What's Really Inside Your Supplements? This Founder Is Uncovering the Truth Behind the $180 Billion Industry

Entrepreneur

16 hours ago

From creatine to NAD+, this company is uncovering the truth behind mislabeled, underdosed and overhyped products.
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I recently wrote about creatine and profiled Jeff Byers, co-founder of Momentous, for a reason: integrity matters. When it comes to what we put in our bodies, especially for entrepreneurs aiming to optimize energy, recovery and longevity, founders and consumers deserve transparency and truth.
And yet, the supplement industry is booming with very little of either.
We're in the middle of a health optimization gold rush. Creatine gummies, NAD+ capsules, sleep pills and brain-boosting stacks are everywhere. Scroll Instagram, walk into Erewhon or search Amazon, and you'll find thousands of options. The global supplement industry is growing fast and is expected to top $240 billion by 2028, yet many of these products do not contain what they claim to. You may be spending $30, $50 or $90 on a supplement and getting barely a trace of the active ingredient, or in some cases, nothing at all.
Unlike pharmaceuticals, supplements don't require FDA approval before hitting the market. That creates a loophole where products can launch quickly, and claims, unless dangerously false, go largely unchecked. And it's not just obscure or small brands. Some of the top-selling supplements on Amazon are underdelivering, misleading or worse.
That's where Steve Martocci and SuppCo come in.
Martocci, best known for founding the music-tech platform Splice, is now on a mission to fix one of the most frustrating problems in wellness: a lack of transparency. SuppCo is a health tech startup that independently tests supplements and publishes public reports that give consumers one thing the industry often avoids: truth.
CEO and Co-Founder, Martocci, struggled with his health for most of his life, reaching nearly 300 pounds despite playing three sports and training consistently.
Martocci said to me, "Traditional medicine failed me. I remember being told my labs were on the 'low end of normal' and that nothing could be done. It was completely disheartening."
After selling GroupMe to Skype, Martocci discovered functional medicine and began working with a doctor on a tailored supplement stack. He lost nearly 100 pounds over the next year and realized that even though supplements had become mainstream, there was no software actually to help people navigate this space.
The supplement industry is a $180 billion market, yet it's filled with confusion, noise and a multitude of products that don't deliver what they promise. With SuppCo, Martocci is on a mission to transform how people discover, manage and optimize their supplement routines.
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I was introduced to SuppCo's work through their recent Creatine Gummies Report. Creatine, which I personally take and have written about, is one of the most well-researched supplements for both brain and physical performance. But not all products are created equal. SuppCo tested five popular creatine gummy brands sold on Amazon. Only two passed. One contained less than 25% of the labeled amount.
SuppCo recently published a report on NAD+ supplements, a trending ingredient in the longevity and cellular energy space, which tested nine products and was even more revealing.
4 passed (Double Wood, Rho Nutrition Liposomal, NatureBell and Thinbi), with Thinbi exceeding its claim at 103%.
5 failed, including Maripolio, which showed 0% of its claimed NAD+.
Others tested at less than 3% of the listed amount on the label.
NAD+ was the perfect follow-up to the creatine testing series because it represents everything confusing about the supplement space right now. Martocci explained that NAD+ is one of the fastest-rising compounds in longevity and biohacking, endorsed by scientists and influencers, but it's also one of the most confusing for consumers.
Martocci said, "You can supplement with NAD+ itself or its precursors like NR and NMN, and most consumers don't understand the bioavailability differences between the three and that one of them is distinctly worse."
When we see brands cutting corners on things we can measure, like certifications and testing transparency, they're usually cutting corners on things we can't see too, like what's actually in the bottle. As NAD+ continues to trend for its role in cellular repair and longevity, the gap between marketing and reality becomes even more concerning.
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If you're a wellness founder, product integrity is not just a checkbox. It is the heartbeat of your brand. Jeff Byers' company, Momentous, invests in clinical research and testing not because it is required, but because it is what builds lasting trust.
Byers told me, "That means showing the science, backing it up with testing, and being radically transparent with our consumers."
The next generation of wellness brands will not win on hype. They'll win on data. Consumers are becoming smarter and more demanding, and they want to see the data. SuppCo has already rated over 700 brands and 22,000+ products, and their TrustScore has become remarkably predictive of testing. Now, quality brands are reaching out not just to request a TrustScore, but to get feedback on how to improve their quality practices.
When choosing supplements, most people go wrong by treating supplements as if they were all the same. For example, they'll buy the cheapest magnesium without realizing that magnesium oxide has terrible bioavailability compared to magnesium glycinate. Or they'll choose a multivitamin based on how many vitamins are crammed into it, not whether those forms and doses actually work together.
Jenna Stangland, co-founder of A4 health and Dietitian for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Wild, explains how important it is to ensure that a supplement is tested and validated, as most likely, the dose on the label may not match what is in the bottle and even worse, it could be contaminated.
Stangland personally takes NAD+ regularly to support her own energy and help her body adapt to stress and inflammation as she's on airplanes and traveling with teams multiple times per week.
Having only tested the creatine and NAD+ categories, SuppCo is just getting started. The company plans to test every major supplement category where there's confusion or questionable quality. This includes protein, magnesium, pre-workouts and nootropics — anywhere consumers are making decisions based on incomplete information, their aim is to bring transparency.
Related: Are Your Employees Stressed? You Need to Embrace Transparency.
A big milestone they hit recently is the launch of SuppCo Pro, a premium subscription that unlocks deep personalization features. They have received strong user response to their Personal Nutrient Plan, which creates tailored supplement recommendations based on a user's specific goals, as well as their Product Optimizer, which suggests higher-quality, better-value alternatives to what a user is currently taking. This is where the real magic happens, as they can offer truly personalized guidance.
I personally appreciate how easy it is to understand their public reports. On the app, you can quickly see whether a product passed or failed, and why. They even launched a browser extension that flags whether the supplement you're browsing has been independently tested. For those of us who care deeply about healthspan, recovery and long-term performance, this kind of transparency is a game-changer.