Inside Perelel with Taylor and Gioia, weighing folate by trimester

The Supplement Facts panel lists methylated folate, not folic acid. For Perelel co founders Alex Taylor and Victoria Thain Gioia, that single line on the sachet explains two pregnancies, two countertops covered in bottles, and a first meeting at Erewhon while both were nursing. What came next was a staged system developed with physicians.

Alex Taylor began each morning by arranging capsules at her kitchen counter. Through trying to conceive, pregnancy and the months after birth, while living with thyroid disease, she purchased vitamins from separate shops and set them out daily, hoping to fill gaps left by a single prenatal. She felt let down by the products and the guidance around them.

Victoria Thain Gioia began from a separate event. In early 2019 her daughter was born with a cleft lip, without usual risk factors and without genetic link. She had used prenatal vitamins she believed in. Then she read that this form of cleft had links to folic acid deficiency, and that 40 to 60 percent of women carry an MTHFR variant that reduces conversion of folic acid to folate, the form the body can use.

A shared friend listened to both women raising the same issues and said, you both are picking my brain about the same things, you need to meet. They first spoke at Erewhon in Los Angeles. Both were nursing infants at the time. On September 30, 2020, while both pregnant during the pandemic, they introduced Perelel with Medical Co Founder Dr. Banafsheh Bayati, a practicing OB/GYN in Los Angeles for more than 25 years, plus a wider Perelel Panel of OB/GYNs, reproductive endocrinologists, dietitians and doulas.

What holds attention, apart from the trimester packs, is the record keeping behind them. Perelel describes exact nutrients they need, in the right doses, at the right time. Half Life asked where each decision originates, what the label supports, and what stays unclear in a category the founders describe as having essentially no specifications.

You reject synthetic folic acid where methylated folate absorbs better. Take us from the farm source to that capsule. Where does your folate begin?

Victoria: Our position is straightforward. We prefer methylated folate to synthetic folic acid. Food folate comes from leafy greens and legumes. Material that enters a capsule is produced through synthesis and fermentation, then dried, milled and checked for identity and strength. We select the methylated form because the body can use it directly.

Alex: What we can document and display is the completed chain. The supplier sends a certificate of analysis. An independent lab confirms the lot. The label names the form and the amount. What we cannot yet identify for the reader is the farm or fermentation vessel for each lot, because vendors shift and lots turn over. I will mark plainly where the evidence base is strong. Form, amount and testing are on file. Origin at the field level for each nutrient remains hard to see. What would be needed to reveal it is disclosure by lot, names of growers and extract ratios where botanicals appear, printed on the pack or linked from it.

Your daughter arrived in early 2019 with a cleft lip, with no usual risk factors. You had used a trusted prenatal. How did you link that outcome to folate?

Victoria: She arrived with a cleft lip without any common risk factors or genetic link. I had followed the advice given to me. I had taken prenatal vitamins that I trusted. Then I found that this type of cleft had links to folic acid deficiency. That gave me pause.

I began studying folate in its methylated form, which the body can use at once, while folic acid is synthetic and needs conversion by the body. Around 40 to 60 percent of women have an MTHFR variant which prevents converting folic acid into folate, the usable form. Folate intake in weeks four to seven of pregnancy matters because the neural tube closes and early brain growth starts. Many women are not aware they are pregnant during that window. I kept going back to the label I had trusted. It failed to state which folate form I received, or whether my body could process it.

Investor resistance is part of your story. What did investors overlook that mothers grasped at once?

Alex: Investors perceived a brief window. Mothers perceived years. Conception, pregnancy, postpartum, motherhood, perimenopause. That is not niche. That is a home. Our customer buys for herself and often weighs a partner, a parent, a child. She maintains a small shelf for years.

Victoria: She studies the label. She checks the folate form, the choline amount, the other ingredients line. She understands timing matters. We refused to treat the research gap and regulation gap as normal. We preferred to have OB/GYNs formulate products than be another Instagram brand. That focus allowed us to continue when the answer was no.

You lined up pills on the counter each morning while managing thyroid disease through fertility, pregnancy and postpartum. What was in that stack, and what did it show you about a single standard prenatal?

Alex: That stack was my morning ritual. I spent hours finding vitamins from many sources and arranging pills each day. As I moved through postpartum while also living with a thyroid disease, I felt let down by the brands and information around me. One bottle stated one thing, another stated something else. Nothing addressed timing. Nothing shifted as my requirements shifted.

I kept asking, why is there no prenatal vitamin that aligns nutrients with each stage of a woman’s pregnancy. Timing is critical in nutrition. What you require when you are trying to conceive is not what you require in week eight, or week thirty, or six months after birth. The one size fits all model leaves a woman to guess. I no longer wanted to guess. I wanted a routine that listed what was inside, why it belonged there, and when to use it.

You launched on September 30, 2020, both pregnant during the pandemic. What did We launched in September 2020, which was a challenge in and of itself mean day to day?

Alex: We introduced the line in September 2020, which was a challenge in and of itself. We were both pregnant. Clinics had restrictions. Supply chains moved slowly. We reviewed packaging from home and joined formulation calls between prenatal visits.

Victoria: We are the first and only OB/GYN founded prenatal offering reliable targeted, complete vitamin routines for each phase of becoming a mother, from preconception through pregnancy and into postpartum. That claim mattered because we needed to support it while everything else seemed unstable. Each lot had to be produced, checked and sealed as a daily pack. Each label had to present the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line clearly. You need clear vision and steady resolve. That was the sole path through that autumn.

You met at Erewhon in Los Angeles in 2019 after a friend said you asked the same questions. Why did that talk become a company?

Victoria: A mutual friend said, you both are asking me about the same things, you should meet. We were both breastfeeding at the time in fact. We met at Erewhon and compared notes. Alex described her arranged pills. I described my folate questions. We saw we were raising the same issue from two directions.

Alex: We found there was essentially no regulation, no specifications around ingredients, and little information on what should be in a prenatal. The absence of oversight is startling, there is essentially none. We had no interest in becoming the next Instagram brand. We wanted physicians to set the formula. That is why we added Dr. Bayati serves as our Medical Co Founder. She has practiced as an OB/GYN in Los Angeles for over 25 years. Then we built the Perelel Panel with Drs. Andy Huang, Brian Levine, Amber Samuel and dietitians, doulas and practitioners, so every stage received clinical review.

Form, dose and testing are stated on record. Field level sourcing for each nutrient remains unclear.

Alex Taylor and Victoria Thain Gioia

Your core line runs from Conception Support Pack to trimester packs to Mom Multi Support Pack. What changes in the formula, and why.

Alex: The idea is exact nutrients needed, in the right doses, at the right time. Conception Support Pack supports trying to conceive. The 1st Trimester Prenatal Pack maintains folate emphasis for neural tube closure and early brain development. Later packs revise minerals as blood volume grows and bones firm, and iron requirements move.

Victoria: Mom Multi Support Pack extends care to five years post pregnancy, which in our framing is how long the postpartum period technically lasts. Many women end a prenatal after delivery. We designed a routine for the fourth trimester and motherhood, when sleep is limited and meals are irregular. Each pack is a daily routine rather than one tablet. The label indicates what altered and by how much. If a shopper reads the Supplement Facts panel across stages, she can follow the reasoning. That is deliberate.

Perelel reports it sold 67 million capsules and reached 21 SKUs by 2023. How do you hold dose and quality stable at that volume?

Alex: Volume tests documentation. By 2023 we had sold 67 million capsules across a catalog of 21 SKUs. Every SKU carries its own formula, its own vendors, its own testing. Doctor recommended doses have little value without confirmation.

Victoria: Our method was formulated by our Medical Co Founder Dr. Banafsheh Bayati with the Perelel Panel using absorbable ingredients in doctor advised doses, packed as daily packs. Bioavailable in this context means forms the body can absorb, like methylated folate instead of folic acid. Standardised, where relevant, means an extract is calibrated to a fixed level of a marker compound. We rely on certificates of analysis and independent labs for heavy metals, microbes and strength. Where terms like pure show up in marketing, we view them as statements that require paperwork. The paperwork means the test result for that specific lot.

In 2024 you pledged 10 million dollars for womens health research and bought LOOM. Why fund research when you sell vitamins?

Victoria: Womens health ranks among the most under funded and under researched areas of medicine. We experienced it as patients. We heard it from physicians. A vitamin alone cannot close that gap.

Alex: In 2024 we pledged 10 million dollars to fund womens health research and began a national campaign and petition. That same year we acquired LOOM, a business focused on education. When we raised capital, many deemed women’s health as too niche and motherhood as too short a window. That was the poorest reply we received. Research support and education belong to provenance as well. They reveal where knowledge starts. We want healthy, supported women, and that starts with stronger data, not larger claims.

Closing note from the desk

What remains is the scene of two women nursing infants at Erewhon, checking labels rather than trading small talk. That directness extended to batch records, panel led formulation and lot checks. Perelel reads more clearly than many prenatals because the staged system requires it to state what moved and when.

The company aimed to swap a single generic prenatal for targeted, physician built nutrition that tracks women across each hormonal stage. On sourcing, it makes form, amount and testing visible. Origins at the field level are still the next record to publish, and the founders acknowledge that limit without hedging.

Product spotlight

Conception Support Pack, 58.77 dollars. A daily sachet routine for trying to conceive, developed with obstetricians and reproductive endocrinologists. The label names each nutrient form and amount for the preconception period. Use the daily sachet with food and water as directed, and address lot and testing questions to the brand.

1st Trimester Prenatal Pack costs 58.77 dollars. A daily pack for weeks 1 to 13, with emphasis on folate for the span when the neural tube closes and early brain development begins. The sachet format keeps nutrients apart for stability and clarity. Use daily as directed and consult the Supplement Facts panel for form and amount.