Why Perelel is getting into protein after 5 years of supplement growth

0:04Welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast. I'm Senior Reporter Melissa Daniels here with Executive editor, Ana Hensel. Ana, how are you today? I'm great, Melissa. How are you? I'm doing well. Spring has sprung in Southern California, and it's got me thinking a lot about health and wellness and the ways that I'm trying to feel my best. And so this week, we're speaking with Parallel and its co-founder, Victoria Joya. Parallel is a vitamin company that has a ton of different nutritional supplements. Anna, have you heard of Parallel? I have. And of course, with all of these brands, I've seen them on Instagram before.

0:46I've edited some stories about them, have not tried their products. Yes, this is the unique vantage point we have as people who are consumers and also writing about consumer behavior and consumer products. There's a lot more that we know, then we get to try. This brand is really interesting to me because they launched in 2020, which was that really hard time for brands in COVID because a lot of the plans that brands had to either raise capital or get off the ground were suddenly disrupted because so many changes happened in the business world. But Parallel had a really unique origin story because they were trying to do something different in the world of prenatal vitamins specifically.

1:28And then they just did a ton of organic content to help them get off the ground. And they wound up growing by over 600 % year over year since its inception. So they've just been able to take that initial prenatal vitamin category and expand and expand and expand. You've covered this world a lot. What's some of the playbook for DTC companies when they were looking to grow in those early COVID days? Yeah, those growth stats you mentioned are really interesting. So COVID upended a lot of brands' playbooks. I just talked to Crown Affair a couple weeks ago on the podcast, and they are another brand that launched in 2020, and they wanted to do a bunch of IRL events to kind of spread the word about their brand.

2:11And then they had to focus more on organic social. The other thing I would add is around that time, we also had Apple's iOS 14 update, which just upended how a lot of the ad platforms on sites like Facebook ran. So it was COVID, yes, that spurred a lot of brands to focus more on, let's say, building community across social, but also this important iOS 14 change. And so generally, I would say just what I have seen over the past five years now, which is crazy is just brands diversifying away from solely focusing on Facebook and Google acquisition and making things like organic social a more important and thoughtful part of their playbook.

3:01Yeah, yeah. And I think that was really part of the key to Parallels Early Success. So I get into that with Victoria. We also talked a lot about their subscription model in this conversation That I think is one of those things that, you know, from a business perspective, it's really great to have recurring revenue. But the key is, can you keep that recurring revenue? So we talked a lot about the ways that the subscription experience can be tailored to a customer to make sure that they feel really good about coming back and that they feel good about adding new products when you're launching them.

3:34You know, Parallel has now 21 SKUs. It's grown its product portfolio by 30%. And while it remains mostly DTC, it's branching out a little bit into places like Erewhon, FreePeople.com, and doctor's offices, you know, trying to lean into what they've done to have science-backed products showing up in places where people want to buy something reliable. That's really interesting. And it also just has gotten me thinking about how wellness has permeated everything now that a brand like Parallel can sell in such a diverse array of places like Erewhon, Free People and doctor's offices. Yeah, yeah, I know.

4:16I find that really interesting, too. And it just reminds me how much people are looking for this stuff. And I think most consumers are smart enough to know there isn't a silver bullet product out there to make you feel great. But there are many things you can do, you know, to take better care of yourself. And yeah, we talk a lot about that with Victoria too. And it was just a pleasure to have this conversation and hear about their exciting growth. So let's get into it. Here is Victoria Joya with Parallel.

4:49Today, I am here on the Modern Retail Podcast with Victoria Joya, founder of Parallel. Hi, thanks for having me. Thank you so much for joining us. Victoria, you are the founder of Parallel, a popular vitamin and supplement company that's getting into some really exciting new categories. But bring us back to the origin story. You know, how did your brand get started? Yeah, so we kicked off the plan to launch this in January of 2020. My co-founder in the day to day, Alex and I, and our medical co-founder, Dr. Bayotti, had been working, chatting, ideating on this for a while before that, really felt inspired out of our own personal failures in the industry to start something in this category and to start what is parallel.

5:37So in January of 2020, we said, we're going to do this. We're going to kick this off. There's no time better than right now. I quit my job and said, let's create a roadmap and what this is going to look like. And I don't think we ever could have imagined what was coming our way in March 2020. So definitely a very interesting time to start a business. And I think the roadmap that we originally had for the first year, 18 months was very different than what we encountered in terms of the world and how we had to pivot. Right, right. Yeah. It's all of a sudden, and all the plans that you had maybe for more brick and mortar things weren't going to make sense in an environment where those stores were closed down.

6:25You know, tell us a little bit about the product because the sort of vitamin and supplement world, you know, has no shortage of players with all kinds of claims and all kinds of things that they're promising to do for folks. But what was it about your first product, a prenatal, that you specifically felt you wanted to bring to customers? Yeah, so I think it's just that, is that our first product was quote unquote a prenatal, but it wasn't. It was five different products because it was a prenatal, but actually targeted to the specific different stages of trying to get pregnant, being pregnant and postpartum.

7:03And so we launched with five products, a conception support pack, a pack for each individual trimester and a pack for postpartum, our mom multi-support pack. And so we really broke down the supplement industry of what had been this very one size fits all of you might be pregnant, you're not pregnant, you're over 50, you're under 50. And there was one two pill a day solution that was going to cover all of those needs and really worked with our doctors of what does the modern woman actually need and when, And can we break that down and really support her in a stage specific way? Yeah, I like this approach because I think it speaks to also how consumers are getting really smart about what they're taking and why, right?

7:52You know, I think we're less likely to just say, oh, this is for me because I have X situation going on with my body versus saying, well, is it also going to address the fact that I have this, that and the other thing going on? Yeah, I think the consumer really wants a lot more personalization. She is so hyper aware of what's going on with her. She's doing her own research. And so she wants products that reflect that and are better researched, more detailed, more credible, especially in the supplement category that can feel a little bit of snake oil salesman of this pill is going to be a magic bullet where really it's going to be a supplement alongside a healthy diet.

8:38Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Almost setting the expectation from the get go that this is not a product that's here to solve all your problems and meet all your needs. It's something that is indeed there to complement what you should already be doing. You know, in that vein, what were some of the ways that your brand sort of did decide to find its customer? And what was some of, you know, the story that you wanted to tell to get trust in this category? Yeah, so that is a lot of leaning on our founders, which is our medical co-founder, who's a practicing OBGYN. We have what we call our parallel panel. It's a panel of doctors and practitioners who came on also within the founding to create better products, create better content and education and information and be these resources.

9:28So in every touchpoint of how we connected with our consumer from day one, it had to be coming from our doctors so that they really felt like they could trust this product and trust this new brand. And we've continued that connection in how we develop products and how we create different content programs or how we respond to an individual customer service ticket. It all needs to be coming from doctors and we make sure, and it's great to have our medical co-founder. If we ever post something on social or say something that doesn't feel credible, she'll message us and we take it down and we're like, oh, sorry, let us do some more research.

10:11Let's circle back there. And that's how we always have to show up is rooted in that medical trust. Yeah, I think that's a really good example of how a brand can sometimes get excited by things that are happening in a rapidly moving field, right? You know, I think when you're in the health and wellness and science world, all of a sudden, things could change and something that was recommended, you know, as little as two years ago, might now suddenly not drive that way. So it sounds like your medical expert is earning her paycheck really well then if she's able to. She's doing a good job on that.

10:48Yes, very important part of our team from both the beginning and how we scale and how we continue to stay rooted in real research. Yeah, exactly. I love that. Well, good transition then on the scaling. So, you know, 2020, you're out here as a DTC brand. I imagine a lot of digital ads. I imagine, And, you know, a lot of Instagram and meta may be in there to help you find your customer base. But what happened from there? I mean, you didn't really abandon your dream of becoming a brand that showed up on shelves necessarily. So how did you make that transition? Yeah, so actually, I will take a step back because launching in 2020 with a plan to fundraise in 2020 did not happen.

11:35There was not free-flowing capital. And for many other reasons, I think we just heard a million no's for pre-launch fundraising. And so we approached launch very differently than I think we initially mapped up in January. We did a small friends and family round. We put in more capital than we expected to, but we had to make every dollar count. So in the early days of 2020, we actually didn't lean on meta and sort of these paid advertising channels because we had to make every dollar count and we had to sort of test and learn and iterate. And so we did a lot more in brand storytelling and introducing the brand and how could we start to build a little bit of brand awareness, test what's resonating.

12:28And then when we want to spend those dollars, feel really confident that they're going to work and pay off for us. And so then we built our growth engine and have really leaned into those channels. And D2C works really well for us. We are a subscription business and we are a subscription business with real replenishment needs. People want their vitamins every 30 days. And so it can scale and grow really well and really efficiently. But ultimately, we know that we want to show up on shelves for the woman who wants to shop there and wants to discover there. But we've not rushed it. And I think we felt more confident being able to do that because we launched in 2020 when that wasn't ever an option.

13:14And knowing that you can build that relationship online and there are different levers and different ways that we've been able to do that. And we'll just continue to remain focused on our core business. But how and when we feel more confident to kind of wait in how we will show up more broadly on shelves. I wanted to return to what you had just mentioned too about subscription because it seems like that was a key part of your growth strategy. You know, how did you learn how to nail subscription or what is it that you are still learning about nailing subscription as it does sometimes? Yeah, it's a really interesting business model.

13:56It's obviously from a business owner perspective and it's where you want to be. But I think we learned a lot over the 10 years prior in the pop of some of this e-com subscription box businesses that took off and then potentially went the opposite direction is you can't force a user into a subscription model if you don't have that sort of replenishment need and that replenishment cadence that makes sense. because either people are running out, which makes sense angry, or they have too much, which means they cancel and you can lose them. And so when we first launched, we only had these 30-day multivitamin packs and our consumer was taking them every day.

14:43And so we could really build into that 30-day cadence. And so making sure that they didn't run out of vitamins was our biggest challenge. As we've expanded the business and launched new products, were just kind of testing, learning, iterating into how and when they use those products alongside and how can we make that easy and convenient for them. The other challenge that we had for our pack specifically was we needed to accommodate the user that was changing throughout this journey and was subscribing. And so maybe she was subscribing on the conception support pack and trying to get pregnant and then finding out she was pregnant and what did she need when.

15:25And ultimately what we were trying to do as founders was make this woman's life easier. So we had to make that experience easier. And so we had to collect her due date. We had to know where she was alongside her pregnancy. We had to update her subscription alongside that. And we've had to do a lot on the tech side and also pulling in data of, you know, are we switching the customer to the second trimester pack in time for it to land, for it to make sense for her? So those are a lot of the kind of challenges on the subscription business. But it's been really great to see that grow. And as a business, it's really efficient.

16:07Yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, I love seeing both sides of that coin, right? Where it's like, yes, you get this excellent, stable, recurring revenue, give or take that you could kind of game out and estimate, you know, what your growth rate might be, what your drop off rates might be. But at the same time, interface can really make or break whether that customer stays with you or not. I mean, I've canceled or stopped doing subscriptions because trying to change something was too difficult. Trying to skip was too difficult. I didn't feel like it was worth the time to go in and fix, right? And I think that's why companies have to be really careful.

16:46Just diving into that a little bit more, were there any specific changes that you did make to that UX in the subscription side over the years that stand out to you as something really, really helpful? Any lessons learned there? We just stay really close to the customer. And I think that's been a little bit of our superpower and so really taking her feedback. And so we've moved buttons in the customer portal. We've changed the timing of when they get their replenishment orders. We've changed the algorithm on like the pregnancy flow of how they move through each stage. and we're constantly willing to test and learn and update.

17:32And I feel like you have to be that way in the subscription business because you keep bringing customers in and they keep replanning. And so you want to make sure that you're serving them in the ways that they need to. So if a customer like you is coming in and saying, I couldn't figure out where the skip button was, that means we need to look into that. And so we really have a team dedicated to staying close to the customer feedback and making sure that we have sort of a closed loop there to iterate, test, learn, and make that as seamless an experience as a campaign. Right, right, right. That's super helpful.

18:11Let's get into the products of this. You talked about the multi-step kind of approach that you have here, but what are some of the other areas that you've gone into since your founding? How have you brought in from your original goal? Yeah, and I think talking about our latest product is the best example of this. So we just launched a protein powder, which from our original goal, I don't think we ever said we were going to launch in that category. We were very focused on vitamins and supplements and maintaining the authority in that space. But again, because we stay really close to our customer and for the first year, I answered every customer ticket.

18:56Personally, this probably goes back to the lack of fundraising story of the business. Yeah, that's the scrappy startup part of the story. Yes, but I've stayed really in there and then stayed really close with our doctors of what is this customer asking us for? And what is our doctor seeing her patients are asking her for? And we kept coming back to women were asking us about protein. What is safe during pregnancy? What do you recommend? How much should I take? I mean, it is a cool thing that our customer is asking us these details in a category that we weren't playing in, but it really made us look into that and say, should we be playing here?

19:38How should we be playing here? having that conversation with our doctors, you know, does this align with our customers' needs? Does this align with the latest research? And, you know, I think especially in protein, there is a gap there in our diets today and where we've gotten to. And so we worked on this for the last two years really closely with our doctors of what are they seeing for women? Our medical co-founder at the time was going through her own perimenopausal journey. And so protein was really top of mind for her too, as well as for her pregnant patients. And so it was such an opportunity for us to take in all of these insights from our medical team, as well as what our consumer was asking us and create something better for her to support her.

20:24And so that's where we landed with the protein, but we kept coming back to these other ingredients too of fiber and creatine that again, were so crucial to women, especially at these life stages. And core of what we're doing here at Parallel is making these solutions easier for this woman and making it convenient and making it straightforward and helping support her. And so the opportunity to combine this into one easy to use protein powder supplement was really exciting for us and kind of dug in and over the last two years developed it and brought it to life in the last six weeks. Wow. That's a long R &D phase.

21:08I mean, not, I guess, comparatively, but it definitely feels like y 'all have been working. It's a lot of conversations. I think that's where we just, we wouldn't dive into a new category without feeling really confident of the need, how we can approach it. Are doctors really feeling confident in what we're doing and doing all the research around it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that makes sense. You don't want to just shoot from the hip because something sounds trendy and like it's going to sell. Yes, exactly. And I think that goes back to everything that we do has to be rooted in our medical backing and research and credibility.

21:46And so we don't ever want to leap into something and feel like we shouldn't be playing in that space or like those claims aren't there and the research isn't there. And so when we were building this, we were not actually being trend led. It's been really crazy how much there has been in creatine recently, but more like what's the latest research saying, what does this woman need and making sure we feel really confident in all of those pieces before we move forward with the product. Totally. Yeah, it seems like you've had a lot of other successful launches in the last five years, too. You all have branched out into other categories of women's health.

22:27I believe you have a men's supplement, too, these days, which is really cool to see and maybe helps on some of the mental load side on the subscription basis for all the things that a lot of women end up buying for their homes and partners. Any lessons learned when you're going out there to announce a new product. Any lessons learned on how you get that in front of your customers or get that add to cart from your subscription or getting folks to try new things once they already know and love your brand? Yeah. I mean, one thing we do and we've really leaned into, which goes back to this testing and learning mentality and this dollar scarcity, is when we launch a new product, we've really leaned into introducing it to our subscribers, kind of seeing how it resonates with them, what parts of it resonate before we really lean into broader messaging around it.

23:25And I think that's really helped us understand what is the need that we're solving. And I think that's really helped us launching some of these new products where we can really understand what this is going to do, how it's going to support her, and how we can then tell that story more broadly. But I think what's been interesting and exciting is we've built this foundation of trust with our customer. And so when we've launched new products, especially if it makes sense for their life stage, they've been really excited to add that on and try that as well. And so we're just continuing to lean into that as we think about product innovation and how we can better support her and how it can align with the core suite of products that we have.

24:11Right, right. Yeah, I think it's a great approach, you know, especially when you think about how to sort of keep the customer that already knows and loves you, give her more of what she wants and needs, but also not lose your eye on the broader growth at the same time, right? And it seems like you all still had been able to scale even as you were keeping and growing your original customer base. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's where we do try to really focus in on what are we trying to do here as a brand? Does this check the box of our core pillars? And so originally, I think we never thought protein would fall in that category.

24:53But once we really saw with the latest research, our customer asked how we could create something super convenient and easy to use. It really fit, but that's probably what took us so long to take that leap. Yeah, no, I love it though. And I think it's an example too of how, you know, these things sort of have like a zeitgeist effect, right? Where, you know, some of these women coming to you saying, hey, you know, maybe about protein because they've heard other folks talk about it, But rather than go try a new brand, they'd rather buy it from someone that they already know. Yeah, I think especially in the supplement industry where there can be a lot of mistrust and not knowing exactly what's in each product, finding someone from a brand perspective that you can really trust, you want to get kind of your whole routine from them.

25:49Yeah, yeah. So you mean just buying something that you see on a sponsored Instagram post might not be the best option for your medical needs is maybe one way to say it. I think we are learning that these days. Yeah, but it's all right. I mean, I think like you're sort of on a scaling strategy to showing up in some different places. I think we've talked a little bit about getting into Arrow on shelves, but you also have, you know, a kind of a medical footprint as well in some doctor's offices. You know, talk a little bit about that if you don't mind sharing how that works for you guys. Yeah, we've leaned really heavily into our medical co-founder and our parallel panel and how can we build those relationships through them, through practitioners more broadly, and just be top of mind in that space.

26:38You know, especially in the prenatal category, women are turning to their doctor for recommendations on this product. and so how can we be front of mind in those moments? Yeah, I like that and I think it's a really smart strategy because there are a lot of women out there who are going to be, you know, kind of taking the word of their doctor over anything else that they are seeing and reading, right? And so are you in a position as a brand and a company to align yourself there in a way that makes sense? Yeah, exactly. And I think that's, again, why when we do something, we have to make sure that it's medically sound and that we're not creating any mistrust among the medical community.

27:20Totally. But you still have also kept it very aesthetic and beautiful and approachable at the same time. I don't want to lose that as we're talking about science and trust, right? I mean, your brand still definitely has its own voice and its own style. No, completely. I feel like we just try to do all of those things and it's definitely a balance. And my partner has a beautiful brand voice and brand vision and bringing that to life in different ways and scaling that has been incredible. Right. Well, I want to see anything else we're not asking either about parallel, about the company's growth journey, or just about, you know, lessons learned in running and scaling a wellness brand these days?

28:04Yeah, I think one of the things that I've definitely learned and leaned into the last five years was something I learned in business school and has been, I think, my most important piece of advice that came out of business school. And I think coming out of seeing these brands launch in 2010 with a ton of capital, just throwing spaghetti at a wall, grow as fast as you can. I think what we see today is you don't want to be that flash in the pan anymore. And you really want to build something that has some legs behind it and can be a true business and not just a pop. And I look back at this one professor I had and sort of on my last day, he had been a longtime entrepreneur and he sat us down and he said, if you're going going to start a business, raise as little money as possible at as low evaluation as possible, and take that as far as it can go.

29:03And ultimately, you'll have the best outcome, regardless of cycle, regardless of fads. And it's really stayed with me in how we run this business, think about scaling this business, sort of having that scarcity mindset, and not just throwing money at growth or throwing money at a problem, but, you know, really solving a need and building a business. Wow. I love that. I think that's really, really good advice. And I think it's applicable right now, for sure, as as many brands are trying to figure out, you know, what a sustainable future looks like in an era where I think there's a lot of uncertainty around capital availability.