Naveen Jain is a serial entrepreneur known for his audacious ideas and breakthrough businesses.
Jain is best known for founding the popular 90s search engine InfoSpace, and space exploration company, Moon Express. Jain has now turned his sights to healthcare with his latest company, Viome.
“90% of our healthcare dollars are spent on chronic diseases. If we can find out what is causing the onset, we can prevent and even cure them,” Jain told Fortune in a recent interview.
Jain’s company is taking a microscopic approach to health.
Studying gut bacteria for health
Studies show that most, if not all, illnesses are connected to the human microbiome and that food is a key factor in inducing or preventing illnesses.
For years, scientists have been researching the activities of the gut, trying to figure out the root cause of sickness, but Jain claims they’ve all been asking the same wrong question.
“It doesn’t matter what the organisms in the microbiome are, but what they are producing,” he said.
After extensive research, Viome found out that an organism can react well to a certain food in one person while the same organism in someone else’s gut could produce toxins.
Jain gave the example of Akkermansia, a bacteria being sold by many companies as a probiotic, which has also been linked with Parkinson’s Disease patients.
As the findings of the National Center for Biotechnology Information revealed, Akkermansia can improve the intestinal lining for some people. In others, it can lead to an increase in gut leakiness and inflammation.
“What companies don’t realize is that for some people- it’s gonna kill them! We have realized that there is no such thing as universal health supplements,” Jain said.
Tailored recommendations
As the saying goes: one’s man’s food is another man’s poison.
To offer a tailored and easily accessible solution based on each individual’s microbiome, Viome sends a simple, at-home testing kit to collect a sample of a person’s stool, blood, and spit for a price of $199.
Based on the sample, Viome tells the person exactly which foods to eat and which to avoid to improve immunity, cellular health, biological age, and prevent and reverse illnesses.
The company then uses A.I. technology to develop on-demand, custom supplements containing precise amounts of every mineral, vitamin, enzyme, and probiotic the person needs and ships them to their home.
With over half a million customers and published clinical trials showing 30% improvements in depression, diabetes, and IBS after 4 months of using Viome supplements, the company is off to a strong start.
Anti-aging capabilities
Naveen is particularly excited about the antiaging capabilities.
“My chronological age is 62 and my biological age is 51. So I’m 11 years younger now and my hope is that when I’m 70 years chronologically, my biological age will come down to 40 by using Viome. What matters in life is how you feel, not how old you are.”
Paris Hilton, who has invested in several tech and crypto startups has also joined the company as an ambassador and investor.
“I want everyone to know about Viome. I think the world would be a healthier place. People would be happier,” Hilton said.
She says her Viome test revealed she should avoid broccoli and eat more avocados, which lines up with her existing food preferences.
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