WoW Woman in FemTech I Eloise Edington, founder and Editor of The Ribbon Box

Eloise Edington is the founder and Editor of The Ribbon Box which she launched when her own life changed course, and she and her husband found themselves having to negotiate the options of fertility treatment and travel that daunting and lonely path to have a family.  She and her husband happily now have three children by sperm donor IVF and they live in London.  

Having herself at times felt powerless in the face of the enormous challenge of infertility, Eloise is driven by the desire now to empower those who are still on that same path, by building a tech platform that provides fertility information, group support, and well-being guidance via its website, app, podcasts, video content and social community.

Partnered by leading fertility clinics and specialists around the world, her fertility portal offers all this in one inspirational and beautiful contemporary space, including newsletters, resources, webinars, shared experiences and social media live events on a wide variety of medical, holistic, nutritional, and lifestyle topics for those trying to conceive around the world. 

On the website and community app, through its weekly newsletter and social media, those with fertility issues or anxieties can find a wide variety of articles from leading medical experts, as well as the experiences of people in the same position.  They can also participate in live, virtual events to gain information from world-renowned specialists on fertility and wellbeing.               

Eloise, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

On leaving university, I worked at two different, high-profile advertising agencies on luxury brands such as Rolex and L’Oréal.  As an Account Director, I was experienced in managing creative campaigns and making presentations. In April 2019, after sharing our own experience of infertility, I found that friends and friends of friends were coming to me for support and advice about fertility issues.  I had a bit of an epiphany and decided it was time to leave my advertising job and set up my own business. I felt I could transfer my professional and tech / creative skills to launch The Ribbon Box to become a leading fertility lifestyle platform, supporting and connecting our constantly growing community of people around the world who are at different stages of their journeys to parenthood. I am thrilled at how the company has taken off and how much the platform has grown in two years, now reaching hundreds of thousands of people struggling with (in)fertility around the world. I feel that we are a community with a special bond and, through the messages, I receive daily, I am constantly moved by the courage of fertility warriors.

Our most recent global campaign, ‘Fertility Clinics vs. COVID’, was initiated by a wish to give a little hope back to those in our fertility community who had had their dreams of a family possibly dashed by the COVID pandemic. After running an international poll on The Ribbon Hub, we discovered that a staggering two-thirds of participants feared a COVID-induced delay to their treatment would decrease their chances or wipe out their hope of becoming parents. So, we launched a worldwide initiative to offer complimentary fertility treatment for eight successful applicants, helping them #restartthejourney to parenthood. Thanks to seven leading fertility clinics and one sperm bank partnering with TRH and each generously donating one round of IVF or donor sperm, we have been very moved by how much positivity and hope this campaign has brought and we excitedly await the outcomes. We will be running similar initiatives in the future.

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

Having begun with my own painful, lived experience of infertility, it was not emotionally easy, no. However, that same personal knowledge of what people are going through with IVF (with my husband and myself experiencing the added dimension of having to use donor conception), meant that there was natural empathy, which did make it easy for me to relate to the anxieties of our social media community and for many of us to build a warm bond. I lived through the IVF process and had good contacts among fertility experts and the creative and tech industries.  Professionally, I could make use of transferable skills from my fourteen years of marketing campaigns in the advertising industry, but I had to take that leap of faith of starting my own business in the tech industry, which did take some courage and belief.  However, thanks to the encouragement and support that I have found from my partners, I am now doing what I love, which is a mixture of the creativity of my background with a much more useful purpose.

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?

As I write, in Spring 2021, the company is in its second year since inception and, of course, the COVID pandemic and its knock-on effects on the fertility industry have been the greatest obstacle. One of the challenges of being in this industry is the emotional one of dealing with the heartbreak that you encounter every day. You just hope that those going through dark days can gain some support from the community and, by contrast, the many happy endings are very rewarding and heart-warming to hear about.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

Our biggest ongoing achievement has been the exciting rate at which we have managed to grow a platform and community which, in just its second year, reaches hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are affected by infertility.  Our most ambitious and successful single initiative has been of course our recent ‘Fertility Clinics v. COVID’ campaign, which has restarted the fertility journey for the eight lucky recipients awarded the complimentary fertility treatment. We can’t wait to follow these journeys with our community. I have also learned how to code and have a brand-new website, which is days away from launching.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

We are currently working on support for intended parents of donor-conceived children, as well as those adults who are donor-conceived and have mixed feelings about this, maybe because they were not told the truth about their genetic origins by their parents.  On this project, we recently partnered with 24 other inspirational fertility advocates for the official launch of IDCAD, International Donor Conception Awareness Day.

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

Yes, indeed it is! As I am myself in the business of growing support and inspirational tech hub to empower women in the particular area of infertility, I do of course value the whole ethos of #WomenInTech, which does the same, to empower entrepreneurial women globally in a sector which men have previously dominated.  

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading? 

The whole global expansion of femtech is the way things are going. There is a trend towards tracking data through medical devices which are connected to the internet and paired with mobile apps, with many companies now producing a variety of different mobile apps and some wearables which specifically help women to track their menstrual cycles and fertility, so helping those trying to conceive naturally as well as with assisted conception.

On the one hand, femtech companies should begin to find more investment as women’s health issues become better appreciated and understood by investors.  On the other hand, with the growing awareness of (and indeed increasing occurrence of) male infertility and the fact that many couples are failing to conceive, the fertility industry will be expanding further in assisting male fertility.

 What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

It is daunting setting up your own business and you should go into it with your eyes open, but don’t delay.  I wish I had started it before we had children, but hindsight is a great thing and I needed to have the infertility experience to kindle this, so that’s actually a pointless regret. I suppose what I am also saying is that you need to find what is your passion. After that, trust yourself and be bold.  Go for it and you’ll be amazed at how much you can achieve if you put the time in. Try to build a support network. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It doesn’t have to build into a success overnight.

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

Dr. Samantha Pfeifer, Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Clinical Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Having had three children from two IVF rounds under Dr. Samantha Pfeifer's care, I was moved to go back to Cornell to interview her (pre-Covid!). Over the past few years, we have put to Dr. Pfeifer many readers’ questions and more… covering a wide range of fertility topics. I am proud to partner with someone who is so highly regarded within the field. Dr. Pfeifer is regularly featured in Castle Connolly's annual Best Doctor list, among other regional and national best-physician lists.

Eleanor Stancliffe, CEO and founder of The Handbook has been my inspiration since I first met her in 2018. Elly was the person who gave me the idea and courage to start The Ribbon Box. As someone who has successfully built an online business over the past fifteen years, which has an impressive reach, her mentorship has taught me a lot. The content which The Handbook publishes daily is the best London has to offer.

Zita West is a big name in the fertility industry and, over the past year, I have had the pleasure of working with Zita on multiple campaigns. Zita has a holistic approach to fertility and well-being and her boutique fertility clinic helped me enormously when I was having IVF treatment (in conjunction with my treatment in NYC). Our audience is thoroughly interested in and engaged with Zita and her holistic approach is well received. Zita has helped thousands of women in her career and her expertise and knowledge are a great benefit to the company.

Find out more about Fertility Help Hub on their website.

This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.