When Afton Vechery wanted to learn more about her fertility, she went to a fertility clinic to take a fertility test. She was excited about the data she would get back, but when she got the results, she found out – it was just a list of numbers and ranges that were really tough to understand. And moreover, she got a bill in the mail for $1500! That’s when she realized, there is so much room to improve the experience and teamed up with Carly Leahy to start Modern Fertility.
“At Modern Fertility, we’re focused on making this information much more accessible (you can take our test at home) and affordable (available for pre-order at $149). We’re also making the results simple and straightforward, so it’s easier to understand what these hormone levels mean and how they impact you.”, says Afton.
Early Years
Prior to starting Modern Fertility, Afton was working as a product manager with 23AndMe. She grew up in Maryland and started her first company–testing water quality–in high school. “It came out of a science fair project and taught me early on that the combination of science and business could do a whole lot of good for the world. I was hooked on entrepreneurship from there and have helped to launch three health companies since.”, she recounts.
Carly says, “When I was a kid, I assumed that I’d have to choose a specific field: law, art, medicine, finance. Not true. My time at Google and Uber showed me that creativity is essential in business–and you can wear many hats throughout your career in service of problems that mean the most to you. For me, that problem is accessibility of women’s health information.”
How it works?
You order a test in the mail, submit a sample at home or by swinging by a local lab, and we return physician-reviewed reports in 5 days. You can access your reports through a personalized dashboard and track your fertility over time.
Modern Fertility is a part of Y Combinator’s current batch. The startup have raised $1 million in funding led by First Round Capital with participation from Box Group, Y Combinator, and angel investors.
Talking about challenges, Carly says, “When you’re building a startup, every day is a challenge (actually … every day has 1,000 challenges), but we like it that way! We love working on big meaty problems. We’re constantly wishing there were more than 24 hours in the day.”
“We’re focused on bringing women fertility information much earlier in their lives. We spend much of our lives preventing pregnancy but we don’t have enough information to help us plan for it. We’re closing the information gap. Our aim is to make fertility information more accessible for women all over the world and we see a future where every woman can check in on her fertility.”, she concludes.
