S02|14: Breaking Barriers in Fertility Insurance with Dr. Christy Lane

In this bonus episode, Leah sits down with Dr. Christy Lane, Co-Founder of Flora, an InsurTech company revolutionizing fertility insurance and women’s health discussions. Dr. Lane shares her entrepreneurial journey, from her early research in wearable technology at the University of Michigan to founding Vivametrica, a health data analytics company later acquired by TELUS.

Inspired by her own experience with infertility, she launched Flora in 2021 to provide an affordable insurance option for women aged 20-34 seeking insurance to offset the financial burden of future infertility treatments, should they be necessary. Flora is filling a critical gap in financial planning for reproductive health and providing women with a community to discuss their health needs and concerns, and find support.

Dr. Lane discusses the challenges of launching an insurance startup, from securing industry partnerships to navigating regulatory hurdles. She highlights the importance of community and education in normalizing conversations around fertility, as well as Flora’s plans to expand support to men and families. With $2 million in funding secured, Flora is on a mission to make fertility care more accessible and financially feasible. Tune in to hear Dr. Lane’s inspiring insights on resilience, innovation, and the future of fertility insurance.

About Dr. Christy Lane

Christy is a global insurtech, analytics, and digital health expert. She is the Co-Founder of Flora, the first direct-to-consumer insurance solution for fertility and women's health. She also founded and exited Vivametrica, an insurtech focused on lifestyle-based underwriting and engagement. Christy founded the Stanford Wearable Health Lab. She is a Venture Partner at IA Capital and was a “Female Founders of Insurtech” winner and awarded “Top 20 Women in Tech.”

While there is a lot of innovation in insurance, there remains a looming gap in products focused on women’s health and fertility. Flora represents positive impact insurance, starting with customers early in their fertility journey with the opportunity to have a huge impact on quality of life.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• Highline Beta
• Daughter Creative

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Contact Thin Air Labs:

• Website: ThinAirLabs.ca
• LinkedIn: Thin Air Labs
• X: Thin Air Labs
• YouTube: Thin Air Labs

Contact Dr. Christy Lane:

• Website: heyflora.co
• Linkedin: ChristyLane

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Transcript

Leah 00:21

Hi, thanks for being here. And welcome to Season Two of The Founder Mindset, brought to you by ATB. I'm Leah Sarich, your host, and I'm super excited to talk to more Founders about the human experience of being an entrepreneur. In this podcast, we're digging into what it really feels like to build a company from nothing. I was a broadcaster for over 20 years. So I've interviewed thousands of people, but entrepreneurs, not that many. And yet they have the best stories. They're solving big problems. And they're creating incredible impact. But it is hard work. So why would they do this? Let's find out. Joining me in studio today is Dr. Christy Lane, Co-Founder of Flora, an InsurTech company that allows women to buy low cost insurance to cover future fertility treatments. Christy, thank you so much for being here today.

Christy 01:18

Hello. Thank you for having me.

Leah 01:21

Absolutely. Well, as we always do with these podcasts, we kind of go back in time, if you will, and start with, when did you first sort of figure out I'm going to be an entrepreneur?

Christy 01:32

Oh, great question. I mean, I'm a scientist by training, originally, so it definitely wasn't in business school. I'd always kind of been entrepreneurial-curious. But the real defining moment, I would say, was probably during my postdoc, and that would have been like 2008, I was at the University of Michigan, and was doing some really interesting research in wearable devices. And wearable this is, you know, early generation wearables, pre Apple watch stuff, and was just so excited about the data that we were seeing and the insights we were able to gain from the wearable data. That's when I started thinking, man, there has to be a business in this. We have to be able to get this interesting data and insights to be able to help people in day to day life, and so really, five years later, o...