Who this is
Chanyu Xu was born in China, grew up all over Germany and has lived in Berlin for 20 years. She worked in her parents' restaurant from an early age and ran it on her own for ten days at 18. After studying business communication at Berlin's University of the Arts and working for Red Bull, she co-founded the hotel software company Customer Alliance in 2009, then one of Berlin's first ghost kitchens, helped build the delivery concept Eat First at Rocket Internet and delivered fine-dining meals to people's homes with Eating with the Chefs. In 2017 she founded HER ONE, a supplement brand for women that she runs as sole founder.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
Who is Chanyu Xu?
Chanyu Xu is a Berlin-based serial founder. She co-founded the hotel software company Customer Alliance in 2009, then started a ghost kitchen for healthy food, built the delivery concept Eat First at Rocket Internet and delivered fine dining to people's homes with Eating with the Chefs. She has run HER ONE since 2017. To the episode →
What is HER ONE?
HER ONE is a direct-to-consumer supplement brand marketed to women. Its core product, Inner Beauty All-in-One, is a powder with more than 70 vitamins, minerals and superfoods, complemented by around 15 products for areas such as hormone balance, skin, hair and nails. According to Chanyu, the products themselves are gender-neutral. To the episode →
Why did Chanyu's ghost kitchen fail?
She was too early. The kitchen did well on the delivery platforms, but there were no platform riders yet, and since everyone eats at the same time, she needed her own fleet for a few rush hours. After two years and putting in her own savings, she filed for insolvency. Shortly afterwards, delivery services solved exactly that problem. To the episode →
How is HER ONE funded?
HER ONE has raised an eight-figure sum in three or four rounds: pooled business angels, a Berlin state fund, early-stage VCs and, as one of the main shareholders, one of Europe's largest food VCs. The Series A is done and a Series B is planned within the next 12 to 16 months. For financing inventory, HER ONE is also becoming bankable with its house bank. To the episode →
What prejudice has Chanyu faced as a founder?
Investors said they weren't the target group and wanted to give samples to their wives. She was turned down twice for being a sole female founder, once after pitching to the investment committee and being asked to leave the room. At a business angel club she was told that follow-on funding would be hard for a woman over 30. To the episode →
Which trends does Chanyu see in the food market?
She names three areas: health and wellness including sleep, nutrition, stress and wearables, non-alcoholic and functional drinks, and female health and fertility, where in her view Germany lags behind other countries. For GLP-1 she sees rising demand, but in Europe there are strict limits on weight-loss claims in advertising. To the episode →
Quotes
„Da sollten wir auch viel mehr die Angst davor verlieren. Also natürlich will auch nicht gerne scheitern. Niemand scheitert gerne.““We should lose much more of our fear of it. Of course nobody likes to fail. Nobody fails gladly.”
„Ein großer Teil meiner Vita ist Scheitern.““A big part of my CV is failure.”
„Timing ist tatsächlich das A und O.““Timing really is everything.”
„… solche Leute willst du gar nicht als Investoren haben.““You don't even want people like that as investors.”
„Das wichtigste für mich ist, do it, ehrlicherweise. Also don't overthink it.““The most important thing for me, honestly, is: do it. Don't overthink it.”