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Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

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Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#22
post #19

To me the name "legacy" is a huge turnoff, big enough that I probably won't use your service. Maybe it's just me though!

I'd love to learn more! Is there something in particular you don't like?

As a marketer (and the growth person on the Legacy team), I've learned you can't build a strategy or business that appeases everyone. Ultimately, a name is just a name.

Ultimately, we are working to help hopeful fathers build families.

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#23

What is your company policy on racial and ethnic diversity? Would you balance caucasian and non-caucasian banks?

We're pretty racially and ethnically diverse as a team (try pronouncing all our last names...), and we've worked to make our website reflective of that as well. As I'm understanding your question, I don't think it would be right to balance or have a target for the ethnicities or races of sperm that we receive. Could you tell me more about how you mean it?

Perhaps they mean the cryobanks we work with?

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#24
I've tried Dadi and Sppare.me in the past and had good results on the front-end (I haven't retrieved any samples yet). I'm not sure the service could have been improved. What are you doing differently than existing mail-in sperm analysis/freezing companies?

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#25

What is your company policy on racial and ethnic diversity? Would you balance caucasian and non-caucasian banks?

We're pretty racially and ethnically diverse as a team (try pronouncing all our last names...), and we've worked to make our website reflective of that as well. As I'm understanding your question, I don't think it would be right to balance or have a target for the ethnicities or races of sperm that we receive. Could you tell me more about how you mean it?

My guess is that he thinks you will extend your business to selling samples (bank), complete with pics and bio of the donator.

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#26
I'm a potential customer, and I'd like to treat this as any data storage company- because that's what this is, a genetic data storage company.

One of the things I find annoying about existing companies is that I can't see how my data is doing. For digital data, I can monitor to see how my data is doing, but all I know about existing companies is that they will tell me if something fails.

I'd like to see live monitoring data from your freezers. Is that something you'd share?

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#27
This might seem overtly politically correct and I'm actually a bit surprised in myself for saying this, but have you considered changing instances of male/men to just generic families? (e.g., We help families have children vs we help men become fathers).

I will state up front, I'm not trying to police language, just pointing out that deciding specific keywords up front affects how people find your business online or how it's talked about through referrals.

1) Should you ever decide to expand your business to include eggs, the importance of branding and search results is much more efficient by targeting families instead of retrofitting the keywords.

2) Say for instance, the mother is just as interested in their partner's sperm as the "man" is. Here gendered language can be both useful and detrimental to specific targeting campaigns based on the keywords.

3) Storing sperm is beginning to reach wider availability for transgender women under some plans. Most forgo the process altogether, because guess what, most transwomen suffer economic discrimination as it is and can't afford it. Would you ever consider an LBGTQ-centric campaign towards offering assistance for this community? I think it's a really great idea since I'm already going to be referring your business to my community since you're significantly more affordable but obviously I have not tried you yet. There's also people with sperm who don't identify as men.

Point is, I'm only hesitant to refer because some people are more sensitive at being gendered through a service. I'm not trying to be all like, "hey MAN, you should totally freeze your sperm here, DUDE" while someone is just beginning transition. Not saying that's what you have said or done in anyway, but having not experienced your service I can only be concerned at the possibility. No pun intended, more sterile language that is more focused on families is a better story and more inclusive of various backgrounds. I'd have to go through your customer journey before I'd make any reasonable recommendations to my community but I'm already keen on referring you simply because you seem the most economic and high quality. Just the option alone to be able to self-service and not dealing with anybody instead of going to a clinic where there's even the possibility that they might oscillate between whether you should deal with male or female employees and then offer you pornography mostly targeted for straight men is a jarring experience that is fixed by your service.

From my own shopping experience with these services and consulting with others, the amount of effort it takes to compile statistics on price and storage duration from competitors is difficult. Good job making it obvious and easy to digest.

Your price points are definitely attractive considering most of the people I know jump for a $5000-6000 option at a local clinic that only stores for average 10 years. You're doing a lot of good things here. The branding feels warm and family-friendly versus the clunky and tragic design of most clinics. I definitely get the feeling I'm shipping something extremely sensitive with a responsible entity that isn't just going to disappear overnight.

Good job! Best of luck to you in your endeavors. Seems extremely thoughtful.

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#28
post #24

I've tried Dadi and Sppare.me in the past and had good results on the front-end (I haven't retrieved any samples yet). I'm not sure the service could have been improved. What are you doing differently than existing mail-in sperm analysis/freezing companies?

Hey there - great question, and happy to hear that you are already being proactive + thoughtful about your reproductive health. A few things our team is doing differently than others in the space:

1. Clinic-level analysis: Most other solutions offer a basic analysis (count, concentration, volume + some motility). Our analysis is a comprehensive assessment that evaluates count, conc, volume, motility + morphology, which gives patients and their doctors the information they need to make decisions around treatment options

2. Personalized lifestyle recommendations - sperm health can be improved since sperm is regenerative. We provide all of our clients with data-driven personalized lifestyle recommendations for sperm health improvement.

3. Multi-geography storage - for every sample we receive, we split it into 3-6 vials and then distribute those vials to two different storage locations as an added measure of security. We get a lot of really good feedback about this from our clients.

4. Telehealth appointments - all clients have the option to speak with a specialist after they receive their results in order to learn more about their sperm health.

5. Client experience - we pride ourselves on providing a superb client experience. Each client receives a dedicated client service advisor to guide them through the process and answer any questions they have.

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#29
post #24

I've tried Dadi and Sppare.me in the past and had good results on the front-end (I haven't retrieved any samples yet). I'm not sure the service could have been improved. What are you doing differently than existing mail-in sperm analysis/freezing companies?

Curious about this too. I recently looked into sperm preservation. Something like $1,250 to setup and $250/year after the first year. Seemed reasonable to me.

Re: Launch HN: Legacy (YC S19) – we help men test and freeze their sperm

#30
post #19

To me the name "legacy" is a huge turnoff, big enough that I probably won't use your service. Maybe it's just me though!

I'd love to learn more! Is there something in particular you don't like? As a marketer (and the growth person on the Legacy team), I've learned you can't build a strategy or business that appeases everyone. Ultimately, a name is just a name. Ultimately, we are working to help hopeful fathers build families.

For another data point, I immediately thought "that's a surprisingly good name!"
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