An infant, overwhelming mom pressure and, in a roundabout way, YouTuber MrBeast all add up to a startup where the founder hopes the company won’t just help new parents feed their babies but will also help them feel “sure” in their own decisions.
Sure!, a startup with a plant-based formula, is the brainchild of entrepreneur April Kelly.
Kelly, who is based in Greenville, accidentally started her entrepreneurship journey four years ago when the third of her four children was born – a baby girl with a tongue tie. Kelly soon learned that unlike her two previous children, breastfeeding would be a challenge this time – a painful one.
“Everything was going well until it wasn’t,” she said.
Pain that felt like a “full set of adult teeth when she nursed,” coupled with post-partum depression and milk supply issues had her seeking out alternatives. Kelly, raising kids in a vegan household, sought out a plant-based formula. But the soy-based one she found caused an allergic reaction, sending her into research mode to find out “what actually goes into formula.”
Up until this point, she had relied on advice from family members and her pediatrician when picking a formula, and when she started looking at the ingredients, she was “shocked.”
She saw things like corn syrup and “yucky fillers.” So she and her husband had a conversation.
“What if we can create our own plant-based formula that still provides complete nutrition from a plant-based perspective, that is safe for our daughter?” she said.
Within days her kitchen was turned into a “chemistry lab.” The resulting concoction got a green light from her pediatrician. Still, Kelly wasn’t planning on starting a business.
Kelly formulated everything she was feeling – and created a video to share her story on an online forum. “I was very transparent about my struggles,” she said. “We started to get blown away with just, feedback.”
Moms were sending her messages, “we went through the same thing, can we have your recipe?”
“That really is what tickled the entrepreneur in me,” Kelly said. “I was like, wait a minute. Maybe it’s not a personal problem.”
So she got to work.
But entrepreneurship – especially in a regulated manufacturing sector – takes money.
Kelly has kept her day job in health care staffing. She's funneled about $25,000 in her own savings into Sure!. She’s also taken advantage of local programs, such as the micro-grant initiative put out by NC IDEA, which scored her another $10,000. She recently secured a $30,000 non-diluted investment from a group called Level, whose mission is to support Black female-owned companies.
Additional support for Sure! is coming through a crowdfunding campaign in partnership with Beast Philanthropy, the nonprofit arm of YouTube influencer Jimmy Donaldson, who also hails from Greenville. Through the partnership, the first batch of product will be donated to families in need by way of that crowdfunding campaign, Kelly said.
She’s also teamed up with interns from East Carolina University and Campbell University to keep her operation lean.
Building a company in a highly regulated industry is never easy – even with funding dollars. The regulatory landscape is tricky. So, as the firm starts clinical testing on an infant-grade formula (expected to start later this year), it’s prepping to launch a toddler-focused nutritional beverage first. The plant-based “milk” launches next month. Up next, pending regulatory hurdles, will be formula. That will be followed by a dissolvable formula tablet, currently in the research and development phase.
Kelly is working with Raleigh manufacturer SinnovaTek to produce the formula.
As for the name, Kelly said she remembers feeling “scared, uncertain, not confident” as a new mom struggling with breastfeeding.
“I felt I didn’t have control of my body or anything else,” she said, noting that she wanted her company to help spotlight maternal health, but also the reality that new moms “feel so unsupported.”
She wanted to help moms feel “sure,” or confident in their decision – and the name just fit.
And definitely make sure to include the exclamation point – “I’m very serious about that,” she said.