Ana Herrera: Founder & CEO of Glow by Hormone University

Episode 681

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Ana Herrera, Founder and CEO of Glow by Hormone University—a brand and platform leading the charge in hormonal health through science-backed, award-winning transdermal products and education. After spending 17 years in the corporate beauty world, Ana’s personal journey with endometriosis and surgical menopause sparked a mission to bring visibility, advocacy, and real solutions to a space too often overlooked.
During our conversation, Ana shares the raw story behind launching Glow, the science and strategy that brought their innovation to market, and how she’s helping women become their own health advocates. We explore the connection between hormonal balance and productivity, the challenge of destigmatizing taboo topics, and what it takes to build a community-driven wellness brand with heart and purpose.
Whether you're a mission-driven founder or a curious consumer curious about health, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. I’m so excited to have my next guest here. We actually connected a while ago and ended up reconnecting. And I’m like, You have to come on the show to talk all about your journey and everything that you’re building. So Ana Herrera is the founder and CEO of Glow by hormone University. So after a career in corporate beauty, Ana’s personal journey through endometriosis and surgical menopause led her to create a platform and product line dedicated to hormonal growth, and her product, Glow is on a mission to break the stigma, educate and empower women at every life stage. I cannot wait to get more into her story and hear how everything is going from building as an executive in a different industry to founding a company that she’s super passionate about that is really ahead in terms of innovation. So, Ana, welcome to the show. So excited that you’re here.

Ana Herrera 1:48
Thank you, Kara, so so much. With huge, huge fan. And it’s an honor to be here when you launched your book. I think I was probably one of the first ones to buy it. And so thank you really touched. And yeah, love being here. So thank you so much for having me.

Kara Goldin 2:05
I’m very excited. So how would you describe Glow by hormone University, your product that that you have come out with Glow is just awesome. But how would you describe it to people? Yes,

Ana Herrera 2:19
well, let me just go back one step, because we as the name states, globe by hormone University. So we started off creating a platform, a one destination for Hormonal Health, and we combine education, master classes, community and evidence based supplementation, which is the brand Glow, and our mission is to help women, as you said, take control of their hormones, no matter the stage of their lives.

Kara Goldin 2:56
That’s That’s incredible. So you came out with the product line, in addition to being an incredible resource and a platform, but can you talk about the products that you came out with that are really part of the Glow line?

Ana Herrera 3:10
Absolutely yes. So Kara, as most of our founder stories, it starts with my own story, and I want to go back, kind of like to my childhood, because my my father was a huge proponent of having a healthy life, and he was also a visionary. We were, you know, grew up in Spain. I was very lucky to live in different countries, and my my dad was one of the first people to create nursing homes here in Spain, and those nursing homes were based on having complete renewable energy and post organic produce and and this, of course, you know, started because of our own family story as well. And so I we all helped right from the very beginning and and so I really lived and breathed what it’s like to to start from zero in a new business. My dad, at the time, didn’t have a business plan or anything like that, but he saw the the major gap to take care of the elderly in a different way. And so I was really inspired by that, and he was also a brilliant person to motivate all of us to to really pursue what we wanted to do and and to have that courage, which is, as you know, not easy to start your own business and and so I always had this entrepreneurial thing in me, but I never knew what I wanted to do, and I spent 17 years in the beauty industry. In the corporate world, I worked for major major brands and was. Is dedicated mostly into like retail strategy and international expansion. That led me to travel all around the world, opening new markets and truly understanding the consumer differences and the consumer behavior in different geographies around the world. And the last brand that I worked for was a tiny, tiny startup, and I was the only one there the three guys skincare brands. We were like 15 people, and in three years, we opened 15 international markets, and I worked so hard, and they ended up having a fantastic exit. So really, really proud of that. But the story, the personal story, comes here because I was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis, really, when I started my my career in my early 20s, and I was suffering from like, really excruciating pain. And for those who don’t know or listening, you know what is endometriosis? It actually affects 10 to 15% of the female population, and it has major ramifications. Of course, quality of life being such an excruciatingly painful condition. But in my case, I had my fertility affected, so I couldn’t have a family, and years later, after sick surgery, I ended up going through surgical menopause. So that’s kind of like the back story that, you know, I still actually chalk up sometimes when I talk about it, because it was very, very difficult to deal with it. And after surgical menopause, I was given a hormonal treatment because, as we know, most women go through perimenopause and then menopause, and that’s a transition of four to eight years. And when you go through surgical menopause, or induced menopause, if you’re going through an oncological treatment, all of a sudden you get all the symptoms, and it’s very kind of aggressive, and so it takes a major toll. And I was like, my goodness, I I don’t feel like myself. And I was going through all these hot flashes and night sweats and very kind of I felt very sad, and I’m usually a nutty person, and I didn’t quite understand what was happening. And that was the trigger for me to start studying Hormonal Health, because it’s not about the phase of life, it’s about all the symptoms that women go through depending on what happens, right? So whether you are postpartum or perimenopause or menopause, or you might have PCOS, or you just might have PMS, and that might start that, you know, when you’re 15 years old, right? And so that was a I was like, Oh my gosh, I have no idea about Hormonal Health. Nobody teaches us at school about this. And after that hormonal treatment, I had a side effect that actually put my life in danger. So that was that moment, the aha moment of, okay, well, I need to look for my own solution. And I started navigating the industry and looking at supplements in the market, and I was totally lost, and part of the situation that I had was a major, major issue with my column. So I was like, Okay, this has to be gut friendly, and I have to really create solutions that would help women, no matter where they are in their lives, because you can be a woman 35 years old and have early menopause, and you can have your period when you’re 50. So yeah, we we don’t like talking about age. We like talking about symptoms, problem, solution. And at the time, I was so lucky to have met my now friend, but also mentor, Jelena, who used to work at the time at Unilever ventures, and Kara, I have no idea how to raise money, he was like learning a different language for me. And I called her and I said, you know, this is my vision, I did kind of like a very basic business plan. And I said, you know, I want to create a line of products that are different, that are topical based or no pills, and that can really help women with all the different symptoms that we go through. And I. It’s over 150 symptoms that we can go through in life. So that was the the start of Glow. And one major thing for me was, okay, how? How do we make this a line that works? And who do I team up with? Because I’m not a doctor, and I want to make sure that I I team up with the best. So I was really lucky, fortuitous, kind of meeting with a major celebrity, and that was Martha Stewart that I can mention. And she said the doctor you have to talk to is Doctor Elizabeth Poynor. She’s the best in the country, and so I knocked on her door. She was already following Harmon University. I was very surprised about because I really very basic platform at the time. And I explained to her my vision and how I wanted to create formulations. And I was also lucky that I had access to alumni from Columbia University. So we did major research. I talked to also other doctors around the world, and we created our first products, which are period SOS and menopause SOS. That’s amazing. That was kind of like the start. But if I may add, the biggest thing for me was I need to make sure that this product works, because it’s very different to what’s out there. It’s a cream, as you know, it’s a topical solution, transdermal. So I first, I said, Okay, I’ve got my savings. I’m gonna just put on my savings and create the first study with the first formulations. And the results came back after three months, which was a long wave, and the results were absolutely outstanding. So that was the moment when I decided, okay, now I can look at an investor in their eyes and say, Okay, this works. We’ve got the facts and we’ve got the studies, and now I can raise money and go for it.

Kara Goldin 12:12
So you launch Glow with how many skews, and can you talk a little bit about each one of those. And really, you know how you decided to differentiate those? What was the most important thing for you to get out there that you thought would really drive awareness, but also sales for the company? Yes,

Ana Herrera 12:36
absolutely. So we all know supplementation, right? It’s everywhere there is a, I mean, it’s, I saw that there was just so much choice. And when we did some research with friends, really, with women, we we understood that it was hard for people to just know what to choose. And so, you know, what, what do I do if I’m going through major cortisol spikes and stress? What do I really go for? And so the the market is inundated with with supplementation, and so that’s the reason why I decided on topical. And we wanted to have that key differentiator, so we we launched two, two SKUs. First that’s period, SOS and menopause, SOS, which initially was just one SKU, and then we decided to divide it so that we could target those two different audiences. We We chose fantastic ingredients, which one of them is actually the key ingredient, while young root is an extract from the root and has diogenin and what diocese it will stimulate progesterone and estrogen naturally for hormonal balance. So we don’t add hormones, we stimulate your own hormones. So those were the two first cues with those studies that I just mentioned. And we also launched lavender and flaxseed thermal pad as an add on, as an accessory for women that are going through crams, and you know, they want to have a really nice, cozy thermal pad, but also for inflammation, and you can freeze it and heat it. So those, those were the three first cues,

Kara Goldin 14:33
so you launch it, get it into 20,000 plus hands in 18 months. Like, how did you do that? I mean, that’s incredible, how fast you were able to get it out there in the market. Yes,

Ana Herrera 14:48
so, gosh, it was, of course, a lot of trial and, you know, and failing and understanding, you know, I will never forget, because. What Kara one you and I talked, and we said, you need to look for where your customer is. And that’s what we did. And we found out that, especially in the US, because we were present in the US, but also in Spain. I’ll go a bit more in detail about that. But in the US, a lot of women, 70% in fact, like to shop on Amazon. So we decided to just take it as our growth engine, and we we have an Amazon channel. Is our main channel in the US, before going into retail. We are now present in air one stores, and we are also now going into different retail stores. But that was kind of like our first step, and because we have Hortman University as our educational platform, which is also a key differentiator for us, it’s free, totally accessible, and it drove great traffic as well for women to discover the brand. And so we’ve got 80% organic traffic there. And we also have Yeah, a symptom checker that we co developed with with our OB GYN, so that women can really find out if they have hormonal imbalance, and that’s also a way to discover our product line.

Kara Goldin 16:28
That’s terrific. I feel like there’s more and more people that in more and more companies that are coming out, which I think is only helpful to everyone to be able to really get the word out that and normalize frankly, this conversation around hormones and and menopause, or pre menopause, perimenopause. So how do you build trust with all of this information out there that often gets dismissed or stigmatized. I think it’s getting better now. But how do you do that? How do you get the word out? I know you mentioned that celebrities have have definitely called attention to Glow. But also I’m just curious, like, what has worked best for you. I mean, you’ve got a platform of information, but what is has kind of been the key thing for you to get the word out. Obviously, you’ve got great products too, but I’m so curious how you think about that.

Ana Herrera 17:32
Yes, and that was a huge thing for us, because this category is very different to, let’s say, beauty, which I was so used to, right? And I that’s the reason why, of course, we teamed up with Dr ponder and other doctors as well. So there are several ways we we build trust. Yes, of course, number one is our platform. But what’s important for me to mention here is that every single article that we get out there is verified by one of our key advisors. So really important, because I have been there and I’m still there, right? I’m still going through surgical menopause, so I want to make sure that whatever we put out in the world is verified, and that is super, super important part of our mission. Very, very clear. It’s our North Star that’s one. Number two is doctors themselves and key opinion leaders that already have a following, and they are the ones, and we don’t pay them. And I want to make clear that this is, this is again, part of our mission. And every time I speak to one of them, I also, you know, just just say to them, Look, I need you to if you talk about our product, as you did, Kara, right? You want to test it. You want to make sure that you read all of our studies and and you work with us with conviction and authenticity, and you understand that the product works. So we’ve got many doctors actually that work with us, and we now have built a Hormonal Health Advisor circle, and these are experts in the field that want to help us create this movement and effectively, as you say, you know there is information, but we need to make sure that whatever information we put in the world is verified, and it’s important that the consumer understands that. So those are the two key things. And the third one would be events. We do events with key experts as well. So that’s, you know, kind of like in person events, where we invite those experts and we talk about different subjects and topics. Could be vaginal dryness. It could be three. Could be stress and and that’s also a really nice way and effective way for people to understand our brand. Collaborates with with doctors and experts. What has

Kara Goldin 20:12
been the most difficult part of growing a company from scratch? I mean, you’ve had you’re an experienced executive. I always say that, you know, experience is terrific, but it’s not always the thing that really helps you as a founder, right? That helps you kind of get something off the ground, because you were dealing with different types of experiences along the journey, and now you’re growing something, an entirely new category, a taboo category, and in your case, and you’ve been able to do it, but what’s been kind of the most difficult.

Ana Herrera 20:55
Oh my gosh. Kara, there are so many difficult things that went through. Someone said to me, Oh, if someone would have given you a playbook on how to create a business, what would you put in that playbook? And I actually sent her a huge list of things. You know, I wish someone would have given me all of this for us, several things. One was raising money. It’s raising money. It’s learning a new language, and it’s it’s just a tough thing to go through, and the rejections and people not really understanding what this category is about and the potential of it. You know, I heard so many times, oh, this is a niche category. I’m like, Well, we’re talking 80% of women. You know, it’s not really niche, right? But, of course, it is a new category. So raising money was definitely a difficult one, learning how to do that, understanding as well, how to take rejection, you know, from a psychological perspective, and turning that into a fuel to continue and to be determined, to get it and so and raising money without a product, but just a formulation, was also really difficult. So we were then lucky after a lot of no’s, but we managed to oversubscribe in our first friends and family round on our second round. But yeah, that was definitely one second one is finding great people. I really we are so thorough now, and we want to make sure that whoever joins us, they understand that our mission and vision is what drives us, drives us, and they really have to believe in what we’re doing and but also, you know, it’s the skill set, is the attitude and understanding how a startup works. We have to be so agile and dynamic. And, you know, sometimes it’s like weekends and late nights. So yeah, finding, finding great people is definitely have been tough. Has been really tough. And I would say we are now into actually three markets going international. You know, I’m Spanish. I’m based in New York, but I did see a major opportunity in going into a smaller market and testing the penetration of that market. But even though I am from Spain, I could not imagine the bureaucracy that you have to go through and how strict the European Union is, which thankfully, because we’re so obsessed with ingredients, we pass with flying colors. But yeah, the bureaucracy behind it just delayed the process massively. So yeah, do

Kara Goldin 24:03
you think it’s harder to launch a product like yours in the European market versus the US?

Ana Herrera 24:12
It really depends on which market. Now we’ve got all the different nuances. You know, now, if you I lived in the UK for 15 years. And I mean, if you launch in the UK now, you have to figure out the new laws of Brexit and how the market is now completely separate from the European Union. But I mean, in our case, because I am from this country, it helps, right? What the major advantage that I can tell every founder out there is that if you can build that trust, because the consumer in Europe is very strict and definitely very, very skeptical, and they they like and. Understanding what the doctor thinks or the pharmacist thinks before buying the product. So you have to have a very localized strategy in these markets, where you build that trust first and then you go into retail stores or pharmacies, in our case, where we have a mix of both now. So that’s what we did we we localized our strategy here in Spain and in the US. We understood that women are more independent when it comes to buying their products, right? And they just make their own decisions and they go into store or they buy online, on Amazon. But yeah, it’s very different kind of consumer dynamics. Well,

Kara Goldin 25:43
you are doing such an amazing job, Ana, and I remember when you and I talked, I think you were just getting going. So you’re making tons of progress. You should be very, very proud. So all of the products in the in the Glow portfolio. But also hormone University is just absolutely incredible you’ve built. I mean, almost two companies. I know it’s one company, but there are two very different aspects of your company that you’re really, really killing it doing. So what an incredible job. So thank you so much. Ana Herrera, founder and CEO of Glow by hormone University. We’ll have all the info in the show notes, but I really appreciate all you’re doing and you and thanks again for sharing the journey. My

Ana Herrera 26:32
pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure.

Kara Goldin 26:36
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey. I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now. You.

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