“When it comes to women's health, we shouldn't keep quiet out of 'shame'”. The story of Maftuna Karimova, founder of the Femmy startup

“When it comes to women's health, one should not remain silent out of 'shame'.” The story of Maftuna Karimova, founder of the Femmy startup

Our first interviewee is Maftuna Karimova, a developer from Andijan and founder of Femmy. She told us about the startup idea born from her experience of motherhood, the difficulties in seeking investment, and the importance of providing information about women's health in the Uzbek language.

Maftuna Karimova was born in 2002 in the Asaka district of the Andijan region. She studied at Specialized State Boarding School No. 42 focusing on languages, and later pursued a degree in Business Administration at the International University of Uzbekistan. She began working as a software developer before entering university, and during her student years, she also taught programming.

Femmy, which she founded, is an application that allows women to access information about their reproductive health at various stages of life, as well as to track their menstrual cycle and symptoms. Femmy is registered on StartupBase, a platform that unites startups, investors, and startup ecosystem participants in Uzbekistan.

I learned programming during my school years, mostly independently through YouTube and other resources. When I grew up, I used to imagine having my own IT company.

Around 2019, Digital City had just opened in Andijan. Offices were allocated there for IT companies. I met an Andijan developer through Facebook and went to see them to learn the trade. I wanted to become an apprentice. They interviewed me and gave me an assignment. Seeing the result, they hired me immediately. That is how my career began.

I always emphasize one thing: when I entered university, I had already started working as a software developer. By the time I graduated from university, I had four years of work experience in programming. While living in Andijan, I also worked remotely for companies in Tashkent. During summer vacations, I would come to the capital and work in their offices.

This was an opportunity to gain new experience. I worked consecutively, mostly at outsourcing companies. In my fourth year, I taught programming for a year at an IT training center in Andijan. Among the students were 14-year-old teenagers as well as people older than me. I mainly taught offline classes to those who wanted to learn a new profession.

Working as a software developer, I saw two paths for growth: engineering and management. I tried to grow more on the management side. Later, this path led me to the startup field.

After graduating from university, I got married at the age of 21. The period that prompted the creation of Femmy was my family planning and pregnancy period. These topics were completely new to me. I am the only daughter in the family, and I had no older sisters nearby to ask for advice. My mother lived in Andijan, and I lived in Tashkent after getting married.

It was not very comfortable to discuss such topics in detail over the phone either. For this reason, I researched more on my own. I followed blogs on women's health and joined communities. During this process, I realized that we had a huge void in this area.

At that time, I was taking a UX/UI design course. We were assigned to choose a problem we were well familiar with and study how people encounter this issue. Since I was planning a child, I chose the topic of women's health.

First, I studied the work of experts, and then I observed what kind of problems were being discussed in women's groups. Being a developer, I sought a solution through my field. I thought about gathering the necessary information and capabilities onto a single platform. The intention was for women to find answers to their health-related questions right there.

Initially, I envisioned Femmy as a kind of encyclopedia. My goal was to present information in an understandable format in the Uzbek language for women facing a language barrier. I started publishing materials translated from English-language platforms after consulting with gynecologists.

I tried to prepare in advance for each stage of pregnancy. The first trimester, the second trimester, preparing for childbirth — each has its own questions. Gathering information from various sources, and sometimes visiting a doctor for just a single question, was exhausting.

Becoming a mother strengthened my sense of responsibility. I began to approach both myself and my child more responsibly. Because I knew foreign languages, I could find answers to my questions from various sources. Among developers, there is a concept called "Google it": if a question arises, you search for it yourself first. I also searched for information without waiting for an answer from someone else.

While waiting in line for the doctor at the polyclinic, I would talk to other women. I saw that some of them were struggling due to a lack of language skills or information retrieval skills. They give birth to children too, and they might face the same difficulties I faced.

At that moment, a sense of responsibility awoke in me not only toward myself and my child, but also toward other women and their children. After having a child, the thing I lacked most was people who understood my condition and were going through the exact same period. I had read a lot theoretically, but reading about it and actually experiencing that state are two different things.

When I talked with women who had recently become mothers, we understood each other, and I felt relieved. That is why I wanted to form a women's community through Femmy. This was not as easy as we thought, but since our audience has expanded now, we are working on this direction as well.

I decided to create the platform in the last months of pregnancy. I finished the design course and prepared the app designs. After returning from the maternity hospital, the programming process began. My domain was web development. Mobile development is different from it.

To the extent of my understanding, I participated in the app's architecture and certain parts, but we used team help for development. At first, we started working with four female developers. Later, male developers joined as well. For over two years, the team composition and tasks changed. Now there are six of us.

I gathered the developers and explained my idea. For them to work with me, they first had to believe in the idea. We met once a week until the app was ready. At that time, there was no one to help look after my child. I would put him in a baby carrier and bring him to the meetings. He also traveled with us during the development process.

The fact that he slept more as an infant helped me. This period was both interesting and difficult. Femmy is my first startup. Until then, I had no business experience. Since I was in a programming environment, developing the application did not pose a difficulty for me. The difficult part started later — in matters of running the project, sales, and generating revenue. These were new areas for me.

Some girls have a strong desire to accomplish something. Being occupied solely with domestic chores can be a source of stress for them. It was the same for me. At first, resting felt good because I was tired from studying and working. I took courses and learned new things. But feeling that I was not utilizing my capabilities put me under more stress.

It helped that I prepared before my child was born. I focused on establishing his daily routine. Because I knew when he would sleep, I could plan my own tasks as well. In the morning, my child and I would go for a walk in the fresh air. I was busy until nine o'clock with breakfast, spending time with the child, and attending to household chores.

Initially, I managed to get the team interested in my idea. I explained what kind of app I wanted to create, why it was needed, and the opportunities for future growth. Since I did not have a clear business plan at that time, the developers initially worked on the project without pay. They also believed in the idea and helped realize it.

Once my child fell asleep for his first nap, I would start working on Femmy. I talked to the developers and checked the development process. If there was a problem, we solved it with the team. I tried to finish work before he woke up. I dedicated his afternoon sleep time to content: researching topics, translating articles, and having experts verify them.

When the application was ready, we prepared the materials in Uzbek, Russian, and English for deployment. Then came time for the child and house chores again, and an evening walk. After my child went to sleep for the night, I made time for myself and read books. The interest in creating such an app in the Uzbek language gave me strength and energy.

One of my first test users was my mother. I asked her to use the app and tell me which parts were easy or difficult. My younger uncle's wife also helped. We are close in age and have a relationship like sisters. At that time, she was expecting a child. Before Femmy, she had been using an English-language pregnancy app.

There, the size of the baby was shown in comparison to fruits. Because she did not understand the language well, she thought she was supposed to eat that fruit. I showed her Femmy and explained that this fruit was to illustrate the size of the baby. She was happy to understand many things by reading articles in the Uzbek language. To this day, she recommends the app to women in her neighborhood and our relatives. She even downloads it onto their phones herself and actively supports it.

From the beginning, our goal was to create a product that would be clear even for women with a language barrier. I acknowledge that there are strong apps in the world. However, they do not always suit the lifestyle of women in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. Along with language, we also focus on adapting to the cultural environment.

I went to many places to secure investment. One phrase almost broke me: "There are many such apps in the world, another one is not needed." The last competition I participated in before the President Tech Award was Clash of Startups within ICT WEEK 2025. On my way to the competition, I thought that if I heard that phrase again, I would stop seeking investment to develop Femmy, and the app would remain in its current state.

I took third place there. The judges were foreigners. After this result, my self-confidence increased significantly. One of the judges took a special interest in the issue of adapting the product to the local language and environment. He said he would mentor us in entering other markets. This also strengthened my belief in Femmy.

After that, we participated in the President Tech Award competition, organized at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan with the support of IT Park Uzbekistan, took first place in the social category, and won a $100,000 grant. However, one of the most difficult periods in developing the project began right after this victory.

Plug and Play experts studied the project and, together with us, set one-year KPIs — performance indicators. The grant was awarded in stages: initially $50,000, and then $25,000 each after completing the targets set for two six-month periods.

Completing the tasks for the first six months was difficult. They seemed easier when we were setting them. Because I had won first place, my self-confidence had also increased. But as the deadline approached, the pressure mounted. Sometimes I felt as if I had reached a dead end. We completed the first stage with difficulty. It was a big lesson.

I can change the deadline for goals I set for myself. Here, however, funds were entrusted to us, and we ourselves had confirmed that we could fulfill the tasks. That responsibility heightened the pressure.

Our market is still new. The habit of buying a paid subscription for an app has not fully formed among women. On one hand, a startup must teach the user how to use the product, and on the other hand, it must financially sustain its operations. This is not easy.

We are currently on the eve of completing the tasks for the second six-month period. For now, we are conducting our activities using the funds won at the competition. We plan to work on attracting investment starting from early 2027. To be ready for this, there are still indicators we need to achieve.

Even during the times when I could not get investment, what gave me motivation were messages from users. Women who have a problem usually write to our support service. However, some wrote without any issues, just to say thank you. They welcome the fact that the app was created in the Uzbek language and express gratitude for the convenience of using it in their native tongue.

Once, a 14-year-old girl wrote who could not talk about these topics with her family members. At first, she started using the app for the calendar. Then, after reading the articles, she said she understood a lot about her body and reproductive health. This made me very happy.

I also remember the story of a woman who had lost her child during a previous pregnancy. Planning her next pregnancy, she used Femmy throughout the entire period. She read about her baby's development and what to expect in the next stages.

After giving birth to her child, she wrote to say thank you. She said she would now use the app to care for the baby as well. She was one of our first users.

Women's reproductive health is a broad domain. A girl who is not yet married, a woman planning a child, a pregnant woman, one who recently became a mother, or a woman in menopause — each has different questions and needs. When you open Femmy, you choose your state: menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, or menopause. Accordingly, appropriate information and capabilities are provided.

There is a tool for logging cycles and symptoms, articles, and an AI chatbot. If your state changes, you also change the mode in the app. For example, after your child is born, you switch from pregnancy mode to information on recovery and childcare.

In the beginning, I prepared the content myself and had gynecologists verify it. Since there was no ready product yet, explaining the idea was not easy either. I paid for gynecological consultations and asked them to allocate part of that time to checking the materials.

After the President Tech Award, they connected us with the Ministry of Health. We had the app reviewed and removed certain parts that were said not to fit the cultural environment. Currently, we work in cooperation with the ministry.

Femmy is used in more than 20 countries. This does not mean we have officially launched operations in all these countries: people can download and use the app from wherever they are. Today, more than 100,000 girls and women use Femmy. Besides Uzbekistan, the app has users in Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the USA, China, and Tajikistan.

Our project is also available in Russian and English. Currently, we are working on integration with telemedicine and clinics. We want to create the opportunity to consult a doctor online via phone or video call and, if necessary, contact a clinic in the region.

Another direction is generating a report based on the cycle and symptoms logged in the app. During an examination, the doctor asks when you felt unwell and what medications you took. Not everyone can remember and report this fully. Regularly recording data makes it easier to explain your condition to the doctor.

Before I got married, I had a gynecological issue. Because my mother considered it shameful, she did not want me to go to a gynecologist. But the pain was severe. Since my uncle's wife worked in the medical field, she understood my condition and took me to a doctor. She also helped during the treatment process.

I personally experienced the attitude that "a girl should endure if she is in pain, it is natural, going to a doctor is a shame." There are girls around me even now who live with such views. I worry that if problems are not examined in time, they will lead to more serious consequences later. Even if a difficulty related to having a child arises, the fault is often sought in the bride.

Instead of solving the problem together, there are instances of blaming the woman. I take providing girls with information about their body, health, and preparation for pregnancy very seriously. I want women not to remain silent out of "shame" when it comes to their health. That is my biggest goal.

Girls younger than me often ask about family responsibilities or resistance from relatives. First of all, I advise talking as much as possible and explaining their goals. Having become a mother myself, I understand this better now: often parents restrict not out of malice, but thinking about their child's safety. They protect their daughters especially more.

I also faced resistance at certain times. But after I started working, they saw what I was capable of. Once they understood that my interest was not temporary, they supported me strongly.

During my student years, I was an ambassador in the Google Developer Student Clubs program. We organized events for developers in Andijan, involving students from other universities and developers in Digital City as well. I wanted more people to enter the programming field.

In 2023, I was invited to the Google I/O event in Amsterdam. I could not go because I could not obtain a visa, but I was awarded the Best Impact Award. Representatives who went from Uzbekistan brought back my certificate and delivered it to me.

After seeing my results, confidence in me formed within my family. Even before I got married, we talked about my goals and career. Therefore, there was no misunderstanding regarding my working afterward.

I say from my own experience: try to show results in the field you are interested in. Your parents will also be happy, feel proud, and support your next steps. Currently, there are many opportunities, programs, and grants in the IT sector. If you participate actively and show yourself, the path will open.