Maya Kale on Moom Health’s growing lineup, embracing entrepreneurship and managing PCOS
For the girlies
Here’s a (not so) fun fact: PCOS is estimated to affect anywhere between 10 to 13 per cent of Malaysian women, according to studies from 2019 to 2022. And, according to the World Health Organisation, 70 per cent of affected women remain undiagnosed globally. If you’re unfamiliar, Polycystic Ovarian syndrome is a hormonal disorder that causes a host of symptoms, including irregular menstruation, infertility, obesity, hirsutism (excessive body hair growth), severe acne, ovarian cysts and more.
It’s not an easy disorder to endure, and unfortunately, it’s not curable, either. For many women, the only treatment plan they are offered is the pill. This was true for Maya Kale, who was diagnosed with the disorder at the age of 15. “The pill is pretty much like a standard kind of blanket solution for PCOS, and so I was on the pill for a really long time,” she says.
After years of struggling with the side effects of being on hormonal birth control, Kale started searching for alternative ways to manage her symptoms, looking towards supplements and consulting doctors, gynaecologists, dermatologists, nutritionists, and naturopaths to see which ingredients and lifestyle changes made a real difference. Eventually, she worked out a balance that worked for her.
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“I was getting really great recommendations on what ingredients to take, but I wasn’t sure where to buy them from and what my options were in Asia,” she explains. “Fast forward to COVID when my sister, Mili, and I were thinking of business ideas and we realised that there was a gap in the market for a modern supplement brand that really resonated with millennial Asian women—that had women’s issues in mind, that was packaged well, high quality and accessibly priced.”
So, leveraging years of personal research into PCOS symptom management, Kale would join forces with her sister to put everything she had learned into Moom Health. Since its launch three years ago, the brand’s expert-backed vegan and natural supplements have made their way across Singapore and Malaysia, from the cult-favourite Sleep/Well and De/Bloat pills to the newly-launched Hormone & Fertility Support supplement. Ahead, we speak to Kale about her PCOS journey, entrepreneurship and what makes Moom Health’s latest launch such a game changer:
What does ‘Moom’ mean? Where does the name come from?
“This is the silliest answer. We were worried that if we named the brand something super specific, it would limit us from what we could build in the future. And so we didn’t want it to mean anything at all.
“We read an article about Gwyneth Paltrow. When she was creating her company, an advisor told her that e-commerce and internet-based brands that have two O’s in them are always super successful, like Yahoo, Google, Zoom—there’s a lot of them you’ll start to realise. So she was like, ‘all right, cool. I’ll just add my initials, Gwyneth Paltrow on either side’.
“So Mili and I were sitting at the dinner table talking to my mum about what to name it and she suggested Moom. We were like, ‘that’s so stupid’, but then we ended up saying it over and over again. And then it just kind of stuck.”
How has Moom evolved since its beginnings?
“I think the brand has evolved tremendously since we launched from the way that we interact with our community, the way that we develop products, the sophistication and efficacy of our formulations—I think we’ve really come a long way. Of course, we’ve also just broken into a new market having entered Malaysia just a year ago. Moving forward, I think continuing to serve the modern Asian women in this region is how we want to continue on.”
What does the process of making a Moom supplement from start to finish look like?
“The unique thing about Moom is that we do go issue first rather than ingredient-based. And, we work through this philosophy and approach that we call ‘community-made supplements’. What that means is we work alongside our community to actually build a supplement. We’re crowdsourcing what we want to solve.
“When it comes to the actual ingredients selection, we take all this crowdsourced information and this community driven information and bring it to our advisory board. So we have an advisory board of seven practitioners ranging from doctors, gynaecologists, dermatologists, nutritionists, and naturopaths. Mili and I bring them the issues that we’re looking to address and maybe geek out on a few ingredients that we’re really interested in, but then they build the supplement.
“Then, our next phase is to actually test it. And that’s when the community comes in again. We test on ourselves, then with our R&D, then with our team, and then we actually give it out to community members for free just to see how efficacious the product is.”
As you mentioned, it was your journey with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome that inspired the launch of Moom. What advice do you have for other women struggling with PCOS?
“With PCOS and even endometriosis to an extent, lifestyle, dietary and supplemental changes are really what you need as a foundation to manage these hormonal imbalances. From a lifestyle perspective, the first thing that you have to look into when you have a hormonal imbalance is where this might be stemming from and what your symptoms are.
“Dr Sharon Kaur, one of the leading doctors in women’s health and PCOS in Malaysia, has said that nowadays she actually believes that most women have PCOS until proven otherwise, rather than the other way around. And that’s because it’s actually the lifestyle, I guess, the ways that we’ve treated our bodies that have made the diagnosis rates of PCOS so much higher than they ever used to be. It used to be one in ten. It’s now almost like one in seven women have PCOS.
“There’s actually like four or five different kinds of PCOS—post-pill PCOS, inflammatory PCOS, insulin resistant PCOS—and figuring out which ones are your triggers and which ones are yours is an easy way to start looking at the lifestyle factors. But when it comes to hormonal imbalances from a lifestyle perspective, one of the most important things is exercise.
“This doesn’t mean you have to pick up spin, HIIT and running. Really, you’ve just got to move your body and get your heart rate up slightly. That could mean going for a 30 minute walk every day or walking around your house when you’re doing your laundry—little things like that. Not only does it help with a lot of the common hormones we think of, but it actually really helps with cortisol as well. Cortisol is the stress hormone, so trying to lower cortisol through exercise and mindfulness, is a really good lifestyle tool. And then that can affect things like weight gain, acne, and hair loss—easy symptoms to connect back to.
“On the diet side of things, an anti-inflammatory diet is really great, but having common sense with your diet is great too. I like to think of things simply. At Moom, our philosophy is to incorporate good things rather than having this subtraction mindset where you restrict yourself. Like, if I go out to a restaurant and I order something fried, I don’t need to feel guilty about that. Instead, I see what I can add into that meal that can make me feel better and nourish my hormones.
“Supplementation is also really important because many of us are not getting the minerals that we need to live a healthy lifestyle. That’s where we feel Moom comes in—that ‘add in’ mentality. For things like PCOS, there are herbs that are really great for it. I think every woman should be taking a magnesium supplement and everyone with PCOS should be taking an inositol supplement—it’s about really understanding the sources, the dosage, the format in which you’re taking, and at Moom, we try to make that really easy through our content.
Could you share more about the latest launch?
“Our newest launch is called Meta/Boost, and it is a metabolism-boosting product that also really helps with blood sugar. It’s actually the second version of this supplement. We originally launched Metabolism Plus, which sold out really quickly but had to get taken off the shelves due to an ingredient issue.
“The new Meta/Boost is powered by a hero ingredient called mulberry leaf, and it’s clinically studied to actually reduce blood sugar spikes and glucose spikes in an hour. So for example, if you eat something and your blood sugar spikes, taking Meta/Boost beforehand will reduce that spike by 52 per cent within 60 minutes. You can take it every day to help activate your metabolism, unlock more energy from food, and reduce sugar cravings over time, but you can also take it in the moment to help with any sugar crash fatigue that you might feel after a meal.
SHOP: Moom Health Meta/Boost, RM180
How can Meta/Boost help women with PCOS?
“Your metabolism is so tied to insulin resistance, which is one of the biggest side effects from PCOS that you don’t necessarily see immediately. It happened with me—I felt super sluggish after everything I ate, but I was still super hungry at the same time. And I was just craving sugar so much more than I ever used to. So, we were very excited about this pill because it opens up the conversation around metabolism. A fast metabolism doesn’t necessarily just mean skinny—it’s actually about how your body activates its energy and how your hormones are reacting, and it has got a lot more to it than just weight loss.
What’s the best and worst thing about running a business with your sister?
I think the biggest highlight is the creative aspect. I think we would both say that’s our favourite thing about Moom—building a new product, getting to work with our creative team and really building out a campaign.
“The hardest thing is that as an entrepreneur, it’s already so hard to switch off. And when it involves family, you never get to get away from work—like, every family dinner and family holiday revolves around Moom. We’ve definitely gotten better at it, I would say. But yeah, it’s hard.
You’ve recently earned yourself a spot on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. How does it feel?
“It’s exciting. I haven’t really had the time to fully let it sink in and celebrate. But it feels really cool. I think what’s really nice about it is not only like do I think it’s the representation of just myself, but also my team and the work that we’ve done for Moom. And I think that that is really important. And that’s not me just being humble.
“It’s me actually realising that the work we’re doing as a team and as a business is really important. I just hope that we get to continue that. So I hope people keep buying Moom.”
Do you have advice for budding entrepreneurs (especially entrepreneurs going into business with family and friends)?
“I think just setting boundaries in general. It doesn’t even matter who you start the business with. I remember two years ago when we were working every single day of the week—one mistake we made was that we didn’t hire quickly enough. You have to realise that it’s not only about the number of hours that you put in but also considering the mental toll that entrepreneurship takes on you. Setting those boundaries super early has really saved me.”
What’s your best beauty advice?
“Taking care of yourself from the inside out is like the ultimate beauty hack, whether you’re taking care of your mental health, eating the right foods, or taking the right supplements. I think that is yet to be unveiled as a beauty hack. So I’d like to claim that one.”
Moom Health is available to shop here. For more body and wellness reads, click here.
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