Since she was a child, Shazi Visram, 48, understood the value of accepting challenges and learning how to overcome them. She watched her immigrant parents build a successful motel in Alabama, then go on to grow other businesses, which kindled an entrepreneurial spirit that fueled her to transform the baby care industry.
After receiving an MBA from Columbia Business School, Visram launched her first company, Happy Family Organics, in 2006. Her mission began with filling the gap in healthy, natural foods for babies. It soon became the fastest-growing organic-baby food brand in the country, according to Business Insider. Then in 2013, she sold the company to the multinational food corporation Danone for $250 million.
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At the time, her decision to sell the company was driven by her young son Zane’s autism diagnosis. She continued to grow the company as its CEO, eventually stepping down a few years later to focus on supporting Zane’s development.
In 2018, she conceived of a second company — HealthyBaby — motivated by her research and personal experiences as a parent. The company officially launched in 2021, offering products for healthy child development — a disposable organic-cotton diaper verified by the Environmental Working Group, plant-based baby balms and prenatal vitamins — all manufactured through clean supply chains.
Her health and sustainability-focused brand attracted investment from many startup notables, like Spanx cofounder Sara Blakely and the Honest Tea cofounder Seth Goldman.
More recently, she sparked the interest of actress Hilary Swank — a new mom to 1-year-old twins — who endorsed the products when she had her children, and eventually joined the company as its chief innovation officer.
Know Your Value recently chatted with Visram about her entrepreneurial and parenting journey, revolutionizing the baby care industry, teaming up with Hilary Swank and more.
Below is the conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity:
Know Your Value: Tell us about your upbringing and how it affected your outlook on life and business.
Visram: Growing up in Alabama in a motel run by my incredibly pioneering parents was humbling, unique, and full of characters and entrepreneurial lessons. I experienced such a real and different part of the U.S. where rebirth is necessary to make progress, stories are valued, and people work hard to earn a living and keep a sense of humor.
I think seeing my parents overcome the unending river of challenges with ingenuity has made me the same way. I pretty much expect to be challenged daily and look forward to the growth it brings. And when I don’t feel challenged, I create something new to learn from.
I even enrolled myself in a boarding school on the outskirts of Birmingham to be able to learn more freely. It was one of the most life-changing early decisions that showed me I am absolutely capable of charting my own path.
Know Your Value: How has your son’s autism diagnosis guided your business?
Visram: Any parent who receives a diagnosis for their child goes through a period of suffering and then action to support and improve their child’s outcome.
My son‘s diagnosis was shocking because he was typically developing until the age of two. He is the most beautiful, magical happy person by the way, who overcomes challenges every day of his life with grace.
But in our quest for answers around what could’ve influenced his outcome more proactively, I’ve come to understand that there is so much we can do to set ourselves up for the most productive, enriched life when we have babies.
His extreme hypersensitivity to almost every sensory environment has opened my eyes to the elements parents must consider when improving their children’s outcomes.
For instance, the smallest bit of fragrance irritates him and gives him a headache, so obviously fragrance is out. Tags bother his skin, so our diaper pants have seams on the outside and are super soft.
Even dyes have additives we don’t want on our babies’ skin, so we pioneered a plain white diaper with no urine strip. His sensitivities shine a light on areas of concern, especially when 1 in 6 children will receive a developmental diagnosis.
His diagnosis really grounded my family into putting health first in every decision we make. My life experiences inform my business, so HealthyBaby is a culmination of much of that learning and ethos.
The environment our babies grow up in is very important, in terms of shaping their health and development. I see an opportunity to change the diaper industry to improve that environment for every baby that wears a diaper 24/7 the first three years of life, which also happens to be the time their brains and bodies are developing rapidly.
Know Your Value: You want to create a new standard for all baby products. What has been the biggest challenge and the biggest reward?
Visram: Because there is no standard in the U.S. for products like diapers, I feel that we had to set the bar very high and then be the first to meet it. The challenge is that our world has relied on what I call ‘chemicals of convenience’ for so many years that we as a society have grown accustomed to having the performance of certain materials.
The challenge is to maintain the same level of performance but use safe, healthy and clean materials. That’s not easy, but it’s absolutely possible.
HealthyBaby has done it with an Environmental Working Group-verified diaper where we use less material for more absorption and avoid 2,800 banned chemicals linked to human harm that may be found in other diaper manufacturing.
Know Your Value: How did you decide to team up with Hilary Swank?
Visram: That one actually happened very organically. Hilary is a fastidious researcher, and as she was preparing for the arrival of her twins, she did all of the research on every product she brought into her home when it came to diapers and skin care.
She found us organically because we are truly the brand that cares about putting babies’ brains and bodies first when it comes to producing products.
I was delighted to hear that she was a customer and that she posted a video about us on social media, and it was many months after that we finally connected. We immediately hit it off and realized that we were truly aligned with the same mission.
My favorite thing about Hilary is that she is powerful, not just the way she communicates but in the way she thinks. She wants to make change and is a passionate advocate for anything that requires a fight. Bringing her on board to team HealthyBaby was obvious and I’m certain she and I will do many things together in the future as we share a passion for sustainability, women’s health, maternal health and of course infant health.
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Know Your Value: What’s your biggest piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Visram: Every entrepreneurial journey is different. Even this journey with HealthyBaby is radically different than my journey with HappyBaby, but what I share with entrepreneurs is to ask if you truly have a passion for what you’re doing.
Being a successful entrepreneur is very hard in today’s world. Being an entrepreneur is actually quite easy, but financial success requires a deep assessment of the market ability to create a differentiated product or service, a financial plan that makes senses, the ability to attract and grow a first-class team, and the wherewithal to deal with the daily challenges that will come your way, including the need to completely pivot and change course at times.
My biggest piece of advice is to dig deep and understand what it is that you are passionate about and what it is that motivates you before you start this journey.
Know Your Value: What’s next for HealthyBaby?
Visram: Our HealthyBaby diapers are expanding nationwide into Target, which I’m really proud of! I have a special place in my heart for Target because I believe that it is where you can drive consumer change in America.
We just launched our first newborn Environmental Working Group-verified diaper, which is smaller and has been a challenge to make.
We’ve also launched SmartyPants, which are alternatives to open diapers and provide a sensory friendly, soft and absorbent alternative that babies and toddlers really love because it’s so comfortable.
They sleep better and feel better. I’m excited to continue to commercialize and expand the business, but I’m most excited about the opportunity to be a part of parents’ lives during this time that is so formative.
KYV Editorial Staff