Prickly Pear Health will showcase how it’s helping women’s brain health at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Iman Clark, CEO of Prickly Pear Health, says she had an epiphany that yet led her to TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield astatine TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.  

It was astir 9 years ago. She moved from Tunisia to the U.S. for grad school, past joined a institution that created gamified experiences for radical with neurodegenerative conditions, similar dementia. This was done by giving them a tablet oregon a machine and letting them play games portion doctors collected information connected them, similar their hazard of falling and wide scope of motion.  

“I realized that astir people, 75-plus, person 2 to 3 chronic conditions, and nary substance what we did, it is ever going to beryllium hard,” she told TechCrunch. “Then I went backmost to the probe and saw that like, 70% of the Alzheimer’s colonisation are women.”

She dug deeper and recovered that women were doubly arsenic apt to beryllium diagnosed with slump and anxiety, and 3 to 4 times much apt to beryllium diagnosed with migraines. “That’s erstwhile I realized we are not truly solving for women’s biology, and that is costing america lives and dollars.”

So she created Prickly Pear Health, which provides aesculapian enactment for women’s encephalon health, a voice-first, AI-powered companion that helps women successful their 30s to 50s navigate the hormonal changes that impact encephalon health. The merchandise lets radical grounds speedy reflections passim the time utilizing their dependable and Prickly Pear’s AI exertion analyzes their connection and discourse to way immoderate cognitive changes.

Prickly Pear Health volition amusement of its tech astatine TechCrunch Disrupt, which runs October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco.

It besides pulls successful slumber data, bosom complaint activity, and different metrics from trackers similar Apple Health, Oura, and Garmin to assistance connection personalized insights connected however they tin instrumentality amended attraction of their health.

Clark said determination is simply a corporate statement that women’s wellness is simply a abstraction ripe for innovation, and that women privation to beryllium founders, privation to beryllium apical voices, and are bushed of being successful the backmost seats of their ain lives. 

Clark officially launched a escaped mentation of her merchandise successful May and is gearing up to motorboat the premium offering successful October, for Mental Health Awareness Month and Menopause Awareness Month. 

She started doing absorption groups astatine Arizona State University and recovered that women successful their precocious 30s to aboriginal 50s were reporting a batch of encephalon fog and intelligence fatigue, but it often took them until their 60s to recognize it had to bash with hormonal fluctuations, menopause, oregon adjacent an onset of thing deeper. It was present that Clark realized she wanted to absorption connected this property range. 

“They’re often dismissed oregon misdiagnosed erstwhile symptoms similar encephalon fog, temper shifts, oregon irregular cycles archetypal appear,” she said of women successful their 30s to 50s, adding that these midlife years are captious to encephalon health, but accepted attraction is failing to link the dots. 

“We’re addressing that gap. Helping women admit and enactment connected aboriginal signals earlier they escalate into much superior wellness challenges later,” she said. 

Arizona is besides wherever the inspiration for the company’s sanction came from. She became fascinated with the cacti, however they basal contempt the vigor and nutrient steadfast fruit. “That’s erstwhile Prickly Pear came to beingness due to the fact that that’s the effect that grows successful the cactus tree, and it was an inspiration of thriving successful harsh conditions and joyful resilience,” she said. 

She considers competitors successful her aforesaid tract to beryllium existing menopause apps, which, she said, are much similar grounds trackers. “We judge it’s important to recognize symptoms, but we judge that those approaches are reactive approaches, portion for us, we are determination to beryllium capable to observe things.” 

She raised a $350,000 pre-seed circular and said it was “really hard,” particularly arsenic a pistillate of color. “We had to beryllium truthful bully that you cannot beryllium ignored,” she said. She sought to physique relationships with investors earlier starting her pre-seed, which, she said, truly helped erstwhile it came clip for the ask. “That’s a fashionable happening we say: ‘Ask for proposal and you get business, inquire for concern and you get proposal sometimes,’” she said. 

Some proposal she received was to use for Startup Battlefield, with friends telling her to beryllium large and arrogant astir being portion of the latest startups to transportation during the competition. 

“Disrupt is the eventual signifier for caller ideas,” she said. She’s excited to spotlight women’s encephalon health, larn from different founders, and, of course, “connect with investors and partners who believe, similar we do, that women’s wellness innovation is not niche, it’s the aboriginal of healthcare.” 

If you privation to larn from Prickly Pear firsthand, and spot dozens of further pitches, invaluable workshops, and marque the connections that thrust concern results, head present to larn much astir this year’s Disrupt, held October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco.