Tell everyone early — I believe I originally heard this on a podcast interview with the founders of Method. When you start a business, you are putting everything on the line. That’s hard for many people, your friends included, to grasp. Some might even be a little judgey. But by telling everyone, you are subjecting yourself to their scrutiny, which in turn, makes you even more motivated to succeed. I thought that was great advice.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Erika Lepczyk.
Erika Lepczyk used her family history of dementia as motivation to launch Memore, a successful direct-to-consumer CPG business offering functional blends that conveniently fill gaps in consumers’ diets with whole food nutrition, which is shown to improve cognition, slow cognitive decline and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s dementia. She is determined to disrupt America’s treat-first healthcare model by educating the masses on the benefits of preventive health measures.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Launching Memore was a little out of character for me to be honest. I have a competitive spirit and have always been highly motivated in my career, but would have never described myself as being entrepreneurial. The turning point for me was learning that less than 2% of all dementia cases were attributed to heredity factors. As someone with a family history of dementia, this was a huge revelation for me. I had always considered my predisposition to the disease unnerving, largely because it felt out of my control. This statistic proved otherwise. I began prioritizing preventive health and sought solutions to support my journey. What I found was a market oversaturated with products touting quick fixes and miracle results. Preventive health was an afterthought. I was determined to change that. I launched Memore to help put long-term health front and center.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Memore is dedicated to raising awareness of the preventative measures people can take to sustain long-term cognitive health. It may not sound very disruptive, and in many countries, it is not, but in America we approach health with a treat-first mentality. We are conditioned to seek out solutions that provide immediate benefits and it’s wreaking havoc on our health care system. We can drink more without a hangover, sleep less without feeling tired, and eat poorly without stomach discomfort. We have effectively eliminated the consequences that would otherwise prompt the positive diet and lifestyle changes that improve health. We aim to disrupt this style of thinking.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We are almost too young of a company for me to look fondly on any one of the countless mistakes we have made thus far haha. One mistake that I found particularly funny was with our packaging. Our box insert, designed to hold our bottle in place, was out of spec. The opening wasn’t wide enough for our bottle to fit inside. And although it had arrived a few months prior, I didn’t even realize it until the day before we launched. So, we ended up staying up all night using a box cutter to widen the opening of each individual insert. We now triple check everything we receive from vendors the minute they arrive.
Not necessarily a mistake, but something I now find funny that I didn’t at the time was when we converted our spare bedroom into a makeshift lab during COVID. The Research Campus, where we were developing the product, was temporarily closed and we just couldn’t afford another delay. We packed the room with lab equipment and product samples and continued making progress on the product. At the time, I hated it because the room was unusable for the better part of 6 months. Today, I look back on it fondly because that’s where our final product formulas were developed. I learned that when problems arise, you have to be resourceful!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
We wouldn’t be where we are today without the help of the entire team at the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab; specifically Dr. Bill Aimutis, CIndy Calhoun and Joe Hildenbrand. We brought them an idea for a product and they helped us turn it into a reality. 99% of food company’s fail, and because of that, it’s hard for any unknown brand entering the industry to get any amount of respect. Ingredient suppliers for example, won’t give you the time of day. They gave us added legitimacy, helping us identify and form relationships with suppliers, educating us on all the testing and food safety requirements, and mapping out the production process, just to name a few.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
When industry disruption occurs, I think it’s very rarely an all-positive outcome. There always seems to be tradeoffs. Take for example, the disruption of the taxi industry. Ride hailing firms dramatically improved access to affordable transportation. They did so, however, at the expense of small businesses and in many cases, the drivers themselves. Industrial farming greatly improved the accessibility and affordability of food, but at the expense of small farms, and, many would argue, the quality of the food itself. I think any time “disruption” results in the mass consolidation of industry participants, the outcome is generally more negative than positive, but that’s probably my small business bias showing through!
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Tell everyone early — I believe I originally heard this on a podcast interview with the founders of Method. When you start a business, you are putting everything on the line. That’s hard for many people, your friends included, to grasp. Some might even be a little judgey. But by telling everyone, you are subjecting yourself to their scrutiny, which in turn, makes you even more motivated to succeed. I thought that was great advice.
Trust the process. This was tremendous advice given to me by our branding agency. I’ve applied it every step of the way. Even though I am not a professional brander, I found myself wanting to control the entire branding process. They asked me to trust them and the process, and the result was incredible. It’s a great lesson for any small business owner or early-stage startup because you can’t do everything yourself. Sometimes you need to let go and let the experts do what they do best.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
When I think of what really defines Memore, it’s our preventive approach to cognitive health. I want to establish the brand as the authority on preventive health, and we do so by finding new ways to use whole foods to address a variety of chronic health conditions, like heart disease and diabetes.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Things are definitely changing for the better, but I would say that access to capital is far less for women than it is for men. I think this is partially due to the fact that the financial industry in general is still heavily male dominant.
I also think it’s much more challenging for women with families to pursue entrepreneurship than it is for their male counterparts. Even as family dynamics are changing, the expectation is still that women are supposed to be the primary caregivers. Because of that, we take on an unequal amount of the responsibilities, further straining our time.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Diet for The Mind by Martha Clare Morris made a huge impact on my thinking. She was really the first to identify the connection between food and brain health. Her book, which summarizes much of her research, was my primary inspiration for formulating Memore. The main research finding was that the MIND Diet was shown to be effective in slowing cognitive decline and reducing Alzheimer’s risk by as much as 53%.
I also loved Blue Zones by Dan Buettner. Most books about diet or lifestyle are highly opinionated because diet culture is extremely competitive. The Blue Zone books are anything but. The author finds areas with a high population of centenarians (people over 100) and dives deeply into their lifestyles to determine why. I found the lives of so many of those centenarians to be so inspirational. It really motivated me to prioritize the things in life that I value most like family, positive social interaction, spending time outdoors, and traveling.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would inspire a preventive health movement. We spend over one trillion dollars a year on preventable chronic health conditions in America and it is threatening to bankrupt our health care system. Yet the effects extend well beyond the financial implications and onto the families of the patients themselves, many of whom experience failing health as a result of their caregiving efforts. It’s a vicious cycle and one that I would love to break. There is an obvious case to be made for getting registered dietitians more involved in our healthcare system.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style
Maya Angelou
I aspire to thrive in all things I do. Sometimes I will feel like I’m not thriving and I’m merely surviving, but I try to take every lesson, every opportunity and every encounter in life as a learning experience. I’ve shifted my mindset to think more positively in the past couple of years and am trying to give myself more grace. While on this ride, I’m just trying to enjoy it! With a little and a lot of passion, compassion, humor, and definitely some style.
How can our readers follow you online?
Instagram: @erikalepcheck
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/erikalepczyk/
Female Disruptors: Erika Lepczyk of Memore On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.