Meet 5 Relatively New Brands That Are Already Making Their Mark

Let’s face it: It can be hard for brands to make a name for themselves, let alone in their first several years in business. The five Brands That Matter honorees in the on the rise category have all stood out by leaning into what makes them unique.

818 Tequila, for example, has made a name for itself outside of its famous founder, Kendall Jenner, and become a budget-conscious national spirit. Little Sesame has carved out its niche by making its hummus from regeneratively grown chickpeas. Modern Animal is taking a new approach to vet care—both for patients and for employees. And the two health-focused brands being honored—Visory Health and Womaness—both share a commitment to reaching out to their target audiences, whether that’s medically underserved patients (Visory Health) or women experiencing menopause (Womaness).

Read more below about how these honorees became Brands That Matter in less than five years.

818 Tequila

Even as Gen Z and Millennial consumers drink less alcohol than previous generations, tequila remains a top choice, with sales outpacing vodka in late 2023 to cement it as the fastest-growing spirit category. That growth has proven beneficial for Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila, which in three years has gone from a regional LA brand to one of the fastest-growing names in tequila and overall spirits. That growth has been partially driven by 818’s ability to reach Gen Z and Millennials, especially online, where the brand is the top-followed tequila brand on Instagram. Offline, it showed that it’s listening to what its customers want, lowering the price of its blanco tequila from $39.99 to $29.99 in late 2023 as a response to consumer demands amid inflation. That $10 price cut helped nearly double sales of the product by midyear 2024, and as of July, the brand was the 10th best selling tequila brand in the U.S. As of November 2024, the brand logged 41% volume sales growth, outpacing the overall category by 14 times. 

Little Sesame

Founded by chefs Nick Wiseman and Ronen Tenne, Little Sesame is the fastest-growing brand in the hummus category, and it has a host of buzzy partnerships under its belt, including a Sweetgreen salad and Fly by Jing collab. But its supply chain is equally notable: The company exclusively uses 100% regeneratively farmed chickpeas, creating direct markets for farmers transitioning away from commodity wheat to farm higher-value cash crops. By 2027, Little Sesame plans to have 10,000 acres of domestic farmland under regenerative management. It got a big assist toward that goal this year, when the USDA awarded the company $2.2 million to help support its business and the organic chickpea farmers it works with. The brand is available in more than 2,000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Wegmans, and Erewhon, as well as through a national partnership with Sweetgreen. This fall, it launched a line of hummus for kids at Whole Foods.

Modern Animal

Since it introduced its first membership-based veterinary clinic in 2020, Modern Animal has established itself among pet parents and vet professionals alike. Part of attracting both has been a clever approach to branding and social media. Modern Animal reaches potential customers with a series of social videos, putting its experts in front of the camera for series like “Ask a Doc,” which addresses commonly asked vet questions, and “Meet the Team,” which showcases its diverse staff. On social, the brand logged 125% growth on Instagram and LinkedIn in 2023. At one of the largest vet conferences in the U.S. in February 2024, Modern Animal took an experiential approach to showing off its ethos. The company leaned into the vet profession’s penchant for tattoos by opening Periwinkle Parlor, where 150 attendees got inked for free. The subsequent campaign reached more than 70,000 vet professionals. 

Visory Health

Prescription-discount company Visory Health has underscored its mission of making medications affordable and accessible for underserved communities via outreach to those communities. The women-founded, women-led health tech company has quickly become the No. 5 prescription discount card in the U.S., helping more than 4 million people since it launched in 2022. As it grew to partner with major pharmacy chains, including Kroger, Walmart, and Publix, expanding its reach to 36,000-plus locations nationwide, Florida-based Visory has also engaged on the ground with communities in its home state. In February 2024, it became an official Miami Dolphins partner, enabling it to work with the team on its annual Health in the Hood event, focused on connecting communities to fresh produce, urban farming, and wellness programming. It used a similar partnership with NASCAR to share health resources at the Geico 500 in Talladega. In November, the company introduced a Spanish-language mobile app to help Spanish speakers access prescription savings. 

Womaness

With its line of menopause-focused wellness, skin care, and sexual health products, Womaness has used its three years in business to position itself as a resource on menopause and aging beyond just its products. Its 2023 Menopositivity Tour in partnership with Ulta Beauty helped Womaness products get on the shelves at all of the beauty retailer’s stores, and the company used that momentum to grow its reach to 220,000 email subscribers and more than 100,000 shoppers on its website. Beyond sponsorships of leading podcasts among its target audience, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Wiser Than Me, and appearances at SXSW, Womaness blog The Ness and its private Facebook group with more than 9,000 members are sources of education and community year-round.

This story is part of Fast Company’s 2024 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brand’s purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.