- 3 months ago
The GetUp Crew sat down with CEO and Co-founder of WellWithAll, Demond Martin. He shared his personal story, creating generational health, as well as the mission of WellWithAll to give back. An informative, and inspiring, conversation.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm going to grab one if that's okay.
00:02Would you like one?
00:04Fruit punch.
00:04Strawberry lemonade.
00:05Strawberry lemonade.
00:06Ooh, I want fruit.
00:08I love it.
00:08Peach, strawberry lemonade.
00:10Tropical mango.
00:11Let me know what you honestly think.
00:12I'm not an energy person, energy drink person per se, but that's good.
00:16It's really like refreshing.
00:19It's only 80 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee.
00:22Okay.
00:22It's not overly caffeinated.
00:24That's good.
00:25Nice.
00:25It's legit.
00:26All right.
00:27Well, let's talk to Daman Martin here from Wellwithal.
00:30Yes, welcome.
00:30Who just came in with some fabulous product right here.
00:33I love it.
00:34Yes.
00:35Energy drinks.
00:36Let's see here.
00:36I'm an energy drink guy.
00:3880 grams of caffeine.
00:39I like it.
00:39No added sugars.
00:40I like that.
00:41That's important.
00:42Gluten free.
00:43Wow.
00:43Thank you all for having me.
00:44I mean, this is the honor.
00:45So the way I describe my life is I've lived this improbable but possible life.
00:49You know, I grew up in poverty, had a heroin addict as a stepfather, you know, lived in
00:54Columbus, Ohio, then Inglewood, California, moved with my father to...
01:00Rural North Carolina, got a set of just incredible breaks where I went to UNC Charlotte, became
01:05student body president as a sophomore, got really great people to invest in my life.
01:11My first job out of college was assistant to the White House chief of staff in the Clinton
01:14administration, working for Erskine Bowles.
01:17And then I came here because I got into Harvard Business School.
01:21And then, you know, that was just another level up for me.
01:24And then I joined a hedge fund just as it was forming and spent 21 years there.
01:28I was the only black partner at a major hedge fund in the country for two decades.
01:31And that allowed my wife and I to become philanthropists and, you know, invest in, you know, health equity
01:36and education and things like the Embrace that's on the Boston Common.
01:42Almost five years ago, I was standing in the middle of an emergency room with somebody that
01:48I love dearly, dealing with depression, anxiety, with suicidal.
01:52And that changed my life.
01:55And I realized in the worst moments of that that I was on the other side, that I had all
02:01these resources and access.
02:03But 37 years later, thinking about the 14-year-old version of myself living in that trailer in
02:08rural North Carolina, going through the exact same thing, I'd be dead or in jail.
02:12And there's so many people that are in that position right now.
02:16And that was really the inspiration for Well With All.
02:19So we take 20% of our profits of everything that we sell, and we use that to impact health
02:24equity.
02:25Amazing.
02:26How did you come up with the name?
02:28It was hard figuring out a name.
02:31But we really are focused on creating generational wellness for all.
02:35And it was just a natural sort of fit.
02:38Like when I heard it for the first time, you know, like I said it out of my lips and I was
02:42like, yo, that's dope.
02:44I love that generational wellness because you hear people talk about generational wealth
02:49a lot.
02:50But it's like, you know, as Romero always tells us, health is well.
02:53Well, I said, I want to be the first one to see what happens if you actually take care
02:57of yourself.
02:57Right.
02:58If you look, there was a study that was done that came out, you know, Back Bay is three
03:03miles away from Roxbury.
03:05There's a 23-year life expectancy difference between those two places.
03:09So like the zip codes are determining how long people live.
03:13And to your point, a lot of that we can actually impact with information, with intervention.
03:19Like it is not your destiny to live 23 years less than, you know, folks that are three miles
03:24away.
03:24There's just certain things in life that it's like, you got to look at it almost like
03:27explaining it like you're investing money, right?
03:30You're like, hey, listen, if you invest a couple of bucks today, tomorrow, the day after,
03:34you're not going to notice it right away.
03:36But as it compounds years down the road, you're going to be like, damn, I saved a good amount
03:41of money.
03:42And that's how it is with your health.
03:43You know, you do little things daily, take your vitamins, do this and that.
03:46The next day, you're not going to be, depending on where you start out, you're not going to
03:49be the rock.
03:50Right.
03:50But see where you're going to be down the road.
03:52If you make the one choice a day to replace this with a sugary soda or drink, that's 170,
04:01200 calories, that one choice a day over a year is the equivalent of 11 pounds.
04:07So sugary sodas and drinks are one of the highest caloric impacts to the American diet.
04:14So if you make these small changes in the way that you're living your life, just like
04:18you just described, I mean, that is what impacts that generational wellness.
04:22Like we have passing on that kind of information, you know, to our kids and to ourselves.
04:28That's what makes a real impact.
04:29What's that journey been like, getting the product into stores?
04:33Distribution for me is so important.
04:34I mean, we started with our website and Amazon, and now you're going to start seeing us in
04:38local grocery stores like Star Market and Shaw's.
04:41And it's like getting the product where people are shopping and giving an alternative to that
04:46is extraordinarily important.
04:47There's a lot of energy drinks out there.
04:48So what is it that makes this different from the other ones?
04:51So this is 80 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee, right?
04:55About the same as a cup of coffee, whereas a lot of the other energy drinks have more like
04:59200 milligrams of caffeine, right?
05:02Which is almost triple.
05:03And so to have, you know, the better for you characteristics, this has got vitamin B and C in it.
05:12It's only 45 calories, no added sugar, right?
05:15So it's very different characteristics in terms of profile.
05:18And it's just, you don't have the jitters, you know, after drinking this, you can get
05:23up in the morning, drink this before working out.
05:26Right after lunch, around one o'clock, I need a little extra boost.
05:30So this is perfect for that.
05:31Even if I need to drink something at, you know, four or five o'clock, I'm not going to be up
05:35till midnight because it's only 80 milligrams of caffeine.
05:37We did market research in terms of what actually really made sense.
05:40I didn't want to have something that was more than a cup of coffee.
05:43You know, we all need, after you get like over, you know, 22, like you need a little
05:48caffeine to keep you rolling.
05:50And so I knew that this was an area that most of the country was consuming, but I wanted
05:56to do it in a healthy way and it tastes great.
05:58And that's not, you know, it seriously does.
06:01We taste tested this all over the country, Essence Fest, HBCU Classic and folks universally
06:05like, this is dope.
06:06Taste wise, it doesn't, I've had my share of different products and this doesn't have, I
06:12always say to people, I'm like, there's certain drinks that one thing that all these drinks
06:16have in common is they have like a weird aftertaste effect.
06:21And I don't, I'm not getting that right now.
06:23Right.
06:24Well, that, that, that was the intent.
06:25I mean, we, we started with taste.
06:27So, cause you can have all these attributes and it suck.
06:29And then, and then what one, we wouldn't have any profits to actually invest into the
06:34community, right?
06:34Like we wanted to make something.
06:36We started with taste and that's what we did.
06:38So much taste testing.
06:40We went to, again, we went to Essence Fest.
06:42We went to HBCU Classic.
06:43We went to Spellhouse and Morehouse's Homecoming and, and over and over again.
06:48Like when, when I knew we had something for real, for real, I'm hearing collaboration and
06:53like not burning bridges and things like that.
06:56Can you just speak on that and how important that is?
06:59Yeah.
06:59I think a couple of things, one, develop an expertise, right?
07:03Which I spent 21 years investing in consumer companies, understanding the full landscape,
07:08understanding how these businesses really work before I started the company.
07:11Second thing, you know, all along the way, treated people with dignity and respect, never
07:16knowing that I would be in this position to start a company.
07:20And then, you know, thirdly, like knowing what you know and knowing what you don't and
07:23the things that you don't have the capabilities of doing, collaborating and partnering where
07:29the highest level of expertise exists.
07:30And that's what we've been able to do, you know, all along the way.
07:33I do appreciate the product.
07:35And also, it's the investment for me, because I think nowadays, a lot of people, I know I
07:43am, are trying to invest in products and in, in their spending, be more intentional about
07:51it.
07:51So, I appreciate this 20% that you're doing for, you know, to help out people in the community
08:00with health inequity.
08:03I think that that is fabulous.
08:04And I want folks to know, like a year before we sold a single thing, Well With All was in
08:10the community.
08:11We were in Roxbury with the Demick Center at the Academy Homes, investing in health and
08:16wellness.
08:17You speak about Boston.
08:18How does Boston sort of influence the identity and the values of this company?
08:23We're, we're proud to be a Boston founded company.
08:26I mean, this is where I raised my family.
08:29This is where my kids have grown up.
08:31This is the longest place I've ever lived.
08:33So like Boston's home and so it, it greatly influences everything that we do.
08:38Um, and we want to, you know, bring Boston along this journey with us.
08:42I love that.
08:43If somebody is hearing about Well With All for the first time right now, what, what would
08:46you like them to take away from this conversation?
08:49That we're not just a brand, we're a movement, you know, that, that we are creating generational
08:55wellness for all.
08:57And, you know, and her product is really good, short and sweet.
09:03I like that.
09:04I like it.
09:05All right.
09:05Well, thank you, Dimon.
09:07We appreciate the love.
09:08And best of luck.
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