I’m a solo founder building a software studio and a portfolio of apps.

I’m starting to document the journey here: what I’m building, what I’m learning, and the decisions behind it across product, design, and distribution.

Wellness is one of my favourite topics because I’ve learned the hard way: if your nervous system is fried, your strategy doesn’t matter. I care about building ambitious things without sacrificing ourselves in the process.

I also run Behind Wellness, a remote marketing & AI studio supporting founder-led businesses and lean teams who want to scale calmly and sustainably. We help with positioning, content, campaigns, funnels, and AI-assisted workflows that reduce load without adding chaos.

I write a weekly newsletter: Monday Squeeze🍊: 5-minute case studies breaking down how other brands win at marketing, and how you can apply it today.

If you’re building something and want calm, capable support behind the scenes, DM me.

Most wellness products stay in the consumer lane.

ŌURA did something different. They started with consumers, but quietly built the infrastructure that makes the product useful for companies too.

Today the ring is used in corporate wellness programs, research partnerships, and insurance initiatives because the data translates into something organisations can act on.

In this newsletter, I break down:

- how Ōura moved from a consumer wearable to an enterprise health platform

- why simplifying 50+ metrics into three scores made the data usable for leaders

- how privacy and group-level reporting made biometric data acceptable in workplaces

- why design, partnerships, and storytelling helped the ring become mainstream

- what wellness founders can learn about building B2B credibility after consumer trust

If you’re building in health, wellness, or wearables, it’s a good example of how a product evolves from a lifestyle device into something organisations treat as infrastructure.

Full breakdown below 👇

#healthtech #brandstrategy #wearables

Samara Al Badri

Building a software studio at the intersection of product, design & marketing | Product builder & content creator | Weekly marketing newsletter

Source By mid-morning, one or more members of your team have already made a string of quiet trade-offs. An extra coffee instead of breakfast. A meetin

Open article: #64 - The $11B Ring: What Ōura Understood About B2B Before Most Wellness Brands Do by Samara Al Badri • 11 min read

#64 - The $11B Ring: What Ōura Understood About B2B Before Most Wellness Brands Do

I was chatting with a wellness coach last week about how she shares recipes with her clients.

It’s usually pretty simple. Messages, notes, PDFs. It works, but it felt like there was an opportunity to make it more considered.

So I said, let me try something.

I came up with the idea of turning everything into recipe cards using code. Not just recipes, but also wellness cards that could sit alongside them as part of the same system.

I built the whole thing using Claude Code.

No Canva, no Adobe, and no Figma.

Just building the concepts directly in code.

I used different content and explored a few different directions:

- The artisan style feels soft, crafted, and more personal.

- The structured layout feels more direct and functional.

- The kitchen ticket style feels bold, minimal, and very graphic.

- The playful versions use patterns and colour to feel more expressive.

- The wellness cards feel calmer, simpler, and more content-led.

What I liked about this is how much the same type of content shifts depending on the design decisions. Layout, spacing, and typography do most of the work.

Building it this way also changed how I think about design. I’m not just placing elements until they look right. I’m thinking about structure, systems, and how everything fits together.

It started from a simple conversation, but it turned into a really solid way to explore design and building at the same time.

In beauty, constant launches usually create noise. 

Another drop, another reformulation, another limited edition that makes everything feel a bit harder to follow.

What I find interesting about Typology is that they launch just as frequently, sometimes every month, and yet the brand still feels steady and clear.

They’re profitable, scaled across Europe and expanded categories. 

And they’ve done it without chasing every trend or overcomplicating the range.

In this newsletter, I break down:

- how Typology ships new products regularly without overwhelming customers

- the internal rules they use to cut SKUs quickly if they don’t earn repeat

- why staying DTC-first gives them tighter control over education, data, and margin

- how their minimalist packaging actually improves fulfilment and protects profit

- what founders can learn from their cadence, pricing discipline, and routine mapping

If you’re building in beauty, skincare, or any consumer brand where the pressure to constantly launch is real, this one is worth reading.

The full breakdown is below 👇

#beautyindustry #brandstrategy #directtoconsumer

Source Every month, another serum. Every season, another collection that piles on instead of standing out. Every trend cycle, another reinvention of t

Open article: #62 - Minimalist, Not Minimal - How Typology Keeps Shipping Newness by Samara Al Badri • 9 min read

#62 - Minimalist, Not Minimal - How Typology Keeps Shipping Newness

I was browsing Pinterest last night looking at contemporary art spaces and exhibition posters and it sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

I ended up sketching a website concept for a gallery and experimenting with a more modern brutalist style.

It’s not pure brutalism. The structure is still quite clean. But I like bringing in some of those elements. Big typography, strong outlines, simple colours, and graphic blocks that make the layout feel very direct.

I also played with small animations across the page. Cards move slightly, sections reveal as you scroll, and some elements shift a little as you hover. Just enough movement to make the page feel more interactive.

I’m building this concept while testing different layout and interaction ideas.

Still experimenting with it, but I’m really enjoying working with this direction so far.

I’ve been playing around with a branding idea recently and ended up designing this concept called Maybe Tomorrow.

The name came from a moment I’m sure most people recognise.

You wake up and think you should probably go to the gym today. 

You even consider it properly for a minute. Then life starts moving, work is waiting, and suddenly you’re telling yourself you’ll go…maybe tomorrow.

It’s that small conversation people have with themselves.

Most fitness brands don’t talk about that moment. They usually focus on discipline, intensity, pushing harder, waking up at five in the morning and all of that.

I wanted to try the opposite and build a brand around the reality that motivation isn’t always perfect.

So the whole concept leans into that idea.

The mascot is a little kettlebell character wearing a sweatband. It’s slightly sweaty and shaking while lifting itself. It looks like it’s trying but also slightly struggling. That felt more honest to me than the usual ultra-motivated fitness imagery.

I also spent time thinking about the typography because the illustration has a playful side to it. I didn’t want the whole thing to feel silly.

The type is large and very direct. Strong block lettering that feels like it belongs on an athletic club sign or on old gym equipment. It keeps the brand grounded and gives it a bit of structure next to the mascot.

The colours lean into warm burnt orange tones with a soft neutral background. The illustration has a bit of texture as well, which gives it that slightly vintage athletic club feeling.

What I liked about working on this was how the whole identity came from one very small idea.

And if I’m being completely honest, while I was designing this I also told myself I’d go to the gym later.

So…we’ll see. Maybe tomorrow.

Had a copy idea and asked Gemini 3.1 to turn it into carousel slides for different platforms.

It gave me a starting point. Then I refined it further using Claude Sonnet in Claude Code, which generated the structure in HTML.

From there I applied my design taste, brand design inspiration, and brand guidelines - colours, typography, spacing, and layout so the slides feel consistent.

AI can generate the direction, but taste still matters when deciding what to keep, what to simplify, and how everything should sit together visually.

Gemini is super great for the visual direction, and Claude is amazing for turning it into code.

Here’s the result 🎨

A small productivity realisation I’ve had recently.

You can complete a lot of tasks and still feel like the week didn’t move anything forward.

The work was legitimate and the tasks were reasonable. But sometimes the progress still feels limited.

What I’ve started noticing is the difference between tasks and priorities.

Tasks help organise the work in front of you. Priorities determine which work actually deserves attention at that moment.

The list of tasks never ends. You complete several things and then new ones appear.

I notice this when I’m building small tools and experimenting with things like Claude Code.

There’re always multiple directions the work could go.

I could test different prompts. I could adjust a small part of the interface. I could add another feature. I could adjust the design. 

All of those are reasonable tasks.

But the question that helps me most is simple: what actually moves this project forward right now?

A few habits help me keep that clear.

I try to decide which one or two things would make the week feel worthwhile if they moved forward.

I try to leave some time for thinking instead of filling every hour with execution.

I also review my task list and ask myself why each task is there.

And I accept that progress often comes from a small number of decisions or pieces of work.

The task list still matters.

But being clear about priorities makes the list easier to work through.

🌿 The Problems I’ve Seen

→ In this fast-paced industry, many health and wellness brands struggle to keep up with the demand for quality content and creative work.

→ Managing graphic design, copywriting, social media, web design, and video editing all at once is tough.

→ Finding reliable professionals who deliver on time can feel impossible.

→ This cycle drains your energy, causes delays, and leads to missed opportunities.

→ I’ve been there—spending hours hunting for the right talent, only to end up frustrated. Something had to change.

That’s why I started Behind Wellness—a one-stop solution for health and wellness brands.

🌿 Why I’m Here

I’m passionate about beauty, health, and wellness branding, design, content and creative solutions. 
I’m here to create the solution I wished I had. 

By elevating your brand, I believe we can make a real impact—helping you connect with more customers, grow your community, and boost your success.

🌿 My Mission

I founded Behind Wellness to help health, wellness, and beauty brands like yours stand out and make an impact.

🌿 The Brands I Work With

I work with brands that:

- Need to upgrade their branding to attract more customers.
- Want to look professional and polished.
- Are launching a new product and need standout branding.
- Require ongoing creative support for their marketing efforts.
- Want compelling and ongoing copy that resonates with their audience.
- Need engaging social media content to build a loyal community.

🌿 How I Can Help

→ Monthly Subscriptions with unlimited creative support—covering design, video, social media, web, and copywriting.
→ A one-stop shop that saves you time and money while delivering top-quality designs and content.
→ We bring excellence and seamless operations together, turning headaches into a smooth client experience.
→ No more juggling freelancers or dealing with inconsistent results.

With Behind Wellness, your creative needs are handled by us as your dedicated partner, so you can focus on growing your brand and connecting with your audience.

DM me “Brand” on LinkedIn to work together

Website: https://behindwellness.com/

Want to learn more about my story? Check it out here:  https://executivesdiary.com/blog/2024/09/02/samara-al-badri/

When Ritual launched, they kept things very focused: women’s health first. Prenatal, then postnatal, then daily essentials.

Over time, customers started asking the obvious next question: what about the rest of the family?

Instead of rushing into dozens of products, Ritual expanded slowly into men’s vitamins, kids’ formulas, and family bundles while keeping the same principles that built trust in the first place.

In this newsletter I look at:

- how Ritual moved from women’s health to a full-family supplement brand
- what customer signals told them where to expand next
- how subscription data shaped product launches
- why expansion worked without diluting the brand

If you’re building in wellness or consumer products, it’s an interesting example of how a brand grows without losing its focus.

You can read the full breakdown below 👇

#brandstrategy #wellnessbrands #directtoconsumer

Source Do you stockpile kombucha and kale? Maybe not! However, even if you go all-in, your diet may still fall short of fulfilling all of your nutriti

Open article: #63 - From Women's Health to Full Family: Ritual's Pivot Lessons for Brand Expansion by Samara Al Badri • 9 min read

#63 - From Women's Health to Full Family: Ritual's Pivot Lessons for Brand Expansion

I’ve been working on a fitness landing page and I’m a bit obsessed with how this one turned out.

Mainly because it doesn’t look or feel like a typical fitness site.

No bright reds, no high energy visuals and no noise.

The colours are much more muted. Deep greens, soft blues, and subtle gradients. It feels calm and controlled, but still strong. More like a system than a campaign.

That shift alone changes how you experience the page.

From there, everything is built to guide you through it.

It doesn’t open with programs or pricing. It builds a bit of belief first. A stat, then a line like “Surround yourself with excellence.” Enough to shift how you’re thinking before anything is being sold.

There’re only a couple of choices at any point. You’re not figuring out where to go next. It’s obvious, less to process, and less hesitation. That’s Hick’s Law, just applied properly.

Buttons are slightly over-padded. Not for style, but so they’re easier to click without thinking. Same idea behind Fitts’s Law, just handled quietly.

The layout repeats so your brain doesn’t have to relearn anything as you scroll.

The text is constrained so it doesn’t feel heavy.

Even the background isn’t static. It’s built with WebGL using Three.js, so there’s this subtle motion running through the page. You don’t really notice it at first, but it adds depth and stops everything from feeling flat.

None of this is complicated, but it changes how the whole page feels.

I’m less interested in making something look impressive now.

I care more about whether it feels clear, intentional, and easy to move through.

When a brand messes with its hero product, most try to defend it or quietly move on.

What Skinfix did instead is worth paying attention to.

They reformulated their bestselling cream and customers noticed immediately. 

Texture changed, performance felt off, and people started questioning something they used to trust without thinking.

And instead of doubling down, they reversed it.

In this newsletter, I break down:

- what actually happens when you change a high-dependency product

- how customer feedback shows up before the numbers do

- why retail relationships (like Sephora) raise the stakes even more

- how Skinfix handled the rollback without damaging trust

- what founders should think about before touching a hero SKU

If you’re building in beauty or any product-led category, this one is worth reading, especially if your growth depends on products people use without thinking.

You can read the full piece below 👇

#beautyindustry #brandstrategy #productstrategy

Source In skincare, your hero product is the one people grab on autopilot. It’s the jar someone reaches for half-asleep, after a flight, after a bad r

Open article: #65 - The Hard Reset: How Skinfix Fixed a Reformulation Miss and Kept Sephora Close by Samara Al Badri • 8 min read

#65 - The Hard Reset: How Skinfix Fixed a Reformulation Miss and Kept Sephora Close

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