How Robust Science Landed Fatty15’s #1 Fastest-Growing Supplement Company Ranking on Inc. 5000

Healthy Aging

The Power of Science + Meaningful Benefits

So, now that you know fatty15 landed the #1 top spot on Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing supplement companies in America (and #5 among all consumer product companies), let’s talk about how the past decade of science got us there.

An unexpected discovery.

What better way to understand longevity than to figure out how long-lived species live, well, longer? While mice, worms, and flies have been limited in revealing the tricks to immortality, our co-founder’s discovery of C15:0 as a healthy aging nutrient – made while caring for Navy dolphins – ended up being a groundbreaking reveal of how evolution enables longevity in the first place. We’ll get back to that in a few. If you haven’t heard Dr. Steph’s TEDx talk on her dolphin-based discovery, you can check it out here.

C15:0 is the first essential fatty acid to emerge in over 90 years.

After Dr. Steph’s initial discovery with healthy aging dolphins, she and her team moved C15:0 into the lab to find that this odd-chain saturated fatty acid was not only beneficial, it was meeting the rare criteria of being the first essential fatty acid to emerge in over 90 years.

How C15:0 meets the criteria of an essential fatty acid:

• Dietary C15:0 is the primary driver of our C15:0 levels
• People with higher C15:0 levels have better long-term cardiometabolic, immune, cognitive, liver, and red blood cell health
• C15:0 has multiple mechanisms of actions that directly support cardiometabolic, immune, cognitive, liver, and red blood cell health
• Low C15:0 levels can cause a nutritional deficiency syndrome, called Cellular Fragility Syndrome, which causes a new form of cell death (ferroptosis) that accelerates aging and impairs cardiometabolic, immune, cognitive, liver, and red blood cell health.
• Restoring C15:0 levels reverses all components of Cellular Fragility Syndrome and ferroptosis
• In a gold-standard rodent model that tests for the essentiality of fatty acids and vitamins, C15:0 passed the test

Since planting their C15:0-is-an-essential-fatty-acid stake in the ground in their Scientific Reports paper in 2020, three separate teams over four studies (Ciesielski et al. 2024, 2025; Dornan et al. 2021, Ruan et al. 2024) have independently revalidated that C15:0 meets the criteria of an essential fatty acid. For Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson’s groundbreaking discoveries around C15:0’s essential role in our long-term health and longevity, she was recognized as a 2025 CNBC Changemaker.

C15:0 (fatty15) is the longevity nutrient (supplement).

We are now understanding that C15:0 is essential because it supports our longevity. Here’s how.

As described by Moskalev et al., geroprotectors are considered the “holy grail of longevity” because these molecules effectively slow and reverse the aging process at the cellular level to stem the breakdown that leads to our demise. Numerous studies, including mechanism of action studies, cell-based and in vivo efficacy studies, prospective cohort meta-analyses, and human clinical trials, have demonstrated how C15:0 meets the criteria of a geroprotector, which are described in Venn-Watson & Schork, as well as in the table below.

The robust science behind C15:0’s essential role in longevity and healthy aging for humans (and dolphins) is the topic of the recently released and best-selling Simon & Schuster book, The Longevity Nutrient, authored by Dr. Steph
Venn-Watson.

Fatty15 & C15:0 benefits are supported by
clinical trials.

As summarized in the table above, in addition to large meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies that consistently show higher C15:0 is linked to better long-term metabolic and cardiovascular health, controlled clinical trials show that increased C15:0 intake results in raised C15:0 levels and evidence of:

• Improved liver and red blood cell function (Robinson et al. 2024)
• Lowered LDL cholesterol and improved gut microbiome (Chooi et al. 2024)
• Improved mood (Salamanca-Sanabria et al. 2025)
• Improved vascular function (Arghvani et al. 2025)
• Improved skin elasticity and moisture (Kaneko et al. 2023)

Additionally, robust human clinical trials by Mascarhenas et al. & Stallings et al. have shown that oral pure, free fatty acid (FFA) C15:0, on average, is 100% bioavailable across broad gender, age, and disease groups. In general, for every 100 mg of FFA C15:0 (the only active ingredient in fatty15) ingested, circulating C15:0 concentrations increase by 10 µM (equivalent to 1 µg/ml, or approximately 0.1% total free fatty acids). These clinical trials align with what we now know about how C15:0 works, and at what concentrations and doses. How about that?

Fatty15’s claims are backed by Credible & Reliable Scientific Evidence (CARSE)

The fatty15 team uses an independent, 3rd party of experts who review the science on an ongoing basis and confirm that fatty15 claims are backed by Credible and Reliable Scientific Evidence (CARSE). By taking this above-and-beyond step, fatty15 provides consumers with extra confidence that fatty15 has credible science that backs its claims.