The Startup CPG Podcast


In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille — the first better-for-you nutrition company specifically designed for older adults, named after her 92-year-old grandmother. Lucille is reimagining what senior nutrition looks like from the ground up: better ingredients, better taste, better packaging, and a brand that finally gives older adults the dignity, care, and innovation they deserve.


Jess started her career in senior housing before attending Harvard Business School, where she partnered with nutritionists at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health to completely reformulate nutrition shakes from scratch. The result? A product with zero ingredient overlap with legacy brands — except water and salt — and dramatically better macros, micros, taste, and texture.


Together, Caitlin and Jess dig into what it really took to blow up a category that hasn't meaningfully innovated since the 1970s, why taste was always the leading indicator for success, and how Jess centered older adult influencers as the main event rather than the exception. They also get into the realities of launching DTC first, what retail looks like next year, and what it's like raising capital as a newly launched brand with a deeply personal mission.


Listen in as they cover:


  • The personal moment that sparked Lucille — and what Jess saw on the hospital shelf that changed everything
  • Why the Harvard Chan School nutritionists told her to throw out the legacy products entirely and start from scratch
  • How Lucille's formula compares: higher protein, higher fiber, higher calories, less sodium, less sugar — and zero shared core ingredients with existing products
  • Why taste and texture were always the leading indicators — and how reformulating for better ingredients naturally improved both
  • The strategy behind centering older adult influencers as the main event, not the exception
  • How the hero campaign video of grandmother Lucille became something bigger than a brand asset
  • The Wise Awards series and Lucille's vision for celebrating and preserving the stories of older adults
  • DTC first: what's working on Amazon and direct-to-consumer ahead of retail
  • The retail strategy for next year — and why placement next to legacy products creates a powerful consumer choice moment
  • What fundraising really looks like as a newly launched brand — and what it took to close their round


Episode Links:


🌿 Lucille Website: https://lucillehealth.com 


📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucillehealth 


🔗 Jess Haghani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-haghani-40917bba


🔗Lucille on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lucillehealth/

Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.

Show Links:

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  • Visit host Caitlin's Linkedin 
  • Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
  • Episode music by Super Fantastics

Creators and Guests

Host
Caitlin Bricker
Editor @ Startup CPG

What is The Startup CPG Podcast?

The top CPG podcast in the world, highlighting stories from founders, buyer spotlights, highly practical industry insights - all to give you a better chance at success.

Jess Haghani
She says that her 90s are the happiest decade she's ever had, which is incredible. But when she was going through her recovery, I was really just shocked to see that doctors were quote, unquote, recommending these legacy products that you take one look at them and it's like, how is this what we're giving somebody who has lived this extremely rich life? She's recovering. She needs the best that's out there, not only because she's lived almost till 90, but she is just going through a really hard time. And we know the power of better and cleaner ingredients and their ability to help the body make recovery. Like, we literally have made those advancements in science and for some reason, you know, hospital food hasn't really caught up with that.

00:50
Jess Haghani
And I think the kind of light bulb moment was seeing that retail and general consumer also hasn't caught up with that. And then spending a lot more time on the category and realizing that no one's doing this, but somebody has to because it's super important that we give the same amount of care, respect, innovation, dignity to such an important part of our population. And how I see it is like older adults have created so much of the world and how we experience it today.

01:20
Caitlin Bricker
Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We are back with another founder feature. Today I'm sitting down with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille, the first Better for you nutrition company specifically designed for older adults and named after her 92 year old grandmother. Jess started her career in senior housing and went to Harvard Business School where she partnered with nutritionists at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. She completely reformulated nutrition shakes from scratch. We're diving into what inspired her to blow up the entire category. How she's approaching taste as the leading indicator for success, why she centered older adult influencers as the main event rather than the exception, and her retail strategy for next year.

02:03
Caitlin Bricker
Plus, she shares what it's like raising capital as a newly launched brand and why the status quo in senior nutrition simply isn't good enough anymore. As somebody who is really interested in end of life and aging populations, this is absolutely interesting to me and I feel like this is a brand that everyone needs to be watching. You will quickly see them everywhere. We hear from founders on this podcast every week. If you're a brand and want to get new opportunities right in your inbox, text CPG to 833-605-7002. That's 833-605-7002 and we'll get you hooked up. As always, enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin and today I'm here with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille. Jess, welcome to the show.

02:57
Jess Haghani
Thanks. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to be here.

03:00
Caitlin Bricker
I am thrilled about your brand. I am nowhere near being a senior, but when I saw that there was a brand shaking up the senior nutrition space, I was floored. I was so excited about this might seem like uncommon for people our age to be so excited about something like this, but you are doing something very special. So can you tell our listeners what Lucille is?

03:25
Jess Haghani
Yes, absolutely. And very much so appreciate that excitement. I feel the same every day. But Lucille is named after my 92 year old grandmother. She's my only living grandparent. And we are the first better for you nutrition company specifically focused on older adults. So we are designed to bring better nutrition, better ingredients, better packaging and like, physical experience and just a much more joyful brand to our older adults that make up about 20% of our population and extremely fast growing.

03:54
Caitlin Bricker
Well, there's going to be so much to dissect in this episode. Before we dive into everything, I do have to shout out, tasted and tested because that's where I discovered your brand. They made a LinkedIn post and I was like, whoa, how have I not heard about this brand yet? You hadn't launched yet, but I am so thankful that they put you on my radar because I am so excited to see you grow. I feel like your future is extremely bright and lucrative, if I do say so myself.

04:22
Jess Haghani
Yeah, I remember you found us just coming out of stealth mode and preparing for launch and have so appreciated all of your engagement and everything you've done to support us thus far. So thank you very much.

04:33
Caitlin Bricker
Well, thank you. I mean, you're creating an excellent product. You sent me samples. I tried them. I shared one with my mom. She absolutely loved it. And then you were kind enough to send samples to my dad, who's currently in recovery from being in the hospital. It's like, unfortunate, but very grateful for the extra support from you. So thanks again for that.

04:52
Jess Haghani
You sent me the nicest email actually this morning. It was so sweet. So that's exactly the sort of connection that we're hoping to make. And thrilled that were able to support him and give him something better.

05:02
Caitlin Bricker
Oh, thank you. I mean, you and I both know hospital food and the things that are available to us post hospitalization and just aging in general. Activities wise, food wise, nutrition wise. Aren't Always that great. So what was the moment for you where you decided, I need to do something about this?

05:20
Jess Haghani
Definitely it was really a series of moments. So I guess my quick background is I started my career in senior housing, which was actually an extremely helpful. I didn't really know it at the time, but very helpful to, you know, what we're building at Lucille. Because I really saw firsthand how as you age, the built environment around you changes too. Your, you know, your body changes, potentially your physical ability changes. And with that change comes different adjustments in the built environment and also other ways you interact with products and services. That really opened my eyes to, you know, this big shift that happens as we get older. That's just a totally normal part of life. And I didn't really know it at the time, but I think that has kind of been.

06:02
Jess Haghani
That was a truly formative part of my career to what we're doing at Lucille. And I think there's always kind of been a through line of taking that approach to how we're building the business and just understanding our products and our roadmap, not only from just an ingredient perspective and like, just making the formulas better, but really how can we touch other parts of lifestyle that really takes into account our changing bodies as we age. And that comes in many different forms. But that's kind of where I started. And then what was kind of happening to my grandmother was just naturally going on in my family. And she's our only living grandparents are just incredibly special person to us and very much so at the core of our family. And she was going through some atrial fibrillation in her late 80s. Now she's 92.

06:49
Jess Haghani
She's absolutely killing it. She lives by herself in New Jersey. She day trades, she exercises, she plays bridge. She has more friends than I do. She's really amazing and, like, very emblematic of what this beautiful stage of her life is. She says that her 90s are the happiest decade she's ever had, which is incredible. But when she was going through her recovery, I was really just shocked to see that doctors were quote, unquote, recommending these legacy products that you take one look at them and it's like, how is this what we're giving somebody who has lived this extremely rich life? She's recovering. She needs the best that's out there, not only because she's lived almost till 90, but she is just going through a really hard time.

07:29
Jess Haghani
And we know the power of better and cleaner ingredients and their ability to help the body make recovery. Like we literally have made those advancements in science and for some reason, you know, hospital food hasn't really caught up with that. And I think the kind of light bulb moment was seeing that retail and general consumer also hasn't caught up with that because when we moved her home and got her out of the hospital and back home, were going to different stores trying to find all the innovation that we see in every single other grocery aisle. Like, where was it in adult nutrition and who was kind of owning that category. And that light bulb moment was going to every store possible and seeing that it just looks like the hospital shelf.

08:08
Jess Haghani
It's just the two main legacy players that have been around since the 1970s and 1980s that have just not made enough meaningful innovation to meet consumers where they are today and for this part of our demographic. So it was a combination of those things and then spending a lot more time on the category and realizing that no one's doing this, but somebody has to because it's super important that we give the same amount of care, respect, innovation, dignity to such an important part of our population. And how I see it is like older adults have created so much of the world and how we experience it today. And like, how are we innovating more for cats and dogs and other pets than we are for the elderly? Like, I think we're lagging pet innovation by like 10 to 15 years.

08:55
Jess Haghani
And it's been amazing to see the innovation on like the other end of the age spectrum for baby. And I think there's so many similar learnings to take from all of that and apply it to this other very important part of our demographic on the other end of the age spectrum.

09:10
Caitlin Bricker
Absolutely. I mean, I am a mom of a toddler and I see innovation in the baby category every single day. But I also have aging parents and aging in laws and I think about them daily. What is life going to look like for them in the next. You know, you would like to think 5, 10, 20 years, but it could be sooner than that because things happen. And to be able to set the aging people in our lives up for success. Nutrition is absolutely a major part of that recovery, just health in general.

09:42
Caitlin Bricker
So to see you innovating in this category was just eye opening for me because I spend a lot of time focusing on and educating myself and end of life and being able to see that people aren't forgetting about the aging population was just so inspiring to me because it does in many ways feel like a population that does get forgotten about.

10:04
Jess Haghani
Yeah, no, definitely. And I think what's so interesting is that today's hot word is longevity. And that's what everybody is focused on, extending their years both in terms of lifespan and health span. It's like, okay, well, what is the infrastructure set up for this longevity movement once everybody continues? Lifespan is at an all time high right now, but we don't have the same innovation and products available to support that stage. And that is probably going to only increase over time with everything happening with longevity, which is why I think that there's such an impetus to do this now. And I actually think that we're late to the game and we're the first mover here, so absolutely agree with everything that you're saying.

10:43
Caitlin Bricker
How does Lucille feel about all this?

10:46
Jess Haghani
She's so excited. She definitely was skeptical at first. I think that she just comes from a more traditional background and not being as familiar with entrepreneurship and the risk associated with that and the difficulties and challenges being a challenger brand against really large players in the space. But I think that she has really seen a us carve our lane and get so much more comfortable with our determination and our broader mission to bring better nutrition to older adults. So now she's fully on board. She is super excited. She was obviously extremely helpful during all of the formula iterations and actually getting the product to where it is today.

11:27
Jess Haghani
And then beyond that, all of the ways she's contributed to our brand, from letting us trademark her name, which she had to sign off on, and taking inspiration from her love of gardening to inspire many different parts of the brand, how you see it today. And obviously our hero campaign video we did in her house and part two of the photo shoot for our original assets we did with her and a couple of her friends. So she is really excited and I think that her involvement in the brand is always just going to be at the absolute core of it. Just given this is really why it all started and how it started.

12:03
Caitlin Bricker
I also have to comment on the fact that your brand is the first time I have ever seen senior influencers coming out and representing a product that they truly care about. We are so bombarded with wellness items, skin care items, and again, it's a population that's forgotten about. As if aging people are not moisturizing their skin or wearing lipstick or lip balm or using shampoo and conditioner. So to see your brand recruiting all of these aging influencers was just incredible to me. So tell me what that looked like, how you went about this, what was the experience like from your perspective working with this population?

12:44
Jess Haghani
Yeah, definitely. It's been so much fun since launching about two and a half months ago. And that was kind of always at the core part of our launch experience and kind of ongoing marketing efforts. And so I would say that there's brands out there, especially in beauty actually, that have tapped here or there into older adult consumers. Like Merit Health has done that. Paula's Choice has done that a little bit. And they've created, you know, really fantastic campaigns around a few older adult women in particular. But I think what's so exciting about us is like, that's not the exception, that's the main event. Like the point of all the influencers that we're really focused on. Of course we have other pillars of like caregivers and grandchildren that are working on some basis with their grandparents and things like that.

13:30
Jess Haghani
But we are really focused on elevating the voice of the older adult and the end consumer themselves. That when we started digging into this category of influencers, like, there's actually so many of them and so many of them have a really spiky point of view and some sort of entertaining factor and heartwarming content and things that we all crave and want to watch, and being able to partner them up with a product that they deeply believe in and deeply see the need and value of has been really rewarding and exciting, especially as we think about, you know, some of these as longer term partnerships as well.

14:05
Jess Haghani
So, yeah, I think that will hopefully always continue to be a part of our strategy and just always remembering that the older adult themselves is who has gone underserved and bringing them and their story and their wisdom and their set of experiences, which is actually, in my opinion, some of the most interesting content out there because they have lived the richest and fullest and longest lives with the most set of experiences and wisdom to share, is something that, yeah, I hope we'll always stay very focused on and a very core part of content for the brand.

14:36
Caitlin Bricker
It's funny that you have mentioned these legacy brands that you are now in a way, up against in the market, but you're also talking about the legacies that these people that you're working with now are giving us and will eventually leave behind. So you are playing a huge part in nurturing those legacies for these people. And it's really cool to witness.

14:56
Jess Haghani
Yeah, I think that's. It's such an interesting point. You bring up even the hero campaign video that we shot of my grandma last year, besides all of the excitement that it brought about the brand and we document, I Don't know if you've seen it, but we documented a day in her life and it's not really about the product. It's kind of about how she lives her life in like two minutes. And beyond what it did to the brand, we now as an entire family, like her kids, her grandparents, grandkids, her great grandkids, we have this now forever to look back on and. Oh. And have this like, beautiful piece of film that captures her essence so well. And I think that's a little bit of what we're trying to do with our Wise Words series.

15:33
Jess Haghani
And hopefully we'll be able to return to a little bit of the larger scale production like we did for the Hero campaign video, and share that with other families. And we have loads of ideas of how we want to do that. But beyond what that content does for the brand, it's actually just this like, incredibly meaningful and special piece of content to have and carry for the rest of your to share with your family. Because it is all about expression of their life and their knowledge and their wisdom to share. And not always just about talking about the product. Like, the brand is so much bigger than that.

16:06
Caitlin Bricker
Totally. And this is a product that just effortlessly fits into these people's lives. So it's like, hey, I might be out gardening, I might be out taking a walk, playing bridge, whatever it may be, but I also have Lucille right next to me and I can just take a sip. And it's not something that's a force to incorporate into their lives. And everything you're saying, it is just such a beautiful way to preserve everything that they are offering to us and to their children, grandchildren, et cetera. It's really cool. I've never seen it done before. So everything that you are doing is just so exciting to me.

16:39
Jess Haghani
Thank you. Yeah. One of our favorite influencers, I would say, is Count called Wise Woman Aging. And she, speaking of activities, is an amazing vintage and thrift shopper. And she used to take the other, like, legacy product to her thrifting outings with her girlfriends. And when she heard about Lucille, she was like, I actually don't want to take that anymore. I'm taking Lucille. I'm going to show you guys how I incorporate it into my everyday and how it's actually fueling us through our vintage shopping day where they're like literally hunting and finding complete treasures. And she posted a video on it. You can see it through our account, but that's exactly right. Like people getting up to all sorts of amazing things and having we're not really changing behavior or habit here.

17:22
Jess Haghani
It's very normal to be drinking a shake, especially in an 8 ounce, which really isn't that big. And so finding these ways to just incorporate it and show people how it fits so smoothly into your everyday life is. Has been a lot of fun and seeing how different people interpret that.

17:37
Caitlin Bricker
Could you give us a snapshot of, without naming any names, what Lucille has in it versus other products that are on the market?

17:45
Jess Haghani
Definitely. So I guess context for how we approached the formula. First, we worked with expert nutritionists at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health while I was at Harvard Business School. And that was extremely instrumental in framing our approach. And basically the first thing they said to me was, I can't put a single worst ingredient in these existing products if I try, Jess, you actually need to just stop even looking at them as any inspiration and just put them to the side. And so that's what we did. We kind of started totally from scratch. They were like, don't fix this, just start over. And that was our approach, you know, really from the beginning. And so what that resulted in, after a comparison when were done, were just curious to see where we landed.

18:26
Jess Haghani
We actually don't have a single ingredient of our 10 core ingredients before the vitamin and mineral premix that overlap with the existing products, except for water and salt. So every single other thing had to be changed in some way and come from a different source. And on top of that, we have much better macro and micronutrients in terms of higher calorie, higher protein, higher fiber, less sodium, less sugar, which are kind of the five main important ones. And then from a micronutrient standpoint, leaning into some of the challenges that come with absorption with vitamins and minerals as you age and so much more focus on like B vitamins, for example. But in terms of specific ingredients, you know, you can find all the information on our website, but just to go through a couple sources.

19:08
Jess Haghani
So we're lactose free using a high quality milk protein isolate. So that's higher quality than milk protein concentrate. Our fat sources from avocado oil, we use no refined sugars or sugar alcohol, so have a pretty low glycemic index coming from date syrup and agave syrup. And so that has kind of been our approach to the formula, like using as many real whole ingredients as we can and like truly departing from this older age of what the status quo was for whatever reason and just completely elevating the standard. And as I think about continuing to iterate on this product and make it better as well as future product lines. There's so many different things for us to tap into that are important to focus on from a nutrition standpoint as you age that we're really excited to continue exploring.

19:58
Jess Haghani
But then I guess one other layer on top of all of the formulation is that the leading indicator for us was taste. It was taste and to reduce chalkiness. So overall sensation as you're consuming the product and especially as you finish it, like what does it feel as an aftertaste? Because we could have created the healthiest product possible, but if it tasted bad, were not succeeding at our job at giving people better nutrition because they wouldn't want to drink it. So taste was always the leading factor. And kind of no surprise as we changed a lot of these, you know, less, we changed a lot of these less high quality ingredients from the existing products. Taste, to no surprise to me, improved and just became a lot more real tasting in terms of chocolate and vanilla.

20:39
Jess Haghani
And even you could actually smell the difference if you just did a side by side comparison. So smell, taste, texture, that was very important to us. And then you layer on the ingredients as well. And you know, we think the bar has been raised tremendously.

20:53
Caitlin Bricker
My mom used to drink a lot of these legacy shakes and products. I have no better way to say how she describes how they smell and sometimes taste depending on where she's getting them from. Even just the same brand. I'm gonna say it's probably gonna produce quite the reaction for some people. But she says that it sometimes. Well, that it always smells like and sometimes tastes like a baby who's drank formula and then puked. That's what it tastes and smells like.

21:23
Jess Haghani
Honestly, my friends, who's a doctor, had a similar description of it. When she cried, I asked her to do a side by side blind taste test and she described in a very similar way as well. So that's hysterical, but there's no eloquent.

21:39
Caitlin Bricker
Way to describe it. But the difference with Lucille is honestly amazing. I know it's meant for a senior population, but I would a thousand percent keep these in my purse or like pop these in a cooler. And I think the fact that you are also leading with that it's high calorie is phenomenal because so much focus in a market is about low calorie when it's like but we have to eat. So.

22:05
Jess Haghani
Yeah, no, definitely. I think that a lot of the other protein shakes on the market, just for like the general people is trying to minimize the amount of calories for the maximum amount of protein. And as you said, we're not shy about our caloric intake. And it's really like a one to one ratio of milliliters to calories. Like it's about 230, 240 to a 237 milliliter drink. So it's like pretty spot on. But we don't shy away from that. It's actually like a leading factor of front and center on our packaging as well. So really interesting point that you bring up that we're. It's actually like a differentiator for us versus a lot of these other shakes that is trying to be as low calorie as possible.

22:43
Caitlin Bricker
I'm interested in your retail strategy. I know you've talked about working with caregivers, housing facilities when it comes to retail. Are you double facing when you're in store? Because it is a shelf stable product but it tastes great chilled of course. How do you go about merchandising? What does that look like?

23:02
Jess Haghani
Yeah, definitely. So we haven't entered retail yet. So we just launched about two months ago. It's absolutely on the roadmap. It's happening next year. It's very front and center for us. So we're not actually on the shelves yet. We've been very focused on E commerce right now on Amazon and our direct to consumer website. But these are all sort of questions that we're talking about with our retailers. And I think that ton of discovery is happening in both of those places sold as like a single pack grab and go in like a refrigerated section because these tastes definitely taste better chilled and it's just like more refreshing and enjoyable and it has a bit more of like a milkshake consistency that tastes better cold but it also still tastes good like shelf stable or at ambient temperature.

23:44
Jess Haghani
And thinking about a little bit of a larger pack size than just a one off in the fridge is where it gets quite interesting Next to some of the legacy products on the shelf in older adult nutrition or the name depending on where you are. But I think that the older adult nutrition aisle is our primary focus. And that aisle kind of attracts the caregiver who is predominantly female and predominantly the eldest daughter of a family. But it also attracts the older adult themselves who's making decisions for themselves and actually able to pick up both products at the same time and do their own comparison and their own study on what they prefer.

24:22
Jess Haghani
And so having them next to each other I think creates a really interesting dynamic where there's A bit more showing the consumer that there's now a choice that they can make and there is something that has been improved in many different ways that is now available as an option to them. Whereas if it's a one off, there's not that exact comparison of and like specification of who we are for and why we are in that exact area.

24:50
Caitlin Bricker
I would love to be a fly on the wall watching somebody going to purchase a legacy product and then seeing Lucille next to them. I would love to see the reactions of people. So if you need to create content in the future, please, I'll be the first in line to watch it.

25:07
Jess Haghani
It's been super interesting observing customer behavior inside of stores and again like not on the retail shelves yet, but spending a lot of time in stores trying to understand behavior and dynamics. I was in Target the other day and we saw a mother pushing her probably like 6 month old baby in her pram. And she was on FaceTime with her mother who was probably in her 70s or 80s. And I was like, that is the exact discovery point of Lucille someone. And she had Bobby formula in her push chair. And so she clearly cares about ingredients and a brand that is speaking to her as a mom and a parent. And I was like, wow, this is kind of spot on in terms of our hypothesis of who really discovers us inside of stores.

25:50
Jess Haghani
As well as being able to speak to the older adult themselves who is spending time making decisions on their own and discovering new products too. It's able to kind of hit both of those.

25:59
Caitlin Bricker
This is very interesting because I was also a Bobby formula parent when I was done breastfeeding and it was an intense tool for me because I was not ready to stop breastfeeding, but my daughter was, she just decided one day, you know what, I'm done, I don't want this anymore. So I had Bobby on hand and I am the eldest daughter. I will likely be the primary caregiver for at least my parents. And Lucio would absolutely be the product that I would be looking for on the shelves. I feel like if your product didn't exist, I would not feel comfortable with feeding my parents or my in laws anything else that's on the shelf right now. So you've created a market specifically for somebody like myself and in return my parents and in laws.

26:44
Jess Haghani
Yeah, no, exactly. That's really amazing to hear. And yeah, take a lot of inspiration from companies like Bobby that have been able to do this for again the other end of the age spectrum. But yes, you as the primary purchaser or just influencer on your child and your parent. There's very similar behaviors and patterns that you would apply to shopping for products for your daughter as it would be making decisions for nutrition for your parents. And so that's really great to hear.

27:11
Caitlin Bricker
Very impactful. I gotta ask before we wrap this up, you recently raised some capital and you are so fresh to the market. Can you tell us very briefly, if possible what that experience was like for you?

27:24
Jess Haghani
Yeah, well, for starters, fundraising is a full time job for sure. It is a ton of work to get all of your materials in place and even just like calls with investors just takes a lot of time away from the day to day execution of the business. So there is no sugar coating that at all. I'm super grateful and fortunate for the investors around our table and think that they each bring something differentiated to the business and to me, you know, they all have helped in a variety of ways.

27:55
Jess Haghani
But I would say that were lucky because we raised a little bit of capital the year prior and so had some follow on investment from those investors as well as taking the opportunity to actually bring in new investors that either couldn't get into the original round or had just been following the business really closely and had learned a lot about me and the team and you know, our plans and around launch and so yeah, I would say it was a lot of work to kind of bring that together but ultimately now have an amazing group of people and supporters around the team and me and the business every day and yeah, feeling very grateful that we kind of have that next stage of capital to step on the gas and really go now.

28:37
Caitlin Bricker
I talk a lot about brands having this it factor. It's just something that I can't quite put my finger on. But I just like feel it in my bones, in my cells when I see it. Lucille has it. Obviously these investors are seeing that too. I mean, you've just launched and you already have these people backing you. I am very eager to see where you are in a year from now because I have a feeling your brand is just going to absolutely explode and be everywhere.

29:07
Jess Haghani
Thank you. No, that gives me chills and really appreciate that. I believe that deeply in me every single day. And I think the primary reason is because this needs to exist. Like the status quo simply is not good enough anymore. And I think that's actually like quite obvious at this point. And it just feels so motivating to be working on a business that has such a personal like, has it started from such a personal moment but is going to have such a broader impact and like really improve the lives of those that we serve.

29:41
Caitlin Bricker
Genuinely feel like I'm witnessing history right now. It's. It's crazy. It's crazy. It really is. So for everybody else that wants to get in on a piece of Lucille and witness history happening in the making right now, where can they find you online? What's your website? What's your socials?

29:56
Jess Haghani
Definitely so super simple. Lucillehealth.com on socials@ Lucille Health we have a lot of fun grandma and older adult content as well on there. A couple of our videos are going viral which is quite exciting. My grandma walking us through her day trading portfolio. So definitely go check that out. And then, yeah, on our website, D2C lucillehealth.com and then we're also on Amazon, you can find us Lucille Shakes, Lucille Nutrition, Lucille Health, anything like that.

30:23
Caitlin Bricker
Wonderful. Jess, this has been such a great conversation. I feel like I could talk to you about this for hours, no lie. So thank you for taking the time to be with us, sharing a bit of your story and I feel like everyone's going to be seeing you everywhere very soon.

30:38
Jess Haghani
Thank you, Caitlin. I really appreciate that and such a fan of everything you're doing at Startup CPG and has just been a tremendous resource for me and know that I speak on behalf of so many founders that have truly benefited from the community you guys create.

30:51
Caitlin Bricker
Thank you so much. All right, I hope to see you soon.

30:53
Jess Haghani
Thanks.

30:54
Caitlin Bricker
Bye. CPG BFFs. We've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG Podcast. As you as you may know, we're not just the top globally ranked CPG podcast, we're a community of tens of thousands of CPG founders and experts and you should join us. If you haven't already, head to startupcpg.com to sign up. You'll get an invite to our Slack community, hear about events near you, and get access to opportunities that connect you with buyers, investors and other brands. It's free. So what are you waiting for? I'll see you in the Slack and in real life. Thanks for listening.