Adam Garrison was mixing supplements at home for his girlfriend when he noticed a problem. Nothing on the shelf was built for the way a woman’s body actually works — cycling through four distinct hormonal phases each month, each with its own nutritional demands. So he started building something that was.
Garrison, a professional MBA candidate at the University of Utah, is the co-founder and CEO of Hydrate28, a cycle-synced hydration brand delivering electrolytes, minerals, vitamins, and nootropics calibrated to each phase of the menstrual cycle. His co-founder, Lily Redstone, serves as chief marketing officer and is a current full-time MBA student at the University of Utah.
Their product is sold in powder form as a customizable subscription kit. Women who track their cycles can curate their blend to match exactly where they are in the month — a level of personalization that Garrison says is long overdue.
“Most products treat a woman’s body like it’s the same all month,” he said. “During the luteal phase, magnesium demand rises, water retention rises, mood regulation gets harder, and the body is running a different physiological script than it was two weeks earlier.”
Hydrate28 formulates four distinct blends to match each of those phases.
Garrison’s path to women’s wellness wound through biochemistry. He earned his undergraduate degree from Western Washington University with coursework focused on cancer biology and medicinal chemistry, a background that gave him what he describes as “a researcher’s instinct” for metabolism and the endocrine system. After graduating during COVID, he ran a cabinetry business for two years before moving to Utah, where he worked as a lab and facilities manager in the state’s growing biotech sector. He left that role to pursue Hydrate28 full time.
Redstone earned a degree in English at the College of Charleston, then pursued a career in production and marketing in Utah driven by her love of the great outdoors. With a passion for science and athletics, Hydrate28 was a natural fit.
Hydrate28 believes that what sets them apart from others in the market is their proactive, whole-cycle support approach, whereas other companies target individual symptoms — cramps, bloating, mood swings Hydrate28 seeks to support the woman as a whole.
“We don’t view womanhood through the lens of symptoms to be fixed,” the founders write in their company description. “There is no flaw in being a woman.”
The goal is to support the body’s foundational needs across every phase, with the idea that symptom relief follows naturally from that foundation.
Garrison credits the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute with helping him see Hydrate28 as more than a homemade formula. The team earned a Get Seeded milestone grant at Lassonde.
Garrison met his co-founder, Redstone, through Get Seeded, where she was on the board. She was immediately enthusiastic about the product. As Garrison engaged her for more and more help, that relationship evolved into her joining as co-founder and CMO.
The Hydrate28 team also participated in the Lassonde Company Launch program, which Garrison describes as a space for candid, pressure-tested conversation.
“Someone would push back in the room and I’d have to stop, think, and actually defend my position,” he said. An early meeting with a mentor through the Hours with Experts program helped him see the company’s potential.
“Lassonde was and is a catalyst,” Garrison said. “When I walked in, Hydrate28 was a mix I made for my girlfriend. I walked out knowing it could be a company.”
The company has placed its first order with a co-packer to begin procuring ingredients and producing stick packs, with a target launch this summer. Garrison sees the timing as significant: personalized health products are gaining traction among consumers, and cultural awareness around hormone health and cycle tracking is growing.
“Apps that help women understand their cycles exist,” he said. “The science to understand what those phases mean biologically exists. Hydrate28 sits between those two things.”
For students still weighing whether to get involved in programs at the university, Garrison has a simple message: say yes.
“I was so rigid in my undergrad that I skipped so many opportunities — I thought I had my whole life planned out, so I said no to everything that wasn’t on the path,” he said. “Now I see the abundance of learning and experience sitting right there at the university.”
Learn more at hydrate28.health.
