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As an Olympic-level rhythmic gymnast and then a world-champion professional water skier who performed at SeaWorld in San Diego, Grace Hameister learned at a young age that food could influence physical performance.
Later, as a chiropractic doctor who provided concierge integrative medicine services to high-profile California clients, she honed her ability to create meals specifically designed to heal.
After practicing for more than two decades, Hameister last year founded Food FiXR, a food technology startup that's building a smartphone app to help users make healthy choices at the grocery store.
"Food FiXR is basically the public version of what I do privately and have seen changed lives for over 20 years," Hameister said.
Food FiXR, which legally operates as SainRx Longevity Institute LLC, is focused on helping people use food to prevent and potentially reverse what Hameister said are the top four killers in modern medicine: obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The app, which is still in development, would give users grocery lists of foods that could help them heal from diseases and allow users to purchase groceries through the app. It would also include an ingredient list scanner to help users define ingredients that are helpful or harmful to their health.
Eventually, Hameister said she envisions Food FiXR providing access to one-on-one nutritional coaching and offering a meal delivery service with recipes tailored to clients' health conditions.
Hameister grew up in Elkhart Lake and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and biology at the University of Minnesota before earning a doctor of chiropractic degree in the San Francisco Bay area in 1999. After practicing in the Los Angeles area for more than a decade, serving clients including athletes and actors, she moved back to Wisconsin in 2014.
Back in Elkhart Lake, Hameister opened the SainRx Organic Juice Bar and operated it for a few years before moving it to Sheboygan and then closing it due to an issue with the building tenant the business was subleasing from, Hameister said. She now practices as a chiropractic and integrative health care provider in Milwaukee's Third Ward.
Food FiXR completed the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps program and presented at the Healthcare Innovation Pitch Competition at Milwaukee's Wantable Cafe in October. The startup is seeking seed financing to build the initial version of its app.
Company name: Food FiXR
Headquarters: Milwaukee
Year founded: 2021
CEO: Grace Hameister
No of employees: 1
Website: www.foodfixr.com
The technology/product: Augmented reality app designed to promote optimally healthy grocery store purchases.
How it makes money: Food FiXR said its business plan is to earn a percentage of the grocery story purchases made through its app, similar to Instacart. It also plans to generate revenue through subscriptions that would offer discounts and in-app purchases for recipes and meal plans.
Size of the market: Food FiXR said its target market is the 330 million U.S. residents segmented into two groups: healthy users who want to maintain their health and sick users who could benefit from nutrition advice.
Competition: Meal planning and nutrition smartphone apps like MyFitnessPal, Yummly, Sprinly, Mealime, and Blue Shield of California's Wellvolution, according to Food FiXR
Competitive advantage: In a saturated weight loss and fitness market, Food FiXR said its solution would be a true food-is-medicine, evidence-based platform optimized to help users improve health outcomes with sustainable foods. It said it would differentiate by focusing on ingredients rather than macronutrient counts, helping users choose foods that could help heal their bodies and avoid foods that could cause more harm.
Team: Founder and CEO Grace Hameister, chief operating officer Nick Domnisch, chief technology officer Bryan Doss, managing partner Jeff Leismer, technology strategist Faith Ekanem
Advisers: Board director Scott Bolte, Concordia University Wisconsin business school dean Daniel Sem
Investors: Friends and family
Capital raised: $15,000
Capital sought: $225,000 to $1 million
