Historically, the most durable consumer businesses were vice businesses—tobacco, alcohol, gambling. Sticky, ritualistic, habitual. We're now seeing those same behavioral mechanics applied to wellness. Sleep scores are the new bragging rights. Health tracking is the new status symbol. When behavior shifts from indulgence to optimization and carries the same psychological stickiness, you get a category with unprecedented durability.

Health and wellness is projected to be a $9 trillion global market, with an outsized share coming from discretionary consumer spend. Consumers are spending more on how they look and how they feel—and they're taking it into their own hands. M&A deal size and frequency have accelerated for 20 years. This is not a trend. It's a supercycle.

Consumers are learning about next-generation medicines on TikTok. They're reading about peptides on Reddit. They understand where the industry is heading before regulators and incumbents do. We now have a more empowered and informed consumer than ever—and they're pulling innovation forward.

Two motivations we study obsessively: status and vanity. They drive decision-making, loyalty, and willingness to pay. Wellness has become a vehicle for both—the Whoop on your wrist, the supplement stack on your counter, the sleep score you screenshot. When health becomes identity, the economics follow.

Innovation is accelerating—science-driven skincare, supplements, and Rx products are moving faster to meet demand. Biotech is finding faster paths to market through consumer products. The gap between lab and shelf is closing, and the companies that bridge it will define the next decade.

What started as an observation about shifting consumer relationships with alcohol has transformed into an entirely new beverage category. Functional feelability—beverages dosed with THC, kratom, kanna, kava, and other actives. Consumers still want the ritual, but they want something different in the glass. The shift isn't away from alcohol. It's toward something new.

The collision of two movements: “Dr. You”—the empowered consumer armed with data, diagnostics, and therapeutics—and real biotech innovation finding faster paths to market through consumer products. AI is accelerating ingredient discovery and delivery. Consumers are questioning the $70 billion supplement industry that often doesn't work. When you have Whoop data, you can see if something works. That changes everything.

GLP-1s are the headline, but peptides like BPC-157, TB500, and CJC-1295 are gaining attention. They send messenger signals to the body—triggering tissue repair, immune modulation, appetite control. Many are bioidentical, perceived as more natural than pharmaceuticals. Users report noticeable effects in days, not months. As one customer told us: supplements are about optimization; peptides are about biological repair. It's a different class altogether.

Many investors focus on hormone replacement therapy. We're focused on what comes after prescription. One in four women in their 40s and 50s are on antidepressants—many prescribed SSRIs for symptoms that may have been perimenopause. As targeted treatments rise, many are asking why they're still on SSRIs. Coming off them is difficult. We see ownable territory in deprescription—not just for midlife women, but broadly.

We've seen the “proteinification” of everything. Protein is front of pack. Calorie counts are being replaced by grams of protein. What's next is nutrient efficiency—especially in a GLP-1 world. As plates get smaller, nutrient density matters more. Consumers are thinking in ratios: how many grams of protein or fiber per calorie? The companies that win will make every bite count.