Insider Insight: Christy Prada, CEO of Future Fertility

Christy Prada is the CEO of Future Fertility, a Toronto-based artificial intelligence medtech start-up focusing on non-invasive reproductive innovations. 

What is your morning routine?

I generally wake up whenever my alarm (i.e. my 15 month old daughter) goes off which these days is between 6-6:30am.

Every morning we do a short walk together, my husband, our daughter and our dog, Callie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I really enjoy the opportunity to have some down time together before a busy day of meetings and work.  Then I frantically get dressed while downing a coffee and head out the door for the office.

I wish I could say I got up, had a healthy breakfast, did a workout and got organised for the day, but this is simply unrealistic for me these days.

My life has become a bit more chaotic with return to the office, and a new baby, but I am really enjoying the new pace of life!

Which technology could you not live without?

Cell phone. The boring and predictable answer, but it is the truth. I rely a lot on my phone to stay connected to urgent requests from the office, which enables me to get in more family time on a daily basis versus being at my desk.

I try to get home to spend evenings/bedtime with my daughter before logging back onto my computer, and a cell phone makes this feasible.

How do you relax?

Outside of family time, I also enjoy a glass of wine after a busy day, taking a dance class, or (if I am really lucky) hitting the spa with my girlfriends. Friday night is pizza night at our house, which I also truly look forward to – the little things!

Which quote resonates with you?

“If it were easy, everyone would do it.” I’m not sure where it originated, but my team hears me say this all the time.

I think it nicely reflects the unique challenges of working in a technology start-up. Not everyone can embrace the agility, execution and stretch tasks that are required when you are forging a new path or creating a new industry.

What is the best thing about your job?

Getting to work with so many talented, passionate people, both at my company and in the industry. I’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm, dedication and deep scientific, technical and academic talent in the fertility industry.

My team! I am so inspired by the team I work with every single day. I am fortunate enough to have a team of deep technical, clinical, academic and operational experts that know their practice and functional area inside and out.

They are ambitious, fearless and committed individuals and I feel lucky to have a team like this by my side.

I really see my role as working to empower and enable them to do what they do best, as much as possible.

What keeps you motivated?

I find the problem we are working to solve for to be hugely tangible and inspiring. In my previous role, we were helping to improve access to healthcare, so I knew that any other roles I took on would have to have a similar level of altruism.

I love that I am contributing to an industry that will help to empower more people through their own fertility journeys, whatever they may look like.

Whether someone wants to have a baby now, help someone else have a baby, or aren’t sure yet, empowering patients with access to information to help them better plan for their lives and be more engaged in the decision-making process through the journey is extremely compelling to me.

It’s a win that we are also making labs and clinics more efficient, effective and data driven, and generally advancing the industry as a whole, which is further motivating.

Aside from this, at a more micro day-to-day level, I am a business developer/builder at heart, so I always love the rush of signing a new commercial deal/partnership or bringing on a new employee that is a perfect fit for a key role.

What is the most important lesson you have learned working in the fertility space?

Being new to the fertility space, (I joined Future Fertility as CEO seven months ago and am new to the industry!) I feel I still have lots to learn. However, a few key things stick out to me.

There is tremendous appetite for innovation and new technology – this just needs to be balanced with usability and clinical applicability. If you can help solve a real problem for clinicians, embryologists or other providers, there will be good support from early adopters to collaborate and enhance the use case of the solution.

There is no “one” right answer! While this is true for the clinical side of things (in speaking with physicians, embryologists, and other care providers, who each have their own approaches to their practice) it is also an important lesson for companies like ours to embrace while growing.

We may have to try something a few times to get it right, and keeping an open mind is critical when building products for this industry. The best lesson I’ve gained from working in a health technology start-up in general is to be relentlessly focused on execution in an agile way, which is well aligned to this lesson.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Relax and enjoy the process. This is when the best learning comes, and you can’t go back and re-experience it again! Embrace the present.

What is something you wish you could experience again for the first time? 

Becoming a mother. This has been the most fundamentally impactful experience of my life. It has changed who I am, how I engage with people and how I view myself. This is why I am in this industry – to help others fulfil this dream and experience this, and to help empower people to have informed choice over the matter.

What are your long-term goals for the company?

I’d love for our products to play a role in every clinic / fertility cycle globally. There is no reason why every single patient going through the process shouldn’t have personalised access to insights about their fertility, starting with the egg and beyond.

For more info, visit futurefertility.com.