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Behind the Brand
This Week's Thingdrop: Trelli
He's building the brand he needed after his own painkillers turned on him. Luke Lundstrom took ibuprofen for chronic migraines until it caused a GI bleed. Trelli, which launched this April, is what he's building instead.
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Trelli is this week's Thingdrop, a paid product testing campaign. Reviews are written by Thingtesters and are not reviewed or edited by the brand.
BEHIND THE BRAND
Meet the founder
Luke Lundstrom treated his migraines the way most people do. "All I knew was to take an ibuprofen and call it a day." He kept that up through a career in finance and consulting until the NSAID use caused a GI bleed, and ulcers through his stomach and colon. His gastroenterologist told him to stop. He asked what he should take instead.
"She said there's honestly not a lot of great products. Obviously Tylenol exists, but it's a different sort of pain relief. If it's inflammation-based pain it's not going to do anything."
Trelli is his answer to that. And because he'd spent years consulting for pharmaceutical and over-the-counter companies, he came into it suspicious of the aisle he was about to join. So he built the company backwards from that suspicion, assembling a medical advisory board before a formula. It spans physicians, researchers, registered dietitians and biomolecular scientists, with affiliations to Harvard Medical School, Scripps Integrative Medicine and prior research leadership at Thorne.
"Pseudoscience is extremely real," he says. "I was like, I want doctors there. I don't want to be that brand."
The two-out-of-ten headache
What he keeps returning to isn't the overuse. It's the waiting. "Even for me, when I had a headache in the past, if it was kind of like a two out of ten headache I was like, I don't need to take ibuprofen yet. I'm going to let this kind of fester and wait."
Relivaid is built for that moment. And, unusually for a supplement, only that moment. His founder letter says so outright: "I hope you never have to take our products on the daily. We want to be taken on the bad days. The hard days. The days when you just need some relief. Forget about us on the good days. It's why we don't do subscriptions. There's enough of that in the world already."
Building the brand
September 2025. Lindsey, a team member, holding the first sample run of Relivaid, the batch they shared with friends and family, who Luke reports "all had great things to say!"
The final packaging, the first time they saw it come in.
The first production run, at Trelli's co-manufacturer in LA. Luke is onsite in the second frame, with a team member.
Behind the scenes on the first Relivaid shoot. Trelli cares a lot about design, Luke says, and about a point worth making out loud: "in a world of AI, we are still working with fantastic creatives who can showcase our product best."
Trelli is this week's Thingdrop.
Want to try Relivaid for yourself? Shop through us between Thursday and Sunday, write a review, and get 40% back as a cash-based commission for your thoughtful review. Open to Level 1+ Thingtesters, limited quantity. Learn more about Thingdrop here.
A note on claims: The descriptions of Relivaid's ingredients, formulation, testing and effects in this story come from Trelli and its founder. Thingtesting has not independently verified them and is not responsible for claims made by the brand. Nothing in this story is medical advice. Speak to a healthcare professional about what is right for you. For more information visit trelli.health.