Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Slack's CEO moves forward with her plan to integrate the platform with Salesforce, women are leaving VC roles in Europe, and Lo Bosworth's Love Wellness went from an easy target to Target and Walmart.
- World of wellness. Seven years ago, Lo Bosworth launched her brand Love Wellness. Bosworth was best known for appearing on the reality TV series Laguna Beach and The Hills as a teen. Her brand's first products were for vaginal health. Headlines like "Reality TV star sells vaginal health treatments" didn't make for an easy debut.
"It was not an immediate success," Bosworth recalls now. "The media was confused. The brand was made fun of and I was made fun of."
But they don't get made fun of anymore. The brand has expanded its assortment from vaginal health products—which it always intended to support gut health—to other popular wellness products like probiotics, sleep aids, and antibloating pills. Love Wellness's products are sold for around $25 a bottle in Ulta, Target, and as of last month, 1,650 Walmart stores.
Love Wellness employs about 45 people. The startup raised a $4 million Series A round in 2019. Bosworth, who started as a solo operator in her living room, stepped down as CEO earlier this year. She brought on Maria Dempsey, the former CEO of Nest and and alum of Lancôme and Clarins, to replace her.
As the brand has expanded, Bosworth has learned about the power of retail shelves. "When you provide women with the products they really need, in a place in the store where they're not embarrassed to be, you will see the results you're hoping for," she says. Love Wellness's products are sold in the natural beauty aisle at Target and the digestive health aisle at Walmart. "If you go into the condom or tampon aisle, you're running in and out—it's not a place you want to stay to hang out," she adds. "But in a different part of the store where you're more comfortable picking up products and reading labels, you're much more open to discovery."
Starting a brand was Bosworth's own form of personal discovery. "I was trying to transition away from the entertainment industry," she says. She moved from California, where the TV shows she appeared on were filmed, to New York. She found her "sweet spot" as the founder and operator of a consumer brand. "In the entertainment industry, you never know when your next job is going to come. It's very hard to be the master of your own destiny," she says. "When you do something like what I'm doing now, it's a much different story."
Seeing other wellness brands dip their toes into the more stigmatized women's health space where Love Wellness started has been rewarding for Bosworth, especially after experiencing so much skepticism at first. Then there are the vaginal health-focused startups like Evvy and Uqora. "I'm relieved we were so early to the category," she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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