46 | FORBES ASIA NOVEMBER 2016

TIMOTHY ARCHIBALD FOR FORBES

E

ven among the hyperactive overachieving techies in his cohort, Martin

Varsavsky stands out. He’s built more successful businesses—six—than all

but the most prolific serial entrepreneurs. He’s also fathered more chil-

dren—six as well—than all but the most prolific dads. Yet at 56 Varsavsky,

one of the most recognizable figures on Europe’s tech scene, is going for

something of a “lucky seven.” Twice.

After moving to the United States from Spain two years ago, he set to work launching

another company. And his wife, Nina, is expecting another child in January, their third

together. “We call him Seven for now,” Varsavsky quips. The two sevens are inextricably

linked. His new startup, Prelude Fertility, whose story is being told here for the first time,

has a bold plan to turn the infertility industry on its head. Varsavsky isn’t just Prelude’s

founder—Seven, his upcoming child, will be the first “Prelude baby.”

Armed with $200 million, Prelude plans to take the technology of infertility—in vitro

fertilization and egg freezing—and aggressively expand it into fertility, hoping to usher

in a world where women’s decisions about family and career aren’t ruled by their bio-

logical clocks. Rather than cater primarily to women nearing the end of their childbear-

ing years, who often find it harder to conceive, Prelude will target women in their late

20s to mid-30s, when it’s easier to harvest eggs and when those eggs are more likely to

lead to healthy babies. As women increasingly delay childbirth—nearly one in three in

America now has her first child after 30 and nearly one in ten after 35—Prelude sees

itself as an insurance policy that gives women more control over their childbearing

choices. “We’re about helping women and couples have healthy babies when they’re

ready,” Varsavsky says.

Prelude isn’t the first company to urge women to think about fertility earlier in life.

While some critics decry egg freezing for younger women as a risky, often unnecessary

procedure that can give them a false sense of security and increase pressure to put ca-

reer before family, a gaggle of new businesses with names like Extend Fertility and Egg-

Banxx have sprung up to serve them, ofering financing plans that make it easier to cover

Fertile Ground

BY MIGUEL HELFT

Serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky has a $200 million

war chest built around persuading women to freeze their

eggs while they’re young. He’s marketing a one-stop hedge

on career, mates and motherhood.

FORBES ASIA

END OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLOCK