Portrait No. 001
Fifi Kara
C0-Founder & CEO
Aster
Raised — $2.8m
I started this company because my sister, Dr. Lailah Kara-Newton who is an OB/GYN had a near-death experience during her first pregnancy due to poor care and complications which were avoidable. I encouraged her to seek justice for this to ensure it didn't happen to another woman. We spent 4-years looking into what went wrong and ultimately she won a settlement agreement, which included changes to the practice of care. I was leading Health & Fitness at Meta at the time and knew that software could help other women's health providers see trends, spot challenges earlier on in women's healthcare. So Aster was born.
In her words
“I am deeply obsessed with how software changes women's health for the better.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
Growing up mixed-race (Black and Asian) with a single mother in London, I learned early that waiting for permission wasn't an option. I taught myself to code and design, building products that eventually led to founding multiple tech companies and getting into Y Combinator. But launching Aster meant starting over. I immigrated to the U.S. and navigated the green card process in under 2 years, I also had my first baby during this. I was pitching investors who questioned whether I could \"handle both,\" and building healthcare AI in a space where few looked like me. The toughest moment was raising capital as a first-time mom in a market skeptical of women's health. We heard \"too niche\" and \"unproven model\" repeatedly. I leaned into what made us different: lived experience, clinical partnership with my co-founder Lailah, and focus on patient outcomes. In under 2 years, we've captured significant market share in women's health, support 10,000+ patients, raised $2.4M, and built a team of 12—with 25% monthly growth and clear acquisition interest.
Chapter II
Your vision.
I am absolutely obsessed with solving the maternal health crisis. I believe the biggest challenges we have to overcome truly come down to whether or not the provider is adequately able to support you. If we start at the source, the providers being able to care for us effectively and manage multiple challenging cases at once, as we experience3 a physician shortage we will ultimately see massive improvements in women's health outcomes and a reduction in burnout. The integration of AI will simply speed this up. I am deeply obsessed with how software changes women's health for the better.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
That when you see a problem in society that is currently affecting you, people you love and those who have similar experiences to you. You can go ahead and fix that thing, use whatever skills you posses which don't always look obvious at first and bet on yourself. We must rewrite who the builders in society are. We can start by just believing it's even possible.