Lessons learned: Considering the failures in personalized nutrition

In that evolution, companies have entered and exited the market. What lessons do they offer for industry development?

In a webinar titled ‘Failures, F*Ups and the Future of Personalized Nutrition’ hosted by the Qina platform this week, consultants discussed the conditions that led to the shuttering of the companies they were once part of.

A niche audience?​

Nard Clabbers is founder of Netherlands-based NCNC Nutrition Consultancy. He created Happ, a now defunct app that provided a platform for companies to give consumers access to a range of personalized nutrition suppliers and services.

“We found out it was not that easy to execute because you need to have a lot of partners on the platform to be relevant,” he said. “It would take a lot of time and money to basically bridge the gap in time from where we were to actually having a functional platform with a viable business model.”

The company set up smaller initiatives that would feed into the larger platform to bridge that gap, but it meant the organization was spread thin.

There was a place for Happ in the personalized nutrition ecosystem, Clabbers added, but investment in the company was not sufficient for the time that was needed to build Happ’s infrastructure.

Clabbers also advised that one good business strategy is to not be everything to everybody, as Happ initially targeted the general population.

“It's just too hard to have such a broad audience,” he said. “It's definitely possible, and it could be success, but it takes so much time and money to get there.”

He noted: “We were working on several start-ups. When the financing stopped, that was a very quick end to it.”

Getting people to pay €5 to €10 per month for a personalized nutrition app is also a hurdle, Clabbers said. They may be willing to pay at the beginning, but getting consumers to do so for one to three years, “you really need to explain what the benefit is along that whole customer journey.”

Joshua Anthony, founder and CEO of Nlumn, was founding chief science officer at the former personalized nutrition company Habit, which he said was one of the experiences he is most proud of in his career. Although the company had “some really spectacular f*ups along the way,” Anthony said the lessons he gained from it consistently inform his career as a consultant.

“We framed ourselves as the first test-to-table personalized nutrition company, and really the way that Habit worked is that we had a test kit that integrated biomarkers, genetics and a questionnaire,” he said.

People would take tests, get their results back in a few weeks, then they would be paired with a dietitian to walk them through a personalized plan, in terms of their macronutrient and the caloric totals. The company then piloted personalized fresh meals, which Anthony noted were popular.

However, he said that although Habit was building a state-of-the-art test at the time, the $300 kits were expensive, creating barriers to entry. The company also needed to start slowly with consumers, which was difficult to do when users were asked to give their DNA and blood samples.

“I mean it took hours to take the tests, weeks to get the information back, and for some consumers, they felt the information was not as personalized as maybe it could be” he explained. “In some cases, this was due to regulations or even us refining our message. It was a miss.”

Capitalizing on value​

Companies sometimes relay information that consumers already know. For example, panelist Loek Pijls, founding director of LookintoFood, said that a platform might have all the right features and a well-functioning app, but to get potential customers to buy into a service, they must be told to change their lifestyles in a way that they are not already aware of.

“From the scientific nutrition science point of view, if someone is already very aware of what to eat, they probably eat their vegetables and legumes and whole grain and not too much animal fat and all that,” he said. “What is the ‘personalization’ if people eat along these common one-size-fits all dietary guidelines? If they already adhere to them, follow them, what can [companies] then add?”

Anthony responded by explaining that when he was part of Habit, the company ran a clinical study, and it found that people ate more consistently with overall dietary guidance.  

“I think it's an important aspect because a lot of times people think that personalized nutrition could run afoul of dietary guidance,” he said. “And, actually, we saw a 20% reduction in sodium intake, 20% reduction in sugar, increases in fiber, increases in fruits and vegetables, which was positive. We also saw positive changes in terms of things like weight loss, body composition, changes in overall cholesterol, LDL cholesterol.”

Anthony added: “​What we're seeing with our consumer research is people are looking for [broader] solutions to health. Is it diet or is it supplements? Is it diet or is it mindfulness? And really where the consumers are today is they're looking for that more holistic and complete picture. You still have to start small, but if you're a program and you're just going after diet, in most cases, it's probably not going to be enough.”