IQ Bar: Ready-to-Eat Brain Food

IQ Bar is the first ready-to-eat brain food on the market. Each 45-gram bar is optimized around 5 critical brain-boosting nutrients: fiber, MCT's, omega-3's, flavonoids, and vitamin-E. IQ Bars contain just 9 net carbs, are free of GMO's, grains, gluten, dairy, soy, and added sugar, and are vegan and kosher.

There are two massive brain issues that touch everyone in America directly or indirectly: 1. Short-term cognitive fatigue (76% of US workers suffer from daily fatigue), and 2. Long-term cognitive decline (16 million Americans will have Alzheimer's by 2050). Food can inflame or remedy these issues.

Sadly, the carb-centric Western Diet does the former. Look no further than the average American, who is 4 times as likely to have Type II Diabetes than he was in 1980. We now know that consistently elevated blood sugar (from carbs) correlates with cognitive decline and disease (why Alzheimer's is called Type III Diabetes).

Food is the answer. Specific nutrients have been proven to correlate with positive cognitive outcomes. For instance, longitudinal studies have shown that those consuming a high-fat diet have lower cognitive declines than those consuming a low-fat diet (the opposite was found for high-carb diets). Other research has shown that fiber, MCT's, omega-3's, flavonoids, and vitamin-E all correlate with higher levels of cognition and brain health.

I've optimized IQ Bars around this wealth of research. Each bar is high-fat, low-net-carb, and contains meaningful quantities of all five of these nutrients. Go to "The Science" at eatiqbar.com (password: eatiqbar) for more specifics!

The impact of our solution is two-fold. First, the more successful IQ Bar is, the more brain-harmful foods we will displace (e.g., carbs). Second, the more hands we get our products in, the greater nutritional value American brains will realize each day. The beauty of food is that we all eat it, meaning EVERYONE is a potential beneficiary.

IQ Bars can be deployed to people in all 50 US states via e-commerce immediately after we begin producing our bars at scale (later this year). Then, we will roll out a brick-and-mortar retail presence - first in Boston, then beyond.

Track overall sales - Get IQ Bars in as many hands as possible

Track brick-and-mortar retail presence - Ensure that people can pick up IQ Bars the very day they have a hankering for them

Collect thousands of the first few years of distributing product - Validate that people can feel the difference in eating a more brain-healthy diet

No ready-to-eat brain food solution currently exists. The operative word here, of course, is ready-to-eat. If I want to create a brain-healthy meal, I can aggregate things like an avocado (for mono-unsaturated fats), turmeric (for curcumin), almonds (for vitamin-E), fish (for omega-3's), etc. However, that takes a long time, and the use of cooking materials.

The beauty of IQ Bar is we've done that work for you. We've aggregated 5 brain-boosting nutrients into an easy, ready-to-eat solution you can pull off a shelf and eat in a minute or two. The timing is great, given snacking is on the rise!

This product is as human-centered as it gets. Our product literally breaks down into components that make up, and fuel the cells of our consumers. We have the capacity to impact people every day of their lives (depending on how tasty they think our bars are!) in a highly intimate way. Every step of our product development process has centered on how we can improve our end-user's life.

Consumers can access IQ Bars via e-commerce as early as September of this year. This allows us to reach all 50 states from Day 1, which was a major goal of ours. We've also taken pains to ensure that IQ Bars are affordable for everyday-Americans. Each bar will retail at $2.99, and a box of 12 will go for $30.

Over time, we'll strive to build up our brick-and-mortar retail presence. As is the case with most CPG companies, this will take some time. We'll start with Boston, then will expand to the rest of the east coast and beyond.

To date, we've raised $40,000 to get through our initial stages of engaging in R&D, getting a functional website up and running, on-boarding with a manufacturer, covering off on legal issues, etc. In September or October of this year, we will also be running a Kickstarter campaign to raise additional funds and secure our first wave of customers.

Following Kickstarter, we plan on pursuing high-margin channels such as e-commerce and retailers we can ship directly to for at least six months. If we can gain traction in these areas, we should be profitable by mid-2018, given our modest overhead. The challenge in 2018 and beyond will be growing at a rapid rate to serve (and help) as many consumers as possible. This will require much more capital. We estimate $500,000 will allow us to expand at our desired rate, and to break into, and become profitable within, brick-and-mortar retail.

Money is the largest limiting factor. Additional capital will allow us to engage in the activities necessary to grow our user-base. These activities include, but are not limited to: hiring a strong team, marketing IQ Bars online, sampling out IQ Bars at brick-and-mortar retail locations, and participating in events relevant to food and/or brain health.

Another limiting factor is mentorship. With know-how in areas like food manufacturing, distribution, and digital marketing can can accomplish our goals faster and more effectively.

https://www.instagram.com/eatiqbar/

MIT has the resources and know-how to help me democratize brain food (and thus, brain health) far more effectively than I otherwise could. Whereas I am one person, MIT is a vast organization with influence I couldn't even dream of having. Furthermore, I think I'm closely aligned with MIT SOLVE in its brain health initiatives. Together, we can help combat food-induced brain dysfunction and degradation!

I currently have no partners helping me realize my vision. That's why I'm applying to this SOLVE challenge!

There are no direct competitors, but supplements (e.g.,omega-3 pills) can offer similar benefits.