Have you ever had an idea that was crazy? Something you thought the
world really needed, but then the next day it seemed like the worst idea ever.

Well, I had one of those ideas. But instead of discarding it the day
after, I decided to test it and see if it could work. But I will get back to that
part later.

A series of “no thank you”
It all began in 2016 when I graduated from a major in social sciences. Having worked
for large development institutions during my student life I decided to
completely shift career path as I thought that tech could change people’s lives
for the better, way faster than traditional development work. I started working
on some tech projects and build apps with people from around the world. The
work was hard and tedious and managing a lot of people at the same time was difficult,
but I still enjoyed the energy it gave me when we succeeded from time to time.
However, this path turned out to not be successful as I repeatedly experienced
a glass-ceiling regarding funding. Whenever I turned to accelerators or private
angel investors I was turned down. And I could see that male founders who had
similar ideas or projects as I, would get funding instantly. I just could not
understand why. Until one day I had a chat with a woman who was a very successful
lawyer helping startups. She told me straight up that the reason I would not
get funded was because I was a woman. I was shocked but looking at the
statistics it looked right. Less than 1% of tech funding was given to women.

So, I made a life decision: I would not want to build tech startups anymore because it was
not worth the battle and I could obviously not change the fact that I am a woman.

Trying to solve a real problem
Fast forward to 2018, I was randomly at a tech conference in Germany and
spontaneously bumped into a couple of guys working on a smart vibrator. I was
quite impressed with the idea and decided to join their project for a while.
However, I realised that their idea was not solving a problem that I had
experienced myself with vibrators for many years: The pointer of the clitoris
was too small, and it resulted in pain when using it. Moreover, it was very
difficult to reach an orgasm as you had to almost fight the pointer to make it
fit. One day, I decided to find out if I was the only woman who experienced
this problem. I went to a shopping mall in Copenhagen and discretely approached
women and asked for their vibrator habits. I asked: “What is your experience
with vibrators?” – assuming all of them would open up and tell me loads about
themselves. However, I was shocked to find that ¾ of the women I asked did not
use a vibrator. I asked them “why?” and their responses ranged everything from
“It gives me more pain than pleasure”, “I cannot use them because my hands are
uncomfortable holding them” or simply “I cannot reach down, my arms are not
long enough”. I was truly shocked, so I thought “OK, here is a real problem to
solve”. How can I make more women use vibrators?” I must also tell the reader
that I was a late bloomer when it comes to using vibrators but when I finally
tried it, I was hooked on the kick it gives you after usage. On the plus side, I
found that it was a better addiction than alcohol, sugar or worse things.

Having the feedback from real women in mind, I bought some play dough
and began moulding different shapes, trying to come up with a solution.
The first ideas did not work, until one day.
I had moulded the shape of MYK and I decided to create a silicone prototype.
I bought silicone, electrical cords and began to cast them.

Almost bankrupt
After many trials I managed to build a bunch of prototypes and test them myself. And I
could not really believe that this crazy idea worked. I decided to find out if
I could patent the idea and called the Danish Patent Authorities. I paid for a
researcher to sit with me and go through the patents that were similar. It was
a very nerve-racking search as your idea and dreams would be crushed instantly
if someone somewhere in the world had had a similar idea and decided to patent
it. And even if they did not use the patent, it would still stop every other
similar idea. But this time, I got lucky. There was no such thing as my idea,
and I immediately started the patent process.

I have to tell the reader: This process has been the most emotionally difficult and
expensive thing I had ever done professionally. The process is, that you file a
patent in your home country, and you cannot publish your idea anywhere before
you file the application, as this would result in your idea being “known” to
the public and thus the news value would disappear. So, I kept it all a secret
and no one around me new about it. I managed to write the patent application
myself without lawyers in the Danish application. I was very excited when I got
the stamp of approval six months later. All this happened in late 2020 and early
2021. From here, everything else was an uphill battle.

From the application date, I had one year to apply for the patent internationally.
I thought that I could do this myself, but I was so wrong. The application was
way more demanding, and the system was a maze that I had no clue on how to
figure out. So, I needed help. As the deadline was approaching, I browsed the
internet for patent lawyers. I found several one’s promising low fees but one
sounded dodgier on the phone than the other. The application date was approaching,
and I remember crying myself to sleep for many nights waking up with a stomach-ache.
After all, this was my life project so I could not risk a shady patent lawyer
ruining it.

I then found a larger company with a good track record, and they
seemed qualified. I had a meeting with them, and we decided to work together
after I reviewed the budget. We could also make it in time of the application
deadline which was amazing. Finally, I could relax. I thought. After the
lawyers had filed the application internationally, I got the invoice. I had DKK
40k in my bank account. The lawyers had given me a budget of 10K. But the
invoice said 40K. I was bankrupt. Of course I paid the invoice immediately, but
that same day, I went to the grocery store, and I had a note of DKK 100 to shop
food for the rest of the month, which was still 10 days. I had never been poor
in my life, but suddenly I realised how it feels to not being able to buy food.

But this was not the worst thing. When the international authorities had looked
through my application and hopefully granted it successful for proceeding the
patent process, I would have to pay more invoices to the lawyers. And I did not
know when these invoices would show. I had to find cash to be prepared. Otherwise,
I would lose the patent. I had bought my apartment a year before so I called my
bank and asked if we could work something out. They agreed to raise my bank
loan so I could cash out on the value increase from the real estate market.
This turned out to be an expensive choice later as the interest rates went
nuts. However, this was not really a choice. I just had to have cash to be
prepared.

Over the years the patent invoice kept coming and every time I had
cash to pay them. The patent process is a long one and it is all very tedious.
During this process I was looking for partners and investors to join my
project. But this part was a known one for me: I was turned down again
repeatedly. I went to some large companies in the industry both in Denmark and
abroad. They all said the idea was good, but they did not know how to market
it. Somehow, I realised that most of the people behind female vibrators were
men. Which was a similar finding I did when I researched similar patents for my
application. Most inventors were men. This shocked me. I thought that it was
about time that a vibrator was made by a woman who could test the vibrator herself.

Then one day, I met my business partner in Copenhagen.
A woman with a huge track record. And together with her we managed to build the business.