Pineapple Family Co-Founders

Independent surrogacy is not the same thing as DIY surrogacy. And honestly, that distinction gets lost constantly.

A lot of people hear “independent” and assume it means going without support, structure, or safeguards. Like you’re somehow skipping the serious parts of the process.

That’s not how independent journeys work.

Independent surrogacy still involves reproductive attorneys, fertility clinics, psychological evaluations, escrow management, insurance coordination, and medical screening. The legal and medical infrastructure is the same. The difference is who coordinates the process, how much you pay for that coordination, and how much visibility and control you actually have along the way.

Traditional agencies often charge $30,000 to $60,000+ for matching and coordination services. We built Pineapple Family because we believed technology could handle much of that coordination more transparently, and at a fraction of the cost.

Our own story is the reason this platform exists.

My husband and I paid an agency $45,000 for a match that ultimately failed after embryo transfer. We lost two embryos. After that experience, we pursued independent journeys ourselves and later welcomed two children through surrogacy.

What changed wasn’t luck. We just finally understood how the process actually worked.

Once you realize the clinic handles the medicine, the attorneys handle the contracts, the psychologists handle the evaluations, and the escrow company handles the funds, you start asking a different question:

What are families actually paying agencies tens of thousands of dollars to do?

That question became Pineapple Family.

What Pineapple Family actually is

Not an agency.

Pineapple Family is a platform built to support independent surrogacy and egg donation journeys through three core systems:

Mutual-interest matching
Intended parents, gestational carriers, and donors all choose each other. No assignments. No hidden profiles. No one-sided matching process.

The Journey Doula™
A milestone-based coordination system that helps every party stay aligned through legal, medical, financial, and logistical steps. Timelines, tasks, document tracking, communication, and next steps all live in one place.

The Grove
A free space for intended parents, gestational carriers, donors, and professionals to share information, ask questions, and support each other openly.

What this means if you’re a Surrogate

We do not charge gestational carriers to use the platform.

We do not take a percentage of your compensation.

We do not assign you to intended parents.

You choose who you want to speak with. You control your profile, your visibility, your preferences, and your boundaries.

You also see the process more clearly. Cost breakdowns. Milestones. Provider information. Expectations. The goal is not to convince you to move faster. The goal is to make sure you actually understand what you’re agreeing to before you agree to it.

That should be standard. It usually isn’t.

A quick note on safety and screening

Independent does not mean unregulated.

Medical screening is still handled by fertility clinics. Psychological evaluations are still conducted by licensed professionals. Legal agreements are still drafted by reproductive attorneys. Escrow is still managed by escrow providers.

No platform, agency, clinic, or coordinator can guarantee outcomes. What matters is whether people have access to the right professionals, the right information, and the right structure to make informed decisions.

That’s what we’re trying to build.

A refund policy that reflects reality

Surrogacy and egg donation journeys are emotional, complicated, and sometimes unpredictable. Matches do not always move forward, even when everyone enters with good intentions.

Most agencies still keep the vast majority of their fee when that happens. We don't think families should absorb all of that risk alone.

Pineapple Family includes a 72-hour full refund window before you connect with anyone on the platform. And if we can't facilitate a match within 12 months of active engagement, we offer a full cash refund.

The full refund policy is on the site, written in plain English.

"The Pineapple Share" is our commitment to shared success

We also built something we haven't seen anywhere else in this industry.

Once Pineapple Family becomes profitable, a portion of annual profits will be distributed equally among intended parents, surrogates, and egg donors who completed a journey on the platform that year.

One person. One equal share.

Not because anyone asked us to. Because the people building families here should participate in the value they helped create.

Learn more about The Pineapple Share.

Where we are right now

Phase 1 is live today.

We’re taking a deliberate approach to growth because trust matters more than speed in this space.

This community shaped a lot of our thinking while building the platform. A huge amount of what exists inside Pineapple Family came from reading real experiences from surrogates, donors, and intended parents who were frustrated by how fragmented and opaque this process can feel.

We’re early. We’ll keep improving. But the platform is finally live, and we’re proud to put it into the world.

Questions, skepticism, concerns, feedback? All are genuinely welcome.

Read our full introduction here.