The Hidden Condition That Inspired a Startup

What happens when two innovators take on a condition no one talks about - but that quietly shapes how people connect? In this episode of First in Human, I sit down with Véronique Peiffer, PhD engineer, former McKinsey consultant, Stanford Biodesign fellowship alum, and co-founder of Palm. Together with her co-founder, she set out to solve excessive hand sweating, or hyperhidrosis - a condition that can make everyday moments of connection feel heavy with self-consciousness. Véronique shares how late-night brainstorms turned into a real prototype, how they built a glove-based therapy that worked, and what it took to navigate the realities of funding, regulation, and knowing when to pause.We also talk about her next chapter: distilling those lessons into The Scrappy Entrepreneur, a book for early-stage founders learning to build with heart and grit. If you’ve ever wondered what innovation really looks like behind the scenes - the human problems many of us face, and the courage it takes to solve them - this conversation will stay with you.