The wellness industry is about to get more personal.
That’s the key takeaway from actor turned entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, speaking at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Summit earlier this week. The Goop founder forecasts that the wellness industry will draw a greater focus on personalization within the next 10 years. What that looks like, Paltrow says, could be anything from in-depth detail on someone’s microbiome to individual food allergy testing and greater enhancements in wearable devices.
“I think that we’re getting very smart as a species and we understand that there are certain things that we have to do in order to have longevity,” she says. “A lot of us have that as a [key performance indicator] and so I think you’re going to see, as opposed to blanket ideas or fads, much more customized modalities.”
While not an expert per se, Paltrow has become something of a market watcher since founding her Santa Monica, California-based wellness and lifestyle company in 2008. The way she sees it, people become more well-informed about their daily decision making as they harness more data about themselves. The Goop founder says that her Oura Ring (a fitness tracking ring that costs between $300 to $400) helps her sleep much better and prepare for an earlier bedtime. Wearables such as Oura provide health insight for users, which can help inform daily health decision-making.
Of course, Paltrow’s musings have gotten her into hot water before. Goop once said that its bio-frequency healing stickers used the same conductive carbon material that NASA uses to line its space suits. NASA, however, shot that claim down, explaining that its spacesuits do not use any conductive carbon material. And Paltrow forked out $145,000 in fines last year over unsupported claims the company made about purported health benefits in using jade eggs vaginally.
Paltrow took the time to address these controversies, saying that Goop “doesn’t try to be provocative for the sake of provocation.”
She says that entrepreneurs have to be brave and challenge themselves, their way of thinking and not care about what others think.
“We have to do what we know is right and we have to take the risk-and that’s how you make a business that’s impactful and that’s going to stand out from other businesses,” she says. “The best businesses take risks.”
