Christy Jones: Creating A Life
The idea discussed in this case was Extend Fertility. Extend Fertility was founded by Christy Jones in the early 2000’s and during her time at Harvard’s Business school while pursuing her MBA. When she began her time at Harvard she had to put certain thoughts on hold such as marriage to her serious partner because she knew she would be very busy for the next two years while at school. Jones read a book titled Creating a Life: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Having a Baby and a Career by Sylvia Hewlett and also had conversation with some of her friends that were currently undergoing fertility treatments and as a result Christy Jones learned that a women was at her most fertile at 27 and once she turned 35 her fertility began to considerably
deteriorate. Christy began to do more research into this field and learned that the primary cause of infertility in older women was due to age related diminishing egg quality. But there was a solution for this, couples would use donor eggs and then undergo in vitro fertilization so the woman would be able to carry the child to term. IVF can be used by anyone who is having trouble conceiving but at the time it was primary used by couples and there was nothing on the market for the average young women to use if they knew they wanted to have their children later in their life without the use of donor eggs. And this is how the idea of Extend Fertility was founded.
As with any great idea there is a broad range of possible competition that Christy Jones and Extend Fertility can face such as donor eggs &IVF, fertility clinics, freezing embryos, and adoption.
Donor eggs and IVF can serve as possible competition because people often trust what they know will work, and this route has already been done successfully many times. The downsize to using donor eggs is that even though the woman carried the baby for forty weeks the child still won’t biologically be hers because the egg did not come from her body and many people dream of having their own biological child.
Fertility clinics as a possible competitor were discussed in the Business Model. Fertility Clinic can offer egg freezing, however their egg freezing is not FDA approved, the “yield varying degrees of success”, they provide other services besides egg freezing and therefore they are unable to dedicate all of their time to improving their egg freezing technology. Embryo-freezing clinics is a major competitor to Extend Fertility because it is in the same field as Extend Fertility. The only difference is the type of egg that is frozen; Extend Fertility freezes unfertilized while embryo-freezing clinics freezes fertilized eggs. Despite their differences they are both offering the possibility to have children at a later date with healthier and younger eggs. One argument against embryo-freezing clinics being competitors to Extend Fertility is that with freezing of embryos the father of the child is set there will be no going back even if the woman and the man break up at a future date, and Extend Fertility allows women to plan for their uncertain future by solely freezing eggs. Also, freezing embryos process brings up some ethical and emotional concerns from prolife advocates who believe life begins at conception and therefore freezing the embryo is halting that life and possibly allowing that child to flourish beyond the embryo stage
Adoption is also a possible competitor. Some people just to be parents no matter what and adoption is a less expensive route to receive become a parent. And when someone adopts a child they are giving a child that may not have had the best family circumstances a second chance at life and this is fulfill enough for some women, but adoption is not a competitor that will cause Extend Fertility to go out of business it just provides a different route for women to become mothers. And the desired market for Extend Fertility is women who want to become mothers to their biological children.
deteriorate. Christy began to do more research into this field and learned that the primary cause of infertility in older women was due to age related diminishing egg quality. But there was a solution for this, couples would use donor eggs and then undergo in vitro fertilization so the woman would be able to carry the child to term. IVF can be used by anyone who is having trouble conceiving but at the time it was primary used by couples and there was nothing on the market for the average young women to use if they knew they wanted to have their children later in their life without the use of donor eggs. And this is how the idea of Extend Fertility was founded.
As with any great idea there is a broad range of possible competition that Christy Jones and Extend Fertility can face such as donor eggs &IVF, fertility clinics, freezing embryos, and adoption.
Donor eggs and IVF can serve as possible competition because people often trust what they know will work, and this route has already been done successfully many times. The downsize to using donor eggs is that even though the woman carried the baby for forty weeks the child still won’t biologically be hers because the egg did not come from her body and many people dream of having their own biological child.
Fertility clinics as a possible competitor were discussed in the Business Model. Fertility Clinic can offer egg freezing, however their egg freezing is not FDA approved, the “yield varying degrees of success”, they provide other services besides egg freezing and therefore they are unable to dedicate all of their time to improving their egg freezing technology. Embryo-freezing clinics is a major competitor to Extend Fertility because it is in the same field as Extend Fertility. The only difference is the type of egg that is frozen; Extend Fertility freezes unfertilized while embryo-freezing clinics freezes fertilized eggs. Despite their differences they are both offering the possibility to have children at a later date with healthier and younger eggs. One argument against embryo-freezing clinics being competitors to Extend Fertility is that with freezing of embryos the father of the child is set there will be no going back even if the woman and the man break up at a future date, and Extend Fertility allows women to plan for their uncertain future by solely freezing eggs. Also, freezing embryos process brings up some ethical and emotional concerns from prolife advocates who believe life begins at conception and therefore freezing the embryo is halting that life and possibly allowing that child to flourish beyond the embryo stage
Adoption is also a possible competitor. Some people just to be parents no matter what and adoption is a less expensive route to receive become a parent. And when someone adopts a child they are giving a child that may not have had the best family circumstances a second chance at life and this is fulfill enough for some women, but adoption is not a competitor that will cause Extend Fertility to go out of business it just provides a different route for women to become mothers. And the desired market for Extend Fertility is women who want to become mothers to their biological children.