Hilary Dubin realized his addiction to Juul, the nicotine vapeman who went viral and that since then the addiction of adolescents from all over the country is attributed, while he was in a California ski center in 2017. He was 22 years old at that time and Dubin and his boyfriend found a juul on the ground. They picked him up, gave him a draft and found that he was still working.
“We think: ‘Well, we don’t buy it, we simply find it, and now it’s ours,” says Dubin, 30. “(Looking back), now it’s quite shameful.”
A few years later, Caroline Vasquez Huber, friend of Dubin’s childhood, realized that she had an addiction to Juul after returning home during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. She vapeated all day and knew she had to leave it.
“In a few days, I felt fatal,” says Huber, who is also 30 years old.
Huber’s mother, a doctor, estimated that she was vaping about 40 nicotine cigarettes a day. They went to the pharmacy and she changed her juul for mint pills with nicotine. But the flakes of blue king nicotine pills with medical appearance embarrassed her.
“You get a Nicorette and it seems that you have a disease,” says Huber. “The product seemed embarrassing.”
After Huber explained to Dubin how to quit smoking, they had an idea: to create a nicotine replacement therapy, but that was attractive. In the summer of 2022, the couple requested an acceleration program from the University of New York and received a scholarship of $ 10,000. They won a presentation contest at the end of the course, obtaining 1.1 million dollars in initial financing of investors such as Good Friends (founded by the founders of Warby Parker, Allbirds and the Harry’s shaving company).
They began to develop an application that uses cognitive-behavioral therapy and positive motivation to help people quit cigarettes, vapers and bags that customers use together with nicotine pills. After a year of development, Jones, name of his new company, launched in November 2023 and raised 3.9 million dollars in an initial round of Founder Collective, Next View and other companies.
This week, Jones announced the closure of a series A financing of 10 million dollars, which Forbes estimates that the company values by about 45 million. The startup will use capital to develop new nicotine products, hire more employees and promote itself. Jones generated 5 million dollars in revenue last year and aims to reach 10 million in sales by the end of 2025.
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Jones modernizes the marketing and objectives of those who want to quit smoking
The most recent startup in the nicotine replacement therapies, a complex and highly regulated market with global annual sales of 3,000 million dollars, Jones does not manufacture its TRN pills, but buy them from an external manufacturer approved by the FDA. And yes, they come in those bright blue jars, the same in which the generic trn pills are sold in Walgreens and CVS.
But Jones includes an elegant can where users can save their mint candies for a more elegant experience. The company, which claims to have 60% of women women and 40% men, is also collaborating with the Los Angeles Monbouquette jewelry brand to create a small silver box sterling for pills, which will be sold for $ 295 and can also be used as a necklace.
During New York Fashion Week, Jones distributed cans from his pills to the models between racks during Jonathan Cohen, Kallmeyer and Tanner Fletcher parades.
The brand is also trying to modernize the marketing and approach to existing nicotine replacement therapies (TRN). Jones is using the same approach as Warby Parker used for glasses and the one that HIMS is using for the treatments against hair loss and medications for erectile dysfunction.
Make nicotina, generic viagra and glasses attractive, easy and not shameful. However, there is a big difference between Jones and Hims: nicotine replacement therapy is a free sale medication, so customers do not need a medical recipe.
The TRN market is currently dominated by large multimillion -dollar pharmaceutical companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, manufacturer of the product brand Nicorette, Haleon Group, a Glaxosmithkline subsidiary, and Perrigo. There are also innovative solutions in progress: Qnovia, based in Virginia, is developing a nicotine nebulizer that hopes to obtain the approval of the FDA.
But there are enough people interested in quitting smoking. With 28 million smokers in the United States, cigarettes are still the main cause of preventable death and disease, with 480,000 deaths a year. This means that Jones operates in a considerable market that needs more solutions.
Jaclyn Freeman Hester, Foundry’s partner, who led the series A Financing of Jones, states that he convinced himself to invest in the company because he believes that Jones has revolutionized the current market offer and is reaching a customer base to which generic brands do not reach.
“Is this a serious problem? Yes, it is a huge problem,” he says, explaining that the majority of people who smoke or vain want to quit smoking, but they don’t get it. “The concept is simple: smoking has been modernized, and quitting smoking no (until now).”
Jones also built a culture defined by grace, according to the founders, something that people addicted to nicotine, and other drugs and substances, do not get enough while trying to quit smoking. (Studies have shown that a typical cigarette addicted person tries to leave it without success between 8 and 10 times). The application of Jones allows customers to choose specific objectives: leave consumption completely or reduce it gradually.
“We don’t judge,” says Huber. “Reduce consumption, stop smoking, do what you want. In Jones, if you are wrong, nothing happens. We celebrate progress above perfection.”
And how has the founders of Jones gone in their attempts to quit? Well, they don’t vapee, but they still use their own product. “I love nicotine,” says Huber. “I use TRN every day.”
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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