WoW Woman in FemTech I Kimberly Raffin, Head of Marketing at FERTI·LILY

Kimberly Raffin is the Head of Marketing at FERTI·LILY, a Dutch start-up developing innovative OTC medical devices for couples trying to conceive.

FERTI·LILY helps to empower couples, and especially women, by providing them solutions to increase their fertility naturally with no hormones, doctors, or invasive procedures.

Founded in 2018, FERTI·LILY is the innovative offspring of a collaboration between a medical entrepreneur, who experienced firsthand the frustrations of (not) conceiving, and one of Europe’s leading fertility specialists.

With their first product, the FERTI·LILY Conception Cup, they are giving couples greater control over their fertility, helping to increase their chances of getting pregnant by 48% within 3 cycles.

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

I studied at a French business school and specialized in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. After my Master's, I joined a sustainable fashion startup where I was able to learn a lot by wearing many different hats in a business environment.

Since then, I have had several positions in multiple companies from startups to multinational corporations, and was able to contribute to various projects, enhancing my skills in brand marketing and growth hacking. 

After 10 years of experience, it was time for me to join a company that would inspire me in the long term and does something that would be more fulfilling. I joined FERTI·LILY and feel like I have found the perfect match. I’m more ready than ever to make this company take off!

What are your learnings after having been introduced to the fertility industry specifically?

Fertility is also interesting to look at from a woman’s perspective and from a health equality point of view because if a couple is subfertile, it’s the woman that has to go through the brunt of the treatment and discomfort. Men are tested for sperm viability, there is an outcome, and that’s almost always it. Women are tested for hormones, then often enter hormone treatment for ovulation induction, which can have significant side effects. Then IUI and IVF may come into the discussion where invasive procedures attempt to get the sperm to the egg. 

While there may not be a solution to women having to undergo the majority of fertility treatments, the thing that interested me the most is that there is almost nothing a woman can do herself without invasive procedures to help her chances of conception. 

FERTI·LILY changes that and helps to empower women and couples to do something themselves. With the Conception Cup they have an opportunity to take control of their fertility and to increase their chances of conception by 48%. In a natural way and from the comfort of their own home.

Fertility still has a huge taboo around it and a stigma whereby few couples openly communicate about. There is an undercurrent of shame around not conceiving which often leads to this taboo. We have made it part of our mission to break this taboo, which is very rewarding.

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?

 At FERTI·LILY, we wanted to develop a product that would fit all women and therefore, we made sure we would open a discussion with a lot of women from all kinds of backgrounds. We find it essential that our products mirror society as a whole and that we wouldn’t leave anyone behind. That was a big challenge of course, especially because infertility is still a taboo for many women.

It is still a challenge because the culture is different in each country and that is why we chose to work with local distributors who know best how to approach and communicate with the people.

We are continuously asking for feedback from our customers to make sure our products are answering their needs and expectations.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

It could sound a little trivial, but our biggest achievement is the stories we receive every day from our users. It is so wonderful to hear people’s experiences and realize how many families we’ve helped. A lot of them have been trying to conceive for a long time and got pregnant while using our Conception Cup. 

From a business point of view, the COVID-19 crisis in the healthcare industry has hit the brick and mortar retail significantly which opened an opportunity for us to pivot into the digital marketing space with more determination. Selling the product directly to the consumer (D2C) has also allowed us to be in direct contact with our customers, and allows us to hear from them on a daily basis. My background in digital marketing has allowed me to bring FERTI·LILY to the next level online, exponentially growing the business.

Another big achievement is that we are now distributed in 33 countries across 3 continents and still working on making FERTI·LILY available all over the world. Seeing our product all the way in Japan makes us very proud!

What are the projects you are currently working on?

We aspire to make our products available for all, that is why we are still busy opening new markets. We have requests coming from all over the world!

We also launched our second product, a clinically proven sperm-friendly lubricant. As a matter of fact, vaginal dryness occurs twice as much in couples trying to conceive than the general population and at the same time we found out that only 40% of them knew not to use a standard lubricant which may be harmful to sperm cells. The FERTI·LILY Conception Gel has been designed to relieve vaginal dryness while being friendly to sperm.

And we are just getting started. Our ambition is to offer a wide range of products for couples who are trying to conceive with that same idea of giving them more control while preserving their intimacy. 

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

Go for it! I just started my path in this industry and hope to make it a long journey. There is so much to do, things that really matter and that could change the world.

Whether you want to start your own business or join an existing one, don’t hesitate to reach out to people in the industry. I believe #WomenInTech are truly passionate people and that makes them also very open, approachable, and caring.

Find out more about FERTI·LILY on their website.

Follow FERTI·LILY on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Connect with Kimberly on LinkedIn.

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.