Bostonia: How did you get the idea for LVNGbook?

Chavis: LVNGbook is a pivot from a previous agency I had, [Saltshaker Marketing & Media], a content marketing agency specialized in food, and toward the end, we really started specializing in brand cookbooks. (For example, one client made barbecue grills and they gave away a free cookbook with every grill, so we did the cookbook.) It was really fun work, [and] it paid well, when we got [paid], but the problem was the cash flow was up and down. If you’re doing a brand cookbook, you’re only doing one maybe every two or three years, and so there was a long sales cycle and it was hard for me to hire people full time. I was doing everything, I was trying to be the creative director on the projects, plus do the business development and everything. So, I was looking for a way to stabilize the cash flow, because it was just not sustainable. And people kept saying, “Shaun, you need to own the content.”

At the same time, I had a really good friend who had just been diagnosed with a rare chronic autoimmune disorder. Her doctor gave her this really long list of foods that she couldn’t eat anymore. She looked at the list and called me, crying. 

I thought, what if we had a platform where instead of getting a list from the doctor, you could create a profile with your health needs and preferences, and get a personalized cookbook of recipes already modified for your needs? All you have to do is cook; you don’t have to figure out how to change all of your favorite recipes and where to find the products. That’s how I pivoted.

Bostonia: How did your previous jobs and experiences influence the founding of LVNGbook?

Chavis: When I worked at Time Inc., the number one thing I worked on was healthy cookbooks. Time Inc. (which has since been bought by Meredith) used to license recipes to clients, such as the Mayo Clinic or Duke University Health Systems, [and] there’s a high barrier to entry [with that model]: you need to be a giant company that can plunk down tens of thousands [of dollars] to get access [to healthy recipes]. There are a lot of smaller corporate wellness programs or community health–based programs that could use recipes to help people eat healthfully, but don’t have tens of thousands of dollars. 

A lot of those recipes I worked on [at Time Inc.] were for a Eurocentric audience. Or, if they do look at [non-European] cuisines, it’s coming from a Eurocentric, touristy lens. We all know in this country [that] the people who are experiencing chronic disease at a disproportionate rate are people of color, particularly Black Americans, Latino Americans, and Indian Americans, who are experiencing heart disease at a really shocking rate. I felt like there [was] a need to develop and provide healthy recipes for those cuisines, so that people don’t feel like they have to give up the food that they love, and the food that they grew up with, to follow a healthy diet.

[During] our customer discovery, [we found] that the rate at which people stick to [doctor-recommended diet changes] is as low as 20 percent, which is really bad for chronic disease. Part of [the issue] is that [the diet] doesn’t fit people’s lifestyle, it’s not family-friendly, and it’s not culturally relevant to them. A lot of people are cooking two meals at night: people are cooking the Eurocentric [recommendations] they got from their dietitian or doctor for themselves, and also making a traditional meal for the rest of their family. That’s just not sustainable: it’s extra time, extra money, and there’s a sort of sociocultural isolation that, in my mind, is not a full picture of health.

Bostonia: What challenges did you have to overcome to launch LVNGbook? Would you do anything differently?

Chavis: I bootstrapped LVNGbook. I sold a family farm to be able to pay to build the tech platform. That was a scary thing to do.

The other thing is that when we finally got our platform—or the responsive app that builds the books—we launched it right after COVID started. And in some ways, we thought, okay, everybody’s into healthy cooking now, this is a good time. But in other ways, we really wanted to talk to care providers about using LVNGbook, and nobody was talking to anybody; doctors were limiting access to their offices because of COVID. Some of that is still going on.

In addition, we started out as a B2C [business-to-consumer] product. I looked at other wellness companies—like Headspace, PlateJoy, and eMeals—that all started out selling directly to consumers before they went to health insurance companies or corporate wellness [markets]. Those clients want to see that you have some clinical validation, that you know your solution really does impact health outcomes. And so I thought, okay, that’s a great way. We can sell to consumers, give ourselves some time to build clinical validation, and then we’ll be able [to also enter that market]. But we learned that consumers really don’t want to spend money on health, unless it’s like cosmetics or mental health. We did some panels, and people totally got the value proposition of LVNGbook, but said they wanted it to come from corporate wellness programs, a doctor, or an insurance company. So, we’re having to make that pivot, and that’s been really challenging. Because, you know, the farm can only stretch so far [laughing]!