Podcast appearances and mentions of lauren makler

Imagine a world where freezing your eggs isn't just a luxury for the wealthy, and starting a family is a journey filled with ethical considerations and genuine support. That world is becoming a reality thanks to Lauren Makler, founder of Cofertility. In this episode of How Women Inspire, Julie sits down with Lauren to explore the revolutionary ways Cofertility is changing the landscape of reproductive health. From their innovative 'split program' making egg freezing accessible, to their commitment to ethical egg donation and supporting diverse family structures, Lauren's vision is reshaping how we think about family building and gender equality. This week's episode 164 of How Women Inspire Podcast is about revolutionizing egg donation and fertility solutions! This episode was created in partnership with the Nasdaq Foundation. Together, we are working to educate, inspire, and engage women from diverse backgrounds on venture investing and entrepreneurship. Did you know that only 2% of venture funding goes to women-led companies? Together, we are working to show that women are the new face of venture investing.In this episode of How Women Inspire Podcast, Lauren Makler is sharing the importance of education and opportunities around fertility solutions and actionable steps you can take right now to support others in their family planning. Lauren Makler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. Previously, as an early Uber employee, Lauren founded Uber Health, a product that enables healthcare organizations to leverage Uber's massive driver network in improving healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and healthcare delivery. After a rare disease diagnosis, Lauren's fertility journey led her to believe that everyone should have the opportunity to freeze their eggs–and that there should be better access to egg donors. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle baby girl.Some of the talking points Julie and Lauren go over in this episode include:The lack of diversity in egg donors and the transactional nature of traditional egg donation.Lauren's personal journey with fertility and how it inspired her to pursue creating Cofertility.The importance of inclusive regulatory policies that support all types of families.The concerns of Gen Z women about their fertility and encouraging awareness and education.Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don't forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!Learn more about How Women Inspire at https://www.howwomenlead.com/podcast CONNECT WITH LAUREN MAKLER:LinkedInInstagramCofertilityCONNECT WITH JULIE CASTRO ABRAMS:LinkedIn - JulieHow Women LeadHow Women InvestHow Women GiveInstagram - HWLLinkedIn - HWLFacebook - HWL

Welcome to the Next Episode of Evie Unbounded!

This week, Colton sits down with Lauren Makler, Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility, a company that gives women the opportunity to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to a family who can't otherwise conceive. After founding Uber Health and following a rare disease diagnosis, Lauren's personal fertility journey inspired her to create Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. Cofertility's Freeze by Co platform makes egg freezing more accessible while its Family by Co platform provides intended parents seeking donor eggs with a value-aligned alternative without cash compensation. For more information about Cofertility, or to learn more about their programs, visit www.cofertility.com. This episode was Produced by Avery Siegel, shot by Eleanor Matthews, and edited by Patchwork Piñata. Original theme song by Jon the Dad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is all about how changing the egg donor and recipient parent experience.  Lauren, co-founder of CoFertility is gracious enough to spend time sharing her own experience with needing an egg donor and how that drove her to change the experiences.    We explore the transformative impact of CoFertility's approach, which emphasizes community, support, and transparency throughout the egg donation process. We discuss how CoFertility provides resources and guidance for intended parents, empowering them to navigate the complexities of fertility treatment with confidence and compassion, while creating a safe space and experience for the donor. Lauren emphasizes the company's commitment to fostering a sense of solidarity and mutual support within the community.   They address common questions and concerns about their program, including the screening process for donors, the number of eggs retrieved, and the emotional support provided to participants. By demystifying the egg donation process and providing comprehensive support, CoFertility is revolutionizing the way families are built, offering hope and guidance to individuals and couples on their path to parenthood.   Thank you to Lauren for sharing her expertise and insights, highlighting the importance of conversations like these in destigmatizing egg donation and fostering greater understanding and support within the community.  —---------------------- To round out your IVF survival guide, I would recommend the following episodes before your first IVF cycle: Episode 23:  What Happens to Your Fertility in your 20s, 30s, and 40s Episode 19:  All About Sperm Episode 24:  Controlling Your Weigh During IVF Episode 20:  Stimulation Protocols Episode 21:  All About Your Embryos in the lab Episode 33:  All About Genetic Testing Episode 38:  The Emotions of Infertility and How to Manage These Feelings ---------------------- Episodes about the Emotional Aspects of Infertility: Episode 12: WARRIOR STORY - The Infertility Journey of LuckyBabyLam AKA Annie at age 42 Episode 14 - ASK THE EXPERT - Grief, Trauma and Mother's Day Triggers with Dr. Wiyatta Fahnbulleh, PsyD Episode 26: WARRIOR STORY When a therapist is infertile. @Infertile_therapist_in_therapy shares her infertility struggle at 40, her experience with immunotherapy abroad, and struggling as a therapist Episode 28 - ASK THE EXPERT - The Emotions of Infertility and How to Manage Your Emotions and The Expectations of Yourself and Others with Miss Conception Coach AKA Chiemi Episode 30 - Infertility Man Jon Summers Talks Getting A Cancer Diagnosis, Dating While Going Through IVF with Male Factor Infertility, and Mindset in the Face of Your Medical Challenges. Episode 32 - WARRIOR STORY - Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, Müllerian Anomaly and Finding Humor, Your Voice and Sanity During Infertility with @for_the_barreness - Meghan Faith Episode 37: WARRIOR STORY with Annie Kuo, DO - Integrative Medicine Physician discussing her 20 IVF Cycles Along with Endometriosis, Surrogacy, and Male Factor Infertility Episode 47: WARRIOR STORY with Dr. Dina - Unexplained Infertility, Infertility in 40s, Struggle AFTER IVF and Finding the Right Clinic -------------------------------------------------------- RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE Books mentioned in this episode and previously mentioned can be found here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.amazon.com/shop/40andinfertile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ DONATE HERE:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/40andinfertile SPECIAL LISTENER OFFER FOR PRANAMAT:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://pranamat.com/af/ynkjmqzx?coupon=40andinfertile⁠⁠⁠⁠  (CODE: 40andinfertile) -------------------------------------------------------- ON THIS EPISODE: --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/40andinfertile/support

This week, David's son to ask about body parts, we rank the top 3 things we are doing as Dads to make our kids weird, and we are joined by former Uber exec and current CEO of Cofertility to discuss egg donation, super Mom powers, and why David is wrong about most things.Questions? Comments? Rants? Raves? Send them to GaytriarchsPodcast@gmail.com, or you can DM us anywhere @GaytriarchsPodcast

While Lauren was pitching Uber Health to their executive team, she felt a sharp, irregular pain in her stomach. With testing and a diagnostic surgery, she was diagnosed with an incredibly rare disease and was told she may not be able to have a biological child. As you can imagine, her first questions were: how do I navigate this disease? But also, how will I build a family some day?  Because so little is known about this disease, it was unclear if she could pursue egg-freezing, so she started looking into donation  and what stuck out to her was how antiquated and, for a lack of a better word, “icky” the traditional system felt.  While, ultimately, she was very fortunate to have her sister freeze her eggs and donate them to her to potentially use later, and was able to conceive her baby girl unassisted, she never stopped thinking about egg donation. I spent months thinking about the costly, and emotionally and physically taxing feats people go through to build a family, and couldn't believe no one has been talking about this and yet, egg donation is at the crux of so many other pieces of the industry. It's an essential part of LGBTQ+ family planning, it goes hand in hand with egg-freezing, and it's part of the process for many couples who go through infertility.  That's why in 2022, she founded Cofertility, to reshape fertility preservation and third-party reproduction so it's more accessible, human and community-driven. The company offers a destigmatized, scalable approach to egg donation, which reshapes the cost structure of egg-freezing by matching women who want to freeze their eggs with families who could not otherwise conceive and by donating half, women can freeze their eggs for free. Since their launch last fall, tens of thousands of people have applied to be a part of their egg-freezing programs, and they have activated hundreds of donors. They've also taken a firm stance against the historical, predatory practices that involve cash compensation and failing to provide fertility education for the donor's own reproductive future. In the egg-sharing model, which is what their Split program offers, there is a focus on shared outcomes rather than financial gain. All members get access to their online community, where people talk openly about their egg-freezing experience and support one another through it in real time and they welcome all intended parents — single or coupled, regardless of what brought them here — and support them with compassion and respect for whatever path is best for them.   Key takeaways from the podcast that listeners will learn today: The way we build families is more dynamic than ever and looks different for everyone. Cofertility exists to honor that and offers a destigmatized, scalable approach for bringing egg donation and egg-freezing together.  It's our goal to fix the broken egg donation system. Matching with an Egg Donor should be a positive experience. If you're looking for an egg donor — either due to infertility, cancer, a genetic condition, or not having eggs — you may already feel like the odds are stacked against you. The last thing you need is to feel like you're “shopping” for a human who plays a critical role in your family-building journey. And we'll never make it feel that way. We agree with ASRM that egg donor compensation can open the door for exploitation. Plus, a 2021 Harvard study found that 62% of donor-conceived adults felt the exchange of money for donor gametes was wrong, and 41% were troubled by the fact that money was exchanged around their conception. By allowing our donors to freeze their eggs as part of the process, our unique model honors everyone involved. Lauren speaks to intended parents struggling with second infertility all the time at Cofertility, and it's something her and her husband are going through right now on their journey to baby #2. It can be especially frustrating as it's surprising and stressful, but it's estimated that nearly one-third of the women who experience infertility are impacted by it. Favorite baby product or new motherhood product? What would you buy for someone who was currently pregnant or a new parent?:  The Snoo and taking Cara Babies' Sleep Schedule Who is Lauren? Lauren Makler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. Previously Lauren was an early Uber employee and founded Uber Health, a product that enables healthcare organizations to leverage Uber's massive driver network in improving healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and healthcare delivery. After a rare disease diagnosis, Lauren's fertility journey led her to believe that everyone should have the opportunity to freeze their eggs–and that there should be better access to egg donors. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle baby girl. Website: https://www.cofertility.com/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cofertility/ + https://www.instagram.com/familybyco/ + https://www.instagram.com/freezebyco/ + https://www.instagram.com/laurenmakler/  Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/cofertility/  Other: https://twitter.com/cofertility + https://www.linkedin.com/company/cofertility/  XOXO -Heids We have seats available in Birth Story Academy. Join today for $20 off with code BIRTHSTORYFRIEND at https://www.birthstory.com/online-course!  Resources: Birth Story Academy Online Course Shop My Birthing Workbooks and Guides I'm Heidi, a Certified Birth Doula, and I've supported the deliveries of over one thousand babies in my career. On the Birth Story Podcast, I'll take you on a journey through your pregnancy by providing you education through storytelling. I provide high-level childbirth education broken down to make it super digestible for you because I know you are a busy parent on the go. Plus, because I am so passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from many of the top experts in labor and delivery. Connect with Me! Instagram YouTube My Doula Heidi Website Birth Story Media™ Website  

Lauren Makler, the Co-Founder & CEO of Cofertility. Prior to starting Cofertility, Lauren spent the bulk of her career at Uber, where she founded and led strategy at Uber Health. We wanted to chat with Lauren to dig into the business of egg freezing, what women are looking for when it comes to their experience, and how we can collectively do better to make doing something so potentially valuable for your future more accessible and more human.

Today's guest, Lauren Makler is the CEO and Co-Founder of CoFertility. They are a mission-driven company full of individuals who are passionate about making egg freezing more accessible to women and assisting them in their journey toward motherhood. Lauren previously founded Uber Health, where under her leadership, the business helped millions of patients get the care they need. Prior to that, Lauren spent the early years at Uber launching the core business throughout the East Coast. Her own fertility journey gave her the immediate clarity that she wanted to build something meaningful in reproductive health. We know listeners will enjoy getting to know Lauren in today's episode. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/howdshedothat/support

Inspired by a previous Dear DST about egg donation, Remy and Emily are joined by Lauren Makler, co-founder and CEO of Cofertility, as well as reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Meera Shah. Remy and Emily start by asking Lauren about the mission of Cofertility and how they're making egg freezing more accessible, and Dr. Shah answers all their medical questions about the egg freezing process. Plus, Remy and Emily ask listener-submitted questions about egg donation, egg freezing, fertility, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we're talking egg freezing with the extremely inspiring Lauren Makler. Lauren Makler is the Co-founder and CEO of Cofertility. Her winding road of a fertility journey led her to believe that everyone should have the opportunity to freeze their eggs –and that the egg donation experience should be made more positive and human-centered for everyone involved. Lauren also founded Uber Health, a product that enables healthcare organizations to leverage Uber's driver network to improve healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and delivery. Under her leadership, the business helped millions of patients get to the care they needed. Prior to that, Lauren helped launch Uber's core business throughout the east coast and led the company's first experiments in healthcare, national on demand flu shot campaigns. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle baby girl.In this explained episode, Erica and Lauren chat through all the myths and facts around egg freezing, so for any twentysomething who wants to take control of their life... this episode is for you. It'll hopefully give you the information you need to make the right choices for YOU. Lauren also talks through what a more human-centered approach looks like in the fertility space and her personal story that started it all.Twentysomethings, listen now for an hour of inspiration with Lauren Makler!Follow Us!Lauren Makler: @laurenmaklerCofertility: @cofertilityErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

“Rejection is protection. And it means that something better is coming. So don't let the rejections get you down. Let them hurt for a few minutes and then move on," says Lauren Makler, Co-founder, and CEO of Cofertility. Discover the remarkable journey of Cofertility, a pioneering platform in the fertility space that has been making waves since its launch in October. Join Lauren Makler, the co-founder and CEO, as she shares the incredible growth and success of the business. With tens of thousands of women applying to their program and thousands of intended parents exploring potential donors, Cofertility is transforming the landscape of fertility choices. Gain insights into their effective fundraising strategies and learn valuable tips for founders seeking capital. Today's episode takes a deep dive into the platform's emphasis on creating a supportive community and judgment-free space for donors and parents, while looking ahead to Cofertility's vision of reducing the stigma around fertility treatments and becoming a transformative force in the industry.Key Takeaways:Understanding your target audience and meeting them where they are is crucial for higher conversion rates.Building a supportive community fosters engagement and referrals.Collaborating with others and leveraging your network enhances your entrepreneurial journey.Quotes:Tens of thousands of women apply to our program to either be part of our split or keep program. We've had thousands of intended parents create accounts and come check out the donors that we have. We make matches all the time, and it is the best feeling in the world.” (27:10 | Lauren Makler)"You have to believe that you are worthy of investing in for someone to invest in you." (30:30 | Lauren Makler)Don't do it alone. My husband and I do this thing, we call it career pooling where we pool our skills together to bring out the best in each other.” (39:16 | Lauren Makler)Connect with Lauren Makler:https://www.instagram.com/laurenmakler/https://www.instagram.com/cofertility/https://www.instagram.com/freezebyco/https://www.instagram.com/familybyco/If you like what you're hearing, please leave a rating or review at https://ratethispodcast.com/dearfoundher You can now work with Lindsay 1:1 to build and monetize your community through the same method she used to grow and scale her business. Fill out the form here and set up a FREE 30-minute consultation.Make sure you sign up for Lindsay's newsletter and have all of the takeaways from every podcast episode sent straight to your inbox. PLUS, you'll get a tip every week to help you grow and scale your own business.Don't forget to follow Lindsay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaypinchukPodcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's face it, infertility and trying to conceive (TTC) can be incredibly costly! Oftentimes, people are forced to walk away to avoid draining their savings or fertility treatments, adoption, surrogacy, and egg/sperm donorship aren't an option financially. From the moment of diagnosis to the extensive research and exploration of various family-building options, it feels like a significant financial burden with no end in sight. Non profits mentioned:The Tinina Q. Cade FoundationBundle of Joy FundCozy WarriorResources:Episode mentioned w/Lauren Makler on AppleiTunes & Spotify about her digital health company Cofertility.Article written By Amber Ferguson, reporter/video editor of The Washington Post: Shortage of Black sperm donors in America.'Socioeconomic disparities in fertility treatments and associated likelihood of livebirth following invitro fertilization.'Hey friend, thank you for tuning in to Infertility And Me Podcast. Connect with me on Instagram and or watch episodes on YouTube. Submit your story to me, Monique for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. You can support the continuation of I.A.M by 'buying me a coffee' on Ko-fi;) Support Our Show Sponsors:*Learn more about the Mosie Baby Kit and read some of the amazing stories from the Mosie Community at try.mosiebaby.com/InfertilityAndMe. *Use code INFERTILITYANDME for [15% off] your order at checkout and join the 100,000 plus families who have included Mosie on their journey to conceive.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/infertility-and-me/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Infertility can lead you down a road that you never thought you'd be on, and that may include egg donation for others or egg adoption for yourself. It can be so crazy expensive though, and feel so cold, that Lauren Makler wanted to make it feasible for those of us who experience infertility. She created Cofertility which allows women to freeze their eggs for free if they decide to donate half of them. How incredible is that? It provides a way for so many families to grow. Today's podcast episode talks all about it so you can decide if it will work for you or someone you know!   Get full show notes and more information here: https://fearlessinfertility.com/egg-donation-and-egg-freezing     Are you directing every key decision in your life but struggling with the one key decision every day that is affecting your mental load: to choose hopelessness and shame or not in your infertility journey? I get that. I know that infertility might not just be rocking the foundation of your marriage, but now it's starting to show up in work with the emotional weight you carry. While you can't work your way to a baby (you would have done it by now if you could!), you can work your way out of the loneliness, despair, and shame you carry in the daily rabbit holes you find yourself in so you can be happy again. There are resources for your emotional, mental and even physical wellness. Click here: https://fearlessinfertility.com/feelbetter/     Make sure to download my free Morning Mindset Magic checklist for the 7 things to do (or not do!) every single morning to give yourself the best chance of a powerful mindset each day.     Sign up to have some fun with me with my weekly newsletter HERE!     Connect with Jenica Parcell:   Website: fearlessinfertility.com Instagram: @jenicaparcell and @fearless.infertility Email: jenica@fearlessinfertility.com     When you leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it helps to show this podcast to other women who are alone in experiencing infertility. I also send out a fun package to someone who leaves a review each week! Leave a review here, please!

On today's episode, Lauren Markler comes on to talk about how her company Cofertility aims to rebrand egg donation by making the process less transactional and much more affordable. She talks with Darrell and Becca about scaling while maintaining a personal touch, building a company remotely, fand inding cofounders that align on the company mission and prioritizing motherhood while building a company. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week.Connect with us:On TwitterOn InstagramVia email: found@techcrunch.com

In Part 2 of the Cofertility interview with CEO and co-founder Lauren Makler, the three discuss the amazing work the company is doing to help women and families on their reproductive journey. First, Danielle shares that she's feeling much more energized following her low iron diagnosis and that the dynamic duo will soon be taking the next step in their journey: starting hormones! The three discuss the stigma and assumptions surrounding egg freezing and the reasons that people should see it as an empowering option to eliminate the pressures of their biological timing. Cofertility aims to make egg freezing accessible to everyone, so Lauren dives into the options available through Freeze by Co's Keep and Split programs. Offering people the option to freeze for free by donating half of their eggs, she shares the process of enrolling in the Split program, how it works to store for free, the process of being matched, and what it looks like if people want siblings. For those who are not interested in donating their eggs or do not qualify, Lauren discusses the Keep Program and the various financial options available to make egg freezing more accessible. The hosts are thrilled to have Lauren back for Part 2!  Be sure to follow @laurenmakler and @freezebyco, @familybyco, and of course, @cofertility. Plus check out @freezebyco on TikTok! To learn more visit https://cofertility.co/womed  Thanks to our amazing sponsor for making this episode possible:  PrettyLitter — Go to PrettyLitter.com/womed to save 20% on your first order  If you haven't already, please follow, rate, and review the podcast, follow us on Instagram @TheWoMed and check out womedpodcast.com. Plus, give us a follow on TikTok @thewomedpodcast. Be sure to follow your hosts personally @dmmaltby and @jackiethefnp and be sure to check out @riothealers!   WoMed Cover Art — Makeup: Annelise Carey, MUA/LME @annelisemua & Photography: Brooke Boling @honorcreative    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we had the opportunity to meet Lauren Makler, the CEO and Co-Founder of Cofertility, an incredible company focused on making fertility preservation and third-party reproduction more accessible, human, and community-driven. Lauren has an amazing fertility story to share- including her sister freezing her eggs to donate to Lauren- which inspired her to shift her successful career and build this meaningful and much-needed company.  Interested in freezing your eggs? In need of donated eggs? Definitely take a listen to this episode! Lauren is a bada$$ entrepreneur and will definitely change the world of fertility. 

In our first official episode with the Cofertility team, your hosts are joined by CEO and Co-founder Lauren Makler to talk about all the amazing things the company is doing, showcasing exactly why D and Jac knew they needed to work with them. First, Danielle provides an update on their egg freezing journey, including a delay caused by the discovery that she is severely anaemic. Lauren also opens up about her health and fertility struggles, and shares what Cofertility is doing to address the access issue around egg freezing with Freeze by Co's Keep and Split programs—the latter offering people the opportunity to freeze for free if they donate half to a family that can't otherwise conceive. They discuss the large-scale financial issue with egg freezing, and the lack of diversity amongst egg donors. Plus, they touch on the stigma involved with egg donation being rooted in cash compensation, and a 2021 Harvard study that found donor conceived individuals struggle with the idea that their parents paid for their conception. Lauren is adamant about raising awareness—not fear mongering—and we are honored to be joined by her today as she shares Cofertility's mission to make egg freezing more accessible.  To learn more, visit https://cofertility.co/womed and take the quiz to see if you're eligible for free egg freezing: https://cofertility.co/womedquiz. Be sure to follow @freezebyco and @laurenmakler and check out @freezebyco on TikTok! Thanks to our amazing sponsors for making this episode possible:  PrettyLitter — Go to PrettyLitter.com/womed to save 20% on your first order  Seed — Visit seed.com/WOMED and use code WOMED to redeem 20% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic.  If you haven't already, please follow, rate, and review the podcast, follow us on Instagram @TheWoMed and check out womedpodcast.com. Plus, give us a follow on TikTok @thewomedpodcast. Be sure to follow your hosts personally @dmmaltby and @jackiethefnp and be sure to check out @riothealers!   WoMed Cover Art — Makeup: Annelise Carey, MUA/LME @annelisemua & Photography: Brooke Boling @honorcreative    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lauren Makler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility. She previously founded Uber Health, a product that enables healthcare organizations to leverage Uber's massive driver network in improving healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and healthcare delivery. Under Lauren's leadership, the business helped millions of patients get to the care they needed. Prior to that, Lauren spent the early years at Uber launching the core business throughout the east coast and led the company's first experiment in healthcare, national on demand flu shot campaigns. Lauren's winding road of a fertility journey led her to believe that everyone should have the opportunity to freeze their eggs –and that there should be better access to egg donors. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle baby girl. Listen as Lauren discusses with Ellen and Jenn: • Experiencing ongoing pain and being diagnosed with an incredibly rare abdominal disease. • Being told she may never be able to have a biological child. • Defying the odds, but only after obtaining a deeper understanding of the broken and antiquated systems surrounding egg donation. • Joining with her Cofertility co-founders to build a company that gives women more power over their reproductive health. • Reshaping fertility preservation and third-party reproduction so it's more accessible, human and community-driven. Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903. Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/ Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch Learn more about Ellen's law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/ Learn more about Cofertility here: https://www.cofertility.com

For the first time, the average age to have kids has surpassed 30. Children are getting more expensive, people are living longer, and potential parents are focusing more on their careers. This poses a unique, but severe personal problem. The older people get, the more likely they are to have pregnancy complications. The solution is to freeze the eggs, but that's expensive, and not top of mind for those in their 20s. CoFertility is creating an ecosystem that lowers the cost and increases the accessibility of egg donation. In todays episode we talk with Lauren Makler, the co-founder of CoFertility, about: Why doctors are twice as likely to face infertility as the general public Launching Uber in States Across the Country How CoFertility is Reducing the Cost of Egg Donations

Are you a parent or thinking about becoming one?My guest on the show today, Lauren Makler, is the CEO and co-founder of Cofertility, a mother owned and led company that is reshaping egg donation and egg freezing.Today's episode is for you if:1. You are in your 20s or early 30s and thinking about having a family someday2. You are experiencing fertility challenges3. You are experiencing secondary infertility after having had at least one child already4. You are interested in egg freezing5. You are interested in egg donation6. You are interested in any aspect of fertility and infertility7. You are a mom looking for advice on starting a business even while having young children at homeTo learn more about Cofertility, visit https://www.cofertility.com/ Follow along on Instagram @themomfeedpodcast Sign up for our newsletter for weekly inspiration and advice on motherhood and beyond.Remember to subscribe to the show if you don't already! xoxo

Whether or not you have never considered egg freezing, egg donation or becoming an intended parent, this episode is an important and inspiring listen! In this episode, Emily is joined by Lauren Makler, the co-founder and CEO of Cofertility, a company bringing together egg donation, egg freezing and donor matching through their human-centred platform. Cofertility is empowering people to take control of their fertility and helping intended parents build their families. Join Emily and Lauren as they delve into the story behind Cofertility and the impact it is making in the world of reproductive health. LISTEN TO HEAR: ✨How egg donation and freezing work in the expensive traditional model ✨How Cofertility is empowering people to freeze their eggs and donate them to intended parents? ✨What the intake process is for both donors and intended parents ✨Why people choose to freeze their eggs and how accessibility helps contribute to gender equality ​​Day 1 Instagram: @day1fertility | @egetz TikTok: @day1fertility Website: Day 1 Fertility Lauren Makler Instagram & Facebook: @familybyco Website: https://bit.ly/dayonexcofertility Sponsor Twig Fertility

Lauren Makler is Co-Founder, and CEO of Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. Victoria talks to Lauren about tackling the access issues around egg freezing and donation and hoping to bring down the cost, leaving a company like Uber and starting her own business, and figuring out a go-to-market approach and what that strategy should look like. Cofertility (https://www.cofertility.com/) Follow Cofertility on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/cofertility/) or Twitter (https://twitter.com/cofertility). Follow Lauren Makler on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmakler/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/laurenmakler/), or Twitter (https://twitter.com/laurenmakler). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is The Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with me today is Lauren Makler, Co-Founder, and CEO of Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience. Lauren, thank you for joining me. LAUREN: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited for this. VICTORIA: Me too. I want to hear all about Cofertility. Can you tell me a little bit more about the platform that you built? LAUREN: Absolutely. Cofertility is really like you said; we're a fertility ecosystem. And at our core, we're enabling women to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to a family that can't otherwise conceive, providing support and education for everyone involved along the way. You know, we're serving two very different audiences. One side of our business, our Freeze by Co, is targeted at women between the ages of 21 and 40 who might be interested in preserving their fertility. We know that really the best time to freeze your eggs, unfortunately, is when you can least afford it. And so we've really taken on this access issue and hoping to bring down the cost on that front. And then our Family by Co business is for intended parents who need the help of an egg donor to have a child, so that could be anyone from people who struggle with infertility, or gay dads, cancer survivors, et cetera. There are a lot of people that really rely on third-party reproduction to have a family, and we think it's time to really move that industry forward, and we're doing that in a lot of ways. So that's at a high level; happy to dig in more on any part of that. But we launched in October, and things have been going well ever since. VICTORIA: Wonderful. Yeah, I want to ask you more about...you mentioned the problem that you identified with when people who are most ready to freeze their eggs probably can't afford it. [laughs] But how did you really identify that problem and think I should start a company around this? LAUREN: Yeah, so it's a two-part problem. I think we see a big problem on the egg-freezing side, which is truly cost. I think we know that women are starting families later than ever. For the first time in U.S. history, the average age of women giving birth now is 30, which is the highest on record. And the experimental label from egg freezing was removed in 2012, and so it's become much more mainstream for women to do it. However, the cost to do it in the U.S. is between; I want to say, $12,000-20,000 to do it, plus yearly storage fees. And there are some women who have access to doing it through their large employer, but for the majority of people, that's just not the case. And so, for women who are really trying to prioritize their career or their education or maybe haven't found a partner yet, egg freezing can be a great option. And certainly, it's not an insurance policy by any means, and it's not a guarantee. But studies show that if you experience infertility later in life and you did freeze your eggs, you're much more likely to have a child than not. And so we see it as a great backup option. But again, cost is just truly a huge problem. And then, on the egg donation side, there are tons of families that rely on egg donation to have a baby. And I'm someone...I should mention, too, personally, years ago...I'll make a very long story very short here. Years ago, I was diagnosed with an incredibly rare abdominal disease that put into question my ability to have a biological child someday. And so, I started to look into what my options might be, and egg donation came up. And when I looked at what was happening in the space, I just couldn't believe how antiquated it was. And truly, for lack of a better word, how icky it felt. It seemed really transactional and impersonal for everyone involved. And what I realized was that it was really rooted in the stigma around egg donation that comes from cash compensation for donors. So traditionally, a donor is paid anywhere from $8,000 to $100,000 for her eggs, depending on, unfortunately, her pedigree or sometimes her heritage. Something that might be, you know, a donor that's harder to find might require more compensation the way it's done today. And so we actually saw that many women who are interested in helping another family grow through egg donation can actually be off-put by this idea of cash for their eggs. It's like, ooh, am I selling my eggs, or how do I feel about that? And it actually turns people off when it might otherwise have been something they wanted to explore. It also, I think, leaves intended parents without options that they need and really hurts the LGBTQ community that relies on egg donation for family planning. So there's a lot there. And we felt that that was something that if we remove cash compensation, perhaps it's something that really opens up the pie of women that are open to and interested in egg donation. And it also might really honor the donor-conceived person on the end of it more than what's happening today. Studies have come out that show that donor-conceived adults find the exchange of money for donor eggs to be wrong and that they can actually find it disturbing that money was exchanged for their own conception. So our model takes out cash compensation and instead gives women something that they're excited about, which is preserving their own fertility as well and really sets up everyone involved for success. VICTORIA: Yeah. I saw that in your literature, you bring this human-centered design to how you built the platform, which I think speaks to a little bit of what you're describing there. And do you think that being a woman founder yourself allows you to relate and empathize with women who have this unique perspective or a different perspective on how egg donation should work? LAUREN: Yes, egg donation and egg freezing, honestly. I think I mentioned a little bit about my own experience. Both of my two co-founders have also really, really been through it when it comes to their journeys to parenthood; both of them have been through IVF. And one of them says, you know, her biggest regret in life is that she didn't freeze her eggs at 25. And now, instead of just sitting in that, she's building a company to help other women not have that same regret. So building the company we wished existed when we were younger lets us build something that truly is empathetic and human-centered. And it's unfortunate that so much of healthcare is built and designed by people who, while maybe they have good intentions, they're not building from a place of experience, and I think reproductive health is one of those. I think women need to be involved in designing those solutions, and too often, they're not. VICTORIA: Right. Yes. That makes a lot of sense to me. And I want to talk more about you and your three co-founders and how quickly all this has come together. So, how did you know that your team of co-founders was the right team that these are the people you wanted to start this with? LAUREN: Yeah, it's an interesting question on so many fronts. I think there are people who spend a really long time, like co-founder dating, and use frameworks for evaluating co-founders, and the truth of it for us is that it all happened very quickly. Halle, who is the person who connected the three of us, she is one of my co-founders, and she's just someone I had long admired in digital health and women's health. And there was a day where...we peripherally knew each other. And she slid into my DMs on Instagram. Like, you never know where a great contact may come from. And she asked me what I was up to, what I was working on, and the rest is history. I told her I had just left...I spent eight and a half years at Uber and launched new markets of Uber across the East Coast and then started a business line at Uber called Uber Health, and Halle had always followed my trajectory there. And when she reached out to me, it was like, [gasps] what's it going to be about? And when it ended up that she had an idea centered around egg freezing and egg donation, given the experience I had had with my own fertility journey, it just felt like how could this not be the right thing for me to go build? So I would say gut instinct is really what it comes down to. Halle and Arielle, our third co-founder, had worked together a bit in their past lives. Halle built a company called Natalist, which is fertility, pregnancy tests, ovulation kits, and prenatal vitamins, things like that. And Arielle had actually built the first iteration of Cofertility, which was a fertility content site. And they had had that rapport already, and so that was something that I valued quite a bit. Really talking to some references and getting opinions of people you trust, but your gut, more than anything, will help you answer that question. VICTORIA: Right. And sounds like there's that shared experience and mutual respect, which goes a long way. [laughs] LAUREN: Yeah, that and also a shared vision. Like, if you're aligned with someone in the first month or so of talking about an idea, and when it goes from a little kernel to snowballing and becoming something real, I think it's a good signal. But if you're butting heads and disagreeing in that first really crucial time, it's probably a good idea to go in a different direction. VICTORIA: Yeah. And thinking along those lines, were there decisions that were really easy to make, and what were those? And the second part of the question is what decisions were kind of challenging to make, and what made those decisions challenging? LAUREN: It's funny. Halle was just like, "This idea is going to work, and I know it. Let's do it." I am someone who likes to see evidence before making a decision. And so I suggested in those first two weeks, like, let's get a survey together. Let's ask women, "Hey, would you actually be interested in egg donation if it meant that you got to keep half of the eggs for yourself and that there was no cash compensation involved?" So we asked a few influencers on Instagram to put out our Typeform, and within, like, I don't know, 24 hours, we had over 700 responses. VICTORIA: Wow. LAUREN: And it was a very resounding like, yes, this is something women were interested in. That gave me all the conviction I needed to go at this full force. And so I think having that proof point not only was valuable to help me get there, but it also helped investors get on board. I think some of the easy decisions were like there were certain investors that after meeting I just knew like, yes, this is someone I want to be working with over the next few years. This is someone who sees the same vision that we see. And there were a few conversations with other potential investors where I was like, you know what? That's not who I want to work with. Again, it's like, I'm very big on my instincts as it relates to people and trusting that. VICTORIA: Right. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And congratulations on raising your seed funding. LAUREN: Thank you. VICTORIA: And was that a stressful process? How did you feel after that happened? LAUREN: Parts of it were stressful, for sure. I think the fact that I had never done it before was stressful. I like to call myself...before this, I was an intrapreneur. I pitched the idea of Uber Health to Uber executive leadership with a deck that was very similar to what you would pitch external investors with in a scenario like this. So I had gone through a little bit of that but never before had I done anything quite like this. And so I felt very lucky to have Halle by my side through that process because it wasn't her first rodeo. But I would say trusting yourself and trusting that you can figure this out. It seems so much more intimidating than it needs to be. No one is expecting you to fully know how all of this stuff works. It's very figureoutable. VICTORIA: And what obstacles did you face in the last year that you've been working on this? LAUREN: The biggest obstacle, I would say, honestly came down to having the time to both get a company off the ground...and I like to imagine an aeroplane. You have to figure out what kind of plane you're building; then you have to find all the parts, then you have to build the plane. And then the goal upon launch, I can imagine it when I close my eyes. It is like getting the plane off the ground. And with a startup, like you can imagine, there's always a bit of building the plane while you're flying it. But doing all of that over the last year, plus finding the right people to hire, is two full-time jobs. You're sourcing incredible candidates. You're meeting with them. You're pitching them the business. But you also need to evaluate whether or not they're as great as their resume makes them seem. Then you have to convince them to join your seed-stage startup, then check their references, and then put together their offer package, and then do all of their paperwork. And it was like all of these things that I took for granted at Uber for so long of having recruiters, and having an HR team, [laughs] and all of those things that truly it is a full-time job plus building a company. So that, for me, was the hardest. And hiring just at that early stage is so, so important because you add one person, and that's like such a huge percentage of your team. So every hire has to be a great one, but you also can't wait too long to hire because then you miss your goals. VICTORIA: Right. Yes. And there's lots of uncertainty going on in the world as well. I'm sure that makes hiring extra exciting. LAUREN: Yes. I mean, exciting and also scary. I think exciting from the fact that there's great talent that's looking in a way that wasn't necessarily the case six months ago, but scary in that you have to...one of my biggest or things that keeps me up at night is like, what's the right timing to bring on new people so that your business scales appropriately but not too soon that you have people waiting around for the work to come? VICTORIA: Right, yes. And speaking of scary, I can imagine the choice to leave a company like Uber and go and start your own business was thrilling. [laughs] Can you tell me more about how that happened, or what was the order of operations there? LAUREN: I'll go back to my personal story a little bit. So I ended up with this disease that I had been diagnosed with. It was so rare and so not a lot of data on this disease that I decided it was...or these doctors were like, "You know what? Do you have a sister by any chance?" I was like, "What do you mean?" They were like, "You know, it's too risky for you to freeze your eggs just because we don't have any data on your disease. But if you have your sister freeze her eggs and donate them to you, you have them as a backup should you need them." So my incredible sister did that. And I learned a lot about the process of donation even through that experience. And went on to have three surgeries and ultimately was able to conceive without using my sister's eggs which was crazy and exciting and definitely gave my doctors a shock, which was great. And when I had my daughter, it was like this light bulb went off of, like, I have to build something in reproductive health. If I'm spending my time building something, I want it to be spent giving people who want to have a child this amazing gift that I've been given. And it was like an immediate amount of clarity. And so, after my maternity leave, I gave notice at Uber without a plan. I did not have a business idea. I did not have a job lined up. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that. But I almost think releasing myself of that is what gave me the freedom to think about other things. And it was within a day that Halle sent me that DM on Instagram without knowing I had given notice. So the universe works in mysterious ways. VICTORIA: That's wonderful and so exciting and that you just had a baby and then to be in a position where you could start a company and almost feel like I don't have enough to do; [laughter] I want to start a new company too. [laughs] LAUREN: I know. I ended up...the day we pitched our lead investors was my daughter's six-month birthday. VICTORIA: That's amazing. MID-ROLL AD: Are your engineers spending too much time on DevOps and maintenance issues when you need them on new features? We know maintaining your own servers can be costly and that it's easy for spending creep to sneak in when your team isn't looking. 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So I've been really, really specific with myself and with my team about what windows of time I'm with my daughter, and I'm meticulous about it. If that means on certain days, I wake up before she does so that I can get some work done so that I have two hours with her first thing in the morning, and then I'm off between the hours of 4:00 to 7:00 so that I can spend time with her. If that means getting back online at night, I'm down to do that. I just won't compromise the time with her. And my team has been really respectful and honoring of that. And in turn, I really encourage everyone on my team to have a life outside work, whether that's with their children or their pets, or having physical activity, or things like that in their life. I think it's so important that we're not entirely defined by our startups. I think that's how people burn out really quickly. And it's like 2023, right? We don't need to be in this hustle culture where 100% of our time is focused on building our company. It's just not sustainable. VICTORIA: Right. I like that you mentioned sustainability. And that's been a recurring theme I've seen where, yeah, the hustle culture leads to burnout. It isn't sustainable. So are there other cultural or values that you impart onto your team, this new team, that you're standing up to create that sustainability in that innovation that you want? LAUREN: Yeah. I think one thing we've implemented...I would highly recommend actually Matt Mochary's CEO Curriculum. You can find it by Googling it, or I can share the link with you. And within his curriculum, he has something called The Magic Questions. And the magic questions it's like five or six questions where you ask everyone on your team, like, how would they rate their life at work? How would they rate working with the team? How's their personal life going? Like, you know, questions that you can quickly get to the root of something. But then, aside from giving a rating for each of those questions, it asks like, "How would you take it to the next level?" And what I think implementing these questions has done is it's like each time we do it, it gives the leadership team something to act on of like, "Hey, I noticed a theme amongst the employees with this set of magic questions. Like, here are some things we can address to improve that for everyone." And then there are also opportunities with each individual to say, "Hey, manager of this person, so and so called out that they're really struggling with prioritization this month, or they're really struggling with being split on these two projects. How can we help relieve that, or how can we dig in with that person so that the next time we ask these questions, that's not still an issue and that we've been able to take swift action to help improve that?" I think that really helps to just stay close to what people are feeling and thinking. And it also gives people, I think, more self-awareness of how they're doing and what they can be intentional about and address for themselves as well. VICTORIA: I like that. I'll have to look up that book and share it in our show notes as well and -- LAUREN: It's actually even all online. It's like a Google Doc you can look at. VICTORIA: That's awesome. LAUREN: And there's also a book called The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary. But I love the book and the Google Doc version. VICTORIA: That's awesome. And it sounds like you really pulled everything together so fast. [laughs] I'm curious about your background if you feel like there were...you mentioned that you pitched inwardly to Uber. But what else about your background kind of lends you to this leadership-founder skill set? LAUREN: I mean, I joined Uber in 2013 when we had, I think, fewer than 200 employees, and we were in about 12 cities. So I very much knew startup life. And I understood this idea of sort of building the plane while you're flying it and saw that. And so I think that certainly has contributed to this. It's important when you're a founder to surround yourself with other founders and to have people that you can tap into at any point. I'm in a few different Slack groups with different founders; some are healthcare founders, some women founders, some through the VCs that we've worked with where it's really easy to say, "Hey, which payroll tool are you using?" Or "Hey, like, how do I measure employee NPS?" Or "What tools are you using for this or that?" And if you can tap into other founders, you really can move a lot faster. You don't have to write your entire employee handbook from scratch because you can borrow from other people. I think that's one of the best hacks that I would recommend. And then some of these books that I found that really do, you know, within that Matt Mochary book, it's like, here's a way to make candidate offers. Obviously, the book isn't doing the work for you, but it certainly is helping to give you a framework. And then the other piece is like, aside from your own team, I think bringing in some advisors who you trust and can go to for certain things. So two of our advisors are people I worked incredibly closely with at Uber and would trust with my life and so why not trust them with my company? So bringing them into the mix has been a real relief. And then just sort of about your community. I think it takes a village to raise...I think, actually, I would compare launching a company to having a baby. So if having a baby takes a village, so does launching a company. VICTORIA: Right. Or no founder is an island. [laughs] LAUREN: Yeah, exactly. VICTORIA: There's like a community, a whole group around that. I've heard, even in the episodes I've recorded, that it's a common theme among successful founders, which is heartwarming and understandable. So last question about just how it all got started. But if you could travel back in time to when you first decided you wanted to go after this opportunity, what advice would you give yourself now that you have all your present knowledge? LAUREN: I say this even to our intended parents who are grappling with this decision of using an egg donor to have a baby: remain steadfast on the vision or the end goal and be flexible on the how. So if you're an intended parent, it's like, remain flexible, like, steadfast on this idea that you want to become a parent, but be flexible on the how. With a company, I think stay true to what that ultimate vision is. So, for us, it's like help more people have babies on their own timeline and be flexible on the how, so exactly what our business model was, or exactly what our go-to-market approach would be, or exactly which product we were going to use to get there. I wish I had been a little bit more open to it being a winding road than I realized I needed to be at the beginning. So now I know that, and I'm open to any possibility as long as it gets us to the same place. VICTORIA: Right, gotcha. Yeah, well, let me ask you then about your go-to-market strategy since you mentioned it. What was unique in your strategy there, especially to target the specific consumers that you want to with this app? LAUREN: So I did follow a bit of an Uber approach, which is this idea of a soft launch. And the reason for that...so basically what we did was for the Freeze by Co side of our business, so for women who are interested in freezing, they have the option to join our split program where they donate half to intended parents and do it for free. Or they can join our Keep Program, where they freeze their eggs but keep 100% of the eggs for themselves. And we help do that along the way. However, basically, we couldn't launch Family by Co to help people find donors until we had donors. So it made sense to launch the Freeze by Co side of our business first. And I wanted the ability to market to them when we didn't have the eyes of the whole industry on us, or we didn't have tons and tons of consumers reading our press or things like that just yet. And so by soft launching with a quick beta Squarespace page, we were able to test our hypothesis, test our messaging, test our funnel, test our experience before really putting a ton of marketing spend behind it or having a ton of visibility into what we were doing. And I'm so, so grateful we did that. It led us, like, we went through probably five different versions of our funnel before we got to our public launch, and our soft launch really afforded us the opportunity to do that. So by the time we turned on the Family by Co side of our business, we already had over 50 donors on day one for them because we had already gotten these women through the funnel. VICTORIA: I love that. And that's something we talk a lot about with founders at thoughtbot is that idea of validating your product, and you talked about it with your Instagram poll that you did with influencers. And the way you're talking about your go-to-market strategy is that you wanted to make sure that even though you knew this is what you wanted to do, that you had the right approach and that you could create something that consumers actually wanted to buy and had trust in. LAUREN: Mm-hmm, totally. VICTORIA: You launched in October 2022. Are there any results post-launch that surprised you? LAUREN: I feel so grateful that our launch truly exceeded my expectations. So the interest from women in our programs has been overwhelming, like overwhelming in a good way. And then intended parents are thrilled about it. So we are making matches every day of these intended parents and these donors. And every time we make a match, I'm like, oh my God, it feels like Christmas morning. You're helping people find their path towards growing their family, and there's nothing that feels better than that. I don't think that feeling is ever going to go away, so I'm thrilled about it. But it doesn't mean that it's not hard. I think back to that analogy of like having a baby, you know, you launch this company. You hope it's received. You count ten fingers, ten toes, hope that it's received, hope that it's received. It is, but then you have the demand, and you have inbound on partnership opportunities, and you have managing the demand and handling the leads and things like that. And it's like so much more than you expect. It's like the same feeling of having a newborn of, like, [gasps] how are we going to do all this? Am I going to stay up all night to manage this? Or how do we handle what we're seeing? And so it's a lot, and figuring out what this new normal is is something that my team and I are working through every day. VICTORIA: What's wonderful is that the surprise feels even better than you thought it would. [laughs] LAUREN: Yes. VICTORIA: Wonderful. For myself, as I'm in my 30s and I'm married and, you know, I'm not thinking it about at some point in the future. But what advice do you think you want women to think about regarding their fertility at any age, like if you could talk to consumers directly like you are now? [laughs] LAUREN: Totally. Just that it's never too soon to ask those questions. And the information you need and should want is like inside your body but ready to be shared with you. So by having a consult with a fertility clinic, and that's something my team could help you with, you can learn about your prospects for having a baby and understanding how fertile you are. And just because, you know, they say, "Oh, as long as you're under a certain age, you shouldn't have a problem," doesn't mean that that's the case. One of my co-founders was 28 when she started trying to conceive and was completely blindsided that this was going to be a real struggle for her, and that breaks my heart. It doesn't need to be like that. If we're more proactive and we start asking these questions younger, then we can actually do something about it. So your fertility is really about your egg quantity and your egg quality, and both of those things are things that can be tested and measured. And I think I'm someone who loves data. And having that data, I think, can help enable you to make decisions about how you can best move forward, and for some, it might mean having a baby soon. For others, it might mean freezing your eggs. For others, it might be a waiting scenario. But that's something that you can make a more informed decision about if you have that data. VICTORIA: That makes a lot of sense. And I'll be sharing this episode with all of my friends and everything on Instagram as well. LAUREN: [laughs] VICTORIA: Great information to put out there. And what's on the horizon for you? What are the big challenges that you see coming up for Cofertility in the next months or year? LAUREN: I think really like scale is what we're focused on. So we've started making matches; it feels great. I want us to be prepared to do those at scale. We are seeing no slowdown in terms of people who are interested in this. And so, making sure that our team is ready and able to handle that demand is my absolute top priority. So I think scale is top of mind. I think making sure we're optimizing our experience for that is really important. So how do we make sure that everyone is having a magical, smooth experience, both through our digital experience but also if they're on the phone with someone from our team or if they're reading our materials at the fertility clinic? Like, how do we ensure that that's a great experience all around? VICTORIA: Right, that makes sense. And right now, is Cofertility specific to a certain location, or is it nationwide? LAUREN: Nationwide throughout the U.S. VICTORIA: Wonderful. And you yourself are based in California, right? LAUREN: Yes, I'm based in Los Angeles. And our team is fully remote, which has been a really exciting thing to do. We're in different time zones and have a lot of opportunity to visit people in different cities, which is nice. VICTORIA: Oh, that's great, yeah. How do you help build that culture remotely with a brand-new team? LAUREN: So, for us, I think we're very intentional about having team off sites at least twice a year. We also get together for different things like planning meetings or conferences that are really relevant to us. But I think part of it, too, is really around different touchpoints throughout the day. And we have a daily stand-up. We also are clear about which hours everyone sort of overlaps based on their time zones and making sure that people are available during those windows and then giving everyone flexibility otherwise in terms of when it makes the most sense to do their work, not being too prescriptive. And really, again, encouraging people to have a life outside work, I think, makes it so that we get the best out of our team. VICTORIA: Right, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, we've got similar...at thoughtbot, we have in-person meetups once or twice a year and then go to different conferences and things together. And I think some people do miss a little bit of the office experience, but for the most part, everyone is happy to put it that way. [laughs] LAUREN: Yeah, it's definitely...I think for sure it has its pros and cons. I think what I love about it is that we're not limited with talent. Our team truly, like, [laughs] we have people...we have someone in Oakland, someone in Miami, someone in Charleston, someone in Boston, someone in New York City. Like, the fact that we're not limited because of geography feels great. And I admittedly really love the ability to see my daughter throughout the day and feel like I don't have to stress over how much time I'm spending commuting. So I can't see myself ever going back. VICTORIA: That's right, and LA is certainly a place to have a long commute. [laughter] And have you gotten any benefit out of local networking and community around Los Angeles or Southern California? LAUREN: Yes, absolutely. Even this Friday night, I'm going to a female founder dinner. I have something coming up in a couple of weeks with this group of women's health founders that I really love. It's so, so valuable to have people in your network that are both local and get the life that you're living while you're doing it. I think having people understand why your life is the way it is while you're building a company is really quite nice. So there are founder communities everywhere but seeking those out early is definitely helpful. VICTORIA: And then if you have a remote team, then each team member can have that local community, so you're 10x-ing. [laughs] LAUREN: Completely. VICTORIA: Yeah, wonderful. Is there anything else, anything that you think I should have asked you that I haven't asked yet? LAUREN: No. I think one thing I would encourage is when you're trying to figure out your go-to-market approach, what the strategy is going to be. I'm a big fan of getting everything really in slides. Get it in slides and bring in some people you trust. Talk to your advisors, talk to your investors, talk to your co-founders or your team and say, "Hey, these are the three ways this could go. Here are pros and cons of each one," and making a decision that way. I think when we try to do it where it's like all in someone's head, and you're not getting it out on paper with pros and cons, it can feel like a really, really hard decision. But when you see things on paper, and you're able to get the opinion of people you trust, everything is able to come to fruition much more quickly, and you can get to a decision faster. VICTORIA: Right. So you're probably really buzzing with ideas early on and finding ways to communicate those and get it so that you can practice talking about it to somebody else. Makes sense. LAUREN: Yeah. It's like, how do you socialize it? That's a great way to do it. VICTORIA: Yeah, well, wonderful. This has been a really enjoyable conversation. I appreciate you coming on the show so much, and thank you for sharing all about Cofertility with us. Any other final takeaways for our listeners? LAUREN: Thanks so much for having me. If you're interested at all in what we're doing or it would be helpful to connect, our website is cofertility.com. You can find me on Instagram at @laurenmakler, L-A-U-R-E-N-M-A-K-L-E-R. Happy to chat really about anything as it relates to building a company, or your fertility, or just questions you have in general. I would love to chat. VICTORIA: Thank you so much. And you can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thank you for listening, and see you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com.

In this episode, I talk to my-cofounder Lauren Makler as we debut what we've been building for over a year: a destigmatized, scalable approach to egg freezing and donation. Cofertility is a fertility ecosystem that enables women to freeze their eggs *for free* when they donate half of the eggs to a family that otherwise can't conceive.Learn more at Cofertility.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Claire sits down with Lauren Makler, the CEO of a new company in the womens health space offering a free solution to the ever growing demand for women who want to freeze their eggs. Fertility is pricey at best, and many women are now in the position of realizing in their young 20's that they might not be ready to start a family for a while. The issue is? The biological clock does not care about career, school or travel plans. Co fertility solves many unique issues simultaneously with its give and take egg freezing program. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Claire sits down with Lauren Makler, the CEO of a new company in the womens health space offering a free solution to the ever growing demand for women who want to freeze their eggs. Fertility is pricey at best, and many women are now in the position of realizing in their young 20's that they might not be ready to start a family for a while. The issue is? The biological clock does not care about career, school or travel plans. Co fertility solves many unique issues simultaneously with its give and take egg freezing program. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Diagnosed with a rare abdominal disease that caused large masses in her abdomen, Lauren was told she may never have biological children. After exploring all of her options, she embarked on the path to motherhood with her husband. While on maternity leave, Lauren Makler, CEO, Co-Fertility Founder decided and felt a new passion for reproductive health care, which led to the creation of CoFertility. *Lauren states: "At its core, egg donation is someone doing something good and providing a life-altering opportunity for a family." "This stigma is a problem on multiple fronts. It discourages women from helping a family grow when that might be something they want to do. It leaves intended parents without options, and it especially hurts the LGBTQ community that needs to rely on egg donation for family planning."-Lauren Mackler on fastcompany.comWe'll be discussing: The stigma of donor conceived persons and donors.How CoFertility is A more thoughtful, human-centered matching, education, and communication platform for families in need of egg donation.How Freeze by Co Empowers women to take control of their fertility timelines by making egg freezing more accessible. Our Split program enables them to freeze for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to a family who can't conceive. Family by Co: A more thoughtful, human-centered matching, education, and communication platform for families in need of egg donation.Laurens's Fertility Struggles.What inspired parent company CoFertility?A more human approach leads to better egg donor and intended family match success, was this discovered during your research to build the new initiatives?00:25:00- Article written By Amber Ferguson, reporter/video editor of The Washington Post: Shortage of Black sperm donors in America.Submit your story to me via email at infertilityandme@outlook.com for a chance to record and end the stigma surrounding infertility. Connect with me on Instagram & watch on YouTubeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/infertility-and-me/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

After being diagnosed with a rare disease, Lauren Makler was left uncertain about her chances of having children. This led to a passion for changing the fertility process and making it less “icky.” Thus, Cofertility was born. In today's episode we sit down with Lauren Makler, co-founder of Cofertility, a revolutionary fertility company aimed at making egg donation and egg freezing more accessible (and free!) for everyone. Lauren shares what led her to wanting to start Cofertility, how to go about fundraising and marketing, why a soft-launch made sense, and so much more.  “I just had, like, this absolute immediate clarity that I wanted to build a company in the reproductive health space. Which brings me back to egg donation, right? In this whole journey, I had just started to think about, like, what people go through to have a baby. And what stuck out to me was just how antiquated this industry was, and how for lack of a better word, icky it was.” – Lauren Makler This week on Startups in Stilettos: Lauren shares about her background and what led her to start Cofertility (2:38) Lauren talks about how to work with co-founders that live in different areas (8:23) Lauren answers all the fundraising questions you may have (12:28) All about the marketing for Cofertility (16:51) Lauren shares why they did a soft-launch for Cofertility first (19:00) Lauren explains what Cofertility is (21:16) Lauren shares what she is most excited about (30:46) Resources Mentioned: Google Docs Notion ADP Our Favorite Quotes: “There's this huge need for egg donation. And unfortunately, the status quo just isn't is not working. And just to like, dig in a little bit more on that piece. I think, actually, the status quo of egg freezing I don't think is working either.” – Lauren Makler “We just asked that both sides really think about what's best for the donor-conceived child at the end.” – Lauren Makler “We asked a few questions. But when we pose this question of: would you be interested in our slip program? 66% of women said yes or definitely yes. Right? So to me, that was actually what convinced me to start this company. So it gave me even more conviction to, like, completely change my life and go for it.” – Lauren Makler Connect with Lauren Makler: Cofertility.com Cofertility on Instagram Freeze By Co on Instagram Family By Co on Instagram Lauren on Instagram Connect with your Startups in Stilettos hosts: Stephanie Cartin on Instagram Stephanie Cartin on LinkedIn Jessica Abo on Instagram Jessica Abo on LinkedIn Learn more about Jessica Abo here Get Featured on Startups in Stilettos Want a chance to be featured on Startups in Stilettos? We're currently accepting applications from our Entreprenista League members to be featured on the show! Think of the Entreprenista League as your team members in what can be a lonely startup founder's journey. You'll have access to a private community of like-minded female startup founders who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, the opportunity to have your story featured on our website, social channels – and, of course, the Startups in Stilettos podcast – and so much MORE! Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! Grow Your Startup with Startups in Stilettos Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Startups in Stilettos, powered by the Entreprenista PodcastNetwork. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more startup founders, like you, and have a chance to win a one-on-one mentor and strategy session with Stephanie Cartin.

After being diagnosed with a rare disease, Lauren Makler was left uncertain about her chances of having children. This led to a passion for changing the fertility process and making it less "icky." Thus, Cofertility was born. In today's episode we sit down with Lauren Makler, co-founder of Cofertility, a revolutionary fertility company aimed at making egg donation and egg freezing more accessible (and free!) for everyone. Lauren shares what led her to wanting to start Cofertility, how to go about fundraising and marketing, why a soft-launch made sense, and so much more.  "I just had, like, this absolute immediate clarity that I wanted to build a company in the reproductive health space. Which brings me back to egg donation, right? In this whole journey, I had just started to think about, like, what people go through to have a baby. And what stuck out to me was just how antiquated this industry was, and how for lack of a better word, icky it was." - Lauren Makler This week on Startups in Stilettos: Lauren shares about her background and what led her to start Cofertility (2:38)Lauren talks about how to work with co-founders that live in different areas (8:23)Lauren answers all the fundraising questions you may have (12:28)All about the marketing for Cofertility (16:51)Lauren shares why they did a soft-launch for Cofertility first (19:00)Lauren explains what Cofertility is (21:16)Lauren shares what she is most excited about (30:46) Resources Mentioned: Google DocsNotionADP Our Favorite Quotes: "There's this huge need for egg donation. And unfortunately, the status quo just isn't is not working. And just to like, dig in a little bit more on that piece. I think, actually, the status quo of egg freezing I don't think is working either." - Lauren Makler"We just asked that both sides really think about what's best for the donor-conceived child at the end." - Lauren Makler"We asked a few questions. But when we pose this question of: would you be interested in our slip program? 66% of women said yes or definitely yes. Right? So to me, that was actually what convinced me to start this company. So it gave me even more conviction to, like, completely change my life and go for it." - Lauren Makler Connect with Lauren Makler: Cofertility.comCofertility on InstagramFreeze By Co on InstagramFamily By Co on InstagramLauren on Instagram Connect with your Startups in Stilettos hosts: Stephanie Cartin on InstagramStephanie Cartin on LinkedInJessica Abo on InstagramJessica Abo on LinkedInLearn more about Jessica Abo here Get Featured on Startups in Stilettos Want a chance to be featured on Startups in Stilettos? We're currently accepting applications from our Entreprenista League members to be featured on the show! Think of the Entreprenista League as your team members in what can be a lonely startup founder's journey. You'll have access to a private community of like-minded female startup founders who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, the opportunity to have your story featured on our website, social channels – and, of course, the Startups in Stilettos podcast – and so much MORE! Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! Grow Your Startup with Startups in Stilettos Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Startups in Stilettos, powered by the Entreprenista PodcastNetwork. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts|TuneIn|GooglePlay|Stitcher|Spotify|iHeart Radio Be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more startup founders, like you, and have a chance to win a one-on-one mentor and strategy session with Stephanie Cartin. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.