Take us to that moment: Who or what were you building for, and what did you see that made you realize this wasn't a niche problem?
My co-founder and Healthnix CEO, Maja Mazur, developed severe chronic hip pain in her early twenties. Nobody could help her. What changed things was a functional nutritionist who helped her identify which foods triggered her pain. She was able to get back to doing the things she loves most. And the obvious questions followed: Why did this work? Why isn't it part of healthcare? And how many other people are in the same position?
A lot, it turns out. Sixty million U.S. adults—roughly one in four—live with chronic pain, and there's only one pain specialist for every 28,500 of them. We've reviewed studies covering close to one million participants across 13 countries and five continents, and the evidence for nutrition in chronic pain management is consistent. It spans all the major chronic pain conditions, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and migraine. The evidence exists. What's missing is a way to deliver it at scale.
What's one assumption about aging that your product proves wrong?
That older adults don't have the energy for lifestyle change, especially after years of failed treatments. We've found the opposite. Patients in their 60s and 70s engage with their dietitian, log their meals and symptoms, and stick with it. The barrier was never motivation. It was that nobody had given them something structured, personalized, and actually helpful.
What's a moment when you got it wrong that taught you the most about building for older adults?
We assumed that a well-designed mobile app would be enough to get patients engaged. It wasn't. Some disengaged not because they didn't want the program or like our app, but because they had questions and nobody to ask. So, we added something that isn't a technology solution at all: a care coordinator who calls patients during onboarding and keeps checking in.
It felt like a step backward for a tech company. It's been one of the highest-impact things we've done—and not only for engagement. It became our fastest feedback loop. The more she calls, the more patients trust her and the more honestly they tell her what's working and what's not. This has given us better product insight than any survey, which, at this stage, is worth a great deal. For this population, the human layer is part of the product.
What's one specific way being part of AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP has helped?
Their research capability. We ran a concept test with older adults living with arthritis at no cost to us, covering how they responded to our product, what they'd pay, and how ready they were to adopt it. For an early-stage company, that's rare. It sharpened how we position and price the product and gave us more evidence about a population we're building for but don't belong to.
If someone walking the HLTH USA floor remembers only one sentence about your company, what should it be?
We're making AI-powered precision nutrition part of the standard of care for complex conditions, starting with chronic pain.
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