“The market isn’t niche at all. It’s half the population for half of their lives,” Mitrevski told Inside Retail. “It’s not a niche issue, and most feel underserved, unheard or don’t know that their symptoms don’t have to be something that they just have to deal with,” she added. Bemoody is on a mission to disrupt an industry and reinvent a category with a brand that speaks directly to Gen Z and Millennial consumers. A cramped market It was Mitrevski’s professional experience working in hospitals where she noticed people’s menstrual symptoms being dismissed at worst or offered band-aid solutions at best. “Historically, there’s little incentive to innovate in women’s health because they’re just stuck with the safe bets of painkillers,” Mitrevski explained. “They’re easier to mass market on a pharma level, and they’re built on existing drug categories that are already out there and have proven revenue models, such as naprogesic – it’s not specific for PMS, it’s anti-inflammatory,” she added. While there has been little innovation for PMS until recently in Australia’s pharmaceutical industry, the US market has proven that there is an appetite for science-backed holistic supplements.  “The US has a much larger market, of course, with more startups around women’s health, and they have a stronger venture capital ecosystem over there, and their femtech is more backed,” Mitrevski said. “I’ve also found that the US culture is more open to direct consumer innovation with supplements,” she continued. Mitrevski cited O Positiv and Lemmy as examples of successful direct-to-consumer supplement brands that speak to their core demographic with amazing marketing and targeted messaging.  “Australian consumers are highly health literate, and they value clean and science-backed products, just like the American consumer,” Mitrevski stated. “This really sets the stage for Bemoody to thrive in Australia and be like those huge femtech startups in the US,” she added. Unlike the aforementioned big supplement brands, Bemoody is entirely bootstrapped. Bye bye PMS It took Mitrevski two years to formulate and bottle Bemoody’s PMS Support Cycle supplement. “We started with our problem, real frustration with PMS support, and I saw that in my close friends, my sisters and the community around me,” Mitrevski explained. “I really want to create a brand that spoke to the truth of what people experienced during their cycles, like the real, the raw, the messy parts of that that was often dismissed by your typical brand,” she continued. Beyond developing an efficacious clinically-backed formula, working with Australian manufacturers, naturopaths and the TGA, Mitrevski wanted to create a brand that stood for something. “I really want to create a brand that spoke to the truth of what people experienced during their cycles, the raw and messy parts that were often dismissed by your typical brand,” Mitrevski shared. “Part of launching wasn’t just creating the product, it was really making a brand that stood for what women went through during their cycles.” Bemoody has unapologetically owned the moodiness stigma that often comes with people experiencing PMS symptoms.  “We wanted to flip the script on what the word Moody was – so instead of being an insult, it’s sort of like a badge of honor in a way,” But Bemoody goes a step beyond product and branding; education is another important pillar of the new supplement company. Mitrevski chose to take a stigma-breaking approach in how Bemoody speaks to its customers by using its e-commerce and social media platforms as a place for education. “I saw that PMS and hormonal health were really under-discussed and often misunderstood, so content education really became as important as having a viable product, like it’s really part of our entire brand,” Mitrevski said. Now that Bemoody has finally launched, formulation to expand its range of supplements and a strategy to enter major retail doors is already underway.