When Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle launched Sakara Life as a nutritional meal delivery company in 2011, concepts like plant-based diets and even wellness as a whole were fairly niche markets. In the nearly 15 years since, however, wellness has become a mainstream pursuit with everything from beauty to sex toy companies increasingly positioning themselves as wellness brands. Shopping at high-end health-food stores like Erewhon, meanwhile, has become a status symbol as much as a wellness pursuit thanks to smoothie collaborations with the likes of Hailey Bieber and Olivia Rodrigo.
Sakara Life has expanded its remit, as well. The company raised $15 million in Series B fundraising in 2021 and now offers supplements for issues like gut health and hosts a podcast, in addition to selling its meal delivery plans. In September, it launched the Sakara Experience, a holistic nutrition and educational health package that claims to help consumers fulfill their ultimate wellness goal: feeling better.
“Clients come to Sakara overwhelmingly to feel better,” said Tierney Wilson, who joined Sakara Life as its CMO in March. “What makes you feel better and what makes your sister or your mom or your cousin feel better may be two different things. But, overwhelmingly, it always comes back to improving their general well-being. And this usually starts with, ‘What do I put in my body, and how can that help me feel better?’”
Wilson said more than 1,500 customers have signed up for the Sakara Experience, the majority of which are women aged 35-65. Prices for the package began at $170 a week, with customers receiving up to five meals a week for four weeks, and gaining access to the Sakara Life Talk Series and a closed community forum to connect with fellow members. Speakers in the Talk Series have included the likes of physician and hormone specialist Dr. Taz Bhatia and motivational speaker Gabby Bernstein. With wellness increasingly mainstream, Wilson said Sakara Life consumers are looking for not just healthy food options, but also information and education.
“Wellness has become this all-encompassing thing: physical, mental and emotional,” said Wilson. “The wellness industry has grown immensely. At the same time, there’s also a lot on the market that isn’t quality, and consumers are oftentimes fed a lot of misinformation.”
While Sakara has expanded its wellness objectives to include areas like meditation and sleep, food remains at the core. Though fad diets have come and gone since Sakara’s inception, Sakara has not altered its nutritional guidelines to meet changing trends, Tierney said. But what is perhaps a bigger shift than any one diet is that weight loss has become front and center as a goal for wellness offerings, once again, as GLP-1s like Ozempic become mainstream.
Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme brand launched a GLP-1 supplement in September, while telehealth company Hims & Hers began offering at-home GLP-1 injections in May. Tierney said weight management, along with stress management and sleep wellness, is a top goal for Sakara Life consumers.
“What we believe is that plant-rich nutrition offerings are important for maintaining not just weight, but all aspects of health and wellness,” said Wilson. “And so, regardless of how you do it, we want to give you the tools so you can make the decisions for what’s best for you.”
Sakara is still growing. Wilson said her goal since joining the company has been to help bring Sakara to more people, and that means looking at how consumers connect with wellness beyond breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Your lifestyle impacts so many aspects of your health and wellness,” said Wilson. “Total whole body health and whole body wellness are major trends, or initiatives, that I hope will continue to get attention — not just from customers, but also from brands, media and the medical industry — that they deserve.”
