The idea behind Numin is to tackle the issue of decision fatigue by helping people make higher quality decisions for a longer period of time.
High-stake decision makers, such as commodity traders and professional e-sports athletes could be most prone to decision fatigue, but this is a condition that everyone potentially faces.
This is especially true for the modern society where one makes an average of 35,000 decisions daily, according to the start-up.
Hozack, an industry expert in the energy space with 20 years of experience in Red Bull Energy Drink across different markets, including Japan, South Africa, Australia, North America, believes that Numin is a new category creator.
This is because it addresses a huge addressable market, but no solution has been made available so far, said Hozack.
“Decision fatigue is a unique proposition. The addressable market is everyone living in the modern world, since everyone potentially suffers from decision fatigue,” he told NutraIngredients.
“Also, there isn’t a product or a solution out there that we’re aware of that addresses decision fatigue, which then gives us the potential to become a category creator.”
Dr Watson said that 12 scientific papers on decision fatigue have been published so far. One of the most prominent studies was conducted on nurses during COVID-19. However, no product has been developed to target the condition.
About US$2m was raised to start the business.
Altruism
Science and concept apart, there is also an altruistic dimension to Numin.
The duo believes that the ability to make better decisions could make the world a better place.
“Generally and globally, the world is making some terrible decisions. Speaking from a viewpoint as a parent of two and for humanity, we could be making much better decisions.
“This is why I am interested in decision fatigue and the negative or the positive impacts that it could have on the world.
“The other important thing is that you are where you are today because of the decisions that made by you, your family or your community. If you want to be in a better place in life, it’s all about making better decisions,” said Hozack.
Numin was introduced at the Growth Asia Summit held in Singapore in July, where Dr Watson introduced the brand and its concept to attendees.
The Singapore-headquartered start-up will first market its powder functional drink product in the US starting from this month, before expanding to more markets.
What exactly is decision fatigue?
In layman terms, decision fatigue can be described as brain fog.
To be specific, decision fatigue happens when the brain is bombarded by more decisions that one can handle, such that the quality of decisions begins to decline, Dr Watson said.
This is different from mental fatigue, which is when one feels tired and wants an energy drink or rush of caffeine to help them feel awake, he said.
Decision fatigue and mental fatigue are also mutually exclusive.
“You can feel very tired and have decision fatigue, or you can be wide awake and have decision fatigue,” said Dr Watson.
Decision fatigue can be seen as a modern day epidemic.
“Now, we face on average of 35,000 decisions daily and our brain isn’t designed biologically to handle that many decisions.
“Our brains then start to take shortcuts. Either it doesn’t make decision at all, or default to decisions that unconsciously are the safest or easiest,” he said.
What’s inside and how does it work?
No caffeine or stimulants is present in Numin.
Instead, it uses key ingredients like Rhodiola Rosea, curcumin, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), L-tyrosine, and chromium picolinate.
These ingredients are chosen as they support glutamate clearance in the synapse.
Glutamate is a neurotransmitter and a build-up in the synapse can interrupt synaptic transmission, in turn causing decision fatigue.
“In decision fatigue, decisions are happening so fast, that the synaptic network becomes overloaded, such that the synapse isn’t able to reset, leading to a build-up of glutamate that interrupt the signals, which eventually leads to decision fatigue,” said Dr Watson.
In this case, the use of MSM could help upregulate the amount of glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1).
An increase in this protein is crucial as it helps transport and ensuring a balance of glutamate in the central nervous system.
Rhodiola Rosea, on the other hand, plays a role in stress response, while L-tyrosine helps to properly process and manage the substrates of neurotransmission in the brain.
“What we are targeting is a known mechanism of action, so we know exactly what we’re chasing, it’s something very specific,” Dr Watson said.
Clinical trial
He added that a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial with e-sports athletes playing League of Legends showed that supplementation of Numin improved decision making and win rates.
Specifically, supplementation significantly decreased impulsive decision making by 43%.
This translated into less deaths in their game characters, as players communicated and cooperated more.
“When we combatted decision fatigue and slowed it down with Numin, we showed that communication rates were maintained, gamers communicated more with their teammates, which also contributed to the increased win rates that we saw,” he said.
Watch the video as Dr Watson explains about the mechanism of action and clinical trial findings.
Target consumers
In its initial stage, Numin will target finance professionals and e-sports athletes.
These are individuals that have to make important decisions successively and quickly, and get to see the results of their decisions almost instantly.
“In the beginning, we’re looking at groups who are acutely aware of their condition.
“One is the financial professionals, especially commodity traders and anybody in the floor making fast decisions. They’re acutely aware of the fact that the quality of their trade and financial decisions declines throughout the course of the day.
“The other sub-group would be professions where risk and rewards are part of their jobs and e-sports athletes, who already have a name for decision fatigue by calling it tilting,” said Dr Watson.
The company will also conduct consumer education through their D2C site, as well as connect with key opinion leaders to spread the public’s awareness of decision fatigue.
Currently, Dr Watson and Numin’s Chief Marketing Officer Michelle O’Brien, previously Regional Social Media Lead at Disney+ SEA, are already running a podcast known as Decisions that Count to kick start conversations around decision fatigue.
Lastly, Hozack said he would be keen to invest in social initiatives that help people make better decisions - with The Ron Finley Project an example.
“I want to find people that have good programs that we can invest in and the backbone of their initiatives have to be making an effort to make decisions that’s going to benefit other people,” he said.
Why the US first
Numin will be launched first in the US for three key reasons.
First, it is a vast market, where the target consumers of high stake professionals and e-sports athletes are far greater than other regions, said Hozack.
“The two core consumers that we will focus on are high stake professionals and the gaming community. Their numbers in the US far outweigh the potential consumer base in individual Asian markets.
Second, it is a market with one regulatory system, which makes it easier to navigate as opposed to the different regulatory systems, distribution systems and languages spoken as in the case of Asia.
Third, the company will be producing the product in the US so as to avoid tariff uncertainty.
Nonetheless, the company still has plans to launch Numin in Asia-Pacific, with plans in place for local production.
South Korea, Japan, Australia are the top three markets with greater potential. Some of the reasons are the size of their e-sports community and history of consuming functional drinks.
