One of those discoveries was this class of molecules called odd chain saturated fatty acids. And those molecules look like they predicted the healthiest dolphins. This was looking at metabolic syndrome and anemia and all that. So fast forward from that initial discovery ten years of science. And we found out that this group of molecules called unsaturated fatty acids, and then the one molecule called C15, may be the first essential fatty acid to be discovered in ninety years. Welcome to Self Equity, the podcast that dives into the inspiring journeys of founders, entrepreneurs, athletes and entertainers. I'm your host, Jolene Tepedino, authorised officer and team business manager for the Zelniker Dorfman Car and Heritage Group at UBS. On episode twenty six of Self Equity, we're joined by Eric Venn-watson, a visionary entrepreneur and co-founder of Serafina Therapeutics, alongside his wife, Doctor Stephanie Venn-watson. Eric is pioneering a new frontier in health science with the discovery of C15, a fatty acid that's challenging everything we thought we knew about nutrition and longevity. In this episode, Eric shares his journey from a startup Brit as part of the military to scientific breakthrough. The story behind fatty fifteen and what it means to build a mission driven company that's rooted in both love and science. Joining me as co-host today is Scott Zelniker, managing director with the Zelniker Dorfman Car and Heritage Group.
Eric, welcome to our podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Jolie, it's nice to be here. Eric, you spent over twenty five years as a Navy and Marine Corps physician, including working with the Special Forces community. Tell us how this unique experience influenced your approach to health and fitness and ultimately, entrepreneurship? Yeah, so it's been twenty nine years now. It's about time. So I actually started the military to go to medical school and then later to get an MBA. But it's been quite an entrepreneurial journey. So I'll give you one one experience, one story. And so I was the wing surgeon for the Marine Corps. So the the doctor who was in charge of, you know, we had four hundred corpsman, forty doctors for the West Coast Marine Corps aviation. And so one day I had the two star general call me into his office, and he said, doc, we're going to war. Take care of our Marines and sailors and don't f it up. And so that was the direction. And we did. I mean, after a lot of planning, we deployed to Camp Leatherneck in different places in Afghanistan, and were able to practice medicine in very austere conditions at a very high level. You know, we had some amazing technology out there where we could reach back to people in the States and ask questions when we needed, and some incredible technology that we'll talk about. That definitely shaped my idea of innovation in in wartime. So it's a great experience and prepared me for entrepreneurship. It's amazing what you can do. And the ground is not shaking and no one is shooting at you. So was there a moment when you realized you wanted to build something you know of your own? Yeah. And so I've always been very entrepreneurial. Funny story. I found pieces of tree bark as a kid, and I took them door to door, and I was selling them. And my mom found out later, and she was not excited because I was, I think, six at the time when the neighbors called. But I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. So, you know, it's been a constant journey of trying to find technologies that were exciting for me and then to be able to, you know, convert them into products that can improve global health. And so I wouldn't say there was one moment, but I would say it was just a lifelong like path and journey to become more where I am today, which, you know, have multiple companies under my belt, which is good and a lot of experience in that sector. Being an entrepreneur, we find that our business owners, a lot of them are ex-military, a lot of military training, I presume, goes into being an entrepreneur. Discipline, you know, being willing to take direction, change advice, whatever you want to call it. Can you can you help us draw that parallel to some of the military experience and how it's made you a better entrepreneur, for sure. I mean, it's leadership at a very early stage. I wouldn't say it's forced leadership, but, you know, you put up or you shut up, right? I mean, if you're not being a leader, there will be remedies that that are put in place. And so as you go up in the rank structure, it's it's a good process of taking on more responsibilities, um, appropriately so, you know, I would say one of the superpowers of the military is its education responsibility, education responsibility, like we say in medicine. You know, my background is in orthopedic surgery. You know, um, see one, do one, teach one. And that's kind of the same in the military. So the other nice thing is the culture is very similar. So, you know, people, as you mentioned, like minded, um, from the military side, you know, what the norm is. You know, the norms are more normal. And you know that people are generally very comfortable dealing with, you know, innovation and the need to make something work and the need to work with different groups of people across, you know, many different fields. So did you have other jobs along the way, or did you go right from the military to starting your company? Yeah. Well, so, so many stories. I was I applied to the MD MBA programs for medical school, and the only one I didn't apply to that was not that joint program was the military. And they have a school called Usis, which was the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda attached to NIH and different things out there. And so I when I went there, people were rappelling off the top of the building with Swiss seats on, you know, harnesses made of rope. And so that was very appealing to me at the time. And, you know, I love medicine. And, you know, I pivoted. I mean, it was a doctor for just that for a long period of time before entrepreneurship.
But I did like the ability to do other things. And when I was hearing stories of people flying in F-18s and, you know, doing cold weather survival and mountain medicine and jungle medicine, those things really appealed to me. So that's the reason why I went into that world. And so, to answer your question, you know, after that world, I became very, really started being very entrepreneurial with the first couple companies. Um, and that process started from having a military background, and then the military actually paid for an MBA program. So I went to UCSD. I was the first night class at UCSD, which was an incredible program. And then, you know, I was able to take my last class. They let me take the last class from Afghanistan. And so I was on a sat phone in the middle of the night, like doing my last class that I had to do because I had to take him in in sequence. And so anyway. And then that kicked off the entrepreneurial process in the companies that led to this one today. Serafina. So talk about Serafina. What is it exactly? That's your job. My wife started the translational medicine program for the Navy. Right. Which was? She was working with the marine mammal program, the dolphins, for twenty years. And they were making so many discoveries in this population that they had her come on board to be able to make those discoveries and help convert it to the same thing in humans. Right. And so that program is called the Marine Mammal Program. And they take the highest care. I mean, the thing the Dolphins in the Navy get incredible care. And so working at the Navy hospital, they'd be rolling them down to the CT scanners for looking at different things. I mean, the highest quality. And so that created this population of animals and really people that you could determine like what, what diseases over time occur if you control for everything else. Right. Dolphins don't smoke or drink. They they're in the same environment. They're getting the best medical care. So that led to us, my wife and I, wanting to take those discoveries and really get them out to the world. So we actually started a company called Epi Tracker, which works with the Navy through a cooperative research agreement to access that data and make discoveries. So that company is really about, you know, a small molecule pharmaceutical development, right. And so we have about one hundred patents for different molecules of different diseases going through the regular pharmaceutical pathway. One of those discoveries was this class of molecules called odd chain saturated fatty acids. And those molecules look like they predicted the healthiest dolphins. This was looking at metabolic syndrome and anemia and all that. So fast forward from that initial discovery. Ten years of science. And we found out that, you know, this molecule, this group of molecules called saturated fatty acids, and then the one molecule called C15 may be the first essential fatty acid to be discovered in ninety years. And so as we were looking at this first as a pharmaceutical looking for fatty liver disease and chronic anemia, seeing some great benefits early in C15 for those pharmaceutical indications, we were actually at sulk because when you have dolphin data, you can talk to anybody because it's such an interesting model, right? It's controlled for everything. And one of the leaders in the world were going over the data of the natural molecule and then the optimized analogs. One of the leaders in the world is like, hey, you have a moral obligation to bring this out to the world as a natural product, as a natural molecule, as we as a society have taken it out of our diets. Long story short, that formed Seraphina. And so Seraphina moved forward with this class of molecules and specifically this molecule for pharmaceutical applications, ingredient and as a supplement. So you didn't go out to start a company, you went out to provide science and scientific data and research. Is that right? Right. These are all these discoveries. All these companies are science forward. I mean, this is you know, this has been our ethos since the beginning. And this is just, you know, one of them. Another example. So after the MBA program, I went to the some of the leaders in the world, my mentors in orthopedic surgery, Doctor Colwell and de Lima at Scripps, right up the street from us. And, you know, I'd worked with them in the research arena for total joint replacements in the past. And I said, hey, let's let's take one of the technologies that are allowing you to implant total knee replacements with just precision and let's convert it into a product. And so long story short, on that side we started Expand Ortho, expand ortho, looked at total knee replacements and had like it was the first really data driven, you know, process where you could improve the tolerances of total knee replacements.
And long story short, that company was later acquired by another. But the goal there was to improve total knee replacement longevity for everybody. So to answer your question, like I like those technologies, they can have a big impact. And one of the differences here with what we're doing with Seraphine and some of these other companies is we take it from discovery to commercialization, like ourselves. And that's not, I would say, the norm in like the pharmaceutical world at least. So it's interesting when you set out on these projects and there's no right or wrong answer to this, because I just want to hear your mindset. Are you looking at this as, hey, how do I go make money with something? Or are you looking to to come up with something. And from a business perspective, the revenues just follow. I mean, what's the driver. Right. It's certainly the latter. I mean, these I enjoy, you know, orthopedic surgery and aerospace medicine and having an impact there. But these things that we're talking about can have a huge impact. I mean across, you know, many, many, many people, you know, internationally and globally. So those are the things that really appeal for me, the commercialization and, you know, the, um, making money. That part of it is important though, because without that you can't get the product out to the world. And that's the difference between like, let's take the pharmaceutical sector, right. So it's a long process going through, you know, ind enabling clinical trials and all that kind of stuff. And you don't get commercialization and feedback very quickly. Whereas with a supplement which you know, we we started the supplement fatty fifteen, you can test quickly. Right. So you can get feedback quickly. And part of that is you know how people feel. You know, they have their labs are like but other is like revenue, you know, is this a product people want to purchase and are they retained? Do they stay and what are the reasons they stay? And that data is just it's very enabling to more quickly develop technologies that have broad impact. So I've heard you use the word data quite a few times. I'm surmising that your medical background and looking at data points has helped you as a business owner. Is that fair? It is totally fair. In fact, our first iteration of Epi Tracker was as a data analytics company. And that's, you know, that's that's my background to some degree in research. But that's really my wife Stephanie's background. I mean, she is we call her, um, Stephanie AI in the company because she has this superpower of being able to, you know, be on the forefront of science and medicine and be able to translate that into something that is engaging and exciting to the consumer. And so that has been our core for everything we do is, you know, that's data driven. So I find it interesting. It's, you know, Stephanie and Eric, husband and wife running a business. How does that work? Do you do you go to dinner talking about molecules or do you go to dinner, talk about weekend plans? Yeah. No, it's the former. Right. So the benefit of having a husband wife team is you're always working on it, right? And so, um, that's certainly it is a way to get a lot of work out of people when you have like husband, wife, team because you're right, you're always talking about it. And, um, even our, you know, our child who's seventeen now, but he's, you know, he hears what's happening. And so a funny story on that. He actually we asked him what he wanted for his his ninth birthday and he said, well, I want one percent equity in the company. And so he was listening, you know, we said no, but, uh, yeah, that was funny. So you're right. I mean, husband, wife teams working that closely on this every moment is, you know, not every moment, but a lot of it is talking about the company. And it's exciting. We're both working on different things, but you need both to be able to translate science into action. So where she's working on the discovery and the science and the publications, there's now over one hundred and the patents are sixty eight patents on this molecule. You know, I'm working on the conversion of that science into commercialization, into, you know, helping customers live healthier, longer. How many employees do you have other than you guys? Yeah. So now we have twenty eight. So, um, you know, we started Seraphina in twenty twenty one, right? Or twenty twenty when we published our first paper in nature asking, is this molecule essential?
And that's where we planted the flag that was published in twenty twenty. And now there's been over one hundred publications from us and other people in the world showing the benefits of C-15. We had been moving forward with it as a pharmaceutical. And so when we made the decision, as I mentioned, to move forward as a natural molecule, we needed a mechanism to get people to read nature in public Library of Science, Journal of Nutrition and Metabolites and Nutrients and all the studies. That mechanism was fatty fifteen. Right. And so we launched fatty fifteen, which is a supplement in twenty twenty one. And it sold out in six weeks. It was front page of the New York Times science section with a dolphin jumping out of the page. It was on the Washington Post. We were ingredient producer of the year, fast company, world changing idea. You know, all these awards and then, you know, a couple. I guess a month ago we we became the Inc. five thousand number one fastest growing supplement company in America. And so it's grown very quickly. And part of the reason for that is there's deep science. So there's a lot that people can dig into. But then when they take this this is a supplement. It's the same molecule we're using for the food ingredient in pharmaceutical as well. But when they when they take this, they feel better. And so you know they're more energy, better sleep. Better mood. Thicker hair, shinier skin. Those near-term benefits. And then they go to their doctor. You know, they get the regular five year physical lab, CBC chemistry, lipid panel, lfts. And they a lot of times say, what are you doing? Your labs look so good. Keep doing that. So that combination has led to, you know, one hundred thousand, more than one hundred thousand active customers taking this on subscription over four years, um, with a ninety five percent monthly retention. And so it's just kind of unheard of in this segment. So long story short, that science has translated into, you know, this supplement that's doing very well from a commercial standpoint. So while your employee base this sounds and unless I'm wrong, I'd love for you to explain this right. A little bit of a non-traditional employee base. Do you have salespeople and customer service people or do you have scientists and medical people or a little of both. What is your what does the base look like? So we now have twenty eight people, um, and each person we're very scrappy company. So we've always had like two to three million dollars in revenue per person in the company, which has been great. And we'd like to continue that. And so how our team is, is formed, you know, we I would say in one sense we're pretty traditional. We have operations and finance and marketing and all that. But on another side, we're different in the sense that how we define it is nerdy do gooders doing good for the world. And so everyone is very, very mission oriented. And so let me give you an example of how that's different. We have a customer service team. Which customer service is one of our biggest, you know, um, most exciting areas. We love to, you know, talk and nerd out on the science with our customers. So for us, our organization, a lot of times people come into the world of fatty fifteen through our customer service. They call us. They say I'm a fatty fifteen customer, I love this and I want to work for you. And so it turned out that that is actually a really good model to have people who are very mission oriented and like minded, and what happens after they join the team because they're on the ground floor, right? They're fielding science questions. They're talking to our customers every day. That is an incredible experience. And and by the way, everyone actually goes through the team, even if you're CEO or whatever for a period of time. But then those people go to different aspects of our company.
So that's kind of the filler for the rest of the company. We have one person who became from CK, who became, um, Kate became the on the healthcare provider side because so many doctors are, you know, giving this to their patients or semi prescribing this. And then we had one of the Isabella became an influencer. So she is now doing our TikToks and things like that and working on the influencer side. So just an example. And the last thing I'll say is we have, you know, we have a lady named Molly there, and I mean, she's she's salted the earth like a knitter. She's just an incredible person. And we took her to one of the trade shows and oh my gosh, like, watching her, like, talk about fatty cuisine was just it was magical. It's like it's pretty amazing. But that has been a good feeder for the rest of the company. And that's what our structure kind of looks like traditional with things that are specific to us, and dirty do gooders doing good for the world. So fascinating. I mean, you know, things that we normally don't really think about and it's it's just truly, truly fascinating. But how do you go from, you know, scientific discovery to a consumer facing product. Right. What are the key steps in that transition? I can't answer for everyone, but I could say what worked for us. And so, you know, the goal has always been to have five fifteen a supplement as an awareness vehicle, a tool. Right. And so the goal was never just cash revenue. I think it's it, you know, of course it's a goal. But not that wasn't the primary. And so from that standpoint, we led with the science for everything. So for instance, when we planted the flag in twenty twenty that this was a um, it asked the question, is this an essential fatty acid? Is this the third ever discovered and the first essential fatty acid discovered in over ninety years? And so in twenty twenty one, when we launched this product, we had that as the core of our marketing campaign. This is an essential fatty acid. Here is the here are the criteria to meet and this is why it meets it. So our campaign was around that. And interestingly at that time, healthy aging like longevity like you know, that that whole world was people didn't really get it. So the consumer journey, while great, I mean, we grew fast, wasn't immediate. It took a lot of steps. And so it was explaining that story from the science. And then as the as the data continued, you know, our next group of studies was around, okay, it's essential fatty acid. How does it compare to omega three seconds Ala and LA? The only two other essential fatty acids. And what we found was that it's kind of an unfair battle in the sense that fatty fifteen C15 is a pure powder that doesn't oxidize, whereas omega three is oxidized, and so that lipid peroxidation does result in a powder such as C15 being a lot better and a lot of ways for cellular health. That being said, everyone needs every animal on the planet needs, you know, both C15 and omega three seconds. So, so, but around that campaign with those results, we'd say, hey, you know, here's how this compares to omega three. And man, people got that there. Like there's a vegan version that, you know, that is a pure powder that you could put in a bottle that is still one hundred percent pure at three years. I mean, it just, you know, totally mind blowing, right? For like people that were selling, people that were, you know, the consumers purchasing that kind of thing. So that campaign took us from like, you know, eight steps to literally one step. And so that was great. But then the science continued. And this is you'll see the path here to answer your question. And then we started saying okay it's an essential nutrient. It has benefits versus omega three. And then so it's got to have some metabolites that are doing amazing things right. There's got to be something else there. So we looked through all the metabolites using a, you know, a very standard pharmaceutical approach. And we found this molecule that looked like it was the it was a new like it activated endocannabinoid receptor. So it was a fully activating endocannabinoid and the second ever to be discovered. And so that was a really big deal. And we published that in Public Library of Science.
And then we were planning on like ramping that campaign up. But what we found was it's just too complex. It's too complex. They're like, ah, it's such fatty acids. And, you know, it activates endocannabinoids. Like it didn't really make sense. So that was science, the one that, you know, didn't convert quite as well. And then the science continued. So I'll skip to the end where we are now. So when we decided the next step, or there's a few steps in between. But it's an essential fatty acid, right? It's you know, it's got this, you know, incredible metabolite. Um, it's comparatively better to the other essential fatty acids. So let's see, like what has happened to this molecule. Like what did we do with it in our diet? And it turns out that we as a society have taken this molecule out of our diets. Right. And so the dolphins were getting it from the skins and heads of fish. And so with the oceans that are warmer, the dolphins were deficient and people got it from full fat dairy products of cows that were not corn fed and grass fed. And so it turns out that people have decreased their amount of C15 over a long period of time. So we actually discovered there's a deficiency syndrome associated with C15. You know, not having enough C15 nutrient in your diet, um, that may be affecting as many as one in three people globally and causing liver disease. And so we published that as well. You know, the question there is can we get C15 back into our diets. And so, you know, we didn't have a huge campaign around that because, you know, we want to keep positivity. Um, but it is something that's an amazing discovery that we can talk about. So where we are today is the next step was, okay, let's see how this affects for a variety of reasons like longevity healthy aging right. And so we use the same type of studies. And by the way, as these studies were going on we were able to get additional intellectual property. So that's how we got sixty patents over time. And so we compared C15 to rapamycin metformin acarbose for longevity potential, you know, hallmarks of aging cellular benefits, all that stuff. And long story short, we found that C15 is actually a really good longevity molecule. And it's so simple it just strengthens your cells. And so that's where we are today as far as science leading to messaging leading to consumers. And so, you know, C15 is being seen as a longevity molecule right now. And then Simon Schuster came to us and said, uh, hey, Steph, we want you to write a book about this. So that just came out actually a couple months ago, and they named the book The Longevity Nutrient. And it's about what longevity nutrients are, the criteria of those. And like how C15 as a storyline meets those criteria. So that's the story from initial discovery, all the science campaigns to where we are today. Where does the funding come from? Did you get research grants to start? I mean, like, you know, usually when we talk to business owners, it's I scraped together five thousand dollars from family and friends and we started it up. How did this thing get going? Right. We were very fortunate. I mean, to have Office of Naval Research and DoD funding for the initial studies. And the initial studies were and are still done to help the Navy dolphins, you know, live healthier, longer and improve their performance. And so that was helpful to get the science going and continue going. Right. And then because we were able to have this commercial commercialized product that did very well, we were we did get funding. We took on a when when in a round. Right BC um, funding uh, which was great. And one of the leads was domain. Uh, Kim Kamdar in San Diego here. Um, you know which domain was one of the biggest, like, pharmaceutical, um, you know, VCs. And so, um, that was an interesting process, which we can talk about, but VC funding and then we've just been cash flow positive since that time. So we've been able to use that to, you know, continue the science and continue to expand and for the marketing and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Did you ever have any moments where you said, uh oh, we have other people's money in the game, and maybe this isn't going to work? I mean. Oh, for sure. It's a big responsibility. I think at the very beginning, you know, I transitioned from active duty to reserves in the military after sixteen years of active duty, and that reserves is a really good place to be able to start and try to scale businesses because they pay for health care and you get a really small paycheck, which is great, but, you know, it reduces some of the risk there that you're not going to be able to feed your family. Right. And so but as we continued. Yes, of course, like you take on money, we have employees. That's a huge responsibility. And so, you know, it's helpful to have the military mindset of, you know, we will make this work. And it's a really good product. Um, but yeah, it's it changes things. Right. To your point, think about a pain point or two along the way. Can you share a story for other business owners of how to persevere and get through that pain point? Yeah. You know, originally we were moving this forward as a pharmaceutical. Still are. But that was the core, right? So now you've got a discovery made by a, you know, Navy veterinarian and physician, right? Made by helping dolphins live healthier, longer. And then, you know, you're trying to commercialize that or to get funding in the pharmaceutical world for that. And we got questions like, did dolphins have livers? You know, I mean, just crazy stuff like that. And so because of the origins, you know, it was met with skeptics, right?
A lot of skeptics, which, you know, perfectly honest, was good in the sense that when you're pitching and people are skeptical, those are the learnings that you want. I mean, you need to you know, that's gold, right? And so you probably heard this from other people, but, you know, hundreds of pitches and learning about what people were saying that was skeptical. And then, you know, going back and seeing, okay, what's what's the answer to that question? Is there additional research we need to do. Do we need to build a better source of data, of truth so we can figure out what's coming from, you know, all those different questions are really helpful to try and, uh, learn from, for the pitches that don't go through so that when you do get one that is interested, you can answer all the questions that they have. Um, and that was the case in domain. Domain was actually in Kim was working with us for a long time on the pharmaceutical side. And then it was actually the combination of having a pharmaceutical and having a natural product that I think. But uh, was, you know, one of the reasons they ultimately, you know, funded us. I feel like we should be giving something back to the dolphins. What what do humans have that dolphins need? Yeah. You know, it's really interesting because, you know, people always ask, like, you know why dolphins. Right. And so but dolphins give us the answer of what if we didn't have any vices? Like what? What if we exercised every day? We ate the same diet every day. We got the best health care. You know, there was no smoking, drinking, you know, fast food, anything like that. So. Dolphins have given us the answers to how chronic diseases of aging happen. And so what humans can do now is, you know, take some of those learnings for, for us of wow. I mean, I'm not saying vices are bad, all bad, but like, there is some healthy aging learnings, uh, from just looking at the model in general. And then the Dolphins are getting fatty fifteen, which is great. And so you know what people have done. You know, we um, you know, created this one hundred percent pure free fatty acid supplements looking like they have these benefits. Uh, and then that's going back to help the dolphins. So it goes both ways. And Eric, what is the response been like from the medical community? I would imagine that, you know, this is something that helps out everyone really. Yeah. So from the very beginning, it's been great that physicians were coming to us and saying, hey, I want to learn more, and I want fatty fifteen, which is great. And so we head. We were able to from day one, really, um, get the awareness of this discovery and the molecule and the product by physicians giving this to their to their patients, which is great. And so if I look at the grand scheme of things, what happened is it was that physician interest in learning about the science and learning about, you know, c-15 and the essential fatty acid deficiency syndrome and this process called ferroptosis, and how that changes their management of disease. That's how it started. And then that really resulted in acceleration of the consumer because right, the consumer, you know, see the science go to their doctor. They would talk about it. And so then the consumer base started scaling significantly because of that, which is a great way to start. And now what we're seeing is, you know, we've always provided fatty fifteen to physicians, which is super helpful. So two things have changed since that time. One is from a packaging standpoint, you know, we want to have the highest quality packaging, you know, good for you, good for the planet too. That meets the same thing as Earth science, the highest bar. And so we never had. We always gave people physicians, our direct to consumer package with a sleeve on it. It wasn't ideal, but it was the only thing we had.
And so last week, we just, uh, soft launched our new healthcare provider packaging. Right. Which is what they've been asking for, which is like a higher dose thirty days. It's just beautiful. It's great. And so from that standpoint now they have the product with which they wanted to give to consumers, which is great. Um, the other thing is just the shift in healthy aging and longevity. When we started it was all internal medicine, functional medicine, integrative medicine, you know, the type of specialties who are very interested in c50 and fatty. Fifteen and now that healthy aging and longevity has become kind of democratized, it's like everyone wants that. And we can talk about what the definition is. Now we've got dermatologists, Nutritionists like dentists, chiropractors. Everyone is interested in that world. And so we've seen our healthcare provider program really blossom from that core to other specialties who are interested in c-15 and fatty protein. So interesting. Very interesting. Eric, what have you learned about yourself throughout this journey? Um, grit like. Yeah, uh, very military. Right? So, you know, the ability to keep with it and find a way to make it work, uh, because it's important. Um, and then, yeah, I guess mission oriented is probably another thing, you know, wanting to make a big impact and being mission oriented for that goal. And let me give you an example that was really interesting. So, you know, we started this company, I got to eighteen people. And when we would have people that came into our world, you would know immediately if they fit whether they were, you know, a consultant or, you know, anything, an employee or just anyone coming into our world. And so we had, uh, we brought in, um, Sheryl to look at like, what is it that's so strong? Like, how do we define our culture? Because, you know, you immediately, like, everyone in the company is just aligned. I mean, we know and people fit and know, which is incredible. And so that's where we got this concept of nerdy do gooders doing good for the world. And that was the definition of this culture into something that, you know, was more quantifiable. And so you know it I think it defines me too. Right. So, you know, the goal is to make a huge impact on improving, like global health. And, you know, batting fifteen, we're on our way to doing that, which is great. And for anyone out there, you know, new business owners or someone that has an idea, someone that's thinking of going for it, what advice can you lend them? I mean, it's it's it's a wild ride, you know, like and so it is helpful like I mentioned, to have something to fall back on. You know, whether for me it was, you know, I could practice medicine, I still do. Um, or it's the reserves, things like that. So, you know, it's being an entrepreneur is about decreasing risk. If you're going to take the risk of being an entrepreneur, you need to decrease that risk as much as possible for you and your family and for the people you're working with. And so to have just as an easy example, like healthcare taken care of, you know, you have a paycheck, you can get that that decreases the risk. Or in another, we talked about grant funding that decreases the risk. And so to your point, Scott, is a risky proposition to be, you know, start from nothing and be an entrepreneur. But there are ways to manage that risk and make it a little less scary. When do you sleep, Erik? When do you sleep? Uh, we're not sleeping too much at the moment, but, uh, lots to do. Lots of exciting things to do. So, yeah, I just have one more question. It's one that we like to ask everyone on our podcast. Eric, what does sweat equity mean to you as a founder and as a leader? Yeah, I mean, this is where I think, Scott, you talked about this is the responsibility, right? I mean, you're taking on the responsibility of other people's lives of, you know, in, in your company and then the lives of, you know, this is now we have well over one hundred thousand active customers taking this every, every month or every three months. I mean, that's that's what equity is just, you know, making sure you're doing right for as much as possible, as much as it can be done for your team, your customer, for everyone. And that's where the that's where the work comes in, right? I mean, it's fun and it's exciting, but there is a lot of responsibility there.
And that's what I consider sweat equity as far as putting in the time to do the things that to do what you feel is right for all these different people. You know, Eric, we always talk with our business owners and they talk to us about being able to carry the weight on their shoulders, but they want to do is get it off their chest. I think that's a little bit of what you were just talking to. Is there an end game? Like what's next for this company for for you and your wife? Like, is it new products or is there a monetization in your mind? I mean, what's the end game for this? Yeah, there's there's so much happening now. I mean, the C15 and fatty fifteen. The rise has been really quick in awareness, right. But it's still small. People don't know it. They're surprised people when they hear about the story and this molecule and you know, everything I mentioned to you, they're surprised. Why haven't I heard about this? And so that is about to happen right where we're going to get much more awareness. For instance, the book was big. It just came out as number one bestseller, you know, and for different categories, which was interesting. It was like it was like diabetes and dementia and Alzheimer's and like, um, you know, genomics and really interesting things from Amazon's standpoint of looking where they were. So on the book front, it's helpful as an awareness tool. It's being translated into multiple languages. The soft cover's coming soon and Simon Schuster is helping to get out to the world. That's awesome. There is a movie coming which may or may not be launched next month, and which we have heard. We have a large segment in order to follow on that which is great. And then finally, yes, C15 needs to be available. So on one hand, we need to get it back in the world's food supply. And we need, you know, in the case of C15 and milk products, we need people to, you know, have access to full fat dairy from grass fed animals, just like we used to, you know, before we caused this iatrogenic deficiency. And so for us, that means if it takes food fortification, if it takes like getting this into retail, if it takes, you know, we're looking at other areas to expand access to C15 and that's that's the goal and that's that's what you're going to see pretty soon, which is exciting. Eric, thank you again so much for joining us today on our Self Equity podcast. So excited to see everything that you and Stephanie and your team accomplish. And thank you. Yeah, no, thank you for, you know, listening to the story and helping us to get this discovery out to the world. And, you know, this is important. We need to get this ingredient, this nutrient back in the world's food supply. And, you know, having podcasts like this is one way to do it. This podcast is presented for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as investment advice or the basis for making any investment decisions.
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