Disruption. If there is one buzzword in the modern economy, this is it. Every entrepreneur claims to be doing it, every investor is looking for it, but how many are actually capable of it? And what does it really mean anyway?
The phrase 鈥榙isruptive innovation鈥� has been bandied about since the late 1990s thanks to Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, who identified it as a process whereby a product or service takes root at the bottom of the market and eventually displaces established competitors.
In recent times, many examples of this effect come to mind: Netflix and Amazon are two obvious cases. What they were all able to accomplish was not only displace competitors, but create entirely new paradigms. Who among us remembers the dark ages when we had to leave the house to rent VHS tapes and buy products?
Fertility industry: Poised for disruption?
Modern life has introduced new behaviours like binge watching, but it has also seen a dramatic change in human fertility. In countries around the world fertility is in steep decline, and in response Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is rising. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is one such ART; developed in 1978 it has since enabled the birth of over 10 million children. There is consistent growth in the number of couples who use ART to conceive, with an increase of 10% per year.
But even more damning is the low rate of success: only 30%. Because of this, couples often go through multiple cycles before they can conceive. In the UK, the average success rate after This represents 拢30,000 in treatments. In the US, the average cost per couple seeking IVF treatment is similar, at about $60,000 USD.
What does this translate into on a global scale? The world market for fertility services is valued at in the next two years.
And the majority of this expenditure is for a treatment that only offers a 30% success ratio. Disruptable? Highly.
Recipe for disruption: Add men
Professor Sarah Kimmins has been paying close attention to the trends in fertility for some time. As a researcher of Pathology and Cell Biology at the Universit茅 de Montr茅al (she is also an Adjunct Professor Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, 海角社区) her whole career has been devoted to this subject. In particular, she has examined one of the key ingredients in the entire human fertility process: the male sperm.
鈥淭he human sperm, although it is one of the smallest cells in the body, is one of the most unique,鈥� she explained. 鈥淓specially the sperm epigenome, which has evolved to protects the encoded information until it gets delivered to the human egg.鈥�
But in the context of the fertility industry what is more crucial is that there is a global decline in male fertility that is driving the overall decline in natural birth rates. 鈥淩ecent studies show that there has been a 50% decline in sperm counts in men over the last 40 years, and in half the cases of infertility a male factor is involved,鈥� Kimmins said.
While this figure in itself is problematic, the truth is it often completely ignored when couples consider using ARTs to increase their chances of conceiving. This is because almost the entire burden of care is placed on the female. Very little attention is paid to the male, and to the viability of his sperm.
One of the reasons for this willful ignorance is because the current standards for diagnosing male infertility remain unchanged for 50 years, and are not an accurate indicator of fertility. Current semen analyses only focus on three things: motility (how much they move), volume (how much there are in the semen) and morphology (the shape of the sperm cells).
All of this does not provide a reliable indication of sperm health, according to Kimmins, who has developed a genome-based technique to examine the epigenome of sperm that yields a 94% accuracy in determining whether a sperm sample is fertile or infertile.
More than being able to detect infertile sperm, Kimmins is able to recommend what can be done to correct it. Being overweight, for example is a significant factor in male sterility. 鈥淲eight loss has a major impact as it affects hormone levels in men,鈥� she said.
海角社区 Innovation Fund: a nexus for disruptive innovation
With her expertise in sperm epigenomics and her knowledge of the fertility industry, Kimmins first applied to the MIF in 2021. She has since come back each year, the only team thus far to have completed each round of support: Discover, Develop and, currently, Deploy.
Each stage of the MIF offers generous funding for teams: $25,000 for Discover, $50,000 for Develop and $100,000 for Deploy.
In 2022, while in the Develop stage, she incorporated a company and called it , justly named for what it intends to do: 鈥淏y including men in the fertility treatment, we can transform the industry,鈥� she said.
But being in the MIF has meant more than providing useful financial support to Kimmins. For starters, it has helped her grow her team. Bryan Martin joined HisTurn after having met Kimmins at one of the MIF networking events.
First, he became a member of her advisory board, which each MIF team receives as part of their support program, but he then became directly involved in the company as their COO. A startup veteran, Martin had seen his share of disruptive innovations, but HisTurn鈥檚 model stood out.
鈥淭her fertility industry runs on people鈥檚 desperation,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淭his technology needs to get out there because it is going to help people; this is just good for humanity.鈥�
The cost of IVF treatments is a particular opportunity for HisTurn according to him. 鈥淯sing our tech, a couple may be able to succeed with only one cycle instead of three or five,鈥� he explained.
IP management: a key to investibility
One of the key dossiers in Martin鈥檚 purview for HisTurn is managing their IP. As a holder or co-holder of over 20 patents in a variety of fields, he is particularly well-suited to the task.
Awareness of IP was something new for Kimmins, who, coming from the world of academia was used to disclosing information as part of her job. Now, she admits she sees things differently. 鈥淢y mindset has changed,鈥� she explained. The realities of the patenting process have made her more cautious about what goes into her papers.
鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 have been able to patent our IP or prepare the kinds of documentation that investor look for,鈥� said Kimmins about the role of the MIF in the growth of her business. 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 have had the exposure to people who have done this before.鈥�
The company is now on the hunt for significant investment to achieve its goals, which include finalizing their Minimum Viable Product. It鈥檚 all quite far from the world of research where Kimmins initially started. Asked if she now sees her herself as an entrepreneur, she was reserved. 鈥淚t depends on how you define entrepreneur. But there's no doubt I wouldn't be doing any of this without the MIF,鈥� she stated. There also seems to be little doubt that fertility treatments are about to be disrupted for the better.
