ARTICLE / THE MAKING OF... SERIES
The making of...
Welly.
In a world full of greenwashed wellness claims and supplement quick fixes, it’s rare to find a founder who’s genuinely trying to bring us back to nature, with a bit of grit, a whole lot of iteration, and some brutal supply chain lessons along the way. Enter Jarahad Valeri, the founder of Welly, a brand on a mission to make fruit and veg the hero again.
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The making of... Series
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#welly #rethinknutrition #wholefoodrevolution #gritandgreens #founderstories #foundermindset #entrepreneurlife #bootstrapstory #startup #scaleup #privateequity #venturecapital #brandbuilding #branding #strategy #brandsuccess
Hey Jarahad, welcome to The making of… how the devil are you? Ok, first up, let’s set the scene. Who are you, and what’s the story behind Welly?
So, Welly is a brand on a mission to reimagine the way we consume fruits and vegetables (spoiler: no kale chips in sight). Before Welly, I co-founded Mous Products, a sustainable water bottle brand now selling in over 20 countries, built Use Cooper, an Adobe tech extension, and worked with other consumer businesses through my consulting studio Cura. My thing? Business strategy, marketing, and brand management. Also: pasta enthusiast, golf tragic, red wine romantic.
Jarahad Valeri, the founder of Welly
You’ve got a pretty eclectic business background, from water bottles to Adobe extensions. What pulled you into the world of food and nutrition?
It started with a question: Why is it so hard to eat our damn veggies? The more I dug, the more I realised the supplement industry has sidetracked us. Whole foods are nature’s first and best remedy, yet only 10% of Aussies are hitting their daily fruit and veggie targets. So I flipped the script, how do we make whole foods convenient, craveable, and part of the everyday?
By reverse-engineering what people already love, snacks, drinks, powders, and rebuilding them with fruits and vegetables at their core. Less "take this pill," more "yum, that’s good and good for me."
That shift from insight to product sounds like a big leap. How did you go about validating your hunch?
We got scrappy and strategic. Focus groups, surveys, brand message testing via paid ads, you name it. Every bit of data helped us narrow in on what resonated with people, and what made them say, "Oh yeah, I’d try that." It was equal parts science, gut instinct, and letting real humans point us in the right direction.
Let’s talk mess, because no founder gets a clean start. What did those first attempts in the kitchen look like?
Imagine a small apartment covered in sticky powder that smells vaguely like a fruit salad... and also regret. That was my kitchen. Early batches were handmade, chaotic, and, honestly, pretty gross. Texture? Wrong. Flavour? Worse. I went through 150 formulations per flavour. But hey, nightclub-sticky floors and humble beginnings build character, right?
You mentioned selling one of your previous ventures to fund Welly. What happened when that early capital hit a snag?
Yeah… curveball central. Just as we were about to launch, our key supplier went bust. That wiped out most of our runway. It forced me to raise funds through angel investors much earlier than planned. Not ideal, but it kept the dream alive, and weirdly sharpened our focus.
You started DTC, but now you’re playing in retail too. How did that shift impact the way you built and expressed the brand?
It’s been a learning curve. Direct-to-consumer gave us control, but retail brought us reach, and a whole new audience with different behaviours. Our packaging had to evolve to stand out on shelves. That also sparked a bigger shift: consolidating two sub-brands into one, simplifying the architecture, and speaking directly to adult consumers. Fewer frills, more impact.
You’re testing, tweaking, and refining, but how are you getting Welly in front of people?
Not fast enough! But we’re working on it. Paid ads, yes, but also sampling, partnerships, and using retail space as a kind of billboard. It's about presence, repetition, and creating a moment of “huh, this looks interesting” where it counts.
You’ve clearly dealt with your fair share of supply challenges. What’s been the most unpredictable part of scaling a food and beverage brand?
Fresh produce. It’s a beautiful nightmare. You’re at the mercy of seasonality, crop diseases, random international shortages… For example, an orange plague in Brazil raised global demand for apples, which we do use. Our costs spiked 23% overnight. And don’t get me started on managing cash flow when you’re juggling contract manufacturing, major retail, and rising costs across the board. It’s like financial gymnastics.
OK, final question time. You’ve built, battled, rebuilt, and still have your sense of humour intact. What’s one piece of advice you’d give to another founder at the starting line?
Don’t get into food and beverage… jokes! Seriously, though, don’t wait for perfection. You’ll never feel ready. Test ugly. Launch scrappy. Be willing to look silly. Embarrassment will teach you faster than perfection ever could.
