Christopher Gavigan

Christopher is the Co-Founder at Prima, a premium hemp product company based in Santa Monica, and the Co-Founder at The Honest Company, which has since gone public.

At Prima, Christopher is bridging the gap between healthcare and wellness by bringing hemp cannabinoids/CBD to consumers with clinically validated standards. He recently closed a $9.2 million seed-plus round for Prima led by Greycroft and Lerer Hippeau.

On his morning routine.

I usually open my eyes at around 5:30 and 5:55 am every day.

After hopping out of bed, I go immediately to this small, separate room in our house where I begin a body and mind sequence. 

An intuitive combination of mobility movement, meditation, yoga, weights/kettlebell, HIIT, and/or breathwork. Every day is different, but these calibrate, connect and commit me to the day.  

I have been practicing a few forms of yoga for about 25 years now, so it’s the essential philosophy and attunement work for this morning routine. I progress through my own routines or have followed certain app-based programs I’ve turned to during COVID (since I do miss the heated, instructor-led classes too).

This all lasts about 1 hour, and then I pick up my phone to start productivity and connection whilst on my vibration plate and in front of a red-light unit. 

On bootup sequences.

My routine has been directionally consistent for a long time, but for the past 5 years now, it’s a daily bootup sequence I can’t start without. 

I’ve noticed that I need this space, where I can intentionally step in, as a signal & sign for the morning to be cleared and focused. 

If I’m traveling, it’s a yoga mat to define this mindset, work, and physical sequence. The morning time is a personal gift to myself — mind, body, and spirit — given the abundance of (chosen) family and work which take up most of my evenings. 

For the next iteration of this bootup, we’re moving our family to a 20-acre farm north of New York City. I’m dreaming of building a sustainable A-frame cabin down by the river. 

On therapeutic hikes.

In the afternoons, I’ll find out if I’m needed to support family movements and I’m typically on pick-up duty or taking kids out for a mountain sunset hike, neighborhood walk, or backyard craziness. 

Those hikes are therapeutic for me, where I can get focused 1:1 time with a family member, sun on skin, to reconnect with my deep reverence for our natural world.

On judging relationships.

As you grow as a human within this mid-stage of adult productivity and practicality, it’s important to be intentional about the cohort of friends who add value to your life. 

As it’s been said, you are a reflection of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

There is natural loss at this life stage, and during this evolutionary process of separation and change, I have found it’s about softening your armor, trusting self-worth, and courageous acknowledgment. My friends will tell you that I have a complicated relationship with “friendship.”

I have a difficult time prioritizing this aspect of my life since I’m continuously prioritizing commitments with family, work, and self-optimization. I’m working on it.  

My recent solution has been to literally build time into my daily calendar (likely calls or Zooms) when I can interact and engage with my friends.

On evolving habits.

Over the past 3 years, I’ve seen a significant improvement in my mindset since I’ve eliminated alcohol and embraced California sobriety.

If I am continually optimizing for clarity, focus, energy, and healthspan, it is a negative draw on all those facets and brings me down.

I want to be amplified, activated, and aligned.

On the day I raised initial funding for Prima, I chose to eliminate alcohol and only give my body nutritive, wholesome, and therapeutic compounds and plants. 

Cannabis engages and uplifts my body, my relationship, my creative process, my orientation. It’s a functional medicine. 

On his evening wind down.

I drink a gallon of water during the day, and eat one vegan meal a day (OMAD), between 5:30 and 8:00 pm. This is not intermittent fasting - we are always in some stage of fasting throughout the day. This is my feeding window to optimize body chemistry, hormones, circadian biology, micro-biome, and cellular autophagy.

After dinner, when the kids are down or quiet doing homework/reading, I’ll do my obligatory hop on my computer for creative research, project follow-up, email attentiveness, and prep work for tomorrow’s work or meetings.

After shutting off my computer, I jump into light stretching and rolling, take magnesium and Prima cannabinoids, and finish with my nightly facial skincare regime. 

I’m usually in bed between 9:30 and 10:30, admittedly often doom-scrolling, and hopefully working on my goal to read 10 — 25 pages nightly.