Munich Startup: What does Your Root do? What problem do you solve?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: With Your Root we solve the problem of providing fresh vegetables for quick, easy consumption and make healthy nutrition becomes an integral part of everyday life. We offer five delicious, organic products without any additives – our Soup'r Drinks. They meet the Nutri-Score A rating and, thanks to a special high-pressure process, can be stored for up to 90 days without any heating or preservatives, while retaining all their nutrients.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: No, our Soup'r Drinks are a completely new product category: pure, certified organic vegetables from a bottle that can be used in a variety of ways – as a drink, soup, or sauce. Their greatest advantage is their minimal fructose content compared to fruit smoothies or fruit-vegetable blends, which means they don't oversaturate your body's sugar levels, and the product has a Nutri-Score A rating. Another unique selling point is that they are fresh and not cooked, yet they can still be stored for up to twelve weeks. We achieve this through high-pressure pasteurization, which kills harmful bacteria and microorganisms while preserving the product's nutrients, vitamins, flavor, and texture – all without the use of colorings, flavorings, or preservatives.
Fresh vegetables for quick consumption
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: As a former professional athlete and father of four children, I know how important, but also how difficult, it is to integrate healthy eating into a stressful everyday life. Fresh vegetables for quick consumption in everyday life were a market gap that I wanted to fill. Since I had already become interested in the Topic: Nutrition and was particularly interested in vegetables and oils and their positive impact on fitness and the prevention of chronic diseases, the idea for Your Root was quickly born after I ended my active career in 2020 and brainstormed with a nutritionist friend.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: The biggest hurdle for me was turning an idea into a marketable product that could be produced on a large scale. That's a huge step that many people underestimate. Especially in the food industry, there are numerous legal requirements to comply with, especially if you want to achieve organic certification. Added to that are numerous adjustments to the composition and production processes until the optimal drinking experience is achieved. It didn't work out for us right away, but we did it, and we're proud that our Soup'r Drinks are not only extremely healthy, but also taste so delicious that even children love them.
Further products for a balanced diet are planned
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: Our goal is to further expand our distribution channels next year to reach as many people as possible with our Soup'r Drinks. Perhaps by then we'll have received sufficient customer feedback to work on new, popular varieties. And in five years, we want to be an established company whose products have become established on the market and are widely available through retail outlets. In the next step, we want to focus on other products for a balanced diet and already have a few ideas.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: Munich has a vibrant startup culture with a strong infrastructure for starting a business. Here, you meet many like-minded, interesting people who have already experienced a lot in the business world at a young age. This exchange of experiences is extremely helpful and important for learning from each other's mistakes, or for recognizing them early and, ideally, avoiding them altogether.
Munich Startup: Public transport or bicycle?
Thomas Oppenheimer, Your Root: For business meetings that are a bit further away, I like to use public transport. Otherwise: bike!
