NutraWomen Wednesday: Victoria Thain Gioia, Founder & Co-CEO, Perelel

Pregnant and frustrated, the pair decided that if they wanted such an offering, they would have to do it themselves.

Through her research, Thain Gioia said she found little information on what should be included in a prenatal or a consensus on what constitutes a prenatal. 

"I was sharing a lot of my research and my learnings with Alex and felt like she too had just been really questioning the supplement space and the brands on the market and the ingredients and felt really frustrated over the category as well as the complexity and this one-size-fits-all market where the onus was really on the consumer to do all of the research and learn what she was or wasn't getting," she said. "And so we really thought there was an opportunity to create better products for women."

However, the opportunity came with challenges. Like many female entrepreneurs, raising capital proved to be an uphill battle.

"There was such a lack of interest in understanding the space, it was pretty crazy," Thain Gioia said. "We got told a lot of ‘let me ask my wife what she thinks’ or you know ‘how big is the women's health market anyways?’ So it was really frustrating to get those questions."

She and Taylor eventually teamed up with OBGYN Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, who joined as medical co-founder, to run formulation and medical community relations.

Today Perelel offers over 20 SKUS, including a Conception Prenatal Support Pack and prenatals for each trimester.

"I think at the end of the day, you have to really believe in what you're building and the example that I'm setting for my daughters and what we're doing to change their outcomes," Thain Gioia said.