How Perelel is redefining women’s health with over 48 million capsules sold

Speaker A: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Bridge Club podcast. This is your host Ruffin and today I'm chatting with Alex Taylor, co founder and co CEO of Parallel, the first and only OB GYN founded women's vitamin brand offering targeted nutrition for each unique stage of a woman's hormonal journey from fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, um, perimenopause and beyond. Alex and the Parallel team have sold over 48 million capsules just in the last 12 months and and have raised over $12 million in VC funding from investors like Willow Growth. Prior to Parallel, Alex, a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient, built an impressive career building brands with companies like Vogue, l', Oreal, Google, who, what, where and more. So excited to share this episode, so let's dive right in. So prior to Parallel, you built some really impressive brands and worked with some really impressive companies like Vogue, Google and Free People. Can you share just a little bit about your career? Prior to co founding Parallel, I often

Speaker B: joke that I started my career off at the depths of the Vogue fashion closet and worked my way up and then the economy crashed and it was 2008 ish and my hours were pulled back and I wanted a full time job. I was back living in LA and I connected with a startup that was essentially creating kind of editorial slash commerce entities around personalities. So think of like the GOOP model. And I ended up being a part of that startup and scaling all of their different websites and entities. We were then acquired, which I think is really what gave me some of the entrepreneurial bug because I saw, wow, this is possible understanding a little bit more about the inner workings of a, of a business at that stage. And I loved it and I loved that I could learn everything. I could walk over to the product team and understand how to build, you know, a website. I understood how to optimize things. I learned about SEO. It was the wild west. And also during that time social media was new. Twitter had just launched, um, actually Twitter hadn't even launched around this time. I think it launched in my later years there. But at any rate it was a ripe ground for testing out how does a brand or personality connect and also drive engagement through social as a gateway. And so it was a really wonderful experience. I then worked with l' Oreal to launch their first ever content marketing site called makeup.com which is still around today, over 10 years later. Just pretty wild. Um, yep. I remember spending a whole weekend locked away in my room dreaming up what it could be and all the franchises and I picked, pitched it to the CMO of l' Oreal Americas, which was wild. I was so young at the time, and I guess you're just also maybe a little bit more fearless in those years. So, um, I ended up doing that. And while I was running makeup.com I was recruited by Google. And at the time, it was really interesting. I felt like such an outsider. And Google was really bullish on building more relationships and alliances in the fashion and beauty category. And given my background, I really had had a lot of wonderful connections and understood that space, um, had some ideas of products that we could build at Google to further engage that community. So I went to Google. It's the only fashion girl there. Uh, but it was a wonderful experience. Worked on the global marketing team, and we launched some incredible products. But the one I'm most proud of, which candidly was probably a product that was a little before its time because now it's very popular. But again, this was many years ago, was Google Shoppable Hangouts on Air. So essentially it was a live video shopping experience. We launched it with the CFDA Rag and Bone dvf, uh, Rachel Zoe. It was so fun and it was exciting. But during my time at Google, I always felt a little uncomfortable. And I think it's important to feel uncomfortable because that's where you grow. And if you're not uncomfortable, then maybe you're not doing it right. That's been my personal philosophy, at least. Um, and I realized I wanted to be closer to the consumer. Again. Working for a platform is really different, and I get my kicks from being really m close to the consumer, getting that feedback. And so I started to look around and think about, hmm, what do I want to do? I love storytelling. I've always been very passionate about editorial work. And so I connected with the founders of who, what, where? And I joined that organization when it was a daily newsletter. Just one simple story and one newsletter sent every day. And I came in and I wondered, first of all, why are you running this business like a print media organization? Why aren't you scaling your output? I thought back to everything that I had learned in my my Wild west startup days with the other company that I had been with. And they really pulled me close, put me into a leadership role. I was the president of the company. So I ran the company for about five years with the CEO and founder and scaled the business, scaled the brands, launched multiple media entities under the parent company. We had who at where, then we, we had Birdie, we had My Domain. We had a Gen Z entity called Obsessi and We scaled these properties and then I also led the effort to launch a consumer products division. Because if we had all these amazing people reading our content and giving us feedback, well, why don't we work with them hand in hand to create products that they want and crave and, and then market it back to them. So at the time it was a very novel idea. Now it's table stakes. Uh, but we did just that. We launched the whole collection in Target that was completely user guided from a product development perspective. We launched an activewear line called Joy Lab and then we used that same playbook to eventually develop brands like, you know, Versed in Merit. So, um, it's been really interesting. And during my time there I was leading the company. It was a wonderful experience. I had the best team ever. And I learned so much from, from that leadership team I was a part of. But I was girl bossing very hard. I wouldn't say I was a toxic leader, but I was just working very, very hard. And everything that I did was just pulsing my cortisol. You know, I'd wake up at 5:30 and go to Soul Cycle and go straight to work and just the whole thing, rinse and repeat every day. I wasn't taking care of myself, I wasn't mothering myself. And I started to feel really crappy. And of course while I was being honored on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in, um, overseas, I broke out in shingles. I think I was 27 or 28 at the time.

Speaker A: And that's much more common when you're older, right?

Speaker B: Yes. Very unusual for someone at my age, uh, at the time to be covered in shingles. And so that in addition to all the other strange symptoms, I was feeling something's not right and not me, suddenly what's wrong with me? And so that set me off on a journey for over nine months, nine different doctors, and I finally got diagnosis that I had developed an autoimmune disease. And it was something that I gave myself from extreme stress. And at the time I was uh, starting to think about trying to start a family. And it was proving very difficult because that would therein influence my fertility. And my eyes became wide open to, wow, I live in this body and yet I know nothing about it. Also, why don't doctors know about it? Why did it take so long to get a diagnosis? Also for people to take my pain and my experience seriously. I was not in a good place. Um, and so it really opened up my eyes to how wildly complicated our bodies are, but how shamefully under Researched they are. Women of childbearing potential were omitted from clinical trials starting the late 1970s. And. And it was only in. Of course, there were some changes that were made in the late 1990s to better represent women in trials, but that didn't improve. And even as recently as 2016, the NIH only introduced just then, sex as a biological variable. Acknowledging that there are differences in the way that diseases and issues manifest in a woman's body versus men, even the dosing needs. And it just made my brain spin. I couldn't get over it. And so through this experience, it was something that obviously really shaped me. And meanwhile, at work, I realized, gosh, I want to do more in the health and wellness category. And I was recruited by Urban, which owns Free People Anthropology, all those brands, to come and launch and run their health, wellness, beauty and activewear division, specifically focusing more on free people movement. I thought, wow, what a cool experience. So I had finally gotten pregnant. I was seven months pregnant when I took that job. And I would work bicoastally between LA and Philadelphia. And I did that for a while, and I learned so much. And I got to work for the smartest woman I've ever worked for, Sheila Harrington. Shout Out. She is brilliant. She's now the CEO of all of Urban. And she really pulled me under her wing, and I, you know, let her know retail's new to me. I don't know much about this, but I know how to build brands that people love and crave. I know how to get people to engage and believe. And so she really helped sharpen my retail acumen and, um, some other business skills. And so I was there as the managing director of those various pieces of the business. And then I had my son and was continuing to live bicoastally. And I woke up one day and I wondered, wait, why? Why am I doing this to myself? I've built so many brands for everyone else. I feel failed by my experience as it relates to my autoimmune finding support. I was piecing together this crazy vitamin routine, and I just had to wonder if there's one person that I really trust to bet on, it's myself. And I knew in that moment, I had to start my own company, and I needed to figure out what it was. And so I started putting some ideas on paper and networking. And a friend of mine, um, had heard me lamenting to her about the state of health and the lack of support for new moms and confusion and how we need better resources. And she said, you need to talk to my friend. So she set me up on a blind date with another woman who was kind of circling the same drain as me. And very complimentary skills. You know, I'm a brand builder, I'm a storyteller. Uh, this woman has. She was a M. Math major. She went to Harvard Business School. Completely different background. So we go on a blind date, and at Erewhon, it's very funny, very la. And we started talking about what could we do together to solve this problem. There was a dearth of information, we felt confused, and we really keyed in on the prenatal vitamin category and women's health category as a whole, as there is an opportunity to reinvent this space. And so this woman that I would meet with weekly just to blue sky brainstorm would become one of the most important people of my life, which is my co founder, Tori. And, um, we eventually landed on this idea of can we create targeted vitamin routines that fluctuate with our hormonal changes? When your hormones change, you need to support yourself differently with different nutritional support. And so we looked at each other and we thought, wow, this is really a neat idea, but we're not doctors. Just kidding. What are we doing here? We have no agency here. But then we decided, why don't we talk to some doctors? Why don't we talk to the best practitioners in the country and understand, like, why are all the options in the market, market? So one size fits all. So that's just what we did. And everyone we talked to, their eyes lit up and said, you gotta do this. And that was wonderful to hear, but also very frightening because we looked at each other. We're starting a vitamin company. Um, so because of that fact that we had, you know, the brand side and marketing and the whole pieces relates to kind of business and financial acumen covered between my co founder and I. We pulled in Dr. Bayati, who's an OB GYN, along with 10 other various interdisciplinary physicians ranging from actively publishing, maternal, fetal medicine doctors, reproductive endocrinologists. We even integrated a functional medicine doctor, naturopathic, a doula, because we wanted to create a whole team of doctors that was representative of how women today are seeking support. We see an ob, but we might also see an acupuncturist or want to integrate modalities from Chinese medicine. And we thought, is there a world where all these people can get on a zoom and agree on a complete routine, not just a vitamin, but a complete routine based on the hormonal life stage of a. Of a consumer? And that's what we did. And so we launched the business in September 2020, against all odds. Uh, we were not able to raise capital because 2020 and, um, we bootstrapped and within the first 30 days reached it to all 50 states. And there was clearly a need and clearly a whole world of women who wanted a more comprehensive and complex solution to meet their complex bodies. And so what I've ever thought my career would go from vogue to vitamins, Never. But I have to tell you, I've never felt such flow and such joy and commitment in what I'm doing. It's so hard. So many things have had to happen, you know, for me, personally, professionally, to get to this point, but I wouldn't change it for the world. And I feel like I haven't worked a day in my life because I'm just so passionate about what I'm doing. And the fact that we're a mission organ, you know, mission based organization, um, just really keeps me going every day. So that's a very long answer to your question. But that's my, you know, that's my history and that's, you know, how and where I am now.

Speaker A: That's amazing. And love to hear the journey. Um, fun fact, Dr. Biotti is actually my doctor here in LA. You're kidding. Yeah.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's how I first ob.

Speaker A: She is. She's amazing. And that's how I first learned about parallel. So, um, very cool to have you on the podcast. Now I would love to hear a little bit more about why you guys first zoomed in on prenatals, like what's currently on the market and why did you think and how are you doing

Speaker B: it differently at Parall, our bodies as the mother and the baby change so much from when you're first of all just trying to optimize, to even conceive through each individual trimester. You know, the first trimester, you're very much building the neural tube and many of those foundational pieces of the system. Then you move into building cartilage and bone and then building their gut. I mean, it's wild how it all changes. And then also what mom is experiencing, you know, earlier in the pregnancy, she might be experiencing more, um, changes in her hormones that cause more morning symptoms, sickness. Later it might be cramps or constipation and there was no vitamin out there or no solution that first of all, acknowledge that our bodies are changing throughout this time frame tremendously. And if we're trying to optimize towards building bone when we might need more calcium and magnesium, why aren't we getting more of that in that later stage versus earlier? When you're building the neural tube, you need more, more folate or omega. You know, it's just, it wasn't making sense to us. What, you know, in a world where you can get a black car driver at the, you know, touch of your fingertip on your phone or your groceries delivered in five minutes, like, why is it so hard to take care of ourselves? And why isn't there, you know, why is everything so one size fits all? So we thought, is there a way to create a product that's dynamic? And with, you know, developments in packaging and manufacturing and even technology beyond that and delivery systems, we could check that box. But secondly, the biggest issue was we started to look around and figure out who was behind all these brands. And that was the problem. Who gave all of these amazing, buzzy, uh, brands the agency to define what a woman needs to support herself in pregnancy. And it became doubly confusing because as you look across all the key federal health agencies, from the CDC to acog, they cannot agree on a standard protocol to support prenatal nutrition. All the dosing is different, the blend of nutrients that you need. And we thought, first of all, why can't people agree? A big piece of it is, there's a gap in research and I won't go down that rabbit hole, but there are a lot of issues there. Um, and so we thought, okay, if, first of all, we don't know which supplement to trust. Second of all, all the supplements are treating our body in a very binary way. You either are pregnant or you are not pregnant. So they're all very one size fits all. And then third, you know, is there a way to create a product that is truly a full scale routine rather than a single supplement? Because then we have more control and ability to optimize and adjust based on the hormonal fluctuations that mom and baby are experiencing throughout the prenatal journey. And so we tapped Dr. Bhayati, she's our medical co founder, and then we pulled on this team of additional doctors and together they not only do all of the formulation, but they bring forth all their clinical work and experience as well. And that's a big difference. You want a product that is made by a physician who's working with patients day in, day out. They see the implications of someone taking way too much B12. You know, they see the issue with taking too much biotin. It throws off lab results. Which is why we don't put biotin in our prenatal at all. Like, there's little nuance that we were able to take from the fact that all of these practitioners are working with real women every day. And so beyond, um, the body of, you know, double blind clinicals and research that goes behind every single ingredient, they also pressure test it based on their clinical experience. And that was the lightning rod for us. We said, wow, oh my gosh, we can really create our own self governing body to agree on what should the, the protocol be based on the latest research. And so we did just that. So that's really the biggest thing that has let us stand apart. And then truly the fact that it's a complete routine. Most women source a, you know, a, um, multivitamin, which is essentially a glorified prenatal vitamin. Then they'll supplement with an omega, or they might be taking something for their nausea. And the problem with that is a we as consumers have to play doctor and we're piecing it together ourselves. So that can result in overdosing and under dosing of nutrients. There's a reason why young people are experiencing more liver toxicity today. It's because we're walking down the vitamin aisle, putting everything in our basket and filling our bodies up with things that we don't need. And that, you know, too much of something isn't great and then too little of something isn't great. And so, you know, that was a big, big piece of the puzzle for us as well.

Speaker A: For consumers, it can be very confusing trying to understand which is the right prenatal on the market. And I think it's like so important to think about like, who is behind the brand. Like, is this just like a marketing play or are there real doctors behind this? Yeah, I think, um, one thing like that I don't think is talked about enough. Can you talk about like the regulation in this industry?

Speaker B: I was hoping you would ask about that because we have a problem in America as it relates to consumer safety and products. And I really applaud brands, you know, even in other categories like beauty counter, that have really forced a hand at the federal level to imbue more protections for consumers. You know, I'm sure you're aware of this huge Kellogg's controversy right now with the terrible ingredients that they put in their products as well as many other CPG brands. And a lot of brands do it because it's cheaper, it's good for their bottom line, it creates addictive behavior, it's good for profits at the end of the day. My co founder, I like, we're two moms that wanted to create a product that makes people healthier and optimize their health outcomes. So why would we ever create a product that is at odds with that? And so the FDA can, you know, monitor your claims and you have to file them, but they're not really holding, um, power over what you put in your products or the provenance of your products or the efficacy. And that's the wild part. And so again, we have this self governing body of doctors and practitioners, all of whom have taken it Hippocratic oath, which therein applies to the formulation of our products to ensure that we are only creating things that are going to support their health and their quality of life. And so for us, I think what the power was coming in my co founder, I was complete outsiders to the vitamin and supplement industry is we had to first of all learn about all the standard practices and then we questioned everything. Why are you doing it this way? Why are you using folic acid? You know, why aren't you triple testing every single batch? I don't know if you know this, but most companies in our category, I would go so far as to say almost all of them participate in a practice called lot skipping or skip lotting. And essentially what it is is it's where a brand can or a company can only test selected batches of their product, not every single batch.

Speaker A: Wow, that's.

Speaker B: So they claim third party testing and still lot skip. So maybe only every five batches they're testing. Think about how much exposure for risk that opens up for your end consumer. Hi. This is why we have recalls. When my co founder and I found out about this practice of skip blotting, our jaws dropped to the ground. We thought, why would you ever open yourself up in this way? Why? We are completely proud and feel steadfast in how incredible our manufacturing partners are and where our ingredients are sourced. Ultimately, we test our products three times before it gets to our consumer and we do not skip lot

Speaker A: and it

Speaker B: drives our manufacturers crazy. They've called us up and said, can you stop doing this? Because we want to get other products on the line. You know, brands love it because it gets product out the door and helps drive, you know, revenue and profit. But for us, at the end of the day, all we have is our trust and our goal is to support your health. We can't ever compromise that. So coming in as outsiders allowed us to ask these questions in so many areas of the business and manufacturing practices as it relates to vitamins and supplements and just any ingestible really, we have, uh, a whole powders business too, as well, and it's just. It'll make your head spin. So a lot of it has been holding ourselves accountable and setting our own standards because the industry lacks such standardization and protections for consumers. And there's other brands out there that go to great efforts to also imbue that type of consumer protection. But it was something that was vital to us and I think really makes us stand apart. We're the only brand that triple tests

Speaker A: everything that's amazing and, um, just very scary, like, what is out there. And so important to, like, know these things. So thank you so much for.

Speaker B: I mean, and also label dressing. You know, there's a certain amount of information that brands can or cannot share about what's actually in your ingredients, how much of various nutrients are in there, and they can also claim certain nutrients are included, but not really deliver on the value from an elemental perspective. So it's pretty, pretty wild. And it's the Wild west, and it makes our job harder because there are so many bad actors in the supplement category. But ultimately, I think it's our biggest differentiator is trust. It's our number one thing. I think of our brand as like a castle and the moat around it is trust. You know, that's.

Speaker A: And in the long term, um, always the move.

Speaker B: Yeah. So completely.

Speaker A: So you guys launched in 2020. Can you talk a little bit about what actually went into getting the product ready for launch? Because I'm sure there was a lot.

Speaker B: Oh, my God. It was the most. It was such a pressure cooker of time. So. So, yeah, we had started exploring this in 2019, at the top of 2020, literally New Year's Day, my co founder and I text each other, say, we're gonna do it this year, let's do it. And so, you know, we incorporated the business. We did all the things and. Because when we initially launched, it was imperative to us to launch with five SKUs, because if our mo. Um, beyond being doctor founded and incredibly safe is the fact that we are providing targeted nutrition for unique stages of a woman's life cycle. We knew that if we were going to launch the prenatal vitamin category, which to us was most ripe for reinvention, we had to launch with five SKUs. And to get these five SKUs made, we needed to. We had an MOQ of like 2,500 per SKU. So it was a lot of inventory to buy. Like, it's. It was very capital intensive. And so we thought, okay, we got a Fundraise so by March 8, 2020, we did our first pitch. Two days later, the world ended. Everyone's pocketbooks went shut. And we looked at each other and thought, is this it? Are we done? Like, can we do this? And then we looked at each other again. We're like, nope, we're doing it. And we poured in our life savings. We did everything we could within our personal lives to figure out how to make this work. I was consulting on the side and taking the money and putting it. It was just anything that we could do to get this business going. And so we bootstrapped. And we bootstrapped. We bought the inventory. So scared, with no marketing budget, aside from, you know, my incredible community of friends and, you know, my network that I was just going to gift the product to and hope that they would love it. And we launched. Our goal was to launch in. In September of, uh, 2020. We launched September 30, 2020, the last day of the month. Compeller High Water. We're like, we're doing it. It was really tough those early days. I became pregnant that spring by surprise. My co founder was pregnant. So by the time we launched, she gave birth a week before we launched. I gave birth or two after. It was gnarly. And it was 2020. There was so much uncertainty. It was a very crazy time to launch a business. Um, but again, you know, we. We quickly saw that we had product market fit. And then we took on some investment from friends and family and some investors that just saw, okay, I'll, I'll write you a check and see where this goes. And very quickly, the business just continued to bloom, and women felt, wow, you see how complicated and amazing my body is. Like, thank you for creating a product that's comprehensive. Thank you for creating a product I can trust. And it just was really grassroots in those early days. Um, and so we got the business off the ground and very quickly just continued to focus on building. We did end up raising some institutional capital. We did a seed round that was led by Unilever Ventures and with a follow from Willow Growth, They've been tremendous partners. And both of those organizations actually led our Series A this past. Earlier this year, uh, with participation from Selva Ventures. And they're, they're all just wonderful partners and they understand the vision. And, you know, at day one, ground zero, we, we call the brand Parallel. We spell it in our own way because it's better for branding. Um, but we call the brand Parallel because our goal was to stay parallel to wherever a woman is in her hormonal life cycle. And that really meant from menarche to menopause. We started in the prenatal vitamin category again because it's most ripe for reinvention. But we now have products that serve people from their very first period all the way through perimenopause. And that's really, has been our vision and our dream. And, you know, it's just beautiful. See the brand open up and become more accessible to more people. And so that's been really exciting. Um, yeah. So it's been good.

Speaker A: Well, since launch, you've had incredible success. Want to get this right? So you've sold over 48 million capsules in the last 12 months, is that right? That's insane.

Speaker B: Uh, so wild.

Speaker A: That is insane. And over 91 parallel vitamins are swallowed every minute in America. That is so cool. So would love to hear. It's. You said you didn't have any marketing budget to start with in the early days, so what was your original marketing strategy? And how have you kind of grown the business over time? And I'm sure that changes as you are able to bring in institutional capital.

Speaker B: I, uh, think some of the best creativity comes when you're put in a big old box and you have no resources, because then, game on. I mean, any. Anything's kind of possible when nothing's possible. You know, you just have to really think outside of the box. And so for us in those early days, it was first of all, we felt so strongly in our product and our packaging experience. We thought, you know, just getting. If we can get this out to as many people as possible, and if they really love it, how much we do, they're going to help tell the story. And that's really what we did. We gave away so much product in those first, you know, in those early years. And we continue to, um. Because we just. We believe so strongly in the product itself. We don't do a lot of glitzy, see glammy, amazing, crazy giftings. We literally will send people like, box of our vitamins. Be like, does this make you feel anything? Like, like, do you love this? Is this teaching you about your body? Um, so we did that. The other thing we did through those early years and we continue to do is I had to really think about what can only I do and what is unique that I bring to parallel that no other brand is doing. And not only was it just the brand strategy and the identity that we developed and what parallel is and what parallel stands for. I'll talk about our mission later. But for us, uh, it was also about education. Going back to those early days, my co founder and I felt failed by what was there. It was not only failed by not seeing products on the shelves that represented our experiences in our stages, but also there was a dearth of credible information. I'd be googling, oh, what should I take to help my fertility and end up on some baby center, you know, UGC form where, you know, Sally in Missouri was telling me to take this. And like she was. It was just, it was wild that anyone from anywhere could be making these types of claims. There really wasn't a lot of credible information. And so because I'm an editor and I very much value the importance of journalism and integrity and, you know, sharing information from the experts that know best. We look to that, uh, panel of doctors that we onboarded in the early days and we said, hey, can you be the voice of all of our content and our resources? Can you tap into your network of, uh, medical researchers and physicians to augment your knowledge base so we can give helpful information to our community? And so to build the brand, we focused on, where can our center of excellence be? Where is our consumer? And that was Instagram. And we started to develop a very robust content program that top women about their bodies. And people really appreciated it. They started saving it, they started sharing it, um, they started engaging with it. And so, you know, it was very much a very content marketing heavy focus. And it still continues to be. We really pride ourselves in our educational resources. So much so that we actually recently acquired another company that is hyper focused on body literacy and education called Loom. They have an incredible library of information that we're now able to share with our community and just supercharge what we have. So, you know, between just simply getting our product out there, connecting with people, we would host events. I literally put on a jumpsuit and go walk around farmers markets handing out parallel. It was wild. I just, I did everything I could. I was like, I know where our woman is. I'm going to go meet her there. We're going to show up, we're going to have Dr. Biotti teach people about how their bodies are working and the rest of our advisory panel. And, um, I think because it all came from a really authentic place and filled a need, it just quickly caught on. And obviously now we have a marketing budget which is so exciting, so fun, um, not the biggest one, but like, we've got a budget now and, you know, we, we engage with various media partners that can really reinforce the trust. We partner with great, some, some great retailers and collaborations there and it's been really, really good.

Speaker A: I love the education strategy just because there's so much misinformation on the Internet. My sister's in med school right now focused on, um, OB GYN and we just, she's always sharing like these TikToks of just like wild misinformation out there and it's so scary.

Speaker B: And it also goes back to the fact that we have to better educate the masses so that they can sift through that. And our hope is that we, we take a little bit of the heavy lifting off the consumer to know that this is highly credible, valid information they're getting. But yeah, it's a big problem. Big problem in all categories, really.

Speaker A: So would love to shift gears a little bit and hear about your fundraise. So you've raised over 12 million from investors like you said, Willow Growth, Selva Ventures and Unilever Ventures, um, all amazing firms. Can you share just a little bit around your lessons learned and best strategies you would share for fundraising?

Speaker B: Well, it's not for the faint of heart. Heart. You will get hundreds and hundreds of no's and you have to really stay committed to your vision as you go along. Every time you pitch every investor, most are going to tell you how you should be running your business, how you should change your product, what you should do, and if you have a strong conviction of what the problem, you know, what you've created and the problem you're solving, you have to keep your blinders on and put cotton in your ears. And so first of all, that to me was very clear in the early days. Um, a lot of tears are shed because there were so many nos. But what was interesting was how many no's we got specifically from investors that didn't understand or believe in women's health. That, uh, first year we had so many people tell us, well, this isn't really a category. You're only pregnant for nine months. Yeah. I'm like, wait a minute, that's crazy. We got a whole life cycle here we're talking about. This isn't just about pregnancy. And also most people are having over two kids. So at the time. So at any rate, that was wild. We had a lot of investors that would say, let me ask my wife, which is really insulting. Know the category if you want to talk to us, understand it. You know, it just like any other investment category or opportunity, women's health is important. And so, yeah, about four years ago, no one cared about Women's health, it wasn't an issue. And here we are the center of the conversation. And I think people really understand. Women make up half the population we give birth to the future, you know, over 50% of the world will go through menopause. Many will help populate the earth. It's a very important thing. M and also think about just the general experience of, of being living in a female body. You know, there are issues like pcos, pregnancy loss, endometriosis, so many things that we experience in these bodies that are just not supported. And there are millions and billions of women that need that support. And so we held true to what that total addressable market was and didn't budge. And so that was really important. I think also for us it was capitalizing the business in a different way. We had, my co founder and I had both been part of startups that raised a lot of money because they could and they could get a big valuation. And then we saw what happened to all those companies. They all had to go chase that valuation that they could never deliver on. They're all doing down rounds and struggling and it's not a pretty picture. And so for us, from day one, we're like, what if we create a business that's fiscally responsible and could be profitable? And that was like people did not believe us in 2020 and now, you know, that is the name of the game. Growth, but also profitability. And so for us that's been crucial. And so we did not go out and rate. I mean, $12 million is a lot of money, but when you think about the hundreds of millions of dollars that are to compared competitors have raised, it's a drop in the hat. But for us it was again, it keeps us really focused. When you don't have all the resources in the world, it breeds more creativity. We've had to do so many things outside of the normal playbook because we just didn't have resources. And even now we have very little compared to the juggernauts that we're taking market share from. But it's because we're thinking differently.

Speaker A: I've also worked for one of those startups that raised over a hundred million dollars. And let's just say it did not work out for them. And it sounds like you guys did not participate in the craziness of 2021, which will definitely already paying off, but will very much pay off in the long term.

Speaker B: So very smart.

Speaker A: Um, so you've spoken a little bit around how you've expanded from just the prenatals um, so far, but would love to hear kind of the vision and I think you've kind of touched on it a bit throughout the episode, but the vision for parallel, like in the next five to 10 years.

Speaker B: Our mission is simple. It's to create a world of more healthy, supported women. So first we must dominate America and make sure that we are helping as many people here as possible and then we will become a global brand. So what does that mean? What does that look like? Whether it be through our products, whether it be through education, that's all free, or through giving people space to connect and create community, we have found such power in these offline experiences, experiences where women can come share and feel so normalized in their bodies by these experiences that have, you know, typically been othered. Um, so for us it's really to create that world and deliver on our mission. So of course I had mentioned earlier that we are a mission driven company. So there was a silver lining to not being VC back from day one. We got to make some decisions on our own terms and some decisions that might not have been possible had we been capitalized the VCs, uh, level from day one. And that was a give back component. I had always been really inspired by the early days of TOMS and really do good brands like that. Patagonia to me is the gold standard. And so my co founder and I said, you know, if we're going to risk everything in our lives to start this business, our marriages, our home, like all the things, we better do some good. And so we built in a give back component from day one. Sitting at the kitchen table, my brilliant co founder putting it into our model and baking it in and thinking about how can we do this? And so we built in a one for one give back for any product related to motherhood. We donate our own supply of our vitamins. Many companies actually donate crappier third party versions of their products. We donate our own product because that just didn't feel right. Uh, so we donate our own product for every subscription to women specifically here in America who lack access to high quality prenatal care. And there's a lot of incredible organizations doing work in the maternal space, but very focused outside of our own borders. And we have big old issue here. You know, one in 33 babies born in the United States are born with birth defects, many of which are nutrition related and they're unpreventable. My co founder had her own experience. Her daughter was born with a cleft and she learned that it was a non Genetic cleft. And that was a big piece of our founding story. But at any rate, so we donate a lot of product to people here in pregnancy to support them and hopefully provide more positive outcomes. And then we also deploy cash grants to support women's health research. And so in just four years, we've already donated $3 million. And the top of this year, we pledged another 10 million over the coming years to deploy to support making prenatal care and, um, support more accessible while also funneling dollars into women's health research. And we partnered with the McGee Women's Research Institute out of Pittsburgh. They are one of the leading institutions in the United States focusing on specifically research in women from menarche through menopause. They're doing incredible work. And so we are, we are a big partner there. And I personally have become incredibly involved in terms of advocacy and raising our collective awareness about the women's health research gap. How we all should lure those consequences daily, and the fact that it is a very solvable problem. We can solve this. First, we need to make people aware that that gap exists. We need to coalesce, uh, efforts in both the private and public sector to change policy. It's a nonpartisan issue. It's a humanitarian issue. Again, um, it's been really beautiful to see people from both sides of the aisle agree on how imperative it is that we invest in women's health research. And, um, it's become really my center of gravity and why I do what I do every day and why we as a company do what we do. To show you this fun little pin we just made, um, so, yeah, that's been a big piece of the brand and why we keep doing what we do. You know, it's really about the only way for us to lift our collective literacy about how our bodies work and then therein create products and solutions is we need to first research and get the education and the information to even learn about our own bodies and then are in support, etc. So, um, for us, it's part of this much, much larger puzzle.

Speaker A: Well, so excited to see brands like Parallel really bring awareness to this, because I think a lot of women had, I mean, I had no idea until recently about this gap in the women's health research.

Speaker B: So most of what we know is based on trials done on white men. Yes, we are not small men. It's. It just makes your head spin.

Speaker A: Um, well, in the interest of time, I'm going to start to wrap us up. So can you share a female founder, investor or leader who inspires you.

Speaker B: And a bit about why one person is Melinda French Gates. I think what she has done with her power and her platform is some of the most exciting humanitarian work I've seen. And I hope that I can make a fraction of the impact that she will be able to make. And I am deeply inspired by her. I'm inspired by Jennifer Klein, who leads the Gender Policy Council and has changed so much for our collective good, for creating more equity for women, whether it be economic equity or health equity. It's just amazing to know that there's people that have dedicated their lives to making all of our lives better, whether they know us or not. And I'd say there's one more person, which is my mother. I just. She's the most incredible person I know and has been so supportive of me and inspired me to push further and do more and be a good person.

Speaker A: So that's amazing. My mom would definitely be on my list. And I saw that, um, Melinda Gates just launched a massive initiative for women's health. So very excited to see that. And I'm sure you guys are following that news very closely. And then finally, where can everyone find you? Where can people shop Parallel.

Speaker B: So you can find me at its Alex Taylor on Instagram. And then you can find Parallel at, uh, Parallel Health on Instagram. That's P E R E L E L Health. And same with our website, parallelhealth.com so thank you so much for having me. This was so fun to talk with you and I love that you're a patient of Dr. Biotti. She's so incredible.

Speaker A: And also a customer of Parallel. So this was so fun to get to meet you.

Speaker B: I'm always starstruck when I meet a real customer.

Speaker A: Yes. No, real customer Obsessed. I tell all my friends about it.

Speaker B: So thank you so much for being a part of our community. I appreciate you and humbled to support you. Thank. You.