From kitchen table to Woolworths shelves
Before it was on Woolworths shelves, Hey Zomi was a set of drawings on a kitchen table and a problem Mika Koelma couldn't stop thinking about.
At I2N's Founder Stories, Mikaela Koelma, co-founder of Hey Zomi, returned to the Q Building to share how she and her sister Zoe built Australia's first reusable menstrual disc.
The idea was personal before it was a business. A UON alumna and music and art teacher of 15 years, Mika was also a lifelong scuba diver and hiker who kept hitting the same wall: the products on the market didn't work for her body. Halfway up a 14 hour climb in Italy, changing a tampon behind a rock, the gap was obvious. There had to be something better, so she set out to build it.
In 2021, Zoe made the pitch. They had savings from years working overseas, they had always wanted to build something together and Mika already had drawings of a better menstrual disc. They moved back to Australia and started cold calling manufacturers.
Hey Zomi joined I2N's first Accelerator cohort in 2022 and Mika is clear about what that timing meant. She walked into one of those early meetings still feeling like she was just working from her kitchen table, and walked out with something new. Space, accountability and people cheering her on. Her entrepreneur in residence, James Bradley, pushed her to launch on pitch night rather than wait for perfect and take those first orders. She did, terrified and it worked.
What followed was three years of relentless building. Ironing every cotton bag by hand in her dad's garage. Bringing on investors whose supply chain expertise reshaped her costs and, within two months, had her in China visiting 14 manufacturers. That move unlocked a full rebrand, a new product range and in March 2025, a spot on Woolworths shelves. Along the way HeyZomi donated $160,000 worth of reusable period products to Share the Dignity.
She didn't gloss over the hard parts, which is what made the session so worth listening to. The event that lost money. The billboards that were hard to track. The slow work of converting customers to a product that only needs replacing every five years. Through all of it, one line captured her mindset. 'I've already won. That takes the fear out of failure.' For Mika, the win was never only commercial. It was getting to solve a real problem with her sister.
Top takeaways
- Solve a problem you know, not one you're guessing at
- Find a co-founder who is your skill-set opposite but aligned on values
- Launch before it feels ready, then let real customers tell you what's next
- Do every job yourself before you hand it off
- Marketing is storytelling, and not every bet will pay off
If you missed it, catch up on the recording!
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