2018 was a wild year at Previnex. We celebrated a big milestone, but the year also had its fair share of ups, downs, and everything in between. In April, we turned 5 as a company! According to Bloomberg and Forbes, 80% of small businesses fail within the first five years, so we’re honored and excited that you’ve trusted us with your health and helped us get to our 5th anniversary!
At this point, I feel like I could write a book about the challenges of building a company and brand, what mistakes to avoid, etc., but we’ve been dedicated and unwilling to compromise on delivering products that are exceptional in quality and that deliver health benefits, which is the main reason we’ve been able to consistently grow in a very crowded industry.
Challenges
2018 started off with a bang. We had record growth and sales every month up until May, and we thought we finally were off to the races for good! But in early 2018, an industry wide vegan protein supply issue emerged, and we had to make some tough decisions as a company on how we were going to handle the situation.
To make a very long story short, the industry ran out of protein, our supplier ran out of protein, and after months of looking for high quality vegan protein to continue making Nourify, we found some that was analytically excellent, but had some taste issues, which created a dilemma. Do we sell a product that is great and extremely high quality on paper (but has some taste issues), or do we stop selling Nourify until we can figure out taste and supply issues to deliver a consistently excellent product? There were strong arguments made for and against each, but ultimately, in reflecting on our core values, which includes never compromising on excellence or integrity, we decided not to offer Nourify until we were able to deliver a high-quality, consistently great tasting product that our customers are accustomed to.
While this hurt us short-term, there was some positive silver lining. We had an opportunity to take a fresh look at Nourify and found ways we could improve the formula even more. This led to us being able to sustainably source an incredibly high quality, USA-based, organic pea protein that didn’t exist when we first made Nourify. At the same time, we added 1 billion extremely high quality probiotics while maintaining the cleanest formula on the market, all without having to raise pricing.
We had another challenge early in the year that we had to overcome too. In February, we were given notice that our fulfillment center was planning on selling their facility, and we were effectively given 30 days to move, which was discouraging and challenging. I’m really proud of our team and how we responded to this. Within a few weeks we were up and running at a new fulfillment center and were able to secure lower shipping costs which we passed on to our customers, as well as faster shipping, while not compromising quality service.
With every challenge, we get smarter and smarter about how to respond so we can continue to serve our customers with excellence, and while I could give more examples of hurdles that we had to jump over, at the end of the day, we had a very strong year and will close 2018 with record sales!
Giving Back
One of the most rewarding parts of running Previnex is the difference we’re making together in the lives of malnourished children through our Get Health, Give Health © Program. In 2018, we were able to donate over 200,000 Super Vites, our industry-leading children’s chewable multivitamin, to malnourished children in Haiti, Guatemala, Peru, and El Salvador.
In late 2018, we partnered with another non-profit, CMMB, who reaches malnourished children in Haita, South Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, and Peru. As our business continues to grow, we’re excited to see the impact we can make together as we serve more and more children who really need our help.
New Products & Initiatives
One area that I think we can do a better job of overall is launching new, highly differentiated products, which is really our bread and butter. We didn’t launch a new product in 2018, and in light of this, we are currently in development of a brain health supplement that is AWESOME!!!
We spent 6 months researching the brain health market in 2018 and will be able to make the claim that our soon to be launched product reduces cognitive decline, improves cognitive function, and improves memory. The product is backed by 10 human clinical studies, and as we’ve sampled the product as part of our internal process, the feedback has been outstanding.
I’ve personally been taking the product for around 12 weeks and I’ve noticed significant benefits – better mental clarity, sharpness, and improved memory. It’s a noticeable difference. In addition to brain health, we’re looking at launching 1-2 more core supplements in 2019 and are investigating energy, sleep, and a couple of other categories.
As Nourify is back in stock for good, we’ll look to launch a new flavor in 2019. Our customers will be deciding the new flavor, so please keep an eye out for a survey from us (we have some exciting flavors in the mix). In addition to a new flavor of Nourify, we will be launching nutrition bars in 2019. We’ll have three flavors – Double Chocolate, Berry Fruit, and Cashew Quinoa Cherry. These bars will be the cleanest on the market hands down with an exceptional macronutrient profile (150 calories, 7g of fat, 5-10 net carbs, 10g protein per bar). They taste GREAT, have extremely high satiety, and we’re excited to bring them to market.
While we have many other initiatives in the works, I’m personally excited to launch our Refer-a-Friend Program and we hope to launch a rewards/loyalty program in 2019. Given the quality and effectiveness of our products, word of mouth has been powerful in helping us reach and serve more and more customers, and we want to reward our loyal customers for helping to spread the word! Look out for this program in January!
We also launched a new group on Facebook – Fueling Health with Previnex – where the hope is to build a thriving community of health advocates, from our customers, to employees, to our influencers (professional athletes and others). We’ll be running special promotions and the community is already sharing helpful information and health tips, so make sure you check it out and join!
Looking Ahead
I feel so honored to lead a company that is doing excellent work and serving others. From our customers to malnourished children, we’re making a real difference and having a blast doing it! We’re so grateful to our customers and partners, and from the entire Previnex team, thank you for the opportunity to serve you and your health.
We wish you all the best for an outstanding 2019, and hope that your year will be filled with happiness, success, and of course, great health! At our healthiest, we can maximize our potential and make our greatest impact on the world.
As always, I’d love your feedback on what you liked and didn’t like from us this year and what we can do to make your experience with us better.
Here’s to a great 2019!
In Great Health,
David
