I recently went one on one Dr. Elina Berglund. Elina is an ex-CERN physicist and the co-CEO and co-founder of Natural Cycles, the world's first and only CE-marked and FDA-approved birth control app. Natural Cycles currently has more than a million and a half users across 162 countries.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. ​How did you get here? ​What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?  

Elina: The road to where I am today as the co-founder and CEO of Natural Cycles, the first and only FDA cleared birth control app, has taken many turns. 

I’ve gone from particle physicist to co-founder and CEO of a company that has over 1.5 million registered users around the world. And let me tell you... the transition hasn’t always been smooth. I’ve had to face many setbacks and challenges along the way. Many of these challenges were on a smaller scale - issues with learning to code an app, picking the wrong color for something in the app, or customer service issues.

But there have also been bigger hurdles, two of which stick out in my mind. The first was getting regulatory approval as the first birth control app, something that had never been done before and still has not been done by any other company today. Natural Cycles is cleared as a medical device that can be used for contraception by the FDA here in the US and we’re CE marked in Europe. Neither of the processes to get these certifications were easy!

The second biggest hurdle - something we still face today - is educating people on a disruptive product within the under researched and under served industry of women’s health. Not only is there a stigma around natural forms of birth control but it’s clear there is a lack of education around women’s reproductive health and it makes our fight to provide a new, alternative birth control method even harder.

While on a daily basis these challenging moments are extremely frustrating and have resulted in many sleepless nights, they have also made me into who I am and what the company is today. While I can’t say I wouldn’t change a thing because I definitely would, I can say that I wouldn’t change 80% of what’s happened because it has led us to this point.

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas? 

Elina: Before I founded Natural Cycles, I was working as a particle physicist at CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research. I was coming off the high of being a part of the team there that discovered the Higgs Boson particle, which led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 2013.

It was right around this time that my husband Raoul, also a physicist, and I were starting to talk about planning for a family. I used a birth control implant throughout most of my 20’s after a negative experience with the birth control pill and while it worked well for me, I wanted to remove it in preparation for a future pregnancy.

I quickly realized I was extremely limited when it came to finding a regulated birth control option that was both non-invasive and non-hormonal. As a particle physicist and researcher, I decided to take things into my own hands so I developed an algorithm that could identify my own fertility status from analyzing my basal body temperature. Raoul then encouraged me to create an app that could be used by many so I quit my job at CERN, holed up in my apartment, and learned to code an app. 

My advice to those who have a great idea: 

1. Find someone who will support you and your idea no matter what. For some, this would be a co-founder, but for others this could mean a spouse or friend who is there to offer emotional support (I’m lucky that my co-founder also happens to be my spouse). There are going to be times where you will want to give up because no matter how good your idea is, the process to get it off the ground is hard. It’s during those times you need someone who will keep pushing you forward

2. Take shortcuts when you can but don’t allow yourself to get off course. It would have been a lot easier to avoid regulatory approval and market ourselves in ways that other period tracking apps do. But from the start, Raoul and I were committed to being based in science and serving the women who need a product like ours. To us, that meant making sure we had the proper scientific evidence and regulatory backing to make these users feel confident in their decision to use Natural Cycles.

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea? 

Elina: I realized my business idea was worth pursuing quite early on and I believe that’s the case for most good ideas. I had been analyzing my own fertility status and after many of my friends started asking me to analyze theirs, I knew that the lack of birth control options was not just a pain point for me, but many other women. 

The ability to test the “stickiness” with others is something I would encourage all other entrepreneurs to do. And luckily for me, many of my friends are scientists and not afraid to give me real feedback. So I’d make sure you find friends or family who aren’t afraid of hurting your feelings.

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level? 

Elina: For us as a medical device, the steps we took to grow were to test the idea, build the product, back it up with scientific evidence, get regulatory clearance, and then market the product. 

Throughout all of these steps I realized there were always going to be things that are out of our hands and control. Once I realized this and stopped beating myself up about every issue I encountered, I was able to spend more time solving the problem. This helped in growing the business and taking it to the next level. 

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips? 

Elina: As a trained scientist, I knew little about dealing with media and marketing before starting Natural Cycles. I often deferred to the experts within the sales and marketing field. But I have realized that while you should always have experts on hand, as the founder it’s also important to go with your gut. This holds true across all areas of the business but especially when it comes to marketing because at the end of the day, I was the original Natural Cycles user and still am a target user today.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?    

Elina: While I’ve worked across various industries, I’ve learned that no matter where you work or what you do - the qualities of a good leader remain constant. You have to be trustworthy so people believe you and in you, you need to lead by example so it’s easy for those around you to follow, and you need to know when to let go so others can do the job you’re asking of them.

I would encourage all aspiring leaders to keep themselves in check the way they would keep their employees in check.

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams?  

Elina: The difference between being a good or a bad boss lies in acknowledging mistakes and not micro-managing. Everyone makes mistakes. What everyone doesn’t do is turn those mistakes into learning. One of the best things a leader can do when building, leading, and managing teams is to own the mistakes they’ve made and set an example for their team on how to fix them.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?  

Elina: 

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. When you spend too much time sweating the small things, it takes away your attention from bigger items that really matter and should be your main focus.

2. You should always put yourself first. You can’t lead by example or help others around you if you aren’t taking care of yourself. Optimize your schedule to take care of your body, mind, and health. Taking on a lot of responsibilities can be taxing, but you can’t do your best work if you’re not your best self.

3. Don’t always listen to other entrepreneurs, executives or civic leaders. Yes, you heard me right. But I used to get so caught up in what other entrepreneurs told me that I would get distracted and a few times it led me down the wrong path. Everyone’s journey is different and it’s important to remember that.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?    

Elina: Always bet on yourself. Self-doubt has been something that I’ve had to learn to overcome but at the end of the day, there’s no one I’d bet on over myself. I know how hard I work, how much I care about my team, how much I want to help our users (we call them Cyclers) - and when the self-doubt kicks in I remind myself of these things.