The idea for a business that would offer consumers nutritional supplements based on their real, individual needs came to life when Sam Abraham, a Harvard Business School graduate found himself staring at a wall of supplement packages in his neighborhood health food store, in Teaneck, New Jersey.

How, he asked himself, could anyone reasonably determine which supplements would be right for their needs? Since Sam’s family has a long history in the pharmaceutical industry and he had studied nutritional supplements and their properties, he was not asking for his own needs … but for yours, and the needs of every other American who wants to make an informed decision about the supplements they buy.

Sam wondered if the business model used by Dell Computers - manufacturing to the precise specifications of individual customers - could be applied to the nutritional supplements business. Intrigued, he started to investigate the possibilities.

Since nothing like this had been attempted before, it took 18 months to design and prove the sophisticated manufacturing capabilities needed to create the customized capsules. But, the tougher challenge was finding a way to help consumers know which supplements would be an effective addition to their diet and which would be a waste of their money.

In all, this process took almost three years and the dedicated work of a team of physicians, nutritionists, pharmacists and academic experts in the field of botanical medicine and nutrition science.

The result was the self-administered questionnaire that you will find on this website. The answers indicate which nutritional supplements are appropriate and which are not. In the background, complex software calculates the dosages and presents the results as a report (called a “NutriScript”) that can be reviewed with a doctor or other trained health professional.

As all this work was being undertaken, Sam’s friends and neighbors expressed interest in his research and asked for his nutritional supplement recommendations for themselves. “Complete the questionnaire”, was his standard response. And they did.

And, now you can too. Just click here.

Sam’s visit to his local health food store became CustomVite and, today, the company serves customers, from 13 to 90, from New Jersey to California.