Vadim Fedotov - Bioniq & The Future of Personalized Supplements

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[00:02:07] Go to podcastcollective.io to learn more and contact me directly. That's podcastcollective.io. Vadim, Fedotov, welcome to the future of fitness, my friend. Hi, Eric. Thanks for having me.

[00:02:24] Yeah, it's a pleasure. I just got to learn a little bit more about you and what you guys are doing there. It's pretty cool, and thank you for letting me try the product as well.

[00:02:33] I've been taking it for a couple months now and starting to really see the difference in the approach that you guys have with it. Super interesting, man. You got a good backstory, athletics, entrepreneurship, all those things that wrap into a great podcast interview.

[00:02:49] So let's kick it off with this, Vadim, if you don't mind, just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to be the CEO of Bionic. Sure. Born in St. Petersburg, moved to Germany when I was six.

[00:02:59] Dad was a professional athlete. He was number one tennis player in Russia.

[00:03:04] I, you know, given the fact that I saw him as my role model, went into professional sports myself, went into basketball, started playing for a German national team at the age of 16, 18, around 18, 19, started playing at the U.S.

[00:03:19] Played seven times against the U.S. national teams with a lot of NBA players back then who were already playing for them. And then I got scouted, got scouted to play in the U.S. for Buffalo Bulls Division One, upstate New York.

[00:03:31] Had a blast there, but tore my ACL four times. So I was the first athlete, I think, in the D1 history that had a total of four torn ACLs and still decided to come back and try it one more time.

[00:03:43] Which is, I think at the end of the day is one of the reasons why I'm doing Bionic is I was exposed to rehab and health optimization at a very, very early age.

[00:03:51] And I think I spent more time rehabbing than playing basketball if I look over my entire career. Given that fact that I knew that, you know, sports is not in my future on a professional level. I went corporate like a good German boy went to management consultancy.

[00:04:05] Did that but then I got lucky that one of the main investors in the company called Groupon at that moment was the fastest growing company in the world. I'm bored of me and I need to join them.

[00:04:15] And I became head of the CEO of Groupon Eastern Europe at age of 26, which made me the youngest CEO now all four 80 country countries. And the cool thing is I joined before the IPO. So I went through the whole pre post IPO process, which was an incredible experience.

[00:04:32] And again, I'm very grateful that I was able to do that the very early age because I understood what that actually means.

[00:04:39] What having you know, somebody else reviewing and looking at every single step that you're doing it every single time and everything is impacting with you know, the stock price. And it has been incredible.

[00:04:49] And it was a five year five year long journey that you know, saw us built, you know, thousands of employees hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and then really building up on the largest databases in terms of customer approach in the world, which again, that kind of led me to better understand how to build businesses.

[00:05:05] But it was not a business that I was very, very passionate about. And my passion was always around education and health.

[00:05:10] So around 2017, I was in that place that I think a lot of founders were where there's a little scratchy on itch moment where I felt that health wise and energy level wise and probably physique wise could be in a better place.

[00:05:23] And when I decided to speak to a doctor about all my symptoms, you know, fatigue levels, brain fogs, energy levels in terms of, you know, but also overweight or probably diets that could improve my overall feelings.

[00:05:39] The doctor at that moment recommend me to do a blood test, an extensive blood test that's been like $1,000 for. So I do the blood test, wait for a week, expect this holy grail moment, come back to the doctor, speak to the doctor.

[00:05:51] The doctor looks at me, looks at my blood test results and says to me, you're fine. And I'm like, what do you mean you're fine? He's like, there's nothing I can do for you. And I'm looking at him like I have all those symptoms.

[00:05:59] I don't feel as good as I could be feeling. I don't feel like that I am at the top of my game. I don't feel like that I am at that energy level or that I have to focus that I used to have.

[00:06:09] And I was like, is there anything you can do me? It's like, I cannot prescribe you anything because you're not ill. If you're ill, I can treat you. But there's nothing here that I can do for you to optimize those things that you're asking for.

[00:06:20] And that was like, okay, so traditional medicine is for people who are ill who are trying to recover. I'm actually at a point in my life where I don't want to get ill first. I actually want to optimize and become better and the better version of myself.

[00:06:31] So this is where my journey started when I started reviewing the research and what's out there. What's in this world? What can be done just in 2017? So I thought a lot of startups around the DNA.

[00:06:41] Saw a lot of startups doing something around, you know, regular blood testing as a startup students and they're on personalized supplements. But every time I looked into any of those business models, the business model was either to tell you what's wrong with you

[00:06:52] or to give you something and hope it actually works. Now there was business models ever tied into, hey, this is what's wrong with you. This is what you need to take. And then here you redo the test initially and you see if there's actually improvement there or not.

[00:07:04] Or we need to work on your solution. So there was never a feedback loop in the product offered around my health and my health optimization. And this is where I realized, okay, it has to be a product out there where I can combine the desire of people

[00:07:14] to find out more what's going on inside of them, but also give them personalized solutions that can improve them as quickly and efficiently as possible. And around that time when I was researching, I met a neurosurgeon who did clinical trials in Switzerland

[00:07:27] on Olympic athletes between the year 2011-2017. He did over 950 participants. And he was able to prove that when you optimize micronutrients levels, micronutrients is vitamins, microelements to an optimal level in your blood, then on average athletes are 10 days per year less sick.

[00:07:44] And because they're less sick on 10 days per average, their physical capabilities improved by up to 6.9%, which for an athlete isn't sane. I mean you give your left pinky for 1% improvement, getting up to 7% just out of supplements. That was mind blowing.

[00:07:59] So I started digging the research on like, hey listen, if athletes improve by 7%, what would happen to a regular person? And the doctor was like, it's around 35%. I'm like, this is incredible.

[00:08:08] So I started researching, trying it out, piloting it, put 40 of my friends and family and people surrounding on it. One of those people was head of performance at the UFC in Las Vegas in Nevada.

[00:08:19] So he took it for four months, gives me a phone call and says, hey can you fly out to Vegas? This is the end of 2018. So I'm flying out, he's like, I want you to meet the VP.

[00:08:26] I meet the VP and I'm sitting there in the room, they're like, hey Vadim, we've never seen something like this. Stuff like this doesn't exist in the market. I think you're up to something.

[00:08:35] And I was thinking, how can I come up with something that one of the leading sports organizations in the world does not have access to and there's nobody else is doing it? So that was my moment.

[00:08:46] I quit my day job, launched Bionic two months later in London and it's been ever since. We're now five and a half years in. We're probably the largest personal supplements company based on blood testing data. We have two main products, Bionic Go and Bionic Pro.

[00:09:01] We're now delivering to over, I think last month delivered to over 55 countries. And we're proud partners of the leading medical institution, some of the top athletes in the world. It's been an incredible journey for the last five and a half years. Yeah, that's incredible man.

[00:09:15] It took me back to Vadim to like when you had the concept in developing the first products to get out there. Like, what was that experience like? I'm sure a lot of people who are in the entrepreneurship business would like to know.

[00:09:29] Yeah, I mean, this was it's the worst case scenario. I think everybody knows if you're not ashamed of your first product, that means you waited too long. So the first product was, I can tell you this now it sounds insane.

[00:09:42] The first product cost $3,000 took 150 blood markers, took your stool, took your urine, took your hair, had three consultations in it. And I think we charged people on top of the $3,000 another $500 something on top of it just for concierge service. So it was it was not a scalable product.

[00:10:00] It was just something that out of this world was like hyper concierge, hand holding white glove treatment. We're sitting there and we're getting those 30 40 people who can afford this and you're like, okay, but can you scale this? That's what always the question.

[00:10:13] What has to happen to scale it? And the thing where we in any business gets lucky, mostly luck and timing, right? Well, we got lucky with that the blood markers that we used to use and the data processes that we used to use,

[00:10:27] they became more available in more places and the price went down. So what happened to us is instead of using 130 blood markers, we ended up being able to use only 50 blood markers.

[00:10:37] And because of the data sets, we could actually predict how the other blood markets would look like based on the ones that we have. And then the availability of the blood markers every one in the world becomes just more accessible, which allowed us to expand quicker.

[00:10:48] So over time, we went from a $3,000 product with 150 blood markers, hand holding for each client to a product that starts now at $75.

[00:10:57] That is now expandable available everywhere where the data sets and information and the predictions that we were able to use from the IP from the research from prior to Bionic.

[00:11:06] And from the first 60,000 people that actually did the blood testing on a regular basis are now being implemented into each customer to enhance the journey of each client to A, get the data efficient,

[00:11:17] get the ingredients that the person needs and the dosage person needs because we know those dosages actually work for these kind of people based on their results. Awesome.

[00:11:25] And when you were getting started, Vadim, did you raise money? Did you bootstrap it? Where is the company now as far as funds? Sure. So I think I'm not the most typical founder. I was CEO for almost 10 years, one family by on it.

[00:11:41] So I founded the company myself for almost the first two years, which allows you to make more decisions quicker because it's your money. So you don't have to ask anywhere to approve anybody. So that was quite beneficial to me.

[00:11:54] But the same thing was incredibly nerve wracking because you literally put every single send that you earned over a 10 year career into a project that you hope works. Knowing that the chance of a startup actually working is like around 5%.

[00:12:06] But since then, yes, we have acquired incredible cap table in terms of shareholders with some of the leading tier one funds in Europe with HV capital from Germany or unbound from London. We also have record internet on our cap table and Porsche Ventures.

[00:12:21] So as of today, we raised over $15 million and we're very, very soon planning to announce that we just closed another fundraising for the growth that I mentioned to you earlier in terms of of course with the focus on the US market, but also in the focus on the Middle East region that have become one of the predominantly areas of growth.

[00:12:41] Awesome. Awesome. Congratulations. Is that a series A? Series B? Like where are you going to go?

[00:12:46] I call it post series A. I think it's somewhere, depending on, listen, three years ago we've been a series E in this current market is probably quite strong series B. And the venture market has changed so strongly like the valuations and the money that you raised now is completely different than it was three years ago.

[00:13:04] Yeah. Yeah, you can say that again. Walk me through the client or consumer experience. Like how does this work? Let's do the pro, which is kind of like the high try and everything that you guys do. So yeah, walk me through that.

[00:13:17] So on the pro level again, the name process is for the professionals for the people who want to really have an in depth understanding what goes on based on their own blood data.

[00:13:25] So you have two options. Either you already have a blood test and the blood test that you have is recent by reason we mean last three months, and it has relative blood markers in it, including certain vitamin levels and micro element levels.

[00:13:38] Then you can upload your blood test to our website by on.com. We will review the blood test results based on that our algorithm. So we have a patent pending algorithm that we researched together with universities.

[00:13:49] We have 25 medical publications into efficacy. So again, it's the differentiation between us and any other supplement companies. We have research not on other people's data or some research from 1970.

[00:14:01] No, no, it's the real bionic users by any clients peer reviewed by some of the leading institutions and leading doctors and then medical applications based on those data sets.

[00:14:10] By any go, you already have a blood test, your blood test, we review the blood test results. We create a person's formula formula is ingredients list made out of up to 120 components of different kinds of vitamins micro elements in the doses that your body needs based on the blood results that you have.

[00:14:25] So let's say your vitamin D level is 25 and the age group you want to get it up to 65. We will determine what's the dosage of vitamin D you need to receive in a daily level to get you up to 65 in three months span afterwards after you received your ingredients list.

[00:14:39] You have a consultation with the dietitian with the dietitian will walk you through in terms of hair. This is the formula that you receive and this is the reason why for it, but also discuss with you how your daily intake of food which is 70% of your overall health can impact absorption levels and can impact your overall improvement levels.

[00:14:56] So this is very important to us. We see a lot of companies making this mistake. We're not saying by on because you're one the pill, we're not saying just take by on everything else will will be great.

[00:15:05] Now we're just part of an overall solution to your health and nutrition is the foundation to your health. So after you upload the blood test, you go through the consultation, you receive three months of supplements personalized to you.

[00:15:17] There's the completely personalized to you. There's no second formula anywhere in the world. There's over 10 million variations based on that. And in this formula, there's Swiss make granules which have an increased absorption levels that you take once in the morning, once in the evening to fully cover your body needs.

[00:15:31] So the uniqueness of the granules is a patent technique out of Switzerland is twofold one in Switzerland supplements have the same requirements as pharmaceuticals, which means the quality of the supplements is hermits.

[00:15:42] It's hermits are great. And number two is granules have their prebiotics they have a slow absorption level, which means if you would take a regular pill over the counter, the pill is normally made out of starch, which one once you take it in, it will spike your insulin levels for your body to absorb it.

[00:15:58] So you first swallow starch cause a toxic reaction, absorb whatever is in there. And then toxicity goes back down when you take biotin because it's a prebiotic there is no spike, there's no starch. There's a slow release over 12 hours inside of your body.

[00:16:12] So you get all the necessity from the micronutrients without having any side effects including you know drinking or taking starch or gelatin into your body and not causing any toxicity. Awesome. After this year. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry.

[00:16:27] And that now comes the interesting part. So after doing the blood test, receiving the supplements for three months and taking them for three months, you as a bioprocline would then do another blood test to be able actually to compare on the improvement levels what worked what didn't work what dosage was the right dosage, but also understand how your body has changed over those three months to adjust the

[00:16:47] ingredients that you would receive. And with the video with the blood tests that you guys take is that someone have to go to a lab is it a home blood test How does that work.

[00:16:54] So this is again, from in the US working good with lab corp. So you can go to any of their locations can go to quest locations.

[00:17:02] You can go on online and order home kit tests. Most of the home kit tests are compatible with us so our system can take into account on home kit home kit tests if you want to do that. That's up to you.

[00:17:14] So again, from our side we're very, very flexible. The way that we created our system a back end system is that if you have a blood test with irrelevant blood testing data, we will be able to adjust the results in a way where the system can read them then give you information that you can actually use.

[00:17:31] So we recommend to go to your nearest quest or lab corp or ask your doctor to prescribe you a blood test if you live in New York for example, and then can either order in the home phlebotomy or order home kit.

[00:17:43] Nice. Yeah, and you know the thing that pops to mind is at least here in the US and we're going to talk about your entry into the US market which is impressive but very popular is like the green powder, the daily green powders right.

[00:17:55] We won't have to name any brands. You know there's a big one out there and then there's a bunch of other ones as well.

[00:18:01] So how does like with the popularity of those and they're not cheap, right? I'm oftentimes shocked at how expensive they are. How does that compete? How's the market like taking personalized versus these ones with huge marketing budgets that have been around for a little bit?

[00:18:16] First of all, I'll try those green stuff.

[00:18:19] And I tried in 2015 because I'm listening to Tim Ferriss like most people and you know, because of the marketing budgets and then you hear it and you try it out and you're like, oh my God, what is this? I mean he's taking it. I love it.

[00:18:30] So it was part of my journey. It was part of my journey before by on giving existed in my head. I mean listen, it's dried powder. It's dried powder vegetable that is being sold to you at a premium price.

[00:18:42] It's one size fits all and I don't think there is any downside to having daily dried vegetable powder, but I don't think it's the upset that you're looking for as somebody is looking after your health.

[00:18:53] So we as Bionics say, share this can be part of your daily routine when I'm taking away anything from it. Any levels of micronutrients in those powders are so minimal.

[00:19:04] They're applicable to two year old children or to nine year old grandmothers. But is the question does somebody like you or me, who are in a different stage of our lives are active or bigger smaller, more muscles less muscles.

[00:19:17] Should we take a one size fits all approach? So what we're saying is everybody is different and we see this every single day we have 23 year old fitness influencer twins who live together work out together eat the same food together have completely different blood tests.

[00:19:31] So we know for a fact that different people as that people have different results and different needs. And because of this, you need a different solution. So what we're saying is for the same price actually worth cheaper.

[00:19:43] I like the word cheaper one more affordable and more accessible for the same for almost the same price you can receive personalized Swiss made micronutrients tailor made to you that you would get a vegetable dried powder that is one size fits all so we understand marketing is very strong.

[00:19:59] We understand the budgets that they have and we understand how long they've been in the market. And me as a proponent of healthy living I'm happy they exist because they educate people that you should look after health every day.

[00:20:09] So I believe they're setting a stage for us to further educate the person now that you're looking after health every day. What don't we want to look after your personalized health and not just the health of everyone.

[00:20:17] Yeah, and that's actually what I might line of thought as well is like they've already you know kind of matured the market to understand that a you know for a daily supplement you could pay upwards of $100 or more a month right.

[00:20:29] That's not personalized yet if you guys look at something like bio ionic like you can come and actually get a personalized for a very similar rate if not less which is very compelling to the consumer right be like well I'm an individual I'm unique I'm a snowflake I should have my own blend.

[00:20:45] One of the things I want to discuss because I know it's a big part of your market approach to is your partnership strategy. I mean in April this year you guys had partnership week I was kind of taking a look at it.

[00:20:55] I know that's that's a big part of what you guys do so what is when you look in partnerships can be a you know all encompassing words so what does that mean to you and what is the strategy that you guys are implementing.

[00:21:06] I mean the strategies to fall in like listen Eric you've never heard of bionic right. So, I'm coming in high on bionic you look never heard of what good what do you guys do like personal supplements like okay that's great but you still don't have an understanding with bionic is what it stands for who we are what we're trying to do.

[00:21:20] But the moment I tell you that will work with the leading medical institutions.

[00:21:24] The moment I tell you were official partner of the leading sports sports leagues the moment I tell you we have some of the most famous doctors longevity doctors recommending us or they're part of our advisory board.

[00:21:34] This is the moment where you might not know anything about bionic but you understand who our partners are and then because of our relationship with those partners you start to position ourselves okay so they're data driven their proof their clinically researched. They have been in the market.

[00:21:49] They have people who can choose to work with who to partner with but they chose them for a reason so your brand awareness and trust level automatically grows because of this relationship with those other individuals or all those organizations.

[00:22:02] So our plan has always been when entering the markets were like who are deleting medical institutions.

[00:22:07] Who is the ones that you know are standing for science backed approaches who have been in the market a long time for them who are relationships with their consumer base are important right at the same time you also want to make sure hey who are the innovators in the market who are pushing the agenda forward who are trying to create something.

[00:22:26] So you know me coming to the US for partnership week is you're like again you're looking into like one of the companies we're partnering with called whoop.

[00:22:32] A lot of people know whoop whoop is no data driven bracelet we've been working together with whoop probably for four years now so you might not know that might know about bionic but you're like okay so there are one of the partners with whoop that means they're looking at the data there are

[00:22:45] and they're trying to build up a daily habit of people looking after the health.

[00:22:50] So the same thing we're trying to achieve here now now we're meeting with partners like remedy plays a Jonathan who you also had in the show prior to me incredible incredible interesting partner credible approach love their concept left their growth and one of their members.

[00:23:04] So I see this as a partnership opportunity for all of us in terms of hey let's educate the market that you should look after yourself that we're individual and there's that there's innovations in the market that can make you feel and look better while doing this in a natural way.

[00:23:17] So this is the same thing here so medical institutions longevity places, we have been working with athletes athletic so one of the things we're doing here is we're having one of the NCAA teams.

[00:23:28] So I played and NCAA prior one of the NCAA teams were onboarding them for next season doing to be official partners with bionic.

[00:23:37] And same thing as we're speaking to professional athletes here in the US wants to not just become ambassadors but we actually want to be strategically involved with the growth of the business. Awesome.

[00:23:47] So there is a bit of a would you say you have a B2B to see strategy is that something you guys are looking at are you just looking for these partnerships to kind of bring notoriety and validate you in the market with these big names and then like yeah I think you give me an example is it just D2C or you guys looking for a B2B to see.

[00:24:07] So I think you did the right thing.

[00:24:11] Initially you built up the reputation and validation through third parties to have to be more approachable and to be also more in demand for D2C as you probably know most of your listeners know B2B is a very, very long process.

[00:24:23] So just for example we just signed a partnership with Randolphs Randolphs is the largest laboratory network in the UK. In the United Kingdom, we're now fully integrated and all the laboratory testing throughout the United Kingdom but this partnership took us several years to build up to just launch.

[00:24:39] So we're a five year old company who several years ago started talking and then launches partnership now.

[00:24:45] So you are a B2B to see brand creator who sells B2C while understanding that once you amass the following once you amass the brand recognition, the B2B can come into play.

[00:24:57] And this is kind of like the next level for us but just based on a personal experience you cannot start off with B2B it doesn't work because even the people who are doing B2B they are people first they still want to experience the product themselves.

[00:25:08] One of the most successful B2B partners we ever had was with a company who were the HR director themselves did the product first, left the product so much went to the CEO.

[00:25:19] The CEO said let's make it's corporate-wide employee benefit they call the insurance provider insurance provider start covering the blood testing of it and then they implemented it throughout the company for all the hundreds of employees.

[00:25:31] But it all started as a B2C experience from the HR director before getting corporate, before getting insurance involved before growing the whole thing. Awesome man interesting. Well you've been expanding rapidly but even into the areas like Saudi Arabia and then in the US of course.

[00:25:49] Give me some insights into how those expansions are going. Those two are the ones I'm especially curious but feel free to add in other ones that are I may be missing here.

[00:25:59] Give me some idea how the market expansions are going and what details are they going to provide.

[00:26:03] I think if you're looking back, market and share expansion between Saudi Arabia and US could have not been any more different because if Saudi Arabia is literally it's a slow process with lots of back and forth on a very personal level with key decision makers that can go for months and months at

[00:26:20] end where you can for months not receive back a response or an email or you'll have dinner and shake hands but then the follow up will take weeks and months to actually implement.

[00:26:33] The US could be the opposite. The US was hey we're available in the US and from the next day on this thing just took off here like a rocket ship.

[00:26:41] So it's been a very interesting because because Saudi Arabia has been quite closed market for less than even a decade ago but they're now very very into and a very very interested in everything innovative so everybody who's there on the decision maker process they want the latest thing they want the innovation they want to showcase the world how progress thinking they are so we are super excited everybody you meet is there but.

[00:27:05] The market itself and consumers themselves. They're just opening it up so the early adapters the innovators they still listen to their circle of friends they still listen they still ask who else has taken it.

[00:27:19] It's a very interesting approach where there is like if one who you know is taking it 4050 people will follow right away in the US I feel sometimes is the opposite.

[00:27:28] Oh nobody else has taken it and the first one like this this whole innovative like the early adopters thing people in the US they want to be the one that nobody else taken it I have unfair advantage I'm the first one on board I've been with this company before it became mainstream.

[00:27:42] So here we see they don't want that referral of that circle they want to be that that the pioneer which is has been great for us in terms of growth.

[00:27:51] But it's gonna have would have not been capable to you know the duplicate I think in any other market.

[00:27:57] Then in the US which is the reason why the US market is still to this day the largest supplement market in the world by more than half of the entire world's supplements is being sold in one single country which is here in the US.

[00:28:08] Well yeah it's I mean we are full of early adopters and bio hackers and you know just people looking to get an edge right such a competitive you know what I'm sorry to visit some other countries like you know family in Italy.

[00:28:23] And you know they're they're they're the office that they work to live right we live to work and we're just always on always on right so always looking for an edge and I think that's just an interesting I mean is that am I making that up or is that like a noticing that you've had as well.

[00:28:38] Listen it's actually easiest example I mean I've been living in Dubai now for the last three four years and I'm you know a professional athlete entrepreneur I'm always on the go always somewhere late I'm always I'm always walking quite fast.

[00:28:51] I arrived in New York I'm in New York for like 10 minutes walking around so and have this guy stream behind me hey dude can you pick it up a little bit walking to slow like anyone in the world I'm the one who's like the pacemaker right I'm the one who's pushing ahead.

[00:29:05] Here I'm like in the way of people trying to get stuff done so the tempo here the especially New York and Manhattan now like an example of tempo here and the desire here in the drive here is just a different level you need to really adjust adjust to the tempo here.

[00:29:18] This is this is the city where everybody is late for something right and in that kind of lifestyle and that kind of sphere you always want to be have the best thing you want to be on the edge and capability to know to push forward.

[00:29:29] So I definitely feel that way and it's definitely different and there's no other city like this and there's no economy like this because this is where you still keep pushing the most. And the important part Eric is it's not just the by hackers.

[00:29:40] You can go into any drugstore like the amount the sheer amount of supplements in any drugstore. I mean this is insane. It's 20 30 times more than any other country in the world.

[00:29:51] So you know that everybody is thinking of it just part as part of the DNA of the US of the US population is supplementation is part of the daily regimen. Yeah, it's it's interesting and kind of sad that that's the case yet we're so unhealthy.

[00:30:06] You know, but and this is but this is this is the point I'm trying to say is our biggest what we believe is the biggest differentiator is there's tons of companies who are going to use models look great looking models telling you to drink those pills.

[00:30:25] So you one day maybe look like those models. That's not what we're saying. We're saying hey this is the blood results that you have this what you need to get done if you keep taking that they will improve.

[00:30:33] We're not we're not we're not telling you will I promise me something and hope for the best. We're actually showing you something and showcase to you what works what doesn't work.

[00:30:41] So our motivation is actually completely interwind with your motivation to improve you not to sell you something and hope that you know you don't remember that anymore. That's how this works and that's what frustrates me all the time because people like oh my God take multivitamins.

[00:30:57] I'm like so what does that mean? Do you know if it helps? Do you know if you need it? Are you looking over your diet? Are you active? Do you get your steps in and do you sleep enough? What does taking multivitamins do for you?

[00:31:06] It doesn't mean anything. There's only thing it does is to be honest with you, it's probably probably lowers your your consciousness so you allow yourself to do more other things that are not good for you because you're like well I'm healthy I take vitamins.

[00:31:17] It's one of those things where it's like that's not how this works. Is that how balance you can't just take more supplements and eat more burgers because it will balance it out. That's not how life works. Yeah, right.

[00:31:27] I mean I've only known you for 40 minutes but I'm recognizing that is a very critical difference with Bionic. It's true like I've been taking supplements most of my life. I don't actually know if they're working, right? I really don't.

[00:31:39] Like you can't directly even if I take a blood test once a year with my doctor like some people do and everybody should at least. I still don't know how to attribute that like okay is the omega-3 actually helping with my inflammation like who knows right?

[00:31:52] And that's the biggest thing is in most supplement companies almost all of them do not want to test retest right? Like that that's just bad for business. And would be horrible for business. Okay, very simple.

[00:32:04] 82% of our female clients have low iron levels or low iron levels means low energy levels but also means reproduction capabilities. It literally impacts the female, the woman's mood and capability and energy level to do anything right?

[00:32:18] 82% have low levels but more than half of our clients are taking iron supplementation before doing the blood test. So how does this work? So more than half of our customers are taking everyday supplements and still majority of them have super low levels which means whatever they're taking,

[00:32:36] the dosages is either so low or the absorption level is so low that it makes no difference to them. And they're like hey why is my energy level so low? I am taking supplements and I still have low energy level.

[00:32:46] Well, I guess that's how it's supposed to be but no it's not how it's supposed to be. You should adjust the dosages and the format in which you take in supplements to a level which your body can actually work with. And that's what we're trying to educate.

[00:32:58] Like I love that you're taking Omega. Like hey, I'm one of these people based on the data probably 98% of people should be taking Omega 3. I would like to know how many pills you take because in a bottle it says take 2.

[00:33:07] Well if you take 2 and I take 2, I don't think that's how it works. I need 7, you need 5. Your spouse should part and needs 2. Your kid needs 1 and your parents shouldn't have any because a dead age is not good for them.

[00:33:19] But everybody takes 2 because it says 2 on the bottle. And argue with any of that. It's just the way we've always done it, right? That's the thing. It's just the way we've just been conditioned to accept that.

[00:33:31] You know, we're going to take these and that, you know, and when I was young and I think today a lot of people say, well, you shouldn't take supplements because you just pee it all out, right?

[00:33:38] So now it's nice to have some validity into how the investment, because it's an investment. It's not supplementation like you rack it up over the months and years. Like it's a decent amount of money if you're looking after it. It's a great investment. Don't get me wrong.

[00:33:52] If you get it right, your health is the best place you could put your money in time. But yeah, it's great. I mean, as you've been in the US market for 6 months, it's booming for you.

[00:34:01] You're about to kind of start analyzing some of your, I guess, I hate this term, but it's the first influencer or people of professional athletes. Like you guys have some partnership things that you're going to stream now. Harvest ships, thank you. Thank you. What give us an insight?

[00:34:16] Like what does that look like? What can you tell us right now? I think it's part of the process where like, okay, so you're the innovator. You want to try something out, but you get to the next stage of abusers who are like,

[00:34:28] okay, I'm not that risk taker. I'm not that pioneer. I want somebody else who can tell me how the experience was. Like a second party validation process or third party validation process in this case.

[00:34:38] So by us integrating with partners, as I mentioned prior and by announcing people that people know from daily life from their TV screens, from the stadiums, of course you start building up that renter made that you can eat the trustworthy business.

[00:34:51] But plus it's also a performance driven business because if people on the highest level are taking your product and I want to perform as high as possible for myself, they start to apply, you know, applicate whatever they're doing to their only lives, to their own life.

[00:35:05] So this is a little bit the process that we're going through right now. We want you to see bionic more. We want to see bionic on your screens. We want to see bionic with the people that you feel are key opinion leaders.

[00:35:17] But the best thing about it is every single one of those partners has been with us for years. So every single one of those partners has actually a journey of their own blood testing and improvement levels because otherwise why would they, you know, perform or recommend the product?

[00:35:31] I can tell you one thing. It's not for the money because we didn't go out there and raise that kind of money to be able to buy people to tell what we want to hear.

[00:35:39] The only way how this works is hey, it's a product that's working, we're working them for years and they're like, we want to give back for the company for building something and we'll be part of the journey going forward. So I think those authentic storylines,

[00:35:50] this is what the campaign that we're launching is called Bionic Members Since, which literally says I've been with Bionic for four or five years. That's what I experienced, that's what I went through.

[00:36:00] And this thing, this is a validation process that things are going to really, really make a big change to people who want to try it out. As you said, that have been conditioned to take supplements, but they never gave a second thought why should I take personalized ones?

[00:36:12] Yeah, awesome man. And I think one of the most interesting things you're collecting right now is some of the data. I mean there's a lot of data here that you guys have. I mean, give me an insight and a lot of times companies will start collecting data

[00:36:26] whether they know it or not and then eventually realize they're sitting on a gold mine. But tell me about the quality and the amount of data you guys are getting and how you see that factoring into the future of the company. From a proprietary data perspective,

[00:36:41] it's a large database of regular blood testing from our clinicians. So every laboratory has more data than we have and we're not comparing data sets in terms of amount. We're talking about relevant data sets that I can, as a company, understand fully the efficacy of the product.

[00:36:59] So because you go through a process of 60,000, 70,000 people that do regular blood testing every three months, take the supplements, take the blood tests, take the supplements, do the blood testing and you see the correlation of intake to levels, markers, improvements

[00:37:13] where you can start building out of this as an algorithm to indicate what the ingredients should be at what those are at what level. This allows us now for our newest users to quicker implement the ideal dosages for them at an earlier stage

[00:37:25] than it was even two years ago because we needed more months to go through a process to fully understand at what moment in time, what levels are best for each user. And because of this, the breakthrough I mentioned to you

[00:37:36] is a product called Bionico, which is for $75 a month. This is the product that I said is more affordable and then, for example, those green powder supplements in the market because it's a personalized product where you fill in a questionnaire of 45 questions.

[00:37:50] Those questionnaire are relevant around your lifestyle that with your medical history about your goals. Those questionnaires will be matched with people who did the blood test in the past and the algorithm is able to do a prediction of what ingredients you would need to overall improve.

[00:38:03] And the accuracy level now with a person who didn't do the blood test is 82% to the people who did do the blood test. So we're getting closer and closer that the data sets allows us without doing the blood test routine which a lot of people don't like

[00:38:16] for the price point or for the accessibility or for the convenience side of things. They can now forgo the blood test, do the questionnaire, use to take advantage of the data sets, the previous data sets and have a prediction capability to then get the ingredients that they need

[00:38:31] based on other people who went through that journey. So this has been the biggest breakthrough for us. This is what we believe that going forward, the growth of the correlations of ingredients to improvement will allow us to become even more accessible in more places in the world

[00:38:46] to then fully disrupt that one-size-fits-all to know everybody should go personalized because your body is unique. Awesome. And give us some insights, man. This is your opportunity to brag a little bit. I mean, you mentioned your fundraising down.

[00:38:59] We kind of, you know, danced around certain numbers of the business but give us some numbers that you can share. I know you're still a private company like where are you at? How's everything looking? I think from a perspective, that is important.

[00:39:12] As again, we're now over close to 7 million data points. We have an unbinding program, we have close to 70,000 users worldwide. I think the most important part for the U.S., where consumers buying it go, has been in the market now for less than six months.

[00:39:27] And as of today already, we have the majority of our users are in the U.S. for the BioNIC Go product, which is incredible growth. We're talking about, you know, five, six Xs of growth every single quarter. And you're talking about, you know, building up, building up.

[00:39:42] The interesting part for me, which you always understand, it's not that hard to sell something because if you just brand it right, you can sell it. The most important, the most difficult part is actually to retain the user. So when we started, when we started BioNIC,

[00:39:55] we knew that retention would be very, very high because it's very, very hands-on because there's a lot of handholding, blood testing, consultations. But then when we launched BioNIC Go, which didn't have all those components, we were like, well, will people remain?

[00:40:09] And to our, you know, I wouldn't say we're surprised, but to our incredible gratitude, people understand once received by an ego, hey, it's unique. It's personalized to me. It's Swiss-made qualities there and there's no substitute in the market for it. So our retention levels have been incredibly high,

[00:40:26] even for BioNIC Go, which doesn't have to blood test feedback loop because people understand that the quality of the product and the value that you get for the money is so high. So they stay with us for a very, very long time.

[00:40:36] As of end of Q1, we're around four times higher on retention levels than any other play in our market, which has been an incredible store for us. And we kept that while growing again, five, six hundred percent in the last couple quarters. Awesome. Congratulations, man.

[00:40:53] It's, you know, pretty comfortable on the ground in the last five years since you've been doing this. It's pretty incredible. But let me jump in here real quick though. Yeah. Of course, and congratulations. And there's any other founders here.

[00:41:05] I just want to make sure that every founder knows we were hitting our head for five years straight, not knowing if we're going to make it through that wall, right? And then when it happens, literally the moment it happens, you don't believe it.

[00:41:18] And the next day it happens again, you're like, no, it's a compereal. And then a week and you're like, what happened? So I remember exactly where like three weeks in a row of incredible growth. Now we're one bad day. And I'm telling you, one bad day,

[00:41:30] I had team calls at nine, nine, 30, 10 at everybody's like, what's going on? What broke? What's wrong? Like you're just paranoid because you like, you can't believe you found it and then it might be gone again. And fortunately it was not gone. It was just a bad day.

[00:41:43] But I think that journey is one of the most nerve-wracking things that you can go through. So anybody who goes in on your podcast or goes public and says everything is great. I think every founder knows that this is a lot of, lot of lonely nights,

[00:41:55] bad nights, a lot of things that didn't go well. And if you ever reached a moment where you can go and go and share those kind of figures, believe me, even while sharing them in the back of your mind,

[00:42:05] you're like, oh my God, hopefully I'm not causing anything negative because I want this thing to continue as positive as possible. So it's an interesting journey. And again, we're just beginning again. What we're seeing now and the growth that we experienced now and the map we're seeing now.

[00:42:23] So hopefully when we speak in the future, you have more people in your network and you surround the group. Not just familiar with the brand but already used by on and can see the results first-hand. Yeah, well that was actually a great point.

[00:42:34] Thank you. I appreciate the transparency on that. I think it's really important that people understand that being a founder and entrepreneur is not all unicorns and butterflies, man. What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now as a CEO and founder? I think we're now, it's very interesting.

[00:42:50] When you experience hypergrowth, which again, I only had twice in my life once a group on which is 13 years ago and now for the second time in my career, it's very interesting how to realign the targets and target setting and motivation for the team

[00:43:04] because the team internally feels we already made it. And you're like, no, no, no guys, you don't understand. We have a unique opportunity. We have a unique situation. This is the moment where we can differentiate ourselves not just from,

[00:43:15] hey, we survived a startup to, hey, we can become a household name and symbol personalized health and a brand that people know worldwide. So this is a little bit where you as a founder, you need to lead by example, not be satisfied with what you achieved recently,

[00:43:30] but see the bigger picture, have the right people in place and build for that growth. So one of the things where you're like, okay, what's our capabilities? How big can we get? Okay, we could grow 4x. Is 4x enough? No. I want us to think bigger.

[00:43:42] I want us to be able to serve eight times the people we can serve right now. My team's like, well, we're very far away from eight. I'm like, the moment you start thinking about eight, you built it, they'll come.

[00:43:51] So I want us to be uncomfortable even when you're succeeding to make sure that we keep that urgency out. This is the right now, the most important part is that the urgency aspect because everybody's like, oh my God, every day is great.

[00:44:02] No, no, no, we have different targets, we have different goals, we will achieve different things. The previous targets were meant to be to not demotivate you because they felt outlandish and impossible. Now those new targets are here to make sure that you don't feel complacent and comfortable.

[00:44:15] So I think as a CEO, you need to make sure that you keep pushing. You need to make sure that you... There's one of the reasons I'm in the US. We could be very comfortable in Europe and the Middle East. The growth there is enough.

[00:44:25] It's a nice thing. But if you want to succeed, if you want to build that global brand, one person said, if you're not in the US, you're not really global. That's one of the things that I heard. If you're not in the US, you're not really global.

[00:44:35] So here we are. We want to be that global aspect. We want to disrupt the market. We want to educate that one size does not fit all. We want to educate that if you cannot prove that it's working, why should you believe it does?

[00:44:49] Just because somebody on TV told you so? No, it's not. It might be a waste of time. It might be a waste of money. Or worse, possible action might be bad for your health. And this is some of the part of the educational part that we're going through.

[00:45:00] Well, when talking to people like you or to the market that, hey, personalization is key. Awesome, man. I think this has been really interesting, you know, product line and the concept. I mean, there's very few breakthroughs in the world of supplementation. Right?

[00:45:16] It's been around for a long time. And so it's pretty cool and it's nice to have that fresh look at things for sure. And if people want to get a hold of you or if there's a place you like them

[00:45:26] to go online to learn more, like what would you like them to do? Byron.com is the website. Most active on LinkedIn or Instagram. It's Vadim underscore Bionic. But yeah, just reach out to me there. I'm happy to talk again, anything, anything health related, wellness related,

[00:45:43] sector related, growth related, partnership related, or just I have, you know, MBA students reach out. How do you start your career? What do you do? How do you get entrepreneurship? What roles should I look for guys? We all have been there.

[00:45:55] I would have loved somebody to tell me those kind of things five, 10, 15 years ago. So anytime I get the opportunity to do so, I'm very open about that. And especially talking about, you know, the dark days and the difficult parts

[00:46:06] because most people who make it on shows like yours, Eric, they had a good breakthrough. There's a lot of us who didn't have that breakthrough who would not be somebody worthwhile to talk publicly about

[00:46:16] because the success of the business would have not granted them, you know, the audience. So I want to make sure that when somebody goes through that poor aspect, like if you asked me seven, eight months ago, 2023 was a worst year. 2023 was our most difficult year.

[00:46:29] 2023, we had the most challenges 2023 for four or five months. We didn't know, you know, do we have to pivot? What's the direction? What's going to happen? Are we going to finish the back end integration?

[00:46:41] You know, what's what's what's going to be like now I'm sitting here, you know, six, seven months later talking about hyper growth and, you know, partnerships and professional athletes announcing how great we are. This thing changes in quarters. Like this is insane. And everybody's listening to you.

[00:46:57] I want to share that from our side. This is not one of those Hollywood stories. It's not a real world. Yeah. Yeah, that's such a great point.

[00:47:05] You know, and it's I think that's one of the things that's somewhat intoxicating about entrepreneurship and founding companies is like you can be in a lull, but everything can change in a day. You could get that one phone call. You could get that one deal.

[00:47:16] You could enter into the market. That one thing can switch. And all of a sudden everything's on a completely different trajectory. So you just got to keep that positive mindset, right? And that's that's the challenge of it all.

[00:47:26] But I love your transparency, man, and willingness to be vulnerable. I think it's really cool. I think a lot of people will get value out of that alone, not just, you know, what you've taught us about supplementation and the marketplace. So really appreciate it, man.

[00:47:38] It's been a fun conversation and a heavy background year and check and see what's going on. So ladies and gentlemen, Vadim Fedotov. Thank you, Eric. Cheers, guys. Thanks. Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone.

[00:47:52] And I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Feminist. If you did, I'm going to ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it.

[00:48:02] Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it. iTunes, Spotify, Cast Box, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media. Talk about it to your friends.

[00:48:17] Send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it. We want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible.

[00:48:27] Lastly, if you'd like to learn more, get in touch with me. Simply go to the future of fitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there or you can simply get in touch with me as I'd love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much.

[00:48:40] This is Eric Malzone and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.