Launch HN: Nutrigene (YC W18) – Tailor-made liquid supplements using health data

I'm a biophysicist and epigeneticist who spent more than 10 years studying how environmental factors influence the expression of our genes, focusing on the mechanism of metabolites (including vitamins) in both plants and humans. Min has spent more than 10 years as a personal trainer, health coach and behavioral scientist working in the food and consumer product goods space.

This all started because I wanted to be healthier and was frustrated with a lack of answers from our healthcare system, which only sees our data through a “survival” lens (oh you don’t need to be in urgent care or surgery now). I wanted to live beyond just surviving to truly thrive, by reducing chronic pain and fatigue and feeling more energetic. As a PhD in Biophysic and Epigenetics, my natural state to a frustrating, unsolved problem is to start conducting experiments and collecting data on myself. So I started getting involved in tracking and monitoring (using many Google sheets), through collecting blood panels, heart monitor data, and wearables for my activity and sleep. I’ve experimented with different remedies and diets to recover my health after a relatively difficult pregnancy. Eventually this led to the idea for a startup that would make it easy for people to take action based on their health data, by coming up with tailor-made products for the individual. We're beginning with high-quality liquid vitamins.

Why vitamins? Despite trying to eat as well as possible every day, I found it tough to do as a startup founder and new mom. And the data showed it’s not just me. Almost 90% of Americans are deficient in something or another, because we can’t eat perfectly every day, and recent research shows from NHANES and CDC shows that more Americans are not reaching their recommended daily allowances.

Why liquid supplements? The supplements industry is broken - there’s lack of quality, transparency and attention to purity. The majority of the vitamins and supplements you buy through Amazon, or Walgreens degrade, 50% after 6 months on shelves. Our goal is to send you the freshest, ready-made liquid supplements in our lab that are 1) unadulterated (no fillers such as starch or sugar), 2) pure liquid to maximize absorption (not breaking down any sort of tablet or softgel coating e.g. gelatin), and 3) an easier form factor to swallow than a pill. Plus, it’s easier to measure the purity of the supplements on mass spectrophotometry and HPLC in liquid form.

Why tailor-made? One of our advisors, Professor Bruce Hollis, has spent more than four decades studying Vitamin D deficiencies that show how we should be taking more Vitamin D than the RDA, in particular Vitamin D3, but off the shelf producers still use outdated information. The isoform of the vitamin matters, and we’ve incorporated hundreds of other papers across other vitamins, minerals and amino acids to provide the right unique mix to each person. We "tailor-make" it for you based on two factors. (1) Body composition. A 150lb man should not be getting the same dose as a 210lb man. Different fat and muscle composition determines whether fat soluble gets stored or how vitamins get metabolized. Most of this research is done in the nutritional sports space. (2) Genetics. The type of vitamin matters (isoform). Certain people who are more Vitamin D deficient should take Vitamin D3 which is one step away from metabolizing to its active form, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, in our bodies. Another common vitamin that has been an issue for many women in particular is folic acid. A set of SNP mutations prevent anyone from properly methylating folic acid and hence many practitioners recommend taking methylfolate and same goes for Vitamin B12 (cobalamin), which its methyl form is methylcobalamin.

Degradation/oxidation is a big issue and we try to resolve that by making it just-in-time and capping it immediately after production. We also experiment with different formulations to prevent digestion of vitamins so they can be absorbed further down the line in your gut. No fillers, no starch, no sugar. Just vitamins.

High quality liquid vitamins are just the beginning. We want to see if vitamins do work using trackers, wearables, blood work, and even quantifying improvements in performances. Anecdotally, I’ve been seeing a drastic decrease in my base heart rate and more frequently see this low base heart rate during the day. My aortic heart stiffness has become less stiff giving me an age heart of 31 (I’m 33). These data are preliminary, but even blood work says I’m all good which isn’t indicative of whether I’m performing better or feeling healthier. We continue to find other ways to biohack ourselves but most importantly create a community of people who also want to take control of their health. And of course, my qualitative feedback is that I feel more energetic even with all the fatigue that comes with running a startup and being a first time mother.

Yes, there might be some benefits from little tweaks to our nutritional profile. But is this a priority compared to the massive benefits one gets from simply cutting out refined sugar, refined carbs, and other junk foods, and doing moderate exercise?

The idea of a supplement tailored to the individual seems to

a) vastly overestimate what we know about the body

b) be suspiciously aligned to marketing. It's easy to flatter people by saying they are unique individuals and need specialized tests and an expensive, specialized program to be healthy. Like, that the reason why you're unhealthy is because you've got this blood type and you can't eat beets on Tuesdays but you can correct it with this expensive supplement. And it doesn't have to do with your entire lifestyle.

We are targeting people who have taken a step towards reducing their refine sugar, carbs, and proper exercise. Our customers typically work out and eat healthy, but are finding that supplementation is working for them to reach their health goals. So they aren't replacing a meal, but adding on top of their current habits and diets to boost their energy, for example. But if you look are high-quality liquid vitamins on the market now, it's about on average $20 per bottle per vitamin that would last you about month. And you'll probably have to buy a micro-scale to properly weight out the right amount.

The body is super complex, and at the moment, the field of nutritional science is still making strides in becoming a more validated science. What we are doing is bridging this gap between research and consumers who are currently hacking and see if we as a community can provide more insights into nutritional science.

What we are attempting to do in the next few weeks is:

1) Adding a feature that includes comparisons in dosages with our service versus standard multi-vitamin pills.

2) And yes to the US only customers. Do you suggest we put it on the home page? That would be easy to do.