This Founder Put Her Business On Pause. Here’s How She Pulled Off a Better-Than-Expected Relaunch

Moving fast “almost broke us,” Angie Tebbe, the founder of Rae Wellness, says.

BY ANNABEL BURBA, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @ANNIEBURBA

Rae Wellness founder Angie Tebbe. Illustration: Inc; Photo: Courtesy company

In late 2023, Angie Tebbe made what she calls the hardest decision of her career by putting her supplement brand Rae Wellness’ operations on pause.

She had her reasons, though.

Tebbe founded the Minneapolis-based company in 2019 after working as a Target executive for more than a decade. Before long, she says, Rae was “off to the races,” launching its $14.99 supplements direct-to-consumer in 2020 and expanding to retail through Target a few months later.

By 2021, the brand had raised $9.5 million in series A funding and was on track to achieve triple digit year-over-year growth, according to a press release. By taking an omnichannel approach—selling its products through DTC, e-commerce, and retail channels—Rae grew to 4.5 million customers in just three years, Tebbe says. 

Then, the problems started. Tebbe says she brought on a “misaligned partner” in 2022 who had different values and goals for the brand than she did. As a result, she adds, Rae started to chase growth for growth’s sake.

Its issues intensified one year later when the brand, which had more than 10 employees at the time, launched at another major retailer. Due to a scanning error, Tebbe says, Rae sold tens of thousands of items that were improperly tracked—which led to a whole host of operational headaches, including inventory issues, and made a sizable impact on its cash flow. “It was a mess,” she admits.

While the brand, according to her, likely could have overcome that loss, Tebbe knew the retail mishap had arisen due to a deeper issue—the “misaligned” partnership—which she’d need to solve, or else similar setbacks would continue to emerge.

So, near the end of 2023, the founder says she chose “not to patch the holes, but to pause and really rebuild from the inside out.” Since she wasn’t sure if the brand would pull off a comeback, Tebbe didn’t formally announce the change to the public. Instead, she listed its products as sold out online and conducted several one-on-one conversations with customers about the situation.

During each month of Rae’s operational pause, tens of thousands of customers continued to visit its website. Thousands more sent Tebbe emails inquiring about its status.

As she was doing “some soul searching” in mid-2025, the founder started reading her customers’ emails. Shocked to learn that many of them had failed to find suitable alternatives to Rae’s products in its absence, Tebbe made another life-altering decision: In June 2025, she resolved to dip into her Target 401k to relaunch Rae Wellness without any outside investors.

About six months later, she did exactly that, announcing to Rae’s Instagram followers, email list, and website viewers that it was going to start selling eight of its original supplement formulations again. Tebbe says she strengthened the brand’s supply chain, ensuring she had “backups on backups” before making the announcement. Customers were ecstatic. 

Rae Wellness, which declined to share revenue, now has just under 10 employees. Tebbe reports that the relaunch has “generated exceptional momentum, with engagement, repeat purchasing, and demand exceeding expectations.” She says the brand is staying “lean and focused on DTC” for the foreseeable future, though retail is still “definitely on the roadmap.”

“Moving fast, to be clear, in this case, almost broke us,” Tebbe says. “Moving intentionally now, after the pause … will be what rebuilds us—without question.”

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