We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna Rooke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.

Anna , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I grew up on a standard American diet and was introduced to holistic medicine and sea moss when my dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. He was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer. He was doing chemotherapy and radiation and I watched how much this took a toll on his body. I decided to start looking into alternative treatments and healing remedies. I came across sea moss as a way to get mucus out of the lungs. Although, I could not find any sea moss at the time, this was my first encounter with it and I could not stop thinking about it.

My health journey continued in college and I tried to get my hands on any superfood and nutritional supplement that I could. The only thing that I still could not find was a reliable sea moss gel. Quality is the most important to me. I learned about the differences of pool grown vs. ocean grown and was searching for a high quality sea moss gel.

In 2019, I began working at a health and longevity clinic in Los Angles where I met my now co-founder Alex. He was fascinated about all kinds of superfoods and wanted to start a business. We bonded over this and decided to make sea moss gel our first product in our ocean-based superfood company.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Anna Rooke and I am a 26 year old entrepreneur from Los Angeles, California. I am the co-founder of Akasha Superfoods. At Akasha Superfoods we create nutrient dense, ocean-based superfoods to optimize health and vitality. I studied Food Studies at UCLA and learned about the importance of micronutrients and the deficiencies in our soil. From there my passion for mineral rich superfoods began. Sea Moss is abundant in micronutrients. Our main products are Sea Moss Gel, Sea Moss Capsules, and our Prebiotic Skincare. Our 3 main values at Akasha Superfoods are quality, sustainability, and empowerment. Akasha Superfoods places a focus on the quality of our ingredients and the abundance of nutrition. We hand select some of the most nutrient dense superfoods on the planet, and harvest them in the most sustainable and natural ways possible. We donate a portion of all profits to coral reef restoration and are committed to protecting natural resources and preserving our beloved underwater ecosystems. We are committed to sourcing the most sustainable ingredients and packaging. We strive to empower our customers to take control of their own health. By providing as much information as possible, our hope is to educate and bring awareness to the lesser known aspects of health and wellness.I started my holistic health journey in 2013 and am always looking for the best ways to increase health and vitality. I love spending my free time playing tennis, working out, at the beach, and hanging out with my family & friends.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We have built a very strong community on both TikTok and Instagram. When we started Akasha Superfoods there was very little information on social media about Sea Moss. In 2022, we decided to take TikTok very seriously and began posting every single day. I do have a background in helping businesses grow their TikTok accounts so I had an idea of what we needed to do. The word started spreading about it and as more people tried it they also shared it. My advice for anyone just starting to build social media presence would be to just start, provide value, and put everything out there so that you can see what performs well & focus on that. Anything can blow up and completely change your business overnight so you truly have nothing to lose.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Ever since we started Akasha Superfoods I envisioned us having the glass jar sea moss gel forever. However, I started the business with zero knowledge of the food space. We quickly learned that having a 6 week shelf life was not sustainable to continue expanding in retail. Over the last year we have tried everything we could to extend our shelf life while preserving the quality of the product. We finally have a solution that we are launching this summer. It was extremely difficult to pivot from this vision that I have always had, but I know that this will be better for everyone in the long term. This will allow more people to try our sea moss gel than I ever thought was possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.akashasuperfoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akashasuperfoods/
• Linkedin: Anna Rooke
• Other: My personal: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_rooke/ Akasha TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@akashasuperfoods