Founded
December 2018
The Gust Launch team is here for a founder’s best interests.
Emily Hochman
Location
New York City
Founders
Sole founder
Team size
Team of 3; network of 600+ health coaches
Founder Experience
First-time founder
Industry
Health and wellness
Plan
Accelerate
Fundraising Status
Angel pre-seed rounds
Website
Who is Emily Hochman?
One might call Emily Hochman a “purposeful entrepreneur.” After struggling with a number of health concerns, Emily adopted the philosophy that food is health, and became a health coach in order to take control of her own personal wellness. Her experience working for sales, marketing, and technology startups, combined with her newfound passion for health and wellness, ultimately helped her realize her long-standing dream of becoming an entrepreneur.
Becoming the world’s first text-only health coach
Emily’s largest ambition is clear - to turn her startup, Wellory, into the world’s first text-only health coach to help people become the healthiest versions of themselves. Wellory connects people who want to learn how to eat healthier to those with the desire to help them, providing on-demand nutrition advice, tips, tricks, and support. While Wellory itself is based in New York City, the platform’s clientbase is nationwide.
Expertise and trust that Emily couldn’t find elsewhere
One of Emily’s investors referred her to Gust. Ultimately, she chose Gust Launch because she felt that it offered a high degree of trust and expertise that she was unable to find in other solutions. Like so many of her fellow first-time founders, Emily’s first hurdle in Wellory’s startup journey was the incorporation process. As a new founder, she found incorporation not only complex, but also an emotional experience, and she wasn’t prepared to go it alone; what she really needed was a guide. Through the Gust Launch platform, she was able to efficiently and affordably incorporate her startup without feeling overwhelmed. She saw incorporation as a major milestone for Wellory, and felt like she could rely on Gust Launch to steer her correctly every step of the way.
The platform itself is beautifully and sharply designed.
Emily Hochman
Taking Wellory to the next level
After successfully incorporating, Emily turned her attention to scaling her business, upgrading from Gust Launch Start to the Accelerate plan. Wellory has grown both its client base and its health coach network, and has multiple investors on the cap table who believe in its mission and vision. As an Accelerate customer, Emily enjoyed the ability to tap into the Launch Founder Community, which she loved for the immediate responsiveness of her fellow founders. When seeking guidance around fundraising, specifically around the differences between SAFEs or Convertible Notes, Gust Launch helped her determine which fundraising instrument was best for her specific needs.
Focused on growth and success
Emily is now completely focused on turning Wellory into the first and largest 100% text-based health coach, with a simple system that can fit seamlessly into anyone’s daily life. Wellory continues to refine its product and build out its network, always with the same overarching goal in mind: to make being healthy easy. While in the process of growing her company, Emily utilized the discounts provided by Gust Launch to more affordably manage the needs of her expanding team.
Honesty, simplicity, and a founder-first mentality
Emily values Gust Launch’s “founder-first” approach to supporting her startup. She felt confident that all members of the Gust Launch team wanted her to succeed and had her best interests in mind, which for a first-time founder is of the utmost importance. She appreciates the simplicity of the platform; the education within the software is easily digestible for a first-time founder and the software itself is straightforward to use. Emily’s trust in and satisfaction with Gust Launch shows in her eagerness to recommend the platform to everyone she knows.