How Juspy’s Founder Turned Burnout into Sweet Success
Leonie Lynch, Juspy
“Autonomy,” “accessibility,” and “empowerment” aren’t words we typically associate with the health-food industry. But for Leonie Lynch, founder of Juspy—which produces a nutrient-rich, all-natural, chocolatey collagen powder blend designed to give customers a natural energy boost and support their overall health—these three concepts are at the heart of what drives her purpose and her company.
“People know that they should be healthy,” Leonie explains. But she adds, the pressure of that “should” can become overwhelming and can leave many of us feeling like we can’t keep up with all the latest prescriptions for what constitutes “healthy living.” So rather than putting one more “should” on her customers’ plates, Leonie created a product that would relieve some of the pressure. She’s built a company that is about, as she puts it, “giving autonomy to someone to be healthy.”
Leonie understands this need on a deeply personal level. In 2016, she was pregnant with her second child and balancing the demands of being a mother to a toddler and finishing her PhD. She knew that she needed to focus on her nutrition in order to function at her best. She explains, “I started the company because I knew about nutrition. I knew about good food. I knew about exercise. I was a Pilates instructor. I knew what I should be doing. But at this particular point in my life, I was too tired to care.”
She drew on her knowledge and her own experience and started working on a product that would empower other busy people to take care of their health, on their own terms. It started with the idea to create a postnatal recovery drink—her own experiences showed Leonie that there was a clear gap in the market for something nutritious, delicious, and easy for new mothers.
But then a conversation with another mother, a Pilates client, helped Leonie understand how much bigger the need for this product really was. Leonie recalls her client telling her, “I’m more postnatal now than I ever was when I was postnatal, because I no longer have the support to help. I’m back at work. I have a toddler and a baby. And I’m exhausted.”
Leonie realized that she had a unique opportunity to design a product that empowered anyone looking for a simple, delicious way to support their health. She explains, “Everyone’s tired. Everyone’s busy. Everyone’s on this wheel that they can’t get off. And all of a sudden, you’ve gone past the point of no return where you’re starving.” So she set out to create a product that would allow customers to “just jump off the wheel for a second and just pause. Reset and refuel.”
Leonie wants her company to help customers to embrace the mantra “Just Be.” (Her customers have a reminder of the bigger goal right there on each bag; “Juspy” is the phonetic spelling of this affirmation.) Her pitch isn’t based on guilt or “should.” Instead, she focuses on meeting customers where they are with a product that’s healthful and easy to use but also tastes incredible so they are really excited about using it. She says, “It’s the most enjoyable health to-do out there.”
In a market that’s often focused on creating products marketed for very specific purposes—meal replacements, post-workout recovery snacks, brain boosters, energy drinks—Leonie avoids prescriptions. Instead, she calls Juspy a “flexible food.” Some customers use the product as a breakfast replacement. Some drink it when they hit a midday slump. Some drink it as a wind-down treat at the end of the day. It’s versatile enough to fit into their lives whenever they need to take a breath.
She embraces the idea that customers get decide when and how to use the product; she focuses instead on creating a formula that can support their health goals, whenever they need or want to use it—whether that’s as a powder mixed into their daily overnight oats or as a go-to meal replacement on afternoons when they realize they’ve been so busy, they missed lunch.
Leonie is committed to upholding that same approach and purpose as the company grows and develops new offerings. When she started thinking about expanding the line, she wanted to make sure that she prioritized the integrity and quality of the product and that she designed new products with the same purpose in mind—empowering her customers to care for their own health. The goal, Leonie says, was to make it “about investing in problem-solving rather than market shares.” So she turned to her customers and listened to what they wanted.
What she found out was that moms were sharing the product with their kids—whether intentionally or not. She recalls having customers tell her, “The packet is going really quickly because everyone in my house keeps robbing it off of me!” With that in mind, she started working on a formula designed with kids' nutritional needs in mind. She realized there were some common concerns she could address with this new formula: “One, you’ve got picky eaters. Two, moms think kids aren’t getting enough protein because perhaps they have chosen not to eat meat. But three, they wanted a probiotic.”
So she worked on a formula for “a plant-based, clean-label, probiotic protein powder for kids”—Juspy Childish. The mission—empowering consumers by creating a delicious product that supports their health—remains the same, just with a new consumer in mind. Leonie hopes that when kids open the pantry, they’ll realize they have their own drink that will help them get a boost of nutritional goodness, and they’ll feel empowered by making that choice for themselves.
For Leonie, Juspy’s purpose is to partner with customers in working towards their lifelong health goals, during every season of life. She explains, “It's about support, maintenance, longevity. You do your small bits every day. So if you can step off the wheel for one second and go, ‘I’m going to have a Juspy,’ it’s like a moment to reset or just start. That’s health not being overwhelming. That’s health being accessible. That’s health being a moment in time, and if you add up all those moments of healthiness, you’re healthy.”
