For episode 9, we had the pleasure of speaking with Neha Vyaso and Kanak Garg – Founders of Brave Spaces • Intimacy Coordinators • Actors • Creators.

Titled 'Building Boundaries & Breaking Barriers' - this is one of our most powerful, heartfelt and intense episodes.

We uncover a wide range of topics, as highlighted below:

• What is the story behind brave spaces?
• What does an intimacy coordinate facilitate? What does a day in your work look like?
• What does creating a 'Culture of consent', mean?
• Does it exist in India?
• How are brave spaces created?
• What are the values that guide you?
• How is a workshop conducted?
• How can we think of gender, sexuality and sex in an inclusive, simplistic manner?
• Why are pronouns so confusing for everyone?
• Is social media helping or dividing?
• Why is everyone so scared about cancel culture?
• How can we create brave and not just safe spaces?
• What is the future you imagine for a more inclusive tomorrow?

Barriers are things that are holding you back from living a wholesome life - being the human you are. Boundaries must empower you - knowing about your boundaries, knowing what works for you, what doesn’t and understanding that those boundaries also evolve.”

Tune in to this episode to hear more such empowering and insightful snippets and of course, to hear - what makes them a work in progress?

Mikhil Innani is the Managing Director at Apollo Finvest, a public listed internet first transactional NBFC. He has 8+ years experience of building products from scratch to an unprecedented scale of 100+ million monthly active users. He is currently building the "AWS for Lending" platform which helps fintech's start lending in a matter of hours

Prior to Apollo Finvest, Mikhil headed consumer products at Hotstar (India’s largest OTT platform) and CouponDunia (Acquired by Times Internet) and co-founded PharmEasy (India’s largest, series C funded, online medicine delivery startup) Mikhil holds a Master's degree in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor's degree from Mumbai University

Vaginismus! STI's! Puberty! PCOS! and all things Sexual, Menstrual and Mental Health!

In this episode, we speak with Achitha Jacob, the founder of Proactive for Her. A health-tech startup that's revolutionising women’s healthcare and creating a safe space for care without judgement.

Episode Structure:

1. Introducing 'Proactive For Her'
2. Achithas’ personal journey–her background, experiences, reason and passion for founding PFH as well as her learnings from the founding team, market and consumers.
3. Stories and personal experiences from consumers/friends/strangers that have greatly impacted the way Proactive For Her is set-up, communicates and delivers.
4. Shifting focus on the health-tech, fem-tech and sexual wellness market in India and globally.
5. Achithas' journey on running an early stage startup: the advice, most important hacks, PoV on hiring vs managing and more!
6. Diving deep into mental, physical health in the workplace and otherwise
7. Creating safe spaces: how can we empower and educate more women and also men? How can we have better conversations about gender, sex and sexuality? How can we allow for more diverse, inclusive spaces?
8. How is PFH a “Work in Progress”? What are people/things/books/talks that have inspired Achitha?

About Achitha and Proactive For Her:

Proactive For Her is an omni-channel women’s health clinic offering judgement-free, personalised, and confidential healthcare solutions. They address the health concerns of Indian women across their lifetime – from puberty to menopause and beyond. Their services are available online, at home, and at their Bangalore clinics. Be it spreading awareness about annual check-ups to include pap smears and cancer screening, cervical cancer vaccination (HPV vaccination), STI/STD screening or helping women take that leap of faith and book their first gynaecology consultation, they want to empower every Indian woman to take charge of her own health and wellness journey.

Proactive has helped 50,000+ women learn more about their sexual and menstrual health and access quality medical care. Young and old(er) women love that Proactive is able to provide them a safe space to address their sexual, menstrual & reproductive health concerns. They have done extensive work on extremely niche and taboo topics like vaginismus, a condition which is not very well understood in India.

An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, Achitha dropped out of Harvard Business School to build Proactive For Her. She has previously worked with Fortune 500 healthcare companies and healthcare startups.