EW 039 – How An Alberta Start-Up Is Improving Women’s Reproductive Health – Winning with Chairman Randy Duguay and CEO Sarah Harper from My Fertility Labs

Gordon Sheppard (00:01.305)
Sarah and Randy, welcome to the show.

Randy Duguay (00:06.665)
Nice to be here.

Sarah Harper (00:06.67)
Thank you so much for having us.

Gordon Sheppard (00:08.839)
Well, we are so lucky to have you here because there are so many leaders that are listening to this podcast that love learning from people like yourselves that start things up, make things happen, create legacy driven scenarios. I know from speaking with Randy, he's sort of a giver back to the community on top of everything that he does. So it's not just about building businesses and making them successful. It actually is about

kind of giving back as well. So we've got sort of a mix of genius, multi-generations here, and all those things that go into making wonderful things happen. And I'm just gonna get started because I know a lot of people sort of don't know you, but I'll jump in. I'm gonna start with you, Sarah. If you could just say maybe who you are and let us know a little bit about yourself, if you had an interest yourself, go ahead.

Sarah Harper (00:52.974)
So my name is Sarah Harper and I'm the CEO and co-founder of the company My Fertility Labs. I actually have over eight years of startup experience so out of university I've pretty much only ever worked for startups and along the way I went through my own fertility struggles and so that has led me to build the company My Fertility Labs. So that's a bit of background for myself.

Gordon Sheppard (01:17.831)
What a remarkable thing. what can you share about that when you touch on that and you say, you know, I had my own struggles. What can you share about that that then motivated you in the direction that you're in now?

Sarah Harper (01:27.63)
So I was working for actually another startup that you know, Randy was CEO of at the time, but I was going through my own fertility struggles. I experienced my first miscarriage and then a couple months later I was pregnant again. I was so excited and I went to my doctor and when they got the lab results, they actually said that I was going to experience my second miscarriage in a row. And I think what struck me about that conversation was they were so sure it was going to happen and I asked,

there anything that can be done?" And they said no. And so it really didn't sit well with me. I went home and I really just tried to call around to find any doctor that was able to help me to try to work to balance my hormones. I thought maybe there was something that could be done. And finally the fourth doctor agreed to work with me. They immediately, you know, increased my dose of thyroid medication and thanks to that care I now have a two-year-old daughter today.

Gordon Sheppard (02:25.427)
What a great sort of peak and valley story. I can't imagine how devastating it is, you know, as a young mom, wannabe mom in a sense, to get into that moment to hear the wrong answer and then get proactive to find the right answer and actually get a result. Now you've got a two-year-old just for fun, what's the name of your daughter or son?

Sarah Harper (02:45.048)
So my daughter is Gwen. I'm actually a mom of three. not the typical scenario for starting companies.

Gordon Sheppard (02:48.463)
okay, great. So there we go. So we've got all sides to this story in your own lived experience. And then I'm just gonna put this in people's ears so they know, because we'll get Randy to introduce himself as well. So that means, Randy, you are not only father to Sarah, but also grandpa three times. Is that what I'm hearing?

Randy Duguay (02:50.236)
Thank

Randy Duguay (03:04.315)
Well, four times actually at this point, but with my son has a daughter too and his wife. Yeah, it was just a fascinating story. And Sarah has actually been working with me since she was a teenager. I had no idea that Sarah was facing some of these issues. When she brought the idea to me, she had been working with my company Health Gauge at the time.

doing a number of things and she finished her university programs and then joined me after that. She was supported in part by National Research Council even for her time. And so when she brought the idea to me, I started looking to see if my supporters, my investors could also support this idea within Health Gauge. And unfortunately they couldn't. And again, at this time I had no idea that Sarah

took it upon herself to really start to research this idea. And she brought it to me and said, you know, this is like on Apple, the App Store, the second most searched and application idea. And this is going back three or four years now. So unfortunately, we didn't have the investment funds at the time to support Sarah's idea. And so I said, Sarah, you're going to have to it on the outside.

And so I always remember you said one time, sir, you felt like I'd given you permission to go and be an entrepreneur. And honestly, I was really pleased to see that you had it in you because you certainly have the capabilities that we as leaders and investors, as I do too, look for.

And it's very significant work to take on this challenge of addressing a problem gap that is being underserved. And so Sarah launched herself into doing that work with a really, really amazing and exciting problem to address. And I'm always fascinated, Gord, I don't know if you've talked about this solution either, but every time I talk to somebody about this company, My Fertility Labs,

Randy Duguay (05:23.007)
Everybody has a story to share, whether directly or as somebody they know. So, you know, the evidence is there for just an amazing solution. And of course, Sarah has this incredible background also in digital health solutions and biology and marketing and psychology. just a really good first.

Gordon Sheppard (05:45.191)
Well, and incredible resilience and tenacity. Like was so fun to hear somebody go through their education, go, well, I've only ever worked in startups. That's an unusual approach to things, right? There's something where you got some, you you maybe picked up something off of Randy there in terms of getting forward, but there's something, mean, startups are not straight lines, right? These are ups and downs. So there's something about your tenacity and resilience through your own lived experience, plus throwing being mum in there somewhere. I mean, that's.

Randy Duguay (05:53.449)
Yeah.

Sarah Harper (05:53.486)
You

Gordon Sheppard (06:10.652)
What a great sort of moment in time to kind of get to this point. Randy, I just need to get a feel for your resume. I know you had a deep history there, but I don't need maybe the full thing right now, but I need some highlights there to say what level of hitter that we're kind of dealing with so that the audience knows who you are. Go ahead.

Randy Duguay (06:16.447)
Sure.

Randy Duguay (06:20.073)
Yeah, sure. Sure.

Randy Duguay (06:25.247)
Well, so I've been in Edmonton my whole life. I'm born and raised here. You know, in just the really short history, did an engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering in the 80s. I did a master's degree in the 90s with operations research and quality management and those things. But I was at TELUS for 25 years.

in just an exciting period of time to be a part of TELUS. I worked on smart communities initiatives in Western Canada. And then I was a part of what is today TELUS Health Solutions from 2002 to 2012. And I've been an entrepreneur ever since. As a founder, as CEO.

bootstrapping and investing since 2012 and been a part of at least five, if not six different companies, both public companies as well as privately held. And I'm continuing with that. So that's a bit of myself.

Gordon Sheppard (07:30.983)
Yeah, and it's funny when I meet folks like you, I don't know that you're ever not gonna be doing, I don't hear the golf clubs coming out five days a week for you in terms of what you're doing. There's simply this drive, this urge to solve problems, make things better, keep it in the family, keep those sort of capacity building things along there. So how lucky to have both of you here today and we could have a five hour podcast about all the different things that you folks have done. But I need to jump in and just say, maybe I'll start with Sarah and say, if you had to describe your biggest win through my fertility labs.

What would that wind be and how would you describe it?

Sarah Harper (08:03.958)
I think the biggest win is that we've launched a platform. live today and now patients who would otherwise be missed by the system can actually go in for a fertility screening. They can get fertility care and they don't need to wait 12 months or longer because that's the wait for a lot of fertility clinics across Canada. So, I mean, two years ago, if you look at the state of where things were at, I was looking to simply order lab work for my own fertility questions. I wanted to see where my hormones were at to see following the miscarriage

And happened there. The doctors I went to couldn't provide was a regular fertility screen. I looked online and thought where can I order a simple blood test. That led me to a company out of the U.S. and they wouldn't be able to run my lab results. From there I did more digging and thought what if I get these lab results and see that my hormones aren't optimized. Can I go to anyone to get the care? The answer at the time was no.

So at the time, working for a startup and knowing a lot of key people like Randy, a lot of people in the tech space building digital health companies, I know a lot of these really wonderful people and I knew that I would have the team behind me to help bring fertility care to Canada so that it would finally be accessible, finally be affordable, so that people didn't need to pay $10,000 out of pocket. So we've launched and I think that's our biggest win today.

Gordon Sheppard (09:33.862)
You've launched, and isn't that interesting to describe that sort of pool that you were coming up in? those right conditions. If I'm going back to my Bill Gates remembering in those early days, there was a computer at the school where he was. So he was able to sort of go, but you were amongst this cohort in a sense of people that were like-minded so that problem solving is not, there's no barriers. It's like, I heard a no, but the no is not a big deal for you because you're gonna go back into this, you know.

Sarah Harper (09:34.946)
I'm

Gordon Sheppard (09:59.004)
these folks and actually be able to get some things done in there. So I'm just gonna narrow this down for the audience and say if we had to go one sentence or two sentences for the win, just give me a shot and try and summarize that.

Sarah Harper (10:09.294)
So in order to get the win, first of all, you have to put on a startup hat, which means that you're not going to have all the tools in the toolbox to accomplish what you need. So you need to look at the team you have and you need to use those limited resources in the most effective way possible. So that means sometimes you need to learn new skills in order to get to that next step. And it also means that you need to see leaders in your team. Give them problems that, you

Randy Duguay (10:17.939)
Thank

a

Sarah Harper (10:39.248)
you're not sure of the answer and trust them as well, lean on them because the best answers come from not just yourself but from your whole team so you have to really be listening to those key people who are part of that startup team.

Randy Duguay (10:45.065)
So, that was.

Gordon Sheppard (10:52.465)
What a wonderful description. again, you can hear you sound like a 60 year old in there and you're not. You know what I mean? You've been around this startup space long enough that you're describing these things very, very thoroughly. So that's great. So I'm just gonna drill in here and just say the win is, Sarah just say the win is, and then we'll know exactly what it is. Go ahead.

Randy Duguay (10:56.415)
Yeah.

Sarah Harper (10:56.558)
Thank

Sarah Harper (11:10.158)
So the WIN is launching a company from the ground up over two years.

Gordon Sheppard (11:16.465)
Yeah, and it's up and running and it's happening now. That's great. when we jump into, so now we know what the win is and we have all this wonderful background and we can jump into what I call the anatomy of a win to explore this conversation. When we look at the strategy, the work plan, the people, operations and results. I'm gonna go to Randy for just a second here. Strategically, you've got sort of a startup founder in a sense, if we separate out, I know there's all the connection there, but there's sort of a, when that gets in front of your investor eyes, your startup founder eyes, and we think about strategy.

Randy Duguay (11:35.103)
Mm-hmm.

Randy Duguay (11:41.3)
Mm-hmm.

Gordon Sheppard (11:44.645)
vision, values, goals. What's a strategic highlight do you think maybe you are contributing to or that you think is something to point out when we think about this win?

Randy Duguay (11:55.265)
When I look at this win, I'm working with lot more companies and teams and looking at so many ideas, and as everyone here would know, creating a startup, addressing a problem gap is a really consuming exercise. It's like raising a child.

And, you know, and I recently looked at in participating in the startup TNT over 60 companies from across Canada. Just a pleasure for us to attract that amount of interest in Edmonton. Amazing, amazing people and companies from across Canada. And they all compete and it's just wonderful looking at these things because you have to look at everything. And, you know, so when I, know,

In supporting Sarah, I do a few different things, but there's no question that Sarah is the CEO and leader and becoming a CEO is, you know, can become a life exercise. And so for younger people, so Sarah is a millennial, virtually everybody on Sarah's team is a millennial. And so this to me is.

part of my life's work right now is firstly trying to find those folks, those people that have the capacity and the qualities and the character to be the CEO. But fundamentally being the CEO is part of the thing that a startup needs. actually generally need to have a number of people that are.

that are surrounding you, coming around you, grasping the problems and the ideas and so on. So, yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (13:52.764)
Yeah, and I'm just gonna jump in there and say, I can hear in your overall strategy, we have an umbrella strategy to support the entire ecosystem to a sense. And you've dedicated yourself not only with Sarah's company, but also with many other companies. And your strategy in capacity building, in a sense, the highlight there is to actually find those leaders, groom them, or help them to sort of grow up in terms of what they're doing. And I'm just gonna switch to Sarah for a second and say then, okay, great. In terms of, we heard the inspiration. You have a lived experience, you gotta know.

Randy Duguay (13:57.053)
Mm. Yeah.

Randy Duguay (14:12.448)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (14:22.021)
You didn't like the no, so you went back to your gang and you got things going. You then evolved and started up this company without sort of that regular investor pool that maybe you had access to, but you had to actually kind of get that going. Strategic highlights then in this win for you, you had a vision, you had a mission in a sense. We hear that clearly, even if they're written down, it doesn't matter, that was there. Any other strategic highlights in getting this app up and running to get this win? What do you think?

Sarah Harper (14:45.358)
I think the biggest change that we experienced in getting things started, first of all, you do need some level of funding to get started. And so we did get some grants and inputs that helped us get to the point that we are today. But what allowed us to get to that point was actually sharing my story. And I found that when you have a story that touches someone's heart, then it allows them to dig deeper and then they're more willing to actually look at the problem that's going on and it allows them to

to be in the shoes of the person experiencing the problem. I would say that don't be afraid to lead with your story, because that's what is going to reach both the people providing the grant funding, but also your team members. that's all of our team members are also motivated by the same mission to make fertility care accessible and affordable.

But I think that some of the other key things involve building trust with your team. I think when you have a team that you can trust, can have timelines. And also, you can ask what their perspective is on different things. And those are some of the things that really helped us get to where we are today.

Gordon Sheppard (15:57.884)
Wonderful and congratulations again this is not it sounds so easy yeah two years went by and we're up and running right we know the day to day and in terms of what that takes and all the different moments that you go through with what you're doing but I did hear strategically share your story don't be afraid to make sure you connect emotionally because we can hear that investors or people that support entrepreneurs are going to really dig into that along with I'm sure the many stories that you could share from the people that are already benefiting

from your app along the way. So share your story as a strategy, pretty important. And again, we could break down the full strategy thing, but I don't mean to sort of get into all of it. That's a great highlight to share. Anytime we have a strategy, we need a work plan. That's the second step in the Anatomy of a Win. So there's a timeline here. There's sort of a moment where it's an idea, and then we're up to now. Is it 24 months since idea to up and running? What's the timeline in there, and what are some of the highlights along the way in the timeline?

Sarah Harper (16:47.096)
So I would say that it's been 24 months since the significant, you know, grant funding that allowed us to accomplish a lot of the main goals. But over that time period, one of the first things we did was we built our care team up and we found our, you know, we built out our tech team, but the care team was really integral for actually building the technology. And it's really important earlier on to talk to the people that will be using your solution, if it's a technology platform and talk to all types of end users. We didn't just talk to the patients, we also

talk to the clinicians, the fertility coaches, the nutritionists, because it's really important because actually each one of those care providers uses the technology in a very different way. So the first step was building the team and then we had to build out what the application was going to look like. Because before the developers go and code everything, there's a step where it starts off almost like a drawing paper and then it goes to the designers and things like that. But basically, you have to design the app.

and oftentimes just on a piece of paper to see what are the core features. And then from there you have to put in the timeline and to say when the app needs to get started in order to get patients by a certain date. So the first year was largely application development, but working with the clinician and the care provider team and also.

Gordon Sheppard (18:08.017)
That's, yeah, that's, I love it. And what we're hearing in there is a million phone calls somewhere in there, right? Where you're actually on the phone, you're speaking to who are gonna be the users. You're actually getting some pencil, responsible pencil things. I can't tell you how many app developers I've been contacted by where they're like, hey, we built it. What do you think? Is it cool? I'm like, wait a second. They skipped the paper exercise and they get themselves into a lot of lost hours because they haven't got that.

product market fit, but you can hear the discipline in what you're talking about as a startup, right? Those early conversations, which not all of them are going to be positive because you said, well, some of the care providers are doing this kind of in different ways. So there's some of the highlights from that thing along the way. Randy, is this sounding like typical? Is two years about right for getting something like this up and running from your own sort of experience perspective? Or do you think it should go faster, slower, and anything that you have comment wise on the timeline?

Randy Duguay (18:52.117)
Well, I think it is actually pretty realistic. First of we'll see companies moving at slightly different paces. For this particular company, there's a services element. There's an application element. And there's actually a sensor solution we're partnering with another company based here in Edmonton, John Murphy and BioStream to look at adding more data assets to the solution.

bit as we go. know, for sure, you know, but it's, but there's also all this kind of pre, you know, pre development of, of just starting to understand the problem. So it's not unusual to see more than two years, you know, a good year prior to just understanding is there a market? Is there a problem? Before you even get into, you know, building the team. So yeah, that's pretty, it's pretty typical.

Right, for sure.

Gordon Sheppard (19:51.953)
Pretty typical and I don't hear, Sarah, sounds like there's not a major pivot in here, is that correct? Like you had the concept and you were working towards there or was there like a, did you take a right turn somewhere? Like how would you explain that?

Sarah Harper (20:03.79)
I think we've always been pretty focused on making this care accessible. the goal today is very similar from when we got started. But in terms of pivot, there's definitely been some changes in team along the way. And I think that there was some learnings about what makes a good team. And I think it's really important to find people that have the shared vision. And if you have too many people trying to drive the ship, can really, it's not going to lead to that end goal.

it's important to have people behind you. And listening is important. It's not just one person's voice that's guiding things, but at the same time, if you have too many different directions, it's not gonna work. So we've stayed course through what we've always envisioned, but along the way we've found the people that are really behind that shared mission and, you know, yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (20:55.29)
That's super insightful. I can hear this, whatever, young CEO, midstream CEO in the making. Because if I hear listening, that's a mature thing to say, right? Because often with the tech, we get excited. talk about the tech, talk about the tech. But you said team. And I've heard that from Trevor Click from Plant A Technology. I talked to on this podcast. What does it take in that team to have the resilience to go through those two years of ups and downs and whatever it takes to actually build?

you know, build out this sort of opportunity, which is just so interesting to hear. So I'm loving hearing that thing of it's not just the tech, it's the team, and then we can bolt on other tech, because the physical tech that you're talking about, Randy, is that opportunity to get more data in, and that's actually a physical piece that goes on to somebody, and then they're getting more data in, and we could explore that whole thing as well. Strategy work plan, that's so great, and we've heard a lot of good nuances in around that. There's always people involved, that's the third step, and Sarah, you've started to talk about that already. In terms of the key people,

How would you describe the key people, Sarah, from your point of view and their attitudes towards this process? So if I can summarize from what I've heard from you, you're like, I have a problem, I'm frustrated about it, I'm gonna call around, gonna do something, but then I'm gonna really do something about it, because I'm gonna put in two years, I'm gonna build a company. How would you describe your own attitude through this arc? And maybe I'll get to Randy's as well, go ahead.

Sarah Harper (22:08.718)
Sure, so I think that as someone in a startup, you first of have to have a lot of resilience. Things aren't always going to be smooth. There's going to be late nights, there's going to be setbacks, but it's really how are you going to push through that and find it within yourself to have the hope to keep going on. And similarly, those are the kinds of people that you should surround yourself with the team. It involves a lot of creativity because oftentimes you

aren't gonna, the solution isn't gonna be straightforward when you might not have all of the funding to get all the way to the end vision of your final product. So you have to think creatively, how am I gonna develop it as most time efficient and cost efficient as possible with the tools that you have.

So resilience is a really big thing. I think that creative problem solvers is another big thing. I think that in your team, you need to find people that aren't afraid to tell you when they have a different solution. And also as a leader, you need to be able to ask, could we be doing this in a better way? And I'll give an example with the booking system and we've developed a great booking system that's going

that we're updating here in the coming weeks, but our booking system wasn't always straightforward. And the problem actually came from me not asking enough questions about what would be easiest to implement from the dev team. So we thought about the most amazing booking system for patients, but it would actually be incredibly complicated to implement. And so I put it on one of our wonderful front-end developers, who's done an amazing job for us, and I said,

can you envision a different booking system that simplifies the process so that the coding is going to be more straightforward and that we can implement this a lot sooner on a smaller budget? And you know what, she really was able to deliver. She really impressed me. And so now we've come along in our booking system. But was such a simple thing just to ask someone else to come up with what their vision of it was.

Gordon Sheppard (24:27.152)
That's masterclass stuff. I'm gonna park my ego for a second here and I'm gonna ask for some help as opposed to going leading, leading, leading, leading, where we get into trouble and we go too far and we run out of resources. Cause you're balancing all these different, I can't imagine seeing you as a juggler. You'd be like 30 balls in the air, whatever it is that it takes to do that along the way. That's wonderful. Randy, you've observed, you've been in the trenches sort of getting something up and running off its feet, this kind of thing. How would you describe in getting this win, maybe your attitude?

Randy Duguay (24:50.88)
Mm-hmm.

Randy Duguay (24:55.007)
and

Gordon Sheppard (24:56.034)
in relation to supporting Sarah through here? was it, did you think it was, like it was always a slam dunk, this is gonna happen, or is it peaks and valleys? Like, how would you describe your own attitude through this journey?

Randy Duguay (25:06.038)
Well, you know, this is why it's been so fun for me to be available for Sarah all the way through the course. so I've known that, you so I know the story, you know, for years now and, know, in my own way, part of it. And one of the things I learned, sadly, oftentimes is by making mistakes.

You know, and when you're making a good company, you might have a really good juicy problem, probably most important thing to have in you know, starting something. But it's one thing to have a really good problem. It's a whole other thing to actually have a market that you can reach and that understands what you're doing. You know, so the assembly of an entity that can scale.

when investors are looking for. We're looking for, know, certainly looking for a good CEO, you know, somebody that understands, you know, how do you build a team and then how do you reach market? Everyone talks about product market fit. And so it's been just really fun for me watching Sarah actually excel beyond some of the things that I was doing earlier in my entrepreneur career, because finding product market fit, everybody talks about it.

My fertility labs as an example, it's very easy to grasp the problem. It's also easy to communicate it. The story is strong. The likeability of solving this problem is strong. But it doesn't mean you're not going to have problems. so this is just for anybody that's interested in the whole creation of a startup and being an innovator, being an entrepreneur. The truth of the matter is you start at the beginning.

And then you work through the problems. One of the most famous quotes I ever heard was when Jimmy Pattison was here in Edmonton. He got his award years ago and he's probably 80 plus years old. And Jimmy's been around a long time and I'll never forget the quote he said. He said, know what, you can't take the elevator to success. You got to take the stairs. And these comments really stick with you. And certainly when you start to look at the journey that an entrepreneur

Randy Duguay (27:22.396)
and the collection of entrepreneurs must take together. And that's what I'm really enjoying watching Sarah as a leader and Sarah in the team. My other daughter Laura is also part of this team and just how Sarah is guiding and they connect and they meet is phenomenal. And so I have a...

So I have a very high sense of this team really continuing to step forward as we go, because these are the things that actually set most companies apart.

Gordon Sheppard (27:59.419)
So we can hear the investor perspective here of, take the stairs. Isn't that interesting, right? And Sarah, you're like, yeah, I'm taking the stairs. Like I can hear that you've absorbed that and you're actually getting that done with all the nuances that are in there. Well, this is now going to turn into an eight hour podcast because we could break down all these things along the way. How great. We've got this win. You know what I My fertility that's up and running in a couple of years. We heard the backstory to it. We talked about the strategy work plan. People highlights a few of them along the way to give us a flavor of kind of what's in there.

And the next step for me is operationally, you have to get things done. So I heard there's developers involved, there's making phone calls in terms of things. I'm going to say there's probably regulatory inputs, all kinds of things that you need to get in place operationally. And I don't mean to describe them all, but what are some of the highlights operationally, Sarah, to get this up and running from your perspective?

Sarah Harper (28:49.167)
I think the first really important step when you think about all of the different operational things we need to do is to just write it down as a plan. And so when we write down our operational plan, we actually break it out onto the tech side of things. How are we going to be developing the care team? How are we going to be onboarding people? How are we going to them happy? How is that going to look as we scale across Canada? We look at the regulatory. At what time should we be reaching out to Health Canada? It's important with regulation.

to know that it's okay to reach out early just to get clarification on what is needed for you to meet all of the guidelines so that you can get that in place along the correct timeline. There's the keeping people happy and the HR side of things and how are you going to be scaling the team over time and what external...

people can you lean on. So universities can help with some really wonderful clinical trial type work. We have something planned for next year to do a clinical trial to prove our success rates for conception. But that's something that really should be done with university partners because they're the best people to do clinical trials. And then there's the innovation side of things as well because it's important when you're building a company not just to think about what's an effective solution today, but in the future

there's going to be more competitors that crop up. you know, how are we going to be serving on that innovation front and to ensure that, you know, our long-term success as well.

Gordon Sheppard (30:24.004)
Incredible. So make a plan, I'm hearing, before we jump into solving the regulatory issue only. Make a plan on the innovation scale. by the way, anticipate the future in your plan. How wonderful. And that's neat to hear. There are whiteboards or something. There's some sort of interesting sort of things in your world that would be so fun to see the snapshots of. And how lucky that we're hearing a very detailed 360 approach to this. It's not like tech, tech, tech or.

people, people, people, it's the whole thing. So you've got that whole thinking going along the way. Operationally, Randy, as an investor, when you see these companies get built and you've been in the middle of them before, what's a pitfall that people hit into maybe that we can just in a few sentences give some wisdom about in the same way that you're telling us to climb the stairs?

Randy Duguay (31:07.891)
Well, learning experience is the catch point here. One of the biggest things for CEOs have to pay attention to,

Cliche perhaps, but don't run out of money because it's gonna happen. But most importantly, leading into that is the best way to not run out of money is to stay focused. Early stage companies and even when you get into larger, even corporate entities, and I worked in a large corporate entity, amazing roles there too. And it doesn't matter what size of company you are, staying focused.

and achieving the base things that people need that they are prepared to buy because they need it and being very careful.

to know and recognize noise. We will hear people like Kevin O'Leary talk about noise to signal. find it little irritating, frankly, but noise is your enemy. And noise comes in so many forms for the CEO as you strive to serve your client. And I have worked in organizations and I have fixed things that I wish I never had to.

because we, somebody, sometimes it isn't me, but we lose focus. And so we start pursuing that next shiny thing and so on. So anyways, these are fundamental things. And so as we're working through the challenges that we must as a CEO, have we actually made sure, are we constantly checking that our team is doing the right things?

Randy Duguay (33:01.059)
And fundamentally, are we focusing on the client enough? And it's so easy to talk about these things. But in the startup world, you don't often have a client until like a year later. So we have to just continue to reinforce to the team the idea and the necessity of cutting out all the things that you should not be doing and make sure you're driving on the client.

Sarah Harper (33:17.068)
just continue.

Randy Duguay (33:29.727)
as soon as possible with your minimum viable product.

Gordon Sheppard (33:31.547)
Shiny objects, it comes up all the time, right? There's all kinds of cool things, because you're inventors, you're creative, we could do some neat things. We've got talented people assembled in a room, and how do we guide those resources in a sense operationally to get that? Well, how lucky to have this combo interview where we've got the boots on the ground and then this observer as well in terms of getting things pulled together. Finally, so I said strategy, work plan, people, operations, and then finally results. Qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitatively I've heard two years later, we have an app, it's up and running, and you're going through, it's actually there.

Can you speak, Sarah, to maybe the hard data that you'd like to point out to the world? And then we can get into the qualitative as well. Any sort of stats you'd like to sort of bring forward about what's happening?

Sarah Harper (34:10.862)
I would love to share some feedback that we received from the beta testers because we really couldn't imagine how positive it would be over the course of like two to three months really is how long we had the beta testers with us for their fertility screen and care. But we actually had our first pregnancy from the beta testers from someone who was trying for years. so that alone is worth absolutely celebrating. We've also heard that

our care was life-changing, which isn't something that we expected from, you know, a three-month fertility screen, but they were able to get answers about their health in a way that they had felt shrugged off from their family doctors in the past, or like they had all of these questions about what was going on, so we actually got to the root of what was going on for them. Another patient said that they were able to reduce their prescriptions by such a large amount that they felt

could about actually paying for our services because of the difference in their prescriptions alone. So these are some of the things that we knew that the results were going to probably be positive, but we didn't know actually how game-changing it would be for the patients that are coming through.

Gordon Sheppard (35:26.384)
That is real world feedback. mean, that's interesting. Congratulations. And again, how nice that you've also been in that moment before, struggling for self agency through healthcare, which we all need to have to certain degree, but this is really an area where people have to push forward and then you're getting those results in, funny enough, a relatively short period of time, the two years thing. And that's so good. So that's quantitative. Randy, any quantitative things that you'd like to point out in this case, observations?

Randy Duguay (35:51.705)
Well, one of the things I want to say, really, really important for my fertility labs, hard to do actually, is to bring healthcare.

resources and a diversity of resources together in and across Alberta. So Sarah has also been able to attract and to work with a number of very specialized healthcare resources. Pharmacists,

the fertility coach resources, the dwellers, the nurse practitioners, and other people. And then the consulting resources, amazing people from in Toronto with Dr. Sharma, a reproductive endocrinologist and Dr. Anita Cote, a research chair based out in Vancouver, and then other resources here.

So this company has built not just an application, but an outline on how to do collaborative care, which is complimentary and respectful of health practitioners in the broad stroke. This is all incredible things to do.

Gordon Sheppard (37:13.52)
How wonderful. So there's that element of the process itself of putting this all together could actually be replicated. reaching back to your telehealth days now, right now, Randy. I'm hearing there's a through line right here for what that is. Now we build on that. Sarah's in this area where we hear dozens of key people that were back on the quantitative results. We've got dozens of key people coming together across the country to help to solve the problem. And that's also been gathered. We've got results happening for real individuals.

Randy Duguay (37:21.4)
That's right. Well, that's exactly it. Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (37:39.844)
That's pretty remarkable as well. And that's some quantitative highlights that we have. Qualitatively, Sarah, how does it feel? What's it feel like to go through this process?

Sarah Harper (37:49.552)
I think it's really, sorry, it feels incredible to be part of a startup journey. For anyone that's interested in doing it, I really encourage you. It's such a life-changing experience. I think that you really have to prove your grit and over time that you rise to meet the challenges. So you'd be surprised at what you're capable of and the skills that you learn along the way. I think that it feels really wonderful to start from this idea and to actually bring it to

to make fertility care accessible. Finally, the next step is to get some coverage from the government, because I don't know if you know this, but in Alberta, we're actually the only province that doesn't have some level of fertility care services covered. And so in some ways, fertility care is very much seen as almost completely separate from health, but it actually, lot of the things that go on with infertility and subfertility are actually pointing to something that's under

treated or undertreated that's going on in the body. everything that we provide is root cause care and so I think that there's a real interest in the future to get this care covered and so that's a big mix up for us.

Gordon Sheppard (39:02.042)
That's incredible. Yeah, that's great. And Randy, mean, gosh, know, grandpa in there, entrepreneur, channeling your whatever all your life, how's it feel to see this, my fertility labs up and running?

Randy Duguay (39:06.788)
Yeah. Yeah.

Randy Duguay (39:15.03)
Well, it's amazing. And I get to play a part, which is even more fun for me because as I know, we talked briefly toward, but to me, is a lot of fun. And to be able to add and contribute where I can. And again, respectfully,

to bring something like this to life where it is life-changing. You know, couldn't ask for anything, you know, more fascinating and more energizing than to work with people like Sarah and Laura and Min Bao and Amir Poonajab and all the folks that are building this company. And so the more and I'm still learning.

This is another thing just to take note of is, you know, just keep adding, you know, keep contributing. And so if we get this right, which feels very much like is the case, we are going to scale this across Canada. And I'm already working on making connections into the United States and beyond. We connected in with Lithuania, switch based company, or just last week, we'll be talking with them.

And it's just very enriching. So it's going to be a really fun ride.

Gordon Sheppard (40:51.824)
That's so good. From Alberta to the world. Isn't that lovely that we're here? I always, when I get great leaders on the show, I just always look, I'm looking for one or two sentences. The stair one I'm going to take away forever. So that's so good. Thanks for channeling your Jimmy, your Pattison thing there. That's so good. But Sarah, if you had to sort of, you know, if you had a leader in front of you and they were maybe at the beginning of their startup journey and you had just a few sentences to say to them, what would you say to them so that they can learn from you?

Sarah Harper (41:17.815)
I would say that first of all, do something that you're passionate about because that's ultimately what's going to get you through when the startup world can be very difficult when you're passionate about solving a problem, especially if it's impacted you personally, then you kind of know how big the impact can be to others. So really make sure that you're leading with something that's passionate. would also say I've seen a lot of competing viewpoints on this, so I want to touch on it. I've seen CEOs like

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk talking about working excessive hours and really long work weeks and like 60 hour work weeks or longer, 100 hour work weeks. And I'd say that that works for some people. As a mother of three young children, that would never be the case for me. And, you know, I put in a lot of hours, I do. But and what I would say is don't be afraid to

to live your life in parallel to your business and give them both, you know, so much attention. And when you're focused on your business, really be focused in those hours. But when you're focused on your kids, also really be focused on them. Because when you're looking back at this time, do you really want to be saying, you know, I spent a while, all my time was spent working? Or do you want to be saying, do you want to say, wow, I created this really amazing business, but I was also able to see my kids grow up? So I think give yourself some credit to to do this.

two things in parallel and there's also there's studies out of Sweden and that looked into different types of work weeks and they actually found that you know working within even sometimes a four-day work week you can actually get higher efficiency and increased revenues so that Sweden's actually switched to a four-day work week and that that's not necessarily the way to go for startups particularly but what I'm saying is that you

Don't feel like you have to put 100 hours in a week. Standard full-time hours is more than enough to get a startup off the ground. And don't forget to live your life in addition to build your company.

Gordon Sheppard (43:31.876)
I could dig into that one. That's really wise words. what you hear then is leaders will listen to this. Some of them, they're going to get the permission to have a regular work week because they're just going to be getting off the shiny object thing and getting on to being efficient with their time. That's just fantastic advice. Randy, last word for you. If you had a leader in front of you and sort of hearing this conversation, any couple of sentences you want to pass along?

Randy Duguay (43:48.42)
Thank

Randy Duguay (43:53.061)
Well, I really like the finish there, Sarah. You know, and I've been looking at the philosophy of remote versus at the office and everything. And just, you know, in some ways, learning from younger people. We have to be pulling together and we have to care about people. Tech and innovation is a deeply people business. And we have all this

commentary and growth around artificial intelligence. And I think that's the rap is if we ever lose sight of serving people and how we're serving people, there's no end of technology innovation that actually will not help us in the end. So I think that's the storyline and why it's also really just again, exciting company to be working with because you know what, we're working for future generations. So let's do that.

Gordon Sheppard (44:52.794)
Sarah, Randy, thank you so much for being on the show.

Sarah Harper (44:57.978)
Thank you so much, Gord, it's been a pleasure.

Randy Duguay (44:59.929)
Thank you, Gord.