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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

#31

Post by gallerdude »

mavdi wrote: post #8
trevyn wrote: post #3

> I had an accident that led to second degree burns on my thighs > a friend was diagnosed with cancer A small rationalist plea — if you’re considering having offspring, biological or digital, please seriously consider the ethical implications of intentionally creating consciousnesses that can and will experience these kinds of suffering.

You’re being downvoted, but as a father I wholeheartedly agree with you. My daughter is the most precious being in my life, but I can’t shake the feeling that I brought her to this world on purely selfish reasons and now she’ll be faced to suffer in this ever convoluted planet and I won’t be there to help her for most of her life. I might be wrong, but please consider this before you bring a life to this world.

If you honestly feel that way, consider therapy. I don’t mean that in a mean way. I needed therapy too, and it helped a lot. That just doesn’t seem like a healthy outlook on life, and it will affect your and your daughter’s life more than you can know. If you have any questions, my email is in my bio.

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

#32

Post by sarahsteinle »

01100011 wrote: post #29
frei wrote: 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.

These rates aren't unreasonable! I've seen storage get as expensive as $1200 per year! We try to make our pricing as affordable as possible ($145/year)

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

#33

Post by klyrs »

_5659 wrote: post #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…

Don't apologize for being "politically correct." You're doing the founder a favor, by pointing at money they're leaving on the table. And when I went to a fertility clinic shortly before my transition and they certainly didn't apologize for treating me like a goddamned freak.

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

#35

Post by justtopostthis3 »

s17n wrote: 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!

As a counter-balance, I think the name is perfect. It is relevant and memorable enough for me to find again when I am in a position to spend the money on it, but generic enough to not put off indefinitely on the assumption that I'll remember it forever.

It is only while posting this that I am making the negative connection to things like "legacy code," but the concepts are distinct enough to me that they might as well be different words.

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

#36

Post by _5659 »

klyrs wrote: post #33
_5659 wrote: post #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…

Don't apologize for being "politically correct." You're doing the founder a favor, by pointing at money they're leaving on the table. And when I went to a fertility clinic shortly before my transition and they certainly didn't apologize for treating me like a goddamned freak.

Point taken, and especially with recent development in the ongoing war for whether or not discrimination against trans patients is legal, it's probably safer to bet towards situations where nobody even sees you.

The whole question of will they cover it, won't they cover it, will they sabotage me, won't they sabotage me is not a silly question anymore if federal protections for patients are increasingly politicized, just looking at the past few months alone. I was only able to push for certain policies in what is covered or offered at all through my provider by basically defeating their arguments with "I won't be your patient next year if the government makes it okay for you to deny me. You need to offer these services now or I will have to seek care outside your system and make it more expensive for you to care of anyways. Work with me here, I'm trying to not die."

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

#37

Post by Taek »

davelasto wrote: post #22
s17n wrote: 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.

As someone who is actively looking for a sperm storage solution, the name didn't resonate with me, either positively or negatively. In fact, I forgot the name already once today and had to check my messages to find the link (told a friend about the service - very interested).

Nothing about the name as it is now will stop me from becoming a customer, my decision will come down to the results of my research and the answers to my questions.

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

#39

Post by khaledkteily »

cultureulterior wrote: post #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 monitori…

That's a great question, and one where keeping everything cool is important in both cases.

We get a lot of monitoring information, both on the way to the cryostorage facilities (everything from humidity to temperature variance to battery level of our trackers), and we similarly get daily or weekly checks of the frozen sperm (like manually checking on levels of liquid nitrogen).

We hadn't considered making this information front-facing, although I understand why you'd ask that. What would you be most interested in seeing? Would 'last checked' and 'current temperature' be enough for you to feel it is secure?

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

#40

Post by khaledkteily »

bawana wrote: post #38

What is the viability over time of your samples? Even the highest quality cryostorage results in 10% loss per year.

Hey there, great questions. Sperm has been frozen for 40+ years and then thawed with no issues. In fact, scientists believe you can freeze sperm indefinitely with no loss in quality.

That said, when you are going through the thawing process, you will lose about 50% of the frozen sperm. That's why we do a post-thaw count and motility check 24 hours after freezing, to make sure we know exactly how much of your frozen sperm you'll be able to use in the future.

By the way - if you are going the IVF/ICSI route in the future, of all the sperm you've frozen, you really only need one healthy sperm per attempt, as the sperm is injected directly into the egg. This is the latest technology in sperm and is very commonly used nowadays.

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