Equilibria

Authors note: Coco Meers and Marcy Capron Vermillion are the co-founders of Equilibria.

Warren Bobrow=WB: Why cannabis? What brought you to the plant?

Coco: I was extremely under-educated about cannabis when Marcy (co-founder) and I reconnected to ideate in summer of 2018 after selling our respective tech companies. A francophile from Alabama, white burgundy and bourbon pretty much had me covered on the recreational side of things. Marcy was the first data-driven, engineering mind to emphatically share her personal CBD success story with me, opening up my mind to the idea of cannabis as medicine, versus recreation. Upon hearing Marcys authentic stories of nerve pain management and mental health relief, as well as the countless (anonymized) stories of the women she had counseled on dosage and delivery techniques, I began taking a high quality, full-spectrum CBD daily. After a few days, I felt more rested and generally more balanced. After a few weeks, I described my overall temperament as decidedly more even. I had a longer fuse with my young children and was less fixated on elements beyond my control at work. After a month or so, I realized I could take my biologic injectable drug for an autoimmune disease less and less, eventually leveling off at the frequency. CBD has brought me balance, and I knew women everywhere deserved similar access.

Throughout my professional career, Ive always been inspired to create beauty and wellness innovations that benefit women. I am an active angel investor in female-founded, consumer companies, and got my entrepreneurial start as founder & CEO of PrettyQuick (acquired by Groupon in 2015), a booking marketplace offering seamless reservations at salons and spas nationwide. PrettyQuick is where I met Marcy, collaborating on our very first public launch. Before PrettyQuick, I was a Brand Manager at LOreal in New York & Paris. When Marcy inspired me to take a look at CBDs balancing properties, I knew this was an extraordinary opportunity to take best-in-class science and wrap it in a consumer brand that women would love.

Marcy: For me, Ive always been a problem solver first and foremost. Prior to Equilibria, I founded Polymathic, which was acquired by DevMynd/Tandem in 2017. As Coco mentioned, it was my own personal experience with CBD that led me down a path of learning everything possible about this powerful and complex plant, eventually to the point of leading workshops and gatherings on the medicinal and regulatory power of cannabis for women. Coco and I had worked together previously and, when we got together years later, I shared more about my personal journey. It was that one conversation that served as the inspiration for Equilibria.

Coco: As two professional women with full plates and our share of chronic pain, inflammation and everyday anxieties, were truly living proof of the power of CBD.

EQ Brilliance Box: Photo: Equilibria

WB: I see you went the hemp route, why? Why not THC? You talk about the quality and consistency of your products? Where is your hemp sourced from?

Marcy: While we havent ruled out launching a marijuana brand, the 2018 Farm Bill cleared the way for us to serve maximum numbers of women nationwide with high-quality industrial hemp-based therapies. As owners in our own farm, we are laser-focused on cannabinoid and terpene expression to provide as much of the therapeutic benefit of marijuana as possible, but without the high (by using medical hemp!)

In terms of sourcing, we made the conscious decision at the beginning to do things differently. Unlike other CBD brands out there, we didnt feel right whitelabeling existing products. We have an exclusive partnership with our Farm & Bioscience partner CFH, LTD, an expert genetics and industrial hemp producer in Longmont, Colorado.

Coco: Our CFH business partners are valuable assets in our long term differentiation strategy, and we partner closely at every step of the supply chain. Their team is myopically obsessed with traceability, consistency, and results, which makes our cultures a great collaborative fit. By partnering strategically at the farm level, we can use our clinical data and member insights to inform the genetics program and help influence strain development. Bottom line: as a part of this unique, vertically integrated strategy, Equilibria is positioned to influence earlier parts of the value chain to help inform the future of cannabis and womens wellness.

WB: Please tell me about your company? What is your six and twelve month goals? How do you anticipate removing obstacles? What are they?

Coco: Our mission at Equilibria is to restore balance to the lives of women. For us, that means offering medical-grade, consistent CBD month after month, and working with our members one on one to personalize the dosage and delivery routines that maximize their results. Throughout 2019, we sustained 50% month over month growth, and we are committed to similar growth rates in 2020. On our quest to help as many women as possible, we are excited about a range of new products - with new delivery systems launching every quarter - as well as continuing our commitment to education and community. We dont aspire to sell CBD products. We aspire to change lives through cannabis science, and that requires a different mindset as a unique tech-forward community.

Marcy: I echo Cocos sentiment here: we want to continue to develop and grow internally and provide products designed to meet consumer needs based on a thoughtful examination of bioavailability, modality onset, and female use cases. On that note, were very excited about the new releases scheduled for 2020 while we cant talk about them publicly yet, were so excited to use this platform to help women across the globe achieve balance - or equilibria - and live their fullest lives 🙂

Coco: In terms of obstacles, I think being in a highly unregulated industry presents its own challenges. CBD is an interesting sector its not a supplement and its not a drug, so there is a lot of grey area in terms of FDA regulations. The industry is constantly evolving and restrictions are changing daily, so were constantly reviewing our systems to ensure we remain compliant and ahead of the curve. We actually want to see proper legislation put into place to protect consumers, which will make us doubly glad we always went above and beyond to insist on best-in-class practices, when the other shoe inevitably drops.

WB: What kind of food do you like? Restaurants? Where?

Coco: Anything and everything! I love exploring the world through food. Ramen in the 2nd in Paris, falafel in Tel Aviv, street tacos in Mexico City. I love fresh food as an expression of culture.

Marcy: I grew up with Jordanian and Central/South American neighbors so I crave anything from fresh lamb to maduros on any given day. Chicago is a fantastic city for food (well, anything that doesnt involve oceanic seafood!) and theres always something new to try.

WB: What is your passion?

Coco: I think Marcy would agree in that were both extremely passionate about supporting women. Whatever youre managing in your daily life, we all have a lot on our plates and the idea of creating a platform to help women live their best lives is extremely fulfilling to us.

Marcy: Ill piggyback with this: quality of life is a fantastic framework for solving problems. Neverending! Never boring! Coco has a knowing smile when I say, Ooh, what if. and that keeps us rolling through the fantastic job weve created for ourselves! Always ask what if.

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See the original post:
Equilibria: Restoring Balance To The Lives Of Women In Five Questions - Forbes

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