In a city obsessed with optimizing everything from work to sleep to fitness, it only makes sense that New Yorkers would also be receptive to wellness technology — a $6 trillion industry that’s expected to hit $8.5 trillion by 2027.
But Lauren Berlingeri, co-founder of HigherDOSE — a company that creates cutting-edge self-care tools for home use, including a red-light face mask and a sauna blanket — said it took years to get investors on board because of the perceived “woo-woo” factor.
“That’s always been a challenge of ours as these trendsetters in this holistic recovery space — or even longevity space or biohacking. Most people don’t even know what it is,” said Berlingeri, who launched the company in 2014 with former Merrill Lynch banker Katie Kaps. “Pioneering a whole new space for [venture capitalists] was hard to wrap their head around,” she added.
Biohacking is an effort to improve your health by using science and self-experimentation. It has become an obsession among the tech elite, who spend millions each year in the hopes of living a robust life longer.
HigherDOSE only raised $1.2 million in 2016, and Berlingeri explains that the company — which now retails on high-end e-commerce sites like Sephora and Goop — had to get creative about making money at a time when valuations for tech companies were skyrocketing.
Along with the money they raised, she and Kaps put their own cash into opening permanent locations across the city — in addition to pop ups — to bring in revenue and build the brand as they worked on launching the wearable technology that has now become their main offering.
Berlingeri, 39, came to wellness after working as a model and television host for years. She said she smoked cigarettes and drank Diet Coke to stay thin, but turned her life around by learning about nutrition and various wellness tools. She felt so much better, she wanted to share it with others.
“When I learned about the infrared sauna, I was like, ‘Wait, what is this?’ It’s a light therapy that releases happy chemicals. That makes your skin amazing … and you can sleep good,” Berlingeri said. “[It was] too good to be true. So I went to try it — the only one that existed in New York City at the time … [I] was blown away, and just knew that every New Yorker needed to be doing infrared sauna.”
Berlingeri believes that, while the science behind a technology can be complicated, how it makes you feel is what makes it an easy sell. That’s been key to the brand’s success.
“With infrared and red light, you literally feel and see the difference within one session. And a lot of things in wellness, it’s a little bit woo woo, take six months…. Whereas when you go into the infrared sauna [and] you come out a different person,” Berlingeri explained. “
She and Kaps both became obsessed with how the sauna made them feel — and used the money they raised to open 25 saunas across the tristate area.
“We joke that we never needed to do any marketing for like the first, like three years, because everyone would come in and take a sexy sauna selfie in the sauna,” Berlingeri said. “And then it just went viral and people didn’t even care that it was infrared. They just knew that they felt amazing afterwards and it like, wiped away all their sin from the night before and that was all they needed to know.
“People like Bella Hadid and The Weeknd would come in almost, like, once a week … We had Kate Winslet, we had Michelle Williams, we had Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.”
As the popularity of the sauna grew, the co-founders were asked to do pop-ups for events and realized they needed more accessible products to expand their brand.
They created a $699 “sauna blanket” in 2018. It looks like a sleeping bag and can heat up to nearly 180 degrees, bringing the sauna experience home.
When Covid hit, HigherDOSE shut down their in-person saunas, but sales of those blankets surged as people spent more time at home.
“Since Covid, we all realized that we need to take our own health into our own hands. And the only one that you can trust is yourself, and that this is a lifestyle,” Berlingeri said.
Since then, HigherDOSE — a reference to the natural high people can get from these products — has created additional at-home products and reopened just one sauna location in Soho. They’ve partnered with 50 spas in the tristate area that use their technology.
The company also offers skincare and supplements PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field) mats that send electromagnetic waves through your body to help promote muscle recovery.
While the products are sold all across the US, New York City is key to the company’s and ongoing development.
“New York is the most inspiring place. If I didn’t live here, I don’t think I ever could have started HigherDOSE with no college degree in business. But I think with people that have passion and drive and they have conviction, that really means something here.”
This story is part of NYNext, a new editorial series that highlights New York City innovation across industries, as well as the personalities leading the way.
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