The financial struggles of a breast pump startup
I&#x27;m an exclusively pumping parent right now.<p>Naya isn&#x27;t the first company to try to do something like this. Willow and Anabella are two other companies&#x2F;devices trying to sell people on a better pump. Anabella&#x27;s indiegogo campaign has made the rounds in all my pumping groups like 100 times on its promise of getting 100% milk out (it&#x27;s a common idea that pumps right now can&#x27;t get all available milk out like babies&#x27; mouths can). Willow is being sold on the idea that it fits in your bra without any tubes or hassle, which is a big deal for people wishing to discreetly pump in workplaces and such.<p>But having used the top-of-the-line (Symphony and Ameda hospital grade pumps) all the way down to home-grade and manual pumps (Spectra S2, Freestyle, etc.) in the past 6 months - pretty sure it doesn&#x27;t matter how effective the pump is or how comfortable it ends up being. The act of pumping itself is very difficult for many people and time consuming, and when you have employers, coworkers, and family&#x2F;friends that don&#x27;t respect your need to pump, you end up not pumping rather than doubling down with your $1k pump.<p>Especially in the face of the fact that most parents in the US will qualify to get a free home-grade pump through insurance (including through WIC etc.) and that without insurance the average pump is only $100-200 plus supplies another $50-100 - along with an expectation to replace the pump every time you have a new child (the pump itself does wear out - I wear them out prematurely due to EPing :) )... I think these companies face a lot more problems than they&#x27;re willing to acknowledge. VCs may be frustrating to work with here, but a lot of questions remain. I still wish these companies the best of luck though, as all technology has to start somewhere and then maybe becomes cheaper and more accessible over time :) Breast pumps decades ago look like torture devices in comparison to what&#x27;s available now.<p>edit to add: full disclosure, I haven&#x27;t purchased or preordered any of the crop of new pumps. pretty much none of them support my (large) nipple size, and none of them seem to have worked closely with EPers as it is difficult to near impossible to find a pump that also promises that they&#x27;ll have parts available for replacement. due to pumping all the damn time, I have to replace parts fairly frequently.