Ep 242 | Sara Cullen

Written By Yasmin Nouri

How to Test, Validate & Launch Your Next Dream Business

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Sara Cullen is the Founder and CEO of GEM. GEM VItamins are bite-sized vitamin chews made from whole foods that contain over 20 whole plant-derived ingredients, including key vitamins, minerals, herbs, prebiotics, and probiotics.

The inspiration for GEM stemmed from Sara’s health journey. When she got sick in her late 20s, she was shocked to find out that she was nutrient deficient. She was taking all her supplements and eating the rainbow, yet she suffered from inflammation, extreme fatigue, digestion issues, acne, and so much more. With a ton of research and determination, she realized that the answer is in food, not pills or gummies made with synthetic fillers and isolated nutrients. She was experimenting in her kitchen and created the product that she needed to support her own health. Fast forward to today, Sara has raised of $16 million in venture capital and has sold over 20M bites and counting.

In this week’s podcast, we talk to Sara about her entrepreneurial journey from growing up on a farm in Oregon to working with start-ups and building things that mattered. She shares the biggest lessons she had from her first start-up, why it couldn’t scale despite being an innovative idea, and how that business failure was the biggest gift in her journey. Sara walks us through how she proved the concept for GEM before putting too much money behind it, how she built a community on Facebook to test out her prototypes, and the steps she took to find the right investors to back her. We also talked to Sara about how the company has expanded its product line, how she thought about her subscription-based model, and the common practices she implements daily to help her reset and recharge from the day and so much more! 

Show Notes:

  • Growing up on a farm significantly shaped Sara's upbringing. [02:55]

  • Nature's impact on Sara and its integration into her life. [04:31]

  • Development of Sara's entrepreneurial traits from an early age. [06:15]

  • Sara's key lesson from initial exposure to startup companies. [08:33]

  • Creating her first business and lessons from "failing”. [09:45]

  • Importance of execution in business beyond ideas. [13:29]

  • Sara's journey in launching her second business after setbacks.[16:43]

  • Navigating health challenges and identifying market potential.[20:01]

  • Sara's team recruitment process for beta phase. [21:56]

  • Consulting experience and funding journey for her company.[24:25]

  • Strategic considerations for building a scalable business. [27:00] 

  • Significance of word-of-mouth and online communities. [30:09]

  • Sara's approach to educating customers about GEM vitamins.[34:16]

  • Exploring product taste and challenges faced. [36:51]

  • Generating awareness and gaining traction. [39:57]

  • Operating with a subscription product model and emphasizing consistency. [41:38]

  • Challenges Sara conquered on her entrepreneurial journey. [43:51]

  • Sara's daily routine and practices for nurturing her mind. [47:25]

This episode is brought to you by Beeya:

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Ep 243 | Dr. Leedia Riman
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Ep 241 | Dr. Uma Naidoo