Starting with any relevant education, walk me through the twists and turns of your career to date? How did one opportunity lead to the next + what was the key takeaway/ experience in each role + how did this lead you to where you are now?
I was a political science major in College and always loved policy development. I moved to Washington DC and worked on the staff of a US Senator and soon after, started working for a medical association doing health policy development. I honestly always thought this is what I would do and I love the complex work of regulatory pathways. However, after my wife and I experienced a nearly 4 year journey to have our daughter, I decided to try to use my background in politics to help those, who like us, were struggling to have children and started volunteering for the largest patient organization in the world for people with infertility.
This was the first time I was using the skill set I had cultivated over 15+ years of policy expertise to help people with a cause I deeply cared for and it was this experience that led me to start Grain Fertility. I had the opportunity to talk to dozens of people whose experience was just like mine and I soon realized the problems I faced were felt every day by thousands of people undergoing treatment.
I never intended to be a startup founder but after I could not get the idea of trying to do something to help people who were struggling with such an emotionally, physically, and financially overwhelming process, I knew I had to give it a shot.
What was the pivotal moment that put you on your current founder path?
Grain Fertility didn't stem from a singular moment but evolved as more of what Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, calls a slow hunch, influenced by our own fertility journey. Throughout the process, we were struck by the lack of coordination and communication among doctors, prompting us to manage extensive documentation ourselves. My wife carried a binder to her appointments, filled with our records and updated lab results, because she found it was easier to recall information our doctors often did not have easy access to. We often would remark to one another that there had to be a better way. In a world where everything, from banking to food orders, was digital, our fertility journey remained mostly analog.
Having a background in Health IT policy, particularly in electronic health record systems, I noticed the healthcare system's lag, with fertility clinics trailing even further behind. After we were lucky enough to have our daughter after nearly 4 years of IVF, the persistent thought of prioritizing the patient's experience lingered. Sitting at the dinner table one day, I turned to my wife and expressed the need to improve the journey for others. Grain Fertility emerged from transforming the challenges of our own experience into a commitment to spare others from similar pains.
Can you provide a summary of the technology/ area of innovation and its potential application? Have there been any pivot points in the company’s lifetime and what triggered these?
Grain Fertility is working to take advantage of changes that are quickly happening in the healthcare space. In 2016, the US Congress passed a law called the 21st Century Cures Act and a provision of that law guaranteed patients the right to electronic access of their health information. Subsequent regulatory decisions have created standards that are building the common language for health information exchange in a way that has never existed in the US. Taking these standards, and applying them to the specific use case of helping fertility patients, we are seeking to connect fertility patients and their care team with the information and services they use so they can make more informed decisions and have better communication.
We currently are re-examining our customer base and who we market to. We launched as a Direct to Consumer application in February and while we have always known customer acquisition is hard and expensive, we have been surprised by the interest shown from companies that operate in the fertility space but outside of the fertility clinic walls. They acutely know the problems patients face when trying to collect, use, and share information between different care settings and are interested in learning more about the solutions we provide and partnering with us to help deliver improved user experience and promote patient empowerment.
What stage are you at?
Grain Fertility launched our public facing MVP application in February of this year. We are working with early users to help them through the fertility journey and are incredibly excited about some pilots that are in the works and we aim to have running this summer to demonstrate the utility of using an app like Grain Fertility during treatment. Specifically, we hope to be able to demonstrate to fertility service providers such as clinics and ancillary services that we can improve patient engagement, increase patient positive experience reports, and reduce feelings of isolation and lack of control. All of this will help drive increased retention, recommendations, and revenue.
How have you approached funding?
I bootstrapped early development and research of Grain Fertility and did not take any investment until I was chosen to participate in Techstars Washington DC Powered By JP Morgan where I received my first funding. I was able to raise some additional funds from angels and friends and family that have kept our development moving along and helped us launch. Most of my success has been with people who have experienced the issue of infertility or know someone who has and understands the problem we are attacking. I am continuing to try to reach Angels and funders that have this connection to help me as I navigate the growth of my company.
As a first time founder without an established track record to point to for early investment, I am trying to develop as much evidence as I can that my company can actually improve the patient experience, help fertility service providers, and fundamentally change how patients and their care team use their data to make decisions. My hope is by focusing on this evidenced based approach, I will be able to make it hard for investors to say no to me when I aggressively start to pursue funding.
What has been the greatest source of help/ guidance along the way?
Talking with other founders who have gone through the process of starting a company. I am a first time founder who does not have a traditional background of entrepreneurship so it has been incredibly helpful to talk with others about what has worked for them, what they wish they had done differently, and how they approached different problems that only founders really experience.
It has led to developing friendships and relationships with people across the world and expanded my network beyond anything I expected. One of the most surprising, and pleasant, parts has been the willingness of others to talk with me and give valuable advice and guidance.
Best advice you’d pass on to other founders?
Find a problem you are passionate about because starting a company is really hard and you will need that passion to keep you motivated through the hard times and all the doubts you are going to hear. I knew that I was going to start Grain Fertility when all I could think about was how to make other people's journey a little easier than my wife's and I journey was.
What do you think are broadly the biggest needs and opportunities in the Women’s Health Market?
Investment. This does not just mean monetary investments from VCs, although this is incredibly needed as the women's health market is massive yet chronically underfunded. The Women's Health Market needs investments in time, energy, awareness, research, and attention. One of the biggest obstacles I face when explaining the problem Grain Fertility is seeking to solve is getting people who have not gone through IVF to understand what it is like by trying to put someone else in your shoes and experience the pain, anguish, and stress. However, it shouldn't have to take every person experiencing every problem in women's health to get them to care.
By working to create awareness of the multitude of problems facing women's health, from chronic underfunding of research and poor representation in clinical trials to knowing the profound impact infertility, PCOS, endometriosis and other diseases can have on a person, we can work to unlock these investments and provide unique opportunities.
Where else could you tell an investor you have the chance to help someone achieve the thing they want more in life than anything else while also getting into a market that is expected to grow to over $16 billion in the next few years? All it takes is an investment of time and a little money to drastically improve the world for the better.
What’s going to have the single biggest impact on change in your area of the market?
A few things are drivers of change in fertility care, specifically patient engagement. The first Is technological change driven by advances and adoption of artificial intelligence and advanced reproductive health technologies that improve care. For decades, fertility clinics have been analog practices that relied on paper records and basic technology platforms. However, this is rapidly changing and requiring investments by clinics to quickly digitize their data.
The second in generational change. If you think of the demographics of fertility patients, they are often individuals in their late 20s to early 40s. These are people who are used to having more information available to them than ever and having every single part of their life being digitally available to them at their fingertips and the freedom to make choices. Fertility service providers are starting to understand that there is increased competition for these customers and their demands are higher than ever.
We are built to serve the needs of these patients in this generation because we are our customers and have experienced the pains they feel every day.
