The Founder Who Ignored Imposter Syndrome and Built a Global Fertility Empire

"I had no idea. I didn't know what an HSA was, all the acronyms—HRA, HSA, HDHP, ERISA. I really had to learn all of that."

When Tammy Sun pitched her fertility startup a decade ago, the category she was building didn't exist. Investors dismissed it as a lifestyle business, a niche play unworthy of venture capital. After 99 rejections, she raised her first million. Today, Carrot Fertility operates in 170 countries, serving millions in a market that didn't even have a name when she started.

This conversation arrives at an inflection point. Women founders receive just 2.4% of venture funding, a number that has actually declined. Maternity stores are closing nationwide as birth rates plummet. Yet paradoxically, women over 40 represent the only demographic having more babies, while one in six couples confronts infertility—a number experts believe vastly undercounts reality since you're only counted if you can afford to seek care.

Sun saw these contradictions not as obstacles but as opportunities. Without a male co-founder, without prior startup experience, without even knowing basic healthcare acronyms, she built one of the most valuable fertility companies in the world. Her secret wasn't expertise. It was embracing what she didn't know.

"One day I sort of woke up and I realized like I should embrace the fact that I don't know," Sun explains. "Having a beginner's mind and coming in with curiosity and excitement and imagination around the art of what is possible—I can't think of an area of the world that needs it more now than healthcare."

From that first million that was "the hardest million dollars I ever raised" to expanding beyond fertility into what she calls "post reproductive fertility care" with their menopause product—which became their fastest growing product ever—Sun has earned the right to her radical advice about imposter syndrome: "You can totally ignore it. You can pretend like it doesn't exist, and you can just act the way that you feel like you should act."

In this episode of Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw, discover how a non-professional founder transformed a personal fertility crisis into a global healthcare platform. From recognizing that "half of all infertility is related to male factor" to launching Sprints at the nexus of metabolic and fertility care, Sun reveals why the future of women's health isn't about incremental improvements to a broken system. It's about having the audacity to imagine something entirely new.

For Tammy Sun, building in the space between naivete and expertise isn't a disadvantage. It's the only way to create categories that don't yet exist. In a world where knowing too much can blind you to what's possible, she's proof that sometimes the best qualification for changing healthcare is not knowing why it can't be changed.

Key Insights:

✔ Why the fastest-growing fertility demographic reveals everything about modern family planning
✔ How embracing ignorance became a competitive advantage in healthcare innovation
✔ The hidden truth about male factor infertility that affects half of all cases
✔ Why imposter syndrome is a luxury founders can't afford
✔ How moving from California to Arkansas changed everything
✔ What GLP-1s mean for the future of fertility and healthcare

About the Guest: Tammy Sun is the Founder and CEO of Carrot Fertility, now operating in almost 170 countries after starting with 12. Without prior founder experience or healthcare expertise, she transformed a personal fertility journey into a category-defining company. She built Carrot into one of the most valuable fertility platforms globally, expanding from fertility into menopause and metabolic fertility care.

Chapters

2:03 The State of Women's Health and Political Landscape
4:51 Origin Story: Building a Category from Scratch
8:01 Fertility Trends and the Education Gap
11:41 Raising the First Million: The Founding Journey
15:11 Embracing the Beginner's Mind in Healthcare
16:41 The Future: From Fertility to Lifelong Care
22:38 Advice for Women Founders: Throwing Away Imposter Syndrome

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