I’m always skeptical of new supplement brands.
Is it a real product? Is it a drop-shipped white label from China? Does it actually work?
Charlotte, co-founder of Alice, knew this skepticism was her biggest hurdle.
She wasn't a food scientist. She came from media, producing campaigns for luxury brands. But she saw a massive gap in the biohacking space: everything tasted like dirt.
"Choking down a powder" or taking a gummy full of sugar wasn't the answer.
So she built Alice, a functional mushroom chocolate brand. And she’s scaling it by breaking every rule in the traditional DTC playbook.
I sat down with her to get the download. Here are the biggest takeaways.
1. The "Food as Medicine" Hack
Why chocolate? It wasn't just about taste. It was about efficacy.
Charlotte dropped a stat that blew my mind: Nutrient Absorption.
Because digestion begins in the mouth (saliva and mucous membranes), food products can achieve 75–90% absorption. Swallowed pills? They often only offer 8–12%.
She didn't just make supplements tastier; she made them work better by changing the delivery mechanism.
2. Combat Skepticism with Physical Proof
In a world of AI ads and faceless brands, how do you prove you're real?
You buy a 1969 Chevy ice cream truck.
In April 2023, Charlotte and her co-founder drove that truck around Southern California for a month, doing over 30 events.
Why? Because online, everyone thinks you're a scam. In person, you're undeniable. They could hand someone a "Brainstorm" chocolate and, within 20 minutes, that person would feel the caffeine kick in.
That immediate feedback loop is something a Facebook ad can never replicate.
3. Brand First, Paid Second
Charlotte had a hot take on growth: "It is hard to retrofit brand."
Too many founders try to build a business solely on performance marketing arbitrage. When CAC rises, they die because nobody actually cares about them.
Alice took the opposite approach. They focused on weird, high-signal collaborations to borrow equity and reach new audiences:
Pop Culture: A collab with HBO’s The Last of Us (leveraging the "cordyceps" connection).
Niche Lifestyle: A lingerie collab with Fleur du Mal and a fine jewelry line.
They built a brand before they leaned into paid spend.
4. The "Shoppy Shop" Retail Ladder
Alice just launched in Whole Foods and Target nationwide. But they didn't start there.
Their playbook was methodical:
Phase 1: Get into ~1,200 "cool shops"—the small boutiques that carry trendy brands like Graza and Fishwife. This built credibility and "seen everywhere" energy.
Phase 2: Leverage that buzz to land mass retail.
And now that they're in Target? They aren't hiring a fancy retail agency. They're literally just DMing influencers who specialize in "Target finds" and "Whole Foods hauls."
Sometimes the simple, manual work is the highest leverage.