At 47, Joanna Strober was waking up at 3 a.m., drenched in sweat, unable to get back to sleep. By day, the fatigue made her hungry for anything that might generate energy - she was, as she puts it, "literally snacking to stay awake." Her mood was unsteady. Her memory felt unreliable. She began quietly wondering if something was seriously wrong with her brain.
Over the next year, she worked through a roster of specialists. She had a sleep study. She tried antidepressants. She did marriage therapy. Not one of them suggested perimenopause - because she was still having her period, and that, apparently, was enough to rule it out. The medical system she'd spent 20 years investing in had no framework for what she was experiencing.
The hormone specialist who finally got it right changed everything. Within two weeks of starting estradiol and progesterone, she slept through the night. The clarity that followed wasn't just physical. It was entrepreneurial. She had found the gap.
Strober began interviewing OB/GYNs. They confirmed hormone therapy was safe. They also admitted they wouldn't proactively recommend it. She talked to her friends - successful, high-functioning women who were ping-ponging through the same maze of misdiagnoses. She found research showing that over 50% of women pass on job promotions because of midlife symptoms; that 10% leave the workforce entirely. Treatable symptoms. Invisible because the care system hadn't been built to find them.
In 2021, she called her longtime friend Sharon Meers - a former Goldman Sachs managing director - and they co-founded Midi Health. The pitch was simple: insurance-covered, clinician-led virtual care, purpose-built for women over 40. Not a supplement shop. Not a prescription-delivery service. Expert care, at scale, with real reimbursement.
This wasn't her first lap. Strober started her career as a General Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she wrote early checks into BlueNile, HotJobs, BabyCenter, and eToys. She then spent years as a Managing Director at Symphony Technology Group, Pacific Community Ventures, and Sterling Stamos Capital - where she raised $200M+ for global PE and VC investments. In 2013 she founded Kurbo Health, the first digital therapeutic for childhood obesity, based on Stanford's Pediatric Weight Control Program, and sold it to WW (Weight Watchers) in 2018-19.
The difference between her first act and her second is legible in how she talks about the opportunity. At Bessemer, she was identifying companies. At Midi, she was the patient. "The opportunity was so obvious," she said of founding Midi after her kids left the house. "I had more time and energy than I ever had."
By February 2026, Midi Health closed a $100M Series D led by Goodwater Capital - with Google Ventures, Emerson Collective, Foresite Capital, and Serena Ventures joining the round. Valuation: $1 billion. The first menopause startup to cross that line, ever. The company now serves 230,000+ patients through 500+ clinicians in all 50 states. Annual revenue has reached $150M.
Strober's vision isn't just to be a health provider. She has said she wants to build "the biggest consumer brand in women's health" - with a goal of reaching one million patients. The model she built - insurance-covered, evidence-based, clinician-led - is the thing she believes will outlast trends in femtech. You don't get to 1 million women on DTC supplements. You get there by solving the reimbursement problem and hiring the clinicians.