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Comment by otoburb | Hacker News Reader

Congrats on your launch!

How is Anja Health different from other established US providers such as Cord Blood Registry, Via-Cord, or Cryo-Cell?

Also, if our family already has a sample frozen at one of these other facilities, and assuming there's a compelling reason to switch, do you have a tissue sample transfer mechanism/protocol?

>>If you didn’t, what prevented you from doing so?

Didn't for our first child because we weren't aware (education/awareness issue), but we did it for the second child. It feels like a tail risk hedge, and literally YOLO-type analysis is what motivates us to continue paying for the sample to stay frozen.

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Thank you! We're different in a few ways: 1. More affordable pricing. 2. We manually process stem cells vs. automatically processing them (can yield up to 25% more stem cells this way) 3. We offer placenta banking 4. We have a brand and community behind us! I've built out a following on TikTok of about 80k thus far (has grown by about 25k since the batch began, so growing quickly), and I think many resonate with our brand and especially my personal story, which I talk about often

So glad you did it for your second! Siblings can be a 75% match, so that's awesome. Love the term YOLO-type analysis haha

Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I don't necessarily feel that having a large tiktok following is a plus for a medical service provider.

Especially when you're considering something very long term. What does TikTok branding mean in 20-year timespan?

Distribution is distribution :)

I don't doubt that it's a good way for you to quickly get customers. I just would never use it myself.

But it's getting pretty clear that the only innovation here is to target lower income families than your competitors, by using platforms like tiktok and charging a low upfront fee (but higher monthly fee).

Yup! Lower income families like us because we are accessible. Higher income families & providers as well like us because of our personalization and onboarding

Well, you're much more expensive in the long run. But that's pretty typical for companies targeting poorer people. So you're essentially a very expensive financing solution.

I have looked around, Anja is the cheapest. Other company has a big upfront cost that is around $1000 or more, not Anja. In the long run, it is also cheaper.

Low income families themselves have told us they’re so happy they finally found an affordable solution. So I’d beg to differ (qualifying low income as <75k household income. They self reported)

I can no longer reply to your last comment @Grustaf for some reason haha but I'm guessing you're still reading these. We are currently the most affordable in the industry. When you add up cord blood alone amongst all cord blood banks and make the plans specific to 20 years, ours comes out to be ~3000. Others come out to be 3500+. Can send you some data on this if you'd like to correspond via email

Yeah you have to wait a minute or something until you reply.

No need, I believe you. It's just that it seemed others here pay less than that.

But it's a bit confusing that you only pay for the first 8 years. That makes it look more expensive than it is. Why not lower the monthly fee to $20 but keep it for the full 20 years?

Didnt want parents to have to worry for an extended period.

It seems to me that lowering the monthly cost is precisely what they'd prefer. 8 years later both parents are probably back to working full-time, and with promotions etc they will have better economies.

Why would a young not so well off family prefer to pay 35 dollars a month for eight years, to paying say 20 for 20 years?

I'm really confused by this because it seems that it would benefit both your customers, and you, since you could charge more overall while imposing a smaller burden. Plus it would sound cheaper.

Which tiktok is that? I only found these:

2173 followers (personal account): https://www.tiktok.com/@kathrynjc7

699 followers: https://www.tiktok.com/@anjahealth

10 followers: https://www.tiktok.com/@anja_health

it is @kathrynanja

thanks

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