Women’s health receives 4% of global R&D funding.
Four per cent for half the human population.
This isn’t a statistic, but a statement about what is valued and what has been systematically overlooked. Medical research, pharmaceutical development, and healthcare innovation – all designed around male bodies as the default.
Lindsay Davis knew this intellectually. But knowing something and building the solution are entirely different undertakings. On The Wisdom Of … Show , she shared how she went from luxury brand expansion to creating Asia’s entire femtech ecosystem from nothing.
The conversation revealed something most people miss about real leadership … it’s not about grand vision. It’s about the willingness to start before you’re ready.
The Career Pivot Nobody Saw Coming
For over a decade, Lindsay led global expansion for Quintessentially, overseeing 60 offices across 25 countries. Luxury Daily named her one of the “Luxury Women to Watch.” She was operating at the highest levels of premium brand management.
Then in 2020, she relocated to Singapore. Within a year, everything changed.
“I encountered the term ‘femtech’ while researching corporate DEI in Singapore. I was looking at recruiting, retaining, and developing women in executive roles. And I read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez about data bias.”
The research revealed something she couldn’t unsee – women’s health wasn’t just underserved. It was systematically overlooked, under-researched, and underfunded. And in Asia, there was no organisation connecting innovators, investors, clinicians, and advocates specifically around this problem.
Most people would have written a report. Lindsay founded FemTech Association Asia in October 2021.
Building Something That Doesn't Exist
Zero to 80+ companies across 10 countries in four years. Bhutan to Vietnam. Japan to Indonesia. Each has vastly different cultures, economies, healthcare systems, and regulatory environments.
Most ecosystem builders struggle with two stakeholder groups. Lindsay orchestrates five simultaneously … founders, investors, corporates, governments, and consumers.
“The entrepreneur is by definition looking for excitement. It finds them. The ability to focus on the critical few things versus the distraction of the important many” is what separates those who scale from those who stay stuck.
Lindsay didn’t just build a network. She created infrastructure for an industry that barely had a name.
By June 2024, she hosted FemTech Connect Asia, the region’s first homegrown femtech conference. Something that had never existed in Asia.
By 2023-24, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific commissioned her as a thought leader and researcher to define what’s required to drive transformational and catalytic change in femtech in Southeast Asia.
From founding to UN recognition in under three years. Not by luck, but the result of systematic ecosystem development executed with precision.
The Courage Question
I asked Lindsay where she found her courage.
Her answer revealed something most people get backwards about courage:
“My mother is an incredibly strong character. Go do it, figure it out. She believed in women’s rights and still does. And I was an athlete. Competitive athlete my whole life. You get knocked down, you stand up, you get back at it. My resilience comes from tough parents and from sports.”
But here’s the deeper insight: “I have a high threshold for shame. I can do silly things. I’m happy failing. For me, you have one life. I tried. I know a lot of people who didn’t try.”
Sport doesn’t just build physical resilience. It builds comfort with the edge of possibility. You learn that flying without a safety net is part of reaching your potential.
The Leadership Lesson From Someone Putting Aside Their Book
During our conversation, Lindsay shared a story about leadership that’s stayed with me.
She was working at Quintessentially. There was a leader there, someone she admired. And Lindsay noticed something about how this leader operated:
“She saw me coming. Put aside the book that she was reading. Got off the call that she might have been on. She always made time for me. And that just really stuck with me. Even though I have limited time, it’s okay, I have 15 minutes, I can give you 15 minutes.”
This is what real presence looks like in leadership.
Not strategic planning sessions. Not vision documents. Someone putting aside what they’re doing to be fully present when you enter the room.
Lindsay noticed the physical behaviours first. The book being set down, the call ending and the attention shifting completely.
“People are always noticing, not just what you say as a leader, but what you actually do. They might even just be the small habitual things that you do.”
This is ecosystem building at its most fundamental level. You can’t orchestrate founders, investors, corporates, governments if you can’t be fully present with each person.
The Mission That Drives Everything
“Available, accessible, and affordable healthcare for all women in Asia at every stage of life.”
That’s not a tagline. It’s the north star for every decision.
When you’re clear on the mission, the methodology follows. Lindsay’s approach has four pillars:
Thought Leadership – Closing the research gap through expert insights and data-driven research
Programming – Events, speakers, networking to share, learn, and grow
Amplification – Promoting the industry and raising awareness
Community-Building – Connecting stakeholders across the ecosystem
But the real framework is deeper. It’s about understanding that ecosystem building isn’t about connections. It’s about creating the conditions where diverse stakeholders can align around a shared mission despite having different incentives, timelines, and measures of success.
The 4% Problem
Let’s return to where we started – 4% of global R&D funding goes to women’s health.
What does that mean in practical terms?
It means women experiencing menstrual health issues, menopause symptoms, fertility challenges, and sexual wellness concerns often can’t find adequate care. The research doesn’t exist, the solutions haven’t been developed, and the infrastructure isn’t there.
It means health challenges that affect half the population are treated as niche concerns.
It means bias isn’t just attitudinal. It’s structural. Built into how medical research is designed, how pharmaceuticals are developed, and how healthcare systems operate.
Lindsay is changing that. One company, one partnership, one conversation at a time.
The Suffragette Insight
When I asked Lindsay what historical conversation she’d want to witness, her answer revealed something about how she sees her own work:
“I’d be really fascinated to listen in on those early conversations when feminism was just forming. The challenges that the women faced, and the men and the allies who stood by the women. Even going back further, the suffragette movement. To be in the room and just hear how they were approaching change. I almost cry thinking about it, just what people have gone through over the years for equality.”
She understands she’s part of a continuum. Women having the vote in Australia and New Zealand happened in 1901-1902. The suffragette movement. The feminist movement. All of it is recent history.
And now, women’s health equity. The same kind of systemic change, t he same kind of long game.
This kind of historical perspective, combined with immediate action, is what separates movement builders from everyone else. Learn how to develop this dual-timeline thinking in my Masterclass.
What Failure Actually Teaches You
Lindsay’s comfort with failure isn’t recklessness. It’s wisdom.
“I’m happy failing. You have one life. I tried. I know a lot of people who didn’t try. Maybe it’s not always exactly as we wanted, but I tried. And so I can look back and say, you know, my best effort.”
This is the mindset that makes impossible things possible.
Because building Asia’s femtech ecosystem from nothing? That’s the kind of audacious goal where failure is the likely outcome. The comfortable choice is waiting for someone else to do it.
Lindsay chose differently.
And now women across 10 Asian countries have access to healthcare solutions that didn’t exist four years ago.
The Framework That Changes Everything
During our conversation, I built a comprehensive visual model that captures Lindsay’s entire approach to ecosystem development. The framework reveals how to:
Identify systemic gaps that entire regions accept without question
Build multi-stakeholder alignment around a shared mission despite competing interests
Create infrastructure for industries that don’t yet exist
Navigate cultural complexity across vastly different contexts
Scale systematically while maintaining mission integrity
Orchestrate diverse groups toward collective impact
The model shows why Lindsay’s approach works across any mission-driven movement, not just femtech. Whether you’re building an ecosystem in healthcare, education, climate, or technology, the same principles apply.
From Luxury to Legacy
Lindsay made a choice most people never make. She traded prestige for purpose. Global luxury brand expansion for women’s health equity.
The skills she honed at Quintessentially -managing complex stakeholders across diverse markets, building networks, and creating movements, are exactly what it took to build FemTech Association Asia.
Sometimes the path that seems like a complete pivot is actually a direct line to your most important work.
What This Means For You
You don’t have to build an ecosystem to apply Lindsay’s wisdom.
Maybe you’re a founder trying to align investors and customers around your vision. Maybe you’re a corporate leader trying to drive change across resistant systems. Maybe you’re someone who sees a gap nobody’s addressing and wonders if you should do something about it.
Lindsay’s story offers a blueprint:
Start before you’re ready. Build presence into your leadership. Develop comfort with the edge of possibility. Have a high threshold for shame. Be willing to fail. Focus on the critical few things versus the distraction of the important many.
And most importantly … if you see a gap and think “someone should do something,” consider that maybe you’re the someone.
The Movements We Build
As our conversation drew to a close, Lindsay reflected on what matters most:
“All women have ownership and choice in their own bodies. That would be in every country and every place around the world. Every government, every individual has complete control of their own bodies.”
That’s the mission. Available, accessible, affordable healthcare for all women in Asia. And now, with FemTech Spain launched in January 2025, the methodology is proving replicable.
What Lindsay built in Asia is becoming a global template for advancing women’s health everywhere.
This is what real leadership looks like. Not the TED Talk version. The version where you start with zero companies and four years later you’re shaping health policy for half a continent.
Watch the complete conversation with Lindsay Davis and see the full ecosystem development framework.
Then discover how to capture and systematise your own leadership genius in my Masterclass.
The future of women’s health is being built right now. By people willing to start before they’re ready. By people who’ve spent their lives getting knocked down and standing back up.
