Less than a year after launching, microbiome profiling startup Jona revamped its user interface. After receiving feedback from users who were having difficulty navigating the startup’s microbiome test reports, the company quickly made changes to meet their demands.
If you’re running a successful consumer- or patient-facing startup, it’s “absolutely essential” to act on user feedback and make any necessary adjustments in a timely manner, said Jonah CEO Leo Grady.
Grady, former CEO of Paige.AI, has worked in the healthcare industry for decades. During his career, he spent a lot of time in medical research and learned that there are many diseases and conditions that are linked to the human gut microbiome, from depression to autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. Inspired by this discovery, he and his founding team launched Jona in November last year.
While the traditional medical system doesn’t typically consider a person’s gut microbiome when creating a diagnosis or treatment plan, Grady believes it should. Gut microbiome imbalances have been proven to affect digestion, immune function, and mental health. New York City-based Jonah, through its platform, uses AI to help people better understand how the microbial population living in their gut impacts their overall health.
The startup offers an at-home gut microbiome profiling kit that analyzes people’s stool samples. The platform combs through thousands of studies found in PubMed and creates a custom report that tells users how this research applies to their personal microbiome makeup.
The report, available two to three weeks after the stool sample is shipped, informs users of any associations with diseases, symptoms, or food sensitivities. For example, a user might receive a report that they have a slight association with Crohn’s disease and difficulty digesting lactose or shellfish, or that their microbiome is similar to that of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome or lupus.
“The microbiome contains a wealth of information about health and is subject to change, so presenting all of this complex information to users can be challenging,” Grady said.
In the months since Jonah’s launch, the company paid close attention to user feedback about the product, said Jaclyn Cawwas, head of business development at Jonah, who said users “loved” the science and AI behind the platform but felt “lost” in the reporting.
Jonah quickly realized that its interface didn’t do a good job of explaining the insights the platform generated or the next steps it recommended for users, Cawwas said.
The startup knew it needed to redesign the reports to help users get the most out of their microbiome tests, she said.
Jona’s new interface still provides an overview of the user’s health from a microbiome perspective, but now focuses on five key areas: gut health, metabolic health, brain health, skin health and physical performance.
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“This overview allows users to dig deeper into different areas while still getting a sense of where they are with all the information,” Grady explains. “Not only does it provide better direction for users, but the categories also provide a holistic view of a person’s health, effectively communicating that the gut microbiome is about more than just gut health.”
The new interface also provides recommendations on how users should act based on the report’s findings.
Grady noted that if a user’s health is linked to low levels of some microbes and high levels of others, it’s not clear how to bring those specific microbes back into the normal range. Moreover, there are “only a few” beneficial microbes available as commercial probiotics, so altering the microbiome often requires a set of custom instructions, he added.
“Our AI is reading all of the research on how these changes affect the microbiome, so we can create a digital twin of the microbiome and virtually experiment with different changes — such as evaluating how the microbiome changes if you switch to a vegan or ketogenic diet — and customize diet, lifestyle and supplement changes to address an individual’s specific microbiome issues,” Grady said.
He noted that Jonah doesn’t sell any supplements, foods or drinks, so the startup is unbiased in these recommendations.
Photo: Brazzo, Getty Images
