Happy Sunday!
Welcome back to Founders Feature, a weekly newsletter all about the journeys of young startup founders.
For this week's edition, I interviewed Carl-Philipp von Polheim, co-founder of mybacs, a BioTech company specialising in the human microbiome, based in Switzerland.
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Here’s what mybacs is all about:
🏠 The Basics
The Problem:
A balanced gut microbiome is essential to our health & wellbeing. It does not only affect our digestion but also our metabolism, our sleep, our skin, our immune system, and our psyche. An imbalance in this area can have severe consequences and subsequently lead to permanent disease.
The Solution:
Our main products, the Dailybacs, are probiotics containing 60,000,000,000 intestinal bacteria enriched with prebiotics, vitamins, and minerals, tailored to the individual needs of women and men. All the bacterial strains that we use have been tested in clinical trials. The permanent and regular intake of our products restores the balance of your microbiome and influences your well-being on multiple levels, including gut health, vaginosis, and prostate health. Additionally, our customers can personalise their basket with supplements in the area of beauty, immunity, and mood.
The Team:
Our team is composed of pharmaceutical scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Along the value chain, our main focus areas are R&D and product development, as well as marketing.
🚀 The Journey
How did you come up with your startup/solution?
My Co-Founder Sebastian studied pharmaceutical science at ETH in Switzerland. During his studies, he conducted lots of research concerning the human microbiome. We knew each other from High School and stayed close friends thereafter. For years I had enormous problems with my gut health which negatively affected my psychological health. However, at this point, I didn’t make the connection. In 2017 I told Sebastian about my problems and he informed me about the central role of the human microbiome, especially what effects a disbalance can have on your psyche. During the same time, general consumer awareness around the topic started to rise (i.e. In Germany the famous book “Darm mit Charme” was released). We then looked at other products on the market which were mostly white-label products using untested bacteria strains in unsustainable packaging. We wanted to make this better in every aspect. All those aspects finally triggered us to build mybacs.
Why is this the right time for this problem to be solved?
The market for probiotic supplements is growing at a considerable rate. Meanwhile, the general population is becoming more and more concerned about their health, while awareness of the gut microbiome is growing. People start to realise how important a balanced microbiome is for so many parts of their body.
What is a recent success you are proud of?
I held a TedX Talk in May (Which is to be released yet)!
What is a recent challenge you have faced?
Many factors associated with Covid-19. Especially the new kind of leadership when the whole team works from home. Furthermore, we closed a fundraising round last year which fell right in the Covid outbreak and the overall market situation was very uncertain. In the end, we managed to tackle everything and grow our company to a new level.
What do you wish you knew before you started and is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?
No, I wouldn't do anything differently in hindsight. There are probably 1000 things I could have done better. However, if I focus on the past too much, I will not focus on the future enough.
🧠 The Lessons
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
Meditate!
What advice would you give to other young founders?
You shouldn’t found a company because of the potential future earnings. People who focus too much on money lose the focus for what they are actually doing. Do everything because you want to learn something and build a business where you can express yourself with the work that you do.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
Serenity (but seriousness) during stressful situations mostly leads to positive outcomes.
✨ The Inspiration
Who inspires you?
My granddad. He sold his MedTech company to General Electric in the 1990s. Sadly he passed away some years ago.
What book do you think everyone should read?
Sapiens, A brief history of humankind - Yuval Harari