Today we’d like to introduce you to Petra Neiger

Hi Petra, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

There are 2 threads that merged perfectly in Red Pantz. One is my lifelong struggle with skin issues and the second is a burnout many years ago—before there were talks about burnout, stress, adrenal fatigue and the like.
Let’s start with the latter. In my business life, I worked for companies of different sizes, from multinationals to startups in Silicon Valley so I’m very familiar with the challenges these environments represent. I’ve been there, lived it and walked in those shoes. After my burnout, I was determined to make a change. So, I went back to school to study Ayurvedic medicine, graduated with a master’s degree in Ayurvedic medicine and became a board-certified practitioner.

I originally founded Red Pantz to of help people live well and thrive sustainably. Red Pantz is an educational body-to-soul wellness destination site based on principles from ancient ayurvedic medicine, placed in the context of modern life.

The products came later. I’ve always struggled with my skin—eczema, sensitive skin and three occurrences of skin cancer. Since in my ayurvedic studies, I studied herbology, skin and the interconnectedness of the various systems in the body, mind and beyond, I created MY24/7, a premium self-care collection for skin, body, mind that supports wellbeing from the outside in as well as the inside out. Because we only want to bring people the best, we’re proud that our line is USDA certified organic (yes, even the skincare) and uses packaging that’s better for our planet, too.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

No, but that’s part of the journey. When you start something from scratch and decide to bootstrap the whole thing, even if you have the best plan, the experience will be a trial and error with lots of iterations.

Pilot things, watch closely what’s working, double down on the things that are working, know when to pivot, know your financials, and have lots of patience and perseverance.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?

Red Pantz is a health and wellness destination. Our approach is based on time-tested, ancient ayurvedic teachings mixed with research-backed modern science, and decades of learning and iterating in corporate Silicon Valley.

I can truly relate to people when they tell me about their skin issues since I’ve struggled with them myself, or stress/burnout-related health concerns since I’ve lived through that, too.

And as we mentioned, our line is USDA certified organic, which is very unique in the skincare field so we proudly display the organic seal on our packaging. This certification is more than just using CERTIFIED organic ingredients in our products. Our entire operations is certified organic.

And last but not least, we constantly look for ways to make our offerings more environment friendly. For example, our boxes are FSC certified, our teas are in eco-compostable pouches and our labels are made from 100% post-consumer waste.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?

From a consumer’s standpoint, there’s going to be more confusion. First, there’s greenwashing, which won’t go away anytime soon.

Now, the buzzword is organic. But, what people don’t realize is what being organic really means. Just because there are one or two ingredients in a product that are organic (which may or may not even be certified) doesn’t mean that it’s an organic product. Even if all of the ingredients are organic, the product may still not be certified organic. There’s a lot more to this certification than the ingredients. You’ll know if you’re dealing with a certified organic product if you can spot the USDA organic seal on the packaging.

And with increasing consumer confusion come increased regulation and transparency requirements for manufacturers. Without going into much detail, it will squeeze the truly small businesses, let’s call them micro-businesses, which will make it hard for them to compete against bigger brands. Especially if they’re going at it alone and/or are self-funded. This will inspire more partnerships and collectives to be more competitive as a group.

In addition, to expand the market, traditional beauty brands will look to enter the health and wellness space, and reposition themselves as a health and wellness brand. They will take some ingredients from ancient medical systems—and modern science—to put a stake in the ground in this new segment. It’s already starting to happen.

There’s a lot going on in this space with even more shifts on the horizon.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://redpantz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redpantzcompany/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redpantzcompany