Miami twins focus on wellness with healthsupplement company
Identical twins Jessica and Melissa Medri launched FGBG, a health-supplement company, in 2019 after spotting a hole in the market while they were students at Florida International University.
While becoming more health-conscious, they noticed that most vitamin products seemed to be designed by men.
“When you went down the aisle at Publix, it [all] looked the same,” Jessica said. “… Everything looked masculine.”
The sisters, now 32, wanted to create products that they themselves would buy. The direct-to-consumer company that they started after college focuses heavily on aesthetics with an emphasis on functional yet beautiful packaging.
“We make time to make the product look cute so you can put it on your kitchen counter,” Jessica said.
Jessica, FGBG’s chief operating officer, and Melissa, the company’s chief executive officer, are a part of the rapidly growing vitamin and supplement industry, a field in which women leaders are underrepresented. According to a July 2023 study by Women In Nutraceuticals, a trade group, less than three out of 10 CEOs at nutraceutical companies are women, and women occupy fewer than four out of 10 leadership positions.
The Medri sisters were born in Venezuela and moved to Miami when they were 3 months old. Their father, Mario, worked as a chemical engineer and in pharmaceutical product and patent development.
Saturday morning family breakfasts were an opportunity for Mario to teach his young daughters about science, explaining how chemical reactions turned pancake batter into a meal.
“He likes to explain everything to us so we can depend on ourselves,” Melissa said. “We grew up being independent.”
After graduating from Miami Gardens’ Monsignor Edward Pace High School in 2010, the twins majored in psychology at Florida International University and minored in business. After graduating from FIU, they decided to pursue entrepreneurship rather than attend graduate school.
In 2015, the sisters became partners in PharmaCenter, a Davie manufacturing center owned and operated by their father. Using a private family investment, the sisters acquired the two buildings that make up their current headquarters and managed the packaging and manufacturing of products for other companies.
After a year of serving other companies and following their father’s advice, they began to think about using their knowledge of manufacturing to create their own products and returned to the idea of the vitamin business.
Jessica and Melissa immediately went to work on what would become their Go Getter supplement, which is meant to improve focus and attention. The sisters were often joined by their father, who provided tips and insight on developing formulas.
The Medri sisters entered a lucrative marketplace at a unique time. The global vitamin market was valued at $57 billion in 2023 and is expected to increase to $134 billion in 2033 as more people consume nutritional supplements and focus on their health post-pandemic.
The twins look at health and wellness as a lifestyle, not just an opportunity for product offerings. Jessica and Melissa frequently share health and self-care tips for improved wellness with their company’s 46,000 Instagram followers, who regularly provide feedback that the twins use to develop new products.
“We’ll add what we need ourselves or talk to other women about what the market needs,” Jessica said.
Prioritizing wellness has led the Medri sisters to donate some of FGBG’s earnings to social causes. For example, they said 20% of sales from their Go Getter supplement are donated to the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that provides young people with mental-health support and suicide prevention.
FGBG’s Davie headquarters consists of two buildings with an office space, packaging facility and laboratory to test and develop new products. Products are tested and sampled in the lab and then tested again at a third-party lab before they make it to the production line. The company has 48 employees working in all levels of production, and Jessica and Melissa said they have worked to make sure they themselves can do every job in the facility.
Looking ahead, the Medris want to expand from having mostly online product offerings to being sold at more brick-and-mortar retailers.
Moving the company’s headquarters from Davie to a potential larger location in Hialeah — and increasing the number of employees — are also in the plans. Jessica is based in Miami Lakes, and Melissa is based in Miami Beach, so being closer to the business would suit them both.
For the twins, working alongside each other has made their professional journeys smoother. Jessica said she takes solace in Melissa being able to to help her when work gets busy.
“What keeps us grounded is having each other in a way,” Jessica said. “If
I’m close to a burnout, she’ll say, ‘I got it.’ ”