Jennifer Sieg meets the co-founders of supplements brand Heights to discuss how they attracted a growing audience before their business even started
How many old bottles of supplements do you have rotting away in your medicine cabinet?
Are the £20 or £40 vitamins ever worth the price? Or do you often just purchase them while on an impromptu health kick and soon forget you even have them in the first place?
If you ever find yourself in a room with entrepreneurs Dan Murray-Serter and Joel Freeman, you might just find yourself questioning this rather interesting – albeit commonly shared – consumer health habit.
And if you ever find yourself purchasing one of their supplements – bright gold and white capsules sitting in a clear bubbly container – you surely wouldn’t forget to take them.
Murray-Serter and Freeman co-founded Heights in 2019, a science-backed gut and health supplements brand on a mission to help consumers take control of their health in an easy yet informative way.
The idea came to them when they both found themselves increasingly frustrated with how their health issues – both mental and physical – were impacting their day-to-day lives.
The brand has since grown to now service over 40,000 active supplements subscriptions, at a price range of £30 to £50, with a retention rate of over 92 per cent from first-time buyer to subscriber.
Just this summer, subscription numbers grew over 30 per cent – a trend the two co-founders believe will only continue as they double down their long-term focus.
Building an audience that matters
Murray-Serter and Freeman are quick to admit they had little-to-no experience in the nutrition or supplements industry at all.
What they did have, however, was a frustration with how nutrition brands were allowed to loosely market their products to consumers who – like themselves – knew very little about what was being sold to them.
They decided to use this to their advantage, kick-starting the early days of Heights by building an audience of consumers who could relate.
We need to build an audience of people who’d be interested in this stuff [and] we need to do it in a credible way.
“We need to build an audience of people who’d be interested in this stuff [and] we need to do it in a credible way,” Murray-Serter says.
“The truth is we don’t know what we’re doing and we’re not from this space… so we’re going to share all the things we’re learning – the good, the bad, the ugly.”
Beginning with a newsletter that broke down scientific research articles in an easy and informative way, alongside a tagline of “don’t waste time with science, we’ll do it for you,” the two started to generate significant interest.
The audience grew and grew, eventually leading them to find the right industry figures that could help build a credible and respectable supplements brand. This includes Heights’ chief science officer and head of nutrition.
“Through this process, we were attracting super high quality [and] intelligent people into our world who were curious [about] how two entrepreneurs who don’t know anything about this space approach this stuff,” Murray-Serter says.
The ‘office influencer’ product
From the start, the two entrepreneurs were convinced that they could only make it in this industry if they created a product people wouldn’t forget about.
“[We] can basically design the actual product, both the capsules and the bottle, in such a way that people don’t want to put it in the drawer,” Murray-Serter says.
Murray-Serter and Freeman with one of Heights’ flagship products.
“If they don’t want to hide it, and if they keep it out, they’ll probably see it, and the best kind of supplement you can take is the one you remember to take.”
They began by calling the strategy their “office influencer” approach, hoping that officer goers would display the eye-catching bottles on their desk and influence others working the 9-5 to want to try them out too.
Unfortunately, Freeman says this was soon hindered by the world’s pandemic-induced office closures: “It’s one of those things you just can’t plan for.”
Some three years later, however, that master plan is finally starting to shine through.
“We had a call with someone the other day who was like ‘I keep my bottle out [in his office]… and everyone asks me about it,’” Murray-Serter adds.
“That was our plan in 2020, and it took about three years for anyone to go back to an office and for that to happen.”
What’s next?
Looking forward, the pair say it all comes down to watching the seeds laid throughout the early years of their start-up flourish into what will shape the next.
“What we set out to do right at the start was focus on quality and cut zero corners and being exceptionally patient, which is super difficult for both of us and any entrepreneur,” Murray-Serter says.
“So long as you do the hard things and you stay patient and you don’t get greedy or excited or any of the things, it’ll compound over time.”
CV
Name: Dan Murray-Serter (thanks to my wife for my extra long name)
Company: Heights
Founded: 2019
Staff: 18
Title: Co Founder
Age: 38
Born: London
Lives: London
Studied: English & Art History
Talents: I am one with animals, they love me as much as I love them.
Motto: have strong beliefs, loosely held (aka be willing to change your mind)
Most known for: My cats who are Insta famous
First ambition: Movie director
Favourite book: Sapiens or A new Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Best piece of advice: No just means not now
CV
Name: Joel Freeman
Company: Heights
Founded: 2019
Staff: 18
Title: Co Founder
Age: 38
Born: London
Lives: London
Studied: Economics
Talents: Reading at superhuman speed
Motto: Strategy is great but execution is everything
Most known for: Not being that known
First ambition: To set up my own business
Favourite book: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Best piece of advice: Take responsibility, it will get you there faster