This Startup is Making Quitting Smoking as Trendy as Starting

• Childhood friends Caroline Vasquez Huber and Hilary Dubin launched Jones in 2022 to revive the nicotine cessation face in a modern way through supportive tools like FDA-approved nicotine mints and a digital community app for vaping and smoking cessation.
• The idea was to add a sense of style and trendiness to quitting. They secured a $1.1 million pre-seed investment (not $2 million in an angel round) from investors, including Good Friends.

Jones was created in New York by childhood friends Caroline Vasquez Huber and Hilary Dubin with the specific goal of revolutionising getting out of vaping and smoking. Traditional nicotine-craving strategies were thus transformed into sleek, powerful, and judgment-free solutions while building a strong peer community around them.

A Personal Battle Turned Collective Mission

Caroline Vasquez Huber and Hilary Dubin’s investment in Jones for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) comes from a deeply personal standpoint. They got hooked on vaping post-college, something that went from casual to a growing dependence. The wake-up call came during the pandemic (2020–2021), when Caroline discovered the benefits of lozenges through her doctor, not last year. The realisation that struck her was that the existing products there were outdated and not appealing, mostly to younger users.

Jones: The Modern Way to Quit

Jones was launched in November 2023 and offers mint-flavoured lozenges in a sleek refillable tin celebrating form and functionality. The Jones app and community are available for free, though the lozenges are a paid product. It helps a person create a tailored and intensely personal plan to help them quit, and the community helps in more ways as well. This philosophy serves to address both the mental and physical aspects of a person’s nicotine-addicted status, thus rendering isolation a less consequential aspect of anyone’s journey towards self-fulfilment.

Creating A ‘Quitter’ Community

For Jones, kicking nicotine is easier as a group effort. The community function of the app enables users to share their stories, cheer on successes, and get encouragement from one another. According to Caroline, among the many people who are deciding to quit, those folks should be proud and free themselves from embarrassment or stigma.

Looking Ahead: Expansion and Innovation

The founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Allbirds, via their startup fund Good Friends, led an astounding $1.1 million pre-seed round for Jones in 2022, allowing the company to boost its unique designs. They are growing their presence in-store, seeking to have their products in convenience stores, wellness retailers, and grocers. This move is in keeping with their vision for positioning Jones as a wellness brand that resonates with health-obsessed conscious consumers.

Jones not only helps people quit nicotine with effective nicotine replacement, but it also does so while making it empowering and trendy for them.