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Andy Dunn is the founder of Pie, a platform helping users make better friends by facilitating recurring in-person interactions and discovering local events. Previously, Andy was the co-founder of the menswear brand Bonobos in 2007 and served as its CEO until Walmart acquired it in 2017. His book Burn Rate covered his entrepreneurial journey as a founder with bipolar disorder.https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pie-make-better-friends/id1509667820

00:00 START

02:02 Experiences with Isolation

08:25 Reconnecting and Building Community

18:09 Introducing Andy Dunn and Pie

21:10 Andy Dunn's Journey from Fashion to Friendship

26:01 The Second Mountain: Life's New Challenges

27:14 Loneliness vs. Social Isolation

29:05 Skepticism Towards Social Startups

30:01 The Creator Economy and Group Matching

38:40 Scaling the Model Sustainably

42:03 The Future Vision for Pie

Braun & Brains is my personal outlet where I cover tech, business, and adjacent topics. Need production, insights, or a fresh perspective for your podcast or social media? Let’s talk.

In this episode, I’m joined by Odette Yang, co-founder of BeautyRightBack—a subscription-based platform that’s rethinking how beauty services work for both customers and salons. Before our conversation, I share my own experience with ClassPass, the “Digital Middleman Economy,” and what led me to start looking for a better way to book beauty. BRB offers unlimited blowouts, manis, pedis, waxing, and more—starting at $99/month. No credits. No guesswork. Just real value for customers and reliable revenue for salons. Odette and I talk about how BRB stands apart from ClassPass and Groupon, what makes the beauty industry so tough for small businesses, and how exclusivity and AI are helping create a more sustainable model. If you’ve ever booked a beauty treatment and wondered who’s really benefiting—this episode is for you.BRB: beautyrightback.com

My newsletter: https://braunandbrains.substack.com/

Article mentioned: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/magazine/classpass-and-the-joy-and-guilt-of-the-digital-middleman-economy.html Braun & Brains is my personal outlet where I cover tech, business, and adjacent topics. Need production, insights, or a fresh perspective for your podcast or social media? Let’s talk.

Braun & Brains is my personal outlet where I cover tech, business, and adjacent topics. Need production, insights, or a fresh perspective for your podcast or social media? Let’s talk.

As more Americans become protein-obsessed and are called back to the office, quick, portable snacks have become staples. Last year, the star of the show was beef jerky sticks, like Chomps. Now, it feels like we are are in the year of cottage cheese. US cottage cheese sales have grown over 50% in the past five years, rising 16% in 2023 and another 17% in 2024, according to Circana, as highlighted by The Wall Street Journal.

“For most of the past half-century, cottage cheese has been known as a food that you eat when you’re on a diet and trying not to eat much food. But these days, Americans who are obsessed with health, wellness, and longevity are so hungry for rich sources of protein that cottage cheese has become one of the sexiest products in the grocery store.” — Ben Cohen, The Wall Street Journal

Lately, when I scroll through social media, I often come across someone sharing a recipe to make cottage cheese taste like anything but cottage cheese. (Cottage cheese chocolate mousse? Please). That alone was a sign it might not be for me, but my history with the food runs deeper.

Growing up, my parents were always concerned with protein. This trend is not new to the Braun household. Spoonfuls of peanut butter cover the canvas of my childhood like a Jackson Pollock painting. I have the opposite of an almond mom (she’s more like a Kerrygold mom) and my father thinks a handful of wasabi almonds is a meal. The battles I had as a kid with my parents, refusing to eat cottage cheese on my way to soccer practice or school, will go down in history. Cottage cheese and I have personal beef (and not in the on-the-go meat stick kind of way).

However, a few weeks ago, I found myself, eating (and dare I say enjoying) the very mushy substance I saw as the enemy for so long. I was attending an event by Jack Taylor PR on the hunt for free food (as one does) and was taken by surprise after I picked up some ice cream. I was bamboozled. I’m not going to say it was exactly like Ben & Jerry’s; it had a little something to it. But it didn’t lack flavor and stayed rich, unlike other health-focused ice creams I’ve fallen victim to in the aisles of Whole Foods late at night. When I swung back around the floor for a second cup, I realized I was eating a cup of cottage cheese, and my heart dropped to the floor. And this brings me to the interview portion of this newsletter: introducing the creator of the cottage cheese that broke me—Joe Rotondo, CEO and founder of Smearcase.

Joe Rotondo founded Smearcase, the first and only FroCo (frozen cottage cheese), offering the highest-protein ice cream on the market—40 grams per pint—boosted with collagen, low-fat, and free from artificial gums or sweeteners.

Rachel: Why the name Smearcase?Joe: Smearcase is a German term for cottage cheese. We get that question a lot! It’s an ode to our not-so-secret ingredient, cottage cheese. The name is a bit controversial, but it sparks curiosity and grabs attention,which is the ultimate goal.

Rachel: So, are you German?Joe: No, my name is Joseph Rocco Rotondo, and I’m a proud Italian American. But my grandma was German, so in a way, the name is also a tribute to her.

Rachel: What inspired you to create a cottage cheese ice cream brand?Joe: It’s crazy, dairy is a great protein source, but ice cream is usually low in protein and high in fat. I’m not a big dessert guy, but I was training for my first marathon about a year and a half ago. It was a brutally hot summer day in New York, and after my run, I was craving ice cream but wanted something with more nutritional value.

I was in a grocery store, sweating, shirtless, staring at the ice cream aisle, thinking, Why is there no high-protein ice cream? Later, I was eating my usual dessert, cottage cheese with honey and blueberries, when I thought, I wish this was ice cream instead of curdy, clumpy cottage cheese. That’s when it hit me: There’s no such thing as frozen cottage cheese or high-protein ice cream. The entrepreneur in me had to explore it.

Rachel: Is this your first venture into food entrepreneurship?Joe: This isn’t my first rodeo in entrepreneurship,I’ve had a New York City-based clothing brand and a few e-commerce ventures. But this is my first time in CPG.

That said, I grew up around food. I’m Italian, so pasta Sundays were like a religious holiday. My dad owned restaurants and delis, and I worked with him a lot. After college, I was in his bagel shop when his bagel guy quit. I happened to be eating an egg sandwich at the time and said, Dad, do you need a new bagel guy? He said, Yeah, you start today. I had a one-week crash course from two Spanish-speaking guys (I failed Spanish in high school, so that was interesting), and eventually, I ended up winning Best Bagel in New Jersey.

Rachel: How did you achieve the creamy texture in Smearcase?Joe: We’re past the days of sacrificing taste for health,taste is everything. We wanted Smearcase to be as close to traditional ice cream as possible, so we use raw cane sugar for flavor and texture.

Our key innovation was replacing traditional gums and emulsifiers with collagen, which acts as the glue for our product. That’s what gives it a creamy mouthfeel instead of the icy texture you find in other health-focused ice creams. We wanted it to be clean, simple, and delicious.

Rachel: Protein is having a moment. Are you capitalizing on a trend, or do you think this is here to stay?Joe: Ice cream is way sexier than meat sticks! And way sexier than cottage cheese. Brands like Good Culture are making cottage cheese cool again, and we’re riding that wave.

That said, I try to take myself out of trends. I’m obsessed with making something timeless,something that outlives the moment. That was my ethos when I had my clothing brand, and it’s my approach to food.

Sure, protein is having a moment, but a high-protein diet is a proven path to better health. Cottage cheese has had countless comebacks, and it will stay relevant as long as there’s innovation. Good Culture was the first mover, and we’re the first brand to introduce cottage cheese as an ingredient in a CPG product. We’re paving the way for others to follow.

Rachel: How hard was it to develop and launch this product?Joe: If you ask other people, they’ll probably say it was near impossible. At the Fancy Food Show in June 2024, top industry names told us they didn’t think it was possible.

But I was new to ice cream,I didn’t know what I wasn’t supposed to do. My sister, my co-founder Drew, and I made this in my New York apartment. I grew up in the kitchen, so for me, that’s my lab, my happy place.

We surrounded ourselves with the right people, and that helped accelerate our path to the shelf. We created a whole new category in under six months. That’s insane.

Rachel: Who is your target customer?Joe: It’s a mix. Some people want more protein in their diet, while others want a better-for-you sweet treat.

At store demos, if I see someone grabbing Yasso or Halo Top, I say, Hey, come try this,you’re gonna put that back. And they usually do.

We’ve had a lot of success in the New York City health and wellness scene,brand activations, our own events, getting in front of people who value clean, better-for-you products. The market is waking up to better CPG options, and we’re right in that wave.

Rachel: Where can people buy Smearcase?Joe: If you’re in New York City, you can order us on GoPuff. In New Jersey, we’re on Instacart.

We’re also available at ShopRite, Morton Williams, Fairway, and Happier Grocery,one of my favorites. If you’re in Westchester, you can find us at DeCicco’s. And we’re launching in some major retailers in March and April 2025, so stay tuned!

Rachel: Are you planning to expand beyond ice cream?Joe: That’s exactly why we named it Smearcase. We didn’t call it Joe’s Ice Cream or Cottage Creamery. We envision introducing cottage cheese in new form factors, but right now, we’re focused on making the best possible ice cream.

Once we’ve built a strong foundation, we’d love to explore new categories.

🧠 Welcome to a 'Brains issue of Braun & Brains, featuring interviews with smart people from my network that are doing cool things. If you would like to listen to these as podcast episodes, check out the show here .🧠

I remember the first time I heard about diabetes. I was in elementary school, frantically searching for causes and symptoms, desperately trying to figure out if it was a death sentence. My heart was racing. I didn’t have a lot of time alone on the computer, and I knew that Googling phrases like “life expectancy with diabetes” was something my parents would have questions about if they caught me. But I couldn’t help it; Nick Jonas had just been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and I was supposed to go to his concert soon. This wasn’t just any concert. It was my first concert ever, and Nick was my Jonas Brother, the one whose teen magazine spreads plastered my walls and whose face was on my second-favorite T-shirt (only topped by the one my mom let me get from Hot Topic that said, “I was a vegetarian before it was cool”). My research left me more confused, but Nick ended up performing, and my shirt looked great at the concert.

He even capitalized on the diagnosis and did some influencer marketing around diabetes. While Nick was able to keep being a boy band heartthrob, his diabetes didn’t disappear, and the disease, along with those impacted by it, has stayed increasingly on my radar.

@nickjonasWOW… 😎 the all-new @dexcom G7 is available tomorrow in the US for people with all types of diabetes. #Sponsored #DexcomMagicMoment #Diabetes #Dexcom #DexcomG7

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Flash forward to a year ago, and another man I see on the internet far too much was talking about his blood sugar: Bryan Johnson. In a clip, he explained how his blood glucose levels were ideal, which he figured out after wearing an uncomfortable blood glucose monitor for ten days. As someone who has avoided going to the ER purely because there’s a chance they might hook me up to an IV, a CGM sounded like my worst nightmare.

It’s not the needle that’s the problem. At one point in college, I had eight ear piercings, plus my nose and belly button pierced. I looked like I was trying to attract a murder of crows, and I wasn’t afraid of needles. It’s having the needle stay in my body that I don’t like. As the year went on, I saw more and more people from my side of the tech bro podcast world talk about blood sugar and managing it; from Diary of a CEO to Tim Ferriss, and even some X discourse.

Even beyond the corners of my chronically online side of the internet, consumers are seeing brands like Oura introduce a feature that tracks blood sugar levels through a partnership with Dexcom, alongside whispers of Apple developing a non-invasive blood glucose monitoring system for the Apple Watch. In a few years' time, I expect this trend of tracking your blood sugar to snowball into something as common as monitoring the hours you sleep.

This brings me to my conversation with Noosheen Hashemi, founder and CEO of January AI, a health tech company focused on managing chronic diseases. In 2024, January launched an app that uses AI to predict how food will affect your blood sugar, with no sensors, needles, or even eating required. It’s a huge step in tackling issues like diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity. Before founding January, Noosheen was a VP at Oracle, where she helped grow the company’s revenue from $26 million to $3 billion a year.

I had dinner with Noosheen and used the app with her; her enthusiasm for the product is unmatched. I had the pleasure of speaking with her again for Braun & Brains, diving deeper into the company’s mission and why she thinks this is a problem worth solving.

Noosheen Hashemi is the founder and CEO of January AI, a company that leverages artificial intelligence to advance precision health and preventative care, with a focus on metabolic health.

Rachel: Some people think metabolic health is just a passing trend. Do you believe this focus is here to stay?

Noosheen: No, I think this is definitely going to stick around. We began putting CGMs on healthy people in 2017, and a lot of companies followed. Of course, we are the only AI company of the bunch. We always intended to leverage the power of hardware to provide AI predictions so people don’t have to wear hardware all the time.

Our vision was to help people use hardware to see where they are and get educated, but also to have tools for those who can’t afford hardware or find it too invasive. In our first and second product versions, we offered a CGM. In our third version, available in the app store now, it works without sensors, expanding access so more people can learn about metabolic health. If they want to use a sensor, they can, but they don’t have to. I actually think the moment for blood sugar awareness in America is still a few years away, probably a 10-year cycle from when we started putting CGMs on healthy people.

Rachel: Many online discussions suggest that non-diabetics don’t need continuous glucose monitors. Why should they still consider tracking their blood sugar?

Noosheen: I agree that if they are not insulin-intense, they don’t need to wear a sensor. But a lot of people don’t know they have prediabetes or diabetes. Twenty-two percent of people believed to have diabetes in this country are undiagnosed, and 90 percent of people with prediabetes are undiagnosed. People don’t really know, so it’s kind of like Russian roulette.

In the U.S., we don’t screen for metabolic disease unless someone is visibly obese and over 40. If people want to know and can afford it, they can wear a sensor for 10-14 days and see how they’re really doing. If they don’t want something invasive or expensive, they can download January AI and start learning by just taking pictures of their food. The AI does the rest.

Rachel: When you showed me your technology over dinner, I was amazed. How did you develop this system without requiring physical glucose monitors?

Noosheen: It seems magical, but it’s seven and a half years of research. It’s millions of data points from thousands of people who wore sensors. We’ve been published twice, most recently in November 2023 and January 2025 in NPJ Digital Medicine, for our AI’s ability to scale weight loss and behavior change.

We developed our own generative AI that predicts glucose levels. It has taken tens of millions of dollars and a lot of AI talent to break down food into a measurable assay. We built a nutritional inference model, created glycemic index and glycemic load calculations, and developed a food database with 54 million foods. The app allows users to take pictures of meals, and the AI identifies the food, breaks it down into ingredients, and predicts how it will affect blood sugar. Users can then modify portions and see how changes might improve their response.

Rachel: What has been the most difficult part of building January AI?

Noosheen: Early on, the challenge was hiring AI talent. In 2017, people wanted to work at OpenAI or on tools for everyone rather than health applications. Another challenge was having no experience building a tool like this. We had to run clinical trials just to observe people and see what would happen, which was expensive and time-consuming.

Our early products were clunky because AI engineers develop models in Jupyter notebooks, which can’t just be dropped into an app. We had to build all the data engineering infrastructure to make it work smoothly. Over time, we got our infrastructure right so R&D could seamlessly transition into an app experience.

Now, a challenge is that while our predictions could work for Type 1 diabetics, we don’t want to go through the regulatory process. It would require an expensive, large trial. Also, many people still don’t fully trust AI or expect to pay for it. And blood sugar awareness in the U.S. is still developing. People wake up wanting to lose weight, but they don’t yet think about monitoring their blood sugar as a daily priority.

Rachel: What major health trends do you anticipate in the next five years, and how will January AI fit into them?

Noosheen: Metabolic health is an unstoppable trend. You saw Oura buy Vari, and Oura will have metabolic health features soon. Apple will follow. Others will too. Metabolic health will become consumerized, and I think everyone will be tracking their blood sugar in the future.

The omics revolution is another big trend. Managing health requires more than just knowing cholesterol levels. People will care about body composition, get DEXA scans, and wear CGM sensors from companies like Lingo or Stelo. There will be advancements in proteomics too. Wearables, omics, and metabolic health will dominate.

I also think we will see major changes in healthcare under this administration. I expect serious efforts to make electronic health records interoperable and to improve data accessibility for patients and doctors. AI will become central to integrating all this data, leading to better health insights.

Rachel: You believe the current administration will improve healthcare, but my brother, who is applying to med schools right now, is concerned the opposite will happen. What changes do you expect?

Noosheen: Healthcare has a lot of challenges. Regulations meant to protect privacy sometimes maintain monopolies and keep pricing opaque. Insurance companies and healthcare providers have secret deals that make costs unpredictable for patients. People already pay huge premiums, then get surprise bills.

I hope we will see more transparency, removal of unnecessary regulations, and better data integration so AI can help people understand their health. In finance, insider trading and self-dealing are tightly controlled. Healthcare should have the same level of transparency so consumers can make informed choices.

In this episode of the Braun & Brains podcast, Rachel Braun returns after a hiatus to test Spotify's new creator features. She dives into the latest news from big tech giants: Spotify is coming after YouTube, Amazon is becoming the new Temu, and TikTok is launching a BNPL platform. She also highlights the startups January AI, Influur, and Dynamo, examining their recent activities and investments.

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Revival

00:52 Exploring Spotify's New Features

06:00 TikTok's New Ventures

10:14 Amazon's Discount Store Strategy

14:06 Spotlight on Startups

20:50 Highlighting January AI

25:35 Conclusion and Listener Engagement

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_rachelbraun

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@_rachelbraun

Email: [email protected]

In this episode, I talk about the platform Pickle and why I think they’re going to do well in the Peer-to-Peer clothing rental industry. Then, I break down responses I've seen across different social media platforms talking about Andrew Huberman and "That Girl" content. I end by highlighting the recent success of Humani, an AI-powered personal development tool that recently secured $2.2 million in funding. Thank you for listening!

Episode Recap:

(02:30) Why I’m sitting in a closet to record

(03:45) I accidentally bought an $80 sweater right before summer… and it shipped to the wrong place

(07:24) Startup watch: Pickle, a peer-to-peer clothing rental marketplace, is using influencers' profiles to market their platform (not sponsored lol)

(09:40) Huberman vs. That Girl: I’ve seen different reactions to self-optimization content depending on the creator and platform. What are you seeing?

(17:35) Would you follow AI-generated self-optimization advice?

(18:11) Startup watch: Humani raised €2M to offer personal development and career guidance using AI

Learn more:

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Don't mind this, they're just some key words to improve reach:

Andrew Huberman, That Girl, Productivity Tiktok, How to be more productive, Self-improvement, Productivity, Video essay, Video commentary, Neuroscience, Brain science, Mental health, Personal development, Mindfulness, Motivation, Habits, Success, Performance, Growth mindset, Peak performance, Learning, Focus, Time management, Goal setting, Achievement, Mindset, Brain hacks, Neuroplasticity, Psychology, Well-being, Stress management, Emotional intelligence, Meditation, Sleep optimization, self-optimization, Andrew Huberman, That Girl, bio-hacking, self-improvement, balancing self and optimization, morning routine, circadian clock, environmental optimization, nighttime routine, magnesium, AI and personal development, Humani, startup, career guidance, self-care, mental health, productivity, habits, routines, personal growth, mindfulness, technology and self-improvement, social media, self-optimization.

In this episode, I give you guys an update on the podcast, ask you all when you moved out, let you know some highlights and lowlights of my life, and (FINALLY) we dove into the good stuff: my current stance on friendship and how (for the first time in my life) have friends that I have kept, even after moving. 

Thanks for the support, 

Rachel 

PS: Want a Facebook group? Let me know! I want to make this a community of 20 somethings trying to get it together. 

Let's connect: 

www.tiktok.com/@_rachelbraun

https://twitter.com/_rachelbraun

https://www.instagram.com/_rachelbraun/ 

Medium Article: https://rachelleighbraun.medium.com/un-believably-fake-81d14b470a17 

Sean Burns: https://twitter.com/seanmburns/status/1415724473802690564

Jason Sheehan: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1016533992/anthony-bourdain-roadrunner-documentary-review

Helen Rosner: https://twitter.com/hels/status/1415768667783057408

Deep nostalgia (MyHeritage): https://twitter.com/attilalondon/status/1365691469022044160?ref_src=twsrc

Lil Miquela with Whiteclaws: https://www.instagram.com/p/CP6HzWFBuDQ/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braunandbrains/

My website: tinyurl.com/ytnu3ecp

Braun & Brains Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/braunandbrains/ 

My Website: shorturl.at/aorFW

This Week in Startups: https://www.youtube.com/user/ThisWeekIn

LAUNCH: https://launch.co/

Hellllloooo podcasting family!

I think it's time we make a name for ourselves; how about Brauni's? Idk. Sounded cool to me. We can make a poll about this over on Instagram (linked below!). Speaking of social media, did you know I changed my Twitter @? It was a big deal to me- but I really wanted to use my name in it rather than the title of the podcast! Presenting you: @_rachelbraun. Riveting, I know.

So- if you are new here, this is totally the episode for you. Here, I describe my life in terms of moves and players. Meaning, I am a proud Army brat and third culture kid with a massive family. I mention these aspects of my life often in other episodes, so this one is important so you know what I'm referring to!

If you aren't new here; check this one out anyway. I talk about my long hiatus away from podcasting and my thoughts on uploading episodes over on youtube (spoiler: I'm doing it). I also talk about what I do *outside* of podcasting (yes, I work, I know.. boring, but I actually love it).

Thanks for sticking around and supporting me throughout this journey! I cannot believe I've been keeping this up for so long and I wouldn't have been able to do it without your support.

Cheers, Rachel

Link to socials. I love hearing from you all!

https://linktr.ee/braunandbrains