The founders of Canadian menstrual wellness brand Marlow know well the impact that poorly designed period products have on the daily lives of menstruators, especially youth, who can feel that life goes “on pause” when menstruating.

Company co-founders and former university classmates Nadia Ladak, Harit Sohal, Simone Godbout and Kiara Botha are on a mission to diversify and innovate the menstrual health space with game-changing alternatives to uncomfortable and ineffective menstrual products. The company’s first product is a lubricated tampon, the first of its kind for sale in Canada and the U.S., that tackles tampon discomfort caused by vaginal dryness - a symptom experienced by one in three women. 

In 2022, the co-founders competed against 30,000 companies in the Entrepreneurship World Cup and finished fourth place in the Early and Growth Stage Category. 

 GEN spoke with co-founders Nadia Ladak and Harit Sohal about how their team is breaking the stigma around period pain.

*This interview has been edited for length and readability.  

GEN: Why is Marlow’s mission of prioritizing menstrual health important to you? 

Nadia Ladak: Our vision is to create a new world where people prioritize menstrual wellness. Growing up, (menstrual health) was always a taboo topic.

We are on a mission to change that and to build a community and a movement around our brand where people feel comfortable understanding their bodies, their periods and cycles, and having the products that go with that.

GEN: How are you breaking the stigma around period pain? 

Nadia Ladak: This is really important to us because periods have always been so stigmatized. I remember the feeling of hiding a tampon in your sleeve as you rush to the washroom or feeling nervous to check out these products at the drugstore. 

A big part of our vision is to build an entire community around our brand. The way that we do that is partially online and partially offline. Online, we have engaging social media channels where we post myth-busters and taboo questions that we know people are afraid to ask regarding reproductive health. We supplement that with in-person activities. We do a number of workshops with high schools and universities where we talk about menstruation and the stigma behind it. 

GEN: What’s behind the name? Why “Marlow”? 

Harit Sohal: It’s actually a really fun story. When we were thinking of this unnamed brand at the time, we were thinking of the values we wanted the brand to represent. We envisioned a person, an older sister who tells you as it is. She doesn’t talk with euphemisms and analogies and is open and transparent about traditionally uncomfortable topics such as periods and menstrual wellness. 

We’re thinking, “Okay, we know the persona, we know what we want the brand to emulate as a person, so let’s give this person a name.” We went on Google and searched for a list of baby names. Marlow was one of the names that stood out to us. It was gender-neutral. It rolled off the tongue. It stood out to the entire team. And at the end of the day, it's not just a brand. We want Marlow to be a person that you can look up to. You can come into our Instagram DMs and ask us a question. 

GEN: What are some important criteria for your brand and products? 

Harit Sohal: There are a couple of things that we prioritize when we are creating a new product. The first is innovation. People have to understand where our founding story came from. We were told that periods are supposed to be painful growing up, which made us think about how we can innovate and make products better fit the unique needs of menstruators across the board. 

Second is the environmental sustainability piece. We've tried making our tampons more sustainable. They are 100% organic cotton. They come in a sugarcane-based bioplastic versus a petroleum plastic and a compostable wrapper. Every product we launch in the future will have sustainability at the core of it.

Finally, as a brand, we’re making sure that our message is inclusive and resonates with the modern menstruator. 

GEN: Do you have any advice for young female entrepreneurs who want to start businesses?

Harit Sohal: There was a study that came out of Stanford that shows when female entrepreneurs are pitching their business, subconsciously, their thoughts automatically go to a pessimistic and defensible standpoint. 

My advice is to focus on your big vision and pitch it with your whole heart because there's going to be a lot of that subconscious focusing on the nitty gritty. Don't let that take away your confidence. At the same time, sentiments are shifting. There are lots of opportunities, mentorship and resources, making it a great time to be a female entrepreneur.

GEN: What is the most important thing you have learned during your journey with Marlow?

Nadia Ladak: As an entrepreneur, you're always selling your business. Whether that's to customers, investors, advisors, to different stakeholders you want to bring on board, and even to different team members who are looking to join your startup.

Storytelling and sharing that vision is key. A lot of times, especially in our space, people are not experiencing our problem firsthand. We're building a product for menstruators, but our investors and partners might not menstruate themselves. 

GEN: How has the Entrepreneurship World Cup experience impacted you and your company?

Nadia Ladak: The funding that came from our winning pitch has been incredible, especially as we have a bunch of new milestones. We're launching with some retailers and we’re able to use that money towards marketing and making sure that the partnerships are successful. 

The money could not have come at a better time. It's also been incredible to build our international network as we're looking at expanding into the U.K. and to other markets.

GEN: What’s next for yourselves and for Marlow? 

Harit Sohal: This summer, we're doing many different pop-ups. We're doing activations around Toronto and in the U.S. and doing a lot of marketing initiatives. Marlow started as an e-commerce company selling direct-to-consumer, but we are now quickly expanding into retailers and have started having conversations with new buyers. As those orders start rolling in, we'll have to put in new inventory orders and make sure that we allocate some budget for trade spend.