With female founders comprising a larger share of the startup ecosystem than ever before, bringing increasingly diverse perspectives to the table, they are also creating technologies to solve problems that have been historically overlooked. Women are using their unique experiences to innovate solutions for a wide range of critical issues, from public health and education to sustainability and social justice.
For Elin Øyre, founder and CEO of Stockholm-based startup Bumpy, the critical issue to tackle was infertility—and the lack of resources for people dealing with it. I sat down with Elin to learn about her company, which is part of Microsoft Startups Founders Hub, and her journey as a woman in tech. We discussed her struggles, her passion, and how she copes with failure.
Defining the problem, and how Bumpy can help
“Infertility is a source of anxiety for many people. One in six couples experience infertility, and every fourth pregnancy ends in a miscarriage. We saw that there was a lack of resources for people facing this problem.
“Bumpy is a digital platform for anyone navigating fertility or going through infertility. We offer access to fertility experts such as psychologists, nutritionists, and fertility coaches. We also offer a community, as well as a medically vetted knowledge base.
“One of the first things we realized is that people dealing with infertility really feel isolated. They want someone to talk to. It’s hard to understand what infertility is if you haven’t had to deal with it yourself.”
Creating a startup based on your own experience
“I have been through lots of fertility issues. It started nine years ago. I had just joined Spotify, and I had my first miscarriage during my first couple of months there. I felt so lonely. And then my issues just continued. I experienced further miscarriages. I’ve been through many IVF processes. I’m still in the process and I felt, especially at work, that I didn’t have anyone to talk to.
“I wanted to build a community where I could talk to others who were experiencing similar things. Infertility is still a taboo subject, and it shouldn’t be. It’s a disease like any other disease. I think that one of the reasons we don’t talk about it is because infertility has been perceived as a female issue for so long. And that’s just not true. Roughly 50% of the causes of infertility come from the male. But when you look at how it’s written about in media, it feels like it is a female issue. That’s something that we want to change.”
Bootstrapping Bumpy
“We live in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the biggest-impact tech hubs in Europe. There are quite a few femtech companies here, and it’s a very supportive community. When we started Bumpy, we just bootstrapped the company. We took on a consultant to build the first iteration of the Bumpy platform so that we had something to bring to investors.
“My co-founder, Andrea Olsson, and I were driven by our own personal missions, even though we didn’t have a tech background. These days we’ve been able to hire a small tech team, but at the start we relied on the experience we each had from our big-company jobs, our personal stories, and our passion.”
Leaving a secure job to build a startup
“I was at Spotify for almost a decade. What I learned from that time was that it was all about trial and error. We arrived with a new product when no one really knew what music streaming was. I worked on business development for five years, leading Spotify strategic partnerships. Then for the last four years I led Spotify’s global expansion.
One thing that we know is certain is that things will fail, whether it’s a business model or a product launch, or anything else you do. I try not to be precious about failure or get too caught up in my mistakes. I like to keep moving ahead to the next challenge and leave that behind.
“Being the CEO of a startup is very different. You have to wear so many different hats. I deal with everything from financing rounds to taking care of customers to the legal stuff. I’ve learned so much over the past six months, maybe more than in the rest of my career. There are so many different things I’ve encountered that I’d never worked on before.”
Overcoming funding challenges
“It was not an easy decision financially. Even though I’m driven by passion, I also have rent to pay. Like many other startup founders, I had to come up with creative ways on how to cover that. I moved into a smaller apartment to rent out the one I had. Knowing that I had six months to decide with Spotify waiting for me as a safety net was really valuable. It meant that the risk was mitigated, but after six months I knew that I was going to move forward with Bumpy.
“It is no secret that the majority of funding for startups goes to companies founded by men. As CEO of a company, founded by two women, working with a subject that is considered taboo and perceived as a woman’s issue, we have struggled to convince investors that are often middle-aged men—and that’s also no secret. The challenge is to make them understand that this is a big public health issue and that we are seeing increasing numbers related to infertility.
“One of the biggest reasons why we started Bumpy was to help break the taboo around infertility. We are always very upfront, whether with investors or partners, that we’re telling our own story, basing this company on our own lived experiences. Even if the person we’re talking to hasn’t shared that experience, there’s a good chance that someone they know will have.”
What startup CEOs don’t expect
“My biggest surprise is that things take a lot longer than expected. You can double the timelines for everything, whether you’re raising money, launching a product, or launching a new feature. Everything takes longer than you might think. Running a small company with few employees, there are always resource issues.
“As CEO, everyone suddenly sees you as the expert. Sure, I’m an expert on infertility, but I’m definitely not an expert at reading legal agreements! Luckily we can take on consultants to help us with that.”
Coping with failure as a startup
“I think a great skill to have when you’re running a small startup is to not be afraid of failures. One thing that we know is certain is that things will fail, whether it’s a business model or a product launch, or anything else you do. I try not to be precious about failure or get too caught up in my mistakes. I like to keep moving ahead to the next challenge and leave that behind. That’s something I didn’t know before I started Bumpy.”
Bumpy is a Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub portfolio company.
To get started with Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, sign up here.
