Wellness startup Love, the latest company co-founded by Silicon Valley's favorite provocateur Ryan Breslow, is open for business. On offer: tongue cleaners, productivity gummies and herbal pills for menopause symptoms.
Originally Breslow envisioned that Love Health, and its storefront Love.com, would raise $10 million at a $300 million valuation, according to reports, and that it would feature a community crypto project and psychedelic-assisted therapeutic regimens. But the tech downturn caused Breslow to debut a more modest and — he hopes — profitable version of the company first, by focusing on e-commerce.
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The site Love.com will compete against hundreds of other online merchants selling vitamins, supplements and health fixes in the loosely regulated multibillion-dollar wellness industry. The company says it has deals with 40 brands representing more than 600 products available in gummy, pill and liquid forms. They're searchable under their purported health benefits, such as improving gut health, optimizing sleep and supporting mental wellness. One bite-sized chocolate bon bon, for example, features "functional mushrooms" and promises to deliver mental acuity.
"This is the path that made the most sense," Breslow said during a recent visit to Miami from his new home in Puerto Rico, calling Love his "dream" company.
Breslow said that unlike other wellness sites, Love has an advisory board with professors from leading universities that vet products for efficacy before agreeing to sell them – a stamp of approval he says is missing in many formats and frustrating to navigate as a consumer.
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Breslow said additional Love projects — like creating an online community, working with telehealth providers on psychedelic treatments and hosting social events such as a music and wellness festival — are in the works for later this year once the e-commerce site is operating.
"Love's marketplace is just a first step," said Breslow, adding that Love retains a bigger vision. "We'll need community feedback, data, funding of trials and a heck of a lot more if we as a society want to truly get back to wellness."
