Conscious CPG Voices: Levelle Nutrition 'fuels women to run the world'

How are “Conscious CPG” companies positioning themselves in today’s fast-changing consumer market—and how are they turning to the Newtopia Now as a vital new resource to advance their brand among key buyers and decision makers?

For this series, we asked the founders and leaders of 10 emerging brands who are exhibiting their innovations—many of them for the very first time at Newtopia Now—what factors drive their decisions today. Coming from diverse backgrounds, these entrepreneurs share at least one thing in common: The belief that gathering with peers, contemporaries, buyers, influencers, mentors, business leaders and others in an intimate setting is critical to learning about the marketplace, building relationships and growing your business and brand.

Linda Alvarez, M.D., MBA, Cofounder and CEO, Levelle Nutrition

Sports nutrition isn’t one-size-fits-all, according to Levelle Nutrition co-founder and CEO Linda Alvarez, M.D. There are also sex-specific considerations to take into account, she asserts. A physician, Linda learned that almost half of U.S. marathoners are women, but only 30% of sports nutrition and sports medicine study participants are women, and less than 3% of all sports nutrition products are made for women. Seeing an opportunity, in 2021 Linda and her business partner, Stephanie Schrauth, launched Levelle Nutrition to provide female athletes with products formulated specifically with their physiology in mind. “We fuel women to run the world,” they say.

Related:Women in CPG support each other at special Newtopia Now brunch

Linda Alvarez shares her brand's story in her own words:

I never planned on being a CPG founder. I have a background as a medical doctor. Before and during the pandemic, I served as national secretary-treasurer for the Committee of Interns and Residents, a union representing more than 22,000 resident physicians, which inspired me to pursue an MBA degree at Cornell University. There, I met my business partner Stephanie Schrauth. We were assigned to work together as partners in a new venture creation course. We focused on athletes and marathon runners and what they were eating.

We found that every woman we spoke with had trouble finding endurance nutrition, and many sports nutrition products were not working for them. Some were not safe for pregnant and lactating women. When we looked at the market, we found that less than 3% of sports nutrition products target women. And of those that do, many ascribe to the “shrinking and pinking” philosophy; that is, they downsize the product, use pink color and increase the price, but really it’s a product for men. That’s when we developed the idea for our new venture.

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When we founded the company in 2021, we knew the challenge but didn’t have a product. So, we focused on interviewing as many female endurance athletes as we could to learn about their needs, preferences and how we could formulate products specifically for them. Over 2022, we worked with the Cornell University Food Venture Center to go from kitchen prototype to scaling for commercial production. We decided to launch initially with energy purees and compete in the energy gel category.

What sets our products apart is we use low- and moderate-glycemic index, organic, plant-based ingredients. Levelle Nutrition is a member of the Plant Based Foods Association and we just got Non-GMO Project Certified. We have a semi-automatic line that was funded via New York State’s FuzeHub Commercialization Competition and an office in an incubator space known as Rev Ithaca Startup Works. We partner with a co-manufacturer in Rochester with plans for them to take over manufacturing as we grow the business.

We’re currently selling via our own website and at races and sporting events where we can do direct sales, plus we sell in some running and bike shops in the Northeast. But we want to make the transition to the natural channel, which is partly why Newtopia Now is so exciting for us. Also, the event is happening at a great time because we are ramping up and streamlining manufacturing to be prepared for 2025 buying cycles. We’ll display brand new packaging that shows our energy purees are Non-GMO Project Verified. We’re also debuting a new, second product line focused on everyday active women and ‘weekend warriors.’ We look forward to featuring this line to buyers at Newtopia Now, as well.

Newtopia Now, New Hope Network's new trade show, is set for Aug. 25-28 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. For more information and to register, click here.