#258: Amanda Calabrese, SEQUEL - Women’s Health Innovation, and Building a Sports-Backed Brand

Amanda is the co-founder of Sequel, a company reimagining women’s health products with athletes in mind. Alongside her co-founder Greta Meyer, she launched Sequel while at Stanford, driven by a frustration that period products hadn’t meaningfully changed in over 80 years. As former high-level athletes, both Amanda and Greta struggled to find a tampon they could rely on in competition—so they leaned on their engineering training to build the product they wished they had on game day. The result was Sequel’s patented spiral technology, designed to offer women more reliable, comfortable, and distraction-free performance.

At Sequel, the mission goes beyond just technology—it’s about impact and visibility. By partnering with top sports organizations like Stanford Athletics, the Indiana Fever, DC United, and Audi Field, Sequel has brought period products directly into stadiums and locker rooms, making history as the first tampon partner in NCAA athletics. Their approach combines top-down credibility with bottom-up storytelling—leveraging creator partnerships, social platforms, and founder-led storytelling to build trust, awareness, and a movement for better women’s health solutions.

Beyond the partnerships and the patented spiral design, Amanda’s story is also one of resilience and persistence. From navigating the challenges of FDA approval as a medical device, to securing early grants and funding from Stanford’s ecosystem, Sequel is a case study in founder-led innovation. And with more products and activations ahead, Amanda and Greta are proving that when you combine sports, engineering, and a mission to help women win, the impact goes far beyond the field.

Podcast Chapters:

02:34 Innovative Tampon Technology: The Sequel Spiral

05:32 Partnerships in Sports: Building Brand Awareness

08:25 The Importance of Creator Partnerships

11:02 Challenges in Developing a Medical Device

13:49 Funding Journey: From Grants to Equity

16:31 Design Thinking: Identifying Real Needs

19:16 Future Aspirations and Community Engagement

Amanda Calabrese: 🏠Website: https://www.trysequel.com/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acalabre/Andrew Petcash:🏠 Website: https://profluence.com🐣 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewpetcash💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetcash/Thanks for listening! Hit the “follow” button to stay updated on new podcasts.