Not Your Average Founder Spotlight: Wes Abbey, Cofounder of Wonderment
This kicks off Wayfund’s series “Not Your Average Founder” with our boy, the one, the only, Wes Abbey. Wes is Cofounder of Wonderment and leads up all things Engineering. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him at Wayfair and Drizly, and he is a FORCE.
Wes Abbey, cofounder of Wonderment hails from the beautiful city of San Diego, California. After finishing college at UNC Chapel Hill, he migrated to Boston to start his career in ecommerce at Wayfair and then three years at Drizly, transforming the world of alcohol ecommerce. He’s put his ecommerce skills to work in cofounding Wonderment, another company focused in the ecommerce space. We asked questions. He gave answers. Let’s go.
Q: Wes, give us the scoop on what you guys do at Wonderment?
Wes: It’s the early days of Wonderment but our goals are to help small e-commerce merchants scale and build their businesses. We’re here to help them take on the Amazon’s of the world by giving these smaller merchants access to tools typically only available to large enterprise retailers. Today we’re focused on providing shipment insights for e-commerce merchants as well as a range of integrations with their tools.
Q: In this world of COVID, has it helped or hurt the business? What are the biggest trade winds helping you in your favor?
Wes: Obviously, e-comm is going through a massive growth period right now. The pandemic has caused a huge push toward e-commerce and while this is pushing businesses like Amazon, Wayfair, and Shopify to massive market caps, smaller DTC businesses are also benefiting. The influx of customers is wonderful but it's also causing some unforeseen operational problems.
Tools like Wonderment have been huge benefits to merchants who are realizing problems.
Q: Biggest personal accomplishment to date?
Wes: I’ve always been driven to start a company someday, and I’m proud of myself for diving in. I learned a ton from my time at Wayfair and Drizly and am so appreciative for the time I spent there and the people I’ve met. I hope to work with a lot of these people again in the future. Both of those companies have talented people, they’re entrepreneurial, and willing to take on risk.
Q: What got you into development? And if you had to give advice to people considering going into software development, what tactical advice would you give them?
Wes: I didn’t get into software until I was in college. I was a psych major like everyone else. I eventually realized that wasn’t going to be the major to help me accomplish my goals.
I spent a lot of time researching possible career paths and industries one semester. I looked for careers people found the most fulfilling and what brought people the most joy in their life. At the end of this I had a list of ten possible paths I could take. Five of them required a Computer Science degree.
Once I started learning about tech and the software industry it was over. I engulfed myself in everything. The disruption and speed of development of the internet is unbelievable. I can’t imagine building around anything else.
Q: Most interesting nerdy thing you’re learning about right now in the world of engineering?
Wes: Recently I’ve been diving deep into the cloud computing world. I use AWS and recently I’ve been playing around with their machine learning services. Cloud has changed the game to the point where we have state of the art ML out of the box. I’m excited for the future.
Q: Tell us something people don’t know about you.
Wes: I’m involved in Project Recover. This is an organization trying to find and repatriate Americans missing in action (MIA) since World War II in order to provide recognition and closure for families and the nation.
I feel strongly about the mission and hopefully the project can bring as much closure as possible to the families of those affected.
Q: Personal goals in 2021?
Wes: My main goal is to use Wonderment to help as many merchants and entrepreneurs as possible build and improve their businesses.
Personally, I usually have one or two hobbies I try to cultivate every year. 2020 was a year for cooking and photography. I haven’t settled on the hobby for 2021 yet, but I usually write it down on my now page.
Q: Favorite place to zen-out and relax and why?
Wes: Every morning I do a quick exercise routine and finish it off with about 10 minutes of meditation. This is a quick routine, but this is my time in the morning to regenerate and get ready for the day. I try to avoid my phone until after this session is over.
Exercise and meditation help me relax a lot. This morning routine helps me clear my head and get a good jump on the day.
Outside of that going for a walk/run around the city is an easy way of helping me zen-out and relax.
Q: College. Did you go or not? Still worth it or not?
Wes: I got a lot out of college. I’m a proponent of everyone having a solid well rounded general education. Education has a compounding effect and if you have more information on how the world works you’ll be able to take that and make better decisions.
That said, the education landscape is changing drastically. I love what companies like Edx, Udacity, and others are doing. It seems like certificate program companies are starting each week in the country and I’m excited to watch it evolve.
However, the college choice is a big one most people aren’t well equipped to make when they’re 18. The cost of many institutions has become absurd and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different colleges and majors is difficult.
Predatory for-profit institutions like University of Phoenix or DeVry should be avoided entirely.
Short answer: It depends.
You can find a rich college experience but good research is important when making your decision.
Q: Outside of Wonderment, what are the biggest innovations you're following right now and why?
Wes: DTC e-commerce is huge but outside of this a lot is happening. AI/Machine Learning has gone through a huge boom in the last five years and seeing how this technology is changing the landscape of everything excites me. There will likely be applications of this we’ll develop for Wonderment, but right now we’re obviously in the early stages of the company. I’m also reading and keeping an eye on the streaming gaming industry. It’s exploded over the years. I like seeing how this space continues to evolve. AR/VR are also still in their early days but the convergence of these fields with streaming/gaming within the decade could result in awesome consumer products. Enter the metaverse…
Q: Favorite book and why?
Wes: One of my all time favorites I recommend is Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Reading Power of Habit has improved my overall productivity levels by helping me better understand myself and my habits. I love a lot of books so it was difficult to decide on a single book to recommend. But, I believe if you improve your overall productivity it will have a huge impact on all other aspects of your life. Not everyone might care for a history book, but anyone can read Power of Habit and benefit from it. Here are some more of my book recommendations: https://www.wesleyabbey.io/bookshelf
Q: Who inspires you?
Wes: Outside of my parents, who inspire me every day, I’ve recently been inspired by Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish.
He’s managed to create a wonderful cooking channel and brand. The effort of this guy is incredible and inspiring. He created a fun alternative to generic cooking channels, it’s well produced, and he brings a wonderful personal touch and attitude to his channels. The dude went after it and it shows in the energy he brings to his show.
Q: First place you're going to vacation post Covid?
Wes: The dance floor
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That concludes our first Not Your Average Founder Spotlight. Thank you Wes! We’ll see you on the dance floor.