Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Pheline Huber, founder and CEO: Free tampons for everyone – financed through advertising revenue. Despite rising media budgets, traditional advertising formats are increasingly losing relevance. Brands are investing record sums just to be visible for a fleeting moment in overcrowded feeds – and then quickly forgotten. Meanwhile, the platforms benefit from the competition: the more intensely brands compete for attention, the more they pay and the less impact they get in return. That’s why we’re focusing on an alternative advertising space: tampon boxes. At the same time, we’re tackling period poverty, a major problem, and actively working to ensure that there are free tampons in public spaces (cafés, restaurants, fitness studios, co-working spaces, etc.) For each box distributed, donations are collected for homeless women and aid projects, so everyone really has free access.
Munich Startup: But that already exists, doesn’t it!
Pheline Huber: Surprisingly, no. These days, almost everything gets printed on: from condoms to water bottles to USB sticks. But tampons and tampon boxes are still unexplored territory – even though they’re just as relevant to everyday life. At the same time, there are always attempts to make free tampons available in public spaces, but it usually fails because of financing issues.
Founding idea came from personal experience
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Pheline Huber: The idea came from a very personal experience: at a networking event, I actually had a different concept in mind – free water, financed by advertising. I wanted to use the evening to talk to potential partners, investors, and other interested parties. Unfortunately, my period came on unexpectedly stronger, so I had to leave the event early. Unfortunately, no one I asked had anything with them, and there was no way to get supplies on site either.
While I was sitting on the subway, I realized that it can’t be that I miss out on important opportunities and can’t advance my business – just because I’m a menstruating person and I’m having my period right now.
That’s when the idea came to me to transfer the concept of advertising-financed products: free water is already cool, but free tampons would just be amazing. When I also found out that there’s actually no provider for it yet, I decided to just implement it myself.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Pheline Huber:
- Securing funding
- Creating visibility for a topic that is often taboo
- Overcoming our own perfectionism and just getting started
Lyfe.ads aims for major partnerships
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Pheline Huber: In one year, I want to have a partnership with Flixbus, Deutsche Bahn, and an airport in Germany.
In five years, I want the advertising space to be so well established that it’s routinely planned into marketing strategies and is seen as self-evident.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Pheline Huber: Munich is open, well-networked, and offers exciting contacts. For social entrepreneurship, however, the scene is more accessible in other cities – like Hamburg – and offers more opportunities.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Pheline Huber: Core competencies always stay in-house. Everything else, we happily hand off to partners – if quality and trust are right. For us, cooperation is not a last resort, but part of our strategy.
