Kate Ryder didn’t set out to reinvent healthcare. But when she became a mom, everything changed—including her view of the system meant to support her.
In this episode of The Motherly Podcast, the Maven Clinic founder and CEO shares how her own experience navigating pregnancy and postpartum care exposed the deep flaws in traditional healthcare for women—and why she’s made it her mission to fix them.
From launching the world’s largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health to expanding support across fertility, high-risk pregnancies, and menopause, Ryder is reshaping how maternal care is delivered—through innovation, empathy, and the belief that women deserve better.
Meet the expert
Kate Ryder is the founder and CEO of Maven Clinic, the world’s largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health. A former journalist turned venture capitalist and health tech pioneer, Ryder has led Maven in expanding access to care across every stage of womanhood—from fertility and pregnancy to postpartum and menopause. She’s been named to Fortune’s 40 Under 40 and Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” list. Today, her personal experience as a mom continues to shape Maven’s mission: to put women and families at the center of healthcare.
Related: Just 23% of mothers feel supported by their healthcare providers in postpartum, report finds
Motherly: What inspired you to start Maven Clinic? Was there a personal or professional moment that sparked the idea?
Kate: I started Maven 11 years ago at this point. We launched 10 years ago. And we are the largest virtual clinic in women’s and family health. And so what that means is we cover all pathways to parenthood from preconception through IVF, adoption, natural pregnancy, surrogacy. Egg freezing and then we go beyond that to cover parenting, pediatrics, postpartum care, and then menopause, which we launched a few years ago, which has been our fastest growing product. And so you can kind of think of Maven as that clinic in your pocket where you can talk to anybody you want. Any time of the day, we’re pretty 24×7. Also, we do a certain amount around reimbursement and coverage too. On the fertility side, we actually are the health plan and we design the benefit. And we work with a lot of companies doing that. Then there’s certain things that as companies kind of design Maven benefits into their family benefits, they could cover childcare, they could cover doula support, they could cover, what are other things? We’ve even had members cover snooze, clients cover snooze for their members. So really it’s allowing you, we’re a benefit that companies bring on with this more modern and inclusive care model, and we really allow for better and more comprehensive benefits. And so we work with about 2,000 companies today. We cover about 17 million lives that are eligible for Maven, and we’re in about 175 countries.
Motherly: Can you talk about why Maven was needed? Because presumably there was health care out there, but it wasn’t built for women and for the specific journey that people were on.
Kate: Well, in a perfect healthcare system, you shouldn’t need us, right? But we don’t have a perfect healthcare system. And so it’s really about constrained access. So because the care model for women was not built with women’s holistic needs in mind, so again, going back to like breastfeeding support or mental health support, none of this has been part of the care model.
Motherly: Has being a mom influenced the way you lead your company? What lessons have crossed over?
Kate: I feel like motherhood has made me much more humble because you learn every single day and you’re like, man, I probably shouldn’t have said that or I didn’t show up enough on this day. And so I think it’s good to just have that constant self-reflection on how you can show up.
Motherly: Maven Clinic recently expanded into menopause support. What’s next for the company?
Kate: I think at the highest level, it’s continuing to, we’re not in teen health yet. There’s caregiving that is the sandwich generation, where you’re for your parents and your kids. Those are areas that we’re not in yet. But I would say the thing I’m most excited about in a 12 to 24 month timeframe is AI and the fact that we’re going to be able to better personalize a lot of the journeys. So sometimes when you go into the hospital or you go into any app, even the best apps that have the most AI in them, it’s still nowhere where it’s going to be in two years. How amazing is it going to feel when you show up on Maven? And again, we definitely have dynamic dashboards today, and we’re personalizing some, but not at the scale that we’re going to personalize in a few years. That also includes bringing in data from wearables, so we understand what’s going on in your lifestyle.
Motherly: You’ve talked before about how entrepreneurship and motherhood are two jobs you can’t quit. What do you love most about both roles?
Kate: A lot of people talk about how motherhood is hard, but there’s also just, it is where so much of my joy comes from. I look at my kids and I get happy, you know, even after the worst of days. So I think that, you know, motherhood and entrepreneurship, they’re jobs you can’t quit. You have to keep showing up every single day. They’re both jobs. I think that was one of the pieces of advice my dad gave me early on, which I thought was a good one—knowing parenting is a job. Sometimes it’s a hard job, but you have to treat it like a job. You have to show up every day, but yes, it’s incredibly rewarding. Think my favorite and my most fun part of motherhood is I’m also just like inside a five-year-old
I have an alter ego called Kid Mama. So, Kid Mama comes out sometimes. Kid Mama can jump on the bed. Kid mama walks into a candy store and says, I don’t care, get whatever you want. So I have a ton of fun getting on their level and playing with them, as well as just watching them grow and fail and then learn from it or have their successes and be so proud of it. It’s just amazing. And then I think with Maven too, it’s just those moments, the team, having fun with your team.
Motherly: What advice do you have for moms thinking about starting their own business but unsure where to begin?
Kate: One of the first things that’s so important is just joining a community of other entrepreneurs to learn from them. Because I think that some of those success stories and learning how they specifically did it in whatever industry can be so inspiring. Starting a business is really hard, but sometimes the hardest things you do are the most rewarding. And so I would just say surround yourself in a community of people who have done it or are doing it to give yourself that support. You don’t want to be doing it necessarily. If you’re doing it alone, it’s very, I think, lonely.
Motherly: At Motherly, we believe motherhood brings out our superpowers. What would you say is your superpower—and what do you think moms everywhere share as theirs?
Kate: Well, I think mothers are so resilient. They have just like extra strength to keep the course and they’ll go to the ends of the earth to advocate for their children. I think that aspect of me as a mother, I would say is my superpower as an entrepreneur. There were plenty of moments where I think the market was saying, quit, quit, this is too crazy. You’re not having enough success. You’ve been rejected 50 times. But I think just that belief, that dogmatic belief that if you’re doing the right thing, that if you keep going and you’re authentic and you’re genuine, that you can make the world just a little bit better. I don’t know, I’m not cynical yet. I think that people say that sometimes to me. like, wow. you’re still positive and optimistic and you’re not cynical and I still have tons of energy and tons of excitement to keep innovating. So I don’t know, maybe that’s, I don’t know if that sounds like a superpower, but I think that’s what I, I’m surprised sometimes. Like I’m ready for another five to 10 years of just continuing to innovate because it’s just so important.
The bottom line
You shouldn’t have to navigate motherhood alone—or in a system that wasn’t built for you. As Kate Ryder shows, reimagining healthcare starts with listening to moms—and building care that truly supports every step, from fertility to postpartum to menopause.
Listen to the full episode with Kate Ryder to discover how motherhood, entrepreneurship, and the future of healthcare are shaping the way we support women and families.
Related: Alabama just took a big step for new moms—but postpartum depression care still falls short