Sally Mueller and Michelle Jacobs on modernizing aging without pause

A catchup between two longtime friends turned into a product shelf when Sally Mueller learned that aches, dry skin and vaginal dryness traced back to menopause. That conversation became Womaness, now sold from its own site to Target doors.

Sally Mueller sat in a doctor visit and heard a plain answer she had not expected. The aches and pains, the vaginal dryness, the dry skin, all of it was related to menopause. She told Michelle Jacobs about it on a catchup a few years back, the kind of call where two people who met twenty years ago early in their careers compare notes.

Jacobs had built brands for Polo Ralph Lauren and Lancome, worked in publishing retail, and worked with the Joy Mangano brand. Mueller had run brand launches as a Target marketing executive and as chief brand officer at Cherokee Inc. and Clique Brands. Neither one found clear education, support, or modern products for this stage. So they built what they could not find.

Womaness launched in 2021 with thirteen products across skincare, body, wellness, sexual health and incontinence, sold on its own site and in Target stores. It won the 2021 Beacon Award for Best Brand Launch, added a sleep supplement called Let Me Sleep the same year, raised a 4 million dollar seed round led by Unilever Ventures and Obvious Ventures in 2022, and expanded to Amazon and QVC, with a retail footprint the founders said would surpass 1,800 doors with another chain.

What Seed to Capsule noticed, and what others miss, is how the brand defines proof. Womaness says its products use potent, well researched plant based ingredients, with doctor, gynecologist, consumer and allergy testing, and no parabens, phthalates, sulphates, estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones. That is a label claim with a paper trail behind part of it, and gaps behind other parts. This conversation follows the capsule backwards to ask where it starts, what happens to it, and how it is checked.

You met twenty years ago and stayed creative collaborators and honest sounding boards, then a doctor visit surprised Sally with a menopause diagnosis tied to aches, dry skin and vaginal dryness. What did that catchup change about how you worked together?

Sally Mueller: Michelle and I had known each other for twenty years. We were good friends, creative collaborators, honest sounding boards. Then on a catchup I told her what my doctor had told me. That the symptoms in my changing body were related to menopause. I had not connected them. When we reached out to friends and colleagues, we realized this scenario was all too common. There was no clear education, support, or modern products for this time in a woman’s life. So we did something about it. We wanted to make sure that we were hitting on the right communication points, because our woman is in her 40s, 50s and beyond, facing perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. I think a lot of women are saying, finally. Finally someone sees this stage and speaks to it directly.

Michelle Jacobs: We say it this way. By women, for women. We see you, we hear you, we are you. We do not believe in the pause. We want to modernize aging with innovative solutions, essential information and unlimited inspiration. Live Fully. Age Well. That meant starting with listening. What we have learned in the last year is that women do want to open up and talk about it. You just have to give them the platform and the forum to be comfortable to talk about it.

You launched in 2021 with thirteen products and went straight into Target stores as well as your own site. For a new supplement line, what did that first assortment force you to decide about farms, formulas and fill?

Sally Mueller: It forced us to stay very lean because your business changes so dramatically in those first six to nine months, and then you learn what your real needs are. We started with thirteen products spanning skincare, body care, wellness, sexual health and incontinence. That is a wide shelf. You have to think of it as a funnel. Customers coming in at the top may have seen the brand on tv, or in a magazine, so they arrive aware, but then how do you lead them through each step until they buy. Our woman is still consuming traditional media. She wants continuity. She wants to get to know someone, she wants a deeper story.

Michelle Jacobs: I think a lot of the innovation happens after you launch. That is when it takes true grit. What you thought in your Power Point deck was going to work does not always work. We knew it was an important item in the line for sexual wellness, but we had no idea that it was going to do as well as it is. Listening after launch told us where to put the next work, whether that was a neck serum with a rollerball or a daily capsule. The assortment taught us to keep the chain short enough that we could change it.

Your promise is to modernize aging and to refuse parabens, phthalates, sulphates, estrogen, phytoestrogen and added hormones. How does that refusal shape the Me.No.Pause. formula on paper?

Sally Mueller: We would rather use proven plant based ingredients than estrogen or added hormones. That is a choice we made at the start. Our products contain no estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones and are vegan and gluten free. They are made without parabens, phthalates or sulphates. For Me.No.Pause., which is our natural, clinically tested and doctor approved supplement for menopause and perimenopause, that means the Supplement Facts panel has to carry the weight. What plants, in what amounts, in what form. What the other ingredients line shows for the capsule shell and flow aids. We want vanity worthy products, not embarrassing ones, but the label still has to read plainly.

Michelle Jacobs: Clean products made with potent, proven, well researched plant based ingredients. That phrase only means something if the paperwork backs it. We say doctor, gynecologist, consumer and allergy testing. The words natural, clinically tested and doctor approved appear on Me.No.Pause. because that is how the brand states it. From a provenance view, the open question is the one we take seriously. Which grower, which harvest, which lot. The label states ingredients and daily use. It does not name the farm. That is the step we are still asked to show more clearly.

Me.No.Pause. is described as natural, clinically tested and doctor approved, sold at 46.99 dollars as a daily dietary supplement. Walk us from the capsule in hand backwards to the plant lot. What is traceable lot by lot?

Michelle Jacobs: Start with the capsule in your hand. It has a fill weight, a capsule shell, and a batch code that ties to a lot. Behind that lot is a powder or extract made by drying and extraction from plant material. Behind that is a harvest from a grower. What we can trace lot by lot is the paperwork chain. The specification for each ingredient, the certificate of analysis for identity and for limits on heavy metals and microbes, and third party lab checks where they apply. That is how you know what you have. You compare the delivery against the spec, you keep the lot record, you hold the retained sample.

Sally Mueller: Where exactly does this come from, and how do you know. That is the right question. What we state today is the formula, the daily use, and the testing claim. What we do not yet print is the grower name and harvest place for each botanical lot on the pack. That part of the chain is still opaque to the shopper. To show it would take naming growers by ingredient, publishing the extract form and standardisation if any, and keeping the certificate of analysis tied to the batch code on the bottle. We stayed lean early so we could learn. This is where learning points next.

Let Me Sleep joined in 2021 at 26.99 dollars. A sleep capsule for a household that already keeps Me.No.Pause. on the shelf raises the same provenance question in a different form. How do the two supply chains compare?

Sally Mueller: Let Me Sleep joined the lineup in our launch year because sleepless nights kept coming up in the same conversations as hot flashes and dry skin. It is a dietary supplement for sleep, taken daily as directed on the label. The supply chain follows the same steps. Sourced ingredients, dried and prepared to spec, blended, encapsulated to fill weight, tested by lot. The difference is the ingredient set and the dose form behavior. A sleep formula may use different botanicals and different aids for flow and fill, so the other ingredients line reads differently. That is why we tell careful buyers to read both panels on both bottles, not just the front.

Michelle Jacobs: Households buy this way. A partner, a parent, themselves. They keep a small shelf for years rather than trying something new every month. They have paid for the expensive version and want to know whether it was worth it. So we keep the label language parallel. What it is, how it is used, what it leaves out. No estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones across the line. Vegan and gluten free as stated. The farm names are not on either label today. The testing statement is. That is the honest split between what is traceable internally by lot and what is visible to the reader.

We would rather use proven plant based ingredients than estrogen or added hormones, and the label has to prove what we left out.

Sally Mueller

You sell through your own site, Target, Amazon and QVC, toward more than 1,800 doors with another chain. What does that distribution require from encapsulation, testing and lot records?

Sally Mueller: It requires discipline. Each retail partner has its own requirements for labeling, for seals, for adverse event handling, for lot traceability. You have to think of it as a funnel forward through each step to purchase, but also backward through the supply chain to origin. One bottle on a Target shelf has to tie back to its batch record. The same for Amazon and QVC and our site. You cannot run that on memory. You run it on documents. Specification, purchase order, incoming lot, certificate of analysis, blend record, encapsulation record, finished test, retained sample.

Michelle Jacobs: Staying lean helped here. Your business changes so dramatically in those first six to nine months. If you add headcount before you know your real needs, you miss the paperwork that matters. We learned to ask for the document behind words like pure. If a supplier says pure, we ask for the assay, the heavy metals panel, the micro panel, the allergen statement. If they say natural, we ask what it means in the spec. That is slower, but it is the only way a small team can serve many doors without losing the thread from field to capsule.

In 2022 you raised a 4 million dollar seed round led by Unilever Ventures and Obvious Ventures. What did outside capital change about sourcing and testing?

Sally Mueller: Capital let us plan beyond the next purchase order. It let us hold the right inventory, reorder to spec rather than to shortage, and keep testing consistent lot to lot. It did not change the standard. No parabens, phthalates, sulphates. Absolutely no estrogen, phytoestrogen, or added hormones. It gave us room to keep that standard while we learned what sold, what needed reformulation, and what needed better sourcing. True grit after launch costs money. Testing every lot costs money. Keeping retained samples costs money.

Michelle Jacobs: Investors also ask for systems. Where is the spec. Where is the certificate of analysis. Who is the backup grower if a harvest fails. That pressure is useful. It moves a brand from founder memory to written procedure. We want to make sure that we are hitting on the right communication points, but behind those points there has to be a file. The file is the farm lot, the extraction record, the lab result, the batch link. Capital bought us time to build that file properly.

You often say We see you, we hear you, we are you, and Live Fully. Age Well. How do those phrases show up in the way you write a label, not just an ad?

Michelle Jacobs: We see you, we hear you, we are you means we write for a woman who reads. She reads the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line. She looks for third party seals and knows they are not all equal. So we keep the front simple and the back exact. Me.No.Pause. states daily dietary supplement for menopause and perimenopause. Let Me Sleep states sleep supplement. How it is used, stated plainly. No promises beyond what the brand states and what the label shows.

Sally Mueller: Live Fully. Age Well. is the reason we refuse vanity shame. We would rather make vanity worthy products than embarrassing ones. That is why a neck serum gets a cooling rollerball and a body cream gets a clear name like The Works. For capsules, vanity worthy means a bottle you keep on the shelf without hiding it, with a label you can defend. We do not believe in the pause. We do believe in paperwork. If we cannot show it, we should not claim it.

What remains opaque today, and what would it take to make Me.No.Pause. fully traceable to the field?

Sally Mueller: What is traceable today is the finished lot link. Batch code to blend to ingredient lots to certificates of analysis and to the testing we state. What is not yet visible to the buyer is the origin layer. Grower name, harvest place and date, drying method, extraction solvent and ratio, standardisation target where there is one. To make it fully traceable would take publishing that per ingredient, per lot, or at least per formula version, and keeping it tied to the batch code on the bottle. That is work, but it is plain work.

Michelle Jacobs: It would also take saying what clean means each time we use it. For us clean has meant potent, well researched plant based ingredients, with testing as stated, and without the list we refuse. That definition belongs on the record, not just in an interview. If a step is still opaque, name it. If a seal only covers the facility and not the product, say so. The careful buyer keeps our products for years. She deserves to see the field behind the capsule, or to be told exactly why she cannot yet.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with the editors is the split the founders did not dodge. Internally, lots tie to specs and lab sheets. Externally, the label states use and refusals but not growers, harvests or extraction detail. That gap is common in supplements, and Womaness names it rather than covering it with adjectives.

The brand set out to modernize aging for women in their 40s, 50s and beyond, with products that could sit on an open shelf and paperwork that could stand behind them. The next proof, as both founders put it, is to publish the field behind the capsule lot by lot.

Product spotlight

Me.No.Pause., 46.99 dollars, daily dietary supplement for menopause and perimenopause. The brand describes it as natural, clinically tested and doctor approved, made without estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones. Take as directed on the label and read the Supplement Facts and other ingredients lines for the per serving amounts and capsule aids.

Let Me Sleep, 26.99 dollars, sleep supplement added to the lineup in 2021. The brand positions it for households that keep a small, steady shelf, to be taken as directed. Compare its Supplement Facts and other ingredients line with Me.No.Pause. to see where the formulas share aids and where they differ.