77% of Americans already take supplements daily. Yet over 90% remain deficient in key nutrients.

That is not a marketing paradox. It is a product failure. And it comes down to one thing: absorption. The average supplement absorbs at around 16%, meaning roughly 84% of what you swallow never reaches your cells. It gets broken down by stomach acid, blocked by intestinal barriers, or filtered out by the liver before it can do anything useful. You are not getting the benefits. You are just paying for expensive urine.

Three structural failures drive this. First, stomach degradation: most nutrients are exposed to harsh stomach acid and digestive enzymes that break down a large portion before they ever reach the intestine. Second, intestinal barriers: to be absorbed, ingredients must pass through microscopic structures in the small intestine, and most supplements are too large or too poorly formulated to make it through. Third, first-pass metabolism: even after absorption, the liver and kidneys rapidly filter and deactivate many compounds before they ever reach the cells that need them.

The supplements industry has grown into a $65 billion market built almost entirely on ingredients, packaging, and promises. Almost no one has asked the more fundamental question: does any of this actually get into your body?

The Absorption Company was built to answer that question.

The company uses pharmaceutical-grade delivery technologies to dramatically improve how nutrients are absorbed by the body. At the core is proprietary Capsoil® technology, developed by scientists from Hebrew University. Capsoil reduces oil-based active ingredients into nanoparticles, vastly increasing their surface area and creating the first-ever water-soluble delivery system for liposomal nutrients. Alongside this, the company layers in advanced nano-delivery systems and liposomal formulations, selecting and combining techniques based on the specific ingredient and how the body best absorbs it. The result is supplements validated in published human clinical studies and backed by protected IP.

The company launched with what co-founder Ezekiel calls the worst offenders: berberine, magnesium, CoQ10, curcumin, and vitamin D. These are the most commonly taken supplements with the lowest absorption rates in the industry, all under 10%, meaning consumers are wasting the most money on the nutrients that matter most. Their flagship product lines address four core needs: Sleep, Restore, Energy, and Calm. In January 2026, they launched a new line of five single-nutrient supplements, several of which sold out within days. Another launch is already planned for April 2026.

This is not a better-formulated supplement brand. It is a platform built around a repeatable capability: the ability to take almost any nutrient and materially improve how the body absorbs it.

Ezekiel Bronfman and Nate Medow are not first-time founders. They previously co-founded a zero-sugar canned cocktail brand, which they successfully sold to a PE-backed company in 2022. Throughout that time, both were already deeply focused on their own health and wellness, taking 15 to 20 supplements daily. But despite the effort and expense, they felt nothing. That led them to start digging into why, and what they discovered changed everything: the problem was not the ingredients. It was absorption. That research rabbit hole eventually became The Absorption Company.

Their operating experience matters. They know how to build a consumer brand from zero, navigate distribution, manage unit economics, and get to an exit. That track record gives them a credibility and discipline that most wellness startups simply do not have.

They co-founded The Absorption Company alongside actors Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed, and the story of how that partnership came together is worth telling. Ian had spent years trying to optimize his health, experimenting with supplements and biohacking routines in pursuit of better energy, recovery, and longevity. Then blood work revealed something alarming: toxic levels of lead and cadmium had built up in his body, likely from years of poorly absorbed, unregulated supplements. Nikki had arrived at the same place independently. Both had started developing their own solution when a mutual friend connected the four of them. What was supposed to be a 30-minute call turned into three hours, as they realized they had each independently arrived at exactly the same problem and the same conviction. That is when they decided to build the company together.

Ian and Nikki are not just celebrities lending their names to a product. Both have built and scaled brands of their own. Ian co-founded Brothers Bond Bourbon and Nikki co-founded Bayou, a fine jewelry brand. They understand how to leverage their platforms and audiences to launch and grow a consumer brand, and they bring relationships across retail, media, and fundraising that most founders simply cannot access.

Even though The Absorption Company has two of the most recognizable faces in entertainment as co-founders, they have never positioned themselves as a celebrity brand. Their words, not ours: the only celebrity at this company is bioavailability.

Ian and Nikki are not on the packaging. They are not front and center on the website. The brand leads with science, doctors, and clinical evidence, not famous faces. Where their profiles are deployed strategically, in performance marketing, retail conversations, and PR, the impact is significant. But it is always intentional, never reflexive.

That distinction matters enormously. The best celebrity-backed brands are supported by fame, not dependent on it. The celebrity helps sell the first product. The quality of the product determines whether people come back for the second, third, and fourth. The Absorption Company understands that better than almost any brand we have seen in this space.

The Absorption Company is scaling fast. The brand has built a community of over 450,000 followers organically and is already stocked in premium wellness retailers including Erewhon, Happier Grocery, and SunLife Organics, with further retail expansion underway. New products are launching at pace, with another major release planned for April 2026.

The Absorption Company represents everything we look for at HotStart VC.

We talk a lot about the second wave of celebrity-founded brands. This is a generation of companies moving beyond lifestyle and aesthetics toward products and services that are genuinely better for human and planetary health, backed by real science, proprietary innovation, and defensible IP. Brands that understand that fame is not a business model. It is an accelerator.

The Absorption Company is that thesis in action. An innovation-first platform solving a real and largely ignored problem in a massive market. A founding team with a proven track record of building and exiting consumer brands. Celebrity co-founders who are authentic believers, active operators, and strategically deployed rather than faces on a bottle. And a brand that has never once positioned itself as a celebrity brand, because it does not need to.

That combination is exactly why we are proud to back them.

As many of you know, I run HotStart VC, a fund investing exclusively in celebrity- and creator-founded brands. We have already invested in brands founded by people like Selena Gomez, Jake Paul, Katy Perry, and more. We have been quietly working toward the first close of our new fund and things are moving.

If you are an accredited investor and want to get exposure to this category alongside us, just reply to this email and I will send over our latest deck and more details.

The latest episode of the HotStart VC Podcast is here. This week, I’m joined by Zeke Bronfman, co-founder of The Absorption Company, the science-first supplement brand he built alongside actors Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder. After selling their previous company, Zeke discovered that most supplements only absorb at 10 to 16 percent, meaning the majority never reaches your cells. That insight became the foundation for a brand focused entirely on bioavailability, using pharmaceutical-grade technology to deliver nutrients up to 8x more effectively.

Zeke breaks down why they chose not to build a celebrity brand despite having two of Hollywood’s most recognizable co-founders, how they use celebrity as a distribution lever instead of a brand identity, and why trust in supplements is built through science, not fame. We also talk about how they are scaling DTC before retail and what most celebrity brands get wrong.

Now available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

About HotStart VC

HotStart VC is launching a new fund to invest in brands founded by celebrities and creators. We’re building the go-to platform for creators and celebrities launching brands, providing capital, strategic support, and the infrastructure to scale.