Scan for your dietary restrictions with this fast-growing LA app

by Patrick Hechinger
March 17, 2016
Sometimes the inspiration for a great startup can come during a dark time. 
 
After suffering from two major strokes in 2010, Norway native Kris Finstad was forced to spend his days at home. The unfortunate situation did, however, allow him to spend more time with his nine-year-old daughter while she, and her friends, were home from school. 
 
One of the frequent friends visiting the house had a long list of allergies that her parents had delivered to Finstad. As hard as he tried to avoid the extensive list of ingredients, he eventually made an error and the girl was rushed to the emergency room. 
 
Frustrated and confused, he searched for his mistake and was unable to find the ingredient that triggered the intense reaction. The doctors eventually revealed that is was an additive that was labeled something entirely different. Finstad contacted the girl’s father and proposed the idea of an app that would thoroughly scan food labels to prevent situations like this in the future.
 
The girl’s father, a CTO at a large Norwegian cellular phone provider, and her mother, one of Finstad’s neurologists, encouraged him to work on a schematic of what he envisioned as a form of therapy for his recovery. A short while later, Finstad returned with a detailed proposal of the app that would become
 
“He came back and said, ‘I’ve quit my job now, how would you like to proceed?’” Finstad said. “It took me by surprise and I tried to reason with him but thought, what the hell, let's do it.” 
 
The two built the company over the next year and launched the Norwegian version in 2012. ContentChecked offers applications (ContentChecked, SugarChecked, MigraineChecked) that allow users to scan food items and check if a product fits or does not fit their dietary restrictions. ContentChecked shows users if products they are scanning contain any of their allergens, SugarChecked helps users stick to a sugar-free diet, and MigraineChecked warns users of potential triggers in food that may cause discomfort.
 
The following year, after the app had caught on in their home country, they decided to take on the U.S. market, relocating the company to Los Angeles. 
 
The company continued its growth and went public in April 2015. But their quick success did not come without a few speed bumps. Early on, the company only aggregated public ingredient data and quickly found that the error margin was around 85 percent. They decided to make their own database by contacting the FDA and food producers, creating one of the most extensive food databases in the world. 
 
The apps currently have 2.6 million combined users between the U.S. and Norway, 66 percent of people use the app at least five times a week. The second version of the app, which Finstad calls a “game changer”, will feature a shopping list and a recipe list filled with allergy/sugar/migraine friendly meals.
 
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