The wellness industry is about to get more personal.
That’s a key takeaway from a speech by actor turned entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Summit earlier this week. The Goop founder predicts that the wellness industry will focus more on personalization over the next 10 years. What it looks like, Paltrow says, could be anything from detailing someone’s microbiome to personalized testing for food allergies to improving wearable devices.
“I think we’re getting very smart as a species, and we’re realizing that there are certain things we have to do 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 general ideas or fads, much more individualized conditions.”
Although not an expert per se, Paltrow has been something of a market watcher since she founded her company in Santa Monica, California, in 2008. In her opinion, people are becoming more informed about their daily decisions as they use more information about themselves. The founder of Goop says her Oura Ring (a fitness ring that costs between $300 and $400) helps her sleep better and get ready for an earlier night. Wearable devices like the Oura provide health insights for users that can help with daily health decisions.
Of course, Paltrow’s musings have put her in a state of affect before. Goop once said that his biofrequency healing stickers use the same conductive carbon material that NASA uses to line its spacesuits. However, NASA shot the subject down, explaining that its spacesuits do not use conductive carbon material. And Paltrow paid a $145,000 fine in 2018 because of the company’s unsupported claims about the alleged medical benefits of using jade balls.
Paltrow took time to address the controversy, saying that Goop “is not trying to be provocative for the sake of provocation.”
She says entrepreneurs should be bold and challenge themselves, their way of thinking, and not care what others think.
“We have to do what we think is right, and we have to take risks, and that’s how we create effective businesses that will stand out from other businesses,” she says. “The best companies take risks.”