Melissa Snover is the founder and CEO of Rem3dy Health. She is passionate about developing innovations which offer solutions to her customers, challenge her competitors, and disrupt current market offerings. She has a hands-on approach to her leadership and is passionately and strategically involved in every area of the business, whilst also giving her team the freedom and empowerment to come up with fresh ideas and execute them.
Can you tell us a little about your background and the company?
I am the Founder & CEO of the business. Here at Nourished, we pride ourselves on being the world’s first truly personalised nutrient gummy. It’s unique in the market because it rejects the one size fits all approach to vitamin supplementation and puts the needs of the customer at the centre.
Consumers can complete a short lifestyle quiz on our website, where upon completion, a science-backed algorithm makes a recommendation of seven vitamins, superfoods and nutrients best suited to the user’s lifestyle, body and goals.
Nourished delivers bespoke customer orders on demand in 100% plastic-free packaging, with less waste, hassle and cost than purchasing all of the vitamins separately.
I myself have always been a keen entrepreneur – starting my first business at 23. I have found my passion in Nourished, though, and I’m loving going on the journey.
How did the idea come to you for the company?
It was actually a rather amusing story that kickstarted the idea for Nourished. As an avid consumer of vitamins for over a decade, I used to take a large bag on my business trips of different pills, tablets, and supplements. A full cocktail of supplementation!
This was always a nightmare at airport security, having to remove the bag for the scanner. On one such occasion, I accidentally dropped the bag and sent pills sprawling across the floor! I had to crawl around in my suit and heels, picking them up – quite the ordeal! I knew there had to be a more convenient way to take vitamins, and the idea for Nourished was born.
Our personalised nutrient stacks solve that issue, amongst others, by providing convenient, easy-to-take chewable gummies, allowing travellers to pack just one gummy for each day of their trip – rather than a cocktail of different pills.
How did you achieve awareness?
We’ve always invested in marketing and PR. Getting your brand out there as a fledgling business is so important, you need to make a noise and create a splash. We’re lucky that our concept is very unique, and our 3D printed, personalised approach has been able to catch attention.
Latterly, we’ve been lucky to partner with some huge global brands that always help raise the profile of your brand. For example, after launching SkinStacks with Neutrogena at CES, we had over 290 printed, digital media, and broadcast pieces, in the couple of days after launching. We have an online checker, and it was running at over a billion impressions by the end of the CES weekend.
How have you been able to gain funding and grow?
I’m very proud of the fact that I was able to secure the highest seed round funding of any female founder in UK history in 2019. That got us off to a great start, and we’ve been reinvesting all of our revenue ever since, with several other funding rounds. We have a big R&D operation, which allows us to constantly be innovating and growing.
What are the key successes?
We’re really proud of how we’ve been able to expand our regional footprint in the Birmingham area. I’m a big champion of the area and its talent. We employ directly from the local universities, and it has proved to be a rich vein of great people.
We’re also really proud of our constant innovation and NPD pipeline. Due to our unique 3D printing production method, we are able to bring new products to market much faster than traditional production. All of the above means that we’ve seen rapid growth – 350% YoY.
What were/are the challenges and how have you overcome these?
There was a large amount of educational work needed. As we are the first truly personalised vitamin offering, we felt it was important to educate on the importance of a bespoke approach to health. Personalisation has now become a large trend in health, which is fantastic to see, but it wasn’t always like that.
We’re proud of our advertising, marketing and PR efforts in order to overcome this challenge.
What are your plans now/for the future?
2023 is set to be an incredibly busy year for Nourished. Last year we saw a range of new product launches, such as our super-strength Vitamin D ingredient (offering five times our original Vitamin D dose) and a PCOS Relief Stack to support women with symptoms of PCOS, including acne, weight gain, hair growth and mood fluctuations. We also saw partnerships with Colgate and the launch of a range of NutriStacks to help better oral health, which launched around the same time as our Sleep Stack.
A lot has gone on, and we’re excited for another year of working hard to expand our offering and support as many people as possible on their health journeys. We recently partnered with Suntory in a £2.5m investment deal to form a strategic partnership to help us launch in Asia. We hope that 2023 will bring many more partnerships and expansion.
What would you like to share with others to encourage them to start their own entrepreneurship journey?
A lot of it comes down to taking the plunge. If you have an idea that you genuinely believe in, then don’t be afraid to go after it. I think one of the main things that has helped me is surrounding myself with such an excellent team. There is so much to do when you first start a business, and you can’t do it all. So knowing you can trust your colleagues to lean on allows you to dive and conquer. Invest in the right people, and it will pay dividends,
Can you share your top tips for entrepreneurial success?
As an entrepreneur, there will always be factors you cannot control when starting your business. Resilience to these is such an important aspect of running a business. Ensuring you have a trusted and passionate team around you, who share your vision, will allow you to overcome challenges and find solutions that lead to success.
Commit your time and efforts into establishing your brand and compile data, so you know exactly what your customers want. It is important to create a business that delivers a clear benefit to the end consumer, rather than just developing a product which you think is cool.
I also think networking is hugely important for advancing your career in business. I find it incredibly interesting speaking to other people in my field at events across the country and abroad, to learn how they face challenges and grow their businesses.
What are your favourite inspirational /motivational quotes?
My favourite quote is from ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie. The quote is “People want to live up to a good reputation”. Overall the book teaches important lessons on managing people, negotiating, and overcoming challenges and I think that quote encapsulates that.
What are your Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn social handles and also website links so our readers can connect with you?
https://www.instagram.com/get_nourished/
https://www.facebook.com/getnourish3d/?locale=en_GB
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-snover-84276920/
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