Built in Los Angeles recently posted the article ‘Scan For
Your Dietary Restrictions With This Fast-Growing LA App’. The piece came to
fruition following Content Checked Holdings, Inc.’s (OTCQB: CNCK) outreach to
business and tech media with the company’s recent partnership and financial
updates.
As a result, Kris Finstad, CEO of Content Checked, scored an
interview with Built in LA to discuss the genesis of the company’s app and its
continued growth in Los Angeles. The article captured the full story and
focused on Finstad’s inspiration to develop this technology.
Built in LA is a growing online community that creates and
curates exclusive content on local companies and startups, hosts monthly events
and publishes data on the tech sector of Los Angeles – the perfect audience for
ContentChecked. Built in LA enjoys a readership of nearly 50K unique visitors a
month.
Sometimes, the inspiration for a great startup can come
during a dark time. After suffering from two major strokes in 2010, Norway
native Kris Finstad was forced to spend his days at home. The unfortunate
situation did, however, allow him to spend more time with his nine-year-old
daughter while she and her friends were home from school. One of the friends
frequently visiting the family’s home had a long list of allergies that her
parents had delivered to Finstad. As hard as he tried to avoid the extensive
list of ingredients, he eventually made an error, and the girl was rushed to
the emergency room.
Frustrated and confused, he searched for his mistake and was
unable to find the ingredient that triggered the intense reaction. The doctors
eventually revealed that is was an additive that was labeled something entirely
different. Finstad contacted the girl’s father and proposed the idea of an app
that would thoroughly scan food labels to prevent situations like this in the
future.
The girl’s father, a CTO at a large Norwegian cellular phone
provider, and her mother, one of Finstad’s neurologists, encouraged him to work
on a schematic of what he envisioned as a form of therapy for his recovery. A
short while later, Finstad returned with a detailed proposal of the app that
would become ContentChecked.
“He came back and said, ‘I’ve quit my job now, how would you
like to proceed?’” Finstad said. “It took me by surprise and I tried to reason
with him but thought, what the hell, let’s do it.”
The two built the company over the next year and launched
the Norwegian version of ContentChecked in 2012. The company now offers
applications (ContentChecked, SugarChecked, MigraineChecked) that allow users
to scan food items and check if a product fits into their dietary restrictions.
ContentChecked shows users if products they are scanning contain any of their
allergens, SugarChecked helps users stick to a sugar-free diet, and
MigraineChecked warns users of potential triggers in food that may cause
discomfort.
The following year, after the app had caught on in their
home country, the duo decided to take on the U.S. market, relocating the
company to Los Angeles. The company continued its growth and went public in
April 2015, but their quick success did not come without a few speed bumps.
Early on, the company only aggregated public ingredient data and quickly found
that the error margin was around 85 percent. They decided to make their own
database by contacting the FDA and food producers, creating one of the most
extensive food databases in the world.
The company’s apps currently have 2.6 million combined users
between the U.S. and Norway, 66 percent of which use the app at least five
times a week. The second version of the app, which Finstad calls a ‘game
changer’, will feature a shopping list and a recipe list filled with
allergy/sugar/migraine friendly meals.
To view the entire article, visit http://dtn.fm/z6o9H
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