Building a wellness brand, organically

Nurturing a small business from an idea into a successful venture requires many factors coming together at the right time: creativity, strategy, tenacity, support, and often—organic life lessons that can help spur growth. 

At the 2025 Inc. 5000 event celebrating some of the fastest-growing private companies in America, we sat down with Shizu Okusa, CEO of Apothekary, a health and wellness company combining traditional Japanese medicinal therapies with modern science to combat the stresses of daily life. Okusa discussed how her unique experiences helped her gain the insights needed to bring Apothekary to life, and the three pieces of advice she lives by as a business leader.

Apothekary was founded in 2018 as a woman-owned business in the Washington, DC area, with a mission to bring traditional Japanese remedies to a modern, wellness-focused audience.

Apothekary is what we call Mother Nature's pharmacy,” Okusa said. “We bridge ancient (Eastern) medicine with Western science. We...strive to bring nature as medicine to the masses.”

But even with an original idea, Apothekary faced stiff competition, in an industry worth $480 billion in the U.S. alone, according to data from McKinsey.

To differentiate the company within the marketplace, Okusa focused on specific  factors about the brand.

Said Okusa, “One of the things that we've done differently at Apothecary is truly leaning into both the authority and then the authenticity of the brand. The authority being 5,000 years of science, tradition, and ritual and the authenticity of my family and our Japanese heritage.”

When asked about the inspiration that led her to start the company in the first place, Okusa shared, “My ‘why’ is defined by a Japanese word called ‘ikigai,’ which is basically the intersection of life purpose and how we make money. I'm able to wake up every day knowing that I'm living my life’s purpose as well as making money.”

Coming from a background in Wall Street, Okusa stated that moving from the structure of a financial career to one as an entrepreneur has been an exercise in embracing unknown paths, saying “One of the biggest challenges that I find as an entrepreneur is that there's no clear path forward.

“For a long time, we really wanted to get our products onto retail shelves nationwide...(but) Apothekary is a very unique brand with Eastern medicine. It's a little niche. It took us a long time, about five and a half years, to finally get the final yes to be on the shelves nationwide at a beauty retailer, natural foods, and specialty.”

For all the business founders we spoke to at the Inc. 5000 event, we asked them to share three insights they learned along the way that ended up changing their business. Here’s what Okusa had to share about her journey to building Apothekary:

When asked what she wished she knew when she started Apothekary, Okusa stated, “There are many things that I wish I knew...but I also think there are many things that I wish I didn't know—because when you know too much sometimes you don't take big enough risks. So always have a balance between logic and creativity and know the balance between the two and which to toggle at any given time.”

Okusa said that she depends on cash back revenue streams to put money back into Apothekary, saying, “We reinvest any extra money we make right back into our entire team and our payroll to support and grow our company to the next stage of its growth.”

One of the biggest challenges that Okusa has encountered as an entrepreneur is not to borrow trouble by demanding certainty where it’s simply not possible as you’re building a business. 

“The biggest motto I tell myself is not to borrow trouble. Sometimes I do get anxious about the future because we don't know what's written in the future. I truly try to bank on the presence that I know today and that presence is the ultimate present.”

Okusa shared that the company relies on the cash back program from Capital One to give her more flexibility and options saying, “The reason we wanted to start with Capital One Business is because cash is king, especially in startups. When you run out of money, it's game over. 

“Sometimes if we don't know if we're going to get paid by another retailer, or we have a slower week with our customers, we can always rely on the cash back program from Capital One Business.”

Capital One Business is here to support founders like Shizu Okusa on their journey to building success in life and business. How could the right support help as you create your own business story?