This month, Create & Cultivate - a platform and community dedicated to advancing women-led entrepreneurship and business ventures - has announced the release of its highly-anticipated 2023 Create & Cultivate 100 list in partnership with Ally. The list recognizes 100 female innovators and entrepreneurs who are making significant strides in shaping culture, breaking barriers, and redefining the rules of business across ten distinct categories. These categories include Arts & Culture, Beauty, Creators, Environmental Impact, Fashion, Finance & Money, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Music & Entertainment, and Sports.
The list provides a platform to celebrate the hard work and achievements of these women, as they continue to make a significant impact in their respective fields. Our founder, Dr. Sylvie Charles, was one of 10 in the Food & Beverage category who was honored this year. The complete list can be viewed at: www.createcultivate.com/cc100-2023.
Create and Cultivate took some time out to chat with our Founder, Dr. Sylvie Charles about her business, her drive and about balancing it all with two small children.
In your own words, what do you “do” every day?
The life of a founder covers every aspect of the business! It’s been a wild ride learning over the years how to manage operations, develop and execute a marketing strategy, run sales for the company both direct to consumer and to retailers, and innovate and develop new products. Now that we’ve built out a team with expertise in each of these areas, I get to focus on what I do best - innovation in health food. I balance my nutrition expertise with my culinary experience to create better-for-you products for Just Date. When I’m not raising my daughters and teaching them about the world, I’m fully immersed in the ideation and testing phase for new Just Date products, while my amazing team now handles the larger execution and scaling. I am also Just Date’s chief medical officer, diving into the medical research of sugar, artificial sweeteners, diabetes, and more to provide a strong scientific basis for the work that we do at Just Date.
My mission – and the overarching vision behind Just Date – is to help people satisfy their cravings for sweets while also nourishing their bodies. No compromise, just good food and the sweet life.
Why is there a need for your business? What problems or issues is your business trying to solve or make better?
I grew up watching my dad struggle with chronic illness, with type 2 diabetes leading his ailments. The diabetes led to heart disease, causing multiple heart attacks, the last of which almost took his life. He also battles full body psoriasis that causes tremendous pain and limited mobility, and now psoriasis has been linked to high sugar intake as well.
My dad isn’t alone in his battles with chronic illness. Over a third of the US population has pre-diabetes or diabetes. My dad’s struggles led me to pursue medicine. Throughout my time in medicine, I took care of hundreds of patients with preventable chronic illness, including diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver, and more diseases that could all be managed through dietary changes. Getting an up-close look at the poor outcomes of both my patients and father inspired me to think about what they really needed to change their diets and kick their sugar habit. I kept coming back to dates, which I had grown up eating. I already knew of their strong nutritional value, but I wondered if I could turn them into an everyday sweetener to replace sugar. It worked! After initial testing, I was floored by the nutritional value of our date syrup compared to sugar and available natural sweeteners like maple syrup and honey. The date syrup is low glycemic index (meaning no blood sugar spike and crash!), and full of nutrients like potassium and antioxidants. Best of all, my patients and dad loved the flavor, and I loved the nutrition.
At Just Date, we make nutrient-dense sweeteners from real fruit, so everyone can enjoy real sugar and natural sweetness without the crash. Science teaches us that reducing overall sugar intake and avoiding blood sugar spikes is a crucial part of the journey towards optimum health. Blood sugar spikes and subsequent crashes are responsible for the immediate impact of refined sugar that we feel - fatigue, anxiety, brain fog, and more (we’ve all been there). It’s also largely responsible for the long-term disease that over 30-50% of Americans experience: diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, and cancer, to name a few.
Over the last few decades, refined sugar and artificial sweeteners have become an ingredient in just about everything - so it can seem like an insurmountable task to reduce sugar in our daily meals and snacks. The mellow sweetness of our Just Date products provides all the sweet satisfaction we crave without the corresponding blood sugar rollercoaster, leading to better long-term health outcomes.
My mission – and the overarching vision behind Just Date – is to help people satisfy their cravings for sweets while also nourishing their bodies. No compromise, just good food and the sweet life.
We’re building a business that isn’t just about avoiding the sugar crash, but is also about avoiding the crash of burnout.
What are your greatest accomplishments?
I launched our flagship product Just Date Syrup into 480 Whole Foods stores just a few days after I had my first child. It was a moment where I realized what women are made of! It has been my greatest accomplishment to grow this business that I love while raising two young daughters who absolutely love Just Date products. More recently, I’m very proud of expanding our team and bringing on a number of skilled, talented, brilliant, sensitive women, including my new business partner and CEO, Samantha Abramson. We’re building a business that isn’t just about avoiding the sugar crash, but is also about avoiding the crash of burnout. We’re building a company where we prioritize our wellbeing above all. I love sharing this entrepreneurial journey with people I love and respect.
What’s next? What do you hope to accomplish in 2023 and beyond?
Just Date has some exciting things on the docket for 2023. We’re working on some new delicious, healthy, ready-to-eat treats that draw on nostalgia. With whole fruit, we can dramatically change the health impact of cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy bars, and more, while creating the same taste and satisfaction. It can actually taste better, and be more delicious, nourishing, and abundant than you ever imagined. When you walk through the grocery store, there are more food items that damage your health rather than support it. My dream is for everyone to enjoy the sweetness that they crave, and feel great while doing it.