Staking on Innovation and the Antifragility of Wellness
BoCG Ventures invests in antifragile markets, industries, and assets. Often this starts with identifying traits and characteristics that pertain to stress exposure followed by our ability to couple technology innovation through our Venture Operating Model. We are currently working with conscious wellness startups that have proven resilient in the face of market shocks. In this article, we outline wellness as a robust market segment that when paired with innovative technology trends — This is when wellness becomes antifragile.
Our investment thesis revolves around identifying and scaling antifragile companies who use innovation to fortify their operations. We use the following three factors to categorize the market opportunity for each enterprise:
Fragile: Break when exposed to market shocks, stress, chaos, and other variable factors over time.Robust: Remain unchanged when exposed to market shocks, stress, chaos, and other variable factors.Antifragile: Become stronger when exposed to said market shocks, stress, chaos, and other variable factors.
Wellness to us is both a mental and a physical state of mind — Something that we can mold, chisel, and form to achieve peak performance while also preventing injury from stress and activity.
- The quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort
- An approach to health that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life
We believe that wellness on its own is robust in nature because those who participate in wellness activities are seeking a higher level of health and well-being. Participants mold themselves to withstand prolonged pressures through rigorous processes that, in the long run, make them more robust. While robustness is commendable, it is not automatically antifragile. Technological innovation, paired with preparation and practice, is the only way to ensure antifragility. We believe the highly competitive wellness vertical is ripe for innovation. Prospective wellness brands and existing companies can differentiate themselves by leveraging technology to form new market segments. By meeting dynamic consumer preferences they can establish an ever-changing enduring value network.
Prior to the global pandemic, personal health, fitness, and wellness were predominately “nice-to-have” benefits that came with higher disposable income, employer-sponsored health plans, or only found in niche consumer markets. Two years after the pandemic devastated the globe, wellness has morphed into something highly needed, and dare we say it, something essential. In its path, lay scuttered businesses and broken dreams all because the paradigm of doing business had changed. The pandemic altered the way we live our lives. The new normal included stay-at-home orders, quarantine, work-from-home routines, and for many, a lonelier existence. Let’s face it, the pressures of work have moved in with us. If left unchallenged, the added screen time will likely consume us.
The antifragility of wellness occurs on both the individual level and in business. On the individual level, people need to take better care of themselves due to everyday life, external pressures and one-off stressors such as COVID-19. On a business level, companies need to create an environment where resilient people thrive even when faced with stressful situations. Examples of wellness activities that foster antifragility include:
Physical Wellness: On the extreme end of physical wellness, athletes make themselves antifragile through repeated rigorous exercise to build strength and endurance — They subject their bodies to constant physical and mental exercise to ensure that they can excel when put to the test. Biological Systems: Vaccinations expose biological systems to disease in order to build immunity — Vaccines act as stressors to immune system that help develop immunity by imitating infection as a form of protection.Corporate Wellness: On the frontlines of local and global enterprises, businesses train their employees to become resilient during stressful situations — Well-trained individual, with infrastructure to support, can endure chaotic times and thereby ensure the health and wellness of their employers.Nature: Throughout time, Earth and has proven itself the most use case for antifragility. Through natural catastrophes, evolution, and ecosystem changes nature keeps coping and excelling — All species evolve through the surviving inheritance of physical, behavioral, and genetic traits.
In his book, Antifragile, Nassim Taleb echoes his sentiments similarly for physical wellness and exercise, such that “the very idea of existence is to gain from antifragility to workout stressors — as we saw, all kinds of exercise are explorations of convexity effects.” While the concept is straightforward, we ask why are wellness markets forecasted to not only bounce back but also, to grow and leapfrog to a seven trillion-dollar global wellness market?
We believe that market shocks have taught individuals to not resist change but to find avenues to create positive adaptation from adversity and stress. Current market behavior highlights how consumers tend to benefit from market shocks that brings greater levels of conscious wellness and mindfulness. Innovations in technology encourage us to actively adopt our behaviors that build antifragility.
After living under COVID-related restrictions, consumers are seeking experiences that connect them with nature, sustainability, and mental wellness. As normalcy returns and locations reopen, technological innovations that offer wellness-inducing experiences, such as streaming, digital apps, and online platforms, will thrive both in-person and virtually. This new form of hybrid wellness, driven by technology enabled experiences, create antifragile wellness brands who can scale — Creating opportunities for both individuals and investors alike.
At BoCG Ventures, we view digital and blockchain technology as stable tools for building dynamic, antifragile hybrid wellness brands. Blockchain technology applied to growing trends in natural and clean products, personalization, digital experiences, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and paired with social media can enable the antifragile nature of wellness. A few examples include:
- Clean and Sustainable Product Lines now have traceability through blockchain across ingredient sourcing to charitable sales contributions that empower consumer education and advocacy.
- Data-Driven Funnels and Sales Channels give way to personalized, segmented marketing campaigns and brand alignment with consumer values.
- Omnichannel eCommerce offerings and supply chain enable wellness brands to not only be globally accessible but also provide a physical-to-digital experience that sustains customer lifetime value where brand loyalty continues to decrease.
- Authentic Social Media-Driven Marketing and Referral Models will continue to reign as the driving force of consumer-driven sales and marketing.
We are committed to bridging the gap between ideas and antifragile investment opportunities — To educate both entrepreneurs and investors on the convergence of scalability through our innovative Venture Operating Model. A model that is purpose-built to develop antifragile operating systems and frameworks on a start-up and enterprise level. Wellness is a key example of antifragility. We will soon be highlighting one of our portfolio assets that is leveraging these trends in a direct-to-consumer wellness brand. Watch our wellness teaser as we prepare for our launch:
To learn more about our work, contact our team or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Medium.
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The views expressed here are those of the individual BoCG Ventures, L.L.C. (“BV”) personnel quoted and are not the views of BV or its affiliates. Certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by BoCG Ventures. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, BoCG Ventures has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
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