 Issue #162 · September 14, 2026 The women's health company hiding in plain sight.Mini-MBA: Last day to register + reading Oura's S-1 as a job seeker | ||
↓ This Week's Essay | ↓ Upcoming Events | ↓ 100+ Job Listings | ||
| ||
All your IWH Pro benefits, tools, events, and job matches in one place. Join IWH Pro → |
✍️ From Jodi · Business of Women's Health I Knew Oura Was a Women's Health Company 18 Months AgoSome of the biggest women's health companies don't call themselves women's health companies. Here's how you find them. Hi all! Happy Monday. I spent the weekend in 1:1 conversations about how the Women's Health Mini-MBA connects to your job search in women's health. (If you're still thinking about it, reply to this note and let's talk today.) What kept coming up is how much understanding the nitty gritty about the business of women's health is what actually helps you get a job in it. We talked a lot about how some of the biggest women's health companies in the world do not call themselves women's health companies. We also talked about how you find them. I used Oura as an example a lot. I am an avid Oura user and a fan of the leaders there, including Jill Angelo, Madeline Livingston, and Dorothy Kilroy, who are all doing amazing work for women. Since my first conversation with Dorothy 18 months ago, it has been clear that Oura is a women's health company wearing a wellness company's costume.
I had the exact same experience last year with Joanne Armstrong at CVS Health. CVS would never call itself a women's health company, but talk to Joanne for ten minutes and it is obvious the whole business is built around the female consumer, the woman picking up the prescriptions and making the household's health decisions, and most of their employees are women too. On these 1:1 calls, we talked specifically about the skills needed to understand these businesses and how you can dig deeper into their financial documents to understand where the career opportunities are and the future direction of the company. Last week Oura filed their S-1, the document you have to file before you go public. I used this as an example in my conversations this weekend. Here's what I shared. How to read an S-1 as a job seekerQuick primer: an S-1 is what a company files with the SEC before it sells shares to the public for the first time. It's the first look that we get into the finances, ownership and ambition of a company about to go public. Knowing how to read this and what to look for is exactly what we teach in the Women's Health Mini-MBA. Here's how to read an S-1 from a career lens, and what we learned from Oura's: 1. How fast is the company growing? Oura booked more revenue in the first nine months of this year than in all of last year, up 74%, and that is after growing 123% the year before. The rate is slowing, but 74% on a base that size is still a solid number. You're looking for fast, durable growth, because that is what funds new teams and new roles consistently and gives the company confidence to keep growing teams. 2. How the company makes money. Oura sells two things: the ring itself, and a monthly membership. Hardware is still about 80% of revenue, but the membership is the key. It grew 121% last year against 65% for the hardware, and it earns an 89% gross margin versus roughly 46% on the ring. As Halle Tecco walks through, this is a hardware company quietly becoming a software and data business. For your career, follow the part that is winning, because that is where the budget and investment will be in the future business (it's also what will be driving your KPIs). For example, if you're working in marketing at Oura, I'd imagine there will be a strong focus on driving membership growth in the next few years. 3. Who owns the company? The S-1 names everyone who holds more than 5% of a company. At Oura, it is a short list: Lifeline Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Bedford Ridge, and Fidelity. Then notice who is not on it. The founders are no longer major shareholders, which Halle Tecco flags as genuinely unusual for a health company at IPO. And Forerunner, one of the sharpest consumer investors out there, being in early tells you this was always a consumer story. The investors sitting at that table signal the vision of what the company wants to become. They are also the ones who will be asking the CEO (your future boss) the hard questions in board meetings, so it's important to know what perspective they bring and what matters to them. |
4. Is the growth sustainable? The S-1 on a consumer company almost always talks about retention and sustainable growth. Basically, do people actually stay, or try it and quit? When you're reading the S-1 look for the retention and repeat-usage numbers, because they tell you whether a company has a real business or just a good launch. At Oura, about 85% of members are still active a year later, on top of 42 billion hours of health data logged. High retention plus that much data is a moat, and companies with a moat hire steadily instead of lurching between hiring sprees and layoffs. A low retention number is a red flag for your job security, no matter how exciting the product looks. 5. Where is the company going? What are the risks? Two sections to always read: Risk Factors, where the company admits what scares it, and the strategy section, where it tells you where it is headed. Read them together. And do not get spooked by a headline loss. Oura is actually profitable, around $61M in net income over nine months, even though the top-line number looks negative. As Halle Tecco explains, that loss is an accounting artifact tied to its preferred stock, not the business bleeding money, and knowing the difference is exactly the kind of thing that makes you sound sharp in an interview. The louder signal is ambition: Oura clearly wants to become a healthcare company, so I'd expect more roles pointed that way in 2027. Whatever a company says it wants to become is where it will be hiring next. If you want to learn more, make sure to check out my favorite breakdowns of the Oura S-1 by Halle Tecco in Massively Better Healthcare and Christina Farr's in Second Opinion. They are the best women's-health forward breakdowns I've seen in the last week. And if you want to get truly fluent at this, reading the filings, following the money, seeing the whole business of women's health the way an insider does, that is exactly what we teach in the Women's Health Mini-MBA. The fall cohort starts Tuesday and we're not doing it again until March 2027. Six weeks, twelve live sessions, learning this alongside people doing exactly what you are trying to do. The skill I just walked you through is one small piece of what you walk away with. This is your last chance to pick up the skills that truly help you stand out. Everyone else is bringing a story, a resume, and some functional knowledge to their hiring conversation. You'll bring that, and you'll know how to figure out who is the customer, who makes the decision, and how to read public documents in a way that makes you start seeing women's health companies everywhere, including ones nobody else has spotted yet. Being first is exactly how you get the job. Registration closes tonight at midnight. xx  P.S. And once a company is public, keep reading its 10-K annual report, its 10-Q quarterly updates, and the free earnings-call transcripts. Practice on public names like CVS, Hims, and Progyny. This sounds like a great series for us to do in the future... |
⏰ Tonight is the last night Enrollment closes at 11:59 PM ET The next Mini-MBA cohort isn't until March 2027. This is the last one on the calendar. 🎓 Ready to go deeper than today's numbers? Six weeks to read the business of women's health the way an operator does — policy included.Six weeks, one layer at a time: the ecosystem, care delivery, how money actually flows, business models and financing, product and marketing, and regulatory and policy. Reading a filing the way today's essay walks through is one small piece of it. Every week brings in an executive who has run that layer.
Sept 15 – Oct 30, 2026 · 12–2pm ET · Weekly office hours with the cohort TA · 100% money-back guarantee |
This cohort's guest speakers
💳 Payment plans available Split it into installments at checkout, pay nothing extra, and start tomorrow with the cohort. Cost is not a reason to wait a year. $1,396 · Payment plans available · 100% money-back guarantee "This women's health mini-MBA has been a game-changer for me. It allowed me to hone my knowledge and refine my positioning, ultimately helping me transition from a completely different industry (Media) into women's health. I'm thrilled to share that I even received a job offer in this new field." — Amy Keenan, Marketing and Strategy |
⭐ Featured Roles Two handpicked roles this week
Oura makes the Oura Ring, helping millions of people understand their readiness, activity, and sleep through daily health insights. Why we flagged it: Today's essay is about reading Oura's S-1 to see where the company is going. This is the seat where that reading becomes the job. Apply →
A not-for-profit system in New York's Southern Tier: four hospitals and physician practices serving two-thirds of the region. Why we flagged it: Full scope of practice, prenatal through gynecologic, at a teaching hospital with real mentorship structure rather than a solo outpost. Apply → |
🤝 In the Community
Nobody set out to price it that way. It is the output of the valuation system behind Medicare's fee schedule — and tonight is the deadline to tell CMS, on the record, that the system needs fixing. Source: Penn et al., "Price and Prejudice," Journal of Women's Health, 2025. | ||
Comments close tonight on the rule that prices women's health What it is: The Physician Fee Schedule is Medicare's price list for every service a doctor provides, and CMS has published a 716-page draft of the 2027 version that the public can comment on until tonight. Why it matters: CMS is legally required to read and respond to substantive comments before finalizing, and so far only about 7 percent of the comments filed touch women's health at all. What it impacts: Private insurers benchmark their contracts to these same Medicare rates, so what gets set here decides what gets offered, staffed, and covered — menopause, hormone, and osteoporosis appear zero times in the whole draft. 51& read all 716 pages — get the plain-language breakdown → Draft and file your comment in minutes →Women's Health Horizons — Washington, D.C. Summit · October 7, 2026 200+ senior leaders and 50+ speakers in Washington, D.C. for a day on policy, reimbursement, and advocacy, with the Society for Women's Health Research and Women's Health Advocates. Sessions cover market access, the investment landscape, and fertility innovation. Get early bird pricing before it ends →👋 Someone Worth Knowing Elizabeth Brewer Head of US Government Affairs, IVIRMA Elizabeth leads government affairs for IVIRMA, one of the largest fertility care networks in the world — and a government affairs leader from an organization that size is exactly who you want explaining how the rules actually get made. She's our Week 6 guest speaker in the Mini-MBA, teaching how policy and advocacy create real leverage for the companies paying attention. |
📅 Upcoming Events Get in the room⭐ IWH Members Only IWH October Office Hours October 16, 2026 · 2:00–3:00pm EDT · Virtual Confidential, members-only office hours with founder Jodi — bring interview debriefs, resume questions, or career-progression questions to a small peer group. RSVP →IWH · Free September Monthly Women's Health Career Networking September 25, 2026 · 2:00–3:00pm ET · Virtual Come meet others currently creating or accelerating their career in women's health: spend time getting to know others in our industry, hear the latest industry insights, and uncover what we are seeing and hearing from the ground level. RSVP →IWH · Free Maternal Mental Health Is Scaling. Here's Who Mavida Is Hiring. September 29, 2026 · 2:00–2:30pm ET · Virtual A live employer spotlight with Mavida Health Co-Founder & COO Emma Sugerman, who scaled behavioral health at Headspace, LifeStance, and Charlie Health, on Mavida's mission, culture, and what roles are opening next. RSVP → |
The Career Map 100+ open roles across 20+ companies hiring in women's health this week Browse the full job board →
P.P.S. Doors close at 11:59 PM ET tonight, and the next cohort is March 2027 — roughly twenty-six Mondays of watching other people read S-1s correctly. Enroll tonight and you get to be the insufferable one instead. |
