Griffin Jones 00:00
If this is for the new people, we have a lot of new listeners to this show a lot of people are sharing inside reproductive health around the fertility field. And so that's a huge thank you to the old people, people that have been listening for a couple years or at least some months for the new folks, if you've been listening. Maybe in the past couple episodes you've been binging recently, it helps so much. If you leave a review in the app, and the apple podcast store or in whichever podcast platform that you listen, will you do that? Will you take 10 seconds right now to write a review, for inside reproductive health in your podcast platform, because that really helps the show. And it really helps us bring you more free content, like what we have today, which is a profile of a new company Kristyn Hodgdon, and Abby Mercado. On the show. A lot of people might be listening. Hey, what the heck, you know, you said you don't have startups on the show. Most of the time you say you don't have industry side companies on the show most of the time yet most of the time. It's true. Sometimes I do. I don't know. Keep asking me show up to conferences that I'm at. And eventually, I'll also figure out this sponsorship platform for the the show that we can get more sponsors in that doesn't have to be an endorsement from me, because there's very few companies ie Engaged MD is Engaged MD and maybe one other one or two other companies that I feel comfortable giving the full Griffin Jones endorsement to. And so we will expand that platform. But in the meantime, we talk about their company Rescripted and I think it's good for to listen to as well, because many of you want to start your own businesses are excited ventures or get involved with something scalable, and VC. That's, you know, not the clinical duties that you have right now. It's useful the unpacking that we do, of how companies have to reiterate and pivot and when they get funding and how you get revenue and how far deep do you go and why some companies can pull this model off and not others. It's going to be for the marketplace to decide if we scripted. And others actually pull it off. I don't know if they will. I hope they do. But it's not me that decides. It's not you either. It is the marketplace, and it is their ability to respond to it. So I think all of those insights are gonna be really good for people that are thinking they might want to get involved in some entrepreneurial venture and I hope you enjoy this show with Abby Mercado and Kristyn Hodgdon Rescripted. It. Ms. Hodgdon, Ms. Mercado Kristyn. Abby, welcome to Inside reproductive health.
Kristyn Hodgdon 03:13
Thanks for having us.. Thanks
Abby Mercado 03:15
Happy to be here.
Griffin Jones 03:18
Let's start with a tangent that I know the audience is gonna be super thrilled to go on to either of you know who Josh Allen is? Oh, okay. Well, this, this is a problem nationwide because because Josh Allen needs to be telling people how to bundle their home and auto insurance and getting huge deals from Pepsi. Josh Allen is the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills that deserves every every bit as much fame as as Patrick Mahomes. And certainly more than that, dude, Baker Mayfield that got a whole progressive campaign for five years for doing nothing. But Josh Allen turns out is an incredible quarterback based on his performance in 2020 2021. I'm from Buffalo, which is a place where you are just supposed to believe you're supposed to believe in whoever the guy is. And I and I, and I didn't and so not that I doubted Josh Allen, not that I said he couldn't or he wouldn't. But he's not the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have to just have faith in Him. Because I wanted to see extreme performance before consistently before I said, Yep, I think this is the guy and I I have seen that from Josh Allen. I believe in him. The true believers will say that I was a doubter, and all of that in the past, but it's no I just need to see it. I'm agnostic to it. And so as neither Josh Allen is the Lord Jesus Christ, neither are either of you, a sponsor a sponsor of this show, and so I don't have to think that Rescripted is the best thing in the world yet. And so I want to talk to you all about this because I have offended people in The past more than once that have attempted a similar model. And I'm just like, each time I'm like, what's different, that's gonna make it work this time. And I'm not asking that to be like, I don't think you're ever going to make this work. I'm just gonna, I'm just saying, I get a few emails a year from people attempting similar models that they haven't made it work yet. And so let's start off with so I just wanted to let you know we're going to Josh Allen route today.
Kristyn Hodgdon 05:28
Like we knew he would challenge us. So let's just start off with what
Griffin Jones 05:31
is the model for your business prescriptive? Explain that to the audience, please.
Abby Mercado 05:37
Awesome. We can absolutely do that. And thanks again for having us Griffin. We're super excited to tell you more about our business. So resculpted is the number one global media platform for fertility, infertility and pregnancy loss. We've reached 3 million people on a monthly basis. We are also a technology company. And we provide three different applications through the apps, if you will, a social network first. Secondly, a direct to consumer product marketplace. And third, a direct to consumer digital privacy. So that is what Rescripted is our business model. We make money in a few different ways. But far and away media is our biggest revenue driver. So that is us.
Griffin Jones 06:25
Did you say 3 million viewers user follower? I'm sorry? What was the 3 million
Abby Mercado 06:29
we reach 3 million people every month? People?
Griffin Jones 06:33
Yeah. So that's the total channels, your social media, your app, your website, users, etc? So that's exactly. And then the social network that you have, how many people does that entail?
Abby Mercado 06:47
We've got about 9000 people in our social network. And this is outside of traditional social media networks. And, you know, um, Kristyn speak a lot more to this, because she the she was the brains behind this. But, you know, we essentially we realised that, that people are interested in fertility topics. So a lot of infertility patients and people who were receiving fertility treatments, they weren't interested in engaging on traditional social media networks about such, you know, topics that are so private. So Kristyn noticed that, and then, you know, built something outside of those channels. And that is today re scripted.
Griffin Jones 07:24
So, making sure I'm following social networks got about 9000 people is that are there other parts of the app? Or is the social network the app? Tell me about that.
Abby Mercado 07:35
So it's a web app to clarify. So it's not a native app. It's an app on the web. So you don't have to download anything. And by the way, we encourage everyone listening to become a member of our social network, we do not discriminate. We love everyone, please join even if you're a physician. So the way that the way that the app looks, so we call ourselves a mullet, so maybe I'm the front technology in the back. So a lot of people find us by reading our content. And so once they get into our app, they can do one of four things, they can read a bunch of content, they can join our social network, they can go shopping, they can buy products, or they can order medications from us. And those meds were fulfilled by our pharmacy partners.
Griffin Jones 08:21
So they still call that a whap. Like 12 years ago, they used to call that's a dead word. Rip whap. So it's a so then those you said that part? So it's not a native app yet? Well, why not?
Abby Mercado 08:42
So we actually did start the business as a native app. So you know, a technology first company, we've spent a lot of time thinking about technology building, building our technology, we have an entire tech team, we we can move faster by operating on the web, versus in the smartphone universe. And, you know, it's just the way that it's the way that we've we've opted to do things we can just be more nimble, and we can listen to patients better and respond to what they need.
Griffin Jones 09:14
So okay, so when you say that the have to remember if I'm summing up what you said correctly, that the said that the the social network is the is the is the most developed side of the business. Sorry, where would? What is most
Abby Mercado 09:36
what also our revenue, so our revenue drivers are primarily on the media side. Our social network is an app that we use to attract more members and to you know, it's a warm, loving, compassionate place where you're seeing mostly infertility patients engage with one another on you know, topics that they're facing. So You know, that's kind of one piece of it, people come to our site for our content. And we do content primarily, we have a whole editorial team, but we do content in partnership mostly with brands. So we work with traditional fertility brand, the brands you've heard of like Oregon on LabCorp. We also partner with various clinics, RMA CPRM. Inception, to put that content in front of folks, we also partner with a lot of startups, in the fertility, space, Legacy Eva family, the list goes on. So as a media company, we are putting brands in front of the consumer and using using that content to educate the consumer in an evidence based science backed
Kristyn Hodgdon 10:46
way, we really saw on me through our own infertility journeys Abby and I, for to meet patients where they are because, you know, patients are going to Dr. Google, regardless of their IVF journeys. And, you know, instead of finding health line, or you know, very well health articles that are very dry, and often not tailored to the experience of an actual fertility patient, our content is written mostly by those who have actually been through it, or with the help of clinics or other brand partners, led by women who have also been through it. So very personalized and very sensitive to the audience. And, you know, like, what can you actually expect when you go through IVF? What if you make a medication mistake? You know, we know people are googling those things, and not finding the information they actually want to read. And so that's how we draw people into our community. And then on our actual web app, they can, you know, engage with others who are going through similar experiences.
Griffin Jones 12:03
Can you talk a little bit about so if the revenue driver is the media side? Is it character? Is it accurate to characterize it, partly is an influencer programme.
Abby Mercado 12:15
We don't like we don't like to call ourselves influencers, we do have a substantial Instagram following, we have almost 95,000 followers on Instagram. So we are the single largest account for patients. But we think we do more than just fat, because we're actually creating written content, which is what this this demographic seems to be drawn to. So you know, mostly millennial women that we serve 97% of 97% of women between the ages of 25 and 44. They like to read content. And so that's that's what we started on last.
Griffin Jones 12:50
So if there's 95,000, from the Instagram following 9000, from the the proprietary social network, where is the rest of the 2.9 million coming from?
Abby Mercado 13:06
So there's, there's a difference between who is actually following us versus to we are actually for who we're reaching. So we do a tonne of work on SEO. So a lot of people are finding us organically through our content. We also have ads, you know, typical typical marketing tactics to bring people to our site. But the it's actually 110,000 Total people in our community that is different from you know, the three versus
Kristyn Hodgdon 13:35
impressions. Yeah.
Griffin Jones 13:38
So the media is the biggest revenue driver, is it programmatic? Is it? Is it all sponsor driven? How does that work? It's all sponsored. Oh, are you creating the content for the sponsors to or its display is like, what's the programme for them?
Kristyn Hodgdon 13:56
So something we really pride ourselves in Rescripted is that we're not going to post on Instagram, and, you know, like a banner ad for your clinic or your brand. That's just not what we're going to do. Everything we do is educational for patients. And so when you see us working with Doc, reproductive endocrinologist and clinics, it's you know, four things to know if you're doing IVF under under 30, or five things to know about why your IVF cycle might get canceled, you know that the topics are endless, but my point is that, you know, we're never just saying sponsored by RMA, it's always for the patient. All of our content is free or community is free. We don't believe in charging patients for support on an already difficult journey. We we want to help clinics, you know, gain more awareness, but also provide patients with the information they're looking for in need
Griffin Jones 14:59
Are you able to share some of your sponsors?
Abby Mercado 15:02
You shared a bunch of them. But um, you know where so let's say I'll kind of reiterate them. So we do a lot of work with Organon. We do a lot of work with LabCorp. We do a lot of work with RMA CCRM. Inception, specifically NYU, Pinnacle pinnacle, we work with a tonne of startups on legacy Eva family expectable, the list goes on. So anyone that is in the reproductive, hormonal and sexual health space, we're really interested in talking to, we think that they're, you know, they're doing a great job educating and innovating, but we want to make their voices louder.
Kristyn Hodgdon 15:45
Yeah, we're doing a really cool partnership right now with Cisco diagnostics about, you know, just educating patients on why they might need the recent Teva DX test, could their unexplained infertility be endometriosis? Like, we're, we're arming patients with the information they need to advocate for themselves. Because when we were patients, and I'm still technically we felt like we didn't have the information that we needed to sort of ask the right questions.
Griffin Jones 16:19
Do you charge by a lead generation model?
Abby Mercado 16:25
No. So we charge, you know, we put together essentially packages for our sponsors, based on you know, what kinds of content that they want to put in front of patients. And, you know, I think what is really unique about us is that we are a media platform with substantial reach, but we're also doing all of the creative. So Kristyn, our chief creative officer, she has an editorial team of seven below her. You know, I think I forget the exact percentage, but many of our, of our writers have been through fertility treatments themselves. So they're really speaking from my heart, when they help brands, education. And, you know, they often share their stories as well. And then we also have a team of four short form video content creators that also works on their content. So we're doing the creative, and the media, which is something that's really special about us and very different from what you see in multifocal media.
Kristyn Hodgdon 17:26
And I've been doing this a long time, I started my original company, The Fertility Tribe back in 2018. And I'm obviously, I've been through many, you know, years of IVF. Myself, and were it was very sensitive. I think I mentioned this earlier, but we kind of know what resonates, what doesn't what to say what not to say it's a it's a very touchy audience. And as you know, like social media can be tough. But I think people have grown to trust what we have to say, and know that we have their best intentions in mind, which I think is important, because, you know, anyone can just post on social media and say they're an infertility support platform, but we've really like walked the walk and talk the talk.
Griffin Jones 18:14
Yeah. The, the on the sponsorship side, is it? Is it people that like as a one off sponsorships, like I just want to sponsor this article, or this particular feature, or they have a ongoing,
Abby Mercado 18:29
you know, it's It runs the gamut. We, we, we like longer term partnerships, of course, you know, we're a business where, you know, trying to keep the lights on. But, you know, I think, more importantly, we like to do longer term partnerships, because our focus when we work with various brands in the fertility space is brand awareness. So, we're not, you know, we're never, we're not gonna like promise conversions. Like, we hope that that happens for these really great brands. But, you know, what we can offer to the brands that we work with is awareness. And, you know, as like, people, a lot of people who are probably listening to this podcast know, because like, we're all consumers, you can't just do something once and buy it like you've got to want to buy it. So that is what that's our promise of brands.
Griffin Jones 19:22
How did you start approaching At what point did you start approaching sponsors like Kristyn, you had the fertility tribe prior to this? So did you have sponsors even before you started making Rescripted, kind of like at what point did you start approaching people? Yeah,
Kristyn Hodgdon 19:39
um, so in my former life with the fidelity tribe, I was doing it as my side hustle. At first I actually started it as my own personal blog. You know, before I got pregnant with my twins through IVF, and and then it grew from there very organically and some sponsors started approaching me And, but it was actually really hard to keep up with. So when I met Abby and we merged our businesses and we, you know, got some more manpower, and capital under our belts, we were able to, to grow that portion of our business really significantly.
Griffin Jones 20:17
Like, what, like your timeframe is this? Oh,
Kristyn Hodgdon 20:20
um, I would say, like, I started, I quit my full time job in late 2020. And really started ramping up the brand partnerships COVID made me do it and best decision I ever made.
Griffin Jones 20:36
Did you just pick up the phone and start cold calling? Or they approached? You
Kristyn Hodgdon 20:40
know, yeah, most of them approached me. And then you know, and then it went from there, they saw good results, and they wanted to keep working with with me and so I definitely brought a decent amount of brand part relationships, at least to the partnership. And then Abby worked her magic, and we were able to extend a lot of those of those partner ship agreements and, and even, you know, pitch way more.
Griffin Jones 21:11
So, okay, so was like, was this the first? Um, was this like the first business side, the first revenue attached arm of the company was sponsorships.
Abby Mercado 21:26
So, No, certainly not. So we, you know, it's an like, I love I love this podcast revenue seems like so much, so much real talk, like we've tried to come in saying, It's no secret that it is difficult for companies like extraneous to clinic to make money in this space. Like, it's kind of amazing. It's a puzzle, so on and so forth. So the business that I originally started before I met Krypton was a company called Best shot in partnership with Stefan and my other other co founder, pear, or CTO, and we did b2b, b2b, b2c medication management, that was something that I was really passionate about. I'm a mom of IBS, one, two, or three. And I made a an error in you know, in administering a medication, it didn't know I was pregnant, and I unfortunately missed raise that baby and a pregnancy. So, you know, that was kind of my ultimate founder story. And, you know, I became very, very determined and former VC investor. So I became very determined to just like, make make a difference in this industry. And so parents i, we started selling our This was actually a native app. So we did build a native app and clinics loved it. We piloted with Boston IDs and with Columbia, Dr. Fuhrman, and consumptions of Colorado and a mind fertility, we had a lot of really excellent pilots. But ultimately, we decided to pivot because interoperable interoperability and the face of hereto. Like, it's really difficult to integrate with EMR. And, you know, that was something that, you know, we thought we could get away with not doing but the nurses that we became so close with, with these comments were like, because, you know, we're drowning here, like,
Griffin Jones 23:18
what specifically was it that you were trying to do that you couldn't do because of the inoperability.
Abby Mercado 23:23
So we were, we were trying to enable patients with better medication management, so they're able to, you know, essentially download a native app that was associated with their clinic, where they could actually, you know, do their their regimen, their ever changing regimen, you know, they didn't have to, you know, get that call from their nurse or, you know, like, get on their EMR that they can't even access from their smartphone and see how their regimen was changing. So weird. We are trying to, like, bust that up. And you know, to this day, like, no, people are still not doing that, right. From a chronic perspective. We have a portion of that in our pharmacy offering today. But yeah, it was it was really challenging. It was really difficult. And, you know, I think that was November of 2020 parent, I looked at each other and we're like, what, like, what are we doing that score, like we're doing, actually, for the patients? How can we get away with doing this direct to consumer and really, you know, change people's lives through content, tools and resources that can help them on their journey. So luckily, I met Kristn on Instagram, which is so wild, we realised we had everything in common. And, you know, Kristyn was like, how do we make this a big business and I was like, I have so many ideas for you, so you know how to grow your revenue. And I was like, Kristyn, how do I resonate with the consumer? Like, I'm such a b2b SaaS nerd, it's, you know, what I invested in it was the business that I built, like how do I actually talk to these consumers and personally, like, I can help you With that, and so we decided that, you know, we are going to merge and build something together that really addresses our pain points.
Griffin Jones 25:07
So the interoperability was on the client workflow side, it was on the EMR side,
Abby Mercado 25:12
it was on the EMR side. So you know, essentially, like nurses only want to do data entry once like, I don't blame them, obviously, like we get it. Like they're so busy.
Griffin Jones 25:22
That's one of the biggest challenges and like, people ask me, Well, why don't why don't you build a CRM? Because it won't, unless it talks to the EMR flu as fluidly. As QuickBooks talks to my receipt apps are like an all of those things, like an unless it does that, like it's a nonstarter. The client, like the clinics cannot take on one more software. So
Abby Mercado 25:47
yeah, it's an enormous problem. So we met with one EMR. And, I mean, we met with a lot of fun, but you know, they were they were like,
Griffin Jones 25:58
well, we'll do we'll do this, we'll do this ourselves, and then not do it themselves.
Abby Mercado 26:04
You took the words out of my mouth, and we had the backing of the CEO of like, their largest company, they still couldn't pull it off.
Griffin Jones 26:13
So did you go right, from that model to? Or are you trying to concept in trying that model to the sponsor? Funded content model? Or was there something else in between? Yeah, so
Abby Mercado 26:27
there was something else in between? We, you know, Sharon, I was still very much interested in medications. You know, Kristin was as well. But, you know, we said, okay, like, how do we get into pharmacy? Like, you know, this is potentially an interesting face. It's kind of a shitty face. But anyway, like, how can we actually affect change here? And so, we essentially brought our native app onto the web, which was, you know, pretty straightforward from a technology standpoint. And we said, okay, let's, let's actually, like vertically integrate this, what does that mean? Like, let's talk about what that means. So, you know, that means actually dispensing the fertility medications, right. So, like, you know, starting a pharmacy, for most people who listen to this podcast, definitely, no, it is not easy. So we're not interested in starting a fertility pharmacy, but we're really interested in partnering with them. And helping some of these pharmacies we think are really amazing pharmacies, like actually, like, talk to patients a little bit better and help patients a little bit better. So, you know, we became a direct to consumer cash pay hub pharmacy network. And so today, we work with Braun pharma care in Chicago, and Rosemont, pharmacy in Philly. And we essentially help them help bring them patients and educate their patients. And it's been great. It's, it's kind of a secondary revenue driver for us. But it's, it's been, it's been really interesting. And I think we're helping a lot of people and, you know, kind of just kind of double clicking on the fact that patient advocacy in this space really works. Like sure your clinic might have, you know, some sort of relationship with a pharmacy. But like, from a pricing perspective, this is still the rational economic buyer, like can restricted pharmacies actually do better. Oftentimes, we can, most times we can. So anyway, it's a secondary revenue driver. But it's been really interesting. We kind of stumbled on media, and we said, Wow, your friends are really trying to get their name out there, like we can help them while also helping patients.
Griffin Jones 28:34
So the cash pay side the or how did you phrase that cash?
Abby Mercado 28:42
Yeah, direct to consumer cash pay hub, pharmacy network,
Griffin Jones 28:46
direct to consumer cash. And I would
Abby Mercado 28:49
only say this, that that phrase on the five guests, because if you ever said that to the constraint where they'd be like, what the ask, are you talking about?
Griffin Jones 28:58
Certainly, but, but our audience might be doing that right now, too. So explain like how that works. Like how you said, you Rosemont and then one in Philly,
Abby Mercado 29:07
essentially, the way that we felt this was to say, you know, like, What is our goal, like, our goal is to educate patients, and actually help them find really inexpensive medications, regardless of what clinic they go to, like, that shouldn't matter. Like, you know, you can go to a smaller boutique clinic but not have a great pharmacy deal. Because we know, it's as we know, like a volume game, like we knew that. And so, essentially, what happens is, you know, let's say we have a patient in Arizona, like, you know, Brown is, you know, definitely brought has many, many licences and many states, but like Arizona might not be their biggest market. So, you know, we might meet a patient in Arizona who is going to a particular clinic, and, you know, they find out and they say, wow, like not only cheat medication, but you know, there's also like, Huge education component. Also, I don't have to call it anyone, like, that's cool. Like, I can just essentially text with my message just like I don't, I don't have to pick up the phone and like, wait on the line for an hour for who even knows? Like, what person? So, you know, essentially we're bringing we're bringing patients to Brian and to Rosemont that they might not normally, you know, be able
Griffin Jones 30:25
to capture, is that pay per lead? Or is that pay per fit? Like, how does? How does the transaction work?
Abby Mercado 30:34
It's, yeah, pay per lead, you could say that.
Griffin Jones 30:37
Okay, so you're delivering leads to them? And then and then you're paying, they're, they're paying, but it's
Abby Mercado 30:43
it's like, Sure, its affiliates. Like that's great for them. But I think it's, it's more so with a technology like that the technology is the differentiator here. So we're meeting patients with our ad, they're already familiar with Rescripted, they're already reading our content and are engaged in the social network. And now, like, we have our own med teach videos, we have our own push notifications as to when you need to take your medication. You know, you never have to pick up the phone and call your pharmacy. Like you literally just get on our platform and say, Hey, like I would like to refill or like, Hey, I'd like to schedule a video call, which by the way, it can be done on our platform, with with my pharmacist. So you know, understand Medicare, I have a lot of questions. It's a really complex drug. So it's short believed, but I would say it's more so the technology in the fact that we can do that. So I'm pricing perspective, because, you know, like we're able, we're able to get great pricing, because we're representing so many patients in our risk of the network.
Griffin Jones 31:46
So is then are you using the platform to educate patients that if you're a cash pay patient, you can go to whatever pharmacy? Yes, you want as opposed? You know, the nurse says go to this pharmacy.
Abby Mercado 32:00
Yeah, yes, that is exactly what we're trying to do. Like you guys, have you have the toilet. It's like Don't, don't, you know, like, you're not caught, you're not caught in that, like, don't think you can't advocate for yourself. And like if you want to use the pharmacy that your your clinic is recommending, right? Like, that's totally fine. Just know that you have a choice.
Griffin Jones 32:18
So it seems as somebody that's not totally educated in this part of this phase, it seems to me like that would be a much bigger revenue opportunity than sponsorships. So yeah. Like, why not go hog wild on that what we don't need
Kristyn Hodgdon 32:39
to do next or recommend us to there?
Abby Mercado 32:43
We actually don't like we are,
Griffin Jones 32:45
that's what I'm saying you don't? Like? I mean, I think that, that going through clinics is for suckers like me, meaning just like people that like can't go, like other way like I like but I think part of the reason why modern fertility is a huge success in this space is because it's like, well, we don't need like, we don't need to go through the clinics to like get them to this testing. Like we're gonna bring this test in Walmart, we're gonna scale this at you, you're reaching 3 million people, at least, you know, to some degree than eyeball see something for a second in case that 3 million people but you're probably meaningfully reaching hundreds of 1000s of people at the very least meaningfully reaching 10s of 1000s of people. It seemed like you don't need the clinic. So like, why not just like, like, what are the obstacles there? It seems it this is like business, bro talk when you're having a drink? You got to do you got to do this man. So what I'm asking is, why not? Like what are the things that are that are that would prevent that from blowing the heck up?
Abby Mercado 33:59
Yeah, I like I like your use of the phrase hog wild. So when the process was going on. So I think in the next year, you'll, you know, I think your scripted will be like more of a name and department we face and you know, we're excited about we're putting together some partnerships that that we're really, really pumped about. But you know, I think what what's important to note on the media side, and like on on the sponsorship side, so like we're not just talking about infertility, we're not just talking about these big brands that we all need, you know, at ASRM and you know, the position with the area like that's, that is a small piece of like what we are doing, like we are engaged in fertility and fertility and pregnancy law. So, when we look at the market, like the Bill Phillips talked about, like the millennial parenting market is worth $46 billion. So like, it's our belief that the pre parenting Okay, and actually, just that simple, maybe like there are 30 million people In the United States, right this minute, we're starting to have a baby, it is going to be more challenging than they think for, I don't know, like 75% of those people like even if they don't go to a fertility clinic. So what we're noticing is that a lot of people are really struggling with this basic sex ed stuff, like infection, Rihanna. You know, listeners of the podcast, probably remember that study, a couple of years ago, that infection ran, where like, we uncovered that 40% of women don't understand ovulation. If you don't understand what your mission is, how the heck are you going to get pregnant. So there's just like a baseline lack of understanding in basic fertility concept. So infertility is a small amount of what we'll do in the future, like, we think that the market has been enormous, and we think people need. So that's why we're so excited about media. But to your point, we're also really excited about it,
Griffin Jones 36:01
I promise, I will figure out the sponsorship scheme for inside reproductive health so that we can get people on advertising, sharing their content, without it being an endorsement for me, because there are so few companies, there might be one or two other companies that I would give an endorsement to. But so far, it has just been engaged MD. And the reason is, I'm just not qualified to be able to talk about a certain company's performance, it would have, they would have to be so disproportionately positive. And that, for me has been engaged in the eye of more than half of my clients that have used engage them D, every single one of them loves it, many of them have started after we begin working with them. And they and every other person that I've ever spoken to that is a user of engaged MD talks about how much time and grief, it saves their nurses and their staff, that they don't have to do the same things over and over again, they have a much more scalable, and efficient platform for educating patients building that rapport. So then when the nurse or the clinician talks to the patient, they're able to tailor that conversation to what the patient actually needs. And that repeating the same things to someone that's a deer in headlights, I keep hearing how much time engage them, the saving fertility staff, keep hearing how much stress it saving them at a time, when burnout is still crazy, people are still leaving positions left and right, when in my view, they shouldn't be, we still lack a lot of technical, logical solutions that I hope we have in the next 510 years. But engaged in DEA is one that is here now, and more than half of the practices in North America are using engaged MD. So I hope that you are in that group. But if you're not, if you're still in the now on the laggard side of the bell curve, then I hope that you go to engage md.com/griffin. And they're gonna give you a free workflow assessment, you're going to be able to see what other clinics, you can get some insights from how other clinics have been structured. And you're gonna see a couple major areas that you can prove to keep your team from burning out to keep them from stress that's free, as long as you mentioned, my name and the podcast. And I ask that you share that with them anyway, because it's one of the things that helps give free content to you and to all of the listeners, but the real beneficiary is your team and your patients, because patients have a much better experience when they can be better educated when they can do things on their time. And then they can have what needs to be tailored fit to them. Truly personalized care. And so the real beneficiaries, our staff, and patients do it for them, not me. But it's nice to help other podcasts and get yourself a free workflow assessment by going to engage md.com/griffin. And now back to the show. Why I'm asking you to speculate. And maybe it's some maybe it's legal things that I don't know about. Why do you suspect that no pharmacy did this themselves? Like it's like, okay, if these people who are like super passionate and talented with media come from the infertility community, and one of the ways that they apply that is by generating subscriptions like why didn't a pharmacy do this?
Abby Mercado 39:52
I said we do both. So Like for from our perspective of you kind of also person, I will credit this like Instagram content, a genius like you this you cannot do this organically. So that person was in her waiting room and was like want a beat, we're all like really sad about being in this clinic right now we're all going through the same thing like why aren't we sharing our stories, and because she's a professional writer, by the way, like has worked in the publishing industry like that is her superpower, she like, created this herself, and then Matt's 90,000 Instagram followers, like, That is incredible. That is uncommon, to be clear, like that is very, very, very challenging to do. And Kristyn did it, like, you can do it if you have a lot of money. But you know, this was, as Kristyn reflected her side hustle. So to really shit the consumer, and to really understand the consumer, have a following. So, you know, it's almost like if, like, you know, media companies can become so interesting, because they're their content, community and commerce plays, right? And you can kind of like, pick your favourite commerce play, like you're gonna make it work if you have, you know, a substantial following, and you have a decently smart team. So you got to, you got to start with the following. And partners don't have that.
Griffin Jones 41:30
All right. So you didn't say it this way. But I'm saying it this way, based on the observation of what you just said, is it was too big of a lift for them. And I feel comfortable categorising it this way, because I wanted like to get some of these companies to think about and very often, especially at pharmacies, they kind of like will kind of like reach out to me, and they're like, Well, you know, we kind of want to do a little b2b marketing, but we also kind of want to reach directly to patients, and it's like, this would be a big like, in order for them to do it, they would have to find a Christian, they would really have it, like couldn't just be like a, a, you know, like a little influenza deal. Like they would actually have to really devote bizdev to this. But, but it is possible that they could have done this and but it's like, well, we're not, we're not consumer facing you know, it's we're better off going to the nurses were a commodity that, like, what you guys just did it, you're not even a farmer. And so and like it costs him I
Kristyn Hodgdon 42:34
think if we were just a pharmacy, people might not trust us as much as they do. Like, I think because
Griffin Jones 42:41
it would be better to keep the brand separate. Sure. But But they could have gone to fertility tribe credit, they could they could have like scooped you up or there and there's probably a couple other people. Like, it's like you met Abby, and that was your business partner, the the pharmacies could have been business partner for for someone like that if they really devoted to it and well, I think good for you guys. I think that's you guys did something that like alright, if you're not going to do this, we'll do it. And so Okay, so that came before and then media. All right, what other what other irons do you have in the fire right now?
Abby Mercado 43:23
Um, gosh. Um, so I think like, one thing we're really interested in is, you know, our product marketplace is kind of, you know, a fun place for fertility consumers, and it's, and here, we really make a point to work with startups. So that's it, like, we will always be a mission driven company, like, you know, we are IVF patients, all we want to do is pay it forward. And so in our marketplace, we're working with startups that might not have, who are doing, you know, legitimate things like you know, and I'll name drop hire medical advisors, Dr. Eduardo Harrington, and Dr. Barton duckling in Europe, Koba, like, you know, all of these products has been, you know, like, they have approved them, so they're all like, medically sound products. But we're saying, okay, the startups are doing amazing things, but they don't have the reach that we have. So we're going to let them use our reach to put their products in our marketplace and help them fix this, as well. So, you know, our products, marketplaces, you know, it's soft launched right now we're doing a total reskin of the platform that'll be live late July, but, you know, it's something that we're really, really proud about. And so like, I would say, you know, that's one And, Kristin, let's do maybe want to chat about kind of what we're doing with Roe and, you know, some of the content that we're putting out, just give it around
Kristyn Hodgdon 44:46
just to piggyback on your marketplace comments really quickly. You know, that's the the startup viewpoint but from a consumer viewpoint, you know, there's so much noise out there if you're a fertility page Shouldn't you have no idea what supplements you should be taking? You have no idea what products you actually need versus don't need at all. So in addition to trying to amplify, you know, all the amazing things the startups are doing in the space, we're also trying to, like break through the noise for patients and say, Okay, this is what you actually need. This is what you don't. This is the science behind it, and make your own informed decision. But we're going to help you do that. And then,
Griffin Jones 45:35
oh, God, am I correct in understanding that it's ecom? Your Yeah, you are selling these company's products through your platform?
Abby Mercado 45:44
Yes, straight up. We're a dropship marketplace. Now.
Griffin Jones 45:48
That's an idea that I never thought of that I think.
Abby Mercado 45:51
Join the team Griffin, pretty
Griffin Jones 45:54
darn good. What were you gonna say Kristin?
Kristyn Hodgdon 45:56
Oh, Abby mentioned the Roe v. Wade stuff, you know, we really try to also be thought leaders in the space, and we don't back down from controversial topics and, you know, being advocates for our community. And you know, something like this, which is going to affect potentially, you know, so many patients in high risk states, we really felt like it was important to join the conversation and be, you know, a voice and have, you know, information for those who were just panicking about how this could affect them.
Abby Mercado 46:33
Yeah, and, you know, to kind of piggyback on that, too, like we are, we've been in the news a lot. So, you know, between Chris and myself, we've been on The Today Show, we've been on the Wall Street Journal, we've been in BBC News, CNN, like, the list goes on and on and on. So we we have that we have that kind of reach to so you know, to help this industry, just like be a part of that conversation, and most importantly, to help our patients be a part of that conversation. We think that's really important and we want to use or our employees for God.
Kristyn Hodgdon 47:08
Well, I always say like, no one bats an eye at all of the motherhood platforms out there. Like motherly, scary, mommy, like the list goes on and on. But really, there's only one fertility re scripted and why I mean, I think it's close to one in five couples struggle with infertility now, and we're really giving a voice to that topic where no one really has before at this level. So always focus on the patients.
Griffin Jones 47:40
So we had in the beginning was the prescription ordering via the the through the clinic via the EMR. That's chi Bosch, right? We're not Oh, yeah.
Abby Mercado 47:51
Not then. Then we only work with clinics, if they come to us,
Griffin Jones 47:56
then pharmacy then then pharmacy prescription leads for cash payments as the hub, we're still doing that right. media sponsorship, which right now is the biggest of the revenue driver EECOM, which we're in soft launch. Now, what else?
Abby Mercado 48:15
Those are three, those are three revenue drivers for them. So yeah, we also like a random revenue driver, like people are starting to come to us to the restricted studio we call it so we do we do to white label content for folks who are trying to put out more patients.
Griffin Jones 48:35
So people so people, my audience doesn't hate this episode, they don't feel like I was a shield for your brand. They don't feel like I was attacking you. They liked this episode, they're entertained and informed enough that you get invited back for July 7 2024 of those three things, what do you suspect will be the biggest part of your business?
Abby Mercado 48:57
So media made? And you know, I think that like pharmacy will be a close second. Um, you know, the the product marketplaces like we don't it's that kind of box of media play as well. So we're not looking for that to be a huge revenue driver. We never have but you know, it's it's so media. Now.
Griffin Jones 49:20
Do you see acquisition in your future,
Abby Mercado 49:22
like us being acquired or we acquire US doing
Griffin Jones 49:27
some acquiring so I I just I don't see like a clear winner in this race in terms of like, just in terms of like one like, they're like, there's the Wall Street Journal and then there's Forbes and then there's CNBC. But like, it's like a, it's a so I think acquisition could be a route out there. Like there's IVF Babel. There's a couple other really good media platforms for patients that are probably close enough in your ethos in like a Ah, do you see that? Do you think that's a possibility?
Abby Mercado 50:06
We haven't given it a kind of fight just because I think we're charging so hard.
Kristyn Hodgdon 50:12
I'm also kind of a control freak when it comes to what content we put out and the voice. And you know, it always has to be in our brand like personality, and, you know, really patient driven and evidence backed. And I don't know, if we just inherited a tonne of articles, I'd probably still edit the crap out of them.
Abby Mercado 50:37
I think I mean, we have we have done an acquisition of a, like, now defunct companies content. So like, we have done acquisitions here and there. I think like if we were looking to, like, we've certainly made our name among the patient community in infertility. And you know, as I mentioned, like fertility is the big promise. It's helping those people who are have just pulled the goalie and they're like, what, what do I do? Like, how do I get pregnant? Like, I have no idea what ovulation is. So like, that is the prominence and helping us gain influence in that space. Like that's right. Because yes, like acquire that influence. But right now we're trying to build
Griffin Jones 51:20
it. Oh, there's no shortage of that. Because our entire generation was like, oh, yeah, I'll start thinking about kids at 35.
Abby Mercado 51:28
Yeah, so that idea like that idea. Millennials?
Griffin Jones 51:31
I, my hypothesis could be totally my hypothesis is because that there was I believe that there was a teen pregnancy bump in the 90s. Like, in the maybe early 90s, mid 90s. There was like, and so like, I think like that there was just I just remember sex ed being about like, never get pregnant, like it will. It will ruin your life if you get pregnant. And then we're like, yeah, it will ruin our sweet stuff. And then so it's like, when do we when do we have to kind of start doing sweet stuff? It's like, oh, I can at least do sweet stuff on 35, maybe, maybe 45? Maybe I'll have a kid then it's like, well, that's, that's not totally how it works. And so you've got you've got a demographic that.
Abby Mercado 52:16
I mean, like you can point to the data, like the average age of a first time mom in New York, and typical show is 33. Like, that's not good for the the egg, the old egg.
Kristyn Hodgdon 52:29
But in that's why it's just that's so much of the psychological impact of infertility too, is like, you're so blindsided, because you're so unaware that this could even happen to you, despite the growing statistics, despite like, the internet, and, you know, it's like, a wait, I don't get regular periods. So I can't get pregnant. Like, we're just we're we're trying to disseminate like, the most basic information that we were failed to have been taught when we were younger.
Griffin Jones 53:03
Yeah, that should be like the part two for for the SEC says like, alright, don't get STDs. Don't get pregnant in these situations. But then you're gonna have to think about all this. Yeah.
Abby Mercado 53:17
Like, we truly don't understand our reproductive system. Like, it's, it's a shame, but we're hopefully helping people.
Griffin Jones 53:25
Are you all self funded? Are you raising money right now? From VC? What's that? Like?
Abby Mercado 53:31
Yeah, so we, we were intentional about not raising VC, actually. So we are fully Angel funded. We are a team of mostly females. We are 40% funded by females, we are 40% funded by people who have had fertility treatments. So it's something we're really proud of to be to operate with such a lean team. We pay anywhere between 20 and 30 people on our payroll every month,
Griffin Jones 54:04
funded being friends and family.
Abby Mercado 54:08
Friends, no. friends now, no, you know, angels who are interested in investing in this space. So, you know, essentially, we, we did go through TechStars. So, like, we do have institutional money from taxpayers, but other than that, there's no
Griffin Jones 54:24
planning to do and another consequent Yeah, another race.
Abby Mercado 54:31
Probably, it's hard to it's it's not something that it's not our highest priority, our highest priority is running a profitable business. So we are we are seeking profitability, we are close to profitable, and that's something that that we're really proud of, you know, we want to kind of maintain ownership of what we're doing and all that good stuff. So it's certainly something we're speaking
Griffin Jones 54:57
to the angels have equity. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
Abby Mercado 55:01
we've raised we've raised about $2 million to date. And we were founded in May 22. million.
Griffin Jones 55:08
Okay, so that's not nothing. No, no.
Abby Mercado 55:11
Yeah, like, but like I said, they're not like friends. They've become friends. Like, yeah, we've, we've, we've certainly, we've certainly raised.
Griffin Jones 55:21
How do you get? I know you're not like doing subsequent rounds? At least not yet. But like, how do you even get angel money for a sponsorship? Revenue Model? Like?
Abby Mercado 55:33
It's me, it's a media company one on one. Like, there are people who invest in in media companies, then we found them like, yeah, yeah, it's, you know, there's a tonne a tonne of media companies out there. And, you know, I'll point to there's, there's one VC called the turnin group that invest in plays like us, and you know, their household names like booth 52, and goop and Hello, sunshine, and, you know, who Tinky a watch company. So, you know, this is there's definitely a playbook for what we're doing. And there's an investor base for that paper.
Griffin Jones 56:13
What did you really need the money for? Like? Because, I mean, theoretically, you could bootstrap it. I mean, in theory, and who knows how long it would take, and that has its cons, too. But so what did you feel that you needed the money for?
Abby Mercado 56:25
People, that's amazing team, we've got a, we've got a pair book. So you know, it's our we've, we've definitely invest in technology. So we have an entire technology team, they're all in house, that's something that's really important to us to have control, and to be able to essentially serve patients up with what they want serve patients and people again, they're not all infertility patients. You know, we're also it was a priority for us to really bolster our content team. So Kristin has this like, pretty substantial team that reports up to her that helps us with our creative, helps us resonate with patients, our head of marketing or head of partnerships, are head of operations. So you know, there's there's a lot that that kind of goes on under the hood to kind of, you know, make this happen and enable us to help help these patients with content, tools and resources. So it's all human capital.
Griffin Jones 57:21
I'll give you both the last word, how would you like to conclude? Chris?
Kristyn Hodgdon 57:27
I think it might seem like from today's podcast that we're doing a lot. And we are, you know, this is always like, what I feel like we need to
Griffin Jones 57:37
talk, let's talk a little bit about that, actually, before we conclude, and because that is one thing that is both true and necessary, of all good entrepreneurial ventures. And it's also true, and destructive from all bad entrepreneurial ventures like that. Yeah, like the pivoting that happens. And you know, you we've had a school of thought for the last decade, or maybe decade and a half of the lean startup and, and ways to prove concept. And all of those are good things. And they, they should be part of the procedure of testing a business. But at the end of the day, a business is not one concept. It is it's dozens of concepts. And you're proving each one of them as you as you go through, you know, the maturation of building a company. And so like, you can't just say, oh, yeah, like, I put up this landing page and 10,000 people bought this, therefore I have a company, it's like, okay, you got an idea gone. And then there's a number of different things to prove. After that, I will
Kristyn Hodgdon 58:47
say to like, you're only as strong as your team. When Abby approached me about merging our businesses, I was naturally really nervous about it. And kind of took her through like a month long, convince me process. But you know, what I think is so powerful about our team is that we each have our strengths. And you know, I'm content and creative and community, Abby's business, and Perez technology. And then we have our Head of Marketing and head of partnerships and operations. But we all sort of stay in our own lanes and really respect what the others do while also being collaborative. And I think that's so important to not, you know, to just trust that we're all getting our jobs done, and we're all on this team for a reason. I think, you know, your team can really make or break your startup and I'm really proud to be a part of this one.
Griffin Jones 59:43
Let me let me ask it this way, because the REI venture capital, that fertility venture capital graveyard is filled with companies like I don't want to embarrass somebody so I'll make one glow. Like yeah, But they tried
Abby Mercado 1:00:00
integration that didn't work.
Griffin Jones 1:00:04
And I'm ripping on them, but they raised a lot of money. And they did have, they did at least have some really good team members at somewhere. And they also, like they had a community that had a really good community, there were people that there were clinics that were getting, like, 5% of their patients from glow, and, and, and it just, it couldn't material, like they tried going one way it tried going the other and it but then you have like Fertility Authority, that becomes progeny, it's like, holy crap, they really did it. And then and so like it can like, like, the pivoting and the the the figuring out, like what really this is necessary, it can just go either way. And so what are you? What do you feel that you're doing? To safeguard to go the right way?
Abby Mercado 1:00:55
Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I think it is, like, it's all about the data graph. And like we are, we're a super data focused team. And we are also not afraid to kill things that we're working on. So if the data is suggesting that something isn't working, we kill it. Like we've killed so many different products to date. Right now, all three of our the ways that we make money, it's working. So we're not we're like, maybe in you know, on July 7 2024, we will only be doing one of those three things. But, you know, as of today, the data suggests that it's all working. But when it isn't, or if it isn't, who knows? We're not afraid to fill it and focus on what what is working. So for our team, like we are lean, and we are we're always looking at the data, you know, what's working, what's not, I mean, talk to you have to have that focus.
Griffin Jones 1:01:57
Now, I'll give you the file now that I scratch that you reminded me that I wanted to talk about that, Chris? No,
Kristyn Hodgdon 1:02:05
no worries. Um, okay, so I lost my train of thought now. But I would say, for those that are listening that might be sceptical of, you know, a patient community or a media platform in the industry. You know, we were at SRM a couple months ago. And we, we really kind of saw that we were the only booth there sort of representing patients and as patients ourselves.
Griffin Jones 1:02:40
No resolve just heard you say that. And they're like, what did we did when they're dissolved?
Abby Mercado 1:02:50
I don't know. They might have I'm pretty
Griffin Jones 1:02:52
sure they've had that every. It's every. I guess I should rephrase that. They had a booth in 2021. There was no and they still went they went anyway. Fine.
Abby Mercado 1:03:03
Very BB if you're listening, we love resolve.
Kristyn Hodgdon 1:03:06
We love resolve. No, I mostly meant it. I guess I don't consider them like a media platform. Like I was talking more about, like, you know, we are patients and we are a patient advocates. And everything we do is for patients on our, you know, on our media platform, but we also bring in the clinics and the doctors and the brands that you know, are doing the work and we're so we're working both sides to try to just arm patients with as much information and empower them to be their own best advocates on their journeys because that's what we wished we had on our journeys.
Abby Mercado 1:03:45
And also if you're sceptical we'd love to work with you. Via Rescripted.com That's that's the best way the pillow kilobits the sceptics and to say you know, let's we'd love to show you what we're made up and to show you how we can better educate patients.
Griffin Jones 1:04:05
Well, that's the best way to kill this. The sceptics is time in and doing it and LeBron James wasn't LeBron James until he was and so I don't know if rescript it is Josh Allen or if it's Baker Mayfield I hope that you're Josh Allen because I Like You I like talking to you. The market decides and you'll decide so
Abby Mercado 1:04:24
we're based in Colorado so we're like you can call us and Peyton Manning Well,
Griffin Jones 1:04:30
I wish you the best of luck Abby in Kristen, thank you for coming on inside reproductive health.
Kristyn Hodgdon 1:04:35
Thanks Griffin.
1:04:38
You've been listening to the inside reproductive health podcast with Griffin Jones. If you're ready to take action to make sure that your practice thrives beyond the revolutionary changes that are happening in our field and in society. Visit fertility bridge.com To begin the first piece of the fertility marketing system, the goal and competitive diagnostic. Thank you for listening to in Side reproductive health