It was the diet soda that was to blame. The constant joint pain, the aches, the flare-ups of autoimmune symptoms, all happened every time the young man drank a diet soda. “I always knew there was an inflammatory component there,” recalls entrepreneur Kevin Gundersen, founder of the supplement brand Inno Supps. “It’s just a bunch of sucralose. Once I cut it out of my diet, all my skin problems went away. My joint pain went away. I just felt better. So I knew from that moment on that this product couldn’t be good for you.”
Health has always been a priority for the California native. He put flaxseed oil in childhood oatmeal and had a home gym by the time he was eight. He exercised religiously and ate a healthy diet, or so he believed until the revelation of diet soda. The switch to a healthier drink and the resulting improvement in his well-being was enough to fully convince the health-conscious Gundersen that he had found something that could also help others.
Maybe that would be the end of the story, if not for the happy coincidence that Gundersen was obsessed with two things in life: fitness of course, but also entrepreneurship. Since his student days at USC, Gundersen has founded a dozen companies, including several supplement brands. For him, an obsession with fitness meant a passion for fitness-focused businesses. For its products, this meant no artificial sweeteners.
“Almost all supplements contain artificial sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame, a bunch of stuff you don’t want in your body,” says the 36-year-old. “So I started a company called LIV Body, with products aimed at helping fitness enthusiasts who couldn’t find a comparable supplement on the market. We were one of the only brands that didn’t use artificial sweeteners. It was all natural and I was proud of it because I was becoming very passionate about natural products.”
Gundersen would sell this business in recent yearsallowing him to focus on other projects in his areas of interest: fitness and health. He took his experience and expertise in the supplement field and founded Inno Supps six years ago. The company, which makes a range of products for men and women, has been wildly successful and is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry.
Despite all this success, Gundersen began his professional journey with failure. “My first idea was the Frat Pack,” he explains. “I was in a fraternity at USC and I thought a liver-cleansing multivitamin would be really appealing. I thought it was a big deal. It wasn’t.”
Gundersen had just learned a painful lesson for any entrepreneur. But the pain was worth the wisdom it produced, as the entrepreneur realized that his company’s creatine was particularly popular among women. This popularity was the unintended result of its commitment to the highest quality ingredients, such as the specific use of micronized creatine. Gundersen explains: “A side effect of this choice was reduced bloating, something we learned from customer feedback. When we really looked at the market, we saw a pretty significant gap.”
The company was very successful, but after years of profits and growth, Gundersen’s principles were confronted with the practicalities of business. Of course, higher quality ingredients come with a higher price tag, but he was confident the extra cost would be worth it in the long run. Faced with a complex struggle to fully integrate this belief and commitment into the business itself, the young man knew it was time for him to move on.
Kevin admits that “it was a combination of business decision and my personal beliefs and principles. He sold his stake in the brand and turned his attention to what would become the crown jewel of his fitness empire, Inno Supps. Six years later, the brand is immensely popular and profitable, proving that Gundersen’s stubborn refusal to sacrifice quality for short-term gains was indeed wise.
Inno Supps does not focus only on women, but this does not mean a narrowing of the customer range. “Right now, Inno Supps is 47% female and 53% male,” shares Gundersen. “We found this niche in the market that took off, but my true passion is bringing supplements, fitness, health, and wellness to as many people as possible, male or female. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on additional third-party purity testing, heavy metal testing, research and development, and more. This is so important to us.”
Gundersen didn’t do it alone, but rather benefited from the unwavering support of a partner in each entrepreneurial venture, explaining “I’ve been with my wife for 21 years. We’ve been together since high school and we’ve built almost every one of these projects together.”
The next step for the Gundersen family is something entirely their own, with no outside investors, no partners, just family and fitness. “We want to grow it to a huge level. My wife will be the face of the brand, which we will own 100%. Even my children are eager to help me, because they are extremely passionate about fitness, just like me.”
Despite all the projects, the countless products and the tenacious principles, the entrepreneur remains attached to his mission. “My primary goal is to promote health and wellness. Simply put, how can I get the best product into the hands of our customers? The rest will take care of itself.”
