Mugdha Pradhan is a Nutritionist and has experience of 12 years in this field, and she has transformed more than 10,000 lives. A healthy diet and enough nutrition are necessary for a healthy mental and physical livelihood. Mugdha, CEO & Founder of iThrive, has the vision to create a healthier, happier, lifestyle-disease-free communities worldwide. In an exclusive chat, Mugdha talks about iThrive and more:
What is iThrive all about?
iThrive – Healing & Beyond is a result-oriented place that makes people disease-free by reversing chronic conditions. Founded in 2019, iThrive is now a team of 30 with top functional nutritionists of India solving chronic cases and servicing to reverse over 158 like diabetes, thyroid, PCOS/PCOD, Hypertension, and more diseases that 10% of the world’s population are suffering from. With over 2000 people healed, iThrive offers a lifetime community access named iThrive Tribe that engages all clients with constant support. We also have two other verticals – iThrive Academy, where anyone can learn how to become a Functional Nutritionist with our Functional Nutrition Certification Course and start practising it professionally, and iThrive Essentials, where we develop the cleanest nutraceuticals that are affordable, high-quality, and bio-available for consumption.
What are your vision and mission for the company?
Our vision is to create healthier, happier, lifestyle-disease-free communities across the world every single day.
The mission is to make exemplary health a sustainable and permanent state of being for all our customers anywhere in the world. To make this convenient and fun for them and with such stellar client service, they turn into our raving fans and happy members of the iThrive Tribe while ensuring our solutions and practices positively impact the environment and do no unnecessary harm to the planet.
What challenges are you facing throughout the journey of being a woman entrepreneur?
Functional Nutrition/ Functional Medicine is a relatively new concept in India, and there is no awareness. People didn’t even know that using scientific methods such as deep analysis of basic blood tests could give a clear picture of what were the root causes of anyone’s chronic health issues and that using this information and eating according to each person’s bio-individuality could bring a significant turnaround in their health, could even reverse disease and get them off their medicines. This generated initial resistance to the idea that our method of creating health with food therapy or lifestyle changes could lead to a healthier, happier, lifestyle-disease-free life. We were there as a viable alternative to the current paradigm of conventional medicine of only treating symptoms instead of reversing disease. This was one of the biggest challenges I experienced.
The other challenge was recruiting the right team to scale the business. No one in India was armed with the knowledge that I had acquired over time; even after recruiting the best talent, they needed to be trained with our approach to reversing chronic diseases, which would sometimes take as long as 3-4 months.
What is the financial viewpoint of your company for the next three years?
In the next three years, the plan is to scale up the current verticals and launch our unique custom-made nutrition program – ALIVE (rebranded in 2021) by February 2022. The 3-month program helps build a custom yet successful relationship with food that upgrades the quality of lifestyle. iThrive Academy will launch 5 Short Courses for the working class in Feb 2022. iThrive Essentials will develop and launch a series of high-quality, bioavailable supplements into the market with global shipping. We are also working on iThrive Juniors, a short monthly course on nutrition for Kids from 8-15 years old to be started by Feb-March 2022. Apart from it, the iThrive Sports Nutrition vertical and program is under development & research will be launched by the end of 2022. iThrive aspires to provide a high standard and accurate testing mechanism for everyone. iThrive Diagnostic lab is in development & research; preparation to acquire Series A funding is in progress in 2023. We are also in the process of launching an app to facilitate more accessible client services.
How would you advise the emerging women entrepreneur?
1. Build a product or a service that is genuinely going to solve a problem area in any of the following intrinsic needs of a human being:
-Survival/enjoyment of life/life extension
-The enjoyment of food and beverage
-Freedom from pain, fear, and danger
-Sexual companionship
-Comfortable living conditions
-Superiority/winning/keep up with the Joneses
-Care and protection of loved ones
-Social approval
2. Build a team- You cannot build a successful business/ brand alone. Look for partners that complement your skills so the brand gets all the support it needs.
3. Plan for failure- You are going to see a lot of losses, be open to failing, learn quickly and move on to the next strategy
4. Use your network and your resources- Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help when you need it
5. Find a mentor- Actually, find an entire advisory board. They’ll not only be your advisors for how to build a brand that lasts, but they’ll also be your biggest cheerleaders when the going gets tough
6. Keep it simple- it might be tempting to add multiple features/ products/ services but keep it simple when you are just launching
7. Invite your friends and family into your vision for your brand. You will find yourself leaning on them more often than you might believe
8. Learn how to network- It’s the easiest way to spread the word about your brand
9. Don’t formally start a business until you have customer validation (at least one person is willing to pay for your product/ services)
