⚕️ Issue #52: Traditional Chinese Medicine For All
Stephanie Tan and Michelle Lee share the story of their women's wellness company NOOCI
💬 Welcome to issue #52 of Between the Lines
After a career in private banking, insurance, and healthcare investing at Asia Financial, Stephanie Joyce Tan founded NOOCI — a modern wellness brand for women rooted in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She and her fellow Claremont colleague Michelle Lee share the founding story of NOOCI, the history of TCM, and what the company is building.
~ Josh & Miles
👤 Community Spotlight: Stephanie Joyce Tan & Michelle Lee
Stephanie Tan (CMC ’06) began her career in banking in New York before returning to Hong Kong 12 years ago to join her family business, a conglomerate that spans insurance, healthcare, real estate, and banking. Tan founded Hong Kong’s first wellness center serving the physical, mental, and emotional wellness needs of older adults. In 2021, Tan launched NOOCI, a wellness company that is on its path to demystifying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and making it more accessible to all women.
Before founding NOOCI, I know you were at Asia Insurance and Avo Insurance. What compelled you to leave your roles there and go found NOOCI?
I started NOOCI last year while I was pregnant with my second child. My nasal allergies were acting up — I was sneezing all night, congested, and sleep-deprived. I didn’t want to take OTC pills like I did during my first pregnancy, so I decided to research natural alternatives. While researching TCM solutions, I found the process daunting — the information is fragmented and hard to understand. That’s when I knew that there needs to be a better way for other people like myself to access TCM and learn about its benefits but in a more modern and approachable way. To start, I reached out to one of the leading players in TCM R&D and manufacturing. After several discussions, they became our manufacturing partner and because they loved the mission of NOOCI, they became our first investor as well.
Can you share a bit about NOOCI’s products and the company’s mission?
Our mission at NOOCI is to make TCM approachable and accessible to all. We launched with three plant-based products initially. ReNoo (Women’s Longevity) was created as an all-in-one, everyday supplement made specifically for women’s body constitution. It’s great for boosting immunity, promoting overall health (such as skin and gut), stimulating metabolism, and lowering sugar cravings. ReNoo transforms strong-tasting, often bitter Chinese herbs into a light drink that’s “barley meets green tea”. Our Noo Air (Nasal Relief) product strengthens the sinuses, boosts the immune system, and helps with common allergy symptoms. We started prototyping Noo Air almost a year ago — this helped clear my congestion and to this day, I no longer have to rely on OTC pills, which has been life-changing for me. The Noo Moon (Menstrual Relief) formula helps provide relief from PMS symptoms, fatigue, anxiety, and energizes the body. TCM herbs have supported women for thousands of years, so we are very excited to bring these traditional blends and modernize them to fit women’s lifestyles today.👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Jerry Lin
Jerry Lin graduated in 2007 from CMC before spending the next four years in banking and private equity at Goldman Sachs and Aurora Capital Group. From there, he went on to Wharton to receive his MBA in 2013. While at Wharton, Jerry met Kristian von Rickenbach and Adam Tishman, and the three of them bonded over the difficult transition of moving to a new city and the struggles of buying a new mattress. They found that the mattress industry was broken and wanted to fix it, and in August of 2015, they launched Helix Sleep.
Before the launch, the three of them raised a seed round investment from angel investors, and a year later, they raised a $7M Series A round led by Double J Capital, Great Oaks VC, and Simon Venture Group. Helix is an innovative direct-to-consumer brand platform, operating a portfolio of sleep and home goods brands. Each mattress is designed to your body type, sleeping position, and feel preference using their proprietary sleep technology. In 2021, Cerberus Capital Management acquired Helix and Brooklyn Bedding LLC and combined them to form a leading DTC mattress platform.
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Corey van der Wal is a PO alumnus and the co-founder and CPO of Frame Fertility – the first and only evidence-based platform that enables the early identification of fertility risk and care navigation leading to better fertility and overall health. Developed with clinical experts, Frame’s approach alleviates a downstream and often costly fertility crisis for patients. The company was inspired by the challenging fertility journey of its wife/husband co-founders and digital health experts, Jessica and Corey, who are dedicated to giving everyone the power to pursue parenthood confidently. This past April, they announced a $2.8M seed funding round led by Looking Glass Capital. They’re currently looking for great talent to join the founding team.
Kinside, founded by CEO Shadiah Sigala (PO), tackles the single most challenging part of being a working parent in the modern world: child care. They believe all families deserve access to high-quality, affordable care. By mobilizing thousands of employers, they’ve moved child care into the 21st century.
Kinside has raised $16M from YC, Magnify Ventures, Initialized, and Maven. Shadiah was also previously the co-founder of the unicorn company that serve SMBs, Honeybook. She’s looking to hire a strategic finance manager to develop their financial and strategic planning backbone. “It's an insanely covetable job for someone seeking a highly influential role reporting directly to the Shadiah, with exposure to the Board of Directors.”
Make sure to check out the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, make sure to create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 750+ remote-jobs, 180+ internships, or 30+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention Claremonsters!
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
Ten years ago, Jennifer Doudna (PO) and her colleagues published the results of a test-tube experiment on bacterial genes. Despite the results not making headline news initially, this discovery later led to the development of precise genome-editing technology, CRISPR.
Everything else you need to know….📖
The US Federal Government taps startup QuSecure for post-quantum cybersecurity. QuSecure was founded by Skip Sanzeri (CMC), and they just released their quantum orchestration platform, QuProtect, in May. The product is designed to protect encrypted communications and data with quantum resilience using quantum-secure channels.
Shahram Seyedin-Noor (PO) is the founder and GP of Civilization Ventures — a health tech and biology-driven VC firm. He’s also the former co-founder of Rgenix/Inspirna and GraphDive. He shares a few tips on survival in the current startup environment.
Congrats to the Velocidi team and co-founder Dina George Khoury (SC) on their recent acquisition by Kevel. Velocidi is a first-party audience solution for e-commerce marketers. Dina helped found the company over 12 years ago and has since been their Chief Client Officer.
Ray Grainger (HMC) is the Executive Chairman and founder of cloud software professional services leader Kantata (FKA Mavenlink). He’s also a professional services leader on a mission to reinvent how businesses deliver work. He discusses the importance of the networked economy and how it is evolving into a critical element of the IT revolution.
Can’t get enough of Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🎟️ The Ticket Uprising Is Coming….. Almost daily, there’s an article, a Twitter thread, or a Facebook post filled with frustrations towards the major ticketing players. Event producers aren’t happy. Fans aren’t happy. The ticketing industry needs a shake-up. Tixologi, co-founded by CMC alumnus Asher Weiss, is a blockchain-based ticketing software that puts event producers, venues, and teams back in control of their ticketing. They’re helping to create the future of ticketing.
🚫 Don’t Let Age Define Your Limits….. It’s hard to make new friends as an adult and even harder as you get older. Meet Hank — a digital platform connecting adults 55+ with people and activities in their community co-founded by PO alumnus Andrew Hong. The New York City-based startup recently announced a $7M Seed round, led by General Catalyst and Resolute Ventures. Hank is available in the NYC area but will expand this year to markets including New Jersey, Florida, and Texas.
🍽️ The Jack Of All Trays….. Statement Home is a woman-owned home-decore manufacturing company founded by Abby Michaelsen (CMC). The idea for the company began when Michaelsen was living in a “shoebox apartment” in New York City. The company’s main product, “The Jack Of All Trays,” is racking millions of views on TikTok. Jessica Alba and Sofia Vergara are even highlighting Statement Home in recent social posts. Fun Fact: before founding Statement Home, Abby used to work at Helix Sleep, founded by fellow CMC alumnus Jerry Lin.
🔬 Fifth Times The Charm For Telegraph Hill Partners….. Telegraph Hill Partners Raises $525M Fifth Fund for New Life Science and Healthcare Investments. This is their largest fund since Telegraph Hill Partners was formed over 20 years ago, and it will invest in innovative companies across the lifecycle from startup to fully scaled. THP V will be managed by a team close to major life science and medical innovation hubs, including PO graduate Alex Efron.
Feedback? We love to hear it. Hit us with an email. 👊🏼