self-care
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He Built Weapons for the Navy. Then He Built a Teddy Bear That Listens.
Jacob Boyle graduated with $90 and a foam robot named MARCo. Seven years later it has talked with more than 15,000 people across 13 countries - and in a handful of cases, it called for help before things got worse.
The Coder Who Built a Best Friend for 15 Million People Because She Couldn't Afford Therapy
Andrea Campos taught herself to code to fight her own depression. The chatbot she built now fields billions of late-night messages across Latin America - and is quietly testing where an app should stop and a doctor should start.
Kenvue
Spun out of Johnson & Johnson with Tylenol, Neutrogena and Band-Aid in tow, Kenvue became the biggest name in consumer health almost overnight - then spent 2025 fending off activists, a CEO exit, an autism-claim firestorm and a $48.7 billion buyout.
Haleon
The company you have never heard of makes the toothpaste, painkillers and vitamins you buy without thinking. Here is how GSK's cast-off brands became a £30 billion bet on self-care.
Liv Labs
Liv Labs is a women's health startup (YC S21) commercializing Pippa, a patented internal resistance spring that activates the pelvic floor during everyday movement and exercise. Founded by CEO Melody Roberts and inventor Carly Price, the company pairs the wearable with self-care coaching to help the 78 million American women living with pelvic floor weakness stay strong, active, and leak-free without clinical visits or effortful daily kegel routines.
Bloomi
Bloomi is a sexologist-led, direct-to-consumer intimate wellness brand offering clean, plant-based products - lubricants, arousal oils, intimate washes, moisturizers, and body-safe vibrators - designed for sensitive skin and free of common vulvar allergens. Founded by sexologist Rebecca Alvarez Story, the company pairs a proprietary 'Clean Standard' for ingredient transparency with shame-free sexual health education, and became the first Latina-founded brand to launch in the sexual wellness aisle nationwide at Target.
DIBS Beauty
DIBS Beauty - short for Desert Island Beauty Status - is a New York and Austin-based makeup brand built on a simple premise: fewer products, better results. Co-founded in 2021 by creator Courtney Shields and operator Jeff Lee alongside Tula Skincare's Ken Landis and Dan Reich, DIBS makes multi-use, vegan, cruelty-free essentials like its hero Desert Island Duo blush-and-bronzer stick. The brand grew primarily direct-to-consumer through Shields' social following, took growth capital from L Catterton in 2023, and expanded into Ulta Beauty in 2024. Its tagline: 'Do less. Look like you did the most.'
Calm
Calm is a San Francisco-based mental wellness company best known for its meditation and sleep app, which pairs guided meditations, celebrity-narrated Sleep Stories, music and soundscapes into a subscription product. Founded in 2012 by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew, Calm has grown from a simple 'do nothing for two minutes' web experiment into one of the most downloaded wellness apps in the world, expanding into employer benefits (Calm Business) and a clinical mental-health platform (Calm Health) reaching tens of millions of people.
WTHN
WTHN is a modern wellness brand rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, built to make acupuncture, cupping, herbal remedies and acupressure tools accessible to everyday people. Founded in New York in 2019 by Michelle Larivee and Dr. Shari Auth, it pairs design-forward studios across NYC with an at-home product line sold through 200+ retailers and e-commerce, aiming to take centuries-old healing out of the back room and into modern life.