Two local doulas who created a web platform for new and expectant mothers are raising their first round of funding to take it to the next level — and get the word out.
Mari Stutzman Smith and Tara Campbell Lussier launched Arrow Birth in spring 2019, and subsequently saw both demand and revenue climb during the coronavirus pandemic. But without any marketing, “it’s been slow growth,” Lussier said.
“The challenge I felt right now is that we are well-positioned and we are built out, but we have not done the marketing that we need to do to help people know that we’re here for them,” Smith said, “and that’s what has gotten us to the point of looking for outside funding.”
So the founders are working to raise about $150,000 in a seed round after entering a few pitch competitions this past summer, their first real exposure to the world of fundraising as entrepreneurs, they said. They’re shooting to close the round in the fourth quarter of 2020. That capital would fund digital marketing, including hiring an employee to handle social media ads, email campaigns and everything in-between, they said.
Arrow Birth was born after each of its founders spent a decade running their own businesses as doulas — women who are trained and hired to support women and their families during and around childbirth. Smith and Lussier founded their new Ashburn-based venture in 2016, three years before taking it to the market. They grew and bootstrapped it with about $50,000 of their own money as equal partners.
The startup’s platform functions as an educational and family support system during and after pregnancy, Lussier said, such that “where the health care system falls off or has gaps, that’s where we pick up.” In doing so, it provides on-demand childbirth and new parenting courses that range in price from $59 and $199, as well as one-on-one consultations that start at $65 for 25 minutes. There is no membership or annual fee.
Arrow Birth's network includes more than 70 professionals whose expertise ranges from fertility and pregnancy to postpartum and life with a baby. Roughly 20 are consultants who are paid employees of Arrow Birth, who have profiles and calendars on the platform and take appointments via Zoom with its users.
Pregnant women and new parents “need that initial education, almost like this childbirth 101-type course,” Lussier said. “But inevitably — and we learned this as doulas — no matter how much education you have, you’re going to have this unique question or dilemma or something that comes up in your parenthood journey where you need that one-on-one help, so we tried to bridge the gap with both of those and have it all in one platform.”
Arrow Birth has three revenue models:
- Direct-to-consumer sales: Anyone on the internet can pay for courses and consulting services.
- Revenue sharing with hospitals and health systems: Providers promote the platform to their patients, and then receive a portion of the revenue Arrow Birth generates from those users.
- Corporate benefit: Employers can offer Arrow Birth as a benefit to their employees. The co-founders are now looking to build out its coursework to include education around the parenthood journey beyond just childbirth.
Arrow Birth projects it will reach five-times its 2019 revenue in 2020, and aims to reach nearly seven figures in 2021 revenue, the co-founders said, declining to disclose specifics.
The business is also charging forward with its charity partnership with Midwives for Haiti, which helps save mothers’ and babies’ lives by training nurses to become skilled birth attendants. Arrow Birth donates a portion of its proceeds to the nonprofit because, Lussier said, “reducing the maternal mortality rate is really important for us.”
