Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / Victor Penev, CEO & Founder, Edamam

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Victor Penev, CEO & Founder, Edamam · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] We are here with Viktor Penev, one of our favorite people, health transformer extraordinaire, CEO of Edamam. How are you? I'm doing great. I always get to see you in fun places.
• 0:14
  We're, we're in New York City now, and last time was recently in Boston. Boston. Yeah, we talked about radical wellness. Yes. So- How about that? We'll phone in ages forever [laughs].
• 0:22
  Ra-radical wellness, and, you know, you're doing so many extraordinary things. Um, you know, I thought we'd dig into, first of all, what's new at Edamam.
• 0:32
  We have, um, a whole new database, and just as a, as a reminder, we're a nutrition data company trying to organize and structure the world's food knowledge. Uh, and so that's-- we're executing on our mission.
• 0:43
  Organizing the world's food knowledge. Yeah, absolutely. Wanna give it back to people so they can make the smart food choices and live healthier and happier lives.
• 0:51
  I mean, I personally believe, as a company, we believe that food is the ultimate medicine, right? And if you eat right, you'll live healthy, you'll be happy, and you'll live long.
• 1:00
  So- And for too many decades, there's just been no focus or innovation here. In fact, it's, it's been the opposite in terms of where the food industry has taken us. Right. Right.
• 1:11
  Well, we-- the innovation happened, but it happened for the wrong reasons and resulted in bad health.
• 1:16
  So, you know, fifty, sixty years ago, there were new innovations as the microwave, uh, as chemicals for agriculture to grow more food and whatnot.
• 1:25
  It was all about convenience and speed and, and price, you know, so that the food is cheap and easy to make at home and whatnot.
• 1:32
  But, uh, the result was that we got a lot of processed bad food that eventually caused us a lot of disease. A lot of the chronic conditions are direct result of- Diabetes. Yeah, absolutely. Obesity, heart disease.
• 1:41
  Cancer even. Cancer. Hypertension, Alzheimer's, all of that. It's all connected to your lifestyle and, and most directly to food, so. So give us some hope here.
• 1:50
  Um, you're, you're focusing on personalized nutrition, and there's this exciting trend around how data is leveraged. Talk, talk about this trend and what's really... what's going on.
• 2:01
  Well, it's been coming a long time, but I think it's finally starting to gel.
• 2:06
  There's a lot of companies, a lot of effort being thrown into deli-delivering truly personalized nutrition, and we're not talking about, uh, you know, nutrition where I'm a diabetic and, you know, a doctor prescribes something for, for me.
• 2:19
  We're talking about understanding the human through data in a very, very personal, uh, up to the moment level.
• 2:27
  So we're talking about understanding not just things like preferences and diets and allergens, but also your biochemistry in real time, uh, your microbiome, your genome, how things change from breakfast to lunch to dinner.
• 2:40
  So, so the true data, then we can understand what's the best food for you to eat, and we're able to recommend that food to you based on what's in your fridge, based on where you are, you know, next to a restaurant or where in the city you are or whatnot, so that we can deliver truly personalized nutrition that optimizes what you eat, not only for your health, but also for your taste.
• 2:59
  I mean, you gotta enjoy the food, so. Where are things going? How will people, um, how will their behaviors change because of this access to this type of, of knowledge?
• 3:10
  Over time, I think behavior changes like anything else. It takes time, but I think through constant repetition of what is good for you, people eventually will adjust. And, and this happens.
• 3:20
  Especially when it's incrementally and invisible like you, you mentioned. Exactly. And the other thing is, you know, people do wanna be healthy.
• 3:27
  People do wanna eat right and, and do well by their, by their bodies and their mind. Uh, and so oftentimes now the, the trade-off is price and convenience versus health, and I, I think it's a fake trade-off.
• 3:41
  It shouldn't be. Uh, and it, it, in reality, it's an information pro-problem. You know, what's good for you and yet cheap and convenient, and this is what data can solve, and that's why we're building a data platform.
• 3:52
  Ultimately, through data, we should be able to solve and, and answer all those questions. So paint the, paint the vision for Edamam and, and how Edamam is solving these challenges.
• 4:05
  So Edamam, we want to be kind of the background engine, the platform powering all the nutrition choices that people make, but not directly to humans, not directly to people.
• 4:16
  What we wanna do is be the engine behind every business that touches people. So a supermarket. A supermarket, a restaurant, a nutritionist, a dieticians, a dietician, a outpatient department of a clinic.
• 4:29
  Uh, it might be, you know, green market restaurant. Any business that's in the food, health, and wellness space that touches a person at the point of making a food choice is potentially our client.
• 4:40
  And what we wanna make sure is become...
• 4:42
  we become the engine behind the nutrition choices they provide to their clients, uh, and become kind of the data platform that powers all those nutrition choices for everybody on the planet.
• 4:52
  You know, we, we're ambitious. We don't wanna do it- It's global. This is a global-...just US, just English.
• 4:56
  We wanna do it everywhere on the planet for everyone because we truly believe that we can help everybody eat better. And how do you describe your health moonshot?
• 5:05
  Uh, well, if, if we achieve what we aim to achieve, uh, we'll live in a world where people would live happily a hundred and twenty years without getting chronic conditions.
• 5:17
  So that's kind of the vision we, we have in mind. Happier, healthier- Yeah...longer lives. Yeah. Without any, any disease, you know. So you're with it in your mind.
• 5:27
  You have a healthy body, and you enjoy life to a hundred and twenty years. So are you hopeful about the progress that's being made in terms of...
• 5:36
  You mentioned the historical innovation was all ar-around the food industry. It was innovation that ended up having a negative impact. Is that paradigm changing? Absolutely.
• 5:47
  Is the innovation going in the right direction now? There's a tremondous, tremendous wave of innovation in the food space around new products that are targeted towards millennials.
• 5:56
  Millennials are much more health conscious. They are very, very precise about the food they eat.
• 6:01
  So there's a lot of companies that are coming and challenging the incumbents and producing new, very, very healthy food, uh, foods, um, you know, whether they're packaged foods, whether those in restaurants, where, where it's served.
• 6:13
  It's, you know, health is now becoming a primary, uh, decision point for when you're making, uh, a re-recipe, whether it's for a packaged food or a restaurant. So that innovation is happening.
• 6:23
  Because it's happening in such a broad spectrum by so many companies, I think it's going to stick.
• 6:28
  I think the way people produce food, grow food, produce food, shop for food, and eat food is going to change in the next ten years. It's gonna be nothing like in the last twenty years.
• 6:39
  It really extraordinary times and, and it's so exciting to see the work that Edamam is, is doing to really, uh, push the world forward, um, and really change the innovation paradigm around food innovation.
• 6:54
  I, I loved what you said, food is, is medicine. The ultimate medicine. Absolutely. It's the ultimate medicine. Um, so thank you for, for everything that you're doing and the important work.
• 7:04
  Where can people, uh, get in touch with you and learn more about Edamam, and, and who should be reaching out to you? So edamam.com. Uh, for people that are, uh, potential clients, they should go to developer.edamam.com.
• 7:19
  Um, and, um, you know, anybody that is interested in people eating better and living healthier lives should get in touch with me. Uh, ideally, those are companies that can make a difference in people's lives, but anyone.
• 7:31
  I think you're gonna be getting a lot of emails. Um, thank you so much- Looking forward...for everything that you're doing. Thank you.