Viva La Vulva! with Laura Dowling, fabÜ

🔔🔔 Laura Dowling, founder of fabÜ, built a business by talking about topics most people avoid; and it changed everything 🔔🔔 Laura Dowling joins Business Builders to share how she turned women’s health - one of the most overlooked and under-discussed areas in healthcare - into a fast-growing brand, a platform, and a movement. What started as years of frustration working as a pharmacist and seeing women suffer in silence with issues no one was talking about, evolved into a business, a movement, and a platform for education. Laura explains how she spent over a decade developing formulations before launching fabÜ from her couch, without retail backing or a traditional business plan. By building an audience on Instagram and speaking openly about topics many considered taboo, she created demand first - and the business followed. Along the way, she uncovered something deeper: women’s health has been historically misunderstood, under-discussed, and often dismissed. From menopause to intimate health, many women simply aren’t given the language, knowledge, or confidence to understand their own bodies. In this episode, Laura shares how she turned that insight into a brand, a live show, and a bestselling book - all while staying true to her voice and refusing to sanitise the message. She also opens up about failure, launching without a plan, living with ADHD as a founder, and why building a business doesn’t always follow a straight line. This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, identity, and the power of saying the things no one else is willing to say. “People are embarassed to talk about it - but that’s exactly why it matters.” 🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn: Why Laura started fabÜ and the problem she saw in women’s health How she built a business without a traditional plan The realities of launching a product with no retail backing Why Instagram played a key role in growing her audience How taboo topics became her biggest advantage What women’s health issues are still not being talked about How to build a brand by being unapologetically yourself The role of ADHD in her entrepreneurial journey Why founders should trust instinct over “perfect” market research How purpose and mission can drive long-term business growth ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 - Cold open 00:55 - Introducing Laura Dowling and fabÜ 02:10 - Launching the business from her couch 05:30 - Preventative health vs “sick care” 08:45 - Building an audience on Instagram 14:00 - ADHD and the entrepreneurial mind 21:00 - Why we don’t talk about women’s health 24:45 - The talk that changed everything 27:30 - Turning taboo into a business 30:15 - Breaking stigma and building a brand 35:30 - Growing without a traditional plan 39:15 - Ask for forgiveness, not permission 43:15 - Trusting instinct over market research 53:00 - Hiring, team building and culture 01:00:00 - Asking for help and final advice Topics covered: Entrepreneurship, women’s health, fabÜ, supplements, startup founders, personal branding, Instagram marketing, ADHD and business, health education, building a brand, taboo topics, consumer products.

You can listen to Viva La Vulva! with Laura Dowling, fabÜ online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Viva La Vulva! with Laura Dowling, fabÜ is an episode from Irish Business Builders by Conor Kearney.

This episode is 68:38 long.

This episode was published on Mar 23, 2026.

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