Iman Clark, CEO of Prickly Pear Health, says she had an epiphany that eventually led her to TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
It was around nine years ago. She moved from Tunisia to the U.S. for grad school, then joined a company that created gamified experiences for people with neurodegenerative conditions, like dementia. This was done by giving them a tablet or a computer and letting them play games while doctors collected data on them, like their risk of falling and overall range of motion.
“I realized that most people, 75-plus, have two to three chronic conditions, and no matter what we did, it is always going to be hard,” she told TechCrunch. “Then I went back to the research and saw that like, 70% of the Alzheimer’s population are women.”
She dug deeper and found that women were twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with migraines. “That’s when I realized we are not really solving for women’s biology, and that is costing us lives and dollars.”
So she created Prickly Pear Health, which provides medical support for women’s brain health, a voice-first, AI-powered companion that helps women in their 30s to 50s navigate the hormonal changes that affect brain health. The product lets people record quick reflections throughout the day using their voice and Prickly Pear’s AI technology analyzes their language and context to track any cognitive changes.
Prickly Pear Health will show of its tech at TechCrunch Disrupt, which runs October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.
It also pulls in sleep data, heart rate activity, and other metrics from trackers like Apple Health, Oura, and Garmin to help offer personalized insights on how they can take better care of their health.
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Clark said there is a collective agreement that women’s health is a space ripe for innovation, and that women want to be founders, want to be top voices, and are tired of being in the back seats of their own lives.
Clark officially launched a free version of her product in May and is gearing up to launch the premium offering in October, for Mental Health Awareness Month and Menopause Awareness Month.
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