Lauren Goode

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Max Levchin’s Glow Fertility App: The Full D11 Session (Video)

It’s not often — or ever — that we discuss things like “cervical mucus” at the D conference, but Max Levchin’s new app pretty much necessitated the phrase.

In fact, he said it no fewer than five times.

Called Glow, the free iPhone app uses advanced data analytics to measure and alert a woman to her fertility cycles, based on the information she shares (including menstrual cycles and, yes, the texture of her cervical mucus).

“The [fertility] industry today is so ridiculously 15th Century,” Levchin said.

Levchin appeared onstage today to demo the new app for Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, facing tough questions about the app, and quickly became a buzzed-about topic of conversation at the conference.

Part of Levchin’s goal isn’t just to get women pregnant, but also to present a new financial model for health care. Glow includes a voluntary Glow mutual fund to which women can contribute $50 a month for future fertility treatments. Levchin plans to kickstart the fund with $1 million from his own pocket.

Watch the full video below:

Full D11 Conference Coverage

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