Ask Nomi didn't start in a boardroom. It started with 18 years of normalizing pain — and deciding no one else should have to.
Two days off every month. Debilitating cramps that shaped every plan, every commitment. Sushma did what most women are taught to do — she pushed through it and assumed it was normal.
Sushma joins Verywell Health (Dotdash Meredith), spending four years leading consumer health product — learning how people search for, consume, and act on health information at scale.
The cramps get worse. Then she starts fainting. A specialist finally names what she'd been living with for 18 years: endometriosis. The irony isn't lost on her — she'd been working in health the entire time and still normalized her own symptoms. That gap between information and care becomes impossible to unsee.
Sushma founds Intara, a growth consultancy she bootstraps to over $1M in revenue. Working with healthtech clients like Zocdoc, she sees the same pattern again and again: women's health is fragmented, under-supported, and hard to navigate.
After leaving Intara, Sushma begins exploring what to build next — whether to join a company, back one, or start something new.
She joins Blue Ridge Labs (Robinhood Foundation), starts talking to women with period pain, and digs into the femtech and women's health market. Over 50 interviews and a 76-person survey make the problem undeniable — 93% of respondents struggled to find specialists, 42% were spending $5K+ out of pocket annually, and 88% wanted to beta test a solution.
The research narrows to endometriosis. Ask Nomi is born with a simple belief: women need more than information — they need coordinated care.
Sushma assembles the early ecosystem: business, startup, and healthtech advisors; medical advisors across OB-GYN, pelvic health, and sleep medicine; and Sai, who becomes her technical co-founder and first hire. The waitlist goes live and 100+ women sign up organically — before a single ad is run.
Ask Nomi launches its closed beta with 40 women with endometriosis — drawn from the waitlist that had been building since Q4.
Early feedback makes one thing clear: chat is the new UX. Users want a simpler, more natural way to track symptoms and understand their patterns.
Ask Nomi launches its native app, shaped by what users were already telling us they wanted.
The first paid pilot launches — validating that users want not just tracking, but real care and support.
Ask Nomi reaches 61 beta users, with strong activation, repeat engagement, and growing confidence in the model.
The next chapter is public launch, deeper care experiences, and building Ask Nomi into the care layer for women with endometriosis — starting there, and expanding outward.
Join us