Sugarbreak products that make reducing sugar consumption easier
Please introduce yourself and Sugarbreak to our readers!
Sugarbreak is an all-natural, non-prescription support system that empowers you to curb your sugar intake and manage your blood sugar levels so you can live your best life. Over the course of my career, I have been a part of various industries—from accounting, to fashion, to beauty, to online grocery. Prior to Sugarbreak, I founded a fertility studio and egg-freezing company called Trellis . Our goal was to provide meaningful medical options for women.
My passion for accessible healthcare brought me to Sugarbreak when I was introduced to my co-founders through a mutual friend. Immediately, I felt connected to the company mission, and wanted to help grow the product line. I had a very close friend who was diagnosed with diabetes in his late 30s, and I saw how much he struggled to make decisions about food—even ordering a pastry carried so much emotional weight! I knew I wanted to help improve the quality of life for him and all those like him facing chronic illnesses.
Why did you decide to start this business?
Collectively, the co-founders have careers that have challenged important issues in consequential categories, forging paths and building solution-oriented products that improve the lives of millions of people. By harnessing the power of the natural world to fuel these advancements, we create consumer, healthcare, wellness, and food products with mass appeal. We like to think our superpower is recognizing a void in the marketplace and combining our respective strengths to develop proactive solutions to far-reaching problems.
Now more than ever, we need to take charge of our health. As it stands, 1 in 3 Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic. The increasing frequency of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in young people is a growing clinical and public health concern. Beyond the inherent challenges that accompany these medical conditions, the obese population is at even greater risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed Sugarbreak specifically to help people navigate these pain points in their life that wreak havoc daily.
What is the vision behind Sugarbreak?
We hope to create products that make reducing sugar consumption and managing blood sugar easier. This goes for anyone, regardless of their access to traditional healthcare. We hope to really move the needle in lowering the prevalence of diabetes in the US –our affordable and accessible solutions are positioned to help people in all communities especially in the BIPOC and marginalized communities who suffer the most from this pandemic.
From the idea to the start what have been the biggest challenges so far and how did you finance yourself?
We started raising money during the pandemic, so that raised all sorts of challenges. I actually came down with a serious case of COVID and had to continue fundraising and do pitches to investors during that time. Fortunately, we were still able to raise venture capital in record time. The biggest challenge so far has been managing the supply chain during COVID, as lead times have been much longer and raw materials have been in short supply. Luckily, I have had many years of experience as a “fixer” in previous businesses, so this has been a useful skill to have, in order to remain calm and roll with the punches.
Who is the target group of Sugarbreak?
Sugarbreak is for anyone who is trying to reduce their sugar consumption and have a healthier blood sugar. Almost 90% of Americans are trying to reduce their sugar consumption and most people who have pre-diabetes don’t even know that they need to pay attention to their blood sugar. We want to not only destigmatize diabetes, but we also want to raise awareness on the importance of having healthy blood sugar.
How does Sugarbreak work? What are the advantages? What makes you different from other companies?
Sugarbreak is unlike any other product on the market as it’s specifically designed to fit into daily life. Our branding is bright and colorful, and we’ve considered every situation where you might need to think about your sugar-intake. Whether that’s when a late-night dessert craving hits or at the Thanksgiving Dinner table, the different products are meant to boost your blood sugar confidence. We only use natural ingredients that have been clinically tested for efficacy, so that customers can understand what is going into their bodies and actually be able to measure results.
Unlike other supplements, the advantage of our products is that you can actually measure the impact it has on your sugar consumption and blood sugar.
When we formulated our products, we selected the most powerful ingredients that were clinically tested, to make sure that we could make an impact with the minimum strips and capsules. In our Resist strips, we use this ayurvedic herb called Gymnema Sylvestre which translates to “sugar destroyer” in Hindi. It effectively blocks the taste of sweet on your tongue, thus curbing sugar cravings. Our Stabilize pill uses Mulberry Leaf Extract to block the digestion of excess carbohydrates and other complex sugars, so that post-meal blood sugar spikes are reduced by 42%.
This allows those trying to manage their blood sugar to have a normal meal without the guilt. Reduce is meant to be taken daily, as these capsules help maintain blood sugar at a healthy level—kind of like your favorite multivitamin. We use a combination of powerful herbs that have each earned its space in each capsule by addressing common causes of high blood sugar, from the digestion of glucose to insulin sensitivity. On average, after a pre-diabetic diagnosis you have 3-5 years to turn your life around, and this product is meant to help put you on the right course.
Sugarbreak, where does the road go? Where do you see yourself in five years?
If I look back on my career, even in 2 year increments, I would not have been able to predict what I am doing, what industry or even what city I’m living in. Sugarbreak will always be a consumer driven business from a product development standpoint. In five years, I would want Sugarbreak to be a household name, a brand that is trusted for highly efficacious, natural products. I also want us to be the spark that led the movement to more proactive health management and helped drive awareness to slow down the diabetes pandemic. I also hope that Sugarbreak will be a company that is admired for its office culture.
At the end: Which 3 tips would you give to future founders?
Be thoughtful about who you bring in as investors (don’t be afraid to turn down money)! Who you have as an investor will impact how you run your business, from strategy to mentorship etc. If you take money from investors who cannot help you or have a different vision for the business, it will be very difficult for you to achieve your goals.
Be selfish with your time. You are ultimately the most precious asset to the company and who the investors are investing in. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is everything. It is important that you know who to spend time with and what to spend time on in order for the business to thrive. This also includes spending time with loved ones and self-care, because you need to be in the best state to make the best decisions.
Trust your gut. No one can run the business like you. As an entrepreneur, you are asked to make a lot of decisions big and small everyday. Don’t underestimate your gut. You are part of the business and are fed with a lot of information all day that feed into the complex algorithm in your brain. I think the only decisions I regret making are ones when my gut said “no”, but I didn’t have the time to do a full analysis to justify my decision and I went along with it. Luckily, none of them cost a lot of money, but definitely created headaches that I didn’t need.
Thank you Scarlett Leung for the Interview
Statements of the author and the interviewee do not necessarily represent the editors and the publisher opinion again.
