In a candid and exclusive interview with our Publisher Rameesh,we interviewed the co-founder of The Good Stuff,Rahul Jacob, and delved into various aspects of Rahul’s business venture, particularly focusing on product competition, market performance, partnerships, and the entrepreneurial journey.

Rahul highlighted the competition his products face. Despite facing competition, they’ve found success in markets like Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Mumbai, with increasing growth from all parts of the country.This is thanks to the growing awareness among youth regarding health and nutrition.

Regarding partnerships, Rahul discussed leveraging partnerships like Cred, and marketplaces such as Flipkart and Amazon for traction but hasn’t explored collaborations with other brands. However, they’re considering a brand ambassador for future fundraising rounds to reach a broader audience and build trust more effectively.

The conversation touched upon the challenges of catering to a large customer base and the potential cost-effectiveness of using a brand ambassador for marketing.

Looking ahead, Rahul expressed gratitude for the well-wishes and discussed their entrepreneurial journey. This venture marks Rahul’s first business, although his co-founder comes from a family of entrepreneurs. The inspiration for their business stemmed from personal experiences, particularly Rahul’s background as a martial artist and the need for convenient, nutritious food supplements to support his rigorous workouts.

Overall, the interview highlighted the strategic considerations, challenges, and personal motivations driving Rahul’s entrepreneurial journey. With plans for expansion and a focus on meeting consumer needs, Rahul’s business venture seems poised for continued growth and success.

Q.Can we have a quick overview on why you started this venture and what do you do?

Sure. So we started about four years ago now. So right now we are a house of nutraceutical brands. So we have two brands that we manage – Supply6 360 and better nutrition, and the reason why we started was because we noticed that there’s a lot of ambiguity when it comes to health and a lot of people don’t really know what to do. Different influencers say different things and there are a lot of mean videos going around.One influencer is saying something,and another one is contradicting that influencer. So at the end of the day, what we were trying to do is simplify nutrition for a customer.

So all the products that we have launched are something that caters to individuals which provide them all the nutrients that they need. And that’s how Supply6 came about. So Supply6 stands for Supplying the Six Essential Nutrients the Body Needs. It is one of our flagship products and the first product that we came up with. So the problem that we noticed was that there were many consumers or rather even now one in four consumers miss breakfast on a daily basis.So what we were trying to do is to solve that. Our flagship product was the Supply6 meal. So this is essentially a powdered meal that you mix with water and drink whenever you want to have a light meal. It takes you about 30 seconds to make.

The Supply6 Meal, after you consume, keeps you full for about three, four hours, because it’s a 400 calorie meal. And this is made from ingredients that you find in your house. So things like rice, peas, oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, and those kinds of ingredients. So it’s nothing that is alien to a customer as such. So that is what we started with.

A lot of people actually are deficient in vitamin D and B12 and also suffer from gut health. So there is research that indicates that more than 75 % of customers or Indians in India, are deficient in vitamin D and B12 and they usually find that out when they have pain in their neck and stuff like that. In fact, I was shocked when I found that I had that vitamin D and B12 deficiency. So then we worked on a formulation to actually provide vitamin D and B12 and also solve gut health issues.

Yeah, so the other thing that we noticed is that a lot of people have gut health issues. So there are many research reports out there that show how prevalent gut health issues are, for example, at least seven in 10 individuals suffer from indigestion,bloating, acidity, one of those issues. Yes. So we actually created a 10 gram sachet. It’s a supplement that you mix first thing in the morning.And when you wake up, just consume that. And it’s made with about 63 plus ingredients. So we’ve used a lot of fruits, veggies, berries,nuts, mushrooms, and a whole lot more ingredients. So this basically gives you about 85 % of your vitamin D and B12, and also probiotics for your gut health.

 So what we have noticed is that customers who have this in about 15 to 20 days of regular consumption,a drastic change in their nutritional levels, that is your vitamin levels and also improvement in your digestion and gut health generally. So those are our flagships. We do have a few other flagships, but at the end of the day, to answer your question, what we are trying to do is simplify nutrition just so that there’s no ambiguity when it comes to health.

Q. And how do you ensure that your product reaches the maximum people because with social media and other presences,you have to have a cost effective product also that reaches to masses and then grows. So how do you ensure that?

So our aim first of all is to actually subsidize the cost just so that we can reach a wider audience base. The audience which we cater to currently, we understand that we’re catering to the affluent community- people who are health conscious and one thing that we don’t want to do or rather break is the myth that health is expensive.So right now one sachet is about 50 to 60 rupees per day. We’d like to bring that down,so that would be the first step for us to actually cater to a wider audience segment in terms of helping them out on a daily basis.. But other than that, we have an omnichannel presence of course.

So we sell on our website and marketplaces. Apart from that, we also do have active communities that we cater to. And they spread the word around. And the word of mouth is what really brings in our customers.

Q.what sets your health supplement apart from others in the market in terms of quality and effectiveness? So how do you set your brand apart from them and what vision do you have?

So as a company, of course, we are competing with other nutritional brands. But this combination is more nuanced,I would say it’s more on a product basis because each of our products cater to different lifestyles that the person normally has.

When you look at the 360, the health supplement I was talking to you about, in India right now, there is no supplement which uses these many ingredients and has your probiotics and vitamins all in one. So that way if you see our USP is that first of all, we have shelf-stable probiotics. Normally, just to give you context, you might have heard about Yakult. So Yakult needs to be frozen.In terms of how we are different, although we have probiotics, you don’t really need to freeze it. It comes in a powdered form and you can consume it.

So that is one difference with respect to this. And then if you look at the other products in the market also, nobody really uses these many fruits, veggies and all these other ingredients just to give you nutritional benefits. They are mostly fortified.When I say fortified, they’re probably using a vitamin and mineral mix and giving it to you on an artificial level. It’s not unhealthy per se, but it’s not natural. So when you look at our product, we actually are using these fruits and veggies to actually get your nutrients.So that way, the difference is that because of the magnitude of nutrients that are there, it is an all-in-one health supplement.

So again, different products compete on a different level.

Q.do you also do research before coming up with a product? And how do you do that?

I think research is a lot of Research and Formulation.Just to come out with 360 as a product, we did about 45 different trials to basically perfect the taste. And what we understood is that in India right now, taste is very important. People do prioritize that a lot. So there is a lot of testing going on just to get that formulation right. We actually have a group of people that try out the formulation before it is actually launched in the market.

If at least about 60% to 70% do tell us that they like it, only then we go out with that particular taste. So once we finalize a formulation, then it’s about the taste testing, which usually takes about a month and a half. And once we have that, it is then when we go out into the market .

Q.Is your company funded? If yes,can you just go through the rounds and details?

Yeah,so we’ve raised a total of 1.2 million USD till date. This is over three separate rounds. The most recent round was Yusuf Somani participating. Yusuf Somani is the ex-head of Angel List in India.He’s the one who led the most recent round.We’ve also received a grant from the state government. So we received a $35,000 US dollar grant from the state government just because of the kind of products that we have been launching. And in terms of innovation, it’s mainly the reason we won

Q.So do you have a manufacturing unit over here only that you have? And how do you ensure the safety of your products?

No, we don’t have our own manufacturing unit. We do have contract manufacturers. Now these are people who are US FTA certified. So they have these processes in place to ensure the quality of the product that they go out with.

Apart from that, to answer your question, there is testing that is regularly done. So the moment a batch is taken, they do test that batch to check if there are any heavy metals present and is it as per the formulation that we need. So that kind of testing does happen. But mainly there’s a report that comes out at the end of the batch which shows that the product is free from certain types of harmful bacteria and also heavy metals. So that really shows how safe the product is for consumption and I think that’s a method that you can go by.

Q.what’s your future goal in maybe 5 years down the line?

I feel like we’ve just gotten started in terms of what we have done with our products. So right now, our immediate aim is to at least get about 10 lakh customers consuming 360 on a regular basis. So l feel that would be a start to actually cater to more people. Because what we have noticed is that the moment a person tries it, the repeat rates are over the charts for a product like this. So the immediate aim is to cater to more people other than that, we are also looking at international expansion..

Just for context, Athletic Greens(a competitor) is a unicorn right now. A lot of people may have heard of Athletic Greens – a single product brand and they have been operational for the last nine years or so. And they’ve shot to fame, I think in 2019 once Uberman marketed them. And it’s a very similar product to what we have created. We have a better product than theirs in terms of taste, But I feel like we do because in America, taste is not the priority. So it’s a whole different thing altogether. So that way our product is far superior. So knowing that we have a more superior product, we do want to enter the international markets and actually cater to those people just to see feedback. So one immediate goal that we have over the next year is international expansion.

Q.How do you do your marketing and PR and how much do you put into it?

We do have a considerable amount of traffic coming through word of mouth. The other kind of activities that we do is through meta and Google and of course marketplaces we do the normal marketing that we do. Apart from that we do have PR that happens on the side and influencers as well who promote our product.The Influencers that we cater to is not something that we do on like, for example, pay them and do this, this is more of people who do it on a regular basis because they believe In the product. So It’s more like an affiliate channel for us when we promote our products.They test and trial our products and then recommend it for them.

Q. So how does the feedback mechanism work? What happens when a customer is not happy with a product?

So one thing that we ensure is we talk to our customers, of course.Each of us ensure that we do a certain number of customer calls in a month.And a lot of people do in fact reach out through normal WhatsApp or mail and they tell that they want so and so ingredient increase. Just to give you an example,during our first formulation, vitamin B and B12 levels were not about 90%. It was much less, about 70% or so. Even vitamin C, we were giving about 40%..

A lot of people actually told us that we want more vitamin C levels. They in fact told even other vitamins that what we’re giving is very less. So then in our third formulation, we went out with an increased amount of  vitamins in it. And this has happened because one customer told me that it would be great if we guys could give it. Otherwise I have to take a multi-width supplement and it makes no sense..

Then for the meal on the other hand, again, so that taste is something that we have got over like maybe four different Iterations or five different iterations. Some people told us that it’s a little grainy, you need to mask the taste, stuff like that. So taking on that feedback, Improving on that is how we came up with what we have now. So I feel like once we launch this supplement, it’s more of an iterative process.It’s never a final complete formulation. There’s always Improvements that will happen. And this only happens just by listening to the customers who consume it on a regular basis.

Q.Is there any specific target audience or age group that are looking for your product?

Yeah, so our target group is mainly 25 to 45 years of age, although we do have a few people who are older consuming it.

But largely they are health conscious Individuals residing in metro cities. People who understand the importance of health, for example, like a person who consumes this product mainly knows that, okay, I need to have this much protein in my diet. I need to have this much micronutrient. So they understand that I am only consuming a carb loaded diet or a protein rich diet. And I also need these micronutrients. So that’s largely our customer base.

Q. Whom do you take to be your competitor right now ?

Yeah,since we are a nutrition company, of course, almost every company is a competitor. But again, on a product level is what I can tell you because different products, different competitors. When it comes to the meal, I would say our competitors Nestle and EnSure And when it comes to 360,there are products in the market, but not essentially as complete as ours. One is The Good Bug. The other is Well-Being Nutrition, So I would say these two are our competitors.

Q.Any particular market in India that shows more interest and brings in more orders?

I would say metro cities, in fact, like the common market that we see and perform well in: Bangalore, Gurgaon, Mumbai.They’re the ones that are working the best for us. Yeah, because I think the awareness now among the youth about their health is good.

Q.So do you also go with like any other brand in terms of say, association or a strategy partnership where you can like through them,promote your product? Is there anything like this in line in the coming future?

Until now, no, not on a product level, like for example, collaborating with another brand, we haven’t done anything of that sort. But we have used marketplaces like Cred, which have given us good traction. So partnerships like that are something we have used. Flipkart, Cred, Amazon, they’ve of course given us a lot of traction. But other than on a product level, like the collaboration that you see, like for example, what Indigo and Mokobora did is something that we haven’t explored until now.

Q. Did you reach out to a brand ambassador or do you have anything of that sort in mind?

We are doing it in our next fundraiser. So like we have a few milestones to reach and in our next fundraiser, we’d be getting a brand ambassador. But at the end of the day, right, if we really have to cater to like 10 lakh customers, .

It’s of course going to be very expensive to cater to them through ads,i.e. Meta and Google. And an easier way to reach more people is through a brand ambassador and also builds a lot of trust. So that’s why we are looking to get a brand ambassador on board. So hopefully in the next six months, we should have a brand ambassador on.

Q.So how has  the journey been so far? Is this your first business venture?

So this is my first time starting a business venture. But my co founder is actually from a business background. So he’s from a family of entrepreneurs. So they’ve been into the steel Industry and finance.I had about four years of corporate experience before I actually started. And for him, he had done it the moment he graduated from his masters. So that’s where we started.

We started pretty early in our careers actually with maybe like three years of experience. But to answer your question as to why this even happened in the first place, this is mainly because we faced different problems and coincidentally it happened to be a similar problem which is we wanted healthy food that was easy to make and easily available and affordable. So that’s what we were trying to create initially.

And for me,on a more personal level, I’m a practicing martial artist. I practice Chappuera and Krav Maga, which are two different art forms. In the past, I used to do Jeet Kune Do, which is Bruce Lee’s art form. So,it’s been about five years of practicing different art forms, basically. And at that time, I used to always look out for different kinds of supplements or healthy food that basically keeps me energized for these workouts and these workouts are very strenuous. I did try a lot of energy bars and protein supplements and everything.

So the product that we have launched is basically to also cater to issues that I faced in my life.So yeah,I think I came behind it and then of course came out with this product. It’s a fabulous thing.