Rachel Braun Scherl is a business builder, marketing strategist, author, speaker, angel investor, and thought leader in women’s sexual and reproductive health. She has worked with Fortune 500 CPGs and healthcare clients, as well as dozens of venture-backed start-ups, covering everything from menstruation through menopause. With her passion and commitment, Rachel has successfully launched, built, and revitalized companies worldwide, driven by the belief that sustainable, profitable growth requires focused execution.
Rachel’s career-long findings, learnings, and recommendations are at the heart of her best-selling book, Orgasmic Leadership: Profiting from the Coming Surge in Women’s Health and Wellness. The book provides unique perspectives on leadership, business-building, and the financial opportunities in this market. In addition to being a frequent speaker, Rachel serves on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards for companies in sexual and reproductive health and mentors female entrepreneurs. She also co-hosts Business of the V, a podcast with Bonafide CMO and practitioner Dr. Alyssa Dweck, which explores the intersection of patient care, unmet needs, unanswered questions, and the businesses being created to respond.
Below are some of the companies she has been involved in:
VC-Backed/Startups
Aunt Flow, Beyond the Paper Gown, Adesso, Ansella, BioCell, Bone Health Technologies, Cadence, Embr Labs, Duke UNICEF Partnership, Elidah, Femography by MAS, Flo, Foreground (formerly RHIA Ventures), GenBio Pro, HerMD, High Beauty, In Control Medical, In Women’s Health, Innovation Equity Forum, Intrinsic, Kisaco, LeaderMed, Lia, LUWI, Madorra, The M Factor, NUVO, O School, Pandia Health, Pulse, Semprae Labs, Simple HealthKit, SIS Series, Untitled Kingdom, Watkins-Conti
Strategics/Large CPGs/Healthcare in the Space
Afaxys, Allergan, Bayer, Church & Dwight, Combe, Johnson & Johnson, Fleet (part of Prestige), Merck, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt, Sanofi, Teva
Tell us about your life before the venture/leading up to your venture.
I have always been building—from my first job after business school with Johnson & Johnson to my consulting practice and running a women’s health company.
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
I am the person you call when business as usual is no longer working. I focus on finding the right message, delivered through the right channels to the right targets at the right time. This includes an understanding of the competitive environment, appropriate pricing, critical channels of distribution, and marketing levers.
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
I have run a profitable, successful venture for years. My clients return over and over as they take on new roles. I have won business awards, written dozens of published articles, authored a best-selling business book, and speak dozens of times a year as an expert in the business of women’s sexual and reproductive health.
How has your life changed because of your venture?
I have the opportunity to learn, connect with many different kinds of people, challenge myself with new business problems, and expand my skill set.
What are you working on right now?
Women’s sexual and reproductive health.
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
No Time Outs, No Substitutions
Growing up, movie night at my house was not only for Disney princesses or heartwarming, soft-focus, family-friendly, G-rated fare. No—our entertainment coordinator was my dad, and he was a huge fan of come-from-behind, dig-deep, take-all-comers sports-training movies—think Rocky (I-V), Rudy, Breaking Away, and Brian’s Song.
My favorite, by far, and the one that most informed our life view (and was a source of continued inspiration with Zestra), was a film that starred James Caan—the brutal 1975 cult action/horror classic, Rollerball. Now, I am quite confident that this film is not appropriate family-bonding viewing for many families. But we were, and are, a competitive bunch.
In the film, the premise of Rollerball (the game) is simple and insane: men on roller skates, wearing spiked gloves, race around an inclined track, sometimes towed by other burly men on speeding motorcycles, engaging in a brutal, gladiatorial, deadly version of roller derby. Anything goes, including maiming or killing other players. Teams score by taking possession of and shooting goals with a solid, injury-inflicting silver ball. In fact, victory is not declared until the other team is entirely maimed or dead. (OK, I said it wasn’t The Sound of Music). And before every match, the rules of engagement are declared: “No time outs; no substitutions.”
Loosely translated?
There is no quitting—period. There is no one on the bench to take your place. People are counting on you. Your success and the success of those around you depend on your efforts. You have to be 100 percent in the game. You have to play hard, and even more importantly, you have to play until you can’t play anymore.
