“Let it be easy.”
That was one of my favorite moments from my conversation with Yasmin Crystal Santos, founder of Altar Native.
Not because building a company is easy.
Clearly, it’s not. She’s dealing with:
And somehow… she still feels calm.
Not passive.
Not naive.
Calm.
And that felt almost more disruptive than the category she’s building in.
Yasmin created a line of herbal alcohol alternatives after realizing alcohol no longer gave her what she was actually looking for: relief, regulation, a state shift.
What started as personal survival eventually became a brand. But the bigger idea underneath it is what stayed with me:
People are overwhelmed.
And most of us are trying to regulate ourselves with the wrong tools.
What also struck me: She doesn’t sound like most founders.
No frantic “crush it at all costs” energy.
No obsession with scaling as fast as possible. In fact, she openly talks about staying lean and avoiding over-raising.
And yet:
She used this metaphor I loved: Bamboo spends years building roots underground before it suddenly shoots up into the sky.
Most founders want the growth part. Very few have the patience for the roots.
The biggest takeaway for me wasn’t really about herbalism or functional beverages.
It was this: You can build something ambitious without believing you have to destroy yourself in the process.
And I think more founders need to hear that.
This episode stayed with me long after we stopped recording.
