Backed By Just Eat, Nutrifix Puts Healthy Eating On The Map – Literally

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Hitting three major trends in the food industry - personal nutrition, wellness, and eating out - UK-based Nutrifix supports people in eating healthier. We spoke to Founder & CEO Joel Burgess about nutritional needs, the Nutrifix Score and what's next for the industry:

How would you describe Nutrifix in a few words?

Nutrifix puts healthy on the map – quite literally! Our app helps you find the best places to eat and the healthiest items on the menu to match your nutritional needs.

What inspired you to create the app? How did it all start?

I started Nutrifix to “scratch my own itch”. In my teens, I was fit and healthy; I loved sports, particularly rugby, and even managed to get paid for it, but as I moved into my 20s, injuries hindered my professional sporting ambitions. Before I knew it I was 30 years old and no longer the fit and healthy person I’d always been.

I tried to follow numerous diets with limited success. I was constantly eating on the go, with minimal time to read labels, and struggled to know what to eat. So, I put together a detailed list of the best things to eat when out and about – what to order at Pret A Manger, Wagamama, Eat…and the rest.

Crazily, people started asking me to make similar nutritional lists for them! That’s when the seeds of Nutrifix were sewn: what if I turned the list into an app, that anyone could access, to help them find healthy food tailored to their nutritional needs. The idea quickly became a mission – something I believed could genuinely help people lead the healthy lives they wanted. And now, other people believe in it too: investors, writers, programmers, restaurants, and more.

Fast forward one year and Nutrifix was born; from my initial scrappy list to a fully-formed app loaded with nutritional data, able to empower thousands of people to eat healthier.

Your app is very personalized, meaning it caters to consumers’ nutritional needs based on age, height, weight and health goals. Apart from that, what makes Nutrifix stand out of the crowd?

We know everybody’s form of ‘healthy’ is different, and that’s why we have developed the Nutrifix score – an algorithm which scores every meal according to how closely it is to hitting your daily targets, as well as how much sugar, fiber and saturated fat the meal contains. The score is out of 100 – the higher the better!

Beyond this, there is still nothing in the market like Nutrifix, as current nutrition apps are either retrospective or require hours of planning, which when living a busy hectic life, can be difficult or just plain impossible. Nutrifix is designed to be quick and easy and comes at a perfect time when there is a growing trend for eating on the go. The app allows you to know – instantly – what’s the healthiest thing on the menu to match your nutritional needs in thousands of locations. And we think that’s pretty groundbreaking in itself.

It empowers users to make healthy and informed decisions wherever they are, and whatever they fancy eating. Plus, with our partnership with Deliveroo, our users can even have their meal delivered straight to their door. No stress!

You’ve recently been featured in our Breakdown on Startup Driven Innovation in the food industry. In your opinion, what are other innovations this sector will experience in the near future?

I am really excited about the advancements in DNA testing and tracking. Everybody is different, and through improved tracking technology and more affordable DNA testing, Nutrifix has the potential to make personalized nutrition a reality, becoming your on-the-go personal nutritionist. For us, these innovations are particularly exciting. Taking this further, and at the risk of sounding a little mad, I have no doubt that robotics will become the norm in food prep and delivery. Our streets may well be full of them soon!

On a more serious note, it’s also great to see a reduction in food waste so high on the industry’s agenda and increasingly new innovations will hit the market to tackle this problem head-on.

You’ve raised money via equity crowdfunding and an initial investment from Just Eat. Are you currently looking to raise additional funding?

We have recently closed a round of funding with a private American investor, so, for now, we are able to focus entirely on giving our product the love and attention it deserves!

What is the biggest challenge that the company has faced so far?

As with any other software business, a huge amount of investment was required up front. Raising that capital with very little traction and little more than a slideshow was definitely the biggest challenge to date. However, we were successful, largely because we validated a genuine problem experienced by thousands on a daily basis.

With any growing business, I’m sure we have bigger challenges ahead, but of course, if it was going to be easy everyone would be doing it!

What’s next for Nutrifix?

Our mission is to provide full transparency on what’s in high street food, and in doing so, help the nation eat healthily. We are not here to dictate whether someone should or should not eat the odd slice of cake. What’s important is that people should know what they’re eating, so they can make informed decisions.

Nutrifix hits three growing trends – personal nutrition, wellness, and eating out – and we believe that the growth in the wellness and convenience food sector will drive demand. However, ultimately it will come down to how our product continues to innovate and strives to make personalized nutrition a reality, consistently deliver a WOW experience so that the app becomes an everyday essential for people wanting to live a healthier life.

Plus, with an amazing content team, we very much want to become a thought leader in the health and fitness space, giving users the tools to turn their lives around without it taking too much time and being too stressful

As a London-based startup, what do you wish for in improving the European startup ecosystem?

The uncertainty around Brexit does affect business confidence. However, a clear definitive guide to Brexit would help hugely – a dummy’s guide if you will.

I’m aware there are many government-backed schemes, but you need an expert to know the system – which subsequently costs a lot. In my view, there is currently too much bureaucracy and too many complicated processes.

What’s one piece of advice you can give to fellow founders for their startup?

I believe the biggest mistake a small company can make, is to think like a small company.

Get in the mindset that you’re building a business to last generations: build a culture from the outset and speak as much as possible like a big company would. Yet you can still act like a small company: stay nimble, embrace failure and test everything… until you become huge!

 

 

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