Info Diet gives a glimpse into the handpicked feeds and media routines of the people helping shape what comes next. In each edition, a different builder spends two days recording everything they read, follow, hear, and watch to keep ahead of the future. This time: Afton Vechery, co-founder and CEO of the reproductive health company Modern Fertility (now part of Ro), which offers fertility hormone basics, including at-home tests and digital tools, for everyone with ovaries. Afton lives in Los Angeles and San Francisco with her partner and dog, Monster.
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Sunday, March 6
7:45 a.m.: I wake up to a text from one of my closest friends, who runs satellite shipping for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet startup. She has to skip our planned 9 a.m. bike ride, so my partner and I join her family for coffee and a catch-up. We talk about building ops processes to get Starlink to Ukraine (!!!).
9:30 a.m.: Once I’m home, I start reading up on Ukraine news. I first go to WSJ.com and look over the homepage. I don’t read the WSJ every day, but on weekends it’s my usual source for catching up on world news. I think the headlines, and the coverage overall, feel less sensational than what I see elsewhere. When it comes to current events, some of the best recommendations arrive through text threads. A good friend in Romania sent over a video from the YouTuber RealLifeLore that breaks down the Ukraine invasion in a clear, easy-to-follow way. I listen while I make coffee.
10 a.m.: While my partner is packing for a conference, I go back into my email and work through a stack of newsletters. I’m an extremely fast reader, though I slow down when something feels more high touch. Tracking cultural shifts matters for any consumer-facing business, but especially for one like Modern Fertility, where the goal is to encourage behavior change or reshape conventional thinking.
OutOfPocket by Nikhil Krishnan is one of the most thoughtful, detailed, and compelling newsletters about changes in the healthcare industry. I only skim it this week, since the subject isn’t really my thing.
Sarah Shapiro’s weekly retail newsletter, another one I love, is a roundup of essential reading on fashion and retail. This is link curation at its best — keeping me efficiently current on #allthethings, with just enough personality mixed in. One piece is about Bottega Veneta, a brand I adore, and I read it like a guilty pleasure. Modern Fertility isn’t a fashion label, but it has to be something people are pulled toward and want to engage with. There are crossovers across consumer categories, and lessons to draw from all of them. Fashion and retail are no different — I like understanding the speed of change that keeps people interested and the balance between scarcity and abundance that can make something appealing, even when it’s widely available.
I also read the Lean Luxe Debrief, which looks at the modern luxury market, and ThingTesting, which offers thoughtful commentary on consumer behavior, emerging brands, and our changing sense of what feels desirable.
After the newsletters, I finally get to that “vibe shift” piece in The Cut, which I’ve seen circulated more times than I can remember over the last week. Naturally, I can’t help thinking about Modern Fertility. I’m thankful that we work on an evergreen problem in an industry so central to society, rather than in the business of whatever happens to be trendy right now.
Then Instagram: I can’t scroll without assessing which DTC brands are paying for retargeting and how they’re executing it. Overall, I find the rising number of DTC brands encouraging, because it reinforces the idea that companies have to stand apart to succeed. It’s easier than ever to launch a company now, but harder than ever to grow one.
I answer a DM from Cindy Eckert, one of our early investors, best known for taking the female version of Viagra to market. She’s asking about different celebrities who might get involved with Modern Fertility. We held an event in LA where influencers, tastemakers, and celebrities came to try our products and talk about our work. I now follow 30+ of the attendees, whose follower counts range from 10k to over 5M. I love watching how genuinely they interact with their audiences. The influence of creators is baffling, in the best way. I’m not very active on Instagram, but I do like popping in to say hi now and then.
I’m especially drawn to design accounts, particularly from emerging designers — along with vintage, interior design, and travel and arts content. At the top of my list are Studio Shamshiri, Kelly Wearstler, and Tappan Collective. Erin Robertson (found through a high school friend) makes amazing custom pieces. And Pickwick Vintage Show is always a dependable source for brands and stores in LA.
I’m also captivated by ballet’s timelessness, beauty, and culture. It’s incredible to watch dancers and creators find a wider audience, reshaping some of the more traditional ideas of ballet while remaining faithful to the art form. Must-follows are James B. Whiteside, Isabella Boylston, and Misty Copeland.
Now for some lurking in my favorite communities, beginning with Farcaster, a new company started by my good friend Dan. I’m using it to learn about NFTs, which I honestly never expected to care about. I’ve changed my mind.
Next is the Modern Community, our testing ground for finding new product ideas. It also keeps me close to the everyday questions and stories of our customers, who share everything from their experiences with our at-home tests to their complaints about birth control to their miscarriage coping strategies.
I read one more thing during the packing session: a study on the “changing tide of fertility.” It’s one of many journal articles on an ongoing list I text to myself. Quite a few come from our clinical channels on Slack. Academic journal abstracts don’t always grab me, but this is the most interesting one I’ve ever come across. Reading it makes me excited about an opinion piece I’m working on (and need to get back to writing).
1:30 p.m.: After a packed hour-long break (including a bike ride on the boardwalk, a quick workout, and tacos and beer), I sit down to work on … my taxes. I started doing monthly themes this year: “Personal Health January,” “Financial February,” and “Experts March.” I’m behind on Financial February, which means I can’t move on to my March priorities yet (getting back into trumpet lessons, finding a swim coach).
Then I spend some time looking into global access to birth control, prompted by a recent conversation with a friend about birth control bans in Iran (her home country). I was embarrassed that I didn’t know more about the issue. I read a fairly recent Washington Post article, and then two academic papers on the history of Iranian birth control policies.
Learning about artificial wombs has been one of my recent weekend passion projects. With any subject, I like to ground myself in both the public and clinical perspectives (and the standard deviations of each). So I read two Atlantic articles, both by Conor Friedersdorf, to get a feel for the mainstream story. Then I work through a few journal articles and order some books (the physical kind) by professors I’d like to meet. I think politics and ethics, not science, will be the reason we don’t see as much progress on artificial wombs as we should in our lifetimes. There are so many interesting ethical questions — for example, is it OK to use an artificial womb to reduce the 50% mortality rate among babies born prematurely? What if that raises the risk of life-threatening conditions? How do we balance those tradeoffs, and whose choice is it?
Monday, March 7
6:30 a.m.: I wake up, check emails and texts, and then lie flat for a short meditation. People say it’s unhealthy to start the day by opening your phone and jumping into Slack and email, but that’s always been my default, and changing it isn’t high on my list 🙂
I quickly read the WSJ before an at-home yoga class with a few friends. We usually all have to jump into 8:30 calls, but it’s a great way to start the day.
9 a.m.: Time to start a day packed with back-to-back meetings. One is about my involvement with the Society of Science and Public, where I serve on the National Leadership Council. The first company I ever started, at 13 years old, grew out of my Intel Science Fair project, a competition run by the SSP. I love that I can still stay close to the organization today. My call is with Dianne Newman, a molecular microbiologist at Caltech who sits on the SSP board. I review her latest research before we speak.
5:30 p.m.: I begin going through freshly delivered raw data from our annual “Modern State of Fertility” report, for which we team up with a like-minded organization to research one cultural aspect of fertility. This year, we’re partnering with the dating app Bumble to look at how fertility shapes dating, and how dating shapes fertility.
Working through these early findings for major patterns feels like a shot of instant fuel — it’s SO interesting to see research on human behavior tied to something so fundamental to our humanity (and so personal and complicated) as choosing a partner and becoming a parent. Here’s a sneak peak: 78% of respondents don’t believe having children is necessary for a fulfilling life. When people with ovaries have so many ways to devote their time and energy, beginning a family is often postponed or pushed down the list. That just makes more information and support even more necessary for making fertility decisions.
6 p.m.: I check things off my to-do list while listening to Second Life, the exceptionally well-made podcast from Who What Wear founder Hillary Kerr. This episode includes stylist Karla Welch, an early investor in Modern Fertility who has only impressed me more as I’ve come to know her. Karla recently launched a company called Period, which offers affordably priced, non-gendered, sustainable period underwear, in an attempt to remove the stigma around periods. I think it’s amazing.
11:30 p.m.: I skip my nightly news check-in. Sometimes I just can’t manage going too far into world news before bed, especially on weeknights ahead of an early wake-up. I’ll catch up in the AM.
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Get Afton’s Info Diet
Read
- OutOfPocket, by Nikhil Krishnan Sarah Shapiro’s weekly retail newsletter The Lean Luxe Debrief ThingTesting “The New, New Bottega Veneta,” by Vanessa Friedman [NYT] “A Vibe Shift Is Coming,” by Allison P. Davis [NYMag] “The Changing Tide of Human Fertility,” by R. John Aitken [human reproduction] “Iran Doubles Down on Abortion and Contraception Restrictions,” by Miriam Berger [WaPo] “Iran’s Shift in Family Planning Policies: Concerns and challenges,” by Mohammad Karamouzian, Hamid Sharifi, and Ali Akbar Haghdoost [International Journal of Health Policy and Management] “Birth Control Policies in Iran: a Public Health and Ethics Perspective,” by Mehdi Aloosh and Yashar Saghai [Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health] “Artificial Wombs Birth a Complex Controversy” and “Liberation or Folly? Your Takes on Artificial Wombs,” by Conor Friedersdorf [The Atlantic]
Watch
- “Why Russia Is Invading Ukraine,” by RealLifeLore [Youtube]
Listen
- Second Life, hosted by Hillary Kerr
Follow
- Cindy Eckert, Studio Shamshiri, Kelly Wearstler, Tappan Collective, Erin Robertson, Pickwick Vintage Show, James B. Whiteside, Isabella Boylston, Misty Copeland [Instagram]
Lurk
- Farcaster (pre-launch) Modern Community
Learn
- The Newman Lab at Caltech