A Dallas native who turned her personal frustration of trying to understand her fatigue symptoms into a startup that has raised $5.3 million in investor funding has now stepped into the Shark Tank to have her business plan assessed by investors on the hit television show.

Julia Cheek is founder of EverlyWell, an Austin-based company that sells over 16 types of health tests. Consumers in 46 states can purchase the kits directly online and collect their blood, urine and other samples from home.

The products range from $69 for a test to measure testosterone levels to a $399 kit to check hormone levels in women trying to conceive.

EverlyWell is an Austin-based company founded by Dallas native Julia Cheek. Consumers can purchase testing kits online and collect blood, urine and other samples from home that are shipped to a lab. Cheek started the company in 2015 in an effort to make lab testing more consumer-friendly. (EverlyWell)

The company's Shark Tank episode will air Sunday on ABC. The TV series features Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and other investors, or "sharks," who evaluate startup ideas.

Cheek, a Highland Park High School graduate, founded the company in Dallas in July 2015 before moving the headquarters and about 17 full-time employees to Central Texas last year.

Her inspiration began in 2013, about two years after she finished her MBA at Harvard Business School.

Cheek says she began to feel inexplicably tired and visited several physicians who all ran separate lab tests to try to diagnose her issue. “And I ended up paying a ton of money out of pocket — over $2,000 on lab tests — because I was on a high-deductible plan,” she explained.

And no one was intervening to make the process better for the consumer, she said.

“It was still the same awful experience of going to the doctor or to a draw center and taking time off work, then never getting results or even understanding what they mean,” Cheek said.

She eventually was diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, she said, something her company offers tests for.

EverlyWell says its samples are shipped from the consumer's home to laboratories that have been federally certified to accept human samples for diagnostic testing. But the tests themselves are not reviewed for safety or accuracy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has been keeping an eye on the emerging market for health tests sold directly to consumers.

In general, lab-developed tests don't require FDA approval, but some companies have taken that extra step to ensure accuracy. For example, 23andMe's Personal Genome Service is the first and only genetic test authorized by the FDA to inform about genetic risk.

Despite the benefits and convenience of at-home tests, the FDA says consumers should proceed with caution. No test is perfect, and inaccurate or misleading results can occur. It’s important to speak with a doctor who can evaluate the results in conjunction with the consumer’s medical history and a physical exam.

EverlyWell tests are processed by board-certified physicians, and consumers can access their results as well as a telemedicine physician on the company’s proprietary web platform at no additional cost, Cheek said. Cost transparency is a key area the company wants to address.

“In industries that are not health care, you’re used to seeing a price and that’s all you pay,” Cheek said. “In health care, we’re used to saying, ‘I have no idea what bill I’ll get later on.’ ”