Future of Fertility_Suzie Devine: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Future of Fertility_Suzie Devine: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Abby Mercado:
Hi. I'm Abby Mercado, an IVF mom, former VC investor, and CEO of Rescripted. Welcome to The Future of Fertility, a podcast dedicated to shining a light on the entrepreneurs and innovators who are changing the face of family building. With billions in funding over the past few years, we'll introduce you to the people, the ideas, and the businesses that are changing the fertility industry and in turn, millions of people's lives. The future of fertility is bright. Now let's get into it!

Abby Mercado:
Today, I'm here with Suzie Devine, the founder and CEO of Bnto. Binto is on a mission to help women everywhere get access to safe and effective over-the-counter products and educational content alongside access to licensed healthcare professionals at an attainable price point. Binto has redefined women's journeys from period to menopause, with the mission of disrupting the women's health market by using preventative medicine rather than turning to prescription drugs. Suzie and the Rescripted team go way back, and we love working together. Suzie is an authority on all things fertility, which is why I'm a proud Binto customer. This woman, let's just say she knows her stuff. I would love to welcome Suzie to the podcast today. Welcome, Suzie, so good to see you!

Suzie Devine:
Oh! You too, Abby. That was such a nice intro. Like I feel so, I feel so special at ...

Abby Mercado:
Let's just say I'm a fan.

Suzie Devine:
You're, you and Kristyn are the best. I'm really glad that, you know, we met Kristyn when she was the fertility tribe, and I remember her talking about you, and should she let you acquire her. And I'm just so glad that you two are now cofounders. And what is today Fertility Rescripted because I think you two are such strong and powerful women in a space that needs our help now more than ever, so.

Abby Mercado:
You're so sweet to say that. Yeah, we love it. Remind me, how did you and Kristyn initially meet?

Suzie Devine:
Instagram.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah, that's how everybody meets Kristyn.

Suzie Devine:
I think. And then, yeah, then we just got connected and became friendly and started texting each other all the time.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Suzie Devine:
Which is so nice. I feel like female founders really, like when you find your crew of female founders, you really need to lean on each other and support one another.

Abby Mercado:
Absolutely.

Suzie Devine:
You know.

Abby Mercado:
We can't do it without one another. There's so many things holding us back.

Suzie Devine:
Absolutely. We just had the, I don't know if you follow Lauren Smith Brody, she is the fifth trimester. So if you're listening to this and you're in the fertility space, it's still kind of relevant because she is all about basically maternal health, caregiver rights in the workplace, and that counts as fertility, too. But she took over our Binto baby account yesterday, and she reminded me that, as you know, as a founder, you know, you should pay yourself. You, even if you are an expert in a field and remember that people should be paying for your services. And I think that I myself, as a founder, forget to that. And I'm always there for my friends, but I'm like, hey, don't forget to utilize our telehealth services or whatever it is. So anyways, if you're a founder and you're listening to this, which hopefully you are, maybe that makes sense to you, but.

Abby Mercado:
Self-care ....

Suzie Devine:
For yourself. Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Self-care like paying yourself a salary, maybe.

Suzie Devine:
Maybe. Totally.

Abby Mercado:
We had an investor who told me that, a female investor. Hey, Audrey! Who, you know, just like Abby, like pay yourself, like do this. Like if you need to take care of yourself, your family and you are working harder than a whole lot of other people, so do it.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I wish, you know, the first three, three and a half years at Binto, I didn't pay myself, and I put a lot of money in. And it definitely messes with your confidence and your role in your partnership, too. Like if you're with someone and like what are you bringing to the household income? So all of that stuff is really important for founders to consider when you're starting out.

Abby Mercado:
Yes. So you said something that immediately caught my attention. So you said the Fifth Trimester is fertility. And so a little bit of backdrop, so at Rescripted, everybody is always asking us like, are you going to like, where does Rescripted stop? Where do you start and where do you stop? And for us, as a business, because our roots are like so ingrained in the infertility and pregnancy loss space, because Kristyn and I both experienced those things, we do not want to go anywhere near parenting. And so when you, but at all things fertility like that is us. So explain, explain, because you are the authority on all things fertility. Explain to me like how does that count as fertility? How is the fifth trimester fertility?

Suzie Devine:
Yeah. So I think the fifth trimester movement really started around, right, benefits in the workplace. So what can employers do? What can companies do to support all of their employees who have caregiving needs, whether it is you are a parent or you have to care for an elder person in your family. And I would say and stretch it, and I think Lauren Smith Brody would say the same thing, that that stretches to you, if you are trying to become a parent. You know, that counts as taking time off for bereavement, miscarriage, pregnancy and infant loss, all of that counts. And when you're going through infertility, it's emotionally taxing, like the two years that we were trying to have peers while also running a women's health and fertility business were the hardest two years of my life, and I took, after our second miscarriage, I took almost a full month off where I fully stepped away, where I was like, I, like I need to treat myself as an employee taking leave and like I need to take, take a step back because ultimately that will be the best thing for my partnership with my co-founder Kevin and then for the company. Because if you, if you have a partnership that, that is like the most, most important thing, and yeah, it all ties in.

Abby Mercado:
Okay, so maybe I just needed a better understanding what the fifth trimester was, so thank you for that.

Suzie Devine:
I mean, it's technically like going back to work after, after your baby, but that movement has expanded to, to so many other things and like the workplace and family.

Abby Mercado:
Well, that's wonderful, thanks for walking us through that. Well, so let's and we've been, we've been chatting for a minute, so let's, let's kind of take it back to the very beginning, and we'd love to just hear about you, who you are, what your background is. And we'd love to hear, we'd love to, kind of, your end, your spiel on a fun fact about yourself that the listeners might not know.

Suzie Devine:
Sure. So I'm a women's health nurse, I got started in women's health nursing right off the bat. So I went to UVA undergrad, did my nursing degree there, ... And I knew I wanted to be in women's health and I got a job as a labor and delivery postpartum and anti-partum and while baby and NICU nurse here at what was a very prominent urban hospital in Philadelphia called Hahnemann. It is no longer, sadly, it served a very urban, poor, patient population and it was very needed, and Philadelphia is a huge center for women's health and delivery services. So we've now gone down a whole unit, which is a whole different, a whole other tangent. But that all kind of ties in to, to what we're talking about with women's health and fertility care. So I served a really unique patient population and I loved it. It also got me thinking about preventative health and the idea that the modern US health system solely focuses on sick care. Now, this was back in 20, I graduated in what, 2011? So there's still a while ago now, and we were still here at Penn Building in patient hospitals, skyscrapers and very focused on inpatient, where for me, wellness and health, especially for women like this, isn't necessarily sick care. When you're having a baby or trying to get pregnant, you're not necessarily like sick in the traditional sense. So how can we treat these people in advance, educate them about how their bodies work, all this stuff. So that was always needling in the back of my mind. I got into grad school here at Penn like two years into my working inpatient, and I then decided to switch paths and focus on pre-conception care. So I started working as a fertility and IVF nurse with Penn Medicine here in Philadelphia, it's one of our big academic, you know, very well-known fertility centers and, oh, I loved it, I, clearly. I think I was meant to for this to all fall into place. Then for a while I wasn't sure. You know, as a nurse, it's really hard. I, I knew I wanted to do more and reach more people. And as a nurse, you're sort of the bottom of the totem pole in the health hierarchy of providers or health care professionals. And I knew I didn't want to be a doctor, like I don't want to prescribe people, but I'm really into health systems and the sort of economy and the business of healthcare. And it was just working with my patients day in and day out that I finally got this idea back in 2014, 2015, to start a company around helping these couples feel more empowered in their fertility journey. So I got into a program at Wharton as part of my master's degree. I was the only nurse, only female, but I, but I won, it ended in a pitch competition, I won. We got our first angel investors out of that and quit my job, like a week later, I finished grad school, bought a house with my boyfriend, who then proposed to me a few months later. Yeah, there was going on then. 2016-2017 was a crazy time for me, and I think that's just who I am as a person. So fun fact, like, I just dive in headfirst and sort of one of my sayings in life is you either sink or you swim. And I sure as hell I'm going to figure out how to swim. And that's kind of.

Abby Mercado:
Oh, yeah!

Suzie Devine:
IT's like when you are a bedside nurse, like you're thrown in it and you have to figure it out. And that's me, and I can talk more about Binto.

Abby Mercado:
So, what, I mean, okay, so I actually want to go like, thank you for that. I want to go a little bit further back and I want to dig into something that I saw in your LinkedIn profile about Malawi.

Suzie Devine:
Yes.

Abby Mercado:
And like kind of where it all started for you. Could you tell me a little bit about that experience?

Suzie Devine:
Sure. So before we started recording, Abby and I were actually talking about religion, fun fact. And, okay, so I was very involved in my church growing up, an Episcopal church, I taught in the Montessori preschool on Sunday school, and I was really involved in the youth group. And one of the groups at my church was called, worked with a nonprofit called Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance, which is actually run out of San Francisco. And I think she was tied to the, the couple that founded it, the woman was, I think at one point, the dean of University of San Francisco's Nursing School. So like this, that's how I got tied into this group. So at age 16, my parents had to sign over guardianship so that I could travel abroad with this group for three weeks, I think it was three weeks, And we went all over, so we were working with orphanages, feeding centers, local churches, mosques. So the point was that it was interfaith and there's a really big Muslim population in Malawi as well as Christian and, it completely opened my eyes to the fact that women are the backbones of communities, economically speaking. And it made me want to, that's what made me want to go into health care, and then obviously I chose nursing as my path, which I think fits my personality. I'm definitely an empath, not that doctors or other people can't be empaths, but I think nursing really was just the right path for me. But yeah, Malawi was unbelievable. I then went back again when I was in college at UVA and hopefully, I can go, go again soon. I'm like, how can I? I'm always wondering, how can I get back there.

Abby Mercado:
And you said you got.

Suzie Devine:
It changed my life.

Abby Mercado:
You got malaria?

Suzie Devine:
Yes, I did.

Abby Mercado:
What was that like?

Suzie Devine:
It was, luckily I was traveling with a few doctors, but it was funny. I was traveling with a neonatologist and an ER doctor and they were like, oh, we think you have a stomach bug. And it was our driver, Lucille, he was like, no, no, she has malaria. Like we've got to get her to a clinic. But we were on the road, so we had to stop, it was, we were driving back from southern Malawi to the capital city the long way when I got sick. So I was too sick to travel, so they got me into a hotel, and I stayed the night with the neonatologist, Susan. She took amazing care of me, and then the next day, Lucille took me to, a long way to a clinic. And, you know, I'm so lucky that I got to have money, which allowed me access to care, which is, you know, like my whole, clearly still, part of my mission in life is access to care and preventative medicine, which malaria can be completely prevented.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. Wow. Well, I bet your parents were freaking out.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah, they were.

Abby Mercado:
I'm sorry. What is happening?

Suzie Devine:
My mom always said she was in a Target, and she got a call, and the guy was like, oh, she has a touch of malaria. My mom was like well that's like she's a touch pregnant. And I'm like, well, actually, you can be a touch pregnant, which, you know, as we all know, with chemical pregnancies and miscarriage and the whole world of infertility, I would say that you can be technically a touch pregnant.

Abby Mercado:
Wow. No, that's, Malaria, man, what a quote. Well, I mean, it's, now I kind of, now I understand why you are the way that you are and why, like, you've become fascinated by just systems because, you know, you realize you had money and you were able to find care and seek care for yourself, even though you have these doctors around you. It was, it was something that like, like you needed to take it kind of a step up and a step higher in terms of your care, so fascinating. So did you have, I mean, you as a nurse and as an empath, you, you took a path that I don't think I can name another nurse that, that I know that has taken such an entrepreneurial path. Was there, like did you have mentors in your life, like other nurses who had been particularly entrepreneurial?

Suzie Devine:
Yeah, there are quite a few, and some of them are UVA graduates. So a lot of nurses go on to be chief nursing officers of health systems and even CEOs. So the CEO of the Children's Hospital here in Philadelphia is Madeline Bell, and she started out as a nurse, many years ago at CHOP. So I think, you know, a lot of nurses are like kind of this type-A personality and problem solvers. Not every nurse, but a lot of them. Love it, love the cat. Sorry we got interrupted by Kitty.

Abby Mercado:
Sorry. My cat just jumped into.

Suzie Devine:
I love it.

Abby Mercado:
The screen.

Suzie Devine:
I have a cat too, and I'm kind of shocked, she's not on my lap right now as well, so, I think there are plenty of nurses that are entrepreneurial, and I hope that I could be someone to inspire another nurse to take a leap of faith and venture into the business world. There are a lot of problems that need to be solved and there's a lot of red tape within health systems. And so it can be hard to find your role as a problem solver in that corporate setting. And I think that's where the entrepreneurial route was like way better, like fit me and my mission. Who I am.

Abby Mercado:
Okay, that makes sense. It's like, maybe, maybe we all have a misconception. So nurses are amazing and entrepreneurial nurses are also amazing. So let's and also so fun fact, I want to pitch competition too, and that's how I originally started. Yeah, that was my founder story. Like, pitch competitions are great as much as people make fun of them and all the things it was, it was a great thing for me. And obviously it was such a great thing for you.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah. Look, if you are listening to this and you're a founder, I think it just gets too-time, right? So like we only have so much time as a founder and time is like our most valuable asset. So in the beginning it can be really valuable as you get bigger and your, maybe pitch competitions aren't the best use of your time anymore, right? So that's where I think you just have to think about it as use of time. And obviously I had no idea what the heck I was doing, that's why I did this entrepreneurial program at Wharton, and it really helped me, and I met some of my advisory board members, angel investors and some of the best mentors I've, I've ever had. So yeah, just think of using your network, using these as a, as a stepping point to get in front of your audience and get the, get the message out there.

Abby Mercado:
And it's a great way as you're, kind of coming up with your idea and testing your idea and doing research like it's a great way to get feedback.

Suzie Devine:
...

Abby Mercado:
So like kind of annoying when you're trying to raise money to do pitch competitions, but like when you're, when you're like, oh my gosh, should I quit my job and start this company like pitch competition? A pitch ..., at least for me, could not have been better. Like, that was such, it was so timely, it was fantastic. And it enabled me to kind of take that leap and it sounds like did the same thing for you.

Suzie Devine:
Absolutely.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. So let's dive into that. So Binto, like a whole founding story, you've kind of walked us out, walked us through how you've gotten, how you got there. Like how, like what happened next?

Suzie Devine:
Yeah. So, Binto first started out as this idea of a kind of like a fertility subscription box. So the point that as a nurse you realized, like, everyone's body is different, everyone has a different fertility diagnosis, we're all in different stages of trying, our needs are different. And I wanted to kind of use that health data from customers and help them get the over-the-counter products that are going to benefit them. So is it ovulation predictor kits? Is it pregnancy test kits? Do they need clean feminine care without the chemicals in it? Do they need the right fertility supplements and prenatal supplements? So it was really kind of curating this marketplace of products, which I know you guys have a marketplace now and, and personalizing it for them. So removing the guesswork of all of this, because that's what I was getting questions around all the time and, so yeah, that's how we started, and Binto stands for Bun In The Oven. I had to come up with a name for the, the, the class that I was in and stick with the business name the whole time. And I love Binto now because everyone's like, oh, I'm taking my Bintos. Like, it just it all fits. And my husband, I had a friend who was a graphic designer do the logo, but my husband helped too. So it was sort of like a seed that's sprouting, which is to me, fertility and growth. And today we do, we have grown since then, it's been six years almost. We have expanded for the full reproductive life cycle. So we, we learned early on that no one six years ago was really talking about women's reproductive life cycle, I think we were the first company to use that term, reproductive life cycle. Now I see it everywhere. So I'm like, yes, that's awesome. We're, people are starting to talk about this as a life cycle because that's what it is. So like supporting young girls or women from period years all the way past menopause. And you know, fertility is a big component of that, it's still a core of, of what we do. We have also formulated our whole line of over-the-counter supplements, we have some other products coming soon, and then we do telehealth services. So one of the earliest findings was that people, customers want to talk to me. They're like, oh, it's founded by a nurse, okay, well, I want to talk to you, I want to pick your brain. And so we've sort of figured that out, we have other license providers, you can book consults with us. And I think that access to care, especially for our customers who are primarily, I would say not just the coast but the middle of America, right where we have only 50% of the counties in the US have a single OB-GYN, there's a huge dearth of health care providers for women's reproductive healthcare. And now we're in a very scary time of post Roe v Wade and what that means for a lot of the clients that we serve, so I feel like now we need companies like Rescripted and Binto more than ever.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah. So in terms of kind of this, this initial box that you were going to provide, like, tell us a little bit about how you pivoted from that into what you're doing now and kind of some of the early learnings that you had and how you were flexible and you kind of made a quick shift that enabled the company to still be alive today.

Suzie Devine:
So my co-founder Kevin says it best is that we're not selling a product, we're finding solutions for your symptoms. And I think that's really, really key, is that, early on, we kept hearing the thing like no one ever told me that I didn't have to live with PMS, no one ever told me that I could use something to improve my egg quality, no one ever told me that 98% of serotonin in my body is made in my gut and that I could take something over the counter to support that and improve my mood. So we pivoted quickly to the supplements because I think you can see a clear clinical outcome through data. So we are also a data company which I don't talk a lot about, but we have our whole tech, which Abby knows about. ...

Abby Mercado:
So it's so important and it's so differentiating.

Suzie Devine:
It is. And then so yeah, it was really like the technology and, and focusing on products that actually improved clinical outcomes and made you feel better for those things that are a high value issue to you as a customer, but are there, they're lower value to a provider. So freeing up wait times for providers, allowing people with ovarian cancer to get an appointment, right? The wait times here to get an OB-GYN appointment are minimum six weeks in Philadelphia.

Abby Mercado:
It's insane. It's the same way in Denver. Like, I, I just got an IUD, and even though my husband and I are infertile anyway, I just want more, you know, like I wanted my periods to be less horrible, so that's.

Suzie Devine:
You're allowed to use.

Abby Mercado:
I know.

Suzie Devine:
An IUD for that, Abby, it's okay.

Abby Mercado:
... Thank you for letting me know that, that's really good validation because I had like 10 minutes with my, with my OB-GYN and anyway, we didn't, like, talk a lot about it, but.

Suzie Devine:
Right, exactly.

Abby Mercado:
Once I was like, I want an IUD, and it took me like two and a half months to actually get it in my body. Like, it was crazy.

Suzie Devine:
It's awful. It's really awful. So yeah, that's what we're focused on, like UTIs, yeast infections, period, cramps. You want to talk about birth control options? Great, schedule an appointment with us at Binto and our physician associate Andy can counsel you on the different forms that are going to be good for you and then you're already aware of what you want to do and you can make that IUD appointment so you can, because you literally like you said, only have about 10 minutes in the room with your provider anyways. So we truly want to focus on products that deliver solutions and, you know, we quickly got away from a lot of the other products we were providing, I think we'll probably bring some of them back soon. But under our, our brand, our own products, and that's what we did with the supplements. I felt like there was no one supplement company that was really focused on that that life cycle of women's health, reproductive health.

Abby Mercado:
Adding those products makes a lot of sense to me because like, in that sense, you're kind of like your vertically integrating.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
You know, it's like you become kind of this one stop-shop for the reproductive, for care during the reproductive life cycle, just turns out quite long. And so how, you know, supplement like you were, you were kind of an OG, right, like you started this company six years ago, we see the supplement brands all over the place like.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
How, how hard is it to start to, like, formulate a supplement? Like what? What differentiates you guys other than the fact that you're super personalized and you have this telehealth component that's clear. But like in terms of what's actually in the products, tell us about thst.

Suzie Devine:
As far as formulating it goes, we, sorry, my golden retriever decided to interrupt the call. The cat, we have the cat and the golden retriever. Okay, so as far as supplements go and formulating it is really important to have the right team members and partnerships. So supplements are manufactured in labs that have to be certified by the FDA. So first, you want to find a really good manufacturing partner and then you need people on your team like formulators so you can have like a pharmacist, right, to figure out all the different components. And then we also wanted scientific advisors like physicians from different areas of women's health to help us with the formulation of our supplements. I think what most supplement companies do, and you may not realize this, is that everything they just buy a la carte private label.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Suzie Devine:
So they.

Abby Mercado:
I did actually did know that, fun fact about supplement brands. They are not ....

Suzie Devine:
They are not. And a lot of these quote newer companies that pop up are really just like, oh, well, this is a quote, an easy industry for me to get in, I'll just get a doctor and put them on the front of our website and pretend like I'm formulating stuff. But really just going to a private label lab, getting their prenatal is and putting it in their own branded box, which isn't new, like people do private label stuff all the time. So what makes us unique is that it's our own formulations, we spend a lot of time coming up with them and this is why we take.

Abby Mercado:
And time is money.

Suzie Devine:
And time is money.

Abby Mercado:
A lot of money too.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah. And we've taken our time with rolling out new products. We only have like 16 different SKUs. So when it comes to the personalization, that's not like we're all over the place. We have some general things that we pull from and then we titrate your doses or whatever you need for combinations, so also from a business model perspective in terms of personalization. You know, you don't want to have like 150 different supplement SKUs because that's going to be an inventory disaster to try and keep up with all the time. So like, there are things that I think we've done that are very smart for the business and also providing solutions to customers that, that make a difference in terms of like the formulations and the products that we do have. But yeah, we, we've really scaled through sales. So we are like that bootstrapped story, we have some angel investors, one institutional and we, you know, slower growth, which has its pros and cons in terms of like other people getting in the waters. But none of them are on us. None of them have like a nurse Suzie, and that, the team that we have and the formulations and everything that we've done and of course the technology. So no one's really combining all of those, which makes us, I think, the best.

Abby Mercado:
I thought I'd be confident as an entrepreneur. No, I love it, so.

Suzie Devine:
I'm definitely not confident all the time. Let me tell you that.

Abby Mercado:
You're amazing and you should be the most ....

Suzie Devine:
I've met days where I'm like, what the hell have I done? As I'm sure you have had.

Suzie Devine:
We all do.

Abby Mercado:
Everyone has that.

Abby Mercado:
We all do. I love the authenticity. So you kind of, you, you mentioned you're bootstrapped, I, it sounds like you have achieved some level of profitability through sales. Like you've kind of been able to run this thing. Like what's, what's kind of your capital raising strategy going forward?

Suzie Devine:
Yeah, I think for us, if we were to raise now, it's just would be like finding the right partner that's going to get us to the next level, it's not just about finding quick cash. I'm, we're kind of past that phase in our business and who we are. So we, you know, when we're thinking about it, it's going to be, you know, are we going to be acquired or are we going to take a lead investor who's going to help us get to some other level with the products that we're going to roll out? That that kind of partnership is more what we're looking for versus just cash, which is, I think, like, you know, it's not easy. And I think that we don't talk about this enough in the startup community, and it really frustrates me. I just did a program, during ventures, which you told me, you sent it to me and I was like, okay, yeah, I'll do this, and I've really loved it. One thing that I feel like I'm still not saying is that we put so much ... or, you know clout behind companies that raise all this money, well, is that a good thing? What about the companies that are profitable and scaling through sales. Like as a founder there are other ways to raise money, and I think we don't talk about that enough in the media or as founders ourselves, because there are some people who are not, who don't have the connections of the game that is raising capital, which is that network and who knows who, and the warm intros and the everything ... from my iPhone and the game. And there are people who have brilliant ideas and, when we think about diversity, right? A lot of those people that raised money are males, like we're females and then entrepreneurs of color, right? Like they're, they don't necessarily have that access to raising that kind of venture funds that maybe other people do. So I really do wish that we talked about it, of course, like investors aren't going to talk about that, though, because they're like, well, that's our business.

Abby Mercado:
Yeah.

Suzie Devine:
It's still like invest in companies, but like look at Sara Blakely of Spanx. She's sort of like this insane unicorn, and like, there are, there are ways to do it. I don't think everyone can do it, I think it's really hard. But if you're listening to this and you're a founder and you're stressed out, like there are other ways to find money if you, and if you keep getting told no, but you have people buying your product and you're selling well, I mean, that's validating too. Like you don't need an investor to say yes to validate who you are and your, and your business.

Abby Mercado:
I'm obsessed with this conversation topic, as you know, like I.

Suzie Devine:
I know you are an investor turned entrepreneur.

Abby Mercado:
I am. And you're totally right. Like we glorify these massive rounds and that is 1,000% not what we should always be glorifying. We should be glorifying brilliant founders who are building sustainable, profitable, revenue generating businesses.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
That, that is it. That's what we're trying to share at Rescripted. So.

Suzie Devine:
Yeah.

Abby Mercado:
Well, I'm like, we're running short on time and I'm like, oh my God, I have like 10,000 more things I want to ask too.

Suzie Devine:
I know. I really talked a lot, sorry!

Abby Mercado:
No, this is amazing. And like, and so authentic. I'm, okay, here. I'm going to, I'm actually going to ask you to pick, pick the last substantive.

Suzie Devine:
Oh, sure.

Abby Mercado:
So I'm going to give you three choices.

Suzie Devine:
Okay.

Abby Mercado:
So I, my first question topic was going to be like, why? Why work with nurses versus doctors on your telehealth team? Second one is the role of data. And then the third, the third one is everything, every time I talk to you, you educate me. So just wanted to kind of dive into the role of education and Binto, so anyway, three topics, pick one.

Suzie Devine:
Well, I could kind of answer all three quickly, so.

Abby Mercado:
Let's do it then!

Suzie Devine:
Okay, so nurse over doctor business wise because low, mid to lower level providers are more cost effective yet can do a lot of the same things, we already talked about at high value customer problems, lower value to a provider like a doctor. So that's that one. Data, why is data so critical in business into what we do? It's, I mean, data is everything, is everything. So we have our own technology that we have built. Binto is a tech company and platform and we collect a lot of patient reported and first party data, which is critical to how we operate as a business in terms of understanding what our customers need and getting you, getting them the right product and then measuring our outcomes. So super important business wise and also for our customers. And then last one is the role of the educator and how why education is so important. I think as a nurse I had the most amazing clinical instructor, Dr. Cathy Hall, Professor Hall at UVA, and we'd get to clinical. And at the start of every clinical, she would always remind us that any person can do a skill, right? Anyone can learn a skill, but it's the nurses job to teach. And no one can take that away from you as a nurse, and that is your role, and I think that has stayed with me. Like that is what we do with Binto, so much of what we do is provide education to empower you. And I love, love educating. I did my minor, my master's degree in education, and I taught at Villanova's Nursing School for a few years to make some side money, before when we got started. So yeah, I love teaching and education is so, so critical.

Abby Mercado:
Amazing. I love it. Thanks for all three of those answers. They all make sense and just resonate very much with me and most likely for the listener as well. So my very last question, Suzie, and we like to ask this to the guests that come on the Future of Fertility podcast. So as a as a founder and CEO in the fertility space, what is one thing that you want to rescript about this space?

Suzie Devine:
Okay, I think this goes back to the doctor versus nurse. And this has been weighing on me recently in a lot of, I think Kristyn shared, reshared something really important on Rescripted's channel the other day and that was talking about the privilege of being able to afford IVF. And that also made me think about like, why don't, why don't we talk about that? And then why do we always talk about the doctor's role, like the reproductive endocrinologist? Because you're nursing team is the one doing so much of the work in an IVF clinic. And we literally like we do not give these health professionals enough credit when it comes to the infertility world. I think another thing I'd love to rescript or when I think about the future of fertility, is the immunology side, and I'm so glad we're starting to talk about this. And this is something like a lot of the new tests, you know, fertility is really lived in the box for a long time with this, since the conception of IVF. And I think Binto is going to be on the forefront of some hopefully like additional amazing testing that comes out and products that people will need in their home when it comes to the future of IVF. So immunology and like the microbiome of the uterus and how that impacts implantation and, and all of these things really matter and our environment. So those are the things when I think of the future of fertility.

Abby Mercado:
Very detailed both.

Suzie Devine:
I know. I ...

Abby Mercado:
... Get detailed answers that are that are uncommon from what we've heard to date from our guests. So thank you for those, those unique answers. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today, Suzie. Tell our listeners where they can find you.

Suzie Devine:
You can find us on Instagram at my M Y B I N T O, MyBinto, for all things women's health, wellness, fertility. You can also find me on TikTok at Nurse_Suzie where I am really diving deep in the fertility content, and of course please come signup, subscribe, get your fertility supplements at MyBinto.com.

Abby Mercado:
And I will say to plug Binto supplements. I just feel so much better, like my body just feels better thanks to Binto. So I've never taken supplements in my life and I know, right?

Suzie Devine:
We got you. We got you.

Abby Mercado:
You got me!

Suzie Devine:
And Kristyn.

Abby Mercado:
And Kristyn, too, of course. And I just we all love working with you, Suzie, so thank you again.

Suzie Devine:
And thank you, Abby.

Abby Mercado:
We will talk soon.

Abby Mercado:
Thank you for tuning in to the Future Of Fertility. We hope you live here feeling empowered about all of the exciting innovations taking place in the fertility space. If you like today's episode and want to stay up to date on our podcast, don't forget to click subscribe. To find this episode, show notes, resources, and more, head to Rescripted.com, and be sure to join our free fertility support community while you're there.

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