To Urška Sršen, being an artist isn’t any different from being an entrepreneur. Whether she was making sculptures back in college, or designing technology for women like she is currently, “It’s very intensive, it’s personal, it’s all based on your ideas, and you’re trying to make them happen,” she says. “There’s a lot of creativity involved. So I don’t really know what ‘entrepreneur’ means, actually.”
Though she’s in London on this particular afternoon, the 27-year-old Slovenia-born entrepreneur says she’s usually based somewhere between San Francisco, Zagreb, Croatia, and Shenzhen, China, where her company Bellabeat—which makes a “health tracker for your body and mind”—has offices. WeWork Old St. is the latest addition, “so London is pretty fresh still,” she says.
Sršen and her Croatian co-founder Sandro Mur have been working on Bellabeat for roughly two and a half years—in San Francisco in 2014, they were part of the Y Combinator program and raised a seed round. The Bellabeat team has boomed to 80 staffers.
It all started with their first device: a pregnancy tracker and app that “allowed future moms to listen to their babies’ heartbeat, record it, and share it with their loved ones,” says Sršen. “It was a very emotional, very strong product. That product set us on this path of women’s health.”
After that came the LEAF, which focuses on a variety of health categories: sleep, activity, breathing and meditation exercises, and menstrual cycle.
“It takes a more holistic approach to quantify health, compared to Fitbit or Jawbone or similar to devices that are more fitness-oriented,” says Sršen.
And by the looks of it, you’d be surprised that it tracks any or all of those things, given that it’s designed as a piece of jewelry—made out of natural wood and silver or rose gold, depending on which model you choose. It can be worn as a necklace, bracelet, or clipped onto clothing. This is so that women want to wear the device every day.
“It doesn’t look like a piece of technology at all,” says Sršen. “There’s no screens, no flashing lights. The only communication that happens between the actual device and the user is through vibrations. There’s smart alarms that notify you when you were not active enough or to wake you up gently.”
The LEAF then syncs up with an app through Bluetooth, presenting you with all of the data you need, “which you can then adjust your habits and lifestyle and understand your body better,” she says.
A huge asset to the Bellabeat team is Sršen’s mom, an obstetrician and gynecologist with 30 years of experience in women’s health.
“Our beginnings were inspired by her work,” says Sršen. “She’s our biggest fan, and advocate, and our most valuable member.”
Most of the Bellabeat users range from ages 19 to 40—women in various stages of their life, from puberty to menopause—Sršen included.
“Working in this field was a great inspiration,” Sršen says. “But that was also something that I was interested in. I’ve always been pretty active and into trying new things that would make me feel better, especially as my lifestyle has been quite stressful most of the time. All of our lifestyles are quite stressful usually. I believe there are many natural ways that we can better that or influence that.”