Lauren Picasso

Lauren Picasso is the founder and CEO of Cure Hydration, a New York–based functional beverage company that produces plant-based electrolyte drink mixes formulated around the World Health Organization's Oral Rehydration Solution standard.^[1] She founded the company in 2018 after struggling with dehydration while training for a triathlon and finding no electrolyte product on the market without added sugar or artificial ingredients.^[17] Cure has since expanded to more than 27,000 retail locations nationwide, including Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, and Albertsons.^[5]

Before founding Cure, Picasso spent four years at Jet.com, the e-commerce startup acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016, where she served as Director of Marketing and helped scale the platform to more than ten million customers.^[13] Earlier in her career, she held merchandising and buying roles at Rent the Runway and Bloomingdale's.^[12] She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in psychology with a cognitive neuroscience focus from the University of Pennsylvania.^[7]

Cure has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies four consecutive years, ranking No. 225 overall and No. 10 in food and beverage in 2023.^[11][10] The company raised a $2.6 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau in 2020 and a $5.6 million Series A in 2023, bringing total disclosed funding to more than $8.2 million.^[1][2] Picasso was named to Inc.'s Female Founders 250 list in 2024 and 2025.^[10][16]

Picasso grew up as a competitive endurance athlete, running cross country and track and competing as a swimmer from a young age.^[12] Her father was an entrepreneur who started his own business, an influence she has cited as formative.^[12] She has described having entrepreneurial instincts from childhood, recalling that she imagined one day starting a bakery.^[12]

She attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience.^[7] At Penn, she was inducted into the Mortar Board Senior Honors Society.^[7]

In 2012, Picasso enrolled at Harvard Business School, where she earned her MBA in 2014.^[7] During her time at HBS, she served as president of InSITE, a student entrepreneurship organization, and was a semi-finalist in the school's New Venture Competition.^[7] She also completed a strategic partnerships internship at Google in 2013.^[7] Her founding journey at Cure later became the subject of an HBS case study titled "Testing the Waters."^[7]

Bloomingdale's (2008–2010)

After graduating from Penn, Picasso began her career in retail buying at Bloomingdale's, where she held roles as assistant buyer in women's designer ready-to-wear and senior assistant buyer in women's bridge collections.^[12] The position gave her a foundation in retail merchandising, vendor relationships, and consumer product positioning that would inform her later work in e-commerce and brand building.^[12]

Rent the Runway (2010–2012)

Picasso joined Rent the Runway as an early employee, serving as manager of merchandising and business development before moving into a buying role.^[12] The position provided her first exposure to a high-growth consumer startup and the direct-to-consumer model that was reshaping fashion retail.^[12]

Jet.com (2014–2018)

After completing her MBA, Picasso joined Jet.com as an early employee, starting as associate director of marketing and rising to director of marketing.^[13] She worked across online and offline marketing channels as the company scaled to more than ten million customers.^[13] Jet.com raised $570 million in venture funding and was acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016, one of the largest e-commerce acquisitions at the time.^[1]

Picasso remained at the company through the acquisition, an experience she has described as going "from a 10-person company to working at one of the biggest companies in the world."^[13] Her e-commerce background at Jet directly shaped her decision to launch Cure as a powdered drink mix rather than a ready-to-drink beverage. "Coming from ecommerce, powder is super lightweight and cheap to ship online," she told BevNET in 2021.^[14]

Cure Hydration (2018–present)

The idea for Cure Hydration came from a triathlon. In 2017, Picasso was training for an Olympic-distance triathlon in Miami while living in New York City. Despite drinking water throughout her training, she kept experiencing severe dehydration — nausea, leg cramps, and what she described as feeling like she had the flu after long workouts.^[7] She finished the race in spite of severe leg cramps and spent the following day unable to function.^[7]

When she went looking for an electrolyte product to solve the problem, she found that every option on the market relied on sugar as its base, along with artificial sweeteners, colors, and flavors.^[17] She began researching the science behind clinical rehydration and discovered the World Health Organization's Oral Rehydration Solution formula — a precise ratio of sodium, glucose, and water that is clinically proven to hydrate as effectively as an IV drip.^[6] She started making her own version at home, replacing the synthetic minerals and cane sugar in the WHO formula with organic coconut water powder and pink Himalayan salt.^[6]

In 2018, she presented her first pitch deck to a mentor. "He immediately said, when you raise money, I'll be the first person to invest," Picasso recalled. "And for me, that just really gave me the confidence that I needed to actually launch the product."^[12] She left Jet.com and began developing Cure full-time, working with a professional formulator to refine the product.^[1] The brand launched commercially in 2019 as a direct-to-consumer powdered electrolyte drink mix with no added sugar, no artificial ingredients, and four times the electrolytes of conventional sports drinks.^[8]

Picasso initially expected the product to appeal to endurance athletes and the hangover-recovery market. "I was really wrong, honestly," she later said.^[12] The brand found a broader audience: its core customer turned out to be women, averaging 42 years of age, most of them parents seeking everyday hydration without sugar or artificial ingredients.^[7] Seventy percent of Cure's customers are women.^[7]

Cure's early distribution strategy focused on boutique fitness studios, high-end gyms, and airports.^[6] When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down those channels, Picasso pivoted. "Post-pandemic, I really shifted gears and focused more on essential retailers," she told Modern Retail.^[6] CVS became the brand's first major retail partner, and the company expanded rapidly from there.^[15]

In November 2020, Cure raised a $2.6 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau, with participation from investors including tennis player Andy Roddick, rapper Nas, NBA player Matthew Dellavedova, Casper CEO Philip Krim, and Thrive Market CEO Nick Green.^[1] At the time of the seed round, the company was in approximately 4,200 retail locations.^[1] Notably, Picasso disclosed that Cure was already profitable before closing the round. "By the time I had raised the round of financing that I closed recently, we were actually already profitable," she told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "That was really appealing to a lot of VCs, especially in the climate that we're in now. We were not burning a lot of cash."^[13]

In April 2023, the company closed a $5.6 million Series A round, again led by Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Valedor Partners, Simple Food Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Joyance Partners, and Silas Capital.^[2][8] The round valued Cure at $22 million.^[15] By that point, the brand had expanded to more than 15,000 retail doors and had averaged 230 percent annual revenue growth since its 2019 launch.^[2][8] TechCrunch reported that the company had achieved 2,489 percent total revenue growth since launch and that e-commerce accounted for more than 50 percent of revenue.^[15] Food Business News and BevNET both covered the round, noting Cure's position in the approximately $1.4 billion retail sports drink mix category.^[9][2]

The company continued to add retail partners at scale. In 2025, Cure launched in more than 500 Whole Foods stores nationwide, making its Cure Kids line the first children's-focused hydration brand to appear in the chain.^[3][18] In 2026, the brand expanded to 1,227 Target locations and then launched nationwide at Walmart, bringing its total retail footprint to more than 27,000 doors.^[4][5] Other retail partners include Walgreens, Kroger, Albertsons, Sprouts, Wegmans, H-E-B, and REI.^[5]

SPINS, the wellness-focused consumer data firm, named Cure the fastest-growing natural hydration brand in 2023.^[8] The company reported 550 percent revenue growth over three years and 100 times sales growth since its 2019 launch.^[4][3] As of 2024, the company operated with approximately nine full-time employees.^[7]

Picasso has maintained a dual-channel strategy, balancing wholesale retail expansion with direct-to-consumer and Amazon sales. "Retail is a great way to grow your business really quickly," she told Modern Retail. "But DTC is important for us for our loyal customers and that direct access to our customers."^[6] The company's marketing has relied on micro-influencer partnerships rather than celebrity endorsements. "The more niche the influencer is, the more effective they are," Picasso said. "We've had more success with a rock climber, for example, versus somebody who's just general lifestyle and wellness."^[6]

Cure Hydration has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America four consecutive years: No. 225 overall and No. 10 in food and beverage in 2023; No. 568 in 2024; No. 739 in 2025; and No. 623 in 2026, with 551 percent three-year revenue growth.^[10][11]

Picasso was named to Inc.'s Female Founders 250 list in both 2024 and 2025, a recognition of female founders across industries.^[10][16] New Hope Network noted her among 42 women in natural and organic CPG on the 2024 list.^[16]

Cure received the Women's Health Fitness Award for Best Hydrating Mix in 2022 and Best Electrolytes in 2026.^[9][4] The brand was named the fastest-growing natural hydration brand by SPINS in 2023.^[8] Picasso's founding journey was selected as the subject of a Harvard Business School case study titled "Testing the Waters."^[7]

Picasso is of Peruvian heritage and has been featured on GMA3 during Hispanic Heritage Month.^[12] She is based in Brooklyn, New York.^[7] She remains an active endurance athlete and has described hydration, sleep, exercise, and nutrition as her personal wellness priorities.^[12] She serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs, advising early-stage founders from the HBS community.^[7]