Czech couple builds Nodzono longevity supplement brand for Dubai

The couple František and Michala Vašíček founded their own premium supplement brand, Nodzono, because they themselves were lost in the huge choice of vitamins. They put a few million euros of their own money into the project. After a successful start in Europe, they are finalizing preparations to enter Dubai and are planning for the American market.

Glass instead of plastic, and a gap in the market

Instead of plastic tubs, Nodzono uses elegant glass that looks like a piece of home décor. The packaging was designed by an award-winning studio from Dubai and is made at European glassworks. According to Michala Vašíček, the brand’s CEO, a supplement only makes sense if you take it regularly: a plastic tub gets shoved into a cupboard and forgotten, while a beautiful glass jar stays on the kitchen counter as a reminder.

The system consists of six formulas, which differ in the color of the jars and tablets and support vitality. František Vašíček, the brand’s majority owner, says that for twenty years of running businesses he kept himself going on coffee, and later, out of confusion, took fourteen capsules of supplements and bought the most expensive ones, treating price as a sign of quality. When the couple began reading labels, they saw the shortcomings and realized the market lacked trust. The consulting firm McKinsey estimates the global wellness market at two trillion dollars.

Two years of development

The couple came up with the project in the evenings, once the children were asleep. They first designed the whole system and only then the individual formulas, so that ingredients would not overlap and the products could be combined. Development was led by a biochemist who normally creates drug formulations, while a team in Dubai worked in parallel. Finding a manufacturer took the longest: in Czechia they were told that with such purity requirements the product would be unsellable. Today Nodzono is made by two certified plants in the European Union.

According to František Vašíček, the formulation itself is not what is expensive, but the road to legally selling the same composition in many countries: registration, regulatory consultants, lab tests, label translations and lawyers — millions of crowns before the first jar is sold. He is glad the brand is financed without investors who might push to economize on quality and testing. During registration in the Middle East, it turned out that the rules there are stricter than in Europe and some common substances are banned.

Quality is backed by reports from the independent Dubai lab National Laboratory & Research Center, which checked the first production batch of capsules for all the formulas. The couple want to launch sales in Dubai and the Middle East before the end of the year, and next year they are preparing to enter America.