When Luke and Camryn Novak talk about their new fertility supplement business, they frame it the way you'd expect from former Division I athletes—as preparation, discipline, the work before the work. Showing up for fatherhood, they say, starts before day one.
On April 28, 2026, the Austin-based couple announced TIES, their direct-to-consumer men's fertility supplement, backed by a $1.5 million seed round led by Jason H. Karp's HumanCo, with Karp joining the board. The product, called Foundations, targets a market that's still finding its footing: men actively trying to improve their reproductive health in advance of conception.
It's a straightforward pitch in a category that's becoming less niche by the month. Sperm counts are falling—a meta-analysis by Levine et al. published in Human Reproduction Update documented roughly a 50% decline in concentration between 1973 and 2018—and cultural attitudes around reproductive responsibility are shifting in ways that make a couples-oriented fertility brand feel less like an outlier and more like good timing.
Whether TIES can carve out meaningful share in an increasingly crowded field is another question entirely.
The formulation itself isn't revolutionary. Foundations contains seven ingredients commonly cited in male fertility research: vitamin C, CoQ10, vitamin B12, L-carnitine and acetyl-L-carnitine, zinc, selenium, and methylated folate. TIES emphasizes third-party testing and manufacturing in an FDA-registered, cGMP-compliant facility—standard operating procedure for premium supplement brands, though worth noting in a category where quality claims don't always hold up under scrutiny.
The scientific grounding is solid, if familiar. The company points to a 2022 network meta-analysis on antioxidants and male fertility outcomes, along with various randomized controlled trials published between 2004 and 2023. Their advisory board includes Peter Kolettis, a male infertility specialist with a Cleveland Clinic fellowship, and Brooke Boskovich, a fertility-focused dietitian who highlighted the role of methylfolate and mitochondrial health in the launch materials.
"Antioxidants and an optimized reproductive tract environment are foundational to male fertility," Kolettis noted—clinical language that matters to informed buyers but may still feel esoteric to the broader wellness consumer TIES will need to reach.
Here's where things get interesting, or at least revealing. As of April 29, the company's website displayed a password-gated "Coming Soon" page indicating availability in April 2026, creating a slight disconnect with the press release's claim that the product was "available now." The 120-capsule bottles exist; pricing and exact dosing details did not, at least not publicly. Social handles are live (@allourties), suggesting a phased rollout or waitlist strategy—common enough in DTC launches, but it leaves the immediate commercial picture somewhat opaque.
The Novaks' positioning leans heavily on the couple's journey, the idea of preconception as a joint endeavor rather than a clinical intervention. It's a softer, relationship-oriented angle in a space where competitors have taken different tacks. SwimClub, which launched in September 2025 with Stanford urologist Michael Eisenberg as chief scientist, emphasized clinical credibility and data-driven narratives. ExSeed Health in Europe markets a multivitamin with a nearly identical ingredient profile—CoQ10, carnitine, zinc, selenium, B12, folate—but positions around at-home testing technology.
The ingredient overlap isn't surprising. The research base for male fertility supplementation is narrow and well-trodden, which means differentiation comes down to branding, distribution, and storytelling. TIES seems acutely aware of this. The Austin lifestyle aesthetic, the athletic backgrounds, the emphasis on partnership—these aren't incidental. Many wellness brands find traction by tying founder stories to broader aspirations, and the Novaks appear to be walking that path.
Karp's involvement signals that TIES is aiming for a lifestyle play, not just a clinical one. HumanCo, known for backing "human-first" food and wellness brands, has previously attracted investors including Scarlett Johansson, Indra Nooyi, and Shawn Mendes. No other participants in the TIES round were disclosed, which is typical for early-stage deals but leaves questions about the full cap table and future fundraising plans.
For Karp, the investment fits a recognizable pattern: targeting consumer categories where scientific understanding exists but branding and distribution have lagged. Men's fertility checks several boxes—clinically validated interventions, demographic tailwinds, a historically stigmatized market ripe for repositioning. Whether that thesis plays out depends on factors HumanCo can't entirely control: customer acquisition costs, retention rates, and the long feedback loop inherent to fertility outcomes, which typically require three to six months to show improvement.
TIES enters a space that's seen notable activity recently, though "crowded" might overstate it. Legacy, a digital male fertility clinic offering at-home semen analysis and cryostorage, launched a "Sperm Insights" data platform in March 2026 after raising a $25 million Series B in 2022. Posterity Health secured a $13 million Series A in February 2025 to scale its telehealth platform for male reproductive and hormonal care. In the UK, Jack Fertility raised roughly £500,000 in October 2025 to expand home-to-lab testing.
The broader context supports the category, even if the exact market size remains fuzzy. According to Grand View Research in 2022, the U.S. fertility industry surpassed $30 billion. Estimates for the fertility supplement segment vary—one projection suggests it could reach $4.74 billion by 2033—but methodology on those figures is often opaque, and it's unclear how much of that projection reflects wishful thinking versus credible demand modeling.
What's clearer: cultural momentum is building. A February 2026 article in STAT noted rising interest in male birth control trials, framing it as part of a broader recalibration around male reproductive responsibility. Progyny's November 2025 research release quantified men's growing awareness and willingness to address fertility stigma. British GQ ran a cheeky April 2026 piece on "spermmaxxing," capturing the zeitgeist of men pursuing 90-day supplement protocols in pursuit of better semen parameters.
Perhaps more than the founders expected when they started, the market is ready. The men's preconception category is no longer theoretical—it's just fragmented, undersold, and waiting for brands that can translate clinical evidence into consumer trust without overpromising results that even the best formulations can't guarantee.
TIES will need to navigate regulatory lines around structure-function claims, a balancing act that competitors manage with varying degrees of caution. The FDA doesn't pre-approve dietary supplements, and marketing language matters. Too clinical, and you risk triggering scrutiny; too vague, and consumers won't understand what they're buying.
For now, the Novaks have capital, credibility from their advisory board, and a clear thesis about who they're serving. The password-gated site suggests a controlled rollout, possibly with community-building and editorial partnerships in the works. Expect storytelling around the couple's journey once the brand fully activates its DTC presence—HumanCo's playbook tends toward narrative-driven marketing, and TIES appears built for that approach.
Whether this becomes a category leader or another niche supplement in a saturated wellness landscape will hinge on execution: pricing strategy, retention mechanics, and the founders' ability to make preconception feel less like a clinical obligation and more like something foundational.
It's early. The pieces are aligned, but so are the challenges.
