She controls what they seeShe controls what they see

In early 2025, Myra was a student pitch for a women's-health app in Nepal. It promised a lot: AI cycle prediction, risk flags for conditions, lab testing and a donation portal. It also had one idea that nobody on the team could answer from our own experience:

Would a woman let a partner or family member follow her cycle, and on whose terms?

The idea was called Companion Mode. A boyfriend, mother or sister could learn when she might need rest, and help. The question was whether that would feel like support or like surveillance, in a place where many young women are still restricted during their period, and where a phone is often picked up by other people in the house.

We ran a survey to find out. 171 people answered, in two branches: women answered about sharing, and men answered about following. The answers turned the product from a broad pitch into one narrow, testable claim:

This is the research lead of my portfolio. Myra is a paused concept. No app was released, and nothing here was tested with users. What I can show is how the evidence changed the design, and where the evidence stops.

My role

I started Myra and led it as founder, with three student co-founders: a biotechnology student who worked on research synthesis and healthcare strategy, and two computer-engineering students on the technical and data side.

From a bundle to one question

The 2025 pitch bundled five businesses into one product. By 2026 we had narrowed it to a staged companion, with a core that the survey actually supports.

Three early claims have to be named once, because they were public: "92% prediction accuracy" from an LSTM model, a biomolecular testing partnership with a research institute, and "impacted 100+ lives". None was ever measured or signed, and all three are withdrawn. The 2026 plan replaced the accuracy figure with a literature-based target that Myra never measured either, so the concept shows prediction as a range with a confidence label, never as a percentage.

The instrument

We fielded an online survey on a Tally form in April–May 2025. The team wrote the questionnaire. It asked about tracking habits, symptoms, emotion and restriction, Companion Mode, help channels, feature priorities and price. The form branched on gender:

• Women's branch, n = 106 (105 women and 1 non-binary respondent): how they track, how they feel, whether they would share, and with whom.
• Men's branch, n = 65: whether they would use Companion Mode, for whom, and what they would want to receive.

Alongside the survey we held informal interviews and conversations. I didn't keep notes, so findings here come from the survey.

Who answered

The sample is young (87% aged 18–24, no one over 34), comfortable in English (only 3.5% prefer Nepali alone) and recruited through our own networks: half of those who said how they found the survey named a friend, colleague or team member. That shapes everything that follows.

Before analysis, one row that had shifted by a column was realigned, and one exact duplicate is kept and noted. Free-text answers (price amounts, "what's missing") were grouped into themes afterwards, for this write-up, by one reader. Only aggregates appear here.

Most women in the sample already track their period: 61% with an app, and more than half of those with Flo. The problem was not getting them to track. It was what they track.

88% track the date. Under a third track mood or pain, even though mood swings are the most frequent symptom they report: 65% rate them 4 or 5 on a 0–5 frequency scale.

Three more answers set the tone for the design:

• Emotion dominates. Asked which emotions they associate with their cycle, 74% chose irritation and 45% sadness; 3% chose empowerment.
• Restriction is common. 75% have been restricted from doing something because of their period. Two more described a religious restriction in their own words instead of ticking an option.
• Mood tracking is wanted. 70% rate their interest in mood and mental-wellbeing tracking at 4 or 5.

This is the result the whole case rests on.

Women were split. 49% said yes outright to a partner or family member following their cycle. Another 32% said maybe, if I could control what they see. And 37% of all women also ticked "I prefer to manage it alone", including 10 of the 52 who said yes. Control was the swing vote.

Men wanted to understand, not to watch. 86% rated knowing her physical symptoms and knowing when she needs rest at 4–5 in importance. But only 11% wanted "symptom updates". They asked for interpreted outputs instead: a daily summary (63%) and emotional-support tips (51%). And without being prompted towards it, 52% said reminders to be emotionally available should come only if she chooses to share that info.

It isn't only partners. Men would use Companion Mode for their mother (58%) and sister (54%) almost as often as for a girlfriend (66%). Women trust a romantic partner most (58%), then a mother, a friend or a sister. So a companion is a person with a relationship, and there can be more than one.

Each requirement below points back to a number. Where a requirement came from the planning documents rather than the survey, I say so.

R1 and R2 together define Companion Mode. A companion never sees her data. They see what she has chosen to let Myra say about it: "She may need more rest this week", with one suggested action. Every grant starts off. The first one the concept recommends is the rest signal, because it is the thing men most wanted to know (86%) and the least revealing thing she can share.

What can be shared, and with whom

These defaults are proposals. The survey justifies their direction; it doesn't validate their details.

Before settling on the interpretation layer, I compared it with the obvious alternatives. The scoring below is a retrospective, qualitative judgement, not a numeric score.

1. Full mirror. The companion sees her calendar and logs. It is the cheapest to build and the easiest to pitch, and it fails both gates: the women who said "maybe" said so on the condition of control.
2. Partner only. One romantic partner. It fails the survey, because men would follow a mother or sister almost as often.
3. Interpretation layer. Per-item grants, several people, silent stop. Chosen.
4. Two-way companion. The companion can also log care actions or check in. One open answer asked for this. Kept for later, because it adds a second person's data to a system built around one person's consent.

I designed the 2026 pitch concept screens in Figma ("Myra – Final"). By then the pitch had moved to a staged companion with pregnancy as the flagship, so the three pitch screens show pregnancy, not the cycle. The consent line, "She controls what you see", is the same.

For the survey's own population, I redrew the companion flow for the cycle, both sides, as wireframes.

1. Jan 2025First conceptAn AI menstrual-health platform, pitched for the Hult Prize.
2. 2025Hult Prize at Kathmandu University: 2nd Runner-Up (3rd place)Then selected for the first-ever Hult Prize national competition in Nepal.
3. Apr 2025Landing pageBuilt from my high-fidelity design, with an early-access sign-up.
4. Apr – May 2025Survey fielded171 responses, two branches.
5. 2026Pitch rebuilt around consentNew brand, three concept screens, and the line 'She controls what you see'.
6. 13 Jun 2026Project YuwaXcel (USYCN): first prizeGrand finale. Total prize NPR 75,000.
7. Sep 2026Launch siteA multi-page site for users, partners and clinicians, mostly built by hand.
8. 2026Paused

The Hult Prize organisers announced the Kathmandu University result on Instagram.

What exists, and what doesn't

What exists: a 171-response two-sided survey, a consent model derived from it, concept screens, a brand, two pitches that won recognition, and a launch site. In the survey, 139 of 171 people (81%) said yes to early access. That is stated interest, not sign-ups.

Measured outcome: none. No app was released, so there is no usage, no retention, no prediction accuracy and no usability result. The consent model was never tested with a single linked pair.

Why it paused

We lost direction after the 2026 pitch, especially around the pregnancy-first idea, and all of us were working full-time jobs. I'd rather pause a health product than keep adding promises to one that nobody has time to build carefully.

1. 01

   A share button is a consent system

   The two branches disagreed in a useful way: men wanted to understand, women wanted control. An interpretation layer (signals and actions instead of logs) was the design that answered both.

2. 02

   Cut claims before adding features

   The accuracy figure, the lab partnership and 'first in Nepal' all had to go. Each withdrawal made the pitch smaller and easier to defend.

3. 03

   Research the population you pivot to

   The survey speaks for 18–24-year-old students. The pregnancy idea needed its own sample, and not having one is part of why it stalled.