Yumbo was conceived from an amalgamation of three experiences and issues that I had around the start of COVID in 2020.

1. COVID 19

When all the restaurants shut down during COVID, I tried out HelloFresh and BlueApron for the first time and really enjoyed the experience. The set schedule, recipe card with simple instructions were all great, but it was too expensive to justify the experience once the honeymoon phase wore out.

I wanted that experience but without paying a premium. There are certainly people who want the convenience of home delivered produce but for the majority of people, grocery shopping is routing and local.

2. Health Issues

Unrelated to COVID, I had chronic fatigue for about a year before learning about iron deficiency and micronutrients that compliment them. For example, Vitamin C is crucial for maximizing iron absorption.

I'd imagine not many people know these facts and share my ignorance at no fault of their own - we're all busy. The food delivery services and popular recipes sites like AllRecipes lack any personalization and intelligence to recommend you meals that balance your diet and nutrition. What if they did.

The World Health Organization estimates about 20-25% global deaths are linked to more diet, and 30-50% of all chronic issues are related to diet and nutrition.

3. Health Apps

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of health apps out there but for many people including myself, we end up being inconsistent and stopping altogether. Whether that's being lazy or unmotivated, it's our human nature and flaw.

When anything becomes a chore, we tend to be discouraged and demotivated. If there was a way to gamify health and nutrition, perhaps more users will stay on routine to improve their health. As an example, Duolingo perfected gamification of language learning and Yumbo takes inspiration from their methodology. The current implementation is rudimentary but will evolve if users enjoy and find it valuable.

Gamification

The vision behind Yumbo is to make nutrition education and tracking fun and engaging so that you can gather insights on your health consistently over a long period of time. The concept is based off old school RPGs - a mix of Diablo and Path of Exile, where you create a hero, level up your culinary skills, learn about nutrition, loot items.