Infuse Infuse 10 December 2019 | Page 13

Image courtesy of
Kara Landau
Kara in the test kitchens
developing the Uplift Gut
Happy Cookies.
© Dietitian Connection
What’s your vision for
Uplift Food? What are some of your takeaways
from running a business?
My vision for Uplift Food is for
it to be the leading prebiotic
brand globally and to get Uplift
Food’s prebiotic-rich snacks in
every airport across the globe.
Ultimately, I want to help people
support their gut and be their
happiest self. I think it’s important to share with
people that it's not all fun. I spend
a lot of time on operations and
finance, and product development
is just a small sliver of my work. If
you’re thinking about doing the
same, it’s important to be ready
for what's really involved.
Tell us more about the early days
of Uplift Food. Hire people that balance out your
strengths. For example, if you're
a creative, bring on someone
operationally-focused. You need
a diversity of skill sets to run a
successful business.
Nothing has happened overnight.
I've been plugging away for many
years. In 2016, I moved from New
York to Sydney for a year, and
started creating the formulation
for my first product, The Daily
Uplifter. And I began exploring
packaging partners, ingredients
suppliers and the manufacturers,
and securing the right vendors. In
2017 I actually moved back to NYC
when I met my (now) husband,
but still felt that Australia was the
right place for me to launch the
brand, so in the summer of 2018 I
went back home for a few months
to prepare fully, and in March 2018
I launched in Australia, and then a
few months later I launched in the
US. It took over a year to get my
first product off the ground.
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Mondelez recently invested in
Uplift Food. How did that come
about?
I got invited to be part of Food X,
one of the top food accelerators
in New York two weeks after
launching in Australia. I basically
jumped on a plane and started the
accelerator two days later. And it
was through that accelerator that
I connected with the innovation
team at Mondelez International.
At the time they didn’t have a
venture arm.
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Infuse | December 2019