No pain, no gain

Everyone around her said she had the makings to be a successful entrepreneur, but she never believed it.

Three years later, she’s an entrepreneur with a life-changing product in her hands.

We sat down with Peck Ying, 28, founder of PSLove and creator of MenstruHeat, in their cosy, mostly girl-powered office in One North.

MenstruHeat is a non-medicated heat pack that helps women ease their menstrual cramps. It uses an exothermic reaction to emit heat, providing fast and effective relief within five minutes of opening the package.

Today, Peck Ying’s heat packs are stocked in Guardian and 7-Eleven stores islandwide.

Peck Ying used to suffer from painful period cramps that caused her much discomfort throughout the day. At times, her cramps were so intense that she was forced to stay in bed.

“I had to call my hallmates and call for an S.O.S for them to bring Panadol to me, just because I couldn’t go to class,” said Peck Ying, who also nursed her cramps with hot water bottles.

While working in the corporate world, Peck Ying realised that ladies were unable to get their supplies for their periods easily, even though it was a regular occurrence.

“A lot of times, women go out stock [of pads and pills] and we don’t realise it. That’s when we have to call for help from our friends to save us,” said the life sciences and business graduate from the National University of Singapore.

Fuelled by her interest to help ladies deal with their periods, she quit her job of three years and started PSLove, a monthly subscription box that contains a curated selection of sanitary pads, biscuits, teabags and a small booklet about dealing with cramps.

However, half a year later, she found it hard to sustain her subscription box service, which was eventually discontinued.

“Because of the density of Singapore and how close our supermarkets are, it was very difficult to educate the market that this is the best way to [deal with your cramps],” she recalled.

She also realised that more women were looking for a portable and easy-to-use relief for their cramps.

“If you’re using a hot water bottle, it doesn’t last very long and soon you’ll have to go back to refill it. If you’re outside [without a hot water bottle], you’re basically helpless,” explained Peck Ying.

Together with her co-founder, Caleb Leow, 28, the chief technology officer of PSLove, they worked tirelessly to find the right formula for their portable heat packs.

They took seven months to talk to manufacturers and get feedback from Singaporean women about their prototypes. After a couple of experiments with mixing compounds to create a heat pack that will be warm enough to provide relief, she finally perfected the formula for her innovative market changer.

“We took about four or five tries in order to get it right, from changing the formula to the breathability of the adhesive on the back of the heat pack. It took quite a few tries to get it right,” said Peck Ying, with a sigh of relief.

After talking to several distributors about bringing MenstruHeat to the average Singaporean, the product was picked up by Guardian and 7-Eleven in March and October respectively last year.

By the end of 2016, MenstruHeat was stocked in over 500 retail outlets nationwide.

Encouraged by the success of their first product, Peck Ying and her team created two new products, NeckHeat and BackHeat, which was released on Jan 28.

“When ladies sit crossed-legged, we tend to tilt our hips. That causes pain in the back and neck area, and we found that a lot of ladies were struggling with that,”said Peck Ying, who hopes to tackle these period-related pains with her new products.

What’s next for the youthful entrepreneur?

“I hope that our product grows to become a household brand, to help these ladies to overcome period pains,” said Peck Ying.

She added: “We really want to be a solution for period pains for women all around the region.”

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