This Mom Saw Corn Syrup Was the First Ingredient In Baby Formula and Knew the Industry Needed to Change
Laura Modi
Five days after giving birth to her daughter in 2016, Laura Modi found herself under the fluorescent lights of a pharmacy’s baby aisle at 11 p.m.. The exec (who’d done stints at some of the biggest tech companies) wasn’t producing enough milk to exclusively breastfeed her newborn, and she was baffled by the fact the baby formulas on offer included ingredients like corn syrup and palm oil. “I was 40 pounds overweight, heavily postpartum, and every emotion and hormone was running through my body,” Modi says. “I thought, ‘Why is it that I’m feeding my baby the same formula that I myself would’ve had almost 35 years ago?’”
She headed down a rabbit hole of research, studying the ins and outs of the baby formula industry, and realized there hadn’t been a meaningful update to the nutritional standards of formula since the 1980s. “Science has clearly evolved, and you see it across almost every industry,” Modi says. “So why is it that this one product is the last one to see any change? My curiosity got the better of me.”
In 2017, when Modi’s daughter turned one, she decided to quit her job and set out to disrupt the baby formula industry. Today, she’s a mother of three and the co-founder/CEO of Bobbie, a company that sells FDA-approved infant formula that’s made with organic milk from grass-fed cows—and without fillers, corn syrup, antibiotics, palm oil, maltodextrin, or persistent pesticides.
Following the more-stringent European formula regulations, Bobbie offers more than just healthier formula. The company’s “From Milk to Movement” philosophy champions long-term policy reform around paid parental leave; provides formula to women who have undergone breast cancer treatment; and is working to destigmatize formula-feeding for those who can’t—or who choose not—to breastfeed.
As with any startup, Bobbie’s path hasn’t always been smooth. During 2022’s formula shortage, which left millions of families scrambling to find formula because of supply chain issues and unprecedented formula recalls, Bobbie did something unexpected: They turned off their website for eight months. As their inventory was being depleted, closing their doors to new customers was the only way Bobbie could continue serving all of the parents who were already customers. “We [were] the only formula company in the U.S. that was able to reliably and continually serve its customers,” Modi says.
Below, find out where Modi found the confidence to quit her tech job and break boundaries in an entirely new industry, how Bobbie is shifting the narrative around formula feeding, and the biggest financial lesson she learned along the way.
KATIE COURIC MEDIA: What was it about the formulas on the market that made you think, “We can do way better than this”?
LAURA MODI: Corn syrup was the first ingredient I read on the back of [a] formula can, and that broke my heart. I’d just spent nine to 10 months putting unprocessed, high-quality food and nutrients into my body, worrying about how my baby was developing. And now, not only am I not able to produce milk, but I’m about to give her something that couldn't be further from unprocessed. As a layman foodie, corn syrup was the one ingredient that I wouldn’t even feed myself.
