SEATTLE, WA – We’re excited to share this month’s portfolio company highlight: heywell, co-founded by Ashley Selman and Britt Dougherty. We first invested in heywell in May 2022, and since then, we’ve seen Ashley and Britt bring their deep beverage industry expertise to build something truly thoughtful – functional wellness drinks that don’t sacrifice taste. In this interview, we spoke with Ashley about the story behind heywell, what sets the brand apart in a crowded space, and what’s next as the company continues to scale.

Nhã Vuong: Hi Ashley, it’s a pleasure to interview you today! Let’s start at the beginning, what inspired you and Britt to start heywell?

Ashley Selman: Hi Nhã, thank you so much for the opportunity to share more about heywell! Britt and I come from the beverage industry and worked together at MillerCoors. Being the only women in marketing at a VP level, we became fast friends and supporters of each other.

In the business of corporate life, we often found ourselves looking for simple, great tasting products to help us stay healthy. Instead, we often found the opposite: complicated, poor tasting products that created more barriers to wellness. In our roles, we spent a lot of time imagining the future of consumer goods and creating successful brands like Blue Moon .. and after doing that for someone else for many years, decided to break from alcohol and make a brand we knew was where consumers were going.

We created heywell to be a simple invitation (hey+well) to a new movement for modern wellness – where all are welcome and where we celebrate progress, not perfection.

Nhã: That makes a lot of sense. The name really captures that approachable spirit. What makes heywell different from other functional drinks on the market?

Ashley: Each one of our different sparkling functional waters are thoughtfully created to help people meet the demands of modern life. Whether they need a little extra energy, hydration, focus, stress support or immunity. Our sparkling waters are low in sugar and calories and made with adaptogens, herbs, minerals, and organic caffeine to provide support for what people need most.

We believe little steps can make a difference and add up to something big in our overall well-being. We are proud to have made a product that helps people stay on their wellness journeys. All while tasting delicious!

We also take a brand first approach vs being focused on one single ingredient (mushrooms or collagen) or one single occasion (an energy drink). This allows us the flexibility to scale across emerging occasions and ingredients in the large $62B functional beverage category as consumers interest growth and change.

Nhã: That flexibility feels like a big advantage in such a fast-moving category. Five years from now, how do you hope people describe heywell?

Ashley: There is a huge inflection point happening in the $62B Functional beverage category (now representing 39% of all beverage sales).

Consumers no longer want brands that are full of sugar and artificial ingredients. They are turning away from big legacy brands and looking for something that is healthy, functional AND delicious. There is a huge whitespace that heywell is filling. We envision heywell being a leading trusted wellness brand, where our consumers feel welcomed and supported on their wellness journeys, delivering healthy, functional and delicious solutions in a scalable and profitable way.

Nhã: What are you excited about these days, and what big goals are on the near horizon for you and your company?

Ashley: We’re excited about the accelerated growth of our business! Heywell has achieved substantial traction since our launch and can now be found in thousands of retail doors across the country, including more than 30 major, high-profile retailers such as Wegmans, Mariano’s, Erewhon, Fresh Thyme, Life Time Fitness, Gelson’s, Central Market, while also adding notable new distribution this year in places like Target, The Fresh Market, and more. We are consumer obsessed and see very strong repeat purchase for heywell (42% on Amazon). We are supporting our growth with new marketing investment this year, growing our brand awareness and trial through partnerships, social media, new creative and paid media.

We’re also focused on building our team and scaling our operations, producing high quality drinks and ensuring excellent execution in market.

Nhã: The growth speaks for itself. And 42% repeat on Amazon is a huge testament to how well the product is landing. Reflecting on your entrepreneurial journey, what’s the most impactful lesson you’ve learned that you’d like to share?

Ashley: There are so many lessons to learn as an entrepreneur (even starting with our 25+ combined years of experience in beverage!). Surrounding ourselves with strong advisors and experienced partners has been really key to our successful growth. There are things we came into this journey knowing well and a LOT to still learn. Having strong partners has allowed us to successfully grow and scale in market, while remaining focused on what is most important … the consumer.

Learn more at: https://www.livingheywell.com and @livingheywell

About heywell:
Ashley Selman and Britt Dougherty met during their time working together at MillerCoors and became fast friends – supporting each other through the busyness of corporate life. They founded heywell on a mission to make wellness simpler and more accessible for everyone every day. They found wellness solutions often prioritized function over flavor, and wanted to make something that was good for them, delicious and that helped people meet the demands of modern life. Their line of functional beverages is made with adaptogens, antioxidants, herbs and organic caffeine to help when people want a little extra support for energy, immunity, focus, hydration or help managing stress. Low in calories and sugar, their functional waters are refreshing, tart and sweet.