In this episode, I interview Hursh from Optiventure, a new business that specialises in supplements for hikers. Inside, he shares some insights about their business journey and what they are trying to accomplish in the outdoor space.
Supplements For Hiking, Backpacking And TrekkingInside this episode we cover:
== Want to learn more about Optiventure? You can find them here:
== Listen to the Training For Trekking Podcast on: Or any other of your favourite podcast platforms! == Episode Chapters: 0:11 Introduction to OptiVenture 1:32 Hursh's Background and Hiking Journey 4:16 The Birth of OptiVenture 8:53 Vision and Unique Approach 13:36 Early Days of Business Development 15:28 Product Formulation and Testing 24:33 Challenges in the Journey 28:07 Target Audience and Use Cases 33:35 Feedback from the Hiking Community 34:24 Future Plans for OptiVenture 
Episode Transcript:
[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, I interview Hirsch from OptiVenture, which is a new business doing some really [0:09] interesting things in the hiking space. And essentially what they're all about is they are creating supplements specifically for hikers, which I think is a really interesting idea. And in this episode, we take a little bit of time just to talk through their business, Talk through the inspiration, talk through their journey, what they're doing in the hiking space, and how their product can potentially help hikers out there with their adventures. Now, I think there's a really, really interesting chat just diving into all of this, and it's definitely a format that I'm going to be doing more of in the future and talking to founders and business owners in the hiking space. And anyone who is interested in supplements, nutrition, maybe finding those extra percentages of benefits when they're out on the trail, I think this may be super, super interesting to hear. It's a very, very, very cool episode, and I hope you enjoy it. All right. Welcome, welcome, Hirsch, to the show. Really stoked to have you on. Mate, super stoked to be here. And yeah, it is really cool because I think we were talking a bit more before the show. And yeah, I listened to your podcast a lot when I was training for the Himalayas a couple of years ago. So it's a cool full circle moment to be having a chat to you on here now. So yeah, stoked. [1:21] How good. And yeah, I think this is going to be a really, really interesting episode today because we're going to be touching on, I guess, a space we haven't really touched on a huge amount on this podcast before, [1:30] and yet really, really looking forward to getting into it. So I guess to kick things off, do you just want to give me just the rundown? Who are you, where are you from, and what is your background in hiking? Yeah, so my name's Hirsch. I grew up in Kenya, in East Africa, and I moved to Australia when I was 10 years old, so residing in sunny Perth, WA, most beautiful city in the world. [1:54] And yeah, like we lived a very adventurous life when we were growing up because mom and dad like love going forward driving camping that kind of thing um not so much hiking as kids but we moved after we moved to australia when i was 10 one of the first times that i went back to visit home um me and uh a bunch of family members like my cousins and my uncles and aunties i actually climbed mount kilimanjaro i think when i was 15 years old so that was a 5 000 meter mountain uh that i climbed when i was sort of 15 it was a bit technical sort of towards the top and it was my first, I guess, big experience with altitude and with a bit of mountaineering and with some scrambling and some pretty tough conditions and, you know, all that kind of thing. And I remember coming down from that going, that was horrible. I never want to do that again. And then literally just being like, you know, a week later being like, that was freaking awesome. I can't wait to do that again, basically. And then from there, just been chasing like, yeah, adventures kind of ever since. I probably... [2:57] Throughout high school and university, I, you know, we just caught up studying, working, partying, doing a bit of travel, that kind of thing. So I didn't really do much of the outdoor adventure sort of side of things. But I started my first business when I was 22. And after a few years, I really reconnected with that adventurous side. I walked a section of the Biberman track with a couple of friends. And, you know, it just reignited the passion in me like completely. And then from there, it just became this obsession where I was just trying to get out on longer and longer and longer hikes as much as possible. Got back into the mountaineering side of things. So I climbed Kilimanjaro for my 30th birthday a couple of years ago. And then, yeah, trained up for this massive Himalayan expedition where we spent about six and a half, seven weeks there. [3:39] So, yeah, it's been a very passionate hobby of mine. I wouldn't consider myself a, you know, a professional, but always take it pretty seriously, train really hard, make sure that the strength is dialed in, the diet's dialed in, the nutrition's dialed in, and then you just want to give yourself the best chance possible of succeeding on these big objectives because, yeah, they're obviously pretty tough. [4:01] Yeah, how good. And in all honesty, I could probably spend a whole episode picking your brains about those adventures and, you know, that big Himalayas expedition. But before I get sidetracked, you know, we're kind of here to talk a little [4:13] bit about kind of what you guys are doing with this new business and everything like that. So tell us a little bit about, yeah, I guess the business, what we're doing there. First of all, just a really basic overview. And then if you just tell us, I guess, was there a specific moment which kind of sparked the idea for this business? Yeah for sure so um in a nutshell opti venture is a supplementation and nutrition company for outdoor adventurers um the the core idea behind it is we want to create a a product that was a complete all-in-one micronutrition solution because obviously getting your micronutrients in when you're on trail or on these mountaineering expeditions or when you're doing adventure travels is really difficult but then go a lot further than further than that and have specific formulations in that all-in-one system for immunity, for gut health, energy production sort of during the day and then in the evening to significantly reduce inflammation, get a much better overnight recovery and have a really good sleep, whether you're sleeping on trails, sleeping in a tent, sleeping in a hostel, just kind of like an all-in-one health solution for your big adventures. How the idea was sparked was on that sort of six, seven-week Himalayan expedition. [5:26] Back at the end of 2023, so pretty much exactly two years ago to the day. [5:31] We were coming down from our final peak. So in that expedition, we did the three passes trek, and off to the side of the three passes trek, we climbed Loboche East Island Peak and Amidablam, which are sort of 6,000 to 7,000 meter peaks in the Himalaya. So it was a big, big expedition. And, Pretty much all throughout my section hiking or through hiking or mountain climbing or adventure traveling, I guess maybe career as you'd call it, I'd always make sure that I would take specific supplements and specific dietary products to make sure that I was staying as healthy as possible in these really challenging conditions to maximize my chances of not just success, but having a really good time as well. Um and the more research that i basically did we realized that you know there's specialized probiotics that can like really fortify your gut for example when you're traveling to these developing nations to do these big outdoor adventures um you know there's two or three nutrients like magnesium glycinate and tart cherry that get you that they can basically like help you get a really good restorative sleep then there's things like liposomal curcumin which is amazing for like inflammation modulation because obviously like you get a lot of inflammation, especially when you're doing bigger and bigger and bigger days then you know obviously all your immunity ingredients and that kind of thing and we found ourselves basically taking like a medicine cabinet every single time we went on these adventures but we're just like you know that's just kind of how it is. [7:01] We didn't really think too much of it you know none of us really kind of came from a background of being. [7:08] You know like clinical doctors or nutritionists and naturopaths or anything like that it was just a lot of like passionate self-research that went into the things that we took and to be honest they worked really well um when we're in the himalayas for the 35 days or whatever it basically was, we came across like probably 50 to 100 people at tea houses that were just horrifically fatigued got the kumbu cough which is like a really dry like chesty kind of a cough that just completely destroys your lung capacity you know there was people that were just like really run down really gut sick battling like bout after bout of diarrhea and it was just this consistent problem that was basically taking most people off trail not because of the altitude or because of like how tough the climbs were but it was just all these internal health issues. [7:56] So we so myself and my co-founder cam who's obviously like a very big um through hiker, we were fine pretty much the whole way throughout and in fact we felt like we were thriving and it's because we took a very carefully selected regimen of these different products but it was just so so difficult to manage and we just knew that most people wouldn't have the kind of products that we basically did because it just wasn't something that they would have spent like you know years kind of researching and kind of developing their own sort of protocols and then as we're walking down from the last mountain, Amidablam, towards the little like mountain town of Pangbushay. It was almost like we just kind of at the same time, we were just thinking about it and talking about it. [8:38] And then we just sort of said pretty much out loud, like, why hasn't anyone just combined everything that works into one and packages up in a way for outdoor adventurers that's really like lightweight, [8:50] really packable, very easy to take and just kind of simplifies everything that people need. And then it kind of just became this as soon as we sort of said that it became this this obsession and this idea that we really wanted to like pursue and like try and figure out how to basically like create this ultimate product to not only keep outdoor adventurers really healthy on the trails and on their big adventures but kind of all throughout the process of their of their training and their lives on the go because we we sort of realized that like adventurous people outdoors are pretty adventurous kind of in their day-to-day lives as well so we just kind of went on this massive quest to create this super all-in-one supplement specifically designed for the lives of outdoor adventurers and yeah that was you know a couple years ago we've basically been uh like obsessed with that problem kind of ever since yeah that literally answers my next question um i think i was going to dive into what the specific vision for this business that you wanted to chase but but obviously you know you seem pretty clear there so so i guess following on from that is Was there anything beyond that vision you had, anything specifically that you kind of wanted to do different to whatever else you saw out there at the moment? [10:00] Yeah, big time. So, we kind of realized that we had to start the process from first principles, from scratch and from the ground up. [10:08] Because, like, looking at the entirety of the supplementation industry, you know, from end to end. And first of all, it's a very low trust kind of an industry because there's a lot of, you know, there's like thousands and thousands of cowboys basically in the industry just launching random products that aren't tested. They're not safe. These lap a formulation together, get a contract manufacturer to kind of just like throw it out there and... You know kind of hope for the best so we knew that there was a natural amount of uh skepticism sort of first of all we really believed in the power of supplements and in the power of these natural kind of solutions but we knew that we we wanted to do it differently from like, a trust and efficacy and efficacy perspective so that was the first thing the second thing was um we really wanted to make it extremely easy and simple but effective at the same time as well So, there was lots of all-in-one supplements, things like multivitamins and all-in-one greens powders and reds powders and all these different kinds of things. [11:09] But typically, from all the research that we did and all the experts that we sort of worked with during the formulation process of the first version, we sort of realized that, They'd sprinkle a little bit of this nutrient, a bit of that nutrient, like, you know, just slam it with like dozens and dozens and dozens of nutrients, but have things in such low doses that they wouldn't actually deliver the actual outcomes. And it just made the labels look like they were really impressive. [11:34] So we wanted to make sure that whatever we created had a lot of efficacy, but it was also really simple to take as well. So it had to be all in one it had to hit basically like you know all seven of our pillars which is foundational health and micronutrition then immunity gut health energy sleep recovery and inflammation um and it had to be lightweight and packable and easy to take where you know wherever you sort of were in the world whether it was at home whether it was on a plane on a train, you know in the middle of the himalayas or on the pacific crest trail in america for example so So it was a big, big, big kind of thing that we were like, we want to create this and we want to basically not compromise on anything, like anything whatsoever. So that was kind of the vision to create that first product. And then during the process, we sort of realized that, well, this idea of creating specialized products for outdoor adventurers was quite a big challenge and quite cool as well, because basically every supplement and nutrition brand was built for someone else. Whether it's gym goers, whether it's marathon runners, whether it's different sports people and that kind of thing, where outdoor adventures, food is obviously the most important thing to get all the nutrition from, but outdoor adventure is the one thing. [12:58] I guess, hobby or space or place where it's generally very difficult to actually be super dialed in with your nutrition because, you know, you're living out of a backpack, you're living on freeze-dried meals, you're just dealing with whatever you can get when you're traveling, that kind of thing as well. So we're like, oh, you know, maybe the first product that we really wanted to nail was this one, but, you know, we've got some plans in the future just to kind of to create like an all-in-one company that just basically does everything specifically for the outdoor adventure market. So, that's kind of the big vision. But, you know, we started with the vision of just nailing this one product, and if that makes sense. [13:37] So, walk me through the early days because I'm always super interested in just hearing, you know, how these outdoor businesses, you know, progress. So, from the get-go, like how did things get started with all of this? And And what was, I guess, the journey from that first idea to the first prototypes or batches or however you phrase it with the supplements? Yeah. So as soon as we got back from the Himalayas, we were just like, right, like, you know, what are the first steps? And because neither of us have really had that level of experience kind of in the industry, we kind of just went in a bit, you know, wide eyed and a bit probably naive. So we started contacting um like you know probably about a dozen manufacturers from around australia to actually learn from them what the process would sort of be like um and then we we connected with this um local food scientist and nutritionist in perth so local to us that had like a small company that basically just like created like supplement like you know supplement prototypes but because he was a food scientist because he was a nutritionist um it just felt really it just felt really good sort of working with him because he knew kind of exactly what he was doing he was qualified um. [14:49] Not just on the nutrition side of things, but actually on the science side of things as well. And when it came to the chemistry of all the different nutrients and the creation of the product, which was really interesting to us. But then from there, we were just like, well, we need to try and connect with people that are actually like really specialized in this niche of nutrition, supplementation, optimization, and outdoor adventure. So Cam and I basically went on a bit of a quest to try and connect with people that I guess were, you know, at the intersection of all those three or four things, which was quite challenging to find. [15:29] Then through the process of searching, we connected with Jess Barlow, who then came on board as our head of nutrition and science, which was an absolute blessing to us because she is known as the hiker's nutritionist. So she's a nutritionist, she's a food scientist, and she's got like you know like five ten years of experience in planning expedition diets for outdoor adventurers and through hikers planning supplementation planning snacking and she's done a ton of research and worked with other outdoor food companies to help develop products and she's tested about 150 different products in the outdoor adventure space so you couldn't really ask for a more perfect person to kind of join the team, like really nice and early at the start of kind of creating what was going to become a dedicated company towards the outdoor adventure space. So that was extremely exciting for us, like really, really, really exciting. Um. [16:27] And through working with her and then working with Josh here in Perth, who was the nutritionist food scientist that owned the small kind of like, I guess the small lab that could produce small batch supplements, we created the initial formula for what was going to become OptiVenture version one. Um and once again that was basically a combination of a multivitamin a probiotic a magnesium supplement a curcumin supplement um like a ginger root and a herbal extract supplement um you know and different specialized things for rest and recovery and um, and essentially all that pill is kind of all in one um and we connected with then a a local manufacturer because we realized that we wanted to put so much in there at like clinical dosages that actually delivered a benefit and actually worked that we need to get the largest capsules possible to be able to do it in a way that was actually like an all-in-one format. [17:25] So josh put us in touch with um this guy called barry that ran like a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in uh in perth and he had these triple zero size which are massive massive capsules, that could fit in about 1.5 times the quantity of nutrients that a typical capsule would basically kind of put in. So we designed version one in these gigantic capsules, which we've obviously changed now because we realized they were just way, way, way too big. But that's the length that we kind of went through to put our formulation together. Into a format that would work kind of on the outdoor adventure sort of side of things because, we decided that we weren't going to go down the route of using powders because powders can clump and they're hard to mix and no one takes a shaker and you know like and water can be quite scarce on some of the more remote trails around the world and these different kinds of things as well so, you know we couldn't just do another powder we had to put into capsules we had to make sure that all the nutrients were like heat stable and shelf stable at a wide range of temperatures as well because they can't require refrigeration we then also realized that different nutrients have different what's called powder densities which basically means that you know 100 milligrams of something might be a lot fluffier to take up more capsule space than what 100 milligrams of another thing sort of was so it was this complicated kind of chess puzzle and chess piece of everything. [18:47] That was going into kind of creating this like all-in-one product that never really kind of been done before and what was um really just you know very serendipitous now is my business partner cam and he's one of my best mates as well um he was leaving to do the pacific crest trail in uh in april, 2024 so about six months since we kind of started this journey and our first test batch of supplements. [19:15] Were picked up from the manufacturer on the morning that he left for the pacific crest trail so we basically had our first sort of like 25 to 30 bottles of this supplement the the first prototype batch essentially created cam took a whole bunch to the u.s um to test himself on the Pacific Crest Trail. And then we sent a whole bunch out to lots of different adventurers in our networks that were doing long trails and different expeditions and that kind of thing, including Mitch Hutchcraft, who recently broke the world record for the longest climb of Mount Everest with his triathlon starting in the UK at the top of Everest, and a few other just super cool hardcore adventures kind of around the world. And then basically over the next five and a half months while Cam hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, you know, we're consistently in contact about every single little detail about the supplement. We were consistently checking with all the other adventurers that were basically using the supplement. We were checking in with Jess and then Kirstie, who's another incredible team member that sort of joined, you know, joined our quest to kind of create this ultimate sort of all-in-one. [20:21] And then, yeah, basically over that five and a half months, yeah. It was pretty incredible because it was the first time that Cam spent, it was nearly 5,000 kilometers on trail without even the slightest hint of a single health issue. So he didn't get sick, had barely any inflammation whatsoever. He was sleeping like a baby every single night. He had like, you know, very good gut regularity, I guess you'd call it, in terms of, you know, all the trail foods and the changing diets and the different environments like didn't upset his gut. Like things would have for him kind of previously in the past as well on these really long trails. And we kept getting similar reviews from lots of other adventurers that we're kind of testing this first supplement on. So we knew that we were basically kind of onto something. And then once Cam got back, we then basically did a larger first kind of manufacturing run of a couple hundred units basically. [21:20] And then we launched them before the 2025 PCT season kind of kicked off, and they sold out in 24 hours around the world which was really, really, really exciting for us because we saw that obviously, yes, there is a market of people that really want to stay healthy, perform at their best and recover really well on these longer, more hardcore outdoor adventures and then I guess from there, the rest is history. Now as you went through this whole journey and like you know went through all of that like i'm always interested in hearing what are some of the challenges that you kind of ran into you know i guess as a business going through all of this because i know from my side of things run into a million and one things behind the scenes so i'm always interested in hearing um other people's perspectives so over the over the period like what are some of the major challenges you guys have had to navigate? Yeah, there's been, you know, hundreds and hundreds of like challenges, large and small sort of throughout the entire process. The first thing was realizing that a. [22:24] A product is only as good as the team behind it. So the first thing was like, you know, making sure that we didn't try and just do something on our own, just like, you know, having random consultations with people and just like just chat to different manufacturers and kind of piecing together all the information. We wanted to bring on board like a core team of people, of amazing advisors that were at the cross section of, you know, outdoor adventure, hiking health nutrition and science so the first thing was you know finding jess and connecting with her and then connecting with kirstie who runs cultural wellness and she's an amazing adventure guide plus clinical gut health specialist as well so that that was that was the first thing like making sure that we were aligned with the right people to actually create a product that genuinely did what it said on the tin but then from there it was i think because we had like very freaking uncompromising quality standards we wanted to make sure that we could create a product that had all the specific nutrients that we wanted that were proven to help people you know not get sick get more energy have way less inflammation recover faster sleep better but then to find a contract manufacturer that actually enabled us to basically do that was very very very difficult because like we wanted to create something that just didn't exist kind of before and we didn't want to create like another cookie cutter supplement because cam my business partner has quite a large following it would have been very easy just to throw something together and just get him to put it out there but we wanted to make sure that it was the best of the best so. [23:54] Even finding the right manufacturer was like a massive massive challenge and we actually moved all the manufacturing to the u.s um for opti venture version two because um. [24:04] After interviewing about 10 in Australia plus a dozen over in the US, we finally found one that could basically get us everything that we needed from all the nutrients to the exact capsules that we wanted, to the quantities that we basically wanted, to the order quantities that we needed and just a really smooth process kind of throughout the entire journey. So that was a big one the next one was essentially like because we wanted to do everything it was. [24:34] Finding a way to get the right dosages of every single one of the nutrients in the dosages that we basically needed split into the day and the night formulas that we basically got like at the moment like that was as i said it was a very complicated like you know a chess piece then you know just manufacturing and production delays which are obviously to be expected, and now that we're live, it's been incredible. We've had some amazing feedback from around the world, but it's just now the new challenge is making sure that everyone knows about it and that we can accurately just. [25:06] Convey the the the benefits to people and and how they'll feel and you know what they'll experience with the product on their outdoor adventures as well so it's just basically the whole journey's been you know challenge to challenge to challenge to challenge um but it's just been requiring persistence and patience and obviously a bit of frustration but not letting the frustration kind of get to you because what we're trying to create is is obviously like something that's uh yeah pretty special so um to be honest as uh as you sort of mentioned before we could probably have an entire podcast just talking about all the micro challenges that it's basically taking to get to this point but um yeah maybe we'll spare a few of the details yeah save that save that for another chat but um okay cool so these supplements obviously as we've been talking about they are designed and created for outdoor adventurers but obviously you know there are a million and one different types of hikers and adventurers out there, right? Different adventures, different ages, this and that. So I guess if you're looking at hikers specifically, are there any specific segments or portions of the hiking community that you kind of see this as being the best suited for or the most beneficial for? [26:22] Yeah, absolutely. So, um, when we, the, the vision that we sort of first started out with, um, was that it would be perfect for people going on longer distance outdoor adventures. So I'm talking like, you know, anywhere between a week to two weeks to a month to three months to five months, or people just like, you know, consistently on expeditions kind of like all, all around the world. So it was really for people that were basically going on like a big outdoor adventure where they were pushing their bodies where you know they were doing like 10 20 30 kilometer days with lots of elevation gain over multiple kind of days in a row it was basically for multi-day outdoor adventures, and the idea was for them to basically start it um about seven to ten days before to let the nutrient levels build up in the body um and then continuously take it throughout the length of their expedition to, yeah, give them more energy, make sure they don't get sick, you know, sort of during the daytime, then in the nighttime, just recover really well, reduce inflammation, bounce back stronger every single day and have a really good sleep. So that's where we started. [27:25] But one thing that's been really interesting is since we've basically launched the version two of the supplement is we've had lots of people just come back and buy more and more and more for daily life because funnily enough, it's, you know, the same benefits that you want to chase when you're at on trail is just as applicable if not more applicable sort of at home kind of in your everyday life so the blends were designed for the trail but they were kind of built for an everyday kind of adventurous life so um i guess. [27:57] The, the, the kind of people that this is perfect for now we've sort of realized [28:04] is people that absolutely love outdoor adventures. They get out on an outdoor adventures, you know, once or twice a year, you know, typically for a few days at a time or, you know, for some people weeks or months at a time. But throughout the year, they're consistently, you know, training with people like yourself. They are you know dialing in their nutrition that they're trying to you know optimize every single part of their life so they can perform better in life and on their outdoor adventures as well or they might have a job where they travel quite a bit or they might just be like an everyday kind of an active person that has a real passion for the outdoors so i think our use case for the product has naturally almost we haven't tried to take it there but we've just had so many repeat customers kind of come through over the last couple of months that we've realized that it's kind of we've almost accidentally invented like i wouldn't call it a multivitamin i'd almost call it a multi everything whereas a multivitamin kind of you know just covers your foundational. [29:01] Vitamins and minerals whereas this covers your foundational vitamins and minerals and then has targeted support for those six pills that we've sort of talked about it's people i think are sick of taking multiple products or conflicting information or you know they're quite confused about everything that's kind of out there. So it's a product that's absolutely built for thriving on your multi-day outdoor adventures. But I think now the wider use case for it is if you're an adventurous person that loves the outdoors and you're looking for a daily supplement to, you know, supplement and optimize, you know, all levels of your health sort of across the full spectrum then it's it's kind of become for you now as well if that makes sense and you've mentioned that you know recently you know it's just sort of launched or gone live as you sort of said, and it's gone really to the public and people getting their hands on so since then like what has the feedback from hikers been. [29:59] Yeah, that's a really good question. And we're really blessed that I think the effort and the diligence and the love that we put into creating the product has reflected in the reviews that we've gotten back from people. [30:11] Um so typically i'd say that the um the adventurer that really appreciates it and probably gets the most value out of it are typically those adventurers kind of in that 45 50 plus you know 50 60 70s kind of range because i think like a lot of the time and you know i don't know if you are the same but i was certainly the same um when you're younger you definitely feel a little bit more invincible you don't really take these kinds of things seriously you know even though you absolutely should um or you don't really like you know you just think oh it's just it's just hiking it's just outdoor adventure i'm just going to smash a bunch of freeze-dried meals a bunch of choccy bars and a bunch of cliff bars and like you know i'll be right i don't need to stretch i don't really need to recover those different kinds of things whereas i think the the older adventure is a lot more disciplined and discerning and like really values like um looking after themselves both on and off the trail so the typical reviews that we've gotten so i think we're up to about 78 or 79 five-star reviews for the product which has been amazing and and the key feedback that just keeps coming back is all the little niggles the joint pains the hip pains um the ankle pains that kind of thing that a lot of people just like develop over the days out on trail for a lot of people have either significantly reduced or completely disappeared um which is you know which is just incredible we're getting a lot of people talking about how sleeping on trail and even just sleeping. [31:39] I guess in daily life has become a lot easier. [31:42] And then the whole thing of steady all day energy has been a recurring theme in the reviews. And the other big thing is. [31:50] Because hiking foods and hiking snacks and everything you kind of get when you're traveling is typically very heavily processed. There's a lot of people that experience GI issues, whether it's either blockages, so constipation, or, you know, bouts of diarrhea or bloating or trapped gas or those different kinds of things. Because of the gut-supporting nutrients we've got in there of like Saccharomyces boulardii, which is like a yeast-based probiotic, which is amazing for protecting the gut lining. And then ginger root extract which is really good for gastric motility to basically like help digest these foods more effectively we're actually having quite a few people talk about how the gut side of things has become a lot better for them on trail or during their adventures as well so it's it's been really cool to get a varied amount of feedback across the different pillars that we're sort of optimizing for and i think the biggest thing that we've learned is typically you know you might have someone that doesn't really struggle with energy on trail but they really do struggle with recovery so the recovery sort of side of things is kind of taken care of for them whereas they don't really care about anything else whereas then there's certain people that you know always get sick when they go traveling always get sick when they go on their adventures because they're pushing their bodies to the limits and they're just surrounded by you know planes and pathogens and bacteria and that kind of thing and we're getting people saying hey look. [33:07] I'm sure the supplement was helping out with the other things, but, you know, we came back and it was the first time in 20 years we've come back from traveling and haven't gotten sick. And then there's other people that just talk about, you know, we literally woke up every morning fresh and didn't really have all the typical joint pains because we've got, like, really strong anti-inflammatory natural compounds in the supplement as well. So it's been very good varied feedback. [33:29] And we've sort of learned that people value certain things over others. [33:35] But overall it's been it's been really really nice to see that it does what it says on the tin, and it just kind of validates all the research and the work that we've done because one thing that we've done that we that we haven't seen across pretty much any other supplement company that we've come across is we've got a research page on our website that breaks down the form and the dose of every single nutrient that we've selected, Jess and Kirstie's reasons behind that dose and that supplement and that dose and that nutrient. [34:13] And all the research and all the data backed by peer-reviewed published studies [34:18] as to why that dosage of that form of nutrient is present in the formula. So it's very very very mindful because we knew what we were trying to create sort of didn't really quite exist um and all the feedback that's been coming back from you know hikers and outdoor adventurers has been yeah just yeah it it does blow our mind and we're very very very grateful for it but it reflects the level of i guess love that was put into creating it if that makes sense And then tell me about the future then. What are you guys looking towards in the future? Are there any big plans, doing things differently? Like what's coming up ahead? [34:59] Yeah. So I think the first thing is we want to, because currently we're, we're manufacturing in the USA and we are shipping worldwide from the USA. So eventually we'd love to actually bring some of the production of the, well, we'd love to bring the Australian production into Australia, the European production into Europe and the USA production into the USA. Just so we've got like localized manufacturing if we can find manufacturers in those regions in these these different regions that can actually match the the product that we've basically got um so we can actually ship locally as well because shipping times around the world are a little bit longer than we basically like them to kind of be but you know everyone sort of starts somewhere and kind of starts small, um that's on the product side and i think what we want to do is look we're always always always ways adapting and evolving as well like you know version one of the product was was good but it wasn't perfect version two is even better but it's not perfect there's already a couple of things that we're looking to like we're slowly in development of looking to change just things to optimize for version three and i'm sure that in version three we're going to find a couple things version four and version five and maybe after version seven you know we'll finally have something that we consider to be absolutely perfect as well so we're consistently iterating on it and improving the product um we just want to get out into as many hands as possible but we do have some amazing ideas for other adjacent products in the space that don't really exist for the outdoor adventure so we've got a um. [36:27] A really special hikers electrolytes that has been in development. We've done a couple of community hikes here in Perth with a bit of a tasting party. So that's kind of waiting in the wings. We've got some other ideas for specialized products around, you know, coffees and trail greens and a few of these other things as well, which is really exciting. But I think the mission for the next 12 months is really just continuously perfecting this first product and just making it really easy to get it out to everyone around the world so they can just experience the best adventures of their lives so that's kind of the immediate future but you know long term it's it's hard to plan five ten years out but yeah the future is uh is is just looking really exciting it's something that we're like you know both cam and i and and jess and and everyone kind of involved is just genuinely really passionate about to be honest yeah fantastic and and it's been so so so interesting hearing yeah a little bit about this journey and the story and everything you guys got going on, because I love this stuff. I just love hearing the journeys and the inspirations of different businesses in the outdoor space. And there's definitely this style of interview is something I want to do much more in the future. So I guess for anyone who's listening to this and just wants to learn a little bit more about what you guys do, check out the supplements check or whatever it may be, where's the best place they should go? Where should we point them towards? [37:46] So our website is OptiVenture.co, so O-P-T-I-V-E-N-T-U-R-E. So the idea was Optimizing the Adventure, so OptiVenture.co, C-O. Our Instagram is at OptiVenture.co. And, yeah, if you go to the website, in the top level of the menu, there's a research tab which really just breaks down everything in detail for all the science nerds out there. [38:11] But, yeah, there's heaps of information. All of our reviews are on there. And yeah, definitely feel free to connect with us on Instagram. You know, as I mentioned, the company literally is myself, Cam, Jess, and then Kirstie helps out with a bunch of things as well. So there's four of us. So, you know, we are the, you know, we're the sales, we're the marketing, we're the customer support, you know, we're there to help out and give as much advice as possible. And, you know, yeah, just be as valuable and as helpful as we can to people. So if you've got any questions whatsoever just literally reach out to us. [38:48] Yeah, fantastic. Well, I'll make sure links for all of that is in the show notes below. So if anyone wants to check that out, just scroll below and you'll be able to find all that. So I guess before we wrap things up, I think we covered some really interesting stuff today. Is there anything else that I guess we haven't really had a chance to cover today that you'd like to add or like to touch on? [39:10] Um not not really too much i guess the um the the main thing that i would basically say is um, obviously you know your supplementation is is not a substitute for you know being mindful about what you're eating it's not a substitute for having really good training and it's definitely not substitute just for having like just generally kind of healthy habits and that kind of thing so a lot of the time if people take our sunset formula but are scrolling their phone for two hours without any red light blocking glasses, like, you know, right before bed, it's not really going to help you kind of optimize your sleep. So it's essentially, it's a, it's definitely like a supplement that really ties into the overall intention of living a healthy, active, adventurous lifestyle. And on the trail, it can be a real, on the trail, it can be a real game changer, because obviously there, it's kind of almost really difficult to kind of have the healthy habits um in place which is why we kind of originally sort of designed it for that but i think that's the biggest thing it's just understanding that supplementation is definitely not a silver bullet um but when used in the right context with you know all the other things then it can be a real just absolute game changer for people so it's just something to kind of keep in mind because we definitely don't want to be over promising the world um but we also want to give the product credit for where it's due kind of thing. [40:28] Awesome. So thank you so much for coming on today, Hirsch. I think this has been super, super interesting, just getting a little bit of insight into kind of your guys' journey and what you've got going on. And I guess what the hints of what you've got ahead for the future, which is super exciting. So thank you so much for coming on. I think this has been a really good episode and I think a lot of people are really going to enjoy it. [40:50] Yeah, awesome. Thanks so much for having me, mate. And yeah, thanks a lot for all the value you just kind of keep putting out to the world and yeah, being, being such a, uh, like an awesome source of, um, of just knowledge around the, around the strength training and the, and the preparation side of things, because yeah, a lot of people don't look at hiking as a sport where it really actually is one of the most hardcore kind of sports out there because it's just super unique. [41:16] There's no stadium, there's no track, there's, there's no gym. It's just, you know, you in the wild. So you've got to be, got to be super prepared. So it's really cool that, you know you're out there just like actually getting people prepared to have the best adventure of their lives so no it's been um it's been it's been awesome mate and um also i think one thing worth mentioning is um there's also a strength guide that we've done with you as well on the uh on the opti venture websites there's a ton of value in that and we've we've had a few people email us talking about how much value they've gotten out of that one as well so no thanks again mate yeah fantastic no that's that's really good to hear so there we go guys i really do hope you've enjoyed today's episode and I hope it was interesting and gave you a few little insights into, you know, I guess an area we don't really typically talk about a huge amount on this podcast. Now, as I said at the start of this episode, I think this format of interviewing different founders, different business owners in the hiking and outdoor adventure space is something I'm going to be doing a little bit more of in the future, just because I really do enjoy hearing these stories and I really do hope you enjoyed it too. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. I hope you got a bit out of it. I hope it was interesting and yeah, I hope you really enjoyed the chat. Want to get
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AuthorRowan is an online personal trainer who specialises in training for hiking and mountaineering. He helps get them fit, strong and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. Archives
November 2025
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