Spaces Spotlight On: Robert Stal, founder of FERTI·LILY

Robert Stal is the founder and brain behind FERTI·LILY, an Amsterdam based company that focuses on ways to help couples conceive a child. Their first product, in a long promised line to come, is the fertility cup. Designed to be used at home, the aim was to help couples trying to conceive without invasive medical procedures getting in the way of romance. We talked to him about conceiving, brainstorming, and flexibility.

Where did the inspiration for the FERTI·LILY come from?

I spent the first 12 years of my life developing medical devices for a start-up called YouMedical. We grew the company over the years and then sold it to a Swedish company called Trimb Healthcare (also a Spaces member). During this time my wife and I got married and tried to conceive. We actually tried for over 2 years and went through the entire medical mill before succeeding. After leaving Trimb Healthcare in 2017 our son was born and the beauty of his arrival motivated me to develop a product for other parents trying to conceive. So I used my know-how of the industry and joined forces with fertility specialists and gynaecologists to develop the concept of the FERTI·LILY Conception Cup.

Can you tell us about your process from the first idea, to getting your product out there?

When you develop really innovative products you almost have to try to work in a vacuum. It’s too easy to get distracted and ‘influenced’ by ideas that almost work and you end up copying these concepts. When we were brainstorming for an idea to improve fertility one of the avenues we wanted to explore is “if we can increase the amount of male reproductive cells that complete the journey, will it improve the chances of conception?” The answer to this question was yes, so then we set about developing a tool to bring those cells closer to the destination. The challenge was to make it easy to use at home.

How has the reception been to your product so far?

Our launch has been great! We actually used a lot of the Spaces members to test our early branding ideas at the beginning of 2019 and launched the product this summer in Scandinavia. We are currently launching with Boots in the UK and have closed deals for the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and France. We’ve been doing a lot of our online work ourselves, to be able to keep tabs on our users real-time, which has been very valuable. We keep our fingers crossed going forward, but so far the product has been received very well by our user base across Europe.

During the process, how did you benefit from having a flexible coworking space?

It’s just been great to be able to use different locations with different energies. Sometimes you need to concentrate and want to lock yourself away at Spaces Zuidas, then I need the energy and vibe of Spaces Amstel, and then next week I’ll have a meeting in London and need to pop into the local office. Apart from the affordable membership, it’s the energy of the different locations that has really inspired me throughout the process. Even now as the team is growing, we still love the flexibility offered by being a Spaces member and I’m sure that even if we rent our own office at Spaces, we will keep using the business lounges for their unique energy.

You mentioned that FERTI·LILY is the first in a line of products to come. Can you tell us what’s going to come after?

While we cannot go into details, but we have a pretty clear vision of where we are going. We want to help couples to conceive at home without hormones, doctors or uncomfortable procedures. Our goal is to preserve the romance and intimacy that should be coupled with conceiving a child. Our products will always follow these guidelines and our goal is to continue innovating in this space for the foreseeable future.

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