Smart Braincare: A Q&A with Heights Co-Founder, Dan Murray-Serter

Braincare brand Heights believe that a healthier brain leads to a better life. By using ingredients only in optimal forms and quantities that scientific evidence shows make a difference, their Smart Supplement is the highest rated supplement in the world on Trustpilot, giving the 20 key nutrients your brain and body needs to feel better, every day.

As part of B Corp month, we’ve teamed up with Heights to give away the ultimate self-care package, worth over £400, including a vegan friendly yoga rug mat from one of our independent designers, Holistic Silk. To enter, head over to our Instagram profile.

We sat down with Heights Co-Founder, Dan, to discuss where the idea behind Heights was first born, B Corps, and his tips to maintaining brain health.

Tell us about the supplement you offer through Heights, what sets you apart from others on the market?

There’s a reason we have only launched one product in 2 years - we are constantly innovating to make it the best in the world - across 3 dimensions; Quality, trust, and science. Those are pretty easy words for anyone to hide behind though so let’s put them to the test.

Quality: We source the highest quality nutrients from various suppliers all over the world in the most bioavailable forms (and plant based, of course). Did you know that nutrients degrade? When you make them they are at their most potent, when they sit in a store cupboard for 2 years - they are much less effective. We reorder our stock every 3 months, meaning if the quality or potency has improved - we improve our formula too. 

Trust: We’re a B Corp too and the #1 supplement on Trustpilot in the world. How? Because there’s a lot of misinformation and murky nonsense in the supplement space and we go out our way to clarify the jargon, explain when you might expect to feel things - and our customer care team are trained nutritionists so are on hand to help and support our community looking to learn more about how nutrition can improve their braincare!

Science: Our Chief Science Officer, Tara Swart’s PhD was in neuropharmacology so she knows a thing or two about this - but we have also upgraded our formula four times since launching based on doing blood trials with our customers to see how it’s been improving their key nutrient levels whilst we are growing. 

We are committed to making this the single best supplement in the world and are pretty confident we are….

Where did the idea to launch Heights come from?

Like most founders, out of personal experience. Co-founder, Joel was having gut issues and they were really impacting his mental performance as he was feeling really sluggish and low energy, Meanwhile I had acute insomnia and chronic anxiety having not slept for about 6 months. After a lot of various attempts, a dietitian solved both ailments and supplements played the key part in both stories - which was crazy to us as we had both been led to believe supplements ‘don’t work’ - but what we learned instead was that the industry was full of bad actors and charlatans so finding ones that were high quality and did work was the actual battle to be won. And so the idea for Heights was born… 

Heights focuses a lot around the importance of brain health. Can you give us some of your top tips to maintaining - and to ensure we’re getting the most out of - this important organ?

Of course! First and most important - get outside every day and go for a walk - bonus points, listen to a podcast or audible - and you’ve combined vitamin D, nature, fresh air, movement and learning (neuroplasticity) all in one go which is pretty hard to beat. The other top tips are nutrition - which is HARD (which is why taking Heights makes sure you know your brain is well fed so you don't have to think about it), drinking enough water (2L a day should do it), practising gratitude (the Braincare Journal is a great place to start) and of course - get enough rest. Sleeping is great - but naps are amazing too.

Congrats on becoming a B Corp! Can you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming certified - what was the importance of this for you?

Oh man, what a journey - it took us two years. We were a Pending B Corp first and have spent a long time researching every aspect of supply chain, nutrient sourcing and more, as you probably well know too! We had two goals when we started Heights - one was to improve people’s mental wellbeing - starting with nutrition, by building the Braincare category. This was on us to define and figure out. But the second was to build the most sustainable, best company we possibly could - and that was made a LOT easier by having a map of where we’re going and what to consider and do, by B Corp. To say we are proud of our certification is an understatement. 

What value do you think it brings to Heights?

It helps us demonstrate two of our company values; ‘Care without compromise’ and ‘Build Trust, Be Trusting’. It shows that we are a transparent company who can be trusted (pretty important when taking pills for your most important organ!) and demonstrating that we will do everything in our power to care for what matters - you, the customer, and our planet!

Were there any hurdles you had to overcome, can you give us an insight into these?

We certainly had to stop working with quite a few partners along the way - the sad truth and reality though is it is just a much more expensive path, and this is challenging because consumers want better quality products but they also expect brands to bend over backwards on price and the truth is - you can’t have it both ways. Almost ALL of the compromises we have to make pretty much double our cost - there are no corners to cut, and when that happens, you have a 10x better product but you also can’t compete on price in the same way - so there are definitely multiple hurdles, including now educating customers on why they should spend more for quality in a category full of cheap junk.

What’s next for Heights since achieving B Corp?

Well now we know we can achieve this we’re thinking of putting ourselves up for Best Picture at the Oscars and maybe Presidency next election? Who knows. Before that we’ll be launching our next product - an incredible Smart Probiotic that’s been in the making for the last two years that specifically focuses on impacting mood and cognition - and that will be coming out in a few months so watch this space! 

And finally, why are you and the Heights team fans of Wolf & Badger?

Silly question, who isn't a fan of Wolf & Badger? Nice try…