Dallas Barnes is the Founder & CEO of Reya Health, a Silicon Valley Founder Institute portfolio company based in Toronto that provides Canadians with personalized digital guides to help navigate the female birth control journey.
Reya aims to become women’s complete digital reproductive health counseling platform, starting with birth control. Too often mis-prescribed, finding the right contraceptive option can be a costly and time-intensive process for women, navigating the variety of hormonal and non-hormonal options available, and often with little guidance or support. As CEO Dallas Barnes explains, a third of women will try 5+ birth control options, before they either find one that works for them, or they give up trying entirely—and, this process of trial-and-error can often take more than 2 years, costing up to a thousand dollars or more.
Reya Health works by providing personalized support and information on birth control methods, with clear explanations on the options available—notably, Reya is not providing Medical Advice or writing patient prescriptions—the platform simply provides information and clear supporting explanations. Users can then consult those recommendations with their doctor or provider to obtain a prescription, as required for some options.
Watch the full video interview with Reya Health CEO Dallas Barnes here, or see the highlights below:
Key Insights:
- Cost of the Female Birth Control Journey (Time & Money)
- Founder & CEO Dallas Barnes’ Inspiration for Reya Health
- Why Personalized Recommendations are a Gamechanger
- Features, including to Track & Monitor Side Effects During Trial Periods
- Vision for Reya’s Growth into Wider Health & Family Planning Domains
- Upcoming Launch of Reya Mobile App to Complement Existing Web Platform
Reya Health provides personalized information and support to help women navigate contraceptives, find an option that works for them, track and monitor any side effects, as well as the planning and use of that birth control, and more.
The web-based platform works to solve a major pain point of general dissatisfaction, in which 75% of women report frustration with their own birth control experience. In contrast, Reya reports a 95% user satisfaction rate in helping women to save money and time. CEO Dallas Barnes explains how her initial startup idea for Reya was conceived (pun intended) out of her own challenging journey to find the right personal option, saying,
I started Reya out of my own experience of not being able to find the right birth control option for me. This was years of a grueling trial-and-error process, trying one option and experiencing side effects I wasn’t comfortable with, trying another option feeling totally unlike myself. I ended up trying one particular method, and my body reacted so adversely to it that I was admitted to the hospital, and that was the last straw for me - I was like, it should not be this hard to find a birth control option that I like, and that works for my body.
Reya’s recommendation algorithm begins with a straightforward intake questionnaire, a survey asking users about their medical history, hormonal profile, past experiences with birth control, lifestyle, etc.
This information helps to provide Reya with a comprehensive picture, which it then uses to match the user with contraceptive methods that could work well for them, and explanations of why.
For more information, see also Reya Health CEO Dallas Barnes’ pitch and investor Q&A session for the December 2021 Founder Showcase
Reya is the digital reproductive health counselor and birth control guide for women - to learn more, visit ReyaHealth.ca
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.85BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
