We recently connected with Catherine Jaxon and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Catherine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Our oldest daughter is allergic to most tree nuts after we followed the old guidelines to avoid them. Food allergies are a huge public health problem that affects 1 in 13 kids (two per classroom) – yet the latest research shows that many food allergies can be prevented. Dr. Gideon Lack’s groundbreaking LEAP Study (2015) found that starting peanut foods in infancy reduced the rate of peanut allergies by up to 86%, overturning old feeding guidelines that had recommended avoiding allergens, in favor of introducing them early and often. Since those old avoidance guidelines were put into place two decades ago, food allergies in children have actually risen by 50% and nut allergies have tripled! When our third child started solids, we decided to follow the new research in hopes of avoiding another food allergy in our family. It worked but was a huge challenge – nuts and nut butters are a choking hazard, and the baby food industry is almost entirely allergen-free. We knew there had to be an easier and more enjoyable way for busy parents to introduce nuts early and keep them in their children’s diets often.
To turn our idea into reality, we teamed up with leading food allergy prevention expert Dr. Gideon Lack and Todd Slotkin (co-founder of FARE, the largest food allergy nonprofit) to launch Mission MightyMe. Our company offers a smart solution for parents who want to follow the science around prevention in a low stress, low mess way. Our mission is to end the food allergy epidemic – because prevention is everything when there’s no cure.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and a little context on how you got into this business and what sets you apart from others?
I’m a mom of three awesome kids who keep us busy and laughing all the time. Our oldest daughter has food allergies which is how we got started with Mission MightyMe. Prior to starting Mission MightyMe, I was a journalist with CNN in New York. I produced documentaries and also worked on Anderson Cooper 360, covering breaking news and also more in-depth long-form stories and interviews. My husband JJ worked in investment banking – so when we decided to go all in to start a CPG baby & kids food company, it was a big jump for us. But we knew it had the potential to change lives and reduce food allergy rates for future generations.
As a mom to a daughter with food allergies, I’m passionate about helping other families prevent them. As parents, we would’ve done anything to help her avoid this burden, and she’s the inspiration behind our mission to end the food allergy epidemic. When our third child came along in 2015, I discovered our co-founder Dr. Gideon Lack’s groundbreaking LEAP Study and was stunned to realize that food allergies can actually be prevented. It was a lightbulb moment, but when we looked for products that would make it easy to follow the guidelines and introduce nuts early with our third child, we couldn’t find any. We wanted to help other parents get proactive about prevention for their own children, so we created a line of foods that make early allergen introduction simple and safe.
Several key differentiators set our products apart. First, our products are all developed in accordance with Dr. Lack’s research on prevention. So they’re backed by science but they also happen to taste delicious, which makes them a great all-family snack — they’re also really wholesome and nutritious. While the majority of baby puffs on the market are mostly rice with very little nutrition, our puffs have a real health function and are more than 50% nuts, with no added cane sugar or cane syrup.
Additionally, from our own experience raising three children, we know little ones won’t eat something that they don’t like – which is why taste has always been a top priority, in addition to nutrition. Our Peanut Butter Puffs have been a huge hit with kids and parents. And our Nut Butter Puffs were crafted to contain equal parts peanut, cashew, walnut, hazelnut and almond protein, have a deliciously nutty flavor, with a hint of cinnamon and just the right amount of crunch. They dissolve quickly for babies, taste delicious for big kids, and parents love that our puffs have purpose. Plus, we’re excited to launch two new fruity flavors this fall!
It’s been so rewarding to hear positive feedback from customers who are grateful for a product that makes early allergen introduction easy and enjoyable. We’ve created the exact product that we were looking for with our youngest child, which is an incredible feeling.
Have you ever had to pivot?
We launched our first product in March 2020, the week the world shut down due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Early on, brick-and-mortar retail was a big factor in our distribution plan, but given how much the pandemic accelerated the shift in consumer behavior away from in-person retail, we had to pivot and we have remained 100% e-commerce (missionmightyme.com and Amazon) to date. There will be a time and select places where brick-and mortar retail makes sense for us – hopefully in the near future – but we’re being very deliberate and thoughtful about how to do retail smartly. We want to do everything we can to accelerate our growth, but in a way that is durable and sustaining. We’ve also been growing 20% month over month strictly e-commerce and with only two SKUs to date, so e-commerce has been a great platform for us.
The early pandemic affected our work-life balance as well. Like many parents, we found ourselves virtual schooling with no childcare and working around the clock. Things have certainly become more manageable since then, but finding the right balance between being a parent and running a business is still a work in progress! We strive to keep evenings and weekends reserved for family-time, and make sure we are fully present when we are with the kids. We also try to involve our kids in the company as much as possible. They know they were the inspiration for Mission MightyMe and they are so excited that their experience is helping other kids and families.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We knew if we were going to launch an innovative company like Mission MightyMe, we had to do it right and build trust with our consumers. The idea of introducing allergens early was still relatively new for parents, and we needed caregivers to understand that our products were based on the gold standard of research. So who better to partner with than Dr. Gideon Lack, the leading global expert in food allergy prevention and the very pediatric allergist who led the research the feeding guidelines are based on? Dr. Lack oversees the development of all of our products and ensures they match his research.
Dr. Lack’s research, which was based on a lightbulb moment and a strong hunch he had about the protective power of early peanut introduction, has led to updated recommendations from the AAP, USDA and more to urge early introduction of common allergens in infant diets. When the LEAP Study findings were first released, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “We’re talking about saving thousands and thousands of kids from peanut allergies.” That’s exactly what Mission MightyMe is trying to do: the ultimate goal is to relieve future generations from the lifelong burden of food allergies.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.missionmightyme.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/missionmightyme
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missionmightyme/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-mitchell-jaxon-3b94bb48/
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/mightymekids