Sometimes, the hardest moments in life lead us down unexpected paths. For Breanna Hughes, what began as a deeply personal struggle with infertility transformed into a mission to revolutionize fertility care through her company, Bird&Be.

Join Bora Celik as he chats with Breanna Hughes, the Co-Founder of Bird&Be.

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"I had this shadow of my fertility journey that followed me throughout my time there," Breanna recalls of her days as a tech product manager. The morning of her job interview, she'd learned she was pregnant. By her first day at work, she'd experienced a miscarriage.

For five years, Breanna navigated the complex world of fertility treatments while leading product teams in the tech industry. She watched as technology solved countless healthcare problems, yet her own fertility journey remained filled with confusion, expensive supplements, and fragmented information.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

"I had literally gone through about five years of infertility and was on my second round of IVF," Breanna shares. "It wasn't enough for me to just be sitting aside and thinking this is a problem that needs to be solved. I knew I had to be the one to solve it."

Finding the Right Partner

A well-known fertility doctor connected Breanna with Sam, her future co-founder. The match was perfect: Sam brought marketing expertise, while Breanna's tech background could help solve the accessibility challenges in fertility care.

But before diving in, Breanna's product management instincts kicked in. She knew they needed to validate their ideas first.

"Based on my product management background, I really knew how important generative research is," she explains. They created a mock company and conducted hundreds of user interviews. What emerged was a clear pain point: the supplement confusion.

Breanna remembers staring at her own situation: "I had a Sorel boot box full of like 30 different bottles of pills. It took up so much space in my closet. And every Sunday, I was counting out the pills in my pill case. And I was like, there has to be a better way."

Building with the Community

Rather than building in isolation, Breanna embedded herself in fertility communities. She shared her own journey publicly on Twitter, connecting with thousands going through similar struggles. This authenticity became Bird&Be's foundation.

"We know how to speak to people that are in the community and that are going through this," Breanna notes. "We know what's triggering. We have the empathy and the deep understanding of what they're going through."

This deep understanding shaped everything about their approach. While competitors showed happy couples celebrating positive pregnancy tests, Bird&Be acknowledged a harder truth: "80% of people who are trying every month fail and are unsuccessful. There's a lot more people crying on the bathroom floor because they had a negative pregnancy test."

From Code to Compounds

Transitioning from software to physical products brought new challenges. Working with naturopathic doctors and fertility specialists, they developed formulations that combined medical evidence with real-world usability.

Their agile approach to product development led to some interesting moments. "We actually custom compounded in very, very small batches," Breanna laughs. "It's horrible for margins... we knew it was not sustainable."

But this hands-on approach paid off. When customers complained about a particularly smelly ingredient, they could quickly reformulate. "I was the founder of the company and I was trying to have a baby and I couldn't even stomach it," Breanna admits.

The Ultimate Validation

The universe, it seems, had a way of confirming Breanna was on the right path. Three days before Bird&Be's public launch, her IVF was successful. Later, after returning from maternity leave, she discovered she was spontaneously pregnant with her second child–using Bird&Be's own pregnancy tests.

"Never after my five-year infertility journey would I imagine that I would have two under two born so close together," she shares. "My life is hectic with a third baby of a startup, but that was definitely the sign that I had done the right thing walking away from my executive job."

Today, Bird&Be's products are recommended by fertility clinics across the country. But for Breanna, success isn't measured in sales figures. It's in the daily pregnancy success stories from customers who had been trying for months or years.

"I can't tell you how rewarding of a feeling it is," she reflects, "knowing that my infertility journey that I went through in all those five years of pain and heartache was because of this. I needed to start this company... so that we could literally help other people get their baby."

In the end, Bird&Be's story reminds us that sometimes our greatest challenges can become our most meaningful contributions – if we're brave enough to take that first step.

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