Venture Capital

The Business of Blood Can Be Tough for a Female Entrepreneur

Try convincing a roomful of men that there is money to be made in women’s hygiene products.

The Business of Blood

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Miki Agrawal has a three-part strategy for getting someone to embrace an uncomfortable new behavior. In the case of her startup, she's trying to convince women to ditch their feminine-hygiene products for a pair of reusable period panties.

The first component is the product itself: The underwear is thin but, to most wearers' surprise, can absorb up to two tampons' worth of blood, according to Agrawal. The second and third ingredients involve clever marketing. The imagery should be artful and striking—for her Thinx panties, that means the ads are minimalist, featuring halved ruby grapefruits and dripping raw eggs as stand-ins for menstruation.