Raise a Glass to Your Health!

And clearly, in being the face of a product that's really going to help others live a life as full as hers as well.

On your site, you note that adults 65 and up make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population, yet only 1% of food and beverage innovation is focused on seniors, which is a fascinating statistic and a grounding point for your business.

I mean, aside from having your grandmother, obviously, who you wanted to help improve her care, what is your background in this that you came to creating a nutrition shake?

So I started my career in senior housing and I was working on a senior housing development in New York City.

And that was really my first entry into this space.

And then I moved into investing in senior housing and other asset classes as well.

I was working in real estate for a little bit of time, but I have always just had such a deep desire to work in something to do with food and nutrition.

health and wellness, these are really my areas of interest.

And I ended up leaving investing to go to business school to explore what it could be like to work in that sort of field.

And during my time there, I definitely did not go go into business school thinking that I would be an entrepreneur, what was happening to my grandmother was very much at the forefront of our family, but in the background of any sort of making a career out of it.

And so I I was just spending a lot of time with her, spending a lot of time trying to understand the category and like, why do we see older adults make up almost 20% of the population? They're the fastest growing demographic over the next decade.

And when it comes to food and nutrition, some of just our very basic needs, there is so much room for innovation.

We're still relying on these outdated shakes that are kind of some of the only things that are, you know, quote unquote, designed for older adults.

And yet they have really just not made any advancements despite all of the progress we've made in longevity and health span and understanding the importance of muscle and better nutrients, both macro and micro.

And so that was kind of the angle that I was approaching it from just seeing such a large opportunity and realizing that my grandma wasn't a one-off.

She wasn't the only one that hated the taste and hated the flavor and hated how it made her feel and felt no brand affinity and really just couldn't even finish one, let alone drink it twice.

And I really thought that that observation was confined to the hospital.

I thought that these products were visually and culturally coded as hospital foods or nursing home drinks.

And I honestly couldn't have been more wrong.

My dad and I went to a bunch of stores trying to find better products when we got her home.

And what was just so shocking is that the grocery store looks exactly like the hospital shelf in adult nutrition.

And I think that was kind of the moment where it really stood out to me how how needed this was and how much focus we need to really put on this underserved population when it comes to food and beverage and just better quality nutrition overall.