Ara Katz is the co-founder and co-CEO of Seed Health, a microbial sciences company pioneering applications of microbes for human and planetary health. A serial entrepreneur, it was Ara’s breastfeeding experience that led her to the microbiome and inspired her personal mission to explore the importance and impact of microbes. At Seed Health, she leads fundraising, design thinking, brand, insights, commercialization, and the company’s translational work in science communication and storytelling. She is also a co-founder of Seed Health’s environmental initiative, SeedLabs, and its first therapeutics partner company, LUCA Biologics. 

Ara previously co-founded and served as CMO of digital commerce company Spring, where she helped launch ApplePay on iPhone, and was on the founding team of social commerce company BeachMint. As an advisor and angel investor across health tech, ed tech, consumer, and sustainability, Ara has supported companies like RXDefine, Newness, C16 Biosciences, MindBodyGreen, Mahmee Maternal Care, Stadium Goods, and Unicycle. She has been a fellow at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Future Storytelling and has been listed in Marie Claire’s “The New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America”, Business Insider’s “Silicon Alley Top 100” and “36 Rockstar Women in NYC Tech”, and Create + Cultivate’s 100 List for STEM. She is the author of A Kids Book About Your Microbiome. Ara lives in Venice, California with her husband and five-year-old son, Pax.

Seed Health: https://seed.com/

A Kids Book About Your Microbiome: https://akidsco.com/products/a-kids-book-about-your-microbiome