We spend lots of time enthusiastic about the meals we eat, the skincare we use, and the dietary supplements we take. However the one factor we eat greater than virtually anything is commonly the one factor we query the least: water.
For Clara Sieg, Co Founder and CEO of Loonen, that query grew to become deeply private throughout her IVF journey and being pregnant, when she started taking a more in-depth take a look at what she was placing in and on her physique. The extra she discovered about plastics, PFAS, and water high quality, the extra she realized how little transparency existed round one thing so basic to our well being. Drawing on years of expertise investing in shopper manufacturers, she got down to construct one that may increase the usual for bottled water.
On this version of Dwelling Properly, Clara shares the story behind Loonen, what customers ought to really search for when selecting bottled water, the easy adjustments she recommends to cut back on a regular basis plastic publicity, and why residing nicely has develop into much less about chasing perfection and extra about getting the basics proper.
Dwelling Properly with Clara Sieg
For individuals who could also be discovering you and your model for the primary time, how would you describe your self and Loonen? I’m the co founder and CEO of Loonen, a water firm born from my very own IVF journey after which being pregnant, once I began paying shut consideration to what I used to be placing in and on my physique. I discovered rather a lot about plastics and endocrine disruptors, and simply how pervasive they’re. I made swaps throughout our residence to reduce our day by day publicity, from meals to magnificence to cleansing, however when it got here to water, I couldn’t discover a bottle I trusted for my household. That’s how Loonen was born.
Our purpose is to be the cleanest water you could find: spring sourced, filtered for purity, completely balanced minerality, and solely ever bottled in glass. We take a look at for microplastics, endlessly chemical compounds, and tons of of hint contaminants, with outcomes printed and accessible by way of QR code from each bottle. Not simply pure, however confirmed.
Earlier than launching Loonen, you spent years investing in shopper manufacturers. What was that chapter of your life like, what drew you to that work, and what lastly pushed you from investor to entrepreneur? I spent near 20 years on the investing facet, and actually it’s the explanation I by no means wished to be a founder. I had a entrance row seat to how exhausting constructing one thing is and what number of nice concepts don’t make it. I liked the work although: sitting with founders, getting obsessive about their classes, watching the uncommon few who do it proper compound over time.
The factor that lastly pushed me wasn’t a technique, it was my very own life. Getting pregnant and staying pregnant was an extended street that led to IVF, and alongside the best way I went deep on plastics and endocrine disruptors and began altering habits. Water was the one class the place I couldn’t discover what I wished and but it’s the factor I eat most of. Sooner or later it shifted from an obsession to an crucial. I went all in.
Some of the necessary classes I took with me was embracing realizing what I don’t know. I do know what I’m good at, and I do know very nicely what I’m not good at, it’s rather a lot, so we’ve thoughtfully constructed a workforce that brings experience throughout these gaps. The weak spots develop into our superpowers and connective tissue, and that’s a giant a part of why our workforce works so nicely collectively.
You usually discuss how turning into a mom modified your perspective. In what methods has motherhood influenced the best way you method enterprise and life? Motherhood made me decided in a approach nothing else has. I’m most likely 90% plastic at this level, however my daughter doesn’t should be, and that’s a really clarifying motivation on the exhausting days. It’s given me extra confidence to do exhausting issues. I grew a child! And it narrowed my world. I’m extra environment friendly and fewer valuable about what doesn’t matter.
Whenever you first began researching water high quality, what shocked you essentially the most? Was there a statistic, examine, or piece of knowledge that fully modified the way you seen water? Water is foundational. You’re roughly 60% water, and a new child is nearer to 75%. It’s what we drink day in and day trip, and what we combine our infants’ bottles with.
But almost half of US faucet water accommodates PFAS, greater than half exams optimistic for lead, and there aren’t any federal requirements for microplastics in faucet or bottled water. And the half most individuals don’t count on: bottled water is much less regulated than faucet.
Water needs to be the only most reliable factor we eat, and as an alternative it’s one of many least clear.
When folks hear phrases like PFAS, microplastics, and contaminants, it will probably really feel overwhelming. What ought to the typical individual really be listening to? I attempt to concentrate on what I can management and let go of the remaining. I’m a giant believer in 80/20.
If I needed to simplify it: get a top quality water filter for residence and, when deciding on bottled water, go for glass. Bear in mind bottles which are aluminum and cardboard are all plastic lined and the provision chain of water is scorching and lengthy which creates an ideal atmosphere for plastic leaching.
Pay shut consideration to supply, filtration practices, and clear testing. Favor something that can really present you its outcomes as an alternative of simply claiming to be pure.
Make the simple swaps the place you possibly can, boring, set it and overlook it stuff, particularly for the belongings you repeat each single day. And don’t lose sleep over consuming plastic water on a airplane. Higher to do just a few foundational issues persistently than attempt to engineer each variable and burn out.
For somebody who needs to cut back their publicity to plastics however doesn’t know the place to start out, what are the primary three swaps you’d advocate? Water. Clearly I’m biased, however it’s the factor you eat greater than anything, so it’s the best leverage swap.
Cease heating and storing meals in plastic. Warmth drives plastic to leach, so a scorching dish or a microwave is the worst case. Transfer to glass containers and by no means microwave in plastic.
Your on a regular basis repeats. Take a look at the objects you contact continuously, the plastic slicing board, what you clear your home with, the non stick pans, your magnificence merchandise, and commerce those with a simple various. Small, boring, repeatable beats one massive dramatic overhaul.
The purpose isn’t a plastic free life, that’s inconceivable. It’s eradicating the simple, excessive frequency exposures and never stressing about the remaining.
Past selecting glass over plastic, what are the most important elements that decide whether or not a bottled water is really prime quality? The trustworthy reply is that high quality is cumulative. It’s the entire chain, not one hero step.
Plenty of the class needs you to consider purity is about geography alone, a reasonably supply and an image of a waterfall. However a pure supply resides and adjustments season to season, and in a globally linked water system, even the perfect springs have footnotes. Filtration helps, however no technique removes every little thing, particularly if the supply is compromised. So at Loonen we observe WHO steerage, which is to not depend on simply the supply or simply the filtration, however to do each very well: a top quality pure supply, prime quality filtration, after which add mineral balancing, cautious transport and bottling, and complete testing.
Which brings me to transparency. If a model can’t or gained’t present you third celebration outcomes for issues like microplastics and endlessly chemical compounds, that tells you one thing by itself.
How do you steadiness being a founder, mom, and particular person with out feeling pulled in too many instructions? I don’t actually consider in work life steadiness. What we goal for is figure life integration, and actually, proper now it’s much less steadiness and extra survival, and I feel pretending in any other case does different girls a disservice. My husband runs his personal firm too, so we’re tag teaming continuously. We genuinely couldn’t do it with out deeply concerned grandparents and an unimaginable nanny.
My workforce is aware of my daughter. She does demos with me on weekends. If childcare runs late, she’s bopping round subsequent to me, and that’s our tradition, not a failure of it. It retains us human and reminds everybody that there’s one thing greater we’re constructing towards.
What qualities do you suppose each profitable founder wants? Truthfully, I’m unsure I’m the precise individual to reply, I’m nonetheless very a lot in it myself. But when I needed to level to something, it could be grit and resilience. Nearly every little thing goes improper in some unspecified time in the future, so lots of it’s simply persevering with to indicate up, particularly on the times it could be simpler to not. I feel the opposite piece is having the ability to maintain the massive image and the each day on the identical time, staying near the imaginative and prescient whereas rolling up your sleeves and chipping away at it with out getting misplaced within the weeds.
As each an investor and founder, what are some manufacturers you suppose are setting a considerate instance for the trade proper now? My north star is Levi’s. It won’t appear analogous to water, however Levi’s is a heritage American model constructed on high quality and on making somebody really feel nice. That’s precisely why it’s endured and stayed beloved for generations. That’s the form of firm I hope we construct: stand on the standard of our product, make folks really feel good, and let that be essentially the most.
What does residing nicely imply to you as we speak? For a very long time wellness was all about optimization, monitoring each metric, stacking dietary supplements, engineering your option to well being. I discovered it exhausting.
What residing nicely means to me now could be a quieter return to good foundations: the water you drink, the meals you eat, how you progress, the way you sleep. Not a pattern or a protocol, simply a great way to reside.
