736 Xeba Zareie: Founder of Preme

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Cara Golden Show.

0:44Kara Goldin:Super excited to have our next guest here. We have Ziba Zari, who is the founder of Preem, the gut health brand that's making digestion support simple, effective, and actually doable for people with the most sensitive stomachs. So this is a challenge that obviously so many of us have. And I love that Ziba is taking a little bit different, unique approach to this. Also, founder that has had her own issues and with battling chronic gut issues for years and decided to take that extra step and develop products that she knew worked so well. I love that she found functional medicine and this is part of a low FODMAP diet.

1:38Kara Goldin:I can't wait to hear more about that. And instead of keeping the knowledge all to herself, like I said, the fact that she has gone all in and developed incredible skews around it from her Dallas kitchen. So prebiotic powders and drink mixes that are science backed, transparent and trusted. So this isn't just another wellness brand. So you have to listen very carefully as we talk to Ziba all about it. And definitely you're going to want to try her products when you are finished listening. So thank you so much, Ziba, for joining us today. Wow, that was such a warm welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

2:21I'm just honored to be here.

2:23Kara Goldin:Super, super excited that you're here. So for someone listening who is just hearing about Preem for the first time, how do you describe it maybe in a few sentences? Yeah, we're gut building powders. We have a line of gut building hydration powders. So they're electrolytes with prebiotic fibers and leaky gut support. And then we just have an unflavored gentle prebiotic that's safe and gentle for anyone with IBS or who's struggling with bloat or who just maybe has a sensitive complexion and wants to have a gentler route. So yeah, that's PREEM. That's awesome. So you dealt with your own gut issues prior to starting PREEM.

3:04Kara Goldin:So can you talk Talk about your own experience and maybe the frustration around products that were out there that were supposed to be helping you that weren't. Yeah, so I was chronically constipated, as they would say. You know, I just normalized that. But what I didn't understand is that every time we're having a bowel movement, we're detoxifying ourselves. And so any day that you go without one, you're pretty much building up toxin levels in your body. so I you know we're exposed to so many toxins in our country that you know not detoxifying today in modern society can actually have really bad impact on your health and it can become quite systemic so I was fortunate enough to work with a functional medicine doctor who helped me with root cause testing and I learned that I had you know toxic black mold I had SIBO which is small intestinal bacterial overload overgrowth um i had uh h pylori which is another bacterial overgrowth like i literally had so many different types of gut illnesses it was as though the universe was like no we need her to understand everything that can happen um and you know i spent a lot of nights just like writing on the floor like not understanding why i couldn't just be normal or why i couldn't just eat like what everyone else was eating and you know when you spend a lot of your life restricting and being on different, you know, diets, like, you know, the FODMAP diet is really helpful for anyone who's had IBS.

4:36It's just a list of like different carbs that, you know, can ferment in the gut, which ends up creating gas and bloating in people who have a hard time digesting foods. So having to be on like, you know, more restrictive diets can even further impact your gut, I realize. Your emotions and your physical health are so intertwined, I've learned, especially when it comes to gut health. So I really was motivated to find ways to indulge while following these more restricted health-conscious diets and just maximizing pleasure without feeling like I was going to feel inflamed the next day because I was loading up on sugar and just finding natural ways to find indulgence.

5:24So yeah.

5:26Kara Goldin:So you decided to come up with this. So this is your first physical goods company, your first company that you founded, but also first physical goods and CPG company. So would you say it's harder or easier than you thought it was going to be? I think it's much harder than I thought it was going to be. You You know, there were so many things I didn't understand that I've now understood about the grocery store. I was like that girl who picked up every single package at the grocery store and turned it over and like looked at the ingredients. And I wanted to really understand why there were all these filler ingredients and everything.

6:06Like, why was everything packaged so small? Like, why, you know, why? I just needed to know all these questions. And then, you know, we originally started with a refrigerated pudding, a cold chain pudding, a short shelf life. And that really opened my eyes to the reality of this industry, like the costs of shipping, the, you know, shelf life issue. Like most, and I hate to blow everyone's cover, but most brands in the grocery store have like an eight month to one year shelf life because you need that time just to get to the shelf, you know, just to get to who you're trying to, you know, feed and nourish.

6:44So, you know, it's all been really interesting seeing how we can toe the line of staying really, you know, minimally processed and healthy and premium while also reaching the amount of people that we want to reach. It's such like a compromise I've learned of just like so many brands have to end up adding these, you know, preservatives just to like get their product into the store. And I just started to really understand that.

7:11Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. So you started, I guess, what was the timeline like when you had this idea that you wanted to come out with products, start a company and actually get it to market? You talked about the pudding. I'd love to hear kind of how long it took to get that initial stage out. Well, I think it's a long road for me because I was also dealing with my debilitating gut illness that I wasn't working full time anymore. But I was, you know, barely getting out of bed making these oatmeal. And I just remember being like, I need to create this alternative, something more luxurious. Like, I can't do this every day.

7:54There should be other things. I was going to Air One. I couldn't find anything. So this was like I was ideating, dreaming of this like the beginning of 2020 or the end of 2020. And then I would say by March of 2022, I started like messing around in my kitchen and trying to figure things out. And we did sort of a soft launch alongside Snackshot, you know, where we started sampling to customers and seeing what they would like. And then we went into retail the following year. So like 2023, we did a little bit of like small stores in LA and I was self-producing. So I was like afraid to grow. And we were delivering to people like hand delivering.

8:33And I was just losing so much time, like trying to deal with all the logistics that I really, really thought, like, how can I stick to my core mission? My core mission is helping as many people as possible get functional medicine type of resources without having to pay out of pocket for a functional medicine doctor. How can I reach as many people who need this? And that would mean like having a product that I can ship, you know, so that really changed, you know, my goals. So then I pivoted and we ended up I create all the products myself because when I talk to most manufacturers or food scientists, they don't really understand these ingredients.

9:12that I like love to work with. So it's me and my like friends who I know who have got issues testing out different stuff together. And it's my functional medicine doctor like advising me on certain science-backed ingredients. So by the end of like last year, summer, we started producing and getting everything going. And we launched end of January of 2025 this year with powders. I love it.

9:41Kara Goldin:I love it. That's great. So how many SKUs do you currently have? We have three SKUs. We have just an unflavored, gentle prebiotic fiber that is IBS, SIBO, safe. It's science-backed, organic, allergen-friendly, and low FODMAP. And then we have two hydration powders. They're gut-building hydration powders. They have prebiotic fibers along with other gut supportive ingredients like hyaluronic acid, collagen, trace minerals. And we have a hot cocoa that's like this sweet and salty hot cocoa. Thank you. The gut just like needs warmth, especially for women and soothing. And like, we still need, you know, our minerals and our electrolytes.

10:26So I wanted to put that together. And then we have a kiwi lemonade that's, you know, has apple cider vinegar. It's a bit more tangy and tart. So it's a bit more enlivening for someone. maybe you don't need soothing. Maybe you need something that's like hydrating and going to support you and energize you. So I wanted to have two different SKUs for two different moods kind of thing. And the kiwi lemonade is so good. We use real New Zealand green and golden kiwi fruit. And one serving is the equivalent of eating 1.5 kiwis. And you know, kiwis are all the rage right now. Like everyone's eating them for digestive support.

10:58I personally noticed when I have one or two servings of the preem kiwi lemonade that I'm like no longer chronically constipated. I love it so much. It has hyaluronic acid, which, you know, everyone uses and thinks of it for anti-aging. But it has scientific backing to support leaky gut, which no one's really talking about right now in the health world. Like, it's starting to become talked about now. But, you know, rebalancing the microbiome is one thing, which is great. The prebiotic fibers are there to help the good gut bacteria grow and help the bad bacteria die off. But does it matter when you're drinking all these supplements if you can't absorb your food?

11:34And leaky gut is just like a common phenomenon now because like 90 plus percent of people are exposed to glyphosate in this country. And now they're starting to connect that glyphosate and kind of has a correlation with leaky gut and also just stress, refined sugar. So almost all of us are experiencing some degree of leaky gut, I would say. and so having an everyday beverage that is supporting leaky gut and having an everyday beverage that's supporting your microbiome I think in today's society is crucial you know we're all getting set up to fail when it comes to our gut health in modern society so how do you

12:11Kara Goldin:typically like use your products you've got three different ones how do you typically use them like when you get up in the morning to yeah i love the gentle prebiotic fiber when i know i'm not going to be able to get all my fiber in for the day because it's six grams of fiber for one serving um i really love it in my coffee you can't taste it like it's really grounding with the coffee to me because i can get a little like oh my cortisol is rushing with coffee um i really like it when i'm traveling and i know i'm not gonna you know i'm gonna be eating out a lot i'm not gonna be on my fiber like that's when I love to use it or for people who just like you know they don't want to be healthy they like this because you can't taste it like my aunt puts it in her cup seat you know what I mean but she's getting her fiber so just whatever your favorite beverage is like if it's a tea coffee water even people like it or if you just already drink your element but then I really love the kiwi lemonade like before or after a workout um it's just so enlivening and refreshing and you just feel the hydration personally for me, like it's so good and it's not too sweet, but it will like jumpstart your metabolism.

13:21So I always like to make sure I'm doing it like before or after a meal. And then the hot cocoa I love personally, like at night or in the afternoon, like instead of a second cup of coffee, like do not reach for the second cup of coffee. You're depleting your minerals every single time you drink caffeine. Try this instead. You'll have a resurgence of minerals and you'll actually get energy instead of, you know, numbing the part of your brain that tells you if you have energy or not. So yeah, I love those, especially when you want a cozy vibe.

13:52Kara Goldin:And what is the sweetener that you're using? I know you have the unsweetened version, but what is the sweetener that you're using? We're using a date and coconut sugar combination. They're just natural sugars. You know, we're using such a small amount of date sugar that it's still considered low FODMAP, even though dates can sometimes be considered high FODMAP. I wanted a natural sweetener because I personally noticed for my gut health, even when I drink organic cane sugar, I still feel this like inflammatory response. And so I just wanted to not sweeten it. And it's only one gram of sugar per serving.

14:28We have less than like 0.01 % of stevia, organic stevia leaves, just to like tie it all together. I don't even legally have to probably list that on my thing, but I just want to be transparent. And that's what we use to kind of tie the flavors together. But it's not sweetened with stevia.

14:47Kara Goldin:So was there a moment when you realized that this wasn't just a personal fix, but a business that was like really worth building? I mean, obviously you wanted to solve this problem for yourself. But I love, you know, are there any stories out there where people are like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for developing what you have with Preem? I love hearing that. If you could share something. Yeah. I mean, I'm not here to like change anyone's behavior, but I do want to create recipes that are appealing to people who are having a hard time being healthy, if that makes sense. And my very first customer was a woman who worked in my kitchen.

15:31Her mother was like bedridden from diabetes or not diabetes. No, she had something going on with her stomach. I think it was. Sorry, this was so long ago. She had like some sort of stomach issue that was causing her debilitating pain and she just couldn't get out of bed. And it had been months like that and they couldn't afford, you know, out of care help. So I just... I just gave her some puddings, which we use the same pre-urotic fibers in the puddings as we do. The hot cook was literally almost the same recipe, just in powder form. And I gave her puddings. And literally after, I think, a month of using the puddings, having one a week or one a few days or something like that, she just told me her mom, she'd never seen her mom so energized.

16:16She was out of bed again. She was playing games with people. She was walking the dog. Like just hearing what a transformation, like a little bit of prebiotic fiber and like good ingredients can do for some people who are just really struggling. I'm just like, that is the best thing ever. Like that has made my whole journey. It's like the why I do this for. And then also just like seeing people who, you know, they come and they buy one bag from me and then they come back and they'll buy like eight bags for me. And it's just such a nice, like motivating, like, OK, people are really responding to this.

16:50And it's not just me who likes this, you know.

16:54Kara Goldin:I love it. So you worked with Dr. Juliana King to make sure that these products actually delivered results. Were you seeing her? Like you were working with her and that's how you guys started thinking about these products. But for anybody who's thinking about, you know, maybe they've got an idea for a product. How did you go about like actually deciding that we should go launch these? I was so I was I stopped working. I was working in TV and film on my dream job. And I just realized like my job was making me sick because it was like these 12 hours stressful days and I needed time to kind of get my life re-centered.

17:40So I started actually a freelance. I accidentally started a freelance business while I was kind of dealing with gut issues. And I started realizing like I had all these clients and I was helping them with their podcasts and I didn't love having clients. And I was like, I want customers. But I was really sick. And when I was sick, I just kept dreaming of this like alternative. And I just really felt so strongly that so many people were getting sick with gut issues. And I just felt so strongly that not enough people knew. even that probiotics are causing you harm if you don't need them and like you need probiotics and no one was talking about it and you know i was in the mecca of like health and still like in la and still like air one didn't reflect that knowledge and it just i think when i worked with the medicine doctor and i realized how much she benefited me versus just traditional western medicine it just shocked my whole world that like i just felt like i had to become in service now of this like issue and it really became like an act of service for me um to just really just okay every single time it feels hard like or any single time it feels daunting or like i can't do that or i can't handle that it's very much like who is going to do this like you are seriously like the person in the corner who cares so much about this and won't shut up about it.

19:05And I spent all my free time on it that it's like, it just made sense to pursue it. But yeah, I think it went from like, I had an idea of what I wanted it to taste like to I just got lucky and like, stumbled upon some of you know, it's like it meets you there kind of thing for anyone who's wanting to start something like you don't have to know every single step forward, you just need to know like a couple steps in front of you and just like follow those urges and those inklings because they're not there by accident. They're there on purpose. And so I just started to really believe in those those messages I was hearing and believing and just I wanted to like pursue something for myself for once, you know, instead of supporting other people's dreams.

19:50Kara Goldin:How did you tell people that I actually have a product and and it's for sale? I mean, Instagram's been great for sharing, you know, social media, but a lot of like community sharing. So like when we sold at Honey High in LA, that was really fun. Like just anyone who goes to Honey High, which is such a Mecca on the East side of LA of just like health food, like they associated cream with Honey High. So getting to share that community together, just kind of build the brand up a bit more. And that's how, you know, it just all becomes word of mouth at the end of the day. And so it's like, what what exposure are you getting as a brand?

20:29And so, you know, leveraging social media, leveraging other stores and then leveraging other brands. So like, you know, sharing audiences, even with other brands or even creators on Instagram. But yeah, it was a lot of like, I'm just calling my friends and literally DMing them and like, do you want to support? I just like literally any person I'm crossing the street, you're drinking that electrolyte. Are you sure you do like that one? Like, do you want to try this one? You have to be like your number one, like annoying business person, salesperson.

21:01Kara Goldin:I love it. Did you ever think that you'd start a brand and a CPG company? No, no. Which is crazy in retrospect because I just love food so much. And I've just always been obsessed with packaged foods and like what goes into them. But I always thought like I would be in storytelling. Like I was a communications major. You know, I worked in TV and film. I was working my way up the ladder. I was really enjoying, I was good at it. I really, you know, thought words were so impactful for people and that you could really change the hearts and minds of, you know, people watching movies. But yeah, you know, ultimately, I've always wanted to help people and I was like pre-med for a hot second.

21:43So it's kind of full circle that I'm getting to help people with food, I think.

21:47Kara Goldin:I love it. So what's one small decision you made early on that ended up having a massive impact. You talked, I guess, about the switching from the format of being a pudding to a powder, but are there any others that had such a massive impact? I would say that's been such a big impact. And the second impact I would say is not having it all on my shoulders. I think we're all afraid to invest in our own businesses, especially I'm bootstrapped, like knowing when is the right time to add that extra investment into your business is super scary. But ever since I've taken the leap to kind of like invest a little bit more in marketing and invest a little bit more in, you know, just how we're getting the word out for preem, like it has slowly changed my whole attitude towards the brand and towards the company.

22:43Like no longer does it feel all on my shoulders and then I get overwhelmed and then I can't function as well. Instead, I feel like I have a team. It's not just all on my shoulders. And I have professionals guiding me and helping me. So I don't feel like I don't know what I'm doing all the time. But yeah, I think a lot of people take too long to invite like other people in who know what they're doing to like get that professional insight that you need with an

23:13Kara Goldin:industry that's so close-knit like cpg yeah definitely definitely so today you're available uh where outside of your own website um we are waiting to do retail for just a hot second we want to just understand our e-com business that was on purpose um we are with healthily live healthily.com it's a low-tox shop that's online and then if you want to buy us in europe you can buy us at percup.com. So we're available kind of all over for now online, and we're about to enter Amazon soon. That's super, super exciting. So what's the big bet you've made with Preem and kind of the future of Get Health? There's a lot of prebiotics and probiotics out there too, but the uniqueness of Preem enough so that you're working on this full-time, you're all in.

24:09Kara Goldin:But for a founder out there who's trying to figure out, should I go and start this idea? I mean, what would you say, not an idea competitive with yours, I'm saying like, Like when if you're trying to figure out is is my idea like enough of something? Like, how do you how do you determine that? Yeah. So I am like a researcher at heart. Like I just research in my spare time. And way before I started Preem, I like really researched who's out there. I love to I think it's really important to just know the players in the space. Like if anyone mentions a brand to me, I've already heard of them probably.

24:49Like I know who's who. I know what's going on, even if it's an emerging brand, because I like to have my finger on the pulse of where the trend's going, where are the holes in the market so that you know what you can fill and you know who you can be. And also really study your competitors. I mean, a lot of people say put your blinders on. I love to study my competitors. Like it doesn't affect me. Like, yeah, sometimes when they're growing faster than you. But I think it's good to grow slow sometimes in CPG and have more of like a foundation for yourself. But what I'll say is just like know who you are serving, know who you want your ideal customer to be and understand that customer.

25:25And like maybe you have an idea, but like the idea is allowed to evolve based on your customer feedback. And I think it's so important. Like Cream has become what it's become, not just because of me. It's become what it's become because of the people who have bought Cream as well, because I take their feedback to heart and I want to improve based on like my clientele. What I'll say is like not every gut brand is owned by a woman. And, you know, women are disproportionately impacted by gut health. So I try to create like a very feminine leaning brand that like women can come and feel like it's a community.