confirmed that they will soon be mothers thanks to kegg. Based on data and feedback from the growing community, the team also anticipates many more pregnancies to be announced.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I think too often we compare ourselves and feel the need to compete even amongst women. Women should be supporting women! So much good can come from women supporting each other and celebrating their differences, which is why I work with many other women’s health brands to support their causes, as every woman should have access to medically-backed devices that they can benefit from.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Kristina Cahojova of Kegg On The 5 Leadership Lessons She… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.