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More Americans are taking supplements than ever before. And more are being misled. There are over 200,000 supplement products on the market, but with no clear regulatory framework, consumers are often asked to swallow more than just the pills.
“Products can come to market in a week with very little accountability,” says Steve Martocci, co-founder of SuppCo. “The FDA says you should be in a vague ‘generally acceptable range’ for things like heavy metals,and counts on brands to regulate themselves, which leads to major issues.”
All this leads to a snake oil problem that threatens to undermine the real progress being made in health and wellness.
Related: From Sleepless Nights to a Wellness Start-Up
An app for that
Martocci, who built GroupMe and Splice, wants to change the way people interact with supplements. His new company, SuppCo, scores supplements for quality and helps consumers manage what they take. Think of it as a tool to help users understand what they’re taking and whether the products hold up.
SuppCo’s TrustScore rates supplements on a 10-point scale. The score looks at things like lab testing, manufacturing certifications, and whether a brand publishes its test results. “It’s a little bit less about the ‘gotcha’ and more about, hey, let’s make this industry better,” Martocci explains.
Fixing the system that failed him
For Martocci, supplements aren’t just a product — they’re personal. At one point, he weighed over 300 pounds. He turned to functional medicine when traditional doctors failed to help. That led to years of tracking bloodwork, experimenting with supplements, and building a personal health plan.
“I shared a spreadsheet of my medications and supplements. I don’t like to call myself a biohacker, but I was kind of doing this 10-plus years ago,” he says. “Supplements were always the hardest thing for me to navigate. The doctors were inconsistent, and you never knew what brands to trust.”
He eventually teamed up with Nick Michlewicz, a wellness entrepreneur with deep experience in supplements.
“I had seen firsthand how hard it is for high-quality brands to stand out in a social media world of false promises and magic pills,” Michlewicz says. “Supplements can be such a frustrating experience for users. I knew that we could transform the industry by taking the most important data and simplifying it for people so they could make better choices.”
Related: ‘One Size Does Not Fit All:’ The Supplement Myth That This CEO Wants to Shatter
Making it easier to do the right thing
They built SuppCo to give people more control. Users can scan products, track what they’re taking, and see how it affects them. Brands that follow strict standards and share their data get higher scores. Those that don’t, don’t.
One company removed a controversial ingredient after SuppCo flagged it. Others began publishing batch results to improve transparency. “We could’ve done a whole gotcha story on that,” Martocci says. “But I’d rather tell the story of how they made it better.”
SuppCo recently launched a new feature that gives users access to supplement protocols designed by some of the most respected doctors in health and wellness. These stacks are tailored for common goals like brain fog, fertility, or metabolism, and offer specific product and dosage guidance.
One expert, Dr. Mark Hyman, a best-selling author and leader in functional medicine and longevity, immediately saw the value.
“He told me, ‘I’ve wanted this to exist for 30 years,'” says Martocci. “He used to tour manufacturing facilities just to figure out what his patients were actually taking. Now, he can use our stack management feature.”
Pushing the industry forward
Martocci hopes SuppCo has the potential to clean up an industry that’s long operated without enough oversight. By making quality visible and measurable, SuppCo could shift how brands think about everything from ingredient sourcing to labeling practices.
“Right now, there’s almost no downside to cutting corners,” he says. “We’re giving brands a reason to do better. And we’re giving consumers a way to tell the difference.”
This is Martocci’s fourth company, but he says it’s the one that matters most. “You say I don’t have to do this,” he says. “But it’s kind of like telling a musician not to make another album. I have a desire to create.”
This time, the mission is clear. “We’re not chasing trends,” Martocci says. “We’re chasing trust.”
More Americans are taking supplements than ever before. And more are being misled. There are over 200,000 supplement products on the market, but with no clear regulatory framework, consumers are often asked to swallow more than just the pills.
“Products can come to market in a week with very little accountability,” says Steve Martocci, co-founder of SuppCo. “The FDA says you should be in a vague ‘generally acceptable range’ for things like heavy metals,and counts on brands to regulate themselves, which leads to major issues.”
All this leads to a snake oil problem that threatens to undermine the real progress being made in health and wellness.
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