This Women’s History Month, we are lending our platform to our women founders. Today we hear from Natalie Bustamente, founder of Vital Tonics and participant in our 2021 EndeavorLAB Cohort for Women Founders. Below is her spotlight. 

My name is Natalie, and I’m the founder of Vital Tonics. We’re a functional wellness company providing relief for frustrated individuals, the cannabinoid-infused products. My entrepreneurship journey started after a lifetime of health issues. I was able to heal myself and find relief through plant medicine, specifically through cannabis. Now I get to help others do the same. 

It’s my dream job, but last year, I almost lost my dream job. My company went through an eight-month manufacturing disaster. My two tips for founders are to be vulnerable and to lean on your community because if it wasn’t for my community, I wouldn’t have made it. Anytime one of my female founder friends asked me how I was doing, I was honest. I told them about the situation, and every single one of them had a story about a hurdle they overcame that they thought would break their business.
Now that they’re glad they went through it because it made them stronger, they came out the other side with better tools to run their company. I can honestly say now that we’re through the hurdle that I agree. I’m better equipped to run my company after having gone through that and survived it. Be honest, be vulnerable, and lean on each other, because we can’t get through it if we don’t do this together.