HVMN, previously known as Nootrobox, is an American company that manufactures and sells a ketone ester drink, products supporting a

ketogenic diet The ketogenic diet is a high- fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than ca ...

, and

nootropic Nootropics ( , or ) (colloquial: smart drugs and cognitive enhancers, similar to adaptogens) are a wide range of natural or synthetic dietary supplement, supplements or drugs and other substances that are claimed to improve cognitive function ...

supplements. The company is headquartered in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. HVMN stands for "Health Via Modern Nutrition."

History

The company was first founded in 2014 by Geoffrey Woo and Michael Brandt. While forming the company Woo was an

Entrepreneur in residence An Entrepreneur in residence, or Executive in residence (EIR), is a position most often held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. The EIR typically le ...

in the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program of Foundation Capital, while Brandt worked as a

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

employee, a freelance photographer, and an adjunct professor at the

Academy of Art University The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...

. In October 2015, the company announced that Silicon Valley

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownersh ...

including

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American businesswoman and investor. She is an information technology executive, and co-founder of Sunshine Contacts. Mayer formerly served as the president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!, a p ...

and

Mark Pincus Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus served as ...

had invested $500,000 in the company. In December 2015,

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen H ...

led a $2 million

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

round in the company.

Chris Dixon Chris Dixon is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and previously worked at eBay. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch. He was #1 on the Midas ...

, who has experience at companies like Soylent, led the investment for

. In August 2016, Nootrobox partnered with

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

locations in San Francisco. In June 2017, Nootrobox changed its name to H.V.M.N., which stands for "Health Via Modern Nutrition". In 2018, HVMN products affiliated with

United States Special Operations Command The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States Ar ...

were tested as part of Operation Tech Warrior hosted at the

National Center for Medical Readiness The National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR), conceptualized and founded by Mark E. Gebhart, MD provides medically oriented education, training, product testing, and research opportunities for medical, public health, public safety, and civilian ...

Studies and results

In November 2017, the company's first commissioned clinical trial found that one of its supplements was less effective in many ways than the

caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class. It is mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally as a Nootropic, cognitive enhancer, increasing alertness and attentional perfor ...

(a cup of coffee) used as the control. The company then asked researchers to change the name of the product to distance it from the analysis. The company, however, linked to the study on their website as of 2018. On September 13, 2018, HVMN was the nutrition sponsor for cyclist

Vittoria Bussi Vittoria Bussi (born 19 March 1987) is an Italian professional racing cyclist. She holds a DPhil in pure mathematics from the University of Oxford for a 2014 thesis entitled ''Derived symplectic structures in generalized Donaldson–Thomas theory ...

, who broke the UCI

Hour record The hour record is the record for the longest distance cycled in one hour on a bicycle from a stationary start. Cyclists attempt this record alone on the track without other competitors present. It is considered one of the most prestigious reco ...

using HVMN Ketone drinks in the training run up and on the day of the world record. In the

2019 Tour de France The 2019 Tour de France was the 106th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tours. The -long race consisted of 21 stages, starting in the Belgian capital of Brussels on 6 July, before moving throughout France and conclud ...

, multiple cycling teams including and confirmed use of ketone ester for performance and recovery.

Culture

In 2016 the company instituted a weekly

intermittent fasting Intermittent fasting is any of various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting (or reduced calorie intake) and non-fasting over a given period. Methods of intermittent fasting include alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, a ...

day for staff. This was in line with a fad among Silicon Valley companies and workers at that time to use biohacking techniques in the workplace.

References

{{reflist American companies established in 2014 Companies based in San Francisco Online food retailers of the United States 2014 establishments in California