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Shareef: Hello, my name is Shareef Ghanem and I'm a managing director in Avalere's M& A Advisory practice. Today represents another one of our installments in our conversations with innovators in and around the women's health space. My guest today is Jessica Bell van der Wal, co-founder and CEO of Frame Fertility. Jessica, maybe we can start off, I'd love for you to introduce yourself and tell us a little about Frame and what you all do. Jessica: Fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. Again, I'm Jessica. I'm the CEO and founder of Frame. To your comment, obviously we're in the fertility space and in particular we've basically built a comprehensive virtual care platform that wraps around and extends in-person care. And we do that at every stage of the family building journey. So if you were to go into your OBGYN and ask questions about fertility or you want to have a baby next year, we actually serve as a care extender to provide that virtual care as well as coaching, evidence-based education and support for your mental wellness and lifestyle on behalf of that in-person care provider. And we do that again for primary care doctors. We do it for OBGYNs, and we actually even do work with fertility clinics directly to streamline the onboarding process. So we're filling in that middle layer and in many ways serving as the missing link on the family building journey. The other thing I'll say is I'm also an infertility patient myself, and I went through this complicated experience and ended up obviously bringing a product to market to try to help to solve for it. Shareef: Very cool. As you think about that middle layer as you described it, what are some of the misconceptions people have about fertility and family forming care more broadly that Frame helps solve? Jessica:  Yeah, unfortunately there are so many myths and misinformation in fertility and family forming, especially if you're like 90% of our members and patients that find a lot of information on social media and especially TikTok. So a couple of things come to mind. I'd say first and foremost, fertility is often painted as just a female issue or just a women's health issue. And what we know is that unfortunately, based on the facts, that is not true. About 50% of the time, infertility is rooted in male factors. Now don't get me wrong, the woman is often the one that bears the brunt of the fertility treatment journey. But again, if we're not screening for an understanding male risk factors in advance, we're really missing the boat. And that is something that Frame does is make sure we understand the individual but also their partner as relevant. The other thing that I think is wild to even see in the data is this used to be something that felt rare or again, something that maybe only a few people go through, but in the end, and actually the WHO just revised their estimates, about one in six globally go through challenges with infertility. And actually in the U. S. it's one in five. So this is not an uncommon experience. And so obviously this is why we need more solutions and more options because there are not enough clinicians to support these types of conversations. And that's really where we're filling the gap. Shareef: Really interesting. So maybe on that point of clinicians to support this, I think one of the things that makes Frame unique is how you've partnered with providers. Can you talk a little about how that model works? What makes it work so well? Jessica: Yeah, we have always been an organization that feels very much aligned to healthcare providers. And I think that at its root, it's correlated with the fact that Frame was built, obviously by myself and my co-founder who come from the business side of healthcare. But we were very much complimented by a robust team of clinicians and advisors that come from the medical field and also in research. And in particular, we have a fantastic medical director who's a OBGYN, and we also have a reproductive endocrinologist, or more or less a fertility specialist that has been very hands-on with Frame for many years as well too. So we have those provider voices obviously championing what we do, but also providing a lot of input. So as a result, we built Frame, again, from the ground up with that provider mindset at the foundation. And so when it started, when we started working with providers, it was mostly from a research perspective and we were trying to make sure that what we did was driving better outcomes and results for obviously the patient, but also for the provider. And then over time it became more obvious to us that actually from a business model perspective, there was great alignment for Frame and for the providers to work together. And so it evolved organically. And I think to your comment why it worked so well is again, we have those voices inside of Frame that are very much clinicians. But I'd say the other thing is we view what we are doing with virtual care is stitching together in-person care and making it feel less clumsy for the average person, but also we do it as an extension. We're not replacing the in-person care provider. Obviously on the fertility journey, you're absolutely going to need in-person care, hopefully because you're pregnant, but also if you need fertility treatment, a lot of that is going to need to be done in person. So we never view ourselves as a replacement for your doctor. It is more of an extension of their care. And I think that alignment has been very important to that partnership between us and healthcare providers. And we also very much know that healthcare is local, and so we know that by marrying ourselves to your doctor that you probably have been building a relationship for years. We know that then when they bring up Frame, you are more likely to use the product. There's a natural synergy between the two. And so obviously there's a win-win for both of us. And then the last thing I would say is my co-founder at Frame very much has been building products for healthcare providers for the last 15 or so years. And again, I think very much our OB-GYN has said whenever we build something for providers, we have to be mindful that this does not add additional steps for them or add time. They're overburdened as it is. This is why we're seeing so much burnout in the physician workforce overall. So everything that we do is woven into the clinical workflow so that the steps to turn Frame for a patient are the same as the other steps they'd go through to issue other types of referrals. So we're not adding new tools, new steps, another place for someone to log into. It is very much woven into their clinical workflow. And I would say that is essential in my mind to partner with healthcare providers. Shareef: Very cool. So as we think about the future, and I think there's been a really healthy evolution of how we think about family forming care to begin with, what keeps you optimistic? What keeps you excited about the path forward? Jessica: Yeah, it's been exciting. Obviously the past couple of years in particular, there's been a lot of innovation in women's health, in fertility, other adjacent space. And I am very excited to see that obviously. And I think everyone that I know that's building in this space also feels like we're all in this together. And so there's also just a lot of collaboration. So to your comment, I think what makes me feel optimistic is we're all on the same mission in many ways. And obviously a lot of us are women ourselves that went through some sort of challenge that we just don't want to see replicated for others. And so again, it feels obviously very innovative, but very collaborative. And I'd say with family forming, obviously everybody is rowing in the same boat, that if we want people to be able to achieve having a family, we have to do that again together. And so that common goal that we all have is I think very unifying for us overall. And then I'd say the final thing is I feel like for better or worse, and this is maybe not as optimistic of a viewpoint, but I do think it's a wake-up call. I think around the globe, we are recognizing that declining fertility rates is a public health crisis. And so we have to wake up to the reality that if we don't start making this process easier, it is going to have sweeping ramifications, not just on the individual or couple that obviously is trying to have a child, but on our society overall. And so I do think that we're moving into this new phase of talking about fertility, talking about family forming in a much broader light. And so again, while it's not the most optimistic lens on the equation, it is very much I think a motivator for governments to get involved, for more broad organizations to get involved because we have to solve this for everyone. And then I guess I would say finally for me, because again, I went through my own infertility journey, I'm reminded every day by my daughter that I'm lucky to have her. And so when I look at her, I obviously am very motivated to want to make sure that anyone and everyone has the ability to build their family. Shareef: Yeah, it's really interesting you talk about this. Obviously this innovation community has grown tremendously over the last few years, but there's this notion of all ships rise together that I think if you think about new categories of service or other sub sectors outside of healthcare that have seen massive innovation, it's with that same ethos that there's only opportunity for one of us if there's opportunity for all of us. And in healthcare, I think so often there's this, it's easy to fall into this trap of, because an organization's mission is so lofty by design that it's me against the world in a sense. And that doesn't work at scale, right? Jessica: Yeah, absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Shareef: Well, wonderful. Well, Jessica, really appreciate you making the time to spend with us today. For our viewers, thanks for joining in today. Stay tuned for more conversations with innovators in women's health over the coming weeks.