Leslie Danford, Founder of Vitaminis
Name: Leslie Danford
Founder: Vitaminis
Who is Leslie Danford?
Leslie Danford, founder and CEO of Vitaminis, a clean-label functional food and beverage brand. She has always been passionate about nutrition, but she is not a foodie. For her, it's like a math equation, and it's important to cover all of your nutritional bases. In 2020 she combined her personal interests with her formal business training to launch Vitaminis. Previously she worked in beverages and consumer products at large corporations. She earned her MBA from Harvard University and her BA from the University of Chicago.
In less than three sentences tell us about your company and what you do.
Vitaminis is a clean-label functional food and beverage brand. These tasty, nutritional juice shots aid in immune support and gut health with no added sugar or mystery ingredients, no strong flavors, and no refrigeration required. Immune Support juice shots have as much Zinc as four avocados and as much Magnesium as 5 cups of spinach, while Gut Health juice shots have as much fiber as 1 cup of broccoli and as many probiotics as 2 cups of yogurt in delicious fruit juice. Unlike other juice shots, they have no strong flavors like ginger and turmeric, and they are easier to swallow and digest than pills and gummies. They are non-GMO, 100% vegan, and allergen friendly. At 2.5 ounces and with no refrigeration required, it's portable and can be taken anywhere, mixed in a smoothie, or popped into a lunch box.
What does BEING a FoundHer mean to you?
I've wanted to start my own business since I was a little kid. So being a Founder is truly living the dream!
How do you support other female founders and women in business?
I always take a call from another founder and take the time to share what I've learned from my experiences. The founders who have done the same for me have been invaluable in the Vitaminis journey!
At what point did you make your company a full time gig? How did you know the time was right?
When I lost my job in hospitality as a result of the pandemic in 2020, new roles were slow to materialize. As I was spending more time at home with my three young boys, I needed easy and convenient snacks and drinks to meet my kids’ nutritional needs; however, I found the kids offerings nutritionally empty, sugar-filled and generally low quality. I was more than willing to pay for better options if only there were some!
When my kids returned to school during the pandemic, I researched ways to help support their immune systems and protect them from germs. While many immune support supplements were on the market, very few were targeted to kids, and those were formulated like candy. I didn’t want to start my boys’ days with teeth covered in gummy, sugary chews. Unfortunately, nothing I could find offered a healthy, nutritional, real food solution in an easy, convenient package. As a beverage and consumer packaged goods industry veteran, I thought who better to address this challenge! I set out to create an easy-to-serve, fun-to-drink food and beverage brand that also plays a functional, positive role in kids’ health and development. Vitaminis is the result.
Did you raise capital? What was the process and avenue you chose to take?
I was fortunate to start Vitaminis later in my career, so I had some of my savings to invest in the business. I was able to get it off the ground on eCommerce without outside funding in the beginning. When I moved into retail, I did raise money from angel investors, friends, and family, as the capital needs were much greater. The best thing about that has been bringing more people into the business, and having natural advocates and sounding boards in the investors that want to be more involved.
As I look at bigger and bigger opportunities, I will need to tap into more capital sources to make that happen. This is something that evolves over time. It depends on how much growth you’re able to go after because growth can cost big money. If there are significant growth opportunities that present themselves to Vitaminis, I will have to raise outside money. If I can continue steady growth with what I have, then I’ll go that route. I think it’s a little bit of a moving target.
What would you do differently if you were starting your business today?
I didn’t understand when I started just how challenging it is to run a business. I thought the challenge was in working hard, and I believed I could work as hard as anyone else, so what was the challenge in that? But, in reality, the challenge in starting a business often lies in managing yourself mentally and emotionally because there are so many ups and downs. There’s so much uncertainty; nothing is guaranteed. You make many sacrifices and trade-offs without any guarantee of upside, and to be able to do that, you need a lot of perspective, calmness, and faith in the process. I can’t say I would do it differently, though, because I’m not sure I would have ever jumped into Vitaminis if I fully understood just how hard it was going to be. I just had to jump in a little bit at a time and do my best.
Do you want to share your story and advice with the Dear FoundHer… community? CLICK HERE to submit your information.
Follow us on Instagram @dearfoundher and join our Facebook community for more conversation.
Make sure you tune in to Dear FoundHer… for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.
