A few days ago I met with the founder of BioFoodLab Elena Shifrina. Lena is the mother of a six-month-old girl, wife, slender beauty and the founder and CEO of what Forbes says is the most successful startup in 2012/2013. This set of characteristics is quite unusual in itself, but what is most interesting (in particular for me) is that Lenin’s company produces a product that is unique for the Russian market: healthy and 100% natural snack bars rich in protein, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, fiber and antioxidants. And, attention, free of sugar, preservatives, colors, flavors, milk, GMOs, gluten and soy!
I prefer to cook food and even sweets myself, but after learning and trying these bars (by the way, they are called Take a Bite), I realized that it was very interesting for me to meet the girl who invented and produces them, and ask her a few questions.
Lena said that the idea to produce healthy bars came to her in Boston, where during her studies at Skolkovo she went to practice with a group.
– Our whole group is hooked on such bars. But there syrups were added to them. They were useful, but I thought they could be made even better. And I wanted to release such a product for myself, my friends, my loved ones, for the whole of Russia.
The principal thing for Elena was to open production in our country:
– It would be possible to import the same product into Russia and even order under your own trade mark. But I can make it in Russia, and do it better, with the best composition, I want to produce it in Russia. Because it is important for me to pay taxes here. I want to develop production here and I believe in it.
And these are not just words: Lena has something to boast about:
– We can really say that we have achieved the result. For example, our Sport bar contains 6 grams of pure protein, which is 10% of the daily value. There are sports bars in America that add all kinds of chemistry and claim to have 10% of your daily protein requirement. And we can say that we achieved the result in a natural way, because we do not have any chemicals and additives.
However, it turned out to be difficult to find acceptable conditions for production in Russia:
– I went to Russian factories: a terrible situation, a terrible picture. Complete unsanitary conditions, it seems that those who work in industries do not understand that they are dealing with food, that microbes grow and then people eat food with microbes in order to fill their stomachs with something. We chose a site that agreed to our technology and our recipe. We brought some of the equipment. A third of the process is done manually under the supervision of our technologist. Soon we are planning to launch production at our own site.
– Lena, it seems to me that in our country there is no craving for a healthy lifestyle. And your bars are an attribute of a healthy lifestyle. Do you feel that there is not enough interest in the product?
– We understood what our target audience wants, conducted many tests, studied Western experience, watched how they enter new markets there. And last year it was a complete success. The product has proven itself very well, we are developing further. During the year we occupied 8,7% of the bar market, which is a huge percentage comparable to large companies. Even 1% would be a good result. Meanwhile, in the beginning, we didn’t even know what to call our product. A bar is not a bar, muesli is not muesli? We have been conducting educational activities for six months. They explained that we were making a new product: apparently, we told it right, people understood and began to eat it. First of all, we attracted people who could potentially be interested in this: athletes, those who practice yoga, who travel a lot or go trekking in the mountains, or just office managers who spend three hours a day in traffic jams.
– Your website says: “Our mission is to show people that a healthy lifestyle is not difficult at all and is very tasty.” I completely agree with that. I try to promote the same thing myself, although many doubt that eating healthy food is tasty and simple)))
– Telling people, “Switch to chia seeds and seaweed” is hard, you need to start with something small and convenient. Or tell them: “Snack on nuts with apples and bananas” – they will answer that this is inconvenient, the banana will flatten out in the bag and so on. It should be comfortable.
– And your bars really do not spoil for 6 months?
– They can last longer, 7, 8 months.
– How did you achieve this?
– Ingredients. Let’s take dates. How long did they travel from Morocco? Who and what has sat on them during this time? … If we come to a simple production, then no one will wash them there: they just throw in preservatives – and bacteria will not grow. We do not use preservatives, and if the food is not washed and processed correctly, bacteria will develop. In the morning it is “one” bacteria, and by the evening there are already a million. Therefore, we wash the products thoroughly and then dry them: we have infrared cabinets, where the temperature does not exceed 48 degrees, and there they dry for two days. That is, our bars can be considered a raw product, raw food.
Elena is confident that the healthy food market has potential for development in Russia. This is encouraging. However, it is still too early to move towards the production of complete healthy food, and not just snacks, in her opinion:
– Now the market is too small, and in order to launch a full-fledged healthy food line, large investments are needed in equipment, logistics, and production. These are huge costs. I am a businessman, and I am aware of the fact that every month I have to pay salaries, pay for the office. In general, while the market is not so big as to dive headlong, take loans. I will not take money until my business claims to be a successful story. Now I have a small company, I know every employee, I know who does what and when. My employees are highly productive. I do not need a large staff of 30 people who are not clear how to control.
Of course, I could not help asking Lena about her own lifestyle, about whether she adheres to any rules in nutrition. I was confident that the young woman who launched healthy snacks on the market was watching her diet and lifestyle. But Elena’s story struck me:
– When I was in the fifth grade, – says Lena, – my mother completely transferred us to healthy separate meals. We didn’t eat cakes, yoghurts, sweets, nothing like that. My mother read Malakhov’s books and cooked from them. She sprouted grains …
– What are you, at that time? Even now, people look at me like I’m crazy when I talk about germinating seeds.
– We, for example, made cakes, which are only slightly warmed up, and ate them with honey. That is, from the 5th grade to the 10-11th grade, we were completely on a healthy diet. Then I was a model for a long time, and when you are a model, your normal diet is cigarettes, half a glass of cappuccino and an apple a day. When you do haute couture in Paris, you have to weigh 48 kilograms. With my height, this is anorexia in its most obvious form. It’s very hard. I even had such a state when my manager said that I needed to get better a little. Now I am doing Pilates. Eight years did not eat meat. I don’t eat sugar. I can eat goat’s milk products, for example, a little cheese, but without fanaticism, and dairy products even make the skin on my face worse – I feel that my body does not want it.
(I confess, I was pleased to meet a person who shares my beliefs about the dangers of milk)
– How do you manage to combine family with business? After all, you are both wife and mother. Is it possible?
– Maybe. I really like this project. He kept me awake. When I do it and see that it is the way it should be, that it is useful, that we have not made any compromises, it makes me happy, and it makes me happy that there are prospects for development, that new people are coming. With each new employee, you have more responsibility, and this will discipline.
– Are you resting?
— Not. I thought that when I had my own business, I could go on vacation whenever I wanted, without coordinating a vacation with anyone, or that I would go to the gym for lunch. In reality, I don’t have time to dine. I just don’t have time to get somewhere and eat something.
– Well, how do you deal with stress?
– If I want to discharge myself, physical activity helps. Do you see these boxes? – Lena points to a bunch of impressive boxes. – We dragged it from the first floor. Men discouraged us for a long time, but in fact it cheers up. But in general, when I am with my daughter, I have no stress. The main thing is to get to it in time and not shout at anyone on the way)))
The list of stores where you can buy Take a Bite bars is HERE.