Meet the Founders of Adora, Ann O’Neill and Ed: “I thought if women could understand, and get a diagnosis and treatment more quickly, they would stay in the workforce..”
1. Describe your startup in two sentences.
A menopause guide for women – boosting their knowledge and confidence, alongside coping skills (we offer realistic tips and tools for brain fog, sleeplessness, hot flushes and more), so women can get on productively with work and life.
Our users are guided with expert information to un-muddle menopause including live workshops, 1-to-1 nurse chats, personalised assessments and AI-directed guidance; plus speedy specialist consultations with women’s health experts (avoiding NHS waits).
2. What gave you the inspiration?
Ann: It was my experience of perimenopause, not understanding what was going on or being clear that in my mid 40s, symptoms I was experiencing were down to the start of menopause. I thought menopause happened much much later. I didn’t realise my symptoms (sweats, brain fog, periods from hell - you name it!) were down to hormone changes – and neither did my doctor! I spent 2 confusing years not getting the right diagnosis or treatment. I thought this affects your ability to work effectively just when you hit your peak of experience and skills. Then I discovered 1 in 10 women consider leaving work because of it. With the UK productivity and skills crisis I thought if women could understand, and get a diagnosis and treatment more quickly, they would stay in the workforce.
Ann O'Neill, Co-founder of Adora
Ed: Ann had an idea to give women a companion to chat to who would understand, learn and offer personalised advice. My background in conversational AI realised it was a brilliant marriage of technology and problem. I was inspired, as I discovered more - the scale of the problem, taboos, and the impact on thousands of women’s lives and careers.
3. How did you meet?
Ann: I contacted Ed to get his advice on building a hyper-personalised AI health platform, knowing I would need someone with his skills to bring the vision to life!
Ed: Ann got in touch via her network during Covid lockdown. The more I understood the impact of menopause, the more I wanted to help. One neighbour told me, “As a woman, from age 12, you’re on a hormonal rollercoaster and society tells you just to suck it up.” From that moment, with a daughter and a wife I love very much, I wanted to focus my skills on a solution.
4. What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
Edward Smith, Co-founder of Adora
Ann: On a personal level getting the Adora support out there to women in our first, brilliant client’s workforce. They really needed it, and hearing and seeing the relief and delight at our webinars and in user feedback, that someone is properly listening and supporting them was such a resounding proof that we are delivering a much-needed service. I would also add building our team of passionate people, who have such a varied range of skills, but a consistent desire to do the best for women and in fact everyone affected by menopause (colleagues, partners, families).
Our greatest challenge is the gender data gap when it comes to research around menopause, and effective treatments for it – so getting enough anonymised data through Adora to help inform future versions of the UK Women’s health strategies needs us to reach thousands more women and shout about what they need.
Ed: I think our greatest success is getting the first AI-driven menopause companion live, using the unique benefits of LLMs to tailor a warm, friendly, personalised experience for women that is so often missing when they look for support from healthcare professionals. Also, being given the trust, funding and partnership from Civtech, to help us develop our product in a way that makes it distributable through the Scottish NHS so we could reach even more women. I’d say our biggest challenge is helping employers see the long-term benefit of having Adora in place – because we have to wait a while before the data tells that long term story, but we also need to show impact right now.
5. What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?
Feedback we get from individual women shows we are making a massive difference to emotional wellbeing, confidence and confidence to talk to doctors. We regularly get quotes such as:
“It's given me confidence in speaking to my GP”
“Thank you. I've learnt more in this one hour than anything else I've ever read”
“I’m feeling more confident that it's not too early to seek help”
“I’m sleeping better using techniques on the app”
We also did a pilot study with Banijay (The TV production company behind Masterchef and more).“We’ve had some amazing feedback from senior women across the business about how Adora has helped them get in control of their symptoms and feel more informed and empowered to manage their menopause,” says Bella Lambourne, Global Head of Human Resources. “In many cases, as a result of what they have learnt from Adora, they took action and sought treatment and support both in the workplace and with their GP.” We also saw the following results from the study:
Edward Smith, Co-founder at Adora
85% of users had improved their knowledge of menopause
86% of users were more - or a lot more - in control of their symptoms
50% of users said having Adora has improved their view of Banijay
6. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ann: Lots of things. It’s the same now! A lifelong learner.
Ed: I loved Lego and Meccano. I wanted to be an inventor.
7. If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
Ann: A mid-life music mogul! I associate so many happy memories with music. That joy doesn’t stop when you hit 50. I’d channel my first career at MTV and Global (Capital Radio). I was backstage at Live8 watching U2, Coldplay, Madonna, and was on the stage during George Michael Unplugged.
Ed: Being a surfing entrepreneur! I used to head to Cornwall on a Friday night for a weekend of surfing at Polzeath. Bringing the wonder of surfing to others, to bring life back into perspective after a working week.
8. What would you save in a fire?
Ann: People, pets and pictures!!
Ed: As long as family is safe I don’t think anything else matters.
9. Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?
Ann: My father. Without question I have the highest regard for his values, work ethic and kindness. No one can touch him.
Ed: Steve Jobs. I watched the launch of the iPhone at Macworld 2007 and marvelled at his ability to bring thousands of people to a single co-ordinated product offering. The ability to empower people with a clear vision and let them play their own role was an important lesson in team management.
10. What is your happy track?
Ann: Too many to mention but would be something from the 90’s!
Ed: Moon safari/Air - the soundtrack to my surfing weekends.
11. What’s your motto? OR What are your company values?
Ann: Digital and AI are nothing without empathy and the human touch.
Ed: Let users be your guide.
12. What are you most looking forward to in the next year?
We are excited to see the team we are building take what we have started to create an even better vision for Adora.