Going through IVF made her create her own pregnancy tests
Lara Solomon build Hoopsy after she underwent IVF and became determined to fix pregnancy testing's plastic problem.
Lara Solomon didn’t set out to start a pregnancy test company. She was trying to conceive when she realized one of the most essential tools in the process was surprisingly wasteful.
In 2021, the British-born entrepreneur was in the middle of IVF, living in Australia but flying back and forth to Spain for embryo transfers during Covid, with punishing weeks of quarantine and isolation.
After her second embryo transfer, she had to quarantine alone in a hotel room in Australia before she could return to her home. The stretch that followed is what’s known as the two-week wait: the period after an embryo transfer when you wait to see if it has worked. Like many women going through IVF, she spent hours on online forums for people trying to conceive. She noticed something.
“Every single day, there would be another photo of five or ten tests posted by the same person. It just shocked me, the amount of plastic in something that’s literally used for five minutes.”
When Lara returned home, she met up with a friend who had been going through her own fertility journey. They compared notes about what they had witnessed online. “We both went, ‘this just seems crazy,’” Lara says. They decided to do something about it.
That “something” became Hoopsy, a sustainable pregnancy test Lara initially started with that same friend. A few months into building, her cofounder decided to step away, and since then Lara has carried the business forward on her own.The premise is simple: reduce plastic use by 97% without changing how the test works.
“Every single day, there would be another photo of five or ten tests posted by the same person. It just shocked me, the amount of plastic in something that’s literally used for five minutes.”
Lara is not a first-time founder. She spent nearly two decades building consumer product businesses—from a seven-figure phone accessory brand to hooded poncho towels—scaling products into retail across Australia and the UK.
But her pregnancy test, Hoopsy, pushed her into entirely new territory. It was a regulated medical device, with layers of manufacturing, testing, and approval. Her way in was scrappy—and surprisingly simple. “I took some pregnancy tests apart going, ‘how complicated can it be?’”
In September of 2021, Lara reached out to more than 100 pregnancy test manufacturers on Alibaba: “Could you make me one with as little plastic as possible? Everyone would come back and say, ‘oh, we’ve got this one, we’ve got that one.’ And I was like, no—I don’t want what you’ve got. I want you to change what you’re doing.”
After a lot of nos, a manufacturer in China said yes—one already producing pregnancy tests for the UK and European markets with CE certification, allowing Hoopsy to adapt an existing compliant format rather than start from scratch. “That was in December,” Lara says. “We decided then that Hoopsy was going to be a business, so we registered it [with the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency], and then they developed the test in two weeks.”
What arrived was an early prototype: a slim paper-based strip without the bulky plastic casing of conventional tests. “We wee’d on it, literally,” she says. The result line appeared, but with background noise that made it commercially unviable; by the second version, it was clean.
She placed an order for 60,000 units—the manufacturer’s minimum—and made quick decisions on pricing, packaging, and positioning. She chose a fully recyclable brown paper kraft tube, designed to stand out from the plastic-heavy norm.
Rapid Fire Q&A
Concept year: 2021
Months to incorporation: 6
Personally invested: $60,000
Friends and family capital: AU$233,000 or roughly USD$160,000 (equity crowdfunding)
Institutional capital: Angel investors and accelerator funding (no VC capital to date)
Year of first raise: 2022
Ownership: 84% (founder-owned)
Months to paying herself: 12 months
Months to profitability: Not yet profitable
After use, the test itself, which is essentially a slim piece of paper, still needs to be thrown away. Because the absorbent tip comes into contact with urine, it’s considered sanitary waste. But it uses far less material overall. Unlike traditional plastic tests that can sit in landfill for decades, Hoopsy’s primarily paper-based design reduces total waste and breaks down much more quickly.
Manufacturing took six weeks, but shipping the product to the UK and paying for customs and taxes required more capital than expected. After investing about $60,000 herself, she raised roughly AU$233,000 (roughly USD$160,000) through equity crowdfunding, alongside support from angels and accelerators.
Hoopsy launched in July 2022 in the UK, where it was faster to bring the product to market, via direct-to-consumer sales and early retail partnerships. In the months leading up to launch, Lara compiled lists of buyers and reached out relentlessly, securing placement in roughly 20 stores by the time inventory landed.
Her initial 60,000 units sold through, but reaching customers proved harder than expected. To understand why, she built a focus group of ten women trying to conceive, offering free tests for feedback, and found that sustainability alone wasn’t enough—people still reached for what was available and familiar. “We had to rethink how we were showing up—not just as an eco product, but as something that people actually trusted and felt supported by.”
Still, the reviews Lara received were overwhelmingly positive, with customers praising the tests as easy to use, discreet, and more sustainable.
She moved to the U.S. in spring 2025, where the opportunity was larger—but bringing Hoopsy stateside meant more than clearing a new regulatory pathway. Because the original product was built on a manufacturer’s existing test, Hoopsy did not own the underlying intellectual property. “I felt like that was a huge risk,” Lara says, so she began developing a new version, one she says is unique to Hoopsy, with two patents filed.
Now, she is fundraising for FDA clearance. The filing costs around $60,000, but the bulk—bench testing, clinical trials, and real-world validation—will cost around $900,000; she has secured $100,000 so far. Until then, Hoopsy can’t launch in the U.S. “I’m so close,” she says. “I can touch it, but I can’t touch it.”
More recently, she’s launched a “fertility snail mail club,” a monthly subscription available to people all over the world that includes a letter she writes, a recipe from a fertility nutritionist, a mindful prompt, a positive affirmation, and a small gift. “It’s a hug in a letter,” Lara says. “Because when you’re going through this, even if you’ve got a partner, no one really knows what it’s like, except for you. And it’s really hard.” Lara own IVF journey did not result in a pregnancy, so she knows how much this type of support matters.
She brings that understanding into everything she does. “It’s hard being a solo founder. Some days it feels like no one cares apart from you, and you think, ‘why am I doing this?’”
“When I’m having one of those days, I talk to people who’ve been through fertility journeys,” she says. “And it reminds me that this matters.”
Lara’s Building Blocks
Reach out and ask people. There are so many people who are happy to help for free, but you have to ask.
Network. I moved from Australia to the UK and knew next to no one in the startup space, so I went to two or three events a week for three months. Now I have a great network around me. I then moved to the U.S. and did the same thing.. You never know who knows who.
Remember that everything takes longer than you think. I’ve done this multiple times, and every time I think I’ll get X number of customers in X months, and it always takes longer. I’m impatient and often very optimistic, which doesn’t help.
Get a coach or mentor. Having someone outside the business who can help you see what you might be missing is invaluable. And if you’re a solo founder, it’s really helpful to have someone on your side.
Say yes. To interviews, podcasts, media callouts, pitch competitions. If people start seeing you everywhere, you begin to look like the next big thing. Whether it’s raising money, finding customers, or getting advice, it’s easier if you have an online presence and credibility through the media. It can also make your company look bigger than it is, which helps with the smoke and mirrors of getting funding.
Bonus: The wUP List is live at womanupco.com!
Here are Lara’s fave 2 brands to shop…
Summersalt As a beach lover, my swimsuit collection is always expanding, and finding one-pieces with long torsos is always a challenge, which is why I love Summersalt. That, and the recycled fabrics.
Flodesk (Tech & Tools) This is the email marketing software I use. It is easy, reliable and won’t break the bank.
