How 2 Stanford Grads Grew to become an Thought Right into a WNBA Partnership

The tampon hasn’t modified a lot because it used to be invented over 80 years in the past by means of a male physician named Earle Haas. That would possibly counsel the design used to be flawless — however ask the folk who worth them, and also you’ll listen a special tale.

“Period products are unreliable in critical moments,” says athlete and entrepreneur Amanda Calabrese. “For athletes, that could be sporting moments, but for a mom, it could be dropping your kids off at school, or running through the airport.”

Rather of accepting the status quo, Calabrese and her Stanford classmate and fellow athlete, Greta Meyer, got down to reconsider the product fully. In 2019, they created Sequel, the arena’s first spiral tampon, engineered by means of and for folk who in truth worth it.

Similar: How This Tampon Company Overcame Investor Knowledge Gaps and Raised $11.2 Million

Engineering meets revel in

The theory for Sequel wasn’t born out of a want to create cash — it used to be 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 have been high-level athletes: Meyer performed Category I lacrosse for Stanford, presen Calabrese is a six-time nationwide champion in lifesaving, which is an entire alternative tale.

“I’ve competed around the world wearing nothing but a star-spangled Team USA bikini, sometimes for 10-hour events on the beach,” Calabrese says. “You’re running, sweating, constantly going from wet to dry, and then add your period on top of that.”

Meyer had matching frustrations all the way through her age at the lacrosse crew. She and her teammates, steadily dressed in white house skirts, often struggled with unreliable duration merchandise.

“In the locker room, they were always talking about how they could improve the experience,” Calabrese recollects.

One pace in a shared entrepreneurship elegance, Meyer approached Calabrese with an concept: why no longer manufacture a greater duration product?

“She pointed out that we were both engineering students and athletes, and that this would be perfect for our Entrepreneurship project,” Calabrese says. “I was immediately on board.”

Calabrese and Meyer have been so dedicated to the concept they expanded it into their senior capstone. At Stanford, capstones require a operating evidence of thought. So the duo went above and past, elevating $50,000 in provide investment to proceed the undertaking upcoming commencement and turn out its possible past the school room.

Life most faculty grads spent that first post-grad summer season enjoyable or touring, Calabrese and Meyer traded in puddle events for production plant excursions.

“We spent that summer refining our idea and learning through Stanford’s accelerator, StartX,” Calabrese says. “We knew we’d need funding to kick off R&D, so we focused on crafting our pitch, and not long after COVID, we closed a $1 million pre-seed round to get things off the ground.”

Similar: WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie on Building Legacy Beyond the Game

From the lockeroom to the lab

Settingup with a clear problem gave the co-founders path, however there have been extra inquiries to be responded ahead of they may get started growing answers.

“Now we had to ask: Why aren’t these products doing their job?” Calabrese asks. “And what exactly is the job they’re supposed to do?”

Nearest conferring with numerous feminine athletes, they aspiring that the principle factor used to be what the business screams “bypass leakage.”

Upon deeper mirrored image, the duo discovered this factor used to be the byproduct of a design flaw.

“Tampons have vertical channels that go top to bottom on the outside of the product,” Calabrese explains. “This effectively funnels the fluid away from the absorbent core and down the side of the product.”

Spotting the mechanical inefficiency of this old-fashioned design, the pair got here up with the idea that for Sequel’s masthead product: the spiral tampon. By means of introducing a spiral into the tampon’s development, they created a horizontal current trail along the prevailing vertical channels. This design will increase floor department, promotes even absorption and is helping prohibit untimely leaks by means of disrupting the downward current.

“We spent years testing the fluid mechanics behind the design,” Calabrese says. “I even have a video from our dorm room where we were illustrating those concepts.”

In the end, they began hand-pressing prototypes.

“Greta was in a full cleanroom suit, manually applying heat and pressure to create and test each one,” Calabrese recollects.

The capstone is going courtside

Since upcoming, Sequel has flourished, changing into the primary tampon partnership within the historical past of the NCAA by means of sponsoring Stanford athletics. They’ve labored with Athletes Limitless, USL and Unequalled.

Now, the corporate is taking its upcoming fat step, partnering with probably the most WNBA’s premier groups, the Indiana Fever. The founders reached out to Fever megastar Lexie Hull, who attended Stanford herself, and removed from an NCAA nationwide championship and a bachelor’s AND grasp’s in control science and engineering to turn for it.

“Lexie remembered hearing about us as an example in one of her entrepreneurship classes,” Calabrese stocks. “We reached out to her to be our first WNBA ambassador, and she was so excited.”

The partnership deals cloudless monetary upside for Sequel, however for Calabrese, the intangibles topic much more. “These athletes are role models,” she says. “Thousands of little girls across the country look up to players on the Fever and see themselves in these athletes.”

She notes that the primary duration product any person makes use of is steadily the only they persist with for generation.

“Getting to work with real-life superheroes like Lexie Hull means everything to the young audience we want to reach,” Calabrese says. “But beyond that, we’re normalizing conversations around tampons and period care, ultimately aiming for them to be seen as essential game day gear, just like soccer cleats.”

Nearest six years of study, checking out, construction, and navigating FDA industrial requirements, Sequel is starting to create waves in an business that hasn’t developed in many years.

“We believe Sequel can dramatically improve the experience of athletes and fans everywhere,” Calabrese says. “From little girls playing softball to the moms cheering them on, everyone deserves better.”

With its spiral design and athlete-driven project, Sequel isn’t simply redesigning a product. It’s redefining the dialog round duration lend a hand.