So Sara, tell us a bit about yourself and The Noruish App.
I’m a mum of 2 and Founder & CEO of Nourish, a mental health & wellbeing app specifically tailored to mothers. I’m also a life coach, but in my previous life, I worked in strategy for the life sciences industry, with a focus on oncology.
I created Nourish after my own struggles with mental health and wellbeing in motherhood – both as a new mum and in juggling the stresses of work and mothering. 4 years ago I was close to burn out. I was irritable and shouty much of the time and far from the mother I wanted to be. I knew something had to change so I set off on a mission to find more love, joy, balance and calm in motherhood.
Learning the art of self-care changed everything. The impact it had on not only my wellbeing and happiness but also my relationships with my family was transformational. I came to realise the more I looked after my own mental health, the more I was able to show up with compassion and calm for my kids, and the more energy, headspace and focus I had for my work.
“The Nourish app is a specially curated, on-demand, multidisciplinary self-care toolkit“
The Nourish app is a specially curated, on-demand, multidisciplinary self-care toolkit of unique meditations, videos and quick reads all tailored to the emotions and challenges mums face. All the content is created by a team of wellbeing experts who are all mums themselves and understand the struggles first hand.
What motivated you to set up The Nourish App?
It’s from my own struggles and my own journey that Nourish was born. My biggest regret is not having the knowledge and practical self-care tools available to me earlier in my motherhood journey and I’m on a mission to give that gift to other mothers.
“I craved feeling held, supported and understood as a mum – something we hear time and time again“
On my own journey with self-care, I felt frustrated by the lack of easily accessible, relevant and relatable, practical self-help tools, tailored to the emotions and challenges we face as mums. I craved feeling held, supported and understood as a mum – something we hear time and time again echoed by the mums in our growing community.
As a company what is The Nourish App passionate about?
Our vision is to transform the wellbeing of parents and their families. We believe that starts with mum.
“Our vision is to transform the wellbeing of parents and their families. We believe that starts with mum.”
The burden on the modern mother’s mental health is greater than ever before, with more than 1 in 3 mothers struggling with mental health problems due to parenthood at some point.
But prioritising and looking after our mental health is really hard, especially for mothers. We struggle to put our needs into the equation, because our natural instinct is to be constantly giving, looking after and worrying about others. In our always-on, busy lives we also have no time! We are on a mission to make positive wellbeing easier and more accessible to mothers.
What are your dreams for The Nourish App?
Our goal is to be the #1 wellbeing app for parents globally – part of parents’ toolkit from the birth of their first child, supporting them through the emotional ups and downs of parenthood. Our historical focus has been mums in the UK.
However, there is growing demand to support dads. In addition, the burden on parents’ mental health is not limited to the UK. This is a global issue. Our positive, empowering solution to support parents’ mental health is also scalable.
What lessons have you learnt since starting your company?
Firstly – creating a team around me has been essential not only for support and motivation but also accountability. The times I have struggled most is when I feel like I’m on the journey on my own. A support team doesn’t need to mean a co-founder or operational team working with you every day (although that would be nice, it often just isn’t feasible in an early stage start up). But having others to bounce ideas off and be your cheerleader when you’re feeling down is everything.
“Having others to bounce ideas off and be your cheerleader when you’re feeling down is everything.”
Secondly – Everything is an experiment. Some things you do will work, some things won’t. If you spent too much time finessing and trying to get things right and perfect the first time, you never move forward. Equally, you can easily waste time beating yourself up about decisions you made along the way. But if you treat everything as an experiment, you are able to not only be more agile but also learn important lessons from the outcomes of those experiments, rather than getting stuck in beating yourself up over ‘mistakes’.
What is your FemTech Forecast for 2021?
I’m really excited to see growing energy, passion, focus and momentum within the FemTech area. With investors and governments starting the see the importance of the women’s health agenda (UK Gov just launched a call for evidence to improve health & wellbeing of women in England) I think there are going to be some really interesting developments over the next 12-18 months.
“I think Menopause will continue to be hot this year, as we continue to open up the dialogue on this enormous issue and identify new ways to support women”
I expect we will see many new companies across the sector. However, I think Menopause will continue to be hot this year, as we continue to open up the dialogue on this enormous issue and identify new ways to support women through this huge transition point in their lives.
I also think as we open up the dialogue around both women’s health and around mental health, we are going to see more and more solutions targeted at women-specific mental health issues. Women are more likely to have been treated for a mental health problem than men (29% compared to 17%) and so recognising the different psychologies and risk factors for men and women is important in providing them with the right support at different stages of their lives.
Nourish was part of FemTech Lab’s Spring 2021 Cohort. You can keep up to date with the latest updates via our news page.
