We’re back with our Founders Edition of Wisdom Wednesday. This month we connected with Abby Mercado, Co-Founder & CEO of Best Shot. Best Shot is a virtual care wraparound for people with specialty diseases, starting with infertility. A former VC investor, Abby created Best Shot after a devastating life experience and deeply challenging IVF journey.

Abby is an amazing entrepreneur focused on solving important issues. She also happens to be a dear friend. We were so excited to sit down with her and share more about the great work that she and her team are doing.

Watch the full conversation on our IGTV here! 

Can you share your “founders story”?

“I was working in venture capital and focused on investing in software. On the personal side, I was going through IVF. While taking medication for IVF, I became pregnant naturally and unfortunately the particular fertility medication I was on made me miscarry.” Eventually, Abby became pregnant through IVF with beautiful twins, Max and Annie! However, through this experience she looked back at the relationship she had with the medications that she had to take in order to have a baby. She identified this relationship as unhealthy, and thus decided to solve the problem herself.

Abby started Best Shot through Techstars, a large global accelerator, alongside her co-founder Peregrin Marshall , the company's CTO. “We have a platform for helping patients with their fertility medication. The platform helps with medication fulfillment, medication management, and wraps everything up in a vibrant and supportive community for the 1 in 8 people who are experiencing infertility.”

What advice would you give to yourself on Day 1 of starting your business? 

1. “Journey NOT Destination”
2. “Be Curious”

Abby shared, “It's truly about the journey, learn from everything, ask the stupidest questions. Most importantly be curious.” She works with a leadership coach and the advice from her coach has always been to be extra curious and ask questions. She also shared that raising capital can be extremely hard, “So it is important to figure out how you can enjoy this journey.” Sharing mantras amongst teams and friends can also be great for enjoying the journey!

What are your biggest goals for this year + how do you plan to celebrate when you hit them?

Best Shot has big goals and exciting things in the pipeline over the next few months. One of their big announcements for this summer is in regards to their community. They will be focused on making it increasingly clear to their community that they are not alone in this journey. Additionally, they are rolling out a pharmacy, “65% of patients are cash pay for infertility treatments, this is a super expensive not widely accessible service for many families.” Best Shot wants to make accessing pharmaceuticals and reducing waste surrounding those much better. They’re also working on a therapy option to make this service more accessible by putting together group therapy sessions as well as rolling out a curated marketplace! Lots of major things on the horizon!

And how will Abby celebrate these milestones and accomplishments? “We have a big family trip planned that is timed for right after we close on another round of funding.” She shared she’s, “committing to writing down her goals specifically and how she will celebrate them once achieved" as result of this question :)!

How do you define work life balance?

“My life is all about my kids.” Creating rules for her schedule has been super impactful, “I end my work day at 4pm. From 4pm-7pm I am committed to my kiddo time and my team knows that.” Once the kiddos are in bed, Abby’s usually back to work and back on the journey of building the amazing community and platform.

Who / what inspires you?

“Female founders. Those who have done well, who have been successful, who have raised capital to build really really big businesses, women who have succeeded against all odds. Sometimes it feels like the world is against entrepreneurs, it’s tough, so anyone who has taken a leap is who I admire.”

Favorite sip + snack? (favorite wine, other alcohol or non-alcoholic beverage and pairing!)

Abby graciously gave Wander + Ivy some big kudos and answered this question initially proclaiming, "THE newly released Wander + Ivy Red Blend!!!” to be her at the moment favorite sip, also same! Ultimately, a “Paloma with chips and salsa” is her go to sip + snack! Delish!

Shop all of our single serve wines made with organic grapes on our online wine shop.