The Founding Circle Closed beta · June 2026

A hundred women.
Two months.
Test what is being built.

Not a waitlist. A cohort — using Ashwam first, telling us what works, before it reaches the rest of the world.

The Founding Circle is the first hundred women to use Ashwam, for eight weeks before public launch. You will hold the app in your hand every day. You will tell us what works, what doesn't, and what you wish it did. From your honest use, we re-prioritise what ships at public launch in August. And from this first hundred, we will recruit the User Advisory Board — the ones who help shape Ashwam's direction long after launch.

Join the Founding Circle What this is
What the Founding Circle is

A cohort of women
testing the first version
of Ashwam.

Every product that works for women gets validated, somewhere in its early life, by a small number of women who used it carefully and told the builders the truth. The Founding Circle is that moment for Ashwam. We are looking for a hundred women who want to use Ashwam honestly for eight weeks — not co-design it, but tell us whether what we've built actually works in their real lives. The product roadmap for August is already set; your honest use is what helps us re-prioritise it.

  • i. One hundred women. A deliberately small cohort. Across Australia, India, and the United States. Curated for range — different life stages, different starting points, different priorities.
  • ii. Eight weeks. Starting in June, ending at public launch. You use the Ashwam app on your phone — iOS or Android — for the full eight weeks.
  • iii. Five minutes a day. A daily check-in. You can do it on your commute, before bed, while the kettle is boiling. If five minutes a day is more than you have right now, this is not the right moment.
  • iv. Your honest voice. In-app feedback, quick surveys, longer conversations, and weekly Circles. Structured when you have twenty seconds. Unstructured when you have twenty minutes. Live or in your own time — whichever works for your life that week.
  • v. A path to the Advisory Board. From this cohort, we recruit the User Advisory Board — paid roles, annual honorarium, and ongoing voice in shaping where Ashwam goes after launch. Different work from the beta itself: more strategic, longer-term, fewer people.
What the next months will look like

The daily rhythm.
The weekly Circle.
The longer conversation.

Your time matters. We will not waste it. Here is what we will ask for, what we will give back, and how the cadence will actually work — so you can decide, with clear eyes, whether this is the right eight weeks for you.

i. daily

The app.

Five minutes a day on your phone. A short daily check-in across the domains that Ashwam thinks with — body, mind, emotion, sleep, food, exercise, social, environment. You decide what to share and when. Nothing about the check-in is meant to become another box on your to-do list — it is meant to become a record that belongs to you.

ii. weekly

The Circle.

A weekly gathering — online for most Circles, in person where we can make it work during our travel to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Melbourne, and the United States. Not a focus group. A conversation. What's working in the app this week, what's not, where the friction is, and what we should re-prioritise for the public launch.

iii. in the background

Structured signal.

Short in-app prompts at the right moments. Quick async surveys. Weekly pulse checks that take under a minute. The kind of structured feedback that does not ask much of you in any single moment — but that, across a hundred women, tells us what is actually happening.

iv. when it matters

The longer conversation.

For women who want to go deeper: one-to-one interviews, long-form written feedback, voice notes, shared documents. Opt in when you have the time and the inclination. Skip entirely if the app and the Circle are where your contribution lives. Both are valuable. Both count.

Beyond the beta

From the Circle,
the Advisory Board.

The Founding Circle is where we test what's built. The Advisory Board is where we shape what comes next. Recruited from the Founding Circle, after the closed beta ends and public launch has happened, the Advisory Board is the body that helps decide what Ashwam becomes — not just at launch, but through every decision that follows.

The Advisory Board is a real commitment — paid, time-bounded, and with the standing authority to challenge us when we drift from what women actually need.

The User Advisory Board

A paid role
that keeps us honest.

Members of the Advisory Board meet regularly to review the product, the roadmap, the principles, and the places Ashwam is being asked to grow into. The Board has standing authority to raise concerns about direction — from pricing decisions to new features to partnership choices — and to have those concerns heard at the highest level of the company.

Roles are paid on an annual honorarium. Terms are time-bounded. Selection happens after the Founding Circle closes, and is based on the contribution you have already made, the life experience you bring, and the range the Board as a whole needs to reflect the women Ashwam serves.

The Advisory Board's job is one sentence long: keep Ashwam working for women. That is the test every decision gets run against.

Our commitment to you
We are building Ashwam with you, not at you. That means telling the truth about what works and what does not, listening when you say something is wrong, and never mistaking the number of signups for the quality of the product.
How to join

Ask to join
the Founding Circle.

A short ask, to start. If the fit feels right, we will follow up with a brief survey to learn a little more about you — your life stage, what you are hoping Ashwam will help with, and how you would like to contribute. Invitations into the Circle roll from June 1 onwards, as the fit becomes clear.

We are curating for a cohort of a hundred women with range across three countries — so a thoughtful response in our follow-up survey will matter more than how quickly you submit this form. Take your time. Tell us what is true.

A note before you join

I am a woman in midlife with my own lived experiences across three continents. I'm building Ashwam because of what I have heard from the women in my life, and from the women in the rooms I have been in.

Women's health has been built around averages, around men, around the reproductive years. The longest and most biologically dynamic stretch of most women's lives — the perimenopausal transition and after — has almost no published evidence to draw from. That is not a small problem. It is the whole problem.

The Founding Circle is how Ashwam gets built honestly. A hundred women, two months, before any of it reaches the rest of the world. Five minutes a day, a few weekly Circles, your honest voice. That is what I am asking for.

Shilpi
Founder, Ashwam
LinkedIn Substack — coming soon
Shilpi Sharma, Founder of Ashwam

We will follow up with a short survey by email. We will not share your details, add you to any list you did not ask to be on, or send you marketing that is not relevant to the Circle.

Thank you.
Your request has been received. We will be in touch by email within the next few days with a short survey — no rush on your end, and no automated follow-up if you decide it is not the right moment. Welcome to the start of this.
What happens next

Three steps, between
here and the Circle.

i. This week

You introduce yourself.

You share your name, email, region, and (if you want) a sentence about what drew you here. That is all we need to start the conversation.

ii. Next few weeks

A short survey.

We follow up by email with a short survey — ten to fifteen minutes at most. Your life stage, what you are hoping for, the rhythm you have available. This is where we actually learn about each other.

iii. From June 1, rolling

Invitations into the Circle.

From June 1 onwards, we invite women into the Circle as the fit becomes clear. Onboarding happens within a few days of your invitation. Your eight weeks begin when you start. The Circle as a whole runs through the public launch in August and into the start of the Advisory Board.