Using AI and ML To Transform The Healthy Food Industry

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 0:00And then, weirdly enough, I ended up developing a very rare liver breakdown that I managed to reverse with food and lifestyle, even though the doctors said it can't be done. There's a lot of people who are suffering and unfortunately, the food around us is wrong and it's pushing us towards chronic diseases. There is a new way of eating which is delicious but also cleverly designed foods, so this is where you can bring in technology to like help you get there. It's just to give you a food choice which actually adds value to your health, not take away value, because we believe that you know food as medicine. Tips should be available to everybody for free. It's like healthcare.

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‍Amardeep Parmar: 0:36

Today on the podcast, we have Sakshi Chhabra Mittal, who's the founder and CEO of Foodhak. They're changing the game for nutrition through AI and data. We hear her story from working at Pfizer and working her way up how she got that job in the first place, then going into the investment space and investing in companies in different areas, before coming back to life sciences and seeing what problems really existed and, for her own personal problems, realising that nutrition really needed to be solved. How she founded Foodh ak and how it's now thriving and making a huge difference in this space. I really hope you enjoy today's episode. So, Sakshi, what you're doing today is so incredible in the food space, but when you were growing up, what did you want to be? Was this what you hoped for someday?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 1:23

Actually, when I was growing up, I wanted to be a doctor. I've always been fascinated by biology, physics, chemistry, math, and the one career that actually combines all of them is medicine. I even did my internships at Apollo Hospital when I was in year 10. You're quite young when you're in year 10. Summer internships, free of cost, just like. I just wanted to shadow people in the ER, which is the emergency room or the A&E here. It was pretty traumatic actually for a young. How old are you like 15, 16, when you're in year 10? So can you imagine the first day starting out and like? There was an accident where a truck driver had hit like two motorcyclists on a massive highway in India and they were rushed in? I was doing my paperwork and I could hear all these sirens and 25 or so doctors rushed to like bring these two people on stretchers, wheel them in and started operating on them. One of them actually died after 30 minutes and the other one survived with, like severe injuries. That was my day one.

Amardeep Parmar: 2:28

Yeah.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 2:28

You know, which was a pretty traumatizing experience. But yeah, you know, somehow luck has it that I ended up changing routes slightly. I ended up going for biotech instead of medicine, because I was also fascinated about the technology part, the new science, and you know all of that plus it's like shorter studying time. I also realized that I don't love studying. You know I can study if you really make me study, but being a doctor would have meant like solid 10 years of you know studying and exams, because then you want to specialize. So yeah, I decided I would do the next best thing that still keeps me in the science and the technology of things. So I ended up studying biotech and then ended up joining Pfizer as my first job.

Amardeep Parmar: 3:13

And when you're studying.

Amardeep Parmar: 3:14

Did it feel like the right decision? Or you were like I don't know if I made a good choice here.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 3:19

Well, I definitely felt.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 3:21

You know that I don't think I made the right choice because you know we were the biotech, biochemistry, biomedical people were in the same library, same school as the medicine guys. So every time you'd be in the library and you would see those guys looking at biology and focusing on that stuff. You know you'd always think did I make the right decision or not? You know, especially as biotech is such a weird degree, you go into the microbes and the science of the genetics where you're like when am I ever going to use this? But little do you know in life. Everything you do, every experience, it comes in handy because life is a full circle. I was investing in genetics at SoftBank, in life sciences, which is crazy. Who would have thought Like? Who would have thought that my degree would have come to use? Because I was convinced that this degree will never come to use.

Amardeep Parmar: 4:10

Like at Pfizer as well, right?

Amardeep Parmar: 4:11

So you were there for a few years, right?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 4:13

Yeah, four years, just under four years.

Amardeep Parmar: 4:16

And again, because it's in that kind of biotech space, were you thinking, oh, I'm really enjoying this, it's a great creative decision? Or are you already thinking, even in the early days, I want to navigate away from this. Or how did your transition away from Pfizer come into place?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 4:28

Yeah, I mean, Pfizer is a great story because I graduated June of 2008. Lehman Brothers collapsed officially July of 2008. So the UK was at the peak of its financial crisis. Their work visas for international students were completely banned. My friends who were in finance and other jobs right, they were out of their jobs because, you know, last in, first out LIFO system. The others who were in pipelines basically got rejected because nobody was sponsoring visas. So I was one of the very few people international students in my university to have gotten a job at such a prestigious institution like Pfizer. I must have got like 200 rejections and I got one acceptance and that's very important to remember. You know, even today, right, it's very important to remember perseverance, Like all these rejections. Remember perseverance. Like all these rejections, it's fine because the one job or the one person or the one deal or the one investor who's out there for you is going to do you wonders. So it's okay, let the, let you know it's fine to get rejected.

Amardeep Parmar: 5:36

Did you feel like that at the time, though, or how?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 5:38

No, I was depressed.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 5:39

I was like this is ridiculous. You know, every day I'm coming home to like tens of rejection letters. This is the most depressing thing of my life, and so the way Pfizer worked out, it also taught me something, because I was applying through, you know, websites uh, you know just the usual application form fill it in, sit and wait and pray to the lord you'll get. I've also realized like stuff like that just doesn't work for someone like me. You know, I think I don't know whoever believes in fate or whatever. I think we all come with our genetics, we come with our destiny. We come with, you know, certain uh, pre-set out rules for our own systems, and I think for me life has been about hustle right and right from the start. So Pfizer came about because I was doing another. I've done loads of unpaid internships in my life because I believe that knowledge and experience like that gives me a lot of excitement. I believe in like building my resume for that big thing that will happen one day and it'll pay back for all of this investment I've made. So one of these unpaid internships in finance I was trying it out to see if I'm interested in asset management. Turns out I was, I wasn't. It was super boring. But the one good thing was that I learned from somebody on the floor, trading floor, that you know, these pharmaceutical big shots, all these execs, CEOs and government bodies, they meet at the Arts Club. I didn't know what the Arts Club was. I was, I was 19 years old, right, just moved to London, you know, just after university. I was 18 years old, living with my cousins in like Bromley, you know. So I had no idea what members only arts club is. But yeah, apparently they all met on a Thursday evening over a glass of wine and, you know, discussed pharma issues and drug issues and the world issues, and drug issues and the world issues. And so I just knew that I had to get into this club somehow and then interview with a couple of them and just land an internship for this year which hopefully converts into a job the following year. That was my model, right, very focused, somehow ended up getting into the arts club saying I'm a guest of Victoria's. The woman on the door thankfully didn't check who Victoria is, it's the most common name in the UK.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 7:42

I go in, I interview with this amazing man who was the CEO of a big pharma company, now was setting up his own vehicle and it was a very interesting subject. He was looking at this class of drugs called peptide immunomodulators and his task for me was should I launch it in the OTC market, over the counter, or should I launch it as a prescription drug, like, what are the pros and cons, the costs, the regulations? So I was like I love this because it has a business angle to it as well, so always had a keenness for business, started working on it, stumbled upon the head of regulatory at Pfizer's his details. I'm talking back in the day when there was no concept of personal privacy and data and rules like everything was everywhere on the internet. So I called him up. I'm like listen, I want to interview.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 8:29

And I used to be very shameless when I was young where I just felt that I'm here to learn and it's your responsibility to impart knowledge and wisdom if you can. So I had the right to ask and honestly, I can't even tell you the amazing people I've spoken to when I was in that frame of mind, like I wish today I could do the same. So I picked up the phone. I was like look, this is the project I'm working on. I'd love to get your inputs. He somehow confused me for being an MBA student. He had just finished his exec MBA. Very bullish on MBA interns, calls me in, come see me, I'll impart this wisdom. So see me, I'll impart this wisdom. So I go see him. I listen to him talk. I you know we exchange notes on how regulatory and clinical trials need to become sexier, how more students in universities should be applying for these roles. And then, you know, right at the end I had 10 minutes and you know shameless plug which is listen, all your competitors have this graduate program. You know, I mean it's a win-win right, because you pay them practically nothing. We're so cheap graduates, we're hungry. Like it takes us what? Couple of weeks to maybe couple of months of you know learning and then that's it. The rest of it is for free. So why, why don't you guys launch one? They say I like that idea, let me get back to you. So we kept in touch. The position opened I interviewed for ended up getting the job, you know. So Pfizer was a funny story.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 9:49

But to answer your previous question, honestly, when I got into Pfizer I just thought that I was the luckiest person on earth. I was very thankful because it's an amazing name. It is. It's, it was and is the biggest, best pharmaceutical company in the world, and my father used to always say that it's very important, uh, when you are graduating from college, when you're younger, to accumulate as many brand names and stick to it, you know, for as long as possible, because once you've done that, once someone's seen longevity and once someone's seen brand names on your resume, like that makes you a very solid candidate, you know, for it depends what kind of positions you're going for.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 10:28

Let's say you wanted to go for a CEO of a pharma company, right, someone sees Pfizer, someone sees longevity on your career. It's a massive stamp, of massive checkbox and, you know, I think that advice for me was invaluable because I was so ambitious. I used to keep getting you know called. I used to keep getting calls from these recruiters offering me much higher roles, much better salaries, but at smaller brand name companies and Pfizer big organizations, highly political, right, I used to always feel very tempted to leave. So I would, I would end up interviewing and then last minute, you know, I would end up like listening to my dad and I ended up like sticking around for so many years and I'm very thankful to that, because then that like one, when you're in a massive brand name, you see all these opportunities, like I was trying to buy a drug, sell a drug, because I had always had this keenness for business. So I would speak to my sales and marketing team and be like how much does it cost to keep this drug? Do we have exclusivity? How much does the regulatory also actually costs us more than I would go to a conference.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 11:27

Somebody was looking at cardiovascular drugs. I'm like I have one. You know we might be able to sell it, you know that kind of thing. So that then made me realize that I want to attach an MBA with this, because you know I love numbers and business. That then took me to Wharton, right. So without Pfizer I'm not sure if I would have gotten into Wharton. Without Wharton I'm not sure I would have gotten SoftBank.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 11:48

You know it's all a ripple effect.

Amardeep Parmar: 11:50

Obviously, once you were at Wharton, was your idea at the time to continue down the kind of route you were going, or were you thinking about what's my options now? So obviously at Wharton you're going to meet so many different people trying to do different things all from industries. What took by inspiration at that point to think about what you're going to do next?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 12:09

Look, I'll be very honest. Wharton is like filled with people from finance, like you know, they need to do a much better job at adding diversity. They're trying, they do a lot. They have a health care program, lauder program, blah, blah, blah blah. But I'll be honest with you, whoever goes into Wharton like majority of the people either come from investment banking, consulting, from investment firms, you know whether it's venture capital or private equity and majority of them want to go back into investing Because you know these are very high, highly paid careers, right, and again, demand supply is so low it's a very ambitious you um career path.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 12:44

Right, the seats, like especially in investing, you have like five seats for like 500 people that apply, you know. And Wharton is a very finance heavy school so automatically when you go in, right, like the energy around you is so kind of finance heavy and you know, investment driven that like, frankly, even I got sucked into it. I was like hell, yeah, I also want to sucked into it. I was like hell, yeah, I also want to get into investing, even though I'm coming from like Pfizer doing clinical trials and regulatory affairs, you know. So it was a change of a career path for me for sure.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 13:13

To be honest, I tried to start a business while I was at Wharton, which is also what these schools offer you, right? They offer you this community of very smart people and you can do whatever you want with it. So we would do like weekly brainstorm sessions with a group of people to identify problems in the world, and we focused on the healthcare sector because that's something, you know, a few of us liked, and we tried to start a company. We were working on it for like six months and then we ended up parting ways and that's how I accidentally got into investing, you know where, frankly, like I was interviewing and all that, but then I kind of stopped. I was like, let me work on this idea and let me work and let me dedicate my summer, you know, and try and get this company off the ground.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 13:55

But then it didn't end up working out and I was like now there's, what else can I do? So the US, investing jobs are taken, let me look back in the UK. And so investing jobs are taken, let me look back in the UK. And so, yeah, ended up finding a boutique private equity and venture capital shop here in London who were covering my expenses and all that. At that point I was like, yeah, I'll take anything, whatever. And that was the first time I got exposed to venture capital. They had a very small digital health unit, but I was looking at deals there. I was like this is so much more exciting. Tech is the future. You know, I want to see what more I can do to get back into this thing. So after graduating, that's what took me into early stage venture investing, which then took me into later stage venture investing and so obviously, you worked at a few different places in terms of investment before doing what you are today.

Amardeep Parmar: 14:41

Which part of that was your favorite, do you think what, what type of companies do you enjoy looking into?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 14:45

Or I like I didn't.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 14:47

I had a honeymoon phase with all of them, like, I ended up enjoying, and I learned a lot from each one of those. You know, like with, uh, with epic, which was the first sort of boutique firm, you know, because they had the private equity and the venture cap teams that were common, overlapping right, I was the intern. So you know, the intern was made to do all the the shitty jobs. But again, there's like learnings in those shitty jobs as well. For example, and I didn't mind, look, you're single, you're not married, you're living in London, like you know it's, and you're very ambitious, right, so you don't mind pulling in extra hours and just, I used to always be a hound for knowledge, you know, uh, but that that definitely taught me a lot. Like we, I was just working on formatting, like in the in the nights I'll put on my music and I was just like formatting excel cells and at that point I was like who cares if this is bold or it's not bold, you know, and if I draw a boundary around this or who the hell cares, right? But actually later on in life you realize that you know every bit of this perfection, that you are trained for that, your mind, it's all pattern recognition, right, and it all. And if you don't do it early on, frankly your Excel models are going to look very ugly. Anyways, like it's complicated enough to have like large Excel models if they're not organized properly, right, it's just impossible for you to synthesize information and analyze. So I feel like every step of the way, you know, maybe at that time it felt like who cares, like when will I ever use this kind of thing? But actually I think later on in life it all adds up. So I would say that was quite special in the, in the, in the grit, you know, where I would just be working like 16 hours, like six, seven days a week, you know.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 16:28

Moving on to like early stage venture with Hoxton. That was quite special because it was like my first time I was the only associate between these two general partners, both of whom were entrepreneurs before. So there was a lot to learn. So I was like a sponge with these guys and just meeting founders at such early stage of the businesses. That was interesting and how to really evaluate tech.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 16:49

But I think the best time that I ever had probably was at SoftBank, because I was doing, you know, I was taken back to my roots of you know, biotech, genetics, epigenetics, like finding the next cure for cancer, crispr therapeutics, like can I actually take a pair of scissors, cut your faulty DNA, replace it with good DNA and just make you live forever? You know really cutting edge science, along with, like growth equity type numbers where I could analyze and I could get my head around it. You know you can in certain way cap your risks, you know, and get good returns with solid founders. So I think that was really fun actually, and I had a free reign at SoftBank because what I was doing life sciences very few people really understood, so they had a lot of trust in me. My portfolio had performed really well. You know it's amazing taking a company public. You know, being on the board taking it public and just, you know, watch that success, that transition. So I would say, yeah, that was really good experience.

Amardeep Parmar: 17:49

And you obviously invested in a few different companies at that time as well. Is there anything that you can just tell us a bit about, like why you chose that company and why it was interesting to you, what really stood out? Because obviously I think when people go from investing then creating their own thing, they know what investors are looking for, which really helps them in order their own framing.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 18:04

Yeah, I mean I can take a few examples, like one was, uh, in in cancer, right.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 18:09

So like at some point there was, and I was living in silicon valley, so there were mainly only three companies back in the day who were looking to detect cancer really early on, like I'm talking even pre-phase one, right. So it improves your probability of success, probability of living, like over 90% if you're able to detect cancer through a simple blood test, right. And so one was like a new startup using machine learning, so more of a black box approach. One was a spin out from Illumina uh, you know grail. So the idea was they would get discounts on the machine because the machine and running the consumables and stuff is quite expensive, uh. And the other one was actually a small portfolio company of ours where we just put in a small check ages ago just to track them, and their approach was somewhere in the middle. They had already been in the market for later stage cancer detection, so they had the data for it. So their idea was I already have the data, right, like I already have the blood samples. I'm just going to reverse, like I'm going to look at this, you know, sequence this and try to get to the answer better than the other two, you know, so in. So in this case, frankly, the reason and it was a tough one, because we were very close to investing in Grail because they had hosted Masa in. You know, masa had hosted them and it was like almost like a done deal. It was like the sexy company in the valley back in the day. But we actually we did a lot of work. I think that was that spanned about nine months between these three companies and we ended up picking the horse that we had backed before and just double downing because one, I think he was the strongest founder of them all, you know.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 19:47

Number two, and he was also a serial entrepreneur. Right, he had a company in this space, but just a very well-respected guy Like you. You know, when someone can explain such complicated science to you in like such easy terminology, you know the guy knows his subject inside out. So I think that was a huge factor. Second, they already had the data, right, so follow the data philosophy, right? Yeah? And then I think, the others the Illumina discounts had gone away, so that changed everything. And then the other one, I, the illumina discounts had gone away, so that changed everything. And then the other one.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 20:17

I think in science, like the black box machine learning approach doesn't really work because doctors, scientists like we're all like no, you need to show us the data. You can't tell me. Oh, it's come to this conclusion. I don't quite know how we're not going to prescribe medicines a million dollar worth medicines on the basis of this. So I think the learning over there was you know, a superior founder, like who knows what he's doing, and I actually saw this pattern in some of our other investments as well. Actually, c2fo is a good example, right, another really strong founder. You know who comes from the industry. Uh, you know who's done this before, who's got the contacts. You know, I think that in itself and I see it even today, like now being an early stage founder myself frankly, like, uh, if I had to invest in like early stage companies, like I would totally look at the founder over everything else of course the product matters and you know the, the, the headwinds, the tailwinds, all of these things.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 21:14

They matter market, as long as everything is in the right direction. You know, I think the founder, the hustle, the hunger, ambition, the contacts because I feel like my job is just to do deals right and deals come with exactly how we were talking before connect me to so and so and connect me to, you know. So it definitely played out really well for Guardant, which was one of the, which was a company I was talking about, where Helmy the founder is just amazing. He had superior science and he had the data.

Amardeep Parmar: 21:44

We hope you're enjoying the episode so far.

Amardeep Parmar: 21:46

We just want to give a quick shout out to our headline partners, HSBC innovation banking. One of the biggest challenges for so many startups is finding the right bank to support them, because you might start off and try to use a traditional bank, but they don't understand what you're doing. You're just talking to an AI assistant or you're talking to somebody who doesn't really understand what it is you've been trying to do. Hsbc have got the team they've built out over years to make sure they understand what you're doing. They've got the deep sector expertise and they can help connect you with the right people to make your dreams come true. So if you want to learn more, check out hsbc innovation banking. com.

Amardeep Parmar: 22:21

So you mentioned there as well. Obviously, you were really loving your time at Softbank, but then you're doing what you are today. So what was that transition there like? What made you start Foodhak? And yeah and why are you so passionate about it?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 22:33

Yeah So you know, when I was looking at all this healthcare stuff, I was finding that by the time you get a disease, it's too late. And I was looking at longevity was my last sector study that I was doing, because the way I would invest is I would look at a sector, I would identify, you know, the different, map them out, the different companies, the different problems they are solving right, and then would basically try to understand okay, this is the biggest problem, right, and this is where a solution could possibly be. And I would then find the companies and contact them. So it was more kind of sector thesis driven rather than there was a little bit of opportunistic as well, but that's how we would do it.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 23:09

So one of my last sectors was longevity, and actually one of the seven pillars of technologies in longevity is food, but doctors don't study nutrition. So when you get cancers, everyone tells you you should look at your diet, but no doctor can prescribe a diet to you. It's a shame, right? If you look at the results of death for horsemen we talk about, right, these are chronic diseases. They are all linked with lifestyle. 80% of that is food. Right, you look at government budget deficits. They are basically going are chronic diseases. They are all linked with lifestyle. 80% of that is food. Right, you look at government budget deficits. They are basically going on chronic diseases again to do so.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 23:42

I knew there was a problem somewhere we've spoken about. If you wanted to break this cycle that we're in, which is your government spends are going up but health outcomes are declining, you know, in OECD countries food has to be tackled and then, weirdly enough, I ended up developing a very rare liver breakdown that I managed to reverse with food and lifestyle, even though the doctors said it can't be done. So I just went back in the clinical research, started reading, understanding inflammation, started getting on this anti-inflammatory diet and managed to like reverse it. So I was my own guinea pig, which, which was the big push. So I started working on it on the side of SoftBank, just with the same doctors. You know. We started like finding more links with ingredients and preventative and curative medicine. We started like finding clever ways of building recipes around them and then ended up doing a soft launch. You know, got an overwhelmingly amazing response. It was supposed to be a week long, ended up four months long you know, and so, yeah, I realized that actually what I'm doing is not niche.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 24:41

There's a lot of people who are suffering and, unfortunately, the food around us is wrong and it's pushing us towards chronic diseases. There is a new way of eating which is delicious, but also cleverly designed foods, so this is where you can bring in technology to like help you get there. So, both professionally and personally, it was pushing me towards food hack, it wasn't. If I think it was, when am I going to like launch this company?

Amardeep Parmar: 25:03

And obviously once you go full-time, that's also quite scary, right? Because, as you said, throughout your career you've got these huge names on your cvu, upfires and Softbank and then building your own brand from scratch is obviously a new challenge and you mentioned before when you're at university you tried to start something then. Was any of the lessons that you took from way back then that helped you in those early days of food hack?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 25:24

Yeah, I mean, look, I think one of the things that we were trying to do at university was we were trying to force feed a problem with a solution that maybe didn't need a solution. So we were looking at the pager and we were like you know what? It's an age-old technology. It needs to get disrupted. If you ask me that statement today, is that true or false? I'd say not necessarily. Not every technology has to get disrupted, right? Like? It's got great battery life. It's got Bluetooth capabilities. It conveys the message without distracting the doctor from the surgery. It's like whatsapp. Does it need to get disrupted? I'm not sure, right? So I think the learning was that if I ever do my own business again, right, I am I'm not going to do it to flip it, because I think somewhere you know some of the other people involved uh, they definitely. I think somewhere there must have been some intention that listen, let's just try and do this thing and then let's just flip it we'll be called an exited entrepreneur, you know, and I'm like I don't want to do this venture game of exited entrepreneur second time serial. If I want to do something, I want to do it for the rest of my life and I want to dedicate myself to a cause.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 26:34

So with food hack, it came about very organically right where, you know, I had identified a problem and that's how I would invest anyway. I would look at the market, I would look at all the different problems and the solutions and then I would find the problems that didn't have a solution and then I would target those companies to see if they're looking for investment right. So it was my approach in life anyway, and I found this to be quite a risk free way of investing Right. So similar in this case. You know, I found the problem and the one solution to it right. There was a gap in this market, you know.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 27:06

So it wasn't a force fed number one, number two. You know it is a mission led company and it's a mission that drives us all to get out of bed every day in the morning, because it's not easy to be an entrepreneur, it's not even easy to be a founding team, because you don't get raises, you've got like small salaries, because you've got equity and you believe in the founder, you believe in this mission, right, and so you need a driving force that gets you out of bed every day in the morning and makes you say I am so looking forward to going to work, right, and it's like the vision, the mission that we have at Foodhak. That's what enables us to do that.

Amardeep Parmar: 27:42

We were talking earlier as well about how you've got different product lines without Foodhak as well. What did you start with and how has it evolved since then?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 27:48

Yeah, so we started off with our chilled ready meals and it's still a big part of the business, but we've added an FMCG range of snacks. We've added some hospitality lines, you know, so actually have physical activations where people can touch and feel the brand and products and enjoy them. So that's how we have different and, of course, we have a digital product, which is the app that's been launched on the UK app stores free personalized nutrition tool. Because we believe that you know food as medicine, tips should be available to everybody for free. It's like healthcare, and so if someone's sitting in middle England and they can't afford to buy these food products, but if they are diabetic or they have higher cholesterol levels, they can now learn recipes that they can cook to help them achieve that goal of lowering their cholesterol or lowering their blood sugars. So that's the portfolio of products. The idea is to change the food you're surrounded by, whether that's in the ready meal side of things or it's in the functional snacking bit, ,right. It's just to give you a food choice which actually adds value to your health, not take away value from your health.

Amardeep Parmar: 28:48

And on this journey so far obviously growing into different product lines and everything growing how it has been, what's been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 29:05

Uh, I think the biggest challenge uh, you know has been, and I would think that it will continue to be, is the hiring part. You know, uh, people are very difficult and people are very people change. You know, you think you are made for the startup world but in reality you may not be the right fit for it. So, you know, identifying that person, you don't always get it right and then that causes a bit of an emotional drain, to be honest.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 29:23

But when you get to work with the right people, like, honestly, it frees up so much of your energy, so much of your bandwidth, you can do so much more with your time. You know, it's like you have a superpower, literally, so that one is quite tricky. You know, if you hire the wrong people, it can very quickly detract you from your goals, distract you, you know, increase your cash burn because you're just going in various different directions, and it's just an emotional and mental drain, right In a world where you don't have any time at all, let alone having extra time to drain. So I think hiring is the biggest challenge.

Amardeep Parmar: 30:03

And then, obviously, like I've eaten the food myself, you had one of the experiments quite close to where I work. What have been your biggest wins? What are you most proud of so far on this journey?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 30:13

Yeah, I think there are lots of things to be proud of. So I think, when we first started in my home kitchen because I was looking for a site, because I do believe in vertical integration If you want to build a brand like, you have to control the quality, especially in something like food. And being vertically integrated, having our own production house was very important to me, because that would mean that, let's say, if one batch wasn't done right this week for whatever reason let's say the tomato quality because of the rainfall, they're more acidic than not just giving an example then at least I can fix it for the next batch very quickly, whereas you can't do this if you're, you know, using a third-party manufacturer or whatever. So, but before we got this uh production house and designed it for our needs because it's also our r&d lab kitchen, we were operating in my house kitchen over my dining table, and I remember interviewing chefs. Actually, going back, the first people we hired were machine learning scholars because I wanted to clean up all this clinical research. It's a very biased and noisy data set, but after that I started hiring chefs and the chefs would come into my house and I would give them whatever I had found in the clinical research over the last couple of years that I was doing this on the side, as a side gig, whatever I was finding. So, the last couple of years, that I was doing this on the side as a side gig, whatever I was finding.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 31:30

So, for example, I found dairy to be a inflammatory marker because the quality is so bad, the dairy that we source. I found, you know, refined sugar and gluten to be inflammatory markers. Again, it's all to do with food quality after industrial revolution. So I had a parameter of five or six variables that I wanted to build the food with. But I but I wanted to keep it tasty, like as tasty as a restaurant grade meal, right. So I would often have the chefs come in and when I would tell them that, look, the food has to be free from gluten, free from dairy, free from refined sugar. X, y, z, that three other variables, they would just look at me and laugh, saying like it can't be done. You know, because even in the, in the vegetable families, I found certain things to be inflammatory. So I said avoid these, you can't use X, you can't use, y, you can't use, cauliflower you can't use. And so they were like you're out of your mind.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 32:16

You know, and I remember we've made our Thai curry, our first Thai curry, with these principles, and it was so high. So what we normally do is we put the recipes when we like the taste, we put them back into our tech engine to understand exactly the fats, proteins, and then we find ways to further tweak, so reduce the oil by 17%. And that's why I say it's like our food is actually healthier than home cooking, because in home cooking you don't measure the amount of oil you put or how long you cook, for how much salt you add. Right, it's all we actually measure, all that. And so I remember the first Thai curry we made. It was so high in fats and, yeah, the chef was like it just can't be done, it can never be done. So I remember thinking in the first six months like what am I even doing? Can I even build like a viable business? Because viable business in this field would mean variety. So I want every single cuisine in the world, right, right, to be fitting into these food hack principles. I'm like, okay, it's possible on the ayurvedic side, but is it, is it possible to extend to other? What am I doing? And from that day to today. It's now what I would say two and a half, three years. We have this really strong npd engine where we're basically launching a dish a week, right, and there's none of that drama. No chef, like no one thinks it's impossible. It's like a new way of cooking, you know, and everyone's comfortable with it and it can be done. So I'm very proud of that.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 33:37

You know, pushing the boundaries the way we do with our foods, for example, now we have these new crackers I've never seen something like this in my life where we're not using any oil at all, we're using water as an agent to bake and I'm like, how is that? Even I was like staring while they were baking it. But, like you know, I'm very proud that we push the boundaries. We only put in the good stuff. You know I'm very against all this processed crap that we are surrounded by Processed proteins. Your gym trainer tells you to have processed fake meats, processed, you know, collagen powders. I'm very against all of this, right. So we're actually replacing all that and making protein crackers, but all with natural stuff, you know. So obviously I'm very proud on the food side that it can be done To all those people who, when I was starting out, said you're doing a niche.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 34:24

No, this is the way to eat, to eat right. If you all want to live longer and disease-free and happier, this is the way to do it. There is no other way, right? So I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of the fact that we have been cleaning up all this clinical research and have launched our own app and made it free in a world where everything is charged for, you know, we have a lot of competitors out there, you know, who charge so much money to give you personalized food insights which are not even nearly as accurate as what we have built. So I'm very proud of that. I mean, you know. So, I think.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 34:56

And then the last thing I'm very proud of is the transition that we've made from being a D2C brand. When we first launched, you know, markets changed because we launched just after COVID or just around that time when the world was kind of coming back to its normalcy. So markets have changed, you know, trends have changed, people's habits have changed and, you know, from being a D2C brand, we've now transitioned into being an omni-channel brand. So we have D2C, but we also have physical stores, you know, and we have a B2B strategy where we'll also be in, say, the likes of Selfridges right for their retail space, but we also have our own retail space right, so they there's a lot of things to be, you know proud of this team to have done that in a very short span of two and a half years of being in the market.

Amardeep Parmar: 35:40

So, just before we go to quickfire questions, you said about what you're most proud of so far. What are you most excited about for the future?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 35:47

So many things to. To be honest, I think brand partnerships, like we've been recognized by some amazing brands. Most recently we partnered with Dr Deepak Chopra and like, just I sat next to him on a panel and I remember thinking to myself what am I doing on this panel with this amazing man, you know? But clearly the world is recognizing right that, like, somebody has to create these products to surround you with a better option. So I think brand partnerships and I think international expansion I want to see this brand getting global, you know, and this new way of eating, that will make me so proud.

Amardeep Parmar: 36:18

So we have to move on to quickfire questions.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 36:20

Yes.

Amardeep Parmar: 36:20

So the first one is who are three British Asians you think are doing incredible work and you'd love to shout them out today?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 36:26

I think my first pick is going to be Sonali D Rycker. She heads Accel UK. She's been in the business of venture investing for the last 25, 26 years. I would say she's probably the best consumer investor in the world. Extremely sharp. Every time I've spent time with her I've gotten to learn something, you know, which is quite rare for someone in the venture community. Her advice is super practical. She has an eye for picking brands. She has an eye for understanding the marketing and how to get in front of people and how to make them you know, repeat use your products. Of course, she's invested in, like the best consumer brands and has a great track record. So I think she's doing amazing work. She always has time for entrepreneurs or is always trying to help, so I think she's a big hero for me.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 37:16

I think the second one would be Murvah, Murvah Iqbal. I think both of us know her. She is the founder of a logistics business. Now being a founder of a product slash operations business, you know I know how hard it is to manage the logistics of things and you know, being a female founder trying to disrupt the sort of you know delivery space using you know better carbon footprint delivery space. So basically, like a DHL 2.0 or like FedEx 2.0, I think it's, uh, I think it's, it's, it's phenomenal. I think she's doing a great job. She's managed to fundraise, she's managed to tell her story, she owns it and it's quite rare to find that in the market. And who was the third one?

Amardeep Parmar: 38:05

Rangan Chatterjee.

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 38:06

Yes, and I think Dr Rangan Chatterjee is doing amazing work, you know, just spreading the word around. You know longevity in the UK market because this is a concept you know, very much sort of US focused, where you see companies popping up and usually it's US that, like, leads the way for all the new concepts and then the rest of the world follows. So I think he's kind of spreading the word on longevity and lifestyle and food is medicine and you know all of that through his podcast and actually educating the market on, uh, you know, the way we should eat and the way we should live for, you know, a longer disease-free life. So big fan of his.

Amardeep Parmar: 38:44

Awesome. And then, if people want to find out more about you and food hack, where, where should they go to?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 38:47

It's just sakshi@ foodhak. com, or you can WhatsApp me or LinkedIn me or find me on social media. Sakshi Chhabra Mittal on Instagram. I'm actually very responsive on Instagram, you know, when you're building a DTC brand.

Amardeep Parmar: 39:03

And is there anything that you need help with right now that the audience listening today could help you?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 39:07

I mean, look, as startup entrepreneurs, we're always looking for like-minded partners, you know, whether that's investors with a strategic way of thinking, or it's business partners, or it's, you know, launching different countries, like there's so many different things you can do, or different brand partners. Someone who's had their own story and has a reach, you know, would love to partner. So there's various different things. If anyone aligns with our vision, our mission, you know we can find ways of working together.

Amardeep Parmar: 39:34

So thank you so much for coming on today. Have you got any final words?

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal : 39:36

No, this is great, this is amazing. I think you should continue doing what you're doing, because I think building communities is so strong, you know, and I think this is a step in the right direction, so really appreciate you having me.

Amardeep Parmar:

Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. See you next time.