Be Willing to Always Do the Work: Interview with Vanessa Rissetto and Tamar Samuels, Co-founders of Culina Health

I recently spoke to Vanessa Rissetto and Tamar Samuels, co-founders of Culina Health.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Tamar:  We met at Mount Sinai hospital in 2013. Vanessa was my dietetic preceptor and guest speaker for her clinical practice in dietetics class at NYU. Funny enough, Vanessa presented a lecture on business and nutrition. At the time, Vanessa was very pregnant and I was early in career so we lost touch by way of circumstance. Fast forward to 2019, we reconnected over coffee and discovered we were both running successful private practices, but we both wanted something more from our work. We aligned as women of color in a space that’s dominated by white women, and even though we had very different counseling styles our approach to nutrition care was the same - patient-centered, inclusive, and rooted in science. We founded Culina Health shortly after and made several pivots over the last 2 years. Now Culina Health is a venture-funded health technology start-up with a team of 18 and counting registered dietitians. Our mission is to make nutrition accessible and sustainable for everyone. We’ve had so many challenges and learning lessons along the way, but we’re grateful for our co-founder Steve Kuyan for his mentorship in navigating the venture space and our incredible team for supporting our mission and pivoting with us to bring forth our vision to use clinical nutrition to change the way the world thinks about health. Our biggest challenge thus far has been sailing the ship as we build it. The startup life is fast-paced and demanding both mentally and physically - we’re trying to do something that has never been done before, especially as women of color. We’re both mothers and balancing all of the demands of work and home while maintaining our own well-being is the ultimate challenge.  

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas?

Vanessa: Collaboration! Coming up with great ideas requires collaboration from people with different perspectives. Working with our co-founder Steve brought a whole new set of ideas around nutrition and technology and scaling a service-driven business while maintaining quality of care. Our leadership team is so dynamic and diverse and we all have different skillsets and cultural backgrounds that help inform all our best ideas for the company.

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea? 

Tamar: In our first year of business, we were a profitable, revenue-generating company with a waitlist of patients. We knew we had something worth pursuing right away, we just didn’t know how to move forward with what we built until we met Steve. Our biggest piece of advice on how to test a business idea is to put your product or service out as quickly as you can and let your customers (or in our case patients) tell you what is and isn’t good. As a patient-centered company, we use feedback from our patients to inform all the decisions we make for our business. 

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level? 

Vanessa:  The first step is to do good work that has a meaningful impact on people’s lives. The next is to be confident that your business will solve the problem you have identified in the market. For us, we knew that the nutrition space was filled with misinformation from unqualified people, it was elitist and inaccessible to most people, and dominated by unsustainable and sometimes dangerous diets, pills, and extreme messaging around nutrition and health. As clinicians, we knew that the current options for nutrition care didn’t actually help people get healthy. We have more nutrition information at our fingertips than ever before, but over 100 million Americans still suffer from nutrition-related chronic disease and our patients are still confused about what to eat. Once you feel confident that your business is going to solve a meaningful problem, then test out the market and see what sticks! 

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips? 

Tamar: Be authentic to who you are and what your brand represents. Align yourself with like-minded companies that believe in your business and create mutually beneficial partnerships. Know your competitive advantage and promote it across all your channels. Don’t be afraid to invest in your business and outsource to people who are better than you whenever you can. 

Adam: What are your best tips on the topics of health, nutrition, and wellness? 

Vanessa: Try to crowd out the noise and work on finding a sustainable way to support your health that works for your unique circumstances and health. You don’t have to give up your favorite foods, cultural foods, or your social life to achieve your health and nutrition goals. Start with adding things in, instead of taking things out. Be specific and make goals that are realistic, even better get support or accountability to meet those goals. For example, if your goal is to lose weight - start with adding more fiber to your diet instead of eliminating entire food groups. Fiber helps stabilize your blood sugar and appetite, which prevents cravings and helps you feel satisfied for less calories. As an added bonus most high-fiber foods are also beneficial to our health. This approach is more sustainable, pragmatic, and effective from a behavioral and health perspective.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Tamar: Leaders are inspiring, thoughtful, and forward-thinking. They listen to their gut, but also make decisions based on data. They’re authentic and innovative. Mentorship is huge to take your leadership skills to the next level. It’s hard to be a leader and getting support is essential for growth. We personally have coaches, leadership groups, therapists, each other, and our team for support. It takes a village. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Vanessa: Have a good team. Give feedback in a neutral way. Communicate! Don’t expect people to know what’s in your head.

Tamar: Pivot when things aren’t working, get out of the weeds and take the time to reflect regularly, surround yourself with people that believe in your mission and don’t drive you crazy!

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Vanessa: Be willing to always do the work.

Tamar: One day at a time!


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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