Victoria Thain Gioia (Perelel) - Shipping the First Order from Her House, and Landing the Today Show
On this episode, Perelel CEO and co-founder Victoria Gioia joins us to unpack:
- Why her daughter's birth sent her down a research rabbit hole into the gaps in prenatal vitamins, and how that became the idea for Perelel
- Building the first OB-GYN founded vitamin company, and why she needed a medical co-founder who put her patients first
- Quitting her job in January 2020, three months before Covid hit, to start a supplement brand from scratch
- Locking in a manufacturing partner just weeks before shutdowns, then finishing the entire process over video calls with no in-person site visits
- Why they refused to cut a single SKU, even when nickel-and-diming every other cost, because conception, each trimester, and postpartum all needed their own product
- Shipping the very first orders from her own house, with a pallet arriving that morning, to hit their September 30th launch date
- Why "always by her side" became both the founding philosophy and the origin of the name Perelel
- Building credibility as an online-only brand with zero retail presence, and the line she wouldn't let the brand cross on marketing claims
- Landing a Today Show feature that traced back to the same building at 30 Rockefeller Center where she started her career in investment banking
- What it's been like running the business while surviving her own version of "thriving in the chaos," from Covid logistics to family life with four kids
Learn more about Perelel: https://perelelhealth.com/
