Beyond the Wellness Hype with Durana Elmi of Cymbiotika

0:00Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Skin Anarchy. I'm very, very excited about this interview because we're going to be diving into the world of supplements and in the best way possible because the brand that we are hosting today is literally one of my favorite brands in the supplement category. I feel like what they're doing is so beautiful because it's so transparent, it's so science-backed, it's so like you don't have to guess about what you're putting in your body. And so without further ado, please welcome Durana Elmi, who is the co-founder of Symbiotica. Welcome, girl. I'm so good.

0:31Thank you so much, Josh. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your time. Love your podcast and the platform that you've been able to build for people in terms of education and just community. So it's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. That means a lot coming from you. And I really can't wait to dive into your journey and what you've built and you are building with Symbiotica. I literally, I do not say this lightly, like it's literally one of my favorite supplement brands. And when you agreed to come on my show, I was so hyped about it because I was like, yes, like we get to dive in and we get to learn about this, this world because there's just so much noise, as you know, in the supplement category.

1:07And, you know, so with all that said, I would love to start with your journey and learning more about you and like, what really got you into like wellness and wanting to build a brand like Symbiotica? so i would say prior to 2018 my husband and i um we've lost a lot of family members to cancer to health to being very reactive to their health issues once obviously it arises to surface and um we were on our journey of our fourth business together and we just had this really beautiful we were really beautiful synergy between us where we know how to come and build businesses together or very yin and yang, what we bring to the table.

1:49And when we, I lost my father and he lost his grandfather, both in which we were very, very close to. And what we discovered was, although we had means and resources, we were helpless in terms of helping out the people that we loved. And when we turn to really understand what is it that's causing so much health issues today? Well, one, it's that our foods lack nutrition. Our soil is dead. Secondly, when we were taking a look at just the supplement industry in terms of, you know, most of the time, like I would say in the past, people would take supplements to be very, like I said, reactive to whatever health issues they had.

2:33Well, we wanted to, when we took a look at the supplement industry, number one, there was transparency that was lacking. You had a lot of companies doing proprietary blends where you didn't really know what was in it, how much of it was in it, lack of education. So we were really inspired to create a legacy brand, a legacy in how we would transform how health and wellness would be accessed, but also on just doing something that had never been done. Just putting education and transparency of how we make our products, what's in our products in the forefront, educating our community and our customers.

3:07and the inspiration came from losing family members who we couldn't help. We wanted to change the way people were living, which is there was a time where people were reactive, but now we live in an era where people are so savvy and so smart and they're so proactive about their health. You know, I have a daughter who's 11 years old and on her wishlist for her birthday was the whoop watch. At 11, I was eating Oreos. Like, you know, I'm like, wow, like how much times have changed. I can't tell you how many boxes of Oreos and colorful cereal I was eating at her age. But like their generation is so savvy and their generation beyond.

3:49She wants to like track her sleep. She wants to like know about her movement. And she's so intentional about how she's living at 11. And it's beautiful. So, you know, we entered the space where there was a lot of confusion, when there are a lot of supplements. There was a time where I was taking like over 20, 30 supplements a day. And my uncle, he is a doctor in Geneva. And I remember going there when I was pregnant with like all these supplements, all these bottles. And my uncle was like, what is all this? And I'm like, well, in America, like we take all this when you're pregnant. He was like, sweetheart, like you should be, your nutrition should come from the foods that you eat.

4:34Like the delivery and the absorption and all this that you're taking is so low. And I was like, what? Like you wouldn't, I never thought that way. So for us, the myotica has just the form factor, the liposomal delivery, the pouches, like all of it, it's made health accessible to everyone. And now because of the form factor, because it has the highest bioavailability and absorption, so our products are 300 times more, it gives you more absorption than a pill form. Today, you're seeing that our products are becoming more of a daily ritual because people are feeling the impact. Yeah. No, you know what's, that's so fascinating to hear that because obviously like from a science perspective, it totally makes sense to me because that was my biggest question as a consumer for so long.

5:24Also being in the healthcare industry, it was like how this doesn't even get absorbed. No, you know, a great example of that is vitamin D. Like everybody's on vitamin D and no one's getting better, you know? And it's like always boggled my mind where it's like we're prescribing 10 ,000, 50 ,000 international units of vitamin D, and people are chronically low in this very essential component. And so it really makes you pause and think about what you just explained, where it's like, yeah, you have to mimic the human body when you think about what we're ingesting. And I'll tell you, honestly, when I discovered symbiotica, for me, it was everything about the bread.

6:04It was the way the pouches, they resonated with me. It was like, I can put this in my bag. I don't have to worry about pills. And I think a lot of just the culture that's been around the supplement industry has been kind of off-putting for a lot of consumers, you know, for a long time. And I want to dive into that from the business side, because what made you guys go in this direction of like, we got to make it, you know, more like, I don't know, relatable for the consumer to be able to use this every day. So I think it started with ourselves. Like we we are this kind we're this company where we do a lot of self reflection and inflection and when we started making our products the truth was i was like i i can't travel with this big bottle i'm not throwing this big bottle in my purse yeah and so it was like how do we create something that can become daily that can move with you that can go with you that tastes good And so we went through a lot of different evolution before we finalized this pouch form that we've landed on.

7:05But it was a lot of trial and error. But the most important thing for us was like, how do we create something that can create consistency? Because the only way something can last and give you results is by consistency. And all the other stuff, it's not consistent. I'm not consistent with anything else that I have that's not in a pack form. because I forget it. It's not with me. It's like, I'm just like, I'm a hot mess every single day, managing like work and my kids and being a wife. Like, so I need something to like throw in my pocket that can go with me. That's in the car with me. Like that can be everywhere.

7:43And alongside me, that's the only way that I can be consistent. So first was like, can we really do this? Like, can we take our own products every single day? And as we were evolving, we're like, this isn't working out we got to figure out so we would keep coming back to the table and like trial and error keep revamping keep perfecting our craft until we landed on this packet and the packet so unique because again like you can share it with people before early early days on we had it and just the liquid form in a myron bottle and it was like in order for you to want to have someone else you pull out another spoon or you'd squirt it in their mouth and that was kind of weird so we just we've evolved to really listening to our community understanding how our community how we move as people and then how do we create how do we again we may have lucked into it but it was like ah this is more consistent this feels right yeah no that i mean honestly it shows how much like trial and error you guys probably went through because it's like literally it's perfect like it hits home and for anybody even trying the brand i remember when i first tried it i was like oh, this is great.

8:53I was like, I can put this in my scrap pocket. I got everywhere I go. And it's like, and you can mix and match supplements too. And that's what I think is so phenomenal about when brands really hit that sweet spot with like your delivery of what you're creating is that it becomes that staple in someone's life, you know? And it's like, I would love for you to speak on that as like a founder and somebody who's had to build this from the ground up as this idea of like, what does it really take? Or what did it take for you really when like in terms of building something like that, you know, not just building a brand or building a staple for people that they can come.

9:29Yeah. Yeah. You know, first I'll say long mornings and late nights, a lot of sacrifices away from my kids and the things sometimes that I love to do. But what I would tell you is a lot of trial and error community became very important for us as we started building, listening to our customers, listening to what were their needs? How do we solve for what they keep bringing to the table in terms of being problems or addressing our delivery form? One of the things that we did that was really unique this year, I'm sorry, it was last year, is we created a wellness cafe. And it really taught our customers and our community that you can integrate our supplements into the foods you eat.

10:16So we are constantly evolving in terms of innovation and trying to teach our community that there really is no reason why we all can't be healthy today. So, for example, if you go to the Simotica Cafe in the Fontainebleau Hotel in Las Vegas, you can order a smoothie, you can order an acai, you can order wraps, you can order salads. And like when you get into like the wraps and the salads, you can order, which is one of my favorites, like a spicy chicken salad that has vitamin C integrated into the sauce. So you're getting all of your vitamins while you're taking in your sandwich. It's pretty brilliant.

10:54So like for us, we're constantly figuring out like how do we show up where people are? How do we really kind of create consistency? How do we take the excuses out of you not being able to take your supplements? And so now we're integrating it. We've partnered with great, great retailers like Pure Vida, Joe and the Juice. We did a collab with Coconut Cult. So we're showing you the integration now of like your daily life, what you're eating, your daily habits, and then supplementation. yeah no i really really love the approach that you're taking because for a long time and i'm being very honest i think a lot of listeners can relate to this like supplements felt like big pharma for a long time for a lot of us you know and like it felt like it was just another big pharma type pushing something that no one needed and that would never work you know what i mean like almost like every time you bought like that bottle of pills like you were being duped somehow you know and so I like I love what you just explained where it's like you're showing people like this is how you incorporate this you know it's not just like we're selling you something it's like we're showing you a lifestyle change a way to integrate and I and I would love your thoughts on this because I know the wellness movement is like heavy right now you know it's I think it's booming more than ever which for me it's like a double-edged sword personally because as you know for my science side I'm like not everyone's doing the same thing but on the other side, I'm like, I love people taking more control of their health.

12:27I love that they want to get involved. What do you think, like, what did it take for you guys to like not compromise, right? Like on the, on the wellness side, like on the, on the real heavy hitting stuff where it's like, everything is transparent. We know as consumers, what we're getting with symbiotic God, there's no like, you know what I mean? Like gray boxes for us to try to figure out. Cause I know you guys are very transparent brand. So. Yeah. So for us, I would say first is it's so hard because every single day I feel like there's a new competitor or new someone new in the wellness space um the most important thing for us is like keeping our head down and staying true to why we're in this business and then also staying true to um just our efficacy which is everything for us we never follow trends and I think it's so easy to look up and go oh my god we should create that and we should create this.

13:21But the truth is for us, what has worked and what we know to be true is our liposomal delivery. We believe in that form factor. That's what you know symbiotica for. And so we first say, we're going to stay true to our delivery form. And then secondly, we're not going to just create products that are trends, but we're going to really try to solve for real issues. And we're always asking ourselves, what are we trying to solve for? and so for us like we just don't take shortcuts in the efficacy and how we source our raw ingredients and the why behind what we do every single day um in the form factor no matter how many people pop up we just continue to stay true to our ethos because it's it's what we know we're great at yeah yeah no i mean honestly it shines and i you know i think like the big question i always end up having when i see brands such as symbiotic guys that you know on the business side of everything what does it take to really scale a brand like this?

14:20Because I know the effort you're putting in is, you know, astronomically high and everything you've explained so far, just that's proof of that. You know, it's like in terms of especially like being a woman in this business. I mean, I don't know how male dominant the wellness industry is, but I'm guessing it's like every other industry. So I'd love for you to give some perspective there. Like, like, what does it take to be a busy mom and to have all this other stuff going on and still scale a business on this level? Yeah. So one, I would tell you, it takes a lot of wearables to keep you on track.

14:51But what it takes is a lot of sacrifice. It takes a lot of sacrifice, takes a lot of moments of reflection, because what I'll tell you is, I don't believe that companies fail. I believe that founders give up and you give up because the journey is very long and the admission to success is failure. Nobody talks about how many times you fail while you're building and scaling a company. Because we live in a time today where everything is like a highlight reel on Instagram, right? You just want to see the good side of things. The reality is in order to build and scale and create a company like this, you've got to be prepared to fail.

15:30You've got to be able, you got to be willing to take chances, make quick decisions. You have to be a leader that is a people first leader where you're not making decisions based on ego, but you're making decisions based on the leaders and the table thought thought leadership um you are really listening to um you're close to the the competition and you're close to um like the the wellness space where you know kind of the trends and uh the future you you know how you can like for us like we we um we've taken a we took a chance in 2019 when covid happened all the businesses were shutting down, but we invested in ourselves.

16:13So just, I think it's, it's really understanding your passion and your purpose. And despite the ups and downs, like never derailing from that, because you believe in what you're doing. And for us, it was never about profits or EBITDA. It's about, are we making the best supplements in the world? Are we putting our head down at nights and saying, I feel good as a human, that I'm making the best supplements that my children can take my grandma, my mother, and there's nothing, no spillers, no toxins, no synthetics in our ingredients. So at the end of the day for us, the efficacy is something that we'll never compromise on.

16:53But again, it's like just staying humble and staying true to like your roots and your mission of what it is you're trying to accomplish. And then again, in parallel to that, I would just say, be prepared to sacrifice a lot because it's a lot of hard work. And, you know, there's days where I take a seven-hour commute to LA and I'm driving home at 1am and I've got tears in my eyes because I haven't been able to see my kids all day. And so you're sacrificing a lot to get here. But again, if you're doing it for the right reason, and for us, this is a legacy brand. It's the legacy that we leave behind for our children.

17:32It's the legacy and the case study that one day hopefully Harvard does on how we were able to change the industry of health and wellness and accessibility because of our form factor. So again, and then also I would say there's a personal reason. I'm from Afghanistan where today women have no rights. And so for me, I always say, in order to know where you're going, you must know where you've come from. I will never forget where I've come from. So I am so proud and I'm honored to be an Afghan American, but with that, I have a responsibility. And I'll never, ever forget and have that, you know, inflection point or that perspective.

18:14I think it's so important to have perspective in life of like why you're doing it. The companies that come and go is because they're doing it to make a quick buck. We're not here for the quick dollars. Like we've built skilled companies. We've made smart investments. The reason we got into this was not to make money, but it was to change the world. It was to make health accessible. It's to educate consumers so that we can be more reactive, excuse me, proactive on our health versus reactive. You know, I have like the whoop watch and I'm so, I'm so conscious and I'm so intentional about my daily movement, my stress levels, my sleep scores, and all of this so that what's the purpose of all of this if I can't be healthy for my children one day.

18:58Right. So, and then to talk about a woman in this space, it's incredibly hard as a woman because number one, there's so much expectations of you, of how you show up if you're a wife or you're in a relationship, if you're a mother, how you show up for yourself, self-love, how you look. I mean, I always joke because nobody ever criticizes my husband if he gains weight up or down. But for us as women, it's like there's this social kind of pressure on us to also look good and be this superwoman. And I have to tell you, I'm 46 years old. My body is not moving or recovering like it was in the 20s or in my 30s.

19:45And so every day I kind of feel like there's this battle that I have of like, how do I show up for myself? How do I be the very best? Am I at my optimal health? Am I doing all that I am? So like, I think it's, I'm constantly figuring out like, how can I be all of it, even though there is no such thing. But there is a lot of pressure on us. And I've just learned to be kind to myself. And I think that as a woman, my number one thing is how can I support women and how can And I make them feel empowered and inspired and ignited because that's all we can do. Our superpower is how we support one another in an industry that is very male dominated.

20:31And at the end of the day, I try to really open up my life and showcase it so that women know you're not the only one that's juggling all this. Like I'm going to come out and show that my life is an absolute shit show because I want other women to feel better about themselves and to know that they're not the only ones going through this. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you just said like I genuinely like it hit my heart hearing that because like it's so difficult to watch people online or wherever we're consuming whatever content and you know I know people say don't compare yourself as you know as women like we can't compare ourselves but it's like the amount of pressure on any female that's living right now in 2026 is more than it's ever been in the history of life you know what I mean and it's like, that's what it hurts, you know, to see a lot of the, especially the younger generation, like we were talking, like, yeah, I'm about to be 40 years old.

21:28I look at the 20 year olds right now. And I'm like, I would hate to be 20 something right now, you know, and it sucked when I was in my 20s, you know, the pressure. And like, that really makes me think because here's where I feel like what you're doing from honestly, the health perspective, why this matters so much to me as a woman because we have no options on the health side. No one gives a crap about our health. No one cares about perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, diabetes, insulin resistance, IVF. No one cares. And you know what's crazy? Drona, I'll tell you my personal journey. I had Hashimoto's, right?

22:03And I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. Oh my God, me too. Did you? Okay. So then you know about this. It's like the most gray box disease, right? It's like no one knows anything about it like any like autoimmunity kind of thing but here's the weird part when you stop like I self-treated myself for it and you know what I did I stopped eating like I went on GLP ones I stopped putting this garbage in my body and then everything dropped my antibodies dropped my you know everything TSH normalized too and it was like even as a doctor I was sitting there and I'm like this is why women's health needs to be studied because you guys don't know what's going on in our bodies.

22:39You don't understand it and you don't want to understand it. And that's why I asked you about the male dominant thing, because in health and wellness, it's a problem. Like it's, it's not being addressed. And so, you know, for when I look at a brand like symbiotica, yeah, I resonate with it, especially as a woman, because I'm like, you're giving me an option to self figure out what's wrong with me. Because I know when I go to that doctor, they're not going to tell me what's going because they don't know. They don't know the research dollars aren't there. you know what I mean? That kind of thing.

23:08A hundred percent. And also like, it's tough for, uh, when you have a male making a product for a woman when you never have been through menopause, it's like, how could you tell me about menopause if you haven't experienced it? And let me tell you, no one talks about these things, but like Hashimoto's and the thyroid condition, like, that's like your autoimmune disease. That's like your, I always say that's like your heartbeat to your entire insides. When my thyroid is off, I can't even function. I have severe brain fog. I can't lose a pound if my life depended on it. I'm tired. My skin is dull.

23:43I'm losing hair and the world's coming to an end. And by the way, no one understands that. Like I just come off as crazy. When I'm perimenopause, which, you know, I think talking about like even menopause and perimenopause, it's so, it's not sexy. And I said to my husband, I'm going to talk about it because nobody talks about this kind of stuff. What we experience and endure as a woman, no one talks about. I love women because I know how much women go through to become who they are every single day. Like we have built this brick by brick by brick. And so for me, it's like when I experienced parametri pause and I thought literally my world was coming to an end, I woke up one day, I had severe brain fog.

24:28Honestly, I thought I had cancer in my brain because I'm like, something's really wrong with me. And I thought I was too young for paralynopause. I was like, my gosh, like I'm so lethargic. I'm so tired. It was the worst thing I'd ever experienced in my life. And nobody talks about it because it's not sexy. But I'm like, we need to talk about these things and we need to make it sexy because all every woman goes through it. Yeah. And also like they don't know. Right. And they don't want to tell us that they don't know. That's what really grinds my gears about it all is that you have a like an entire move, not movement, but like industry.

25:07Right. Like this big pharma and medicine is a business. No matter what anybody says, it's a freaking business. And you are choosing to not put dollars into the entire half of the population's health. You're choosing to not do that. So then when you come and you criticize us about, you know, like, you know how people say, oh, women always have like 50 things that you guys are taking. You're doing 50 different things. Yeah, we're doing that because we don't have any other options and you've created it to be like that for us. And so like, that's what makes me so angry. Like I'm telling you, honestly, I get so worked up about it because exactly what we're discussing about Hashimoto's.

25:46I mean, think about all the women that are going to like PCOS, infertility problems, like God knows what, and they really believe inside. I know I did. When I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's and then I had my fertility, I thought something was really wrong with me. I genuinely, I went through it. Like mentally, I was like, what is wrong with me? My mother didn't go through this. My grandmother didn't go through this. So what's up with me that I can't do this? And I felt bad about me as a human being at the end of the day. And we don't talk about that. So, I mean, I'm going on a rant, but really it's about like people talk about supplements, right?

26:20And they talk about this industry like it's like there's so many gray areas. But in my mind and the way I look at it as a woman who's dealt with a lot of health problems is no, actually, there's a lot of really great people trying to do the right thing. And they're trying to do right by a lot of us, you know? And so, yeah, it's a double X. You know, on that note, we sold 150 million packets. And we've sold 150 million packets because we've been a company about education, about transparency, about really... We source all of our own raws because efficacy is something we will not compromise. And like you said, there are a few good ones out there that are trying to do right by the world.

27:01For us, we say we've never had to do any gimmicky ads on our products. because like I meet, you know, brilliant people like yourself who are like, I love your products. Like I feel the difference. And I'm like, ah, like everything, all of my hard work, my tough day yesterday was all worth it because of this, just this exact moment right here. Um, and, and I agree with you. I think, I think that it's, it's very sad to see that we're not getting more education on, on some of these problems, right? Because the reality is you actually can get ahead of paramount and positive. You can get ahead of, you know, thyroid condition.

27:38A lot of thyroid condition is also lifestyle, which like for me, I didn't know. I was so young, right? I only knew I had Hashimoto's because my right eye was bulging out. And I had an uncle at the time that was like, your right eye is like a little bit bigger. And I was like, that's kind of rude. Your right eye is a little bit bigger. And he was like, no, I'm being serious. Like the white in your eyelid is a lot larger. And that's what caused me to go to an eye doctor and then started the whole thing of me learning. I was in Hashimoto's. I have a severe thyroid condition, but yeah, it's not talked about and it's, it's very sad that today we live in, well, again, we lived in a time where, and also like things, people weren't so privy to all this information, but now, like I said, you have all these youngsters who are reading labels, who are wanting to be proactive about their health and more intentional about the decisions that they're making and the foods that they're putting in their body absolutely which makes me really happy oh i'm so glad they're doing that honestly for all of us for all of our sakes because what what they're doing is going to push this world in a in a way that is going to really force the health care industry to change i really believe that in my soul like what gen z is doing like i that's one thing i applaud gen z on is like they really care about their health their wellness they're like i don't care you got to tell me the answer you know that kind of thing so i love that you know i want to ask you though because i know like like i brought this up earlier symbiotica is very transparent you guys are very very like clear about what you're putting in your formulas like we know what we're getting like i'll tell you one of my rituals with the brand is every morning i have my coffee and i pair the glutathione with it so i love that you know it's it's a beautiful combination um i want to know what was it like creating this brand in a world where everything is behind bars we don't get told about any like proprietary formulas and like Like, you know, this is our special blend and you'll never know what's in it.

29:30Just trust us. It works. That kind of thing. How was that for you in terms of, you know, not going that route? I mean, I think, again, it was like about really understanding that we're in a world today where there's so much noise and everything, right? And consumers deserve to know the truth. Consumers deserve to know what they're taking. So what we believed was like, if we build a company based on transparency, transparency creates trust and trust creates community. And that's what separated us. For us, it was like, I was a non-negotiable. We have never, and we will never take shortcuts when it comes to transparency, because to us, that is our entire ethos.