We’re infertility patients and experts who were tired of sifting through iffy answers on patient forums. So we made it easy to get answers from the top specialists in the field.
"The only reason I was able to become a mama is because of IVF technology. I want to make sure whomever wants to become a parent, can," says, MedAnswers founder and CEO, Alice Crisci.
With 40 million infertile people worldwide, MedAnswers connects patients with multi-disciplinary experts that they normally have to wait weeks and sometimes even months to see for an appointment. MedAnswers is the first to gather clinical specialists in reproductive endocrinology and urology, alongside embryologists, geneticists, psychologists, and attorneys. We are giving patients unprecedented access to the education and information they need in a far more manageable (and anonymous) environment than google searches, public groups and forums allow.
"This is exactly what our field needs," said Serena H. Chen, infertility specialist and active expert answerer on the MedAnswers platform.
- Alice Crisci, Founder and CEO
- Santiago Munne, Scientific Co-Founder
Investment
$2.50 per share│When you invest you are betting the company’s future value will exceed $5.1M.
Investor Perks
- Investor rush priority - while our app is free to use, we have a rush fee for patients who need an answer in 24 hours or less. We will treat all our investor questions as rush, so they will receive the fastest answers, for free, forever.
- All investors will receive 30% off patient video consults (Note: this is a future product with no scheduled release date).
Alice Crisci did. Unlike the rest of us who'd had such problems, she decided to do something about it. She founded Ovum Medical to provide MedAnswers, an iPhone app that gives patients direct access to doctors and other experts to answer questions.
Crisci is also the founder of MedAnswers, a digital health app that connects anonymous patients, to board certified experts in various medical disciplines for personalized question and answer sessions.
MaryJane Pop of KAHI AM 950 talks to Alice Crisci of MedAnswers.
MedAnswers, a digital health app that at first connects infertility patients to experts for on-demand questions and answers, announced on Thursday the launch of its Reg CF campaign. As a cancer survivor, single mom and medtech entrepreneur, Crisci was in search of alternative sources of seed funding
We love the idea of inviting the same people who need to use our product to be investors. We recognize traditional investors might push back on this, but we are proud of our offering and believe in democratizing private fundraising
A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature. These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.
Is it too late to say Happy New Year? :)
I started writing handwritten holiday notes to each of our investors and got side tracked by a few things. So handwritten thank you notes will be coming your way instead soon.
Last year was a WILD ride and I want to THANK YOU for jumping on board with us. It's hard to believe we launched our platform just last June. Next month, we are launching our nutrigenomics product integration with a prestigious personal genetics CLIAA certified lab.
We are making good on the promise to bring personalized fertility solutions to those struggling to have their family. And we're very excited to start reporting revenue numbers to all our investors hopefully in March. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting us at a critical time in our company's history. We completed this historic equity crowd raise and have also been very successful in assembling a Reproductive Council of infertility investors. They are active answering questions on the app and advising us. Tomorrow, I start prepping for our Series A raise targeting the VC community.
We relocated the company (and my little family) up to the Bay area to participate in an accelerator program and meet as many investors as possible. We're about a mile away from our lab partner too.
We have over 1,500 users and almost 100 experts! Our nutrigenomics product will provide actionable insights to patients who can make lifestyle changes to improve their chances at a successful natural or IVF cycle. I truly can't wait for this product and the difference we can make empowering our users.
We will provide on-going reporting and communication to you (either through the startengine campaign or through our back-end privately)- feel free to always reach out to me personally! alice@medanswers.com
Thank you and I hope 2018 is off to an incredible start for each of you as it is for us!
With immense gratitude,
Alice (and the team)
Last Thursday, I received the kind of news that makes even the toughest entrepreneur weep: MedAnswers was accepted into a very, prestigious accelerator program. While I can't disclose which one until we clear due diligence (not a problem I cleared the rigorous StartEngine one!), I can tell you this: An accelerator comes with mentors, tools and the capital we need to catapult to success.
Not only was our idea validated, but so were our precision tools. And I was validated as a leader, something none of us want to admit we may need in startup land. The thing I am MOST enthused about (beyond the reality that this will increase the valuation of our company so hooray for our early investors) is that I get to bring MY AMAZING TEAM'S WORK TO THE WORLD.
Together, we will not fail.
If you were considering an investment, now would be a good time.
With enthusiasm and gratitude,
Alice
Per the offering terms, and because our equity crowdfunding campaign has now cleared additional investors, MedAnswers has decided to conduct a closing 5 days from today. If your funds have cleared, you will have up until 48 hours prior to this closing to cancel your investment. If your funds have not yet cleared by this date, then you will be part of the next closing if and when your funds do clear.
Thank you so much!
Alice
Greetings investors, supporters and followers!
I’ve just returned from a whirlwind work trip for MedAnswers. I met with potential investors, geneticists and collaborators. During that time, I finalized an option agreement for a pharmacogenomic and nutrigenomic product integration. This is our greatest competitive differentiator to date. In fact, no other digital health tool has a genomics angle so far. We are developing the most comprehensive, precision medicine tool for the fertility field! The difference we will make for patients trying to get pregnant and those going through an IVF cycle is very exciting! We will keep our investors closing informed of our progress and expect to go to market with this product, integrated into the MedAnswers platform, sometime next year.
As you probably noticed, we raised our offering to the maximum allowed by the SEC. We had too many potential investors disappointed they did not make it in the first round, we wanted to give them an opportunity to join us. We also extended the offering for four months so it crosses two different tax years. Also of note: Startengine recently rolled out a new product that would allow investors who have shares for at least one year to sell those shares. While we hope all investors hold their shares until the company exits, this could be a good option for some. We do not know much about this new product yet or how it relates to us specifically, but we will learn as much as we can to keep you informed.
We have many exciting product developments underway so we hope if you are considering an investment, you will do so soon!
The product is constantly improving! We do have an Android version ready for release, however, I am holding off to deploy because maintenance on two native products is expensive. With the latest iOS release, I learned each platform release creates bugs for all our apps. We have to work very quickly to solve the bugs so our users and experts do not get upset. With that in mind, we are pushing forward on a fully-functioning WEB APPLICATION! It will work on both mobile and desktop views; and does not come with bug issues like native apps. Our experts are thrilled with this option. All users will be able to use it! It will be ready in 30 - 45 days. In the meantime, our users can search for questions already asked on the app using our web search tool. They must register before reading the answers. We are committed to the free version of the product, but also need to protect the content our patients and experts created together. We have other ways to SEO our company than publicly sharing all content too readily.
Our digital marketing team is doing an amazing job! Our cost per download is at an all-time low of $2.80/download. We are very pleased with this and expected to continue to get lower as we deploy other social media channels with rich content and inspiration. As you will recall in our proforma, we know if we can spend $150,000 on acquiring users, we will have enough of a user base (more than 41,000) to begin monetizing the product - the faster we self-sustain, the better for all of us! We hope with the new investors joining us through the startegine campaign, we can acquire these users in November and December.
We have 86 registered experts and are meeting with many of them at the annual ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine) conference in San Antonio at the end of October to ensure we implement their important feedback.
A few weeks ago, the New York Magazine posted a misleading article on PGS. They misquoted my co-founder, Dr. Santiago Munne, mixed up terms and used an old technology as “proof” of the author’s position, that could not detect the very thing the author was trying to report on. Confused yet? So were our patients. The MedAnswers community responded with a lead response from Dr. Munne, along with comments and upvotes by our expert community. It was so long, it launched our blog. This is exactly why we exist - now our patients can read a post knowing our trusted expert community has weighed in. I am very grateful to all of them and relieved we were able to clear up some of the confusion so quickly. Read the full piece here: blog.medanswers.com
It’s a goal of mine to post more updates as we continue to march forward so expect to hear a bit more frequently from me.
With immense gratitude,
Alice
Hello! Recently, a change was made to the MedAnswers offering. Here's an excerpt describing the specifics of that change:
MedAnswers has adjusted the maximum funding goal to $1,070,000 and extended the end date of the offering.
When live offerings undergo changes like these on StartEngine, the SEC requires that certain investments be reconfirmed. If your investment requires reconfirmation, you will be contacted by StartEngine via email with further instructions.
Per the offering terms, and because our equity crowdfunding campaign has now cleared additional investors, MedAnswers has decided to conduct a closing 5 days from today. If your funds have cleared, you will have up until 48 hours prior to this closing to cancel your investment. If your funds have not yet cleared by this date, then you will be part of the next closing if and when your funds do clear.
Thank you so much for supporting this exciting venture!
MedAnswers has exceeded our minimum funding goal and will continue to accept investments through 09/25/17.
Per the offering terms, and because our equity crowdfunding campaign has now exceeded the minimum funding goal, MedAnswers has decided to conduct a closing 7 days from today. If your funds have cleared, you will have up until 48 hours prior to this closing to cancel your investment. If your funds have not yet cleared by this date, then you will be part of the next closing if and when your funds do clear.
When I was a high-school basketball player, Coach Barb, used to say to me, "You have to finish strong Alice." I would often steal the ball and sprint so fast for a layup, I was sometimes not in control. I would replay her words as I went in for a layup or stood at the free throw line. Some of my best lessons in life came from playing basketball and being coached by her.
This week we are finishing strong!
Key investors across the world, including a couple high school friends, helped us achieve 276% of our low goal and 26% of our primary goal. In basketball, you only have one goal: to win. So our team is focused on that $107,000 and getting it across the finish line by wed of next week.
Why wed when we have more than a month left in this campaign?
We think it sends a powerful message to our patients, our team and the world that we can hit our goal within three weeks of the campaign being open.
Thank you for believing in us and if you haven't taken the plunge yet, consider doing it by Monday.
Join the Team Who Finishes Strong.
Toward Vision and Victory,
Alice
We had a great day on our campaign today - thanks to a big bump, I'm heading into a Forbes interview tomorrow with incredible momentum and confidence in our collective ability to accomplish our goals. We truly have the best team hard at work to keep MedAnswers FREE for users! Thank you investors for supporting our mission and vision. Welcome to the MedAnswers Family!
If you want to listen to how we intend to expand into Oncology, here is an interview I did with the Oncozine brief: https://beta.prx.org/stories/212489 (ignore how he spelled my name, he was lovely to speak with).
We were also featured in TechCompany News. http://techcompanynews.com/digital-health-startup-medanswers-provides-patients-direct-access-to-medical-experts/
Tomorrow, Forbes!
Towards Vision and Victory, Alice
I wanted to take a moment, as are almost two weeks in, to say thank you to our early investors! While we've been actively promoting this campaign, we also were busy doing a critical marketing test to determine our actual price / customer acquisition.
We built our financial model around a high customer acquisition cost. We assumed we would have to spend $20 - $50 to acquire a single user. We were wrong! In actuality, we are acquiring our new users between $2.40 and $2.70 /user.
This is great news for our investors! We know that cost can fluctuate up and down, but it is a great leading indicator of the scalability of this model. Our first year goal is to help the first 41,000 users get the answers they need about infertility. And we can help them for a customer acquisition cost of around $100,000.
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you investors for your commitment to getting MedAnswers to the patients who need us.
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