We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Wright recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
For the last 10 years, I have been passionate about optimizing wellness by integrating preventative primary health care and research. As a nurse practitioner studying the gut microbiome of preterm infants in my Ph.D. program, I discovered that babies who weren’t being given breast milk were suffering fatal complications. I wanted to find a solution that would give all babies the ability to have breast milk, and support prolonged breastfeeding. By designing a bottle that offers seamless continuity between breast and nourishing with pumped milk, The Natural Nipple hopes to empower parents with nature’s first life vaccine (breastmilk), promote bonding, and improve the health of families around the world.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
We’re a dedicated team of clinicians, scientists, and mamas pioneering advancements to empower breastfeeding, promote bonding and optimize wellness worldwide. We created the first baby bottle that is researched and designed after maternal anatomy to mimic shape, feel & flow – allowing mothers to pick their shape via our LatchMatch™ Survey and receive a subscription staged flow rate solution to meet their growing babies feeding demands.
We are most proud of finally revolutionizing the infant industry that has gone undisrupted for 200+ years, finally a bottle that actually allows continuity between breast and bottle. We are excited about our upcoming launch in the Spring of 2023 and are now accepting pre-orders!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Our team turned to the startup community within Tampa Bay, applying for grants and participating in pitch competitions to jumpstart the launch of The Natural Nipple to get our product into the hands of parents. We won Johnson & Johnson’s Clinical Innovation award in 2019 along with cultivated support from Florida Blue & The National Science Foundation (who funds NASA, which is a big win to have this recognized as a humanity issue, not just a maternal/infant health problem). To date, we have raised $650,000+ in grants and investments.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Building a presence on social media can definitely be intimidating, but I think it’s the best way to create brand awareness! We started by featuring brands in our parallel to join us on Instagram Live and created a community to really help our perinatal audience. We feature brands that hit the triple bottom line and overall help parents on their journey of raising happy and healthy kids. Our advice for someone just starting out on social media is to be consistent and focus on listening to who you are trying to help, then create content that truly delivers value. Focus on building a tight, mission-aligned community!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thenaturalnipple.com/
- Instagram: @thenaturalnipple
- Facebook: @prolongingbreastfeeding
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-natural-nipple/
- Twitter: @NaturalNipple
- Other: Pinterest: @thenaturalnipple