There are hundreds of thousands of wellness experts out there - be it nutritionists, dieticians or health coaches. On the flip side, over a hundred million Americans struggle with healthy eating and the effects of diet-related illnesses. Striving to bring them all together under one roof is Wellory, a mobile app launched in September with a new approach to healthy eating and a cure for usually pricy personalized nutrition counseling. We talked to founder Emily Hochman about the history behind her entrepreneurial spirit and her process for solving one of the greatest problems of her generation.

The Childhood

A proud, ride-or-die New Yorker, Emily grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and was gainfully employed from the age of ten. Everything from “stoop sales” to helping out neighborhood families and working at local businesses filled her pre-university resume.

“I would make bracelets and sell them,” Emily said. “Because both my parents were entrepreneurs, everything was ‘how do you turn that into a business.’ Every idea we had, ‘now go turn it into something’. No idea was just an idea, it had to be executed.”

CEO and Founder, Emily Hochman.

Emily attended Bucknell University, where she majored in Art History with a double minor in Italian and Dance (she also loves to remind us that 90% of grads do absolutely nothing with their specific degree!). It was in her first year of college that she developed unhealthy eating habits and ultimately went on the wellness journey that inspired her to start Wellory.

“I ended up getting very sick because I had a very structured diet and was too into dieting. I went to the doctor and they told me I had polycystic ovary syndrome, hyperthyroidism, I was prediabetic and would never have children. They told me to take medication and I would be fine. Instead of taking medication, I became obsessed with figuring out how I became unhealthy, and how could I get healthy,” Emily said.

Emily dove into the health and wellness world and while she found a lot of solutions in the fitness space, she found very few resources in terms of nutrition - what to eat and why. She became a Certified Health Coach through the School of Integrative Nutrition and tells us she cured herself of every potential chronic illness by understanding the power of food as medicine. She realized that she wanted to bring her learnings to the masses.

“Everyone had their own story, their own relationship with food, their own challenges, and nobody knew where to turn,” Emily said.

After a tour in the tech world at WayUp where she created and held multiple positions on the sales side, Emily was ready to strike out on her own and started Wellory as a solo founder.

The Name

Like many great ideas, the name Wellory came after a few glasses of wine! Knowing the companies she was inspired by were purposeful nonsense words, Emily took to the drawing board (and GoDaddy to double-check availability) to find the perfect name.

“I had very large aspirations for this company. I wanted to be like Google, Facebook, Airbnb and Pinterest - tech giants that are household names that you know. All these companies, for the most part, are made-up words. When you hear the word Wellory you get a sense of what category we’re building in,” Emily said.

Business Model and Marketing

“We are building the anti-diet app.”

Wellory is a subscription service costing $89.99 a month that users can cancel at any time. The company prioritizes transparency with its customers, something they’ve seen other services in the space fail to provide.

“There are a lot of businesses in the diet world that are very tricky and say you have to pay for 6 months upfront or you can't renew. Because we want to be a leader in the anti-diet world we want to be very careful in how we think about that and our phrasing,” Emily said.

Wellory is a “marketplace pick” - they pair users with one of their 650+ nutrition coaches who is with them every step of the way. Throughout the process, you share photos of everything you eat with your coach to come up with a tailored plan that's right for you. Something that makes Wellory even more differentiated from other dieting or nutrition services is their truly first-ever approach to nutrition planning.

“We actually work with our clients throughout the chronology of their day to build healthy habits. We’ll work with you on breakfast first, giving you ingredients, recipes, feedback, and education. Then it's lunch, then we work with you on dinner. It's not a quick fix, good luck, see you later. It’s actually helping you build sustainable habits,” Emily said.

Wellory’s biggest marketing highlight to date? An OOH campaign in the subway, a major life goal for a native New Yorker like Emily.

Challenges

“Patience is really hard. Saying: here's all the things we want to do, but here's where we’re at, and we have to do all these things to get there.”

As a founder working with both full-time employees and agency/contractor teams, Emily shared that one of the hurdles she’s faced has been understanding that you get different levels of commitment from people who are in the trenches with you vs. outsourced.

“Agencies have such smart people on board, but there's nothing like having someone who’s on your team with the same aligned incentives, who can really dive into the business,” Emily said.

The wellness space itself faces a challenge of a lack of diversity. 92% of professionals in the nutrition expert industry are white females, and Wellory is dedicated to creating opportunities for more diverse candidates.

The Advice

Emily was thoughtful in the wisdom she shared with us - some passed down from her mother who has always encouraged Emily to stick with her goals.

“Businesses take different forms and shapes, and as long as you never give up and keep figuring it out you'll find your next path forward. Wellory will always be something as long as I keep putting life into it,” Emily said.

Emily’s other tips for future founders:

Do the hard work and gather as much data as early on as possible.
You’re just one message away from being in front of anyone you want to talk to. Be smart about your meetings, but in the early stages talk to as many people as you can.
Block off your calendar! Emily doesn’t have to worry about what to work on throughout the day because she has already planned it out for herself.

Download the Wellory app here to kickstart your way to better nutrition.

Photo courtesy of Wellory.

Written by Kendall Embs.