About Coremix Capital

In 1996, Marty Rifkin and Kate Jones were vitamin manufacturers, with the #1 selling probiotic in health food stores nationwide. While they also offered a full line of vitamins in swallowable tablets and capsules, they wanted to create a chewable vitamin their young child would actually look forward to taking!

Their first successful effort was an all-natural chewable echinacea product for kids that tasted great. Building on this success, they soon expanded into chewable zinc vitamins for children and adults. Kate and Marty saw an untapped market for all natural, high quality and good-tasting vitamins.

However, they had bigger ambitions - to break out of the health food niche and bring their vitamin products to mass retailers like Walmart, Target, and Costco. No company had cracked that mainstream market yet. A few had tried, but their products either lacked mass appeal or their pricing did not fit the high-volume, low-cost model required.

Marty first proposed the novel idea of making vitamins in the shape and flavor of gummy bears. As Kate recalled, "Growing up, my dad always told me, 'he who hesitates is lost.' We knew we had a great idea, so we didn't hesitate. We put full resources behind the project."

Bringing that simple but ingenious concept to reality was far more complicated. Extensive research, formulation testing, retesting, and more testing all went into developing a gummy vitamin that could provide the complete daily nutrients kids need while using no artificial colors or flavors and mimicking the delightful taste of gummy bear candy.

Kate summed up the indispensable ingredients: "To make a great idea a reality, you need passion, smarts, brutal self-appraisal, and above all, the willingness to move quickly and stick with it through all the obstacles."

Their perseverance paid off with the launch of Lil Critters gummy bear-shaped vitamins. Made with natural ingredients, great taste, and comprehensive nutrition, Lil Critters aligned with Kate and Marty's core belief that they wouldn't sell any children's product they wouldn't give their kids.

The product was a hit, taking over as the #1 children's vitamin brand nationwide. Its success reflected a beyond-the-bottom-line integrity that boosted its bottom line, as the brand's natural, high-quality vitamins became a key differentiator.

But Kate and Marty were just getting started. Their company, Avid Health, had embedded a culture of constantly welcoming new ideas. So, when parents began taste-testing their kids' Lil Critters and asking about gummy vitamins they could take, the company swiftly launched VitaFusion - a gummy vitamin brand marketed to adults that soon outsold even the blockbuster Lil Critters line.

Over the following years, Avid Health exploded with innovation, developing over 150 products across multiple vitamin brands and gaining mass distribution through all major food, drug, mass merchandise, and club retailers. The company grew at a blistering pace of nearly 40% annually propelled by their willingness to take calculated risks on creative new ideas like gummy vitamins.

What started with a simple candy-inspired concept grew into a pioneering brand that revolutionized how vitamins could taste, look, and be marketed - opening up an entirely new mass consumer category. It was a powerful legacy fueled by Kate and Marty's blend of vision, passion for quality and health, and the gumption to execute a great idea quickly.