(We originally posted this in 2020. You can read more of our original ideas in our archive.)
Problem: I want to share three statistics:
“Thirty-one percent of the U.S. population was at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency or anemia, with 23%, 6.3%, and 1.7% of the U.S. population at risk of deficiency in 1, 2, or 3–5 vitamins or anemia, respectively.” (As described by a study in the National Center for Biotechnology Information)
“The numbers are staggering: 2 billion people – over 30% of the world's population – are anemic, many due to iron deficiency, and in resource-poor areas, this is frequently exacerbated by infectious diseases” (according to the World Health Organization).
According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Second Nutrition Report “10% of the U.S. population had nutrition deficiencies for selected indicators. However, for most nutrition indicators, deficiencies varied by age, gender, or race/ ethnicity and could be as high as nearly one third of certain population groups. For example, non-Hispanic black (31%) and Mexican-American (12%) people were more likely to be vitamin D deficient compared to non-Hispanic white people (3%).”
Vitamin and nutrition deficiency is a problem for millions of Americans, and especially for minority populations.
Solution: Adult baby food that’s designed to ensue that adults get the proper amount of nutrients; similar to how regular baby food would be used to ensure that babies are getting the correct amount of nutrients to grow. One great example of a company doing this (for babies) is Tiny Organics (page reproduced below); however, they offer no alternative (and virtually no business offers an adult alternative) for tasty, healthy nutrition supplements. Perhaps the closest adult competitor is Soylent.
Given the statistics that I raised in the problem statement above, this business could specifically target those who are nutrient deficient or vitamin deficient. Moreover, for those who are extremely health-conscious, these “grab-on-the-go” meals could pitched as a supplement similar to how RxBar has made a whole brand off of simplicity and “No B.S.”
For a quick back of the napkin market size, let’s assume 5% of the US population matches our intersectional market of health conscious or vitamin/nutrient deficient (in reality, this number is probably closer to 20%). That would make for about 15 million customers. Supposing that the business could acquire 1 million customers (6% of the target market) each customer would have to spend close to $1,000 for this business to be a unicorn. Given that “The average American household spends $7,203 a year on food, of which $4,049 is spent on food at home and $3,154 is spent on food away from home” the goal of this business would be to capture about 14% of household food spend. Though difficult, it is definitely not impossible if the company were to make delicious and tasty food.
Personally, I think this business would also have an opportunity to do good: for every unit sold it could donate to end world-hunger in a community somewhere in the world with iron deficiency (as I mentioned above, it’s a problem that afflicts over 2 billion people globally).
Monetization: Margins on baby food sold.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)