wellness-founder
(3)
Hasti Nazem
Hasti Nazem is the Co-CEO and Head of Product and Education at Kindra, a New York-based, science-backed women's health brand building estrogen-free solutions for menopause, vaginal health and intimate care. With roughly a decade at the intersection of life sciences, consumer brand-building and wellness, she co-leads the company alongside Afshan Dosani, grounding products in 160+ clinical studies and patent-pending peptide technology. She came to the work through a winding path: a family of physicians, a pre-med start, a detour into finance before the 2008 crash, and a return to school that led her to build wellness companies focused on sleep and, later, women's health.
Will Smelko
Will Smelko is the co-founder and CEO of Ora, an Austin-based maker of organic, plant-based supplements built from real food rather than synthetic chemicals. A UC Berkeley political science grad and former healthcare strategy consultant, he traded the pharma world for the supplement aisle after realizing he had no idea where any of it came from. He launched Ora in 2014 with college friend and chef Ron Chang and partner Erica Bryers, pitched it on Shark Tank in 2017, walked away from Kevin O'Leary's offer, and watched sales jump 400% anyway. Today Ora sells nationwide through Vitamin Shoppe, Amazon and its own site, and even fuels professional pickleball players.
Michelle Larivee
Michelle Larivee is the co-founder and CEO of WTHN, the New York wellness company turning acupuncture from a months-long waitlist into a walk-in ritual. A Georgetown and Wharton graduate who spent 13 years in healthcare finance - Merrill Lynch, the World Bank's IFC, Deloitte, and a secondment to the World Economic Forum - she traded debt financings for needles after Traditional Chinese Medicine resolved pain that Western medicine could not. Since 2018 she has built WTHN into a chain of New York studios, an e-commerce line of acupressure tools and herbs stocked in 200+ retailers including Ulta, and a brand backed by a $5M Series A led by L Catterton.