Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Eran Amir, Founder and CEO of GoStork, located in St. Luis, MO, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
GoStork's mission is to provide inclusive, trusted access to affordable fertility care. For the 50 million people around the world who struggle to conceive or cannot conceive biological children naturally, the fertility journey can be overwhelmingly difficult, confusing, and expensive. For those just beginning the process - it can take countless hours of research, calls, taking notes, and creating comparison spreadsheets (and the list goes on) in attempts to make informed decisions about which fertility providers to work with. We knew there had to be a better way.
GoStork is the first marketplace where intended parents find, compare, and connect with top fertility providers. We bring together detailed, curated information about vetted surrogacy agencies, fertility clinics, and egg donors, unprecedented transparency around costs, success rates, and more, innovative matching technology, and streamlined design to help our members start the journey far more easily than ever before.
Finally, we pair our technology and network of providers with personalized, one-on-one guidance from a GoStork Concierge. We know every journey is unique - and we're here to personally help intended parents start theirs with the providers that best match their unique needs and preferences.
Tell us about yourself
I always knew I wanted to be a father. I also knew, as a gay man, that I'd need an egg donor, a gestational carrier (i.e., a surrogate), and a fertility clinic to create the family I hoped for more than anything in the world. What I didn't know was how difficult and expensive it would be to navigate the process and find the right fertility providers for me. Today I'm so proud to say I have two amazing daughters, Ariel and Yael, and the journey to get here inspired me to help other intended parents start this demanding (yet unbelievably rewarding) process themselves.
A year after my first daughter was born, I left my career of over 20 years in technology to create GoStork. I wanted to bring better access and transparency to the fertility industry through technology - to help intended parents make informed decisions about their fertility providers based on their unique journeys and preferences. I wanted to build the solution I needed when I was lost at the beginning of my search (which I know, after speaking with hundreds of others, is a common experience).
We have since grown to feature 60 top surrogacy agencies, a diverse database of over 10,000 egg donors aggregated from many different egg donor agencies, fertility clinics in over 100 locations, fertility financing options, and our concierge service offering one-on-one, personalized support to all GoStork members starting this difficult path to parenthood. As transparency is so important for us, we are also the only platform that lists all provider fees upfront (including detailed cost breakdowns), helping intended parents save both time and money as they map out their family-building journey. It's no secret, again, that surrogacy and egg donation is expensive, and I experienced this first-hand as my first journey cost $200K. But, using the GoStork proprietary comparison tool, I managed to save $50K during my second surrogacy journey.
I'm motivated every day knowing that other intended parents are now making more informed decisions about the right providers for their unique journeys and are also fully aware of the process and costs to expect (enabling better planning ahead). And, of course, nothing tops the joy of receiving birth announcements from GoStork's intended parents!
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Definitely helping thousands of registered GoStork members (from over 105 countries and all 50 states!) start this journey more informed and empowered.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
I'm a first-time entrepreneur, and we launched during COVID-19, so that was a challenge in itself. I love to connect personally to share our vision, but of course, we conducted all work over Zoom, including fundraising. On a personal level, my husband and I are growing our family while I'm building and growing this business, so there's also that element of balancing family life with entrepreneurship.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Have a mission that gives you that drive to go on, even when it gets really tough. I'm closely tied to GoStork's mission as I've personally experienced many of the challenges our intended parents had before finding our platform.
- Have a unique solution to fix a common problem. At the end of the day, the business isn't about you but the people who benefit from what you're offering. Identify a solution that really helps, test/learn/stay close to your users and their feedback, and then scale it.
- Have the right team to support you, believes in the vision, and have that balance of skillset and drive to reach it together.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://gostork.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gostorky
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gostorky/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gostorky
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gostork/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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