Seen Nutrition founders create 1st calcium chew made from real food
The most successful startups tend to address a hair-on-fire problem, and that’s definitely the case for Seen Nutrition, the innovative bone health nutrition company serving menopausal women. The woman-owned business created the first patented dietary calcium chew made from real foods.
Co-founder Dr. Jennifer Han was only 30 when she was diagnosed with pregnancy-lactation osteoporosis after multiple back fractures just two months after having her baby. Her business partner, Adrienne Bitar, grew up watching her mother endure multiple osteoporotic fractures after an osteoporosis diagnosis at 47. The New York duo were friends first, but quickly recognized that their unique fields of expertise — Jenny’s in pharmacy, Adrienne in Food Studies — made them particularly qualified to start a food-first bone health nutrition company.
“We started the company in 2023 because we saw a real need. Both of us understood firsthand how important calcium was for bone health,” says Adrienne, “but recognized the synthetic forms of calcium on the market were poorly bioavailable and doing a real disservice to the millions of women who relied on them for their bone health.”
The Midst: What do women over 40 need to know about bone health and how it relates to longevity?
Adrienne Bitar: Bone health is extremely important for longevity. Osteoporosis is extremely common, and 1 in 2 women over 50 will have an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. Starting bone health–promoting habits early in life is very beneficial to ward off osteoporosis as long as possible.
Even as early as 30, it’s very important to do weight-bearing exercises regularly, eat a calcium-rich diet, and pay attention to your balance and agility. Peak bone density occurs around age 30, largely stabilizes in adulthood, and then bone density loss accelerates around the menopausal transition.
Our skeletons act as a functional storage system — sometimes compared to a savings account — for calcium and other vital minerals. If we don’t eat sufficient calcium in our diets, our bodies will prioritize the more immediate needs for calcium — such as for our hearts to beat — and draw calcium from our bones. Over time, that leads to bone demineralization and the development of osteoporosis. Given this system, it is very important that we all eat a calcium-rich diet throughout our lifetime to keep our skeletons strong.
Adrienne, you are an academic who taught Food Studies at Stanford and Cornell. Jenny, you have a background as a clinical pharmacist. How did your shared background inform your decision to start Seen Nutrition?
We quickly recognized that, together, we brought a unique and complementary set of perspectives to bone health. Jenny has deep experience in osteoporosis care and treatment. And Jenny has been able to deftly bring together her lived experience with osteoporosis and her professional skills as a pharmacist to truly understand how osteoporosis can best be managed, treated, and prevented. With my expertise in Food Studies, Jenny and I were able to bring together the food and the medicine perspectives to the old adage that “food is medicine” and develop a fully food-first approach to bone health nutrition.
What have you learned as entrepreneurs in the women’s health space?
We have learned so much in three years! Although Jenny and I came to entrepreneurship without a business background, we quickly learned the many ways a business can grow doesn’t depend on a single rigid pathway.
We started Seen by joining our local chapter of the Small Business Development Center (a free resource and one I highly recommend!), a local business incubator, and a small business accelerator. We both could recognize what we didn’t know and either learn quickly or hire consultants to fill those gaps.
We also learned just how supportive the women’s health community is. Other women business owners have been very generous with their advice and time, and our customers are a constant source of support as well. Keeping an open line of communication with our customers has been extremely helpful in both building our morale and also making constant refinements to our business.
How are you growing Seen Nutrition? What is working well in terms of sales and building brand awareness?
Seen Nutrition is an ecommerce direct-to-consumer company and we have grown our business through events, speaking engagements, and online communities. Jenny and I are regularly invited to offer our perspectives on bone health nutrition, and the connections we make at these events (virtual or in-person) have been very helpful in spreading the word about Seen.
How can The Midst community help you?
We’d love to connect with other women entrepreneurs. We are part of a few informal women entrepreneur groups and found the tips, tricks, and recommendations to be invaluable. Specific recommendations for consultants, agencies, and various online services is extremely helpful as we navigate the many ways to scale our business.
What’s next for you and Seen Nutrition?
We recognized Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month in May by launching our new product: The Calcium Chew + K2. Vitamin K2 has been shown to help direct calcium into our skeletons, but most Americans don’t consume enough of this vital nutrient. We sourced vitamin K2 from chickpea fermentation and are proud to be offering the first entirely food-based calcium chew with vitamin K2.
Also, we are hiring for a Paid Marketing Manager and a Customer Experience Manager.
Connect with Seen Nutrition
The Calcium Queens on Substack
Instagram @thecalciumqueens
The cofounders of Seen Nutrition are members of The Midst Founder network of entrepreneurial women.
