“I was very successful in technology, but I didn’t feel like it was my calling and my true passion,” Halama said. “My children were pretty young, and I was working for IBM at the time on a cloud-based storage platform. My kids had always heard me say ‘storage’ so one day my youngest was like, ‘oh, mommy, do you work there?’ And it was one of the storage facilities on the corner, and I was like, yeah, no, I don’t work there.”
Halama said it was then that she realized she needed to find a career that truly spoke to her. She partnered up with Kurt Seidensticker, who presented her with the idea of Vital Proteins, where she served in advisory and leadership roles from 2014 to 2023.
Committed to working in the health and wellness industry, Halama became CEO of Supergut earlier this year. She highlighted a shared commitment to merging science with marketing for consumer education as gut health continues to gain popularity among consumers.
In 2020, Halama also established Creekside Ventures, where she advises and invests in female-founded brands in the CPG sector.
“Women still really struggle with ‘how do I get this great idea off the ground?’ -especially in CPG, because 80% to 85% of CPG purchasing decisions are made by women,” she said. “So who better to introduce products and ideas into the market than other women? That was really the thought process behind how I can take my good fortune coming out of Vital Proteins and really help fund the next generation of female entrepreneurs, female founders and female leaders.”
Those future generations include Halama’s two daughters.
“I think they’ve seen me as a single mom, taking risks along the way, certainly leaving technology when I was well paid, matching 401K, all the programs in place and a very established, successful career and deciding to risk it all on a startup, ” she said. “I think that they’re very accustomed to taking risks, and I would encourage all young women to take risks in general.
“The Gen Z demographic and even younger millennials in general have an ability to really affect change and do things that hadn’t been done before just by using their voice—so taking risks, using your voice and then recognizing progress over perfection.”
