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1/ Today we announce immi, a food brand we've been working on for 18 months. @kchanthasiri and I spent the past decade in tech and started over by learning the food industry from scratch. Here's why we're doing this, the $42bn food category we're tackling, and where we're going
2/ We met close to a decade ago working as product managers at a company called Kabam. We didn't know each other, but during a work trip in Vancouver one morning, we somehow arrived at the same noodle joint. We became the two PMs in our org. who bonded over noodles for breakfast.
3/ After Kabam, we stayed close friends and roommates, but both of us went separate paths. KChan stayed as a PM at a health-tech startup called Amino, and later went on to be a lead PM at Facebook. I went the early-stage venture route, most recently as an investor at @pearvc.
4/ Over our friendship, we discovered that we share similar family backgrounds in the Asian food industry. My grandparents are farmers in Taiwan and grow a fruit called a rose apple. KChan's grandmother ran a noodle stand in Thailand and his dad ran a Thai restaurant in LA.
5/ Our families immigrated to the U.S. so we could avoid working in the food industry. (Ironically, we've now come back full circle).
As we've grown older, we've noticed an alarming fact: our families are getting sicker due to chronic health conditions from unhealthy diets.
As we've grown older, we've noticed an alarming fact: our families are getting sicker due to chronic health conditions from unhealthy diets.
6/ Our families didn't receive education around nutrition that we've been fortunate to grow up with here in the U.S. My grandmother is pre-diabetic, and both my parents have taken medication for high blood pressure for many years. KChan's family deals with similar health issues.
7/ Apart from helping our families' farms and food stalls in Asia as children, we've never worked in the food industry. But KChan has always had a strong passion for health & nutrition and I've always been fascinated with the food industry.
8/ A few years ago, we started talking about the idea of combining our interests and family backgrounds to start a better-for-you Asian American food brand that could tackle many of the health issues we saw in our families and millions of people around the world.
9/ It wasn't hard to arrive at the conclusion for a first product. We both had bonded over noodles for breakfast, and as children, we grew up eating instant ramen when that was all that our families could afford.
10/ Instant ramen is one of the world's most ubiquitous and nostalgic foods. Ask any stranger on the street from any cultural background, and they've probably eaten instant ramen at some point in life but stopped eating it as an adult once they realized how unhealthy it was.
11/ The market is dominated by the same Asian conglomerates who've made the same empty carb-filled, preservative-loaded, nutrition-less, sodium-bombs that they've sold for 60 years. They taste great, but health standards have changed, we've grown up, and instant ramen hasn't.
12/ We spent months in our own kitchens formulating over 200 versions of a healthier instant ramen. We traveled across the U.S. to meet with dozens of noodle experts, food scientists, nutritionists, and manufacturers.
13/ Today, we're excited to announce our company: immi, a better-for-you Asian American food brand that's created the world's first low carb, high protein instant ramen. Each serving has 9g of net carbs, 31g of protein, 9g of fiber and is 100% plant-based.
14/ We will be the first to admit that this is just the starting line for our product. We've learned that there is a huge difference between producing a noodle in small kitchen batches and getting that same noodle made in a commercial manufacturing setting.
15/ Due to the many constraints in manufacturing, the “perfect kitchen recipe” isn't something we can get mass produced this early on. But we know that we could spend years trying to get our noodle perfect without ever knowing if we've gotten there.
16/ Our current noodle has a drastically different nutrition profile, which means it's going to have a different texture than you might expect. Many have compared its less smooth texture to that of a soba noodle, tofu noodle, or an edamame noodle.
17/ We know we have a ton of work to do in improving this product before we can appeal to the mainstream. But as we've learned from the tech industry, "if you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late."
18/ We're taking in as much feedback as we can and we already have new, improved versions in the works.
In the meantime, it's been amazing to see people in our beta community who follow low-carb, keto, or carb-restricted lifestyles finally bring noodles back into their lives.
In the meantime, it's been amazing to see people in our beta community who follow low-carb, keto, or carb-restricted lifestyles finally bring noodles back into their lives.
19/ A grandmother named Jessica from South Carolina started crying on the phone when she told us how happy she was to eat our immi ramen after she was diagnosed a diabetic 30 years ago and had to remove noodles from her diet.
20/ If you're interested in learning more and trying immi yourself, check out our website at http://www.immieats.com . We'd love your honest feedback.
P.S. We wouldn't be here without the generous support of the friendly food & bev community. If you think the tech industry pays it forward, just wait until you meet founders and operators in this industry.
P.P.S. We also wanted to express our gratitude for our many investors & advisors who took a chance on joining us in our mission to enrich the health of lives around the world. They've believed in us since Day 1, and we're forever grateful.
: @accrossd, @ymfy, Brad Murray (Tatcha), @BrandonMChu, @collabfund, @dunkhippo33, @ericbahn, @eriktorenberg, Gabi & Greg (Magic Spoon), @agarwal__gaurav, @JVMeredith
Cont'd: @jaijungkim, @jasonalin, @jwang815, @jefchung, @jwmares, @ikenchen, @kevinlin, @kirstentobey, @moizali, @nateliason, @neilparikh, Nick Green (Thrive Market), @mrsharma, Nick Mares (K&F), @nvs, Oisix (TYO: 3182)
Cont'd: @onevc_, @finnegannyc, Pat Mulhern (K&F), @pearvc, @pedrosorren, @ramonvanmeer, @rezakhadjavi, @theSamParr, Siddhi Capital, @vigilantesteven, @TZhongg, @nikohrdy, @WilsonGHung
Others not listed aren't on Twitter or prefer not to be in the public eye, but we recognize and appreciate you . Thanks for being part of the famimmi.
Now back to building
. Thanks for being part of the famimmi.Now back to building
