🧬 Legacy: Story of the $150M “Sperm King”

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What if I told you a burn accident involving hot tea led to a $150 million male fertility startup? 

And that same founder raised millions of dollars right after making a joke about masturbation on stage at YC Demo Day?

This is the story of Legacy and its founder, Khaled Kteily. 

In the past seven years, he's built the largest male fertility clinic in North America called Legacy, raised $50 million from investors like Bain Capital and Justin Bieber, and survived when every other DTC health startup died.

Now… grab your coffee, sit back, and let me tell you how Khaled convinced 50,000 men to mail in their sperm.

Khaled escaped to Montreal from Lebanon at age 17 when war unexpectedly broke out in Lebanon.

He was smuggled across the border to Syria in the back of a taxi and took planes, trains, and automobiles to make it to Dubai, Brussels, Toronto, and ultimately, Montreal.

Growing up in multiple countries gave him something most American founders don't have: tolerance for chaos.

In Lebanon, when the electricity went out for hours, you shrugged and figured it out. When there was no hot water, you boiled water in a bucket and used that to shower. You leaned into all the amazing aspects of where you were: in this case, the incredible food, culture, history, and society in Beirut.

He also has entrepreneurship genes running in his blood. His father started a business in Vietnam 30 years ago, leaving a well-paying career in London to pursue his own entrepreneurship endeavors.

There's a Lebanese saying: "Throw a Lebanese anywhere in the world and they'll become an entrepreneur."

Ten years ago, while Khaled was in graduate school at Harvard, he had a terrible accident with boiling tea.

He spilled it on his lap, causing second-degree burns. The skin on his thigh peeled off. He was hospitalized and couldn’t wear normal pants for more than a month.

During his recovery, a classmate who had cancer mentioned that he’d done sperm banking before starting chemotherapy. The comment stuck with Khaled. His accident had been painful, but it could have been much worse—it could have taken away his ability to have children someday.

Curious, he decided to try sperm banking himself at a well-known clinic in Cambridge.

It turned out to be the most awkward experience of his life.

He was shown into a small room with a leather couch, porn magazines on the table, and footsteps echoing outside the door. The entire process felt uncomfortable and outdated.

Yet, the outcome was profound. He walked out knowing he could have kids for the rest of his life, no matter what happened.

Here's what made this idea even more urgent:

Sperm counts have declined by over 50% in the last 40 years, likely due to microplastics and lifestyle change. That means a 25-year-old man today is about half as fertile as his grandfather was at the same age 🤯.

The decline is accelerating. Sperm counts are dropping 26% per decade. At this rate, we're headed toward "spermageddon", a point where we're functionally incapable of conceiving without assisted reproductive technologies. 

And it's not just about fertility. 1 in 6 couples now struggle with infertility, with male factors contributing to about a third of all cases.

Suddenly, Khaled had his multi-billion dollar idea:

If you could preserve your ability to have children for the rest of your life by masturbating at home once, wouldn't every guy do it?

After graduating from Harvard, Khaled started tinkering on the idea for Legacy while working full-time at the World Economic Forum. Eventually, he took a leap of faith, left his job, and raised $170K from friends and family to bring the idea to life.

The goal was simple: make it possible for men to freeze their sperm without leaving home, and at a fraction of the cost of going to a fertility clinic.

Because he was operating in a tightly regulated health space, he couldn’t “move fast and break things.” 

Instead, he spent six months building the first MVP of Legacy, which included:

To build credibility and raise more capital, Khaled set his sights on Y Combinator.

After two failed attempts, he eventually got in on the third try! 

At Demo Day, the biggest moment of his career, he realized he had a problem.

There were 200 startups pitching back-to-back. Investors were context-switching every two minutes, jumping from agtech to fintech to healthtech. He needed a strong hook to stand out from the crowd.

He sure found one.

“Look, if you want to freeze your sperm today, you have to go to a clinic and masturbate there. But we don’t want to change existing consumers, and we know that men love masturbating at home.”

He paused.

The room erupted in laughter while Paul Graham shook his head.

The risk paid off. 

Investors surrounded him after the pitch, and that moment led to a $3.5M seed round.

One of Legacy’s early growth hacks was getting investors to purchase a kit. 

Khaled told potential investors he’d only meet with them if they bought a Legacy kit first.

During YC’s final week, sales exploded as investors rushed to get in. For the $5,000 package, Khaled even offered to credit the purchase toward their investment.

Press was another major growth lever from the start. 

Khaled applied to every startup competition and program he could find, from Harvard iLab to TechCrunch Disrupt, where they won first place and landed on the TechCrunch’s front page for three straight days.

Within three months of launch, Legacy had been featured in The New York Times, TechCrunch, and The Washington Post.

It worked because the topic was inherently funny and attention-grabbing. Anything with “sperm” in the headline gets you ten times more clicks. Khaled leaned into it, striking a rare balance between humor and seriousness that made both reporters and readers pay attention.

Early on, Legacy discovered something surprising: a lot of their customers were women buying kits for their boyfriends, fiancés, or husbands.

This insight was HUGE.

They reoriented the brand to be more female-friendly, shifting from dark blue and white (very masculine) to dark green and gold (more gender-neutral). They started targeting ads to women.

Women were more excited about this idea than men and they were finally saying: "We've had to think about fertility all our lives. We have to freeze our eggs and do all this complicated stuff. All you guys need to do is jerk off at home."

Legacy started DTC to build a brand and get their first 1,000 customers. Then, they used that traction and credibility to move into B2B partnerships.

They started investing in B2B relationships early which paid off big time.

Today, Legacy works with:

Legacy has served more than 50,000 customers and has become the largest male fertility company in North America. 

The company is valued at $150M and has raised $50M from investors including Bain Capital, Justin Bieber, and The Weeknd.

1/ “Move fast and break things” doesn’t work everywhere: Khaled spent 6–7 months building everything from scratch, from kits, logistics, to lab partnerships. No shortcuts. In consumer health, you need every piece in place before going to market.

2/ Be memorable, not just perfect: A well-timed joke about masturbation led to a $3.5M seed round. In a crowded market, being memorable wins attention… and investors.

3/ Press can be an early growth engine: It won’t work for every business, but if you’re building something attention-grabbing (like sperm testing), press can drive early growth and legitimacy.

4/ Start DTC, scale B2B: Use consumer traction to open B2B doors. Those partnerships can keep you afloat when DTC CAC climbs; however, B2B takes time, so start early.

5/ Listen closely to your customers: Legacy learned that women were a key customer segment, even though men were the end users, and pivoted the brand accordingly.

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See you next Tuesday,

Leo

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