S6 Ep27: Nurturing Nutrition—Choosing the Right Formula for Your Little One with Mia Funt
“Infant formula is a baby’s first food. And it’s the first decision you make as a new parent… We had to do better for babies and for parents because this is the most important food.” — Mia Funt
Breast milk is often referred to as the "magical superfood" for infants due to its numerous health benefits and essential nutrients. While breast milk is considered the gold standard for infant nutrition, infant formula serves as a viable alternative when breastfeeding is not possible or preferred. That’s why, infant formula should be developed to closely mimic the composition of breast milk, providing babies with the necessary nutrients they need for healthy growth and development.
Co-Founded by Mia Funt, ByHeart’s infant formula goes beyond just filling your baby's tummy— it's a specially formulated blend that mirrors the essential nutrients found in breast milk. With an emphasis on quality and safety, each ingredient is carefully selected to meet the nutritional needs of growing infants, while providing the peace of mind that comes with a safe and trusted product.
Join Justine and Mia as they chat about the motivation behind ByHeart’s baby formula and their careful selection of ingredients. They also touch upon the significance of breastmilk as the ultimate first food for infants and explore the uphill battle of innovating in the world of infant formula, how advancements in science have revolutionized the nutritional aspect of infant formulas, the benefits of having multiple clinical trials, tips in working with your family, and why direct-to-consumer marketing holds great importance.
Connect with Mia:
Mia Funt, as the co-founder and president of ByHeart, heads a company dedicated to developing an infant formula that closely emulates the benefits of breastmilk. Recognizing the shortcomings within the infant formula industry, siblings Ron Belldegrun and Mia Funt embarked on a transformative five-year journey to create an uncompromised and superior first food for babies. They laid the foundation for robust quality systems and stringent supplier approval requirements while traversing the globe in search of like-minded ingredients and farm partners. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, they perfected their small batch approach, ensuring every ingredient's quality and benefits were retained. Through close collaboration with parents and experts, as well as extensive clinical trials, they successfully crafted a clean-label, nutritious, and top-tier infant formula.
Episode Highlights:
03:57 Doing Better For Babies and Parents
06:11 The Challenges in the Infant Formula Category
11:59 Changing the Nutritional Landscape of Infant Formula
14:17 Choosing the Right Ingredients
19:22 Manufacturing vs Outsourcing
21:12 The Importance of Clinical Trials
Tweets:
Breast milk has long been recognized as the ideal source of nutrition for infants. However, for various reasons, some parents may be unable to breastfeed their babies. Brace yourself for a double dose of wit as @jreichman and @byheartbaby co-founder, Mia Funt dive into the depths of choosing the right formula to ensure your baby receives all the vital nutrients they need. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #ByHeartBaby #InfantFormula #breastmilk #infanthealth #naturalingredients #babyessentials #momlife
Inspirational Quotes:
01:45 “To create a better formula, you really have to create a better everything for formula.” —Mia Funt
02:34 “The science behind some of this and proving the efficacy is so important as we move forward in this space, whether it's in the food as medicine functional food or any products that we're creating because they all have consequences. It's really important to be as transparent as possible.” —Justine Reichman
03:14 “Infant formula is a baby's first food. And it's the first decision you make as a new parent… We had to do better for babies and for parents because this is the most important food.” —Mia Funt
05:44 “In the first year, what we feed our babies is where future health begins.” —Mia Funt
09:20 “The clinical trial is about giving parents evidence and empowering them with data.” —Mia Funt
13:26 “The more we can share that things are science-backed, the more efficacy, the more we're going to be able to empower change.” —Justine Reichman
17:18 “Learning how to work together is a completely different muscle. How you speak with your siblings is very different than how you speak with your co-founder or your employees.” —Mia Funt
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good afternoon, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. With me today from New York City is Mia Funt. She is the President, Co-Founder, a mom of three, ByHeart.
Mia Funt: So great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I have so much respect for what you do, bringing education and transparency to food and the whole food system. So thank you so much for including me today.
Justine Reichman: Oh, it's our pleasure. I'm just excited to give you a platform to share with ByHeart because whether it's our viewers or listeners, I think that learning more about your product and your journey is both inspiring and educational. And people won't know how to make this choice if we don't tell them why and what's important to know. So as we begin our conversation here, I just love for you to share a little bit about what ByHeart is.
Mia Funt: Well, thank you so much. So ByHeart is an infant nutrition company, really with a mission to make the best possible infant formulas through the leading breast milk science, through cleanest ingredients, through really uncompromising sourcing and quality standards, and our own end to end manufacturing. We started ByHeart seven years ago, and we learned really quickly that to create a better formula, you really have to create a better everything for formula. You have to start from scratch, and so that's what we did. And that's why it took us seven years. You have to build your own manufacturing and really have that end to end control. You have to source every ingredient yourself and run a clinical trial to really give parents evidence and proof of the benefits to empower them to make choices for their families, and to feel really confident in the way they care for their babies.
“To create a better formula, you really have to create a better everything for formula.” —Mia Funt
Justine Reichman: Wow, you put so much thought and insight into this. I know that all founders, you know they do. But when you mentioned the clinical trials, not every CPG company does clinical trials, right? And I think that the science behind some of this, and proving the efficacy is so important as we move forward in this space, whether it's in the food as medicine, functional food, or any products that we're creating, because they all have consequences. And I think it's really important to be as transparent as possible. I'd really love to hear from you just a little bit about if we could start with, what inspired you and your brother, you work with your brother, right? We're gonna have to get into that too. Family dynamics, the whole. But let's start with, how did you guys come up with ByHeart? What was the inspiration behind it?
Mia Funt: Yeah. Well, infant formula is the baby's first food. And it's the first decision you make as a new parent, how am I going to feed my baby? There's nothing more important or intimate than that. And yet, for decades and decades, the same three companies have been making our babies first food. And when we went out and we talked to parents, so many of them said that they felt like they were compromising when they were choosing their infant formula. Parents who breastfed felt really confident that they were feeding their baby the most natural and nutritious first food. Unfortunately, so many formula feeding parents didn't feel that way. We started talking to parents, 84% of them said, I want the closest thing to breast milk. But half of them said, I don't know what it actually is. Or 52% said, no matter what I choose, it feels like a compromise. And we had to do better. We had to do better for babies and for parents because this is the most important food. My brother had been really immersed in this category, and so he was really working with all the doctors. You really understood the nutrition, what it took to innovate and do better. I came from media and tech. And I said, hey, let's create a better formula. But let's also create a platform to give parents transparency and education about this most important first food. So that's really how it all began.
“The science behind some of this and proving the efficacy is so important as we move forward in this space, whether it's in the food as medicine functional food or any products that we're creating because they all have consequences. It's really important to be as transparent as possible.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: Wow, I love that. So what was your feeling personally? Did you have a feeling about breast milk? Was this personal to you?
Mia Funt: It was personal to me. When we started ByHeart, my first and oldest was a year old. I had just personally experienced the journey of learning about feeding, navigating, feeding. I'm lucky that while we were building ByHeart for the last seven years, I was also building my family. I actually found myself another two times in that same scenario. Actually, by the time I had my third, Simone, I was able to feed her ByHeart, which felt really exciting. But yes, every time, before we had ByHeart, I felt so frustrated that we didn't have better options for parents, and we want to do the best for our babies. We also know that in the first year, what we feed our babies has such an impact on their future health. Like, this is where future health begins. And yet, formulas hadn't changed in decades just because of how hard it is to innovate in this category. And so I felt frustrated every time that I couldn't find options. I felt really proud to feed my baby. And so this is really kind of our life's work, and both have professional and personal missions.
Justine Reichman: Thanks for sharing that. I'm really curious, because you said that as you were building this, you did some clinical trials. I'd love to talk about that. When I think about all the products that people innovate, I don't know that people are talking about the trials that they're doing. Maybe they're not doing them, they're expensive to do, their challenge to do, getting funding for them. I guess it depends if you self fund or you have to go get funding either way. And there's also the whole pharmaceutical issue within these trials and challenges, right? So I know you decided to do clinical trials, why did you decide to do a clinical trial here?
“In the first year, what we feed our babies is where future health begins.” —Mia Funt
Mia Funt: So what many people don't know is that infant formula is an incredibly difficult category to innovate. Infant formula is the baby's first food, it's their sole source of nutrition in the first year of life. So as you would hope, the FDA regulates it very tightly. In order to innovate on a new formula, truly bring a new and better formula to market, you have to do a clinical trial, and you have to get FDA registration. There is a way to get to market by just going to the single contract manufacturer in the country, and using them and referencing a clinical trial they did 10 years ago, and really taking an expedited path to market. But that doesn't mean that you can truly make a new and better formula. And so when we started ByHeart, and we were learning about that path, it didn't meet our needs because we were here to take the latest breast milk science, everything that we have learned in the last few years about breast milk and translate it into a truly better formula for baby's health. And so we had to start from scratch. Because if you don't go to the contract with a single contract manufacturer, you really have to build your own manufacturing, and you have to do your own clinical trial. And so at first, doing a clinical trial was about innovating and bringing a new formula to market. But then we went far beyond the FDA's requirements. And we, for example, elected to add a breastfeeding arm. We didn't only want to compare our formula to another formula on the market, we wanted to compare it to breast milk because our whole effort to create a new recipe was to create something that got significantly closer to breast milk. So what we're proud of is that our clinical trial actually shows our closer breast milk, and it really proves the benefits for your baby's health. So you can see clinical proof that it's easier to digest, that baby spit up less, that they have softer poops. And we keep reading out more and more data from clinical trials. We just presented at a medical conference or new sleep data that shows that babies on ByHeart sleep longer between feeds. That means more sleep for babies, more sleep for parents. So everybody's happier. But the clinical trial is really about giving parents evidence and empowering them with data.
“Infant formula is a baby's first food. And it's the first decision you make as a new parent… We had to do better for babies and for parents because this is the most important food.” —Mia Funt
Justine Reichman: So you chose to take a path, you chose to not do the expedited route to go the longer path so that you can truly innovate from my understanding here. So tell us about the challenges you faced connecting with the FDA and connecting with the trials and getting those done. Was it prohibitively expensive to do this in some ways? Did that mean you had to change the way you were doing things?
Mia Funt: Absolutely. So seven years ago when we started, we started investigating the category. What is it going to take to make a better formula? When we learned that we had to do a clinical trial, when we learned that we had to build our own manufacturing, you can imagine that that was intimidating. And we knew that it would be a long path. But we went out and we talked to investors. Some said, wow, that's a big bet you're taking. Others said, yes, let's finally create a better formula for babies. This is a critical first food, where else isn't more important to innovate? And so we got a group of investors together who really believed in the mission and got behind us. We also got a group of academics behind us. Breast milk researchers? It is a real thing. People who have been studying breast milk for decades, they understand the ingredients, they understand why they drive such important benefits for babies during this critical time and baby's development. And they said, we have so much data, and it's not being translated into better formulas. So they joined us. And together, we created a better recipe. And then we took the steps to design and conduct the clinical trial and build our manufacturing, which allowed us to truly create a better formula. And finally, launched last year after a very long path to market.
“The clinical trial is about giving parents evidence and empowering them with data.” —Mia Funt
Justine Reichman: Wow, that's amazing. I just appreciate the steps that you took to make sure that you truly could innovate, and not just slightly innovate based on what 10 years ago, we learned because the truth is the space has changed. The amount of information we have around the impact of this formula has on children has changed. We didn't know 10 years ago what we know today. And I think it's so important to be able to truly innovate based on that. So the idea that you were able to do trials so that you took that longer path and that you took the time to get the investors to be able to support it. I really respect that.
Mia Funt: Thank you. Yeah, you're right about what we knew 10 years ago is not what we know today. For example, we used to think that cholesterol and fats, for example, that you get in whole milk was bad for the baby. We now know that actually, breast milk is filled with cholesterol, it's filled with fat. And we are the first American made formula to use grass fed organic, whole milk in our formula, and it has so many important nutritional benefits for babies. It's just one example of how we use the latest science and research has enabled us to create a better formula. We also created a routine blend that gets closer to breast milk than ever before. We learned over the last few years that actually the protein in breast milk, the protein and formula are entirely different. And so we close this biggest gap between formula and breast milk by creating a blend of proteins that include the two most common proteins in breast milk that really drive so many of the benefits of formula. It supports the immune system and the gut. It improves digestion and helps with spit up with softer poops. And so that's really due to the latest science that we were able to create this better recipe.
Justine Reichman: I really appreciate how you are building these based on the information you get from science. Because the more we can share that things are science backed, the more efficacy, the more we're going to be able to empower change. People want to know the science behind something. They want to know the impact, and they want to understand why they should make these choices. And we've had lots of anecdotal experiences. But it's not the same as creating a trial and sharing scientific findings.
“The more we can share that things are science-backed, the more efficacy, the more we're going to be able to empower change.” —Justine Reichman
Mia Funt: I couldn't agree more. I really think if anybody is leaning in, and digging for the information, and hungry for it, it's parents. They want to make the best decisions for their babies. They want to be informed and empowered. They want the information. And for some reason, the infant formula category until now has been a black box. We don't understand what's in our formula. Why? Where do formulas come from? Where do the ingredients come from? And so that's a really important part of our mission. And because we own our manufacturing, because we own three manufacturing plants where we source our own ingredients, and we do our own R&D and make our formulas, we can really educate you on where the ingredients come from, how this is made, and why you should feel really proud to feed it to your baby. And I think that's just critical. And the parents are really welcoming of that and hungry for it. We just see them asking such sophisticated questions, and we want to give them the information.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I think that's so true. I also think, as you said, you're getting some finding about sleep, etcetera for the research that you're doing, and I think to be able to share that while you've just launched not in the recent past, as you get more information, and as you continue to do trials on the findings that you get and you can release more of that information, I think we're gonna see great change innovation in the space and around purchasing power. People are now going to be educated, they're making a choice. And the more we can share this information, and the more information and scientific immigration you have, you're going to be able to tap into a much broader audience.
Mia Funt: Absolutely. I just think it's so critically important that companies in this space are speaking directly to consumers. 90% of this market has been dominated by three big players for decades, and they all can primarily go through retail. We're really the first scaled direct to consumer company, really trying to scale direct to consumer because we think it is critically important to have that direct relationship so that we can educate you, that we can support you, that we can be your partner in the feeding journey every step of the way, because it's so incredibly intimate. So that's really critically important to us. And we're in a position to offer you that transparency, because we do it all ourselves. And had we gone to a contract manufacturer, we wouldn't have all the information ourselves, so we wouldn't be able to relay it to you. But in this case, we really do. And we get technical. Even into our small batch manufacturing process, the fact that we make it in small batches, and we make it in just two hours instead of over days means that we can really protect the nutrition of the ingredients. How it's not just what goes into our formula, but how we then treat the ingredients and how it's made. And people are really hungry for that, which really excites me.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I can understand why. I'm really curious, because you're not doing this alone. You're doing this with your brother. I've worked with my family, I worked with my mom and etcetera. And I'm curious, what is that like for you?
Mia Funt: Well, we were always close growing up. I have three brothers, and our family was always really close. But learning how to work together is a completely different muscle. How you speak with your siblings is very different from how you speak with your co-founder or your employees. And so we had to learn a new way of speaking, a new way of working together. But I'm so grateful that he is my partner, because there's that trust, we know we're in it together. We know that we didn't take on an easy category. When we became a new infant formula last year, we were the first new manufacturer of infant formula in 15 years. Really doing something that hasn't been done, and the path is not a straight path. There are bumps that are twists or turns, and that implicit trust is amazing. And then we've really built a team with that same kind of family mentality and approach. We really refer to our team as our ByHeart family. And really, day to day, try to live those values of family and trust. And yeah, so it's been amazing. I feel really fortunate.
“Learning how to work together is a completely different muscle. How you speak with your siblings is very different than how you speak with your co-founder or your employees.” —Mia Funt
Justine Reichman: So what did your brother say about working with you?
Mia Funt: Said that I'm a pain in the ass. Well look like when you go at it, you know that you're telling it like it is to each other. We don't hide anything. We don't try to kind of put anything under the rug. He'd say that we speak honestly, and we go at it until it's solved. And then we move on.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I know. I remember when I worked with my mother years ago, and it's different working with your mother than your brother. My biggest challenge was, what do I call her in meetings? We'd have fortune 500 companies we were meeting with, I can't call her mom, right? That's just awkward. Let's go out to dinner, we'll go sit at the opera, and we'll be having a big meeting and I can't, excuse me, Mom, can you pass the salt? You don't have that challenge. But when things come up in differing opinions, it seems like you guys were aligned in terms of innovating in the space and going that direction, making the choice to have your own manufacturing versus going the other direction, which could have been easy, less expensive, but also less innovative. Was there a lot of conversation between you guys about that? Or were you guys on the same page from the start?
Mia Funt: Well, it was really us and also our team that had to take a moment when we first launched to say, what are we truly in this for? Are we here to launch a new brand? Are we here to talk about the issues that parents are facing? How are they underserved in this most intimate infant formula category? Or are we here to really fix the problem? Understand it, then fix it and show up for parents. And are we willing to take the risk, do the work? And the whole team got together and said, we feel so connected to this mission. We believe in it, and we believe in this team. And together, we decided to embark on this journey and said, let's do really hard things and things that take a long time are the things that make a difference. And so we set out on this mission together. It definitely required that moment like, hey, we in, or we're not in? And we all decided that we are in it together. And it was with our board members, and our investors, and our academic partners, and our ingredient partners. You talked about a movement earlier, we were all so connected to this mission. And that's what drives us really doing better for babies and their parents.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, that's awesome. And you really are innovating in a unique space. I think that it's going to change the trajectory of the baby's lives. I can't wait to continue to see what new data you call. It's your new trials through new information that you get, and I hope that we can have you back to share that.
Mia Funt: Absolutely. Well, there's nothing more satisfying when we see all those testimonials of parents saying, you're helping to fix this biggest problem. For instance, easy digestion. We know that 50% of parents switch formulas because of an easy digestion problem, because of a tolerance problem. We know a third of pediatric visits are due to digestion problems. And we have clinical proof of how formula is easier to digest, less spit up, softer poops, more comfortable digestion. And it's not just that it's then in the testimonials of parents saying, I tried three formulas, they didn't work for me. My baby wouldn't drink the formula or was uncomfortable. And then I chose ByHeart, and that really was fixed. And so fixing real problems that parents have and showing up for parents is what it's all about. And that's what we'll just continue to do, really, meaningfully innovate for parents.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. So I'm curious, could you talk to me a little bit about why trials are so important to you for ByHeart?
Mia Funt: Absolutely. Well, infant formula is what babies drink during their most important time in development when their immune system, their gut, their digestive system, brain, all of it is developing. And so a clinical trial really proves the benefits of infant formula for baby's health. We were able to clinically prove things like easy digestion, less spit up, softer poops, all of the things that are really important for baby's health, then that are important to parents. So really empowering parents with that evidence was so critically important. And without a clinical trial, we couldn't have innovated and brought a better formula to market.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your story. And I'd love to just ask if our viewers and our listeners want to go find your product, where can they find it.
Mia Funt: So this summer, we are relaunching on direct to consumer on byheart.com. And then we're also rolling out across mass retail. So stay tuned for that. That is coming up really soon. And we will definitely check in with you to let you know the moment that we're available.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me today. It was great to learn about what you're doing, how you're innovating, and the impact is going to have on all these babies.
Mia Funt: Thank you so much, Justin. I appreciate it.
