A word from our Founder (2026)
In 2024 Chris Geddes took the leap from Big Corporate to starting his own company. This is the story, in his own words, of why he made that choice and how VAION came to be.
I am extremely proud to be able to put my name and my personal reputation behind the VAION brand. Not every supplement company CEO feels confident enough in the quality, experience and level of service that they are able to provide, but at VAION, we never cut corners so there is nothing at all to be ashamed of. It is a philosophy I picked up when working as a business strategy leader in Microsoft – great experiences build trust and trust is everything when it comes to your health.
After 7 happy years in Seattle, WA, working with some of the most brilliant minds, it was time to move back to the UK. We sold the house, took our three kids out of their school and packed our bags. I was to continue in a new role with Microsoft, and my wife, Alex, was going to start her own IV Drip business, which I helped out with on the weekends.
As I watched the nurses administer NAD+ infusions, it was very apparent that the side effects were horrible – nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains, headaches and even difficulty breathing, but what was even more astonishing was that customers would put themselves through that… some even asking to stop half way through the procedure… and then come back the following month. There had to be something special about this NAD+ stuff.
I do have a biochemistry degree from Edinburgh University and I dusted off this part of my brain and started to research. The more I looked into this amazing co-enzyme, the more I realised how important it is. It is almost as important for life as water and it doesn’t matter if you are a tree, a giraffe, a mushroom or a human – you NEED it. The problem I saw was that, after the age of 30, your NAD+ levels dropped off a cliff. Supplementing had to be a good idea… but I didn’t want those nasty side effects.
Our way around the side effects was to micro-dose throughout the month, not to take it all in one large IV drip. I bought some NAD+ and some insulin needles and “bio-hacked” myself, administering 50mg per day for 5 days. I didn’t feel much straight away and the side effects were manageable but after 5 doses, I was standing at my front door looking out at my kids leaving on the school run, and I felt amazing; energetic, focused, relaxed and I was in the best mood.
The next question was “how do we make this easy for customers?” because the vial and syringes approach was definitely NOT easy for a beginner like me. As is often the case, my wife had the idea to put it into an auto-injector pen, like diabetics use. I bought a pen, transferred the NAD+ into the cartridge and it was a game-changer! The UK’s first NAD+ injector pen was born. I still have the prototype on my desk!
The next thing to address was where to source the NAD+ from. I bought samples from 12 providers and had them all, at some expense, tested. They all came back as having one of two solvents in them: Mannitol (a medical solvent whose side effects exactly match those experienced with the IV drip) and propylene glycol (you may know this as antifreeze). I won’t name and shame, but needless to say, I didn’t want to be selling products with added side effects or health risks.
We made the brave decision to build our own lab and make the NAD+ ourselves and see if we could get the NAD+ into solution without any solvents at all.
I have an amazing team here and my lab team need special credit here. They worked out how to get the NAD+ to dissolve using process and conditions only and not a single solvent, and when I tried this pure NAD+ and felt the surge of energy, the mood boost and the mental sharpness, I knew it was time to make this my full time focus.
VAION was born.
It is my role to set the culture of the company and the priorities I have set are as follows: safety, quality, experience. You should not compromise on your health and I want to always provide that option for those who want it. It is for this reason that we have two Consultant Doctors on the staff to make certain that customers who are worried about existing conditions combined with NAD+ can have the peace of mind of deeply experienced medical professionals’ advice.
There is one final thing I would like to mention: the progress we have made and the opportunity to help so many people feel their best every day would not have happened without the belief, bravery and genius of my darling wife, without whom the wheels would have come off a long time ago. I hope every founder finds that kind of support from someone.