Deirdre O’Neill is a dual-qualified lawyer in England and Ireland with a Masters in Medical Law and she is the co-founder and Chief Commercial & Legal Officer of at-home hormone and fertility test and clinical service provider Hertility Health.
Deirdre specialised in corporate law and venture capital at leading law firms for a number of years before co-founding Hertility where she deals with venture scaling, legal, regulatory, and corporate development.
Hertility is a women’s health company, supporting women all the way from menstruation through menopause with comprehensive at-home testing, telemedicine and treatment. Hertility champions proactive and early diagnosis of reproductive health issues, as well as hormonal monitoring to improve women’s well-being, health and the chances of avoiding invasive procedures.
Highlights
The allure of the law is still there because I still very much play an active role as being a lawyer, I just sort of merged that with being an entrepreneur.
I was working with a lot of startups and helping them to raise capital and I never saw any company that had even half the acumen or ability as my own twin sister.
She said, ‘Well, we should set up a company’ and I was like ‘Well, I can do that right now!’. There’s this great photograph of the two of us in our pyjamas on her bed and I’ve got my laptop setting up the company.
Our skillsets are so distinct and so separate that where my weaknesses lie are her strengths and vice versa.
I don’t think having a start-up is exactly how anyone thinks it’s going to be. I thought that hours were long working in law.
The funding world is definitely not in any way easy, I think it helps us profoundly that we are each experts in our own field.
Gynae conditions affect one in three women, hormonal health impacts 100% of women.
We are here to set the record straight and to help people realise that this is a much more profound thing than fertility.
We’re so mission led, we’re so determined, we’re trying to change the status quo.
It’s only when you have a true knowledge of the system that you can truly understand how broken it is.