CTO Brion Finlay (left), CEO Adam Southam (center left), President/COO Alex Danzberger (center right) and intern Suraj Raghavan (right).
About MyFormulary:
MyFormulary is a functional medicine educational resource and retailer that was established after CEO Adam Southam was diagnosed with Hyperlipidemia. Eight years ago he was sent to leading cardiologist Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, who informed him that his mountain-high triglycerides would lead to an early death. But instead of prescribing a pill, she prescribed Southam a book titled Eat Yourself Slim.
“I made a minor lifestyle change and switched from bad carbs to good carbs. Integrative Medicine using Functional Foods brought my triglycerides from 1850 to 430 (<150 is considered healthy) in 90 days. With a few more tweaks, including fish oil and other supplements, I was off the endangered list.”
That lifestyle change led to better health for Southam and inspired MyFormulary’s founding. Although doctors in favor of Preventative Medicine are becoming more common, it’s hard to find a place where patients can easily access the Functional Foods and supplements prescribed. That’s why Southam, together with Formulary President/COO Alex Danzberger and CTO Brion Finlay, decided to create a distribution channel for these life-altering foods and products.
“Our focus, purpose, and strategy,” said Danzberger, “is to help people understand that disease prevention is a whole lot better than treatment.”
As a startup, MyFormulary doesn’t have a physical store, and operates almost entirely online. To better meet rapidly growing demand and develop new features for their customers, Southam and his team decided to hire interns.
Meet the Intern:
Suraj (pronounced “Sir Edge”) Raghavan is a master’s student studying computer science at the University of Minnesota. He interned with MyFormulary this summer and helped develop their website while learning and improving his skills in PHP and JavaScript.
His primary project involved working with Finlay to develop a better online platform for FitnessFormulary.com, uploading the database, and building out the website’s functionality.
Whenever Suraj couldn’t figure out a coding problem, he said, Finlay would never just give him the answer. Instead he would guide Suraj toward the solution by teaching him how to figure it out.
“I want to go where I can learn the most,” Suraj said. Working at a small company like MyFormulary, “is beneficial in that way. I can speak straight to the people at the top level very easily.”
“Also, the office space of this smaller company,” he added, gesturing to the sunlit living room, “is better than a cubical. It’s a good environment, I can work outside whenever I want and there’s a cat, so that’s a plus.”
On top of being an active user of the SciTech Internship Program, MyFormulary is also a member of the Minnesota High Tech Association and a past Tekne Award winner. For more information on how to get involved in Minnesota’s science and technology ecosystem, visit mhta.org