Charlotte Cruze: Co-Founder of Alice Mushrooms

Second Life

Who What Wear

Business, Fashion & Beauty, Society & Culture, Arts, Personal Journals, Careers

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’ve dipped your toe into the world of functional, non-psychedelic mushrooms, you’ve likely seen Alice’s chic adaptogenic chocolates grace your social media feed or the shelves of your local boutique grocer—you have Charlotte Cruze to thank for that. In 2022, Cruze and her co-founder Lindsay Goodstein launched Alice with two products: Nightcap, a sleep aid, and Brainstorm, an energy booster. Today, the line has expanded to include an aphrodisiac chocolate called Happy Ending and a limited-edition lingerie collab with Fleur du Mal. But before she was creating mushroom chocolates, Cruze spent most of her career in media at companies such as Refinery29, InsideHook, and NBC. During that time, Cruze realized she loved the food industry, and in the early days of the pandemic, she enrolled in a food studies master’s program at NYU with the intention of pivoting her career. From there, she took on a role as the head of operations at meal-kit company Quinn and later led growth at Nutella-alternative brand TBH. While Cruze was still working at TBH, Goodstein, a former pharmaceutical salesperson, tapped her to help build Alice, and the rest is delicious, benefit-packed history.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone I'm Hillary Kerr the co-founder and chief content officer of
0:10.2	who what wear and this is Second Life a podcast spotlighting women who have
0:16.0	truly inspiring careers we're talking about their work journeys what they've learned
0:20.7	from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears,
0:24.4	and what happens when they embark on their second life.
0:27.2	Today on the show, I'm speaking with the co-founder of Alice, Charlotte Cruz.
0:33.0	Alice is a line of functional non-psychadelic mushroom chocolates with both long-term benefits
0:39.4	and immediate effects.
0:41.6	During the pandemic, Charlotte enrolled in NYU's Food Studies
0:45.8	Masters program and went on to run operations at Mealskit Company Quinn as well as
0:51.8	heading up growth at the buzzy Nutella alternative brand, TBH.
0:57.2	In 2021, while still working at TBH, she teamed up with Pharmaceutical Industry alum Lindsay Goodstein to develop Alice.
1:06.0	After tons of research and navigating the complex worlds of both mushroom development and
1:12.0	chocolatiering, they launched the brand with two types of chocolate.
1:16.7	Nightcap, which I love, which is a sleep aide and brainstorm and energy boost.
1:22.1	Now, just in time for Valentine's Day,
1:24.5	they've launched their third product,
1:26.3	an Aphrodiziac chocolate called Happy Ending,
1:29.4	as well as a limited-run lingerie collab with Fleur Dumont. But before Charlotte was working in the
1:36.2	food space at all, she actually spent her early career working in media, leading advertising
1:41.6	and branded content campaigns for companies like
1:43.7	Refinery 29 and Inside Hook. And even before that she got her start
	...

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