The Australian Founder Who Thinks Longevity Should Be Simpler

Walk down any wellness aisle and the collagen section tells you everything about where the industry has landed. Tubs promising radiance, resilience, renewal. Ingredient lists running to twenty, thirty, forty lines. Botanicals, adaptogens, mushroom blends, proprietary complexes with capital letters and registered trademarks.

Then there’s NEE-V, the Melbourne-founded brand that lists four.

Collagen. Vitamin C. Biotin. Silica. That’s the entire formula.

“Could I have created a formulation with 20 or 30 ingredients? Absolutely,” says founder Eryn Behan. “But my philosophy has always been that ingredients should earn their place through evidence, not marketing.”

It’s a position that puts her slightly at odds with her own category, and she seems comfortable there. The brand’s stated standard is “less hype, more integrity,” a line that could read as marketing were it not so plainly reflected in the product itself.

It started with frustration, not a business plan

“NEE-V wasn’t born out of a business plan,” Behan says. “It came from frustration.”

She had always been interested in health, fitness and preventative wellbeing. What she found instead was an industry that seemed designed to confuse.

“Every product seemed to promise everything. Long ingredient lists, trendy superfoods, marketing buzzwords and celebrity endorsements were everywhere, yet very few brands explained why they’d chosen particular ingredients or what evidence supported them.”

As she approached her forties, the questions sharpened around ageing, not stopping it, she is careful to say, but understanding it. The brand that emerged was an answer to her own frustration.

“NEE-V isn’t about adding more. It’s about choosing better.”

The problem with “contains collagen”

Behan’s objection begins at the front of the pack.

“The word ‘collagen’ on the front of a tub doesn’t tell you very much,” she says. Her advice is to turn it over and ask four questions: “What type of collagen peptides are being used? Is there any clinical research behind them? How much collagen am I actually getting in each serve? Are the additional ingredients there for a reason, or simply to make the label look more impressive?”

The rest of the NEE-V formula follows that same logic. Vitamin C, which contributes to normal collagen formation in the body — for Behan, a non-negotiable inclusion alongside the peptides. Biotin, which contributes to the growth and strength of hair, skin and nails. Silica, chosen for the same reason.

“I’d rather formulate with four high-quality ingredients that each have a clear purpose than create a long ingredient list simply because it’s fashionable.”

The decision to build around VERISOL®

NEE-V is formulated with VERISOL® bioactive collagen peptides, an ingredient studied in published human trials for skin elasticity, hydration and the appearance of wrinkles. It was a specific choice, and an expensive one.

“There are many collagen peptides on the market, but not all are created equal,” Behan says. She spent the development period reading research rather than comparing ingredient lists. “If I was asking customers to invest in their health, I wanted to build NEE-V around an ingredient with a strong evidence base.”

What is striking is where she stops. Collagen is currently being researched across a range of areas, including joint and gut health, and plenty of brands have moved well ahead of the evidence in how they talk about it. Behan won’t.

“I prefer to talk about the evidence we have today, while continuing to follow the emerging research.”

Built without a marketing budget

The more interesting business story is what Behan has said no to.

NEE-V has no investors and no advertising spend. It has grown, over several years, largely through customers who found the brand while researching what actually works, and then told other people.

“NEE-V is entirely self-funded. I don’t have investors, so every decision is deliberate and every dollar matters,” she says. “Rather than pouring money into marketing, I’ve chosen to invest in premium ingredients, clinical research, education and product quality.”

The business has stayed primarily direct-to-consumer for the same reason: lower overheads, and the ability to put the margin into the formulation rather than the funnel. It is a slower model, and she is unapologetic about that.

“Growing more slowly has never worried me. Building a brand that people genuinely trust has always been the goal.”

The one concession she has made was personal. Behan did not want to front her own brand.

“I initially said no to becoming the face of the brand. I wanted the science and the product to speak for themselves. Over time, I’ve realised customers want to know who they’re buying from. They want transparency, authenticity and someone they can trust.”

That realisation is what produced the Skin & Wellness Journal, which she writes herself, and later the NEE-V Healthy Ageing Guide, built from interviews with doctors, dermatologists, nutrition experts, functional medicine practitioners and longevity specialists around the world.

“I wanted to create the kind of resource I wish I’d had when I started my own journey.”

The collagen cliff

Ask Behan what most people don’t understand about ageing and she returns to a term gaining traction: the collagen cliff. Natural collagen production begins declining from the mid-twenties, but the hormonal changes of perimenopause and menopause can accelerate it, which is why so many women notice a change in their skin, hair and joint comfort in midlife, seemingly all at once.

Her framing of it is deliberately calm.

“The collagen cliff isn’t something to fear. It’s a normal biological transition, not a failure of our bodies.”

She is more critical of how the change is sold to women than of the change itself. “A lot of the messaging around ageing tells women they need to ‘fight’ it.” Behan would rather they saw it “not as the point where everything starts going downhill, but as a reminder to start investing in their long-term health.”

Longevity, quietly

For all the industry’s noise about longevity, her definition is unglamorous.

“Healthy ageing isn’t about adding years to your life. It’s about adding life to your years.”

She finds the current conversation genuinely exciting and slightly lost. “We’re surrounded by discussions about biological age, supplements, wearables, biomarkers and the latest longevity breakthrough. While the science is fascinating, I sometimes worry we’ve lost sight of the fundamentals.”

Those fundamentals, eating well, moving, sleeping, managing stress, staying socially connected, staying out of the sun, are unfashionable precisely because they can’t be sold. What struck her most about interviewing experts across the field for the Healthy Ageing Guide was the consensus.

“What struck me wasn’t how different their opinions were, but how often they came back to the same fundamentals.”

Marine or bovine, and why it matters less than you think

It’s the question she is asked most, and she thinks it’s the wrong one.

“It’s probably one of the questions I’m asked most, and I think it’s often the wrong question.”

Marine collagen is predominantly Type I, the most abundant collagen in skin. Bovine contains both Type I and Type III, the latter found throughout connective tissue. NEE-V offers both, VeriBerry and Glow Naked, and HydraPlenish Marine, because customers have legitimate dietary and lifestyle reasons for preferring one.

But she declines to declare a winner.

“For me, the source matters, but the science matters more.”

The bigger mistake, she says, isn’t picking the wrong source. It’s expecting the wrong thing.

“Healthy ageing is built over years, not weeks.”

Which may be the most telling detail of all. In a category that trades on promises, Behan has built a business on the assumption that people will do their homework.

“I don’t want people taking my collagen because they expect a miracle. I want them to understand what it can do, what it can’t do, and where it fits within a broader commitment to their long-term health.”

NEE-V is made in Australia with fully traceable ingredients and holds a Beauty Shortlist Well-being Award.