Ecotrend Blog

Entrepreneurial spirit has fueled North American culture for centuries. Nowadays, the barrier to entry is much lower thanks to globalization—cheaper costs of manufacturing, production, and low and behold, the internet—let’s anyone create a brand presence in the matter of months.

Solving a valuable problem in return for a premium lie at the base of entrepreneurialism. Many businesses begin with the founder attempting to address a problem that they’re personally dealing with—only to realize that no solution exists. The other factor is passion—which creates a restless tenacity for perfection and execution.

For example, take Imix, a nutritional supplement company that was founded in Jini Patel Thompson’s kitchen. Her take on the entrepreneurial puzzle was to create a formula that could be scaled and delivered to the people that most needed them. This included elderly patients, post-surgery patients, the sick, and anyone battling with a nutrition deficiency problem. You can say that Jini was looking for a delicious solution to this problem. Although meal replacement products like Ensure and Boost are widely used, these products haven’t caught on to the growing desire of consumers to put clean, healthy, and natural ingredients without refined sugars in their bodies, while getting the nutritional support they need.

Jini and her husband Ian Thompson, were determined to make this dream a reality, and fortunately, they already had a hungry audience base ready to taste their first iterations. Today, their flagship product Absorb Plus, has warranted a healthy amount of positive response from customers all over North America. This is Jini’s story on the founding of Imix Nutrition and how it’s changed not only their lives, but the lives of so many others.

What inspired the founding of your brand?

Imix was founded based on the need for a product that did not yet exist. Our product formulator, Jini Patel Thompson, who ran a wellness-focused website, shared an elemental shake product she consumed on the regular basis. Her readers asked if this was something she could produce for them. So Jini's husband, Ian Thompson, teamed up with some silent partners, and Imix's first brand, Absorb Plus, was born.

What are your brand’s core values?

Our core values are super high quality, 100% natural products with top notch ingredients, at whatever cost, to ensure the highest possible efficacy. This ensures our customers receive the maximum health benefits possible. Because Jini formulates the shakes for herself, her family, and her 200K+ readers (who are hypersensitive and suffer from chronic ailments) we are not driven by profitability, but rather by results.

Describe one way you try to keep innovating with your brand.

Our formulas upgrade continually as more bioavailable extractions come on the market, or better source materials, or as research uncovers things like the MTHFR gene. We LISTEN. The vast majority of our new formulations are based on feedback and listening to our customers.

Talk about a roadblock or a challenge you faced as a business owner; have you overcome this? If so, please tell us how you did or how you’re working on it.

There is the constant challenge to keep prices reasonable based on the never-ending increase of raw materials and operating costs. This has become even more of a pain point during and after COVID-19., Imix is currently 100% self-funded, so all growth comes from our customer base and demand. Balancing inventory across all the markets we now sell into, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, EU, and USA presents constant challenges of maintaining enough product, so we do not run out of flavours versus running out of money!!

What inspires you to keep going every day?

Reading customer emails and hearing about people’s success using Jini’s protocols and Imix formulations. Our products help people in every age range—from kids suffering from nutrition deficiencies to the elderly who needs supplemental nutrients due to lack of appetite and absorption in the later stages of life.

We are encouraged to know that Imix products are making a difference in a real and meaningful way.

How did you know you had a good product-market fit?

Because our product formulator, Jini, IS her market! If she wants it and uses it, we know our market will use it and love it.

What are your aspirations for your brand 10 years from now?

Ten years ago, we wanted to have local distribution for our Absorb Plus brand all over the world.... we have just accomplished this. In the next 10 years it would be wonderful to have ALL flavours and varieties of Absorb Plus in all markets, along with all the other new products/brands we have recently launched into the US market. We also really want to get more involved with practitioners. We see this area as a huge growth area, as practitioners have the knowledge base to understand WHY our formulations are so exceptional.