Meet The Woman Disrupting The “Boy’s Club” Tech World To Revolutionize Fertility Tracking

If there is an industry that is well an truly a “boy’s club”, it is the tech world. Things are definitely starting to change with the wave of women innovators and creators who are seeking to change the status quo, despite ingrained sexism that still exists in the “bro” culture. One woman who is not only doing this, but doing it successfully, is Natalie Rechberg, the founder of a fertility tracking device called Daysy.

Natalie is a pioneer in the femtech industry that strongly believes in creating better tools for the modern woman. Based in Switzerland, she built her company as a young female breaking into the most exclusive boys club in the world. Only 9% of health tech businesses are founded by women. She got involved in the femtech industry by following in the footsteps of her father who created the first personal fertility computer in the world, Daysy’s sister device, The Lady-Comp.

After working on The Lady-Comp for many years, Natalie wanted to create a device for women on the go, who may be traveling and needed her fertility information handy. She found that more and more, women were looking to their smartphones to store and track their personal health data. She created Daysy to be a portable device that syncs with the DaysyView app, so that women planning or preventing pregnancy can always have their fertility data available and so that they can even share it with a doctor or partner.

She is also a founder who can personally attest to the viability of her product. Natalie actually used Daysy herself to plan her own pregnancy. She has a young son and is now back on Daysy to prevent pregnancy.

With an impressive 99.4% accuracy rate as proven by two clinical trials and 30 years of research, Daysy is a reliable alternative to the pill for women looking to prevent pregnancy. It can also be used by women planning a pregnancy as it provides accurate daily information on fertility by measuring a woman’s basal body temperature each morning and using a unique and highly effective algorithm and a database of millions of cycles to determine fertility. The device indicates fertile days with a red light and non-fertile days with a green light.

We’re living in a turbulent political and social time for women’s reproductive healthcare, especially in the US under the Trump administration, so we are adamant about shining a spotlight on organizations, companies and badass women like Natalie who are creating new pathways forward for women to take back control of their decisions. We had an opportunity to speak with Natalie about Daysy and what she wants users to know about it.

Tell us about your foray into the tech industry and how you managed to navigate what is known as the ultimate “boys club”.

I first started in the tech industry working for my father’s company, The Lady-Comp, the original femtech device for women. Initially, it took a long time for me to be accepted and respected as a woman in the industry, and even within the company. It was so interesting to me that while the tech industry was and still is a “boy’s club”– however, the customers were always women, the devices were always for women.

When I was working to create my own company, Daysy, many questioned my vision and did not believe that what I wanted to create would work and become popular. I was able to prove them all wrong, and I’m very proud of that. Today, those same people trust me, through and through, and I continue to run operations for Daysy and The Lady-Comp simultaneously.

Even now, as the leader of a femtech company, I’m the only woman in some of my meetings. Especially when the meeting is about hardware development, finance, quality control, or distribution. It’s still very much a “boys club”, but we’re trying to change that as much as we can here at Daysy. We’re working hard to hire more women and ensure that our team has female and male perspectives. In my own leadership and how I organize my work life, I think of my womanhood as my advantage and in that sense, my own womanhood impacts the rest of the company and how we operate.

Before inventing Daysy, you worked with your father in his own femtech company. He is a pioneer in this area, can you tell us more about his work and how you got involved with The Lady-Comp?

My father created the Lady-Comp 32 years ago to provide a pregnancy prevention and planning method for my mother, who did not want to use hormonal contraceptives. He created it to support her in avoiding the side effects that some women using hormonal birth control experience. He also created it because he’s an advocate for nature in many aspects of his life, and is passionate about protecting the environment.

Studies have shown excess estrogen in our global water supply due in part to pesticides and compounds from cleaning agents, skincare products, plastics, and even the pill polluting water sources. My father was an early believer in finding alternatives that protect our drinking water. He’s also dedicated to utilizing renewable energy sources for our home and in minimizing emissions through technological developments in his work life.

I always knew that I wanted to work in this field growing up. What could be more beneficial and rewarding than creating a an easy, accurate, and modern product for fertility tracking that can be used to plan or prevent pregnancy? It’s revolutionary work and it truly helps women.

Over the years, I have worked in every department of Lady-Comp in Germany and in Switzerland, so that I could better understand the business as a whole. Several years ago, when developing Daysy, I studied the market and found that hardware that connected to a smartphone would be the future for fertility and family planning. Pill sales were stagnate, and women were looking for a healthy, hormone-free alternative. I saw the need for a simple, fast, accurate product, with an easy display for the most important information, which fits around our busy lifestyles.

I love beautiful products, and I’m personally addicted to my smartphone. I like to be accurately informed about what’s going on in my body without having to spend hours analyzing or inputting data. That’s how Daysy and the DaysyView partner app came to be. We started selling in May 2014 in Switzerland. Four years later, we have expanded into 13 countries and have more than 40 employees.

Daysy helps women track their fertility no matter where they are. Why was it important for you to create this tool?

I created this tool to offer women an accurate product with a lot of research and testing behind it. It‘s super easy to use, has very little opportunity for user error, and seamlessly fits into our busy lifestyles. I’m a Daysy user myself and used the device when planning my own pregnancy. I continue to use it as a prevention tool now as well. So many of our customers stay with Daysy in that way throughout their lives. As the company continues to grow, it’s so important to us to continue to evolve and listen to our users about their changing needs. Daysy is not just a tool – it’s a lifestyle, one that people use for their lifetime.

We’re all about empowering women to take control of their own health and wellness. Can you speak to us about your passion in this area?

Our hormone cycles are just so vital, empowering, and magical. I truly believe that women’s bodies should be revered and celebrated. To be able to learn more about my own body and its power is beautiful. Daysy means “Daily Synchronization”. To us that means being synchronized with your inner cycles. I’m a proud menstrual cycle geek.

As I worked to better understand and appreciate my own cycle hormones through my work and my experiences, I’ve found that it has impacted other areas of my life. I’m even a stronger businesswoman now that I’ve taken control of my own health and wellness. I know how empowering it’s to understand what’s going on with your body day-to-day.

You can personally attest to the way Daysy works, as it helped you to plan your pregnancy. How did you find the experience as a customer, and how are you using it today?

I started using Daysy for preventing pregnancy in 2014. When I got married, we decided we wanted to have a baby. That’s when we planned our first pregnancy using Daysy and I became pregnant right away. I already had so much data through my own fertility tracking with Daysy that was saved in the device that I knew exactly when I was most fertile and likely to conceive. After my son’s birth, I started using Daysy again for prevention as well as for my own personal health tracking. It’s amazing how much you can learn so much from your chart on the DaysyView app!

I look at my chart regularly and if I see something is off, I make an appointment with my doctor to check in. You can share your chart with your doctor via the app very easily, providing them with an overview of your menstrual cycle and all your cycle statistics (cycle length, ovulation timing, any ovulatory cycles and, of course, temperature data). Better awareness of your cycle and your body result in overall greater health and wellbeing. I have seen this for myself. It’s really a matter of know your body, know yourself.

What kind of education does Daysy provide for those who use it?

With Daysy you know every day if you are in your fertile phase or not. Daysy lets you know when you’re coming into the ovulation phase, if ovulation is expected, and when ovulation has been confirmed – it’s all there in your DaysyView chart. You can see when your period will arrive and you have also have an overview of your weekly and monthly menstrual cycle data. We offer women an empowering tool for both body and menstrual cycle literacy, improving women’s health, wellness, self-knowledge, and self-confidence.

How can Daysy be a disruptor in a health landscape that is becoming increasingly politicized in America, where women’s reproductive health especially has become weaponized?

Daysy is based on the fertility awareness method a concept that has existed and been used by women for centuries. Daysy is a highly effective, clinically proven, simple, modernized, and easy version of this way of planning or preventing pregnancy. Of course, since the arrival of synthetic hormones, many women have historically turned away from the fertility awareness method in favor of the pill. However, we’re seeing a recent trend in which women are taking back control of their bodies and are interested in exploring alternative options as understanding one’s cycle is not a one size fits all approach.

The Daysy method is very empowering for women in this current landscape. Daysy puts you in control and your own body and your health. We hear from our customers all of the time that they’ve chosen Daysy because it provides them with a certain degree of independence and sovereignty, which is truly empowering.

For many women across America, having control over their reproductive health is directly tied into their ability to control their financial wellbeing. Where would you say Daysy fits in within this area?

We think of Daysy as a long-term investment for women. While the upfront cost may seem expensive in comparison to other methods, in the long-term, Daysy is a very cost-effective option as it can be used for 10 years. We have developed a tool under the highest quality standards. This device lives alongside you through your reproductive journey from no baby, to maybe baby, to no baby. Daysy has zero side effects and the cost includes a lifetime of free support for using the device and fully understanding what’s happening with your body.

Over time, Daysy is actually more cost-effective than other birth control methods:

Daysy: $330 – 10 years of use = $33 per year or $2.75 per month
Birth control pills: $240 -$600 per year or $20-$50 per month (plus monthly insurance payments)
IUD: $1000 for insertion – 3 to 5 years of use (plus monthly insurance payments + cost of removal)

Being based in Switzerland, how different is the landscape of women’s healthcare over there?

The perception globally is quite different from the reality. Switzerland isn’t the best country when it comes to covering healthcare costs. The country has a lot to offer in terms of natural treatments and high quality healthcare, but you have to carry the cost yourself. Insurance does not cover your contraceptive methods at all. So, we are all very used to paying for our contraceptives or infertility treatments. Therefore, it’s not so much a price debate, instead it’s a “best method for me” debate. That said, women in Switzerland are more aware of natural options and have higher body awareness.

For those who are considering using a fertility tracking tool, how would you encourage them to use Daysy?

Daysy was the first of its kind in the market to combine a medical device with an app. Nowadays, there are hundreds of period tracking apps out there,but we continue to concentrate on what’s important to us as a company, which is simplicity, quality, accuracy, and experience. Our mission is to provide women with the knowledge and tools they need to accurately make informed and powerful choices about their menstrual cycle, their fertility, and their body. We produce hardware that stands out from the rest because it’s effective and trusted.

Daysy isn’t just a thermometer, it’s a mini computer that tracks, stores, and analyzes basal body temperature data and includes the data from millions of cycles for algorithm creation, making Daysy the smart choice for fertility tracking. The device is clinically proven to have an accuracy of 99.4% from your first day of use. For the first three-months, Daysy needs to get to know you and you’ll see yellow (learning phase) and red (precaution or fertile) days on the r display and in the app.

This time is essential because that’s when Daysy adjusts to your inner cycles and unique hormone patterns. Once you are through the initial learning phase, you’ll be hooked on this method and you’ll have fertility freedom for a lifetime.

=========================================================

Visit the Daysy website to find out how you can purchase the device in your country. Download the Daysy app on Google Play and Apple iTunes.