Maria Cebrian is a three-time entrepreneur and with 14 years of experience in the digital and wellness industries. After selling her second company, she set out to build the most sustainable supplements on earth after learning about the impact of this industry on animals and the environment. Every year, the US supplement industry kills 24 billion animals and creates 1.8 billion plastic pill bottles. 

In 2016 Maria and her co-founder Hava Horowitz wanted to simplify and complete vegans’ nutritional needs with sustainable and ethical supplements that have no impact on the planet. 

In this episode of Pivot, we speak to Maria, the co-founder and CEO of Terraseed, about her entrepreneurship journey and how the business became what it is today.

Terraseed has partnered with the non-profit Animal Save Movement to make a petition to the FDA to implement more transparent regulations for supplement companies, which would mandate companies to disclose if their supplements contain animal byproducts. Terraseed has secured almost 5,000 signatures and is on a mission to gather 25,000 signatures to pass them along to the FDA.

Maria shares what it takes to revolutionize an entire industry by transforming the way things are done to truly make an impact on the world.

Get to know Maria and Terraseed better here: https://terraseed.com/

Quote 

I truly believe that a company or a startup is an extension of who we are…we are absolutely connected. I'm very spiritual in that way. My recommendation is that you build something that is 100% aligned with who you are, as a human being. Because if there's no alignment, when you start bumping into all these challenges and all issues, it’s really hard. This is brutal, especially when you have a physical product. So if your business is not 100% aligned with you, and without a very clear mission that you can hold on to, is going to be very difficult.

—Maria Cebrian

Show notes timestamps

💊 [00:43 ] How vegan businesses can disrupt industries: what it takes to lead a revolution in the supplements industry. 

🤦‍♀️ [02:24 ] So many ingredients in supplements come from animals: building something that is totally different from what you can find in the market. 

😲 [05:30 ] A lot of supplements have animal ingredients: the supplement industry kills 24 billion animals a year, mostly fish. 

🧪 [08:56 ] Lack of transparency and scientific approach in the supplement industry. 

😇 [12:42 ] Maria’s biodegradable package for supplements: journey and tests to create compostable tubes for their products.

🎯 [16:03 ] Building a mission-driven business is inspiring you to take the extra mile. 

✌️ [17:56 ] The two keys to a resilient and positive mindset. 

✍️ [20:46 ] Online petition to include info on animals in supplement facts labels. 

💎 [24:47 ] Build a business that is 100% aligned with who you are.

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Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live-streaming session, so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired but unsure of how to take actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo and Fix It.