In a world where health apps often prioritize data collection over understanding, Stephanie Bapes is building something different. With over a decade of product design experience at companies like Mastercard, Deliveroo, and British Airways, she’s now channeling that expertise into Sora, an AI-guided hormone and cycle wellbeing app launching this quarter. Born from her personal …
In a world where health apps often prioritize data collection over understanding, Stephanie Bapes is building something different. With over a decade of product design experience at companies like Mastercard, Deliveroo, and British Airways, she’s now channeling that expertise into Sora, an AI-guided hormone and cycle wellbeing app launching this quarter.
Born from her personal journey with PCOS, Sora represents more than just another health tracker. It’s a reimagining of how technology can support women’s health, not through cold analytics, but through emotional intelligence, ritual-based care, and deep personalization. Stephanie brings a unique perspective to femtech, one shaped by years of designing for millions of users and informed by the lived reality of navigating hormonal health challenges.
In this conversation, we explore her path from Paris to London’s tech scene, the invisible details that make products feel human, and why she believes awareness, not just tracking, is the future of cycle care.
Background & Journey
Can you walk us through your journey from studying digital creation at Paris VIII to founding Sora? What were the pivotal moments that shaped your path?
My journey into building Sora actually started much earlier than the product itself. While studying digital creation at Paris VIII, my final project involved building an app with a small team. I led the concept and vision, and even though the project didn’t continue after graduation, it was my first real experience imagining a product from end to end.
After that, I spent several years working in startup environments in Paris and participating in hackathons, which helped me develop a hands-on, experimental mindset. Eventually, I moved to London, where I spent over ten years working as a product designer across companies like Mastercard, Deliveroo, Shpock, and British Airways.
Those years shaped how I think about products at scale, not just visually, but emotionally and systemically. Looking back, I realize I was always drawn to building digital experiences. I was especially influenced by the early days of the iPhone, when apps became accessible to everyone. At the time, not knowing how to code felt like a barrier. Today, with AI and modern tools, that barrier no longer exists. Sora feels like the natural continuation of a path I’ve been on for a long time.
You’ve worked with major brands like Mastercard, Deliveroo, and British Airways. How did these experiences prepare you for building your own product?
Working with large, global products taught me what scale really means. When you design for millions of users, every decision matters, not just visually, but structurally and emotionally. You only fully understand that impact when you see people around you actually using the products you’ve worked on and reacting to them in real life.
Those experiences gave me strong foundations: how to think in systems, how to build and maintain design systems, and how to collaborate across teams with very different disciplines. More importantly, they taught me how products live in people’s everyday lives.
In many ways, that period was the best preparation I could have had for building my own company. It gave me the structure, discipline, and perspective I now rely on when making decisions for Sora.
Sora: Vision & Product
Sora is described as “the first emotionally intelligent cycle companion.” What does emotional intelligence mean in the context of a health app?
In the context of a health app, emotional intelligence means understanding that data alone isn’t enough. It’s about how information is delivered, when it’s shown, and the language used around it. For many women, especially those navigating hormonal or cycle-related challenges, the way an app communicates can either increase anxiety or provide reassurance.
With Sora, emotional intelligence means designing an experience that feels supportive rather than clinical. From the tone of the language to the pacing of information, everything is meant to adapt to the person, not the other way around. The goal is for users to feel understood and accompanied, rather than monitored or judged.
You mention that Sora was built from your personal journey with PCOS. How did your lived experience inform the product’s design and features?
Living with PCOS made it very clear to me that most cycle and health apps aren’t designed for women with irregular cycles or complex hormonal patterns. PCOS doesn’t follow a single textbook case. It looks different for every woman, yet many existing tools assume regularity as the norm.
That gap directly shaped how Sora was designed. Even something as fundamental as cycle tracking needed to be flexible, so women don’t feel like their bodies are “wrong” because they don’t fit predefined patterns. The product had to adapt to the user, not force the user to adapt to the product.
Beyond my own experience, I spent a lot of time speaking with other women with PCOS to understand their frustrations, needs, and expectations. Sora is the result of translating those lived pain points, mine and others’, into a more supportive, personalized experience.
What specific problems are you solving that existing cycle tracking apps miss? What makes Sora different?
Most existing apps focus on cycle tracking as a data exercise. They collect information, but often stop there. What I noticed is that many women don’t actually understand what their cycle phases mean, how those phases influence how they feel, or how to respond to those changes in a supportive way.
Sora is built around the idea of cycle awareness rather than simple tracking. Everything in the experience is contextual, from how symptoms and emotions are interpreted to the guidance that’s offered. When a user logs how she’s feeling, Sora takes her cycle phase into account and explains what may be happening, along with gentle suggestions to help her feel better.
Over time, as patterns emerge across cycles, Sora becomes more personalized. The difference is that the product isn’t just recording information. It’s helping women build an ongoing understanding of their bodies.
Can you explain how AI fits into Sora’s approach? How are you balancing automation with the deeply personal nature of hormonal health?
AI in Sora is used as a layer of interpretation, not as a replacement for human understanding. Many tools today collect large amounts of health data, but leave users alone with numbers and charts, without explaining what they actually mean.
With Sora, AI helps translate data into insight. It looks at what users log, symptoms, emotions, patterns across cycles, and helps explain what may be happening in a clear, reassuring way. The goal isn’t automation for its own sake, but deeper understanding.
Because hormonal health is deeply personal, AI works quietly in the background. It supports, contextualizes, and guides, without overwhelming or distancing users from their own intuition.
You’re integrating nervous system support and ritual-based care alongside symptom tracking. Why is this holistic approach important?
This holistic approach reflects how I personally learned to manage my PCOS symptoms. Listening to my body, reducing chronic stress, and regulating my nervous system made a meaningful difference.
Cycle awareness and ritual-based practices have existed for centuries across many cultures. Practices like guided meditation or sound healing help regulate the nervous system and strengthen the connection between body and mind.
While there is no cure for PCOS, lifestyle plays a major role in how symptoms are experienced. Many women live in fast-paced, high-stress environments, and Sora is designed to bring calm back into the body by supporting that balance.
Design Philosophy
You emphasize “emotionally intelligent, intuitive, and deeply human” products. Can you give us concrete examples of what this looks like in practice with Sora?
From the first interaction, Sora is designed to guide rather than instruct. The language is calm and clear, and the experience is intentionally simple so it doesn’t add pressure or cognitive load.
Aura, the AI presence within Sora, gently accompanies users through onboarding, symptom logging, and insights. Rather than demanding attention, it’s designed to feel like a quiet guide in the background.
Even though Sora uses AI, the experience feels relational rather than technical, as if someone is there to help you understand what’s happening in your body, without judgment or urgency.
You mention caring about “the invisible details that make a product feel right.” What are some of these invisible details in Sora?
Language and tone are central. Many health apps unintentionally create anxiety, so I was very intentional about removing pressure and judgment from Sora’s communication.
Women with PCOS often experience symptoms that affect confidence and self-esteem. I wanted to design a product that feels reassuring rather than analytical.
Those invisible choices, pacing, wording, restraint, are what allow Sora to feel safe, human, and emotionally supportive rather than clinical.
Femtech & AI
Femtech is a rapidly growing but still underserved space. What are the biggest gaps you see in the current landscape?
One of the biggest gaps is sustained support, investment, funding, and long-term commitment to women’s health. Many conditions are still under-researched, which creates both uncertainty and opportunity.
Despite this, I’m very optimistic. Femtech feels less like a category and more like a movement. The more people working across different aspects of women’s health, the more meaningful progress we’ll see.
How are you approaching privacy and data sensitivity concerns with Sora, especially as an AI-powered health app?
Hormonal and emotional data is some of the most intimate information a person can share, so privacy isn’t a feature. It’s a responsibility.
I’m not interested in collecting data for the sake of it, or in turning users into a product. Data exists to support understanding, not extraction.
Trust is fundamental, and transparency and care are essential when building in a space this personal.
Entrepreneurship & stē studio
You’re building Sora while also running stē studio and supporting other founders. How do you manage both?
I work very intentionally. Through stē studio, I support other founders as a fractional product designer for a limited number of hours each week.
That structure allows me to stay connected to other products while keeping most of my time and focus dedicated to Sora.
What advice would you give to designers who want to transition from working at companies to founding their own products?
Start. You don’t need everything figured out. You learn the most by doing.
At the same time, there’s no need to quit your job overnight. Build on the side, experiment, and commit fully when it feels aligned and solid.
Community & Launch
What role does community play in Sora’s development, and how are you building trust with users?
Community is central because Sora is built around deeply personal experiences. Users are not data points. They’re collaborators.
Listening to lived experience, staying close to users, and iterating based on real feedback is how trust is built. In women’s health, listening itself is an act of care.
What are your goals for the Q1 2026 iOS launch?
The goal is to onboard the first users and build a strong foundation. This phase is about interaction, learning, and refinement, not scale.
It’s about opening Sora to the world thoughtfully and continuing to grow awareness around cycle health.
Future Vision
Where do you see Sora in three years? What’s the long-term vision beyond the initial launch?
I see Sora growing into a broader ecosystem around cycle and hormonal wellbeing. That includes expanding into new languages, starting with French and Spanish.
I also envision partnerships with wellness practitioners and, over time, the creation of a curated platform connecting women to trusted resources and practices.
What kind of founder collaborations and creative partnerships would be most valuable for Sora’s mission?
Collaborations rooted in shared values, sound healers, yoga and Pilates instructors, fitness professionals, dietitians, and clinical experts.
Alignment and intention matter more than volume.
What do you hope Sora changes about how women understand and relate to their bodies?
I hope Sora helps women understand that their cycles are natural rhythms, not problems to fix.
Awareness creates compassion, and compassion creates change.
Personal
How do you maintain your own wellbeing while building a wellness product?
Early on, I realized pushing too hard was affecting my own health. That changed how I work.
I now build with boundaries, rest, and intention. Many of the best ideas came during moments of pause, not intensity.
Is there anything we haven’t covered that you think is important for people to know about Sora or your work?
I’m building Sora with care because women’s health deserves respect and patience.
What matters most to me is creating something women can trust, not just use.
“Awareness creates compassion, and compassion creates change.”
Stephanie represents a new generation of founders who understand that the best technology doesn’t just solve problems. It creates understanding. With Sora, she’s building more than an app. She’s building a bridge between women and their bodies, designed with the same care and attention she’s brought to products used by millions.
As Sora launches this quarter, it arrives at a moment when women’s health technology is finally receiving the attention and investment it has long deserved. Yet what sets Stephanie apart is not just her technical capability or design expertise, but her insistence that in this deeply personal space, emotional intelligence must be the foundation, not an afterthought.
In a field often dominated by metrics and optimization, Stephanie reminds us that sometimes the most important details are the ones you can’t measure. The tone of a notification, the pacing of information, the quiet presence of support exactly when it’s needed. These invisible choices, made with intention and care, are what transform a product into a companion.
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