Wellness Wonders: Meet the founders of probiotic supplements brand Heights

Wellness Wonders delves into the stories and innovations driving the UK’s thriving landscape of health, wellbeing, fitness, and nutrition. Join City A.M. as we meet the visionary minds and passionate entrepreneurs behind leading brands and the impact they’re making on the pursuit of wellness.

For this feature, City A.M. sits down with avid mental health advocate Dan Murray-Serter and serial entrepreneur Joel Freeman, who are the co-founders of the science-backed brain and gut supplement brand Heights.

Describe how you built the team behind Heights?

Joel and I are best friends, who created Heights after following very different personal paths. I struggled with insomnia and anxiety, while Joel suffered from stress-induced gastrointestinal issues. Whilst we experienced different issues, both of us came to realise, with the help of medical professionals, that paying better attention to our brain nutrition was the answer to our issues.

Experiencing first-hand the power that supplements had to transform our health, we began reading hundreds of scientific papers on nutrition and mental health. We wanted to share this knowledge with others, so we began a newsletter called “The Sunday Supplement” which translated the complex science into an easy three-minute read in people’s inboxes to share how they can take care of their brains.

As our subscribers grew, we wanted to be able to provide supplement recommendations to our customers but felt loath to suggest they too begin spending hundreds of pounds a month on various capsules, as we were doing. We saw that people needed a better solution: simple, science-led supplements which could deliver the right doses without additives, and without a cupboard full of eight different products – and especially delivered in a way that can help them build a daily habit.

We had the vision, but if we were going to create the best possible care for your brain, we needed the experts. Our customer perspective was actually hugely beneficial because it meant that we were, and still are, adamant about doing everything by the book and according to the science. As such, we partnered with Dr Tara Swart, Oxford University-trained medical doctor and Neuroscientist and Sophie Medlin, Consultant Dietitian and Chair of the British Dietetic Association of London.

Dr Tara is our chief science officer and brings over 25 years of brain expertise to Heights. Her PhD in neuropharmacology, and BSc in Biomedical Science, informed her development of Vitals+ – our first product. Sophie is our Head of Nutritional Research, co-developing the Vitals+ formula with Dr Tara, leading the development of Biotic+, our second product, alongside designing all our scientific research studies.

Why was it so important to you that your products be scientifically proven?

Building a brand is all about building a long-term moat of trust over time – and there’s no better trust than to use science to prove what you do works. Our business has been quite literally built upon science because that is where our fascination with these products started and it’s how we can be certain we’re creating the very best products on the market.

Our whole mission is to build trust because that is what the industry is missing. It’s a space oversaturated with products which do not actually deliver the right ingredients in the right dose. Our customers are intelligent and ambitious people who buy our products because we take them with us on every stage of the journey; educating and informing them on why and how our products can help them feel better. It is our responsibility to deliver information to them that they know is backed by evidence.

How do Heights supplements stand out in a crowded market?

Walk into any pharmacy, and you can easily get overwhelmed by the number of supplements on offer. But you can never be entirely sure exactly what you’re taking. There are all sorts of factors at play, from how much of the nutrient can be absorbed (normally dependent on the specific compound in the supplement), to the provenance of ingredients, to any additives, fillers, and caking agents.

There’s no transparency. Heights is different because we use only the highest quality ingredients in their most bioavailable form, delivered in doses scientifically proven to make a difference that goes above and beyond the marketing claim. We deliver straight to your door through small-batch manufacturing to ensure that the products are the freshest they could be, and haven’t been sitting on a shelf for years.

Can you explain a little about the scientific research behind the products?

Yes! We have invested in independent research to test both of our products, to ensure that you can trust every capsule. With Biotic+, we conducted an eight-week, placebo-controlled trial which studied the well-being, microbiomes, and gut functions of 33 healthy participants.

The results showed that 73 per cent felt an improvement in mood, 92 per cent maintained or increased their gut microbial diversity and 68 per cent felt a noticeable difference in their overall health.

We also tested the product in the lab, which revealed that Biotic+ degraded nine times slower compared to standard capsules, and delivered 50 times more bacteria to the colon alive and active than a leading standard capsule, greens powder and liquid probiotic.

With Vitals+, we invested in a 12-week third-party in-vivo (in human) study of 32 healthy people. Through a combination of blood samples, sleep data and self-reported measures, it was evident that participants experienced better focus, improved recall and deeper sleep, with 75 per cent feeling better overall.

What are the key ingredients that make Heights supplements unique?

Our commitment to high-quality, effective products is at the core of everything we do. This means clean, vegan formulas designed to work together, in the optimum amounts for proven impact. Everything we put in our products is there because the evidence shows it makes a difference.

Vitals+ is an all-in-one multivitamin, containing 20 fundamental nutrients, including blueberry extract, and coated in Omega 3 to support your brain, heart, bones, immune system, skin, hair and nails. Biotic+ is a high-impact, vegan formula of seven of the most highly researched strains, plus zinc, designed for the gut, immunity, and mind. The gut is known as your second brain, and the strains in Biotic+ are scientifically proven by over 380 studies to effectively target the gut-brain axis.

Can you share any customer success stories?

One of the greatest joys of starting the brand has been hearing the stories of customers who have benefitted from the products. In fact, Stephen Fry, was one of our very first customers and is still with us, on both products years later.

We had no idea he’d ordered from us, and only discovered it when he got in touch with us to say how much they had helped him. Since then, our customer base has grown and grown. From inspiring figures in health and wellness like Dr Julie Smith and Ali Abdaal, to high performers like Steven Bartlett, Matt Willis, Mo Gawdat and Vogue Williams – our base of brilliant customers relying on us to reach their heights gives us great joy.

How does Heights address sustainability in its business practices?

As a B Corporation, sustainability is at the core of every decision we make and means that our practices are scrutinised by the highest international standards, in alignment with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Every ingredient in our products is sustainably sourced and plant-based. Instead of extracting vitamin D from sheep’s wool, for instance, we get it from environmentally friendly lichen. Instead of harvesting Omega 3 from fish livers, we use vegan-certified microalgae from sustainable algae farms.

When it comes to our packaging, we conducted life cycle assessments and found that our recycled plastic bottle has a three-times smaller carbon footprint than a glass bottle. The cardboard and paper in our packaging are 100 per cent recycled and 100 per cent recyclable. We use local production facilities and local delivery hubs to reduce transport miles and continually review our shipping partners to ensure that we only work with companies that have demonstrated their commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

What challenges did Heights face when entering the health and wellbeing market?

Making the best products in the world is a long and difficult process. Our unwavering stubbornness to uphold the highest scientific standards means that the product development process takes a long time. Vitals+ took 18 months to create, and Biotic+ took two and a half years before bringing to market. And that’s before you consider that every single ingredient has had to be sourced from the best place around the world.

Our blueberry extract comes from Italy and our algae oil from a farm in Nova Scotia. Building trust also doesn’t happen overnight, and communicating our research in simple and digestible ways has also been a challenge. Our customers are busy people, who don’t have time to read extensive research papers. We needed to find a way to communicate our message succinctly and clearly, and in a way that was meaningful to them. That’s been an ongoing process, especially as the results of our research at first seemed to be too good to be true!

What have been the highlights?

Surviving Covid – as a startup that’s a big deal. Raising crowdfunding by inviting our customers to own the company with us – is an amazing feeling and a great way to demonstrate our commitment to being a community-first brand. We get some truly sensational reviews of people telling us how we’ve changed their lives – can safely say when you build a brand – there’s no higher feeling or better highlight than that!

What future developments can we expect?

At Heights, we believe you can go broad (like almost every other supplement company) or you can go deep, like us. Our focus has always been on creating fewer, smarter supplements which can simplify our customers’ supplement routines that take care of their brain and gut.

That’s why in the last four years, we have only launched two products – we’re not in the business of creating new ranges just for the sake of it. That said, there are certain supplements which need to be taken in their purest form, and certain customer groups who need specifically designed versions of particular products. Creating products which can genuinely meet a customer need, and complement our existing products, is our priority. We’ll be able to say more soon, so watch this space – but we won’t be deviating from brain or gut – it’s what we do best.