Disclosure
Modi: Bobbie originally launched in the US positioned as a supplement
“Bobby brought it over as a pilot and decided to make what I thought was a very smart decision to position it as a supplement, as a companion formula to breast milk, which means that it moved out of the category as being the sole nutrition, and now it was in th…”
Disclosure
Bobbie halted new customer orders during shortage against board advice
“I called my board. I'm going, look, here's a little bit of the dilemma. Most of them were like, this is crazy. Just keep the growth going. Like, these moments don't come around often. Like, great moment for the brand. But I went to bed that night, and I rememb…”
Assertion Partly supported
Modi: FDA issued a national recall of Bobbie's pilot product
“And they issued a national recall. Right there and then. Issued a national recall of what was a pilot”
Insight
Modi: Anyone claiming an accurate pre-launch forecast is lying
“And anyone who says before they launch that they're setting a forecast they believe is accurate is totally lying. You're going out on a hope and a whim that there will be good reception to this and it will take off.”
Insight
Modi: Regulated legacy companies must engage polarizing leaders neutrally
“And if we are building a legacy business, and we're doing this right, it will mean that we're going to be dealing with characters that are polarizing, it will mean we're going to be dealing with different administrations along the way, and our job is to remain…”
Assertion Partly supported
Modi: US infant formula standards had not been updated since the 1980s
“The European nutritional standards that were governed by the EC were updating those standards every four to five years. And then I did the comparison to that over here in the US, and I realized the last time that the US updated their nutritional standards was …”
Assertion Supported
Modi: European regulations mandate higher DHA levels than US formulas provide
“DHA was not just mandatory in Europe, but there was a level that was higher than any formula was choosing to do here in the US.”
Assertion Supported
Modi: Bobbie went out of stock for seven months in 2024
“I still relied on my contract manufacturer to serve our essentially our demand for the next two years. And we went out of stock again in 24 for almost seven months.”
Disclosure
Modi: Bobbie targets 10% market share rather than monopoly scale
“And hopefully one day we're not as big as the Similacs and Infamils of the world, because I don't think anyone should be, but that ideally we're serving a good 10% of the market.”
Insight
Modi: No infant formula can replicate the magic of breast milk
“No formula could replicate the magic that is breast milk.”
Disclosure
Modi: Spent nearly $200K in personal funds to develop Bobbie
“First, it was 50,000, and then it went up to around 80, and then I ultimately ended up spending close to 200.”
Disclosure
Modi tested early Bobbie formula prototypes on her own children
“Oh, I was able to test it on my own kids. And they all got different versions.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Modi: Bobbie pitched 64 investors for initial seed round, getting 4 yeses
“I spoke to 64 investors. Every day I was on the phone making introductions, driving all across San Francisco with my baby bump, and pitching Bobby, and it, you know, the other things that happened during this period I hired a designer to develop the first look…”
Assertion Supported
All early hires at infant formula startup Bobbie were women
“All of the early hires were women.”
Assertion Supported
Modi: Perrigo is the only non-integrated infant formula manufacturer in the US
“Perigo was the only, it is the only manufacturer of infant formula here in the U.S. Outside of the vertically integrated.”
Disclosure
Modi: Bobbie raised $4M after FDA recall to rework domestic manufacturing
“So we had an investor come forward that we had spoken to in the past as well, and they ended up funding the business another four million dollars, which allowed us to spend the next 18 months, get our product off the line at this facility and into the FDA.”
Assertion Partly supported
Modi: Bobbie generated $16M in revenue in its first year
“We'd hoped we would do around four million, and we ended up doing, ah, 16.”
Assertion Supported
Modi: 50% of US babies on formula rely on WIC
“And the fact that 50% of babies born in this country are choosing a formula under WIC, which means they are limited by choice, huge opportunity to reform this program, but it starts with”
Disclosure
Modi: Bobbie is not yet large enough to serve WIC
“And it takes companies like Bobby to gain more market share, because the reality is, even though I want to see a change, I'm not yet big enough to be able to serve WIC either.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Modi: First home was mainly funded by day trading proceeds
“My first home was mainly the proceeds of some day trading.”
Disclosure
Modi paid herself less than $50,000 after Bobbie's first funding round
“Our first round of funding, I gave myself my first salary, which was, I think I paid myself less than 50,000 dollars.”
Disclosure
Modi: Bobbie launched with hand deliveries to 93 San Francisco families
“We only started selling it to San Francisco families, and we would personally go and deliver it. Remember, I remember very, we would have 93 customers.”
