Founder Spotlight: Anastasia Sartan of The Cycle
Meet Anastasia Sartan
Anastasia Sartan spent a decade building products at Snapchat and other technology companies while privately managing severe PMDD, a form of premenstrual syndrome that made ordinary weeks feel impossible. Along the way she kept noticing the same gap on every grocery shelf, where drinks for energy, sleep, focus, and gut health lined up but nothing clocked what happens to half the population every month. The Cycle grew out of that gap, and about a year after its first can went into production, the brand won Most Innovative Beverage Brand at The Beverage Forum, judged by buyers from Sprouts, KeHE, and Thrive.
Company:
The Cycle
The Cycle makes functional drinks for every phase of a woman’s cycle — from PMS to menopause — something the beverage aisle has never offered. Bootstrapped and launched a year ago, we’re now in 580+ stores nationwide, including Sprouts.
Location:
Los Angeles
When did you launch the business?
September 2025
Startup Stage?
Bootstrapped
How did this business start?
I spent a decade in tech, often as the only woman in the room — building companies, raising from Google and Peter Thiel, serving as Director of Product at Snapchat. But behind that, I was quietly battling PMDD, a severe form of PMS that made work and everyday life feel impossible for two weeks every month. Searching for relief led me back to sea buckthorn, an ingredient from my Eastern European childhood. Working with herbalists, I created The Cycle — a fruit-forward drink made with sea buckthorn and cold-brewed herbs, designed as a comforting daily ritual for every phase of a woman’s cycle, from PMS through menopause.
What's one thing you're proudest of so far?
Winning Most Innovative Beverage Brand at The Beverage Forum 2026 in LA — judged by buyers and executives from Sprouts, KeHE, Thrive, and others. A period drink winning across all of beverage, not just a niche category, felt like a cultural moment. A week later we launched nationally into nearly 500 Sprouts locations, and we’re now in 580+ doors — all bootstrapped, about a year after our first can was produced.
What's been the most surprising or challenging part of building this business?
The most surprising part has been realizing how invisible women’s cycles are to the entire food and beverage industry — there’s a drink for energy, sleep, focus, and gut health, but half the population cycles every month and nothing on the shelf acknowledges it. So the challenge is bigger than launching a product: we’re creating a category from scratch, teaching retailers and buyers that women’s needs aren’t niche. When women at demos tell me no one has ever made anything for them before, it’s proof of both how big the gap is and why it’s worth closing.
What do you bring to this community, and what are you hoping to find?
I bring two exits’ worth of pattern recognition, a tech operator’s toolkit applied to CPG, and the experience of creating a category no buyer has seen before — and I share it all candidly, real numbers included. I’m looking for the same in return: founders who talk honestly about velocity, cash, hiring, and fundraising, because building bootstrapped can be lonely and the right peers are the difference between guessing and knowing.
What's something people would be surprised to learn about you?
Sea buckthorn, the base of our drinks, is an ingredient from my Eastern European childhood — my family used it as a remedy for everything. I built companies in fashion tech and AI for twenty years before realizing the answer to my own health struggle was in my grandmother’s kitchen the whole time.
Anything else you'd like to share?
We’re a year into national retail and moving fast — Sprouts, 580+ doors, an industry award — but the part I care most about is the conversations at demo tables, where women tell me no one has ever made anything for their cycle before. If anyone here is building in women’s health or new categories, I’d love to compare notes.
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