Wellness
CEO
Craig Elbert
Founded
2016
Co-Founders
Akash Shah
Co-Investors
Bayer, Goodwater Capital, Goldman Sachs

Care/of, founded in 2016 by CEO Craig Elbert, Akash Shah and Juxtapose, was the first company to offer a full-stack personalized vitamin and supplement experience custom-tailored to an individual's health goals, lifestyle and dietary preferences. Care/of's journey began with the observation that people are overwhelmed by the wide variety of supplements available in store aisles (where it's near impossible to know what's right for them) and confused by trying to suss out the right supplementation fit balancing their nutritional goals and lifestyle. The company's solution was a digital-first, delightful experience that combined an understanding of an individual's unique health needs with monthly delivery of customized boxes of personalized supplements to their door, and kept a steady relationship to help them adhere to healthy habits. Care/of became one of the most followed and respected national nutrition brands, with a full suite of physical products (in addition to personalized vitamin packs, Care/of distributed their high-quality supplements and powders via retail stores like Target), as well as a suite of digital products that were designed to help people track their nutritional goals. In 2022, Care/of was acquired by Bayer. In 2024, the Care/of brand was sunset.

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founding CEO

Craig Elbert

Craig partnered with Juxtapose to found Care/of after a transformative founding leadership experience at Bonobos, where he started as the founding Head of Finance and over time led both the financing and marketing functions before the company's acquisition by Walmart. Craig has sat at the juncture of analytical meets creative for over two decades of his career, including stints at Lehman Brothers and Warner Music Group. Craig was motivated to lead Care/of due to his passion for business-building and improving people's lives through better health habits.

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Article Title
Craig Elbert

"Building and creating from scratch is what energizes me. With Care/of, it was particularly motivating because of the impact we could have in helping people maintain healthy habits and improve their lives."

Company
Care/of
Year Founded
2016
Industry
Wellness
Making everyday health delightful

We partnered with Craig to found a technology-enabled, personalized health platform looking to bring clarity and delight to nutrition—starting with the confusing world of supplementing your health. Today, Care/of is a healthcare technology company dedicated to simplifying consumer health with a full suite of personalized digital and physical products that enables Americans to think about nutrition on their own terms. Craig was previously the Chief Marketing Officer of Bonobos, and prior to that was the founding Head of Finance at Bonobos.

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Craig before Care/of

My journey prior to Care/of was non-linear - from investment banking to the music industry to selling men's pants. The commonality is my passion for delighting the customer, and using technology to do so. Probably most impactful on my career was the time I spent just before Care/of as part of the early leadership team at Bonobos, a direct-to-consumer menswear brand. In my time there we grew the company from a dozen employees to hundreds of employees and eventually a sale to Walmart. At Bonobos, I spent half of my tenure as the leader of the finance org and half of my time as the leader of the marketing org. I love the brand-building that came from that experience and it got me excited about building a new brand in Care/of with Juxtapose.

Career Highlights

2016

Launching the Care/of site was easily one of my proudest moments. The thoughtfulness and creativity of the team in building something unique was inspiring.

2013

Began to run the marketing function, especially as the surface area between digital marketing (that was becoming increasingly quantitative) and finance overlap meaningfully. I got the chance to use my analytical and creative skills together. To help men dress better. Brain explosion emoji.

2010

We raised our first round of venture capital at Bonobos because of the founders' vision and energy - but the lifetime value calculations and cohort analysis number-crunching I did in the process didn't hurt.

1996

I started working at the local record store in Des Moines as a high school sophomore. That role gave me an appreciation for the motivation and energy that comes with working with a product that you love and care about.

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