Jonathan Wolf is the co-founder and CEO of ZOE, the science-based nutrition company using data to transform how people eat. In this candid conversation, he joins me to explore what it takes to build a mission-driven company, how to lead with more clarity and transparency, and why the way we eat is more broken and more fixable than most people think.
ZOE’s origin story is as unconventional as it is inspiring. After scaling Critéo into a billion-dollar business, Jonathan stepped away with no plan and plenty of questions. That wandering period led him to microbiome researcher Tim Spector, and from there, to the bold idea of using AI and big data to personalize nutrition at scale. Eight years and 250,000 microbiome samples later, ZOE is running the world’s largest nutrition science study and has launched a free app to help people assess their food in real time.
Where to find Jonathan:
Timestamps:
(00:01:30) Jonathan’s Path from Tech Operator to Founder
(04:24) Why Success at a $2B IPO Still Felt Empty
(05:39) Sabbatical, Loss of Structure, and Founder Identity Crisis
(06:58) The Serendipitous Meeting That Sparked ZOE
(09:27) Letting Go of Outcome Obsession and Learning to Value the Process
(11:48) Chasing Achievement vs. Living in Alignment with Values
(14:19) Becoming a Founder Later in Life—and Why That Helped
(17:05) Why Being Naïve About an Industry Can Be a Competitive Advantage
(19:45) Raising €7 Million in Just a Few Weeks
(20:53) Convincing World-Class Scientists to Bet on an Unproven Idea
(24:20) Building a Flywheel: Science, Data, and Community
(29:51) Using Technology and AI for Human Good
(38:47) From Pure Science to a Scalable Business Model
(43:05) Creating the ZOE Membership Flywheel
(48:07) Community Science as a Core Business Strategy
(50:44) Transparency, Trust, and Leading Through Hard Decisions
(54:28) Mission-Driven Culture and Retaining Great Talent
(57:56) Growing from Founder to Leader as the Company Scales
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