Swindar Zhou

I attribute my success to my mother. Her support has been indispensable in my life. I talk to her very often, and she has always supported me. Unlike a lot of traditional Chinese parents who may have bias against girls, she doesn't have that. She is very supportive and always thinks from my perspective. She always trusts me, no matter how hard the moment or how difficult the thing I'm dealing with. Family support is huge for me, and her belief in me has given me the foundation to pursue everything I'm passionate about.

The best career advice I ever received came from a really senior woman in a leadership position. She told me to always be the advocate for myself and to remember that I am always good enough. I had asked her, how much is enough? How much is enough for this position? How much is enough for whatever I want to do? And she told me that if I recognize that I am enough, then it's enough. Then I can be very confident when I'm showcasing my work. But if I think it's not enough, then I will always doubt myself, and that will push me back from doing what I want to do. So I would say: always be the advocate for yourself, and trust that everything you have is enough for whatever dream you want to chase or the person you want to become.

I think be bold. There are a lot of times where I doubt myself, wondering if I would be the perfect candidate for something. And then I realized those are the specific moments that I have to correct my beliefs. I need to advocate for myself, and I need to speak up for myself. Otherwise, it's going to be more difficult if I want to dive deeper into a specific route I want to pursue, because if I don't believe in myself, who will believe in me? So I think just be bold.

The biggest challenges in my field right now are the lack of investment in research, especially with current funding cuts, and the lack of investment in product development. There's also a shortage of talent. I really want to build an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs contributing to women's health can be invested in and get attention from major investors and organizations. We need to build a pipeline of people who really want to contribute to this field and help them kick off their careers here. The ecosystem needs investors, entrepreneurs, and third-party organizations or business partners that can collaborate with teams willing to innovate. Fortunately, this ecosystem is being built by a lot of amazing people right now, and I'm working with some amazing professionals, but I think we are still early in this journey. As for opportunities, more and more investors are looking into what they call femtech, or female technology. There's growing interest because investors see that women contribute a lot to purchasing decisions, and they're recognizing the growing demand from women for these technologies. I see more and more teams innovating in this field, working on conditions like endometriosis, partially because of investor interest and partially because of the social impact they can create. There are also more women in leadership positions and women philanthropists, like Melinda Gates who recently donated a decent amount of money into women's health. I see these women leaders and philanthropists investing in this field, and I believe that can push positive change in how the ecosystem is built.

I think authenticity and being a person with integrity are the most important things in my life. I received that kind of message when I was at Notre Dame, which is a Catholic school. It really taught me that being a force for good is important, no matter whether it's in my personal life or professional life. I keep that with me. No matter what I do, I always want to be a force for good, so that this legacy can be passed down.