Jennifer Claman is Building Gynovent to Design Women's Health Devices That Put Patients First

Women’s health is one of the most underserved areas in medicine and one of the most underfunded in venture. Just 2% of VC funding is invested in women's health, and only half of that goes to female founders. 

But many of the tools used in women’s health are in drastic need of innovation. The vaginal speculum, in particular, is used on roughly 60 million female patients a year in the US, but was never designed with patient comfort in mind and has gone largely unchanged in over 150 years. 

Having spent 30 years as a full-scope OB/GYN, Dr. Jennifer Claman was tired of depending on outdated tools. So she set out to launch Gynovent and redesign the speculum and other women’s health devices to finally put patients and providers first.

Introducing Gynovent: Empowering innovation, revolutionizing wellness

Gynovent is a women’s health medical device company built to create innovative products that women truly want and physicians genuinely need. 

The team’s lead product is a completely redesigned vaginal speculum—the standard device used in every screening and pelvic exam. “The device we currently use,” Jennifer explains, “was developed during the Civil War-era and hasn't really gotten an overhaul. Clearly there was absolutely no attention to the comfort and well-being of the patient in that design.”

Gynovent is taking a different approach. By offering color options, self-insertion, and an optional mirror, the team is centering their redesign around the patient experience. "We've been trying to shove a square peg in a round hole for nearly 200 years,” Jennifer says. “At least let's put a round peg in there."

By introducing products that improve patient well-being and the practitioner experience, Jennifer aims to pave the way for more mission-driven funds focused on health, grounded in the belief that “the most effective way to raise money in this space is to create really good products that are going to help a lot of people."

Jennifer’s journey to Gynovent

Before her founder journey, Jennifer spent 30 years as a full-scope OB/GYN, working as a referral surgeon for some of the most complicated gynecologic surgeries in the LA basin. Alongside clinical work, Jennifer spent 15 years as co-chair of Kaiser Permanente’s national new-product evaluation and approval committee in the OB/GYN space, gaining firsthand insight into medical device approval processes. 

Throughout decades of practicing, Jennifer worked hard to bring new innovations into the women’s health space, but was regularly restricted by the challenges that occur within hospitals and with payers who do not prioritize women’s health, which is often reimbursed at lower levels than other sectors of medicine. Women’s health devices regularly left patients uncomfortable and disempowered, and Jennifer saw many patients miss preventative screening exams because they'd viewed them as too uncomfortable, only to end up with advanced conditions down the line.

Though Jennifer had instilled the motto of “don’t complain about things, just change them,” in her family household, it wasn’t until Jennifer’s daughters asked her, “if you don’t like it, why don’t you just change it?” that Jennifer knew she’d have to build better women’s health devices herself. 

She stepped away from full-time practice and launched Gynovent, focusing first on redesigning the speculum, as it's the entry point to gynecologic care for the majority of women. The fact that there has been virtually no innovation in the device in over 150 years is indicative of the attitude of society towards women’s health, Jennifer believes. "What we fail to improve reveals what we fail to value."

Just over a year later, Gynovent’s prototype speculum has been evaluated by providers responsible for contracting decisions at several major health plans, and the team has received letters of interest from Kaiser, UCLA, the VA, and Sutter Health. Jennifer is currently focused on raising Gynovent’s angel round. 

Jennifer’s Advice for Fellow Founders

Founder education is critical, Jennifer says, particularly early in the journey. “Educate yourself at the very beginning, before you take too many steps, about the best way to travel your road, and learn what areas are most likely to result in successful outcomes.”

In her own experience, Jennifer found that it’s critical to tailor your education, expectations, and goals to your category—as building is different in every sector. “When I started, I tried pitching to some big venture capitalists. But Med Tech, especially women's Med Tech, can't compete against an AI-driven company run by three 25-year-olds that has no cost to infrastructure and a potential $30 billion upside. I needed to be in the room with the people who are interested in Med Tech from the beginning. That simple, pretty obvious lesson probably took me eight months to figure out."

To learn more about Jennifer’s founder journey, you can follow her on LinkedIn and visit gynovent.com.