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

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

#11

Post by vancanwin »

caio1982 wrote: post #8
caio1982 wrote: post #6

Quite interesting business idea. I would suggest a few changes to the page though: make it clear you only accept US customers before we waste time figuring it out in the end of the purchase, your dietary restrictions checkboxes have possibly their ID not an user-friendly name (i.e. lower cased with underscores), I did not understand which package I should purchase at the end (maybe a simple comparison or an actual pr…

Also, I should not need to fill all the survey forms all over again if I wanna give it another try, I guess?

You shouldn't need to if you already have. BUT if you find any changes in your weight and diet, for example, we do recommend filling out the assessment again for now. Near the end of the year, we are creating more a user dashboard, so that users can just update this type of information rather than completely filling out the same form again.

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

#12

Post by jamesshamenski »

The game has been changed. Society will look back at the 'health isle' in a drugstore and wonder how anyone navigated through a sea of labels and white lies.

The next step is to hook up with HealthKit and monitor my activity and use to inform what to send me next month.

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

#13

Post by qume »

As a vegan I take B12 (liquid) supplement which costs a few dollars and is available anywhere.

Vit D supplementation can be useful for some people but only really needs to be a relatively blunt instrument in terms of dosage.

Thiamine is important especially for people who drink alcohol, but it is widely supplemented in food.

Im interested in the subject and supportive of any effort to improve peoples health before problems occur, but in a market which is 99% bullshit, misinformation and basically outright fraud, the bar is pretty high to claim to be legit and not be associated with all the scammers. Unfortunately the publicly available information and this post about this company don't even come close.

Good luck but you will need to significantly up your game to come across as legitimate and actually useful.

This is the first time in a while ive questioned the selction of a YC company.

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

#14

Post by [deleted] »

vancanwin wrote: post #5
noisefridge wrote: post #3

Pardon my skepticism, but the whole "supplement" industry seems incredibly bogus. 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 wha…

I truly understand the skepticism especially when starting this company. That's why we are putting standards and QA processes to make sure our vitamins are pure and not filled with 99% fillers as most vitamins do. 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 worki…

[deleted]

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

#15

Post by yaacov »

The 'how it works' section of your landing page is broken on iOS safari.

This looks like a good product and one that I will consider trying when I have more disposable income. I would be more likely to use it if it included blood tests for vitamin deficiencies before coming up with a custom formulation. Is there a reason you aren't doing that?

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

#16

Post by outsidetheparty »

vancanwin wrote: post #5
noisefridge wrote: post #3

Pardon my skepticism, but the whole "supplement" industry seems incredibly bogus. 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 wha…

I truly understand the skepticism especially when starting this company. That's why we are putting standards and QA processes to make sure our vitamins are pure and not filled with 99% fillers as most vitamins do. 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 worki…

> That's why we are putting standards and QA processes to make sure our vitamins are pure and not filled with 99% fillers as most vitamins do.

That non sequitur of a response doesn't do much to allay the concerns you're responding to.

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

#17

Post by faitswulff »

vancanwin wrote: post #5
noisefridge wrote: post #3

Pardon my skepticism, but the whole "supplement" industry seems incredibly bogus. 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 wha…

I truly understand the skepticism especially when starting this company. That's why we are putting standards and QA processes to make sure our vitamins are pure and not filled with 99% fillers as most vitamins do. 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 worki…

> not filled with 99% fillers

Personally, my doubts about the supplement industry aren't about the purity of the vitamin supplements, but the effectiveness of supplements in general.

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

#18

Post by qume »

vancanwin wrote: post #5
noisefridge wrote: post #3

Pardon my skepticism, but the whole "supplement" industry seems incredibly bogus. 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 wha…

I truly understand the skepticism especially when starting this company. That's why we are putting standards and QA processes to make sure our vitamins are pure and not filled with 99% fillers as most vitamins do. 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 worki…

Interesting you suggest in this post that reducing carbs is a step towards a healthier diet.

A whole food plant based diet is mostly carbs and is generally regarded as the healthiest diet available.

The field of nutritional science is as valid as any and saying it ia becoming more validated science suggests to me you havent been exposed to the thousands of high quality studies being published every year. This is a huge red card for someone who is proposing to intervene with peoples health.

Im sorry to be skeptical but there are way too many alarm bells associated with this venture, most too small to mention individually but the pattern adds up.

For anyone looking for more legitimate bridge between the science and us "consumers" I recommend http://nutrition facts.org/

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

#19

Post by vancanwin »

qume wrote: post #13

As a vegan I take B12 (liquid) supplement which costs a few dollars and is available anywhere. Vit D supplementation can be useful for some people but only really needs to be a relatively blunt instrument in terms of dosage. Thiamine is important especially for people who drink alcohol, but it is widely supplemented in food. Im interested in the subject and supportive of any effort to improve peoples health before pr…

Thanks for you candidness. We definitely do realize that we need more content on our website about our process and we are looking for more feedback.

It sounds like what you're looking for is more scientific research to back our claims.

As a PhD myself, it's been hard to not get tangled in the technical details and learn how to convey a simply but very informative information the public.

As for thiamine available in food, my PhD was studying thiamine production in plants and it's heavily regulated depending on what's available in the environment. Even then I've seen people thiamine deficiency in developed countries, which is sad really because people just don't eat properly.

And this is becoming more common with Americans not meeting their RDA (see references below)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937576/

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