Honoring Global Entrepreneurship Week
This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week and below, find CEO Alli's thoughts on hyperhidrosis, her recent trip to DC, and more!
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It's Global Entrepreneurship Week!
What a better way to celebrate than kicking off my week at the center of my inspiration for Wicked Sheets, at the International Hyperhidrosis Society's Patient-Focused Meeting. Just as a recap for those who don't know - I suffer from secondary hyperhidrosis, which comes in the form of night sweats. It was in dealing with this lifelong issue that I invented Wicked Sheets; moisture-wicking and cooling bedding for sleepers suffering from night sweats and hot flashes.
What is Hyperhidrosis?
That's just a fancy medical term for excessive sweating. It's believed that 5% of the global population from this condition and the mission of the Internatinal Hyperhidrosis Society is to bring together patients, innovators, and healthcare providers so that we can offer better, more innovative solutions for folks living with this incurable condition. One of the biggest things that I was so happy to hear the physicians and patients both acknowledge is that sweating is good! It's a healthy, biological way for our bodies to cool and secrete excessive chemicals so as to "clean" our bodies. What's bad about hyperhidrosis is that it's like a faucet that you can't turn off when you're done with the dishes.
When I started Wicked Sheets, I thought I would be helping people like myself who suffer from night sweats due to secondary hyperhidrosis, but in reality there are lots of people who have sleep disturbances or insomnia because of waking up to wet bedding or clothing or in an overheated environment. The problem continues to grow because there are not (yet) a lot of innovative, non-pharmacological options out on the market yet.
At this meeting of the minds, in Washington, D.C., I was fortunate to have a seat at the innovators table with the likes of products giants - Proctor & Gamble, Dermira, and Allergen. It was moving to hear the stories of people suffering from these unfortunate conditions, but my hope is that all of the entrepreneurs in the room heard the cries for a solution or a comfort that might get them through their day without feeling isolated and embarrassed.
In closing, it is so fitting that THIS was the week that the IHHS (International Hyperhidrosis Society) chose to have this meeting - during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Entrepreneurism is in my blood, in my mind, and certainly in my sweat (as evidenced by Wicked Sheets). I hope that other entrepreneurs around the globe have felt the same sense of excitement and creativity that I was able to experience this week. WE do this for a reason; mine just so happens to be to help people like myself who suffer from night sweats.
