NGX on Dragon's Den Interview
Winning Offers for The Worlds FIRST Genetically Personalised Meal-Shake
Jeremy Poland, co-founder and CEO of NGX, shares his experience of appearing on UK TV investment show Dragon's Den during an interview with Delivery Rank.
How did NGX come about?
The idea was born out of doing a DNA test for myself and realising that there are immense potential health benefits in doing so. Your DNA informs everything about you; your eye colour, hair colour, weight, height etc. Similarly, nutrition also plays a role – there are just certain genetic mutations that impact how well you process, metabolise, and store those nutrients.
When we realised we could come up with a way to personalise diets off the back of DNA testing and get great results, we were dedicated to make it happen. It’s an extremely complex and challenging process to fully personalise the right amount of nutrients on a regular basis. We wanted to create something that was simple and package it all up into one product to give people something that would really help them optimise their nutrition on a daily basis, allowing them to exceed their fitness, health, and wellbeing goals.
What is your flagship product?
Our NGX BodyFuel meal-shake is a high-protein product containing approximately 120-140 calories. We keep it lean and personalised to individuals. It can be taken as a breakfast or lunch replacement but it really depends on your goal – if you're looking to build muscle and bulk up a little, for example, you would enjoy it in addition to food. Because it's a high-protein product, it's very filling, so it's ideal for muscle growth.
We use vegan-friendly ingredients, with pea protein being the main component. It’s generally much better than whey protein from a taste point of view and also from a sustainability aspect.
What makes NGX different from other meal-shake brands?
Compared with a non-personalised product, that's a simple answer! Our genetic variants impact our individual nutrition requirements, and the genetic variations we have create big swings in what people actually need compared with the average amount of nutrients recommended by guidelines. People need at least the standard amount, but individually we have can need much more of different individual nutrients to achieve optimal performance.
We match those levels so that, as an individual, you're hitting your targets. And obviously, when you get the right nutrition, everything else works better – mind and body. No one else is doing what we do currently, so the choice remains simple.
Who are your products aimed at?
NGX is for people who are looking to achieve their best results and for those who are interested in personalising their diets. Our personalised product is more premium than standard off-the-shelf meal-shakes, and they really speak to people who are constantly seeking improvement across everything they do.
How does nutrigenetics shape the world we live in today?
Nutrigenetics is gaining more and more traction. I think an interesting place to start with that question is looking at the number of nutritionists offering personalised, DNA-based diets. And although, as I said, no one is doing exactly what we're doing, I have seen DNA-based meal delivery services.
All this leads us to believe that using DNA insights is becoming more of a mainstream way of thinking and that people are keen to improve their nutrition and overall health. It’s actually been around for a while now, having come about off the back of the Human Genome Project, completed in 2003.
But are we all really so different?
There are, of course, similarities. Certain people will have the same genetic mutations, but we’ve now tested well over 1,000 people, and I've not seen one report that’s the same. In addition, not one single person has been “just average”.
