Healf: The Wellbeing Brand Aiming to be the ‘Netflix of Wellness’

Lestat McCree and his younger brother Max Clarke are feeling on top of the world. Their four-year-old wellbeing brand, Healf, passed the £100 million monthly revenue run-rate mark in October and is on a roll.

The brothers are now talking to investors to help fund the next phase of the company’s growth: the expansion of its personalised technology, wich will guide consumers to buy supplements that they actually need, and also its first foray overseas.

To mark the moment, we meet in a glass box called the Crow’s Nest on the roof of The Ark, an imposing 12-storey building shaped a little like a ship’s hull that anyone using London’s A40 to pass in and out of the capital will have seen as they hit hammersmith.

It is home to Healf’s team of 100 and is the base from where McCree, 27, and Clarke, 26, plan to turn Healf into a billion-pound-revenue global business. “We want to be the Netflix of wellbeing,” shoots McCree, in the opening salvo of what they both say is their first formal interview. The company featured in the Sunday Times 100 this year.

Articulating big, audacious goals are part of the manchester-born co-founders’ approach to life: it is for enjoying to the full and should not be limited by overly strict health regimes. “The [wellness] industry is saying ‘do all this’ because it is going to make you live an extra ten years, or whatever. We are not for that. We are for the ‘now’,living in the moment and feeling good,” says Clarke.

Both brothers have young families – Clarke, two daughters; McCree, one – yet they obsess about their business, working all hours, and value a similar dedication to getting the job done from their team. Clarke says: “I lead from the front, work seven days a week and it is non-stop. If people want to join in on that they can. The people that do drive the most impact because they love it. They believe in the mission.”

The Wellness Startup Challenging the Biohacking Boom

Healf, a British wellness company founded by James Clarke and Ben McCree, is gaining traction by offering a curated approach to health and longevity, distinct from the frequently enough-overhyped “biohacking” space. Clarke, a former city trader, transformed his health through data-driven self-experimentation, tracking biomarkers to optimize his routine.

Clarke says his current routine, guided by his biomarkers, includes taking glutamine with omega-3 in the morning, then celery juice and a probiotic at lunch, and magnesium glycinate before bed. He also uses creatine and amino acid supplements with electrolytes from the brand Perfect before he works out. He does yoga and meditation every day. But he isn’t rigid about any of it – he adjusts the routine as real life requires.

This approach resonates with an increasing number of people.Healf organised a wellbeing “experience” in October featuring panel discussions and keynote talks from the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, the former England rugby player, Kristen Holmes, the principal scientist at Whoop, the American wearable devices firm, and Gary Brecka, the health guru. More than 5,000 people paid for tickets to the event. “People were jumping in ice baths, taking saunas and doing red light therapy: it was a nuts weekend,” says McCree.

Healf’s pitch to its 325,000 regular customers is that it will help them navigate through the noise of snakeoil salesmen peddling wellness and longevity products, sensors, equipment and routines, many of which either lack veracity or are simply not needed.

The company, valued at £40 million, boasts a 60% ownership by the brothers, with shares extended to all employees. Healf’s success lies in its commitment to evidence-based practices and a rejection of the extreme, often unsubstantiated, claims prevalent in the biohacking world. They aim to provide a reliable compass in the increasingly complex landscape of personal wellness.