“Your market is really niche.”

Those were the words Rachel Bartholomew repeatedly heard from potential investors when she pitched them on her startup, Hyivy Health.

Hyivy’s product, a pelvic rehabilitation vaginal dilator, could potentially help a third of all women in the world who experience pelvic health issues at some point in their lifetime.

“If you haven’t had your time yet, either you or your daughter or mother will be impacted by this.”

“I also had a lot of investors saying, ‘Can you talk to my wife, to my sister, or to my daughter to confirm that this is a real market?’” Bartholomew added. “I thought, ‘This is very strange.’”

Instead of giving up, she opened a spreadsheet and began sending emails to Canadian companies working in women’s health. She soon had a monthly call lin

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