Launched: 2016
Founder: Katie Kaps
Key Executives:
2024 Full Year Expected Revenue Range: $30 to $50 million
Offline points of distribution globally projected for 2024: 20
Primary Category: Tools and Devices
Other Categories: Bodycare, Wellness
Key Markets:
Retail Partnerships:
Primary Distribution Channel: Prestige
Other Distribution Channels: Department Store
Funding Rounds: Seed
Notable Investors / Funding Partners: HALO Integrity Squared
HigherDOSE’s mission is to make supercharged self-care and beauty biohacking accessible to the masses through efficacious, portable wellness technology, tools, and accessories.
Since 2016, HigherDOSE Co-Founders and female biohackers, Katie Kaps and Lauren Berlingeri, have designed the next generation of cutting-edge wellness technology. HigherDOSE offers premium products inspired by the healing power of nature with science-backed Infrared, PEMF, and red-light therapies developed to boost longevity and vitality from the inside out. The DOSE in HigherDOSE signifies dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins to ignite well-being through the recovery, relaxation, detoxification, healing, and glowing benefits of the product suite.
HigherDOSE has become a juggernaut in the wellness tech space, striking national retail partnerships with Sephora, Goop, Blue Mercury, Best Buy and more, while also becoming a necessity for top celebrities, athletes, and wellness enthusiasts. HigherDOSE also operates its own branded wellness sanctuary at 11 Howard Hotel in New York City—which has become the premier infrared sauna destination—in addition to offering touchpoints at global hospitality destinations including 1 Hotels.
To DOSE is a lifestyle. It’s a commitment to ritualizing your daily well-being, wherever you are. HigherDOSE offers educational content and community to support your journey and help you get high, naturally, alongside a best-selling arsenal of healing tools.
Insight shared by: Fiona Hillery, Head of Communications
What are your key business initiatives for 2024?
HigherDOSE is focused on expanding our retail business with both aspirational and mass market partners. We currently retail with Sephora, Harrods, CurrentBody, Bandier, Free People, Nordstrom, Blue Mercury, Best Buy, and Dick's.
Doubling down on our celebrity and athlete ambassadors is also a priority. We've always amassed organic promotion from talent who enthusiastically DOSE. We're now focused on telling that story through more immersive partnerships and product collaborations.
We're also focused on developing new products that enhance loyalty and retention. While premium technology is what we're best known for and where we continue to innovate, we also want to offer accessories and add-ons, like our supplements and bodycare, to increase repeat purchases.
What are you most proud of having accomplished?
We're proud to have built a brand with name recognition that makes self-empowered healing accessible to the masses. We're passionate about biohacking as a lifestyle, but realize that this may be intimidating to those beginning their wellness journey. Similarly, there may be a perception that self-care is a luxury only the affluent can afford. While we do offer premium products and luxury items, we offer competitive pricing, payment plans, free education, and resources that meet every consumer where they're at on their journey. In this way, we're both a product and a lifestyle brand. As founders, we get the most joy out of seeing someone whose life has truly been changed from using technology or practicing our DOSE rituals.
What has been the biggest surprise?
The pandemic definitely shook our foundation and forced us to re-evaluate our business model to survive. We had started the company with a focus on locations and spas. This was difficult to scale and created expensive overhead, even with hospitality partners. When our spas had to shut down because of the Covid-19 crisis, we came home to the mission of accessibility and decided to pivot to DTC. Luckily, we'd already been developing wellness technology that made the spa experience of HigherDOSE portable for at-home use or travel. The pandemic simply forced our hand into doubling down on this category and this proved to be the best business decision we could have made. In 2021 we 10x'd our sales!
What fuels your competitive advantage?
Our co-founders, Katie and Lauren, both being biohackers and beauty enthusiasts and passionate about being at the forefront of innovation, gives us a competitive advantage from a credibility and trust standpoint. Being first to market in the infrared space also lends to loyalty. Over the past eight years we've been able to build a community of DOSE-rs who engage with founders through content and events. The transparency and education we offer in our digital series supports follow-along interactivity with our audience. This has allowed us to grow our community of affiliates (2,500), total social audience to 250,000, and email to 450,000.
Please share your insight on the future of the beauty industry.
We believe the future of beauty is at the intersection of wellness. Industry trends show that inside-out beauty is what's being valued through consumer focus on clean ingredients, supplements, and beauty devices. Efficacious wellness technology that provides beauty benefits, like red-light and infrared, are the way of the future.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Founders need time to sleep too! You can only show up for the team as fully as you show up for yourself. In this way, self-care isn't selfish. It's essential to reduce stress, improve sleep, and keep your mood level to be an effective leader.
What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?
Lack of boundaries resulted in burnout last year! I was struggling with the compulsion to be "always on" and accessible, being a completely remote company. I had to learn the balance of setting boundaries and trusting in my hires without needing to be in the weeds of every micro decision being made. This has made my role as CEO of a start-up far more sustainable!
Paying it forward, what advice would you give someone contemplating launching a beauty brand?
While beauty is a saturated, competitive industry, there's so much white space for innovation. Don't focus on competition. Focus on where you can own a category with longevity potential.
If you could change one thing in the beauty industry what would it be?
Lauren and I grew up with unrealistic beauty standards due to airbrushing. In recent years, we've seen a trend toward more natural, transparent beauty; however, we're seeing AI models begin to infiltrate marketing ads. I would love to change the industry to hold transparency as a core value in both products and marketing, to provide knowledge and a fair baseline for impressionable consumers.
