Brianne Kimmel on Backing Female Founders Reshaping Women’s Health

Brianne Kimmel began investing in 2019, writing early $5,000 checks using her personal savings. Since then, she has founded WorkLife Ventures, a VC firm focused on early-stage startups, and has backed several companies that later became unicorns, including Webflow, Hopin, Deel, and Pipe.

More recently, Kimmel has expanded her portfolio to include healthcare and wellness companies, while staying true to her mission of backing “new era” builders. That perspective also informs how she views shifts in women’s health today, as access, awareness, and holistic care increasingly intersect.

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Women’s Health Is Moving Toward a More Holistic Model

Kimmel has noticed significant changes in how women access care and wellness, along with a broader evolution in how health itself is discussed.

“Women finally have more control over their own health in areas like fertility, menopause, and holistic wellbeing, from therapy and coaching to preventive wellness like acupuncture, sauna, and cold plunge. Even skincare treatments have become more accessible and widely available.”

For her, the most significant shift is how people are connecting mental, physical, and digital health. “It’s refreshing to see a more comprehensive approach, where we’re taking a holistic look at our health, how stress impacts physical health, how what we put into our bodies affects daily life, and how what we consume online has long-term impacts on overall health and performance.”

She also emphasized that simply discussing these issues is progress. “We’re living in a time with much more awareness around the factors that impact our whole self, and we’re talking about it, which gives me a lot of reassurance,” she said, adding that many topics related to women’s health have been taboo for too long.

The Wellness Boom Brings Opportunity and Risk

From Kimmel’s perspective, the booming wellness industry can be both empowering and exploitative. “I worry that in today’s society, ‘wellness’ as a marketing tactic is draining people of their savings and financial wellbeing.”

She pointed to the speed and scale of trends dominating social feeds today, noting that the wellness industry is a two-trillion-dollar market booming in the era of constant online consumption. “In a quick scroll through your Discover feed, you’re inundated with the latest wellness trends, peptides, salmon sperm, alternatives to Adderall, generics to GLP-1s, and a wave of products and services that didn’t exist even five years ago,” she said.

Young people are right in the middle of it. According to a recent study, Gen Alpha spent approximately $4.7 billion on skincare and beauty. Kimmel explained how products like Starface, the viral pimple stickers worn by Olivia Rodrigo and Justin Bieber, are subtle but powerful signs that the kids are all right.

“Many new products on the market aim to ease the insecurities of young people and take a new approach to the awkwardness of being a teenager, while others perpetuate the belief that aging is something that must be prevented at all costs,” she added.

What Kimmel Looks for in Women’s Health Investments

When it comes to investing in women’s health, Kimmel prioritizes accessibility, affordability, and alignment with women’s real needs. “From an investing perspective, our approach has been to find companies that drive down the cost of healthcare and give women the power to make their own decisions,” she explained.

Kimmel’s investment in Julie, the emergency contraceptive company, came at a tumultuous moment for women’s reproductive rights, as Roe v. Wade was ultimately overturned. According to Kimmel, Julie had a strong presence on college campuses and a large following among Gen Z, who are growing up in a time when 50-year-old federal constitutional rights are being eroded.

“I believe buying Plan B should be as easy as buying tampons. Women should have access to affordable solutions to enable them to live life on their own terms,” Kimmel added.

Female Founders Are Solving the Toughest Healthcare Problems

Kimmel has found that some of the most ambitious innovations in healthcare today are being led by women. “Many of the hardest medical problems today are being solved by women, and many great companies are bringing affordable, life-changing care to women,” she said.

One such company is Orchid, an advanced genetic screening service for embryos that helps prevent children from inheriting conditions that run in their families. Kimmel highlighted how CEO Noor Siddiqui was inspired by her mother losing her vision to a genetic disease and is now helping parents lower the risk of passing on similar conditions. The company, backed by WorkLife Ventures, offers a low-cost, comprehensive genetic screening for 1,200 conditions.

What Orchid is doing aligns with a larger trend in how preventive healthcare is expanding to future generations. “When I think about the modern woman who eats healthy, exercises regularly, and views preventive healthcare as critical care, the same should also be true for her future children,” Kimmel shared.

Kimmel stressed that people spend a great deal of money taking care of their bodies, yet much remains out of their control when it comes to the health of their children. “A genetic screen gives us data to understand potential risks for our children before IVF.”

Another one of Kimmel’s portfolio companies is Loyal, a longevity company founded by Celine Halioua, whose first product is an FDA-approved daily pill that extends the lifespan of dogs by targeting the underlying mechanisms of aging. Halioua and her team have published 153 research papers, worked on 56 clinical drug programs, and built a team that is 56% women.

“Halioua has done an amazing job creating an affordable, FDA-approved product that will bring longer, healthier years to the dogs who are very much a part of our families,” Kimmel said, adding that she is equally impressed by Loyal’s majority-female team of scientists and operators.