The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Avokadio Wellness Tracker CEO Yunus Konmaz CES Show 2022 Interview

Episode Date: January 1, 2022

Avokadio Wellness Tracker CEO Yunus Konmaz CES 2022 Interview Avokad.io CES booth #61855

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain now here's your host chris voss hi folks this is voss here from the chris voss show.com the chris voss show.com hey we're coming here with a great podcast we certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. And what a better way to start the new year.

Today of this recording is New Year's Day, January 1, 2022. You might be catching this five years, 10 years from now, 15 years from now. But that's where we're at. So happy new year. And hopefully if you are listening to this from 10 years from now, the world is in a much better place. It could be they'll be on a transistor in the apocalypse now or something sitting with the Planet of the Apes. Who knows?

It's been a weird couple years. But we're betting this year is going to be better. So the best way to make this year even better, you're going to love the interview that we have coming up because it's going to be about health and a lot of people set their resolutions for better health and exercise and different wellness in the future of the year but go to youtube.com for chest christmas you can see all of our videos there and use it to be a year where you expand

your mind you become smarter you learn you learn that stuff go to all the groups on facebook linkedin twitter instagram tiktok all the places those crazy kids are playing. Also go to goodreads.com, 4Chess, Chris Voss, and you're going to find my books, of course, on Amazon. Today we have an amazing CEO. He's going to be on the show talking to us. And what's cool is this is the first of what will be a series this next coming week, probably bleeding into next week, of CES, that's the Consumer Electronics Show, 2022 interviews. We'll be interviewing a ton of people that are either boothing at the show because of COVID. Some people have moved to a virtual aspect, so we'll be doing their virtual booth interviews for them.

So congratulations. We're kicking off all the different coverage that we'll be doing of CES 2022 and then 2023. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, guys, we have with us the CEO, Jonas Conmez. He is here to talk about Avocado. Did I get that right? Yeah. There you go.

Avocado.io. And he's here to talk to us about his product and what they're going to be doing at their booth at CES. Welcome to the show. How are you? Fine. Thank you very much. Happy New Year, by the way. There you go.

Happy New Year to you, too. And we're going to be talking about your guys' wellness tractor. Your tractor. You have a tractor there. A wellness tracker. Clearly, I'm starting the new year just trying to learn to speak. A wellness tracker. But give us your plugs, your.io, and then your booth number where people can find you on the CES floor there.

Okay. We are in Eureka Park. And there is a huge booth for Turkish, like from Istanbul. So we can find us over there. I'm not really sure. I don't want to give something a different number. 968195 should be the booth number. But you will probably find us.

You will see the Turkish pavilion in Eureka Park. There you guys go. Check them out at Eureka Park. And it's going to be in the Turkey section? Yeah. Yeah, because they have the French section, the Turkey section. They have all these great sections. Now it's cool to go see what different companies have compiled in our offering.

What motivated you to want to – you started this company, I believe? Yeah, I did actually. I'm the co-founder and I have the idea. So give us a little bit about your history, where you come from, what kind of got you into this space and what motivated you to start the company? We have an interesting story. You might find it interesting actually. By the way, I'm Turkish. I'm from Turkey.

But I did my university degree in the UK and I lived there for a while. And most of my business life, I have a business studies degree, by the way. I have my business life based on fast-moving consumer goods. So I was just making international sales, business development. And my company had gone through a merger and acquisition. Then I had decided to do something with technology, which I have a passion for. So I have an invitation from an English friend of mine from the university, and he was actually developing a startup actually, product for some solutions for

biogas manufacturing. And for the ones who don't know biogas, it's producing electricity from gas. So we were using some gases coming out of waste areas and turning it into electricity. So it was a quite interesting area. It was for sustainable energy and renewable energy and at the same time helping climate exchange. So I moved back to UK and started working there. And I added some knowledge about using these gas sensors because we were measuring some gases in the race areas and sending this info to a database by using IoT applications and big data and AI algorithms. So it was a really learning experience for me. And unfortunately, I had a serious problem within my family.

So I had to go back to Turkey. And in Turkey, I have visited so many times intensive care units, and I had to spend some time there. And when I was there, I had a friend, a professor friend of mine, a medical doctor for intensive care unit. And I was chatting with her about what I was doing in the UK. And she told me something really interesting. She told me that the gases that you are measuring in the air

is somehow produced in human body. And by measuring that through bread, we can understand something about human or human health. And maybe we can do some study about infections and that it can lead us to do some early diagnosing of infections in intensive care unit patients. And I thought, oh, really, that's what's really interesting. And she told me that she wanted to do a clinical trial.

Maybe I can help by using these gases, gas sensors, actually. So the main innovative approach here is to use these nanotech sensors because nanotechnology is developing so fast and it leads us that these sensors are relatively small and cost effective so we can have good results and it could be that these sensors are relatively small and cost effective so we can have good results and it could be a relatively affordable devices we got the permissions to be to do this clinical trial in intensive care unit and we have adjusted our sensors that could be used in intensive care and we start making some measurements and eventually we find some positive results and some correlations between breath gases and blood analysis and we we found some positive results and some correlations between breath gases

and blood analysis and we started doing some infection study. But there I have learned something else. Developing a medical device is really difficult because you have to go through so many regulations. Okay, you can do the clinical trials, but turning it into a commercial product is really difficult.

You have to go through so many regulations. That's really tough. And you have to do many clinical trials, which are really expensive. And reaching that funds is not so easy because you should really have financial fit to do that. And I was wondering what could I do. And I have also realized, we have also actually realized that some of the breath gases that we were measuring for detecting infections could also be used for metabolism ads, such as ketones, ammonia, or nitric oxide, which also gives an indication about how our body is handling the food that we are eating and how is our metabolism doing with that. So we thought that, oh, okay, that's a much better idea.

So we can focus into wellness rather than developing a medical device and turn it into a wellness device and give consumers some advice about their nutritional choices. And, yeah, we have decided to focus on wellness, and we have changed our clinical trials into a wellness. So we have started doing some clinical trials with some people about their eating habits and if they want to lose weight, how their losing weight process is going. And actually, I was one of the first guys who tried this product. And I normally have

some in my life weight issues. I have been a little bit overweight. By the way, this is one of the main problems of the modern age. According to the World Health Organization, 52% of the world population is obese or overweight. And this is quite a huge number. Unfortunately, I was one of them. So I was trying so many different diets

and couldn't manage to have a sustainable weight loss for a long time. And then I started using this device, our first prototype. And I have realized so interesting things about myself, how my body is handling the food that I'm eating, and which foods could be good for me. And interestingly, I have very successful results, which I haven't managed to do for a long time. I lost quite a lot of weight. I almost got into my size in university years, 20 years ago.

I thought, oh, okay, this is a good product. And this could really be helpful for people and for customers. And we can just help about what they should be really eating. And then we have also scientifically validated what we were doing. We have published a scientific paper. And then we have started actually developing the AI part as well, because we were getting some measurements from the body, a biometric value, but we have to combine it with some data that we have collected from the user and provide them some advice. their nutritional choices and what they would probably like or what they don't like and of course with the body data that we will combine these two and give people some advice so that

they could really have a sustainable if they want to lose weight okay this should be doing without giving them so much pain because when you say diet and weight loss it's really uh difficult but you can also do i have realized that you can also do that if you know what your body actually needs. And if you can combine it what you want, you can have sustainable weight loss. So I have been almost like, we have been working this

for almost two years and I lost so much weight and still in two years I haven't gained anything. So that's, yeah, so I found this product quite useful for myself.

So now we are trying to provide the solution to everybody as much as we could reach really. Now, this is pretty interesting. So you guys make basically what would be the equivalent of breathalyzers. We reviewed breathalyzers for drinking back in the day where you could test yourself before you got on the road. And so basically, you guys have created a little breathalyzer that looks like, I believe, a half avocado. And then it works with an app. Tell us why you chose an avocado shape as the basis for the device and then what the app does. So we were actually having a meeting with some friends, and we had this idea.

We were producing this product, and what could be the name and what could be the shape. So a friend told us, okay, when you think about a diet and a healthy food that you want to eat is avocado. Yeah. But by the way, that avocado is a really healthy food that you can probably consume. And we thought, okay, maybe we should do something related with avocado, avocado, avocado, something like that. So we were checking the domains which were available. So we found out that this domain is also available. So we can make a commercial name with that. So we were checking the domains which were available. So we found out that this domain is also available.

So we can make a commercial name with that. So this kind of happened like this, really. Oh, wow. Wow. On the app, you breathe into the thing. It represents the avocados for you. What sort of features are in the app? We have, we first of all get some information from the user as well, like age, height, weight, and do daily routines as much as we could.

And we combine this data with the biometric data that's coming from the device. It connects together. And then there is an AI model working in the back end and then trying to understand what the consumer likes. We start giving some meal plans for the users daily. And then we also have the possibility to change like or dislike what we were suggesting. So the users, if they don't like what we suggest, they can change it or they can say, we don't like this. So we have an AI model, which is also

learning from you and combining this biometric data which is coming from your breath. So of course this artificial intelligence AI is quite popular and everybody says that they are doing something with AI but on reality this AI model

usually depends on the data. The more data you can provide the better result that you can really get. So we have some, we trained our models with our clinical trials, better uses, but it will be much better when we have more users and people using it a lot and they will probably learn about you when you start using it. The first result could not be so perfect, but when you start using the device, it will learn more about you and give you much more related or

the suggestion will be more likely by the consumer actually. So basically when I wake up in the morning, maybe I get on the scale, put the scale numbers in and then blow into this thing? Is that the regimen? Yeah, you can use the device like regularly

during the day when you wake up and early before having breakfast because it gives an indication about what you did yesterday after sleep and almost one hour after each meal so that you will probably know how your body is metabolized, what you have eaten for breakfast or lunch or dinner. So like you can use it for a couple of times during the day, and then you will get your recommendation. And then during that period, it will learn more about you, and you will probably, you can maybe use it less frequently, like one month or two months later on. Oh, wow. What if you're on multiple diets? I'm looking at your site here, ketogenic, you're on keto or vegan or Mediterranean, high protein, clean eating.

Does it work with all these different diets that are out there? Yeah, it works with most of the diets actually, because what we provide is some data. So actually what we are measuring is ketones, ammonia and nitric oxide. But basically ketones is the bodies that is using fat for energy in our body. It's produced by our liver and it uses fats in our fat cells for energy. So if you want to lose weight, it should be one of the main indication that you are losing weight from your fats, not from your muscles. Ammonia is a breakdown of protein metabolism. Actually, it's a little bit about if you're consuming enough protein or too much protein. So it's also about if you want to

build muscles, it could be a good indication for you, or you should not be losing weight from your muscles, but fats. So these basically could be working with all most of the diets that you said in ketogenic diet is quite popular and the other diets. The main issue is here to get some information from your body, actually, and to see if your diet is working on your body, if you're doing well in your diet, or if you're maybe cheating, and then the device will tell you you're cheating.

Yeah, I've had those nights where it's like, you get on the scale the next morning, and you're like, oh, so there's the In-N-Out Burger I had last night. One of the problems I have with I've been going to the gym now for five months straight every day, almost every day. And my body goes up and down because I can go up two points after having a really heavy leg day or a really heavy arm day where I'm really stretching into new territory with weight and pushing myself to the new limits. And I'll wake up the next morning, I'll be two pounds heavier, but I know it's, I've eaten well the night before, the day before, and I know it's all muscle. And, but yeah, having that data and understanding what's going on with your body is pretty brilliant. And yeah, the body gives away a lot through its breath. Do you see any more advancements in the

future of this technology to where you can monitor more stuff? Or maybe, I don't know, does the app integrate yet with the different fitness apps? You probably eventually have to get that done. Yeah, there are two options, actually. We can get more data from other apps or other gadgets. So we can just combine everything. As I told you, the more data, the more, like we can even make everything as i told you the more data the more like we can even make some predictive analysis in the future if we have more data about the user the secondly

about the breath analysis actually breath analysis is a new emerging area but i think it is it has a bright future because it's actually simple i mean you don't the alternative is having a blood test or urine test but it's quite simple and you can get continuous data with the breath because it's simple and you can do that. There are some, as I told you that we have started as a medical device, there are some medical applications possible in the future for that. There are some research companies doing breath analysis for detecting like cancer or diabetes or that kind of stuff or some gastroenterological issues, problems. So breath analysis could be used for that. Okay, we choose not to go to the medical path at the moment. But for the wellness, we can also maybe as I today collect more data and me can maybe

make some predictive analysis. Okay, according to this data, you're like 85%, you are going to have diabetes. So be careful. It is something like that. I'm not saying that we do that at the moment, but it's the way that it can go, actually. It has a bright future, I think. Breadth analysis could be more commonly used in the future. I'm sure that people will see a lot of devices using breadth analysis in the future.

What are you guys hoping to accomplish at CES? You guys have your booth there at CES. So if you're going to CES, Eureka Park, check them out. What are you guys hoping? There'll be their booth number on the Chris Fox Show podcast as well, so that you can pull that up if you missed it. What are you guys hoping to accomplish there? What are you guys trying to accomplish at CES?

First of all, we want to meet some people. It's a networking activity. We want to actually promote our product to the users. We are also, by the way, trying to launch our product to the US market. We have some sales team in the US and business

team. So we will be promoting our product actually. We have some sales. We have started some sales in Turkey, but it will be the first time we will be launching our launch of our product actually. We have some sales. We have started some sales in Turkey, but it will be the first time we will be launching the product in the US market. So it's going to be an exciting experience for us and we want to know more

about the US market and how people are reacting to our product. It will be really good. So we want to have some sales or meet some different people who can give us some information or feedback. That would be really good for us to see the U.S. market on how can we have some more successful results in the U.S. market. So it will be really good for us. Yeah, that'll be really good.

Are partners things you're looking for? People that maybe they have some sort of good association in the market for you or maybe things you can team up on? I don't know. Yeah, it could be anything. We are open to any kind of suggestion or any kind of business cooperation or an opportunity like distributors or something.

We are even investors and we are open to anything. Now, can people order this yet? Can they buy it on the market? Yeah, they can order it from our website. They can go to our website and buy the product now. We will do an official launch at the show, but we can just buy the product now. There you go.

There you go. So they can go to the website. They can click the Buy Now button and check that out. And then they can go to the website, they can click the buy now button and check that out and then they can see you. Give us the booth number again, if you will, at the show there that you're going to be at. Okay. Okay.

I threw you a curveball there, didn't I? Yeah. We'll put it on the Chris Walsh Show podcast so people can pull that up as they go. I couldn't find it. You know, I'll just put it on the,

I'll just put it on the, I'll link it on the show and people got it at the beginning of the show. If you saw the beginning of the show, you got it. You should be writing everything down people as we go. So make sure you have notes. So this has been pretty insightful, man. It's really cool. The the show. You got it. You should be writing everything down, people, as we go. So make sure you have notes. So this has been pretty insightful, man. It's really cool.

The technology is out there. It's probably much cheaper to maintain your health and do stuff with your device than, you know, what it costs to go to a doctor. That's for sure. Yeah. That's definitely one of the things that we want to actually accomplish. I mean, we are trying to have, okay, this is a valence device, but we can provide some self-care without going to the point where you can just use it at home and you don't really have to go to a doctor and you can just use it for your valence and for your self-care actually. So this is something that really has a feature. That's one of the things that we have seen in during this epidemic crisis is that, okay, it's really difficult sometimes

for you to go to the point, but you can just use it at home. Like digital healthcare is going to be one of the main features of the future. I mean, that we will be seeing out of products like that as well. I think it has some bright future, these kind of applications, products, and digital health care products, definitely. Definitely. Anything more you want to touch on before we go out? I think I have said everything that I could. Cool. Probably.

But basically, one of the things that probably have about modern age is that we are becoming more unhealthy in terms of metabolic. So we are having unhealthy metabolism. I think creating eating habits and providing wellness is going to be really essential for us. It's not only about physical appearance, but also for preventing some like chronical disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, etc. So we should be really careful about what we eat because you told me that you were going to the gym, but okay, gym is also important, but maybe 70% of the success comes from the diet actually. 30% gym, 70% diet. So if you don't eat properly, even if you go to the gym, you won't completely achieve the goals that you really want to have.

It should be a combination of both, really. Most definitely. The more you can, that's what I think about now. I focus a lot on prevention and quality of life, especially. I think everyone right now, they're doing that right now. Everyone's making resolutions. I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to eat healthy.

I'm going to be better this year. So this is a great way to kick off the first year to start. And then, of course, if you see a show, check out their booth at Eureka Park and all that good stuff. Thank you very much, Jonas, for being on the show. This is pretty insightful and pretty amazing. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thanks, Manish, for tuning in. And give us your plug one more time where people can find you guys on the interwebs. It's avocat.io. There you go, guys. Avocatio. Yeah, avocat. You can find us there. Don't forget the.io.

That's really important. So, guys, go check it out. Go to youtube.com, Fortress Crispin. Subscribe to everything we're doing. You're going to see our CES coverage that's coming up tomorrow. We've got a whole mess more CES pre-interviews.com, fortunate as Chris Voss. Subscribe to everything we're doing. You're going to see our CES coverage that's coming up tomorrow. We've got a whole mess more CES pre-interviews. And I think, geez, we've got like 30 interviews or something over CES.

So it's going to be pretty amazing. Also go to Goodreads.com, fortunate as Chris Voss. See my book on Amazon. Also go to all the groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram. Be safe. Set some good goals for this year and stay on them, folks. Stay on them. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you guys next time.