In 2011, when Ella Mills was 20, chronically ill, and bedridden with fatigue, migraines, and heart palpitations up to 190 beats per minute, she nearly passed out when standing. As a student at St. Andrews University, she had to sleep between 16 and 18 hours a day because the fatigue was unbearable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re so dizzy, it\u2019s like your head\u2019s disconnected from your body,\u201d Mills recalls, who had to go home to manage the symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mills, now a mother of two who lives in the UK, saw a dozen doctors and underwent over 40 procedures, including visits to endocrinologists and gastroenterologists. Several months later, she was finally diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a disorder involving the autonomic nervous system that causes rapid heartbeat, nausea, brain fog, fainting, and fatigue. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s no official cure for the disorder, which primarily affects women between the ages of 15 and 50\u2014although it has now been tied to post-COVID symptoms<\/a>. At one point, Mills was on 25 medications a day. None of them worked.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI very much hit rock bottom, and I think it became really clear that I wasn\u2019t doing anything to help myself either,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like many at a place of hopelessness, Mills turned to the internet. She read stories of countless women who have her disorder, many of whom felt desperate for any way forward and have since turned to medications and a combination of diet and other lifestyle changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt I had nothing to lose but try to kind of overhaul my diet and overhaul my lifestyle, but I couldn\u2019t cook and I didn\u2019t like vegetables,\u201d she tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2012, although not a self-proclaimed unhealthy eater, Mills made a change to her diet, opting for natural ingredients and cooking at home. In a desperate plea for help and to keep herself accountable, she posted her cooking trials and tribulations on a blog.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over a decade later, the $20 WordPress blog account named Deliciously Ella transformed into a business that brings in $25 million in revenue yearly, with a cookbook that has sold over 1.5 million copies, and a social media following of over 4 million (a reach far surpassing other plant-based snack competitors in the field). <\/p>\n It has become the fastest-growing snack brand in the UK and is now expanding globally with the launch in the U.S. at Whole Foods <\/a>in May of this year. In 2024, the brand was acquired by Hero Group, a Swiss manufacturer. While the company won\u2019t disclose the deal, Mills and her husband share that \u201cwe have had numerous approaches to sell or partner with other food companies over the years, but only this one felt right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The company is currently valued around $35 million, according to estimates from S&P.<\/p>\n \u201cI taught myself to cook, and I did it on a blog, as I\u2019m a very all-or-nothing person. I was like, I know I need to hold myself accountable,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s taken us a decade of experiments and trials and errors to get to the point where we know how to create genuinely, really good tasting products using only kitchen cupboard ingredients.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018accidental founder\u2018<\/p>\n Within two years, Mills tells Fortune her site garnered 130 million hits and reached people in about 80 countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n While she was still weaning off medications, Mills\u2019s minimalist and home-cooked diet improved her illness. Two years later, she was not on any medications, and her business was growing in step.<\/p>\n She began posting more on social media about the recipes she was making and what she was learning. In 2014, she compiled all the recipes into an app, and in 2015, she published a cookbook that sold out before its release, instantly becoming an Amazon<\/a> and New York Times bestseller.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mills describes herself as an \u201caccidental founder,\u201d who doesn\u2019t have an entrepreneurial brain or the experience scaling a business. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to pretend to be what I wasn\u2019t,\u201d she says. It\u2019s no surprise that she wasn\u2019t a professional chef or nutritionist, but she marketed herself as a self-proclaimed \u201chome cook\u201d who wanted to\u2014simply put\u2014feel better.\u00a0<\/p>\n The beginning of the wellness craze\u00a0<\/p>\n A month after the cookbook\u2019s release, Mills met her now-husband and business partner, Matt\u2014a finance nerd at heart with the eagerness to scale a brand. Two weeks after she met him, he quit his job to work alongside her, helping her scale her business and build products that aligned with her mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe can\u2019t cook. I can\u2019t build an Excel spreadsheet,\u201d she says, adding that she never wanted to license the brand to a third party to manufacture products either. \u201cI put two really obvious skill sets together, and neither of us had any interest in the other person\u2019s job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Deliciously Ella\u2019s first product, a cacao and almond energy ball, was released in 2016, followed by a line of other products. As of print, the brand has sold over 100 million products, and the company\u2019s membership, available for $2.74 a month, provides access to thousands of recipes, along with meal plans and blog posts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really kind of coincided with this world of wellness starting to form, and the industry taking shape, and people starting to think, \u2018oh, there\u2019s actual commercial value in this,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI felt almost evangelical, just so passionate, about trying to get this to as many people as possible. I didn\u2019t really care how many obstacles there were. I didn\u2019t care about the fact that it took over my life completely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Over a decade later, the importance of lifestyle changes, including diet, exercise, and sleep, in impacting both physical and mental health has become much more mainstream.\u00a0<\/p>\n The craze to limit ultra-processed foods has been featured in headlines, opening up a lane for brands promoting the use of minimal ingredients. Limiting ultra-processed foods has been shown to reduce the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and early mortality. According to the Cleveland Clinic<\/a>, diet is an integral pillar, albeit not foolproof, in treatment plans for improving those with POTS.\u00a0<\/p>\n