NutraWomen Wednesday: Nicole Smith, CEO, The Functional Chocolate Company

26-Oct-2022 - Last updated on 26-Oct-2022 at 16:12 GMT

Nicole Smith is an accomplished entrepreneur and a pioneer in the botanical product development space. She co-founded Mary’s Medicinals, co-authored the first patent issued in the legal cannabis market in the US and spearheaded the launch of new lines and new markets at Evo Lab.

Today, Smith is CEO of The Functional Chocolate Company, a business that pairs chocolate with nutraceuticals. Like so many other entrepreneurs, the idea arrived amid the pandemic.

“A good friend of mine, Chris Peruzzi, and now co-founder of the Functional Chocolate Company, was over. We were visiting, having a glass of wine. It was right at the height of the pandemic and we were talking about how wellness was so top of mind and how people really need products for wellness–particularly stress and anxiety. He mentioned a couple of products that he had developed for his kids. One was a PMS chocolate bar for his daughter and that had worked really well so he developed a stress and anxiety formula as well for his son.”

Smith said that’s when the lightbulb went off and she said, “Life is sweet. Treating your health should be too.”

Since then, the company has been using sweetness to tackle a variety of issues, from sleep to menopause to stress and in two weeks, pain.