CHRISTY LANE
Dr. Christy Lane is the co-founder of Flora Fertility, an InsureTech digital health company providing the first-ever individually owned fertility insurance. She's also a venture partner at IA Capital, a VC firm focused on InsureTech and FinTech. Before Flora, Christy was a full professor in medical sciences, started the Wearable Health Lab at Stanford (pre-Apple Watch era), and founded Vivametrica, the first wearable-based risk analytics company for insurance, which was acquired in 2020.
Christy’s personal fertility experience, combined with over a decade in insurance and digital health, led her to build Flora. Her career sits at the intersection of wearables, risk, women's health, and financial solutions.
HOW SHE OPERATES:
How Christy manages her health and energy while building a company and raising three kids:
Protects family time as a non-negotiable
When she's off, she's off. When she's working, she's working.
Won't take calls while traveling with family unless absolutely necessary
Three kids in activities means her schedule is full, but she's intentional about not letting work bleed into family time
Gets up earlier than everyone to check email and Slack, then she's present
Learned from her first startup what not to do
Her first company was the hardcore hustle: on calls at all hours, getting up in the night for people in Europe or Asia
Recognized she could not operate in a healthy way at that level of intensity
Told her current business partner at the very start: "That's the non-negotiable for me. I am not going back into that hustle."
She still works her ass off, is just more specific on when.
Steps are her metric
Based on her research and risk algorithms, steps per day is the strongest predictor of general health and mortality, regardless of basically everything else (so is minutes of moderate to vigorous activity, but that’s harder to measure since it’s less standardized).
Her personal goal is 11,000 steps a day, which she gets pretty close to, but 10K+ a day isn’t for everyone. It’s a personalized number, and that’s why Christy used age, gender, BMI, and other health data to find that number with her first company.
Even tiny increases in average steps per day have pretty big health benefits. Try and take 500 more steps a day.
Walks as a reset
A 15-minute outdoor walk is a reset for her brain and her happiness
Recently got a weighted vest to add intensity to shorter walks
Walking while traveling is one of her favorite things: going to a new place, cruising around with no agenda
Keeps exercise realistic
Played sports growing up, mainly rugby
Misses intense exercise and team sports but doesn't have the time right now
Has a Peloton in the basement, gets her steps in, and does weights, but would love to get back to classes outside the house.
Bullish on wearables, despite only using Apple Watch for the simplicity
Helped build some of the first wearable risk models and tested gen-one Apple Watches
Still uses Apple Watch as her daily wearable for the simplicity: health tracking, communication, all in one
Doesn't track sleep because she sleeps well. Hit or miss on HRV, doesn't think people can properly interpret it yet.
Excited about continuous hormone tracking (Clair) for women, and continues to be bullish on wearables
Honest about travel challenges
Staying active and eating well on the road is still a work in progress
Either forgets to eat or ends up at work dinners eating things she normally wouldn't
Doesn’t stress about falling out of routine on the road, it’s part of the job (despite being gone over 20 days for the month of April).
A real glimpse into balancing life as a founder, investor, and mother:
“I’m almost done, I’ll come and help you in a minute, okay?”
MY TAKEAWAY:
As someone who enjoys fertility-maxxing as a hobby, this was a fun one.
Wearable health is now in a consumer market, but on the academic side, Christy shared that the things her and her colleagues discussed 10 years ago haven’t even come to fruition yet, so it’s an exciting time in wearables since we’re just getting started.
Christy has spent a decade on the academic side of health tech, and now the business side, yet she still says steps are more important than anything, and she doesn’t even track her sleep.
Christy showed the reality of balancing being a mother, while building a company, and being an investor. You have to get your priorities straight (family) and draw a line on what’s important to you, so you have the energy for everything you want to pursue.
WHAT MOVES THE NEEDLE (From Christy):
Go for walks. Getting outside, in the sunshine and fresh air, even for 15 minutes, is a reset for the brain and for happiness. Steps per day is still the single strongest predictor of your general health.
Carve out time away from work. Go on vacation, spend time with your family, just do fun stuff.
STEAL THIS:
Actions you can take right now
Check your average steps per day this week. Whatever it is, try adding 500 more per day for the next two weeks and notice what shifts in your energy and mood. Walk to the mailbox and back or park farther.
WHAT SHE IS BUILDING:
Flora Fertility
The first individually owned fertility insurance.
Flora is an InsurTech digital health company providing fertility insurance that individuals can own themselves, not tied to an employer. After spending years at the intersection of insurance and digital health, Christy built the financial solution she wished existed. Flora recently closed seed funding and is dedicating full-time energy to making fertility treatment financially accessible.
CHECK OUT FLORA BELOW:
Thank you for reading!
