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"I could eat fried food every day, man. Fried chicken, shrimp, fish, french fries."

Michael Conward, co-founder of MyLÚA Health, on what he gave up for 75 Commit while building an AI maternal healthcare platform that won the NIH RADx Maternal Health Challenge and landed a partnership with IBM.

This conversation gets real about what founders actually eat. Michael went from Miami kid raised on Bahamian Caribbean food and North Carolina Southern cooking (collard greens, sweet potatoes, and hands down the best Thanksgivings ever), to competitive basketball player obsessed with health and wellness, to startup founder who sometimes does not eat until 2 PM.

His co-founders? Health-conscious shoppers at the co-op ordering salmon salads with fresh berries. Michael? Still dreaming about fried shrimp platters.

But here is what matters: Michael is a food excellence person. Celebration means watching someone crush the thing they are excellent at making, whether that is a family member's signature meatloaf or a two-star Michelin restaurant in Tribeca where eight people serve thirteen guests. For his 40th birthday, his wife took him to a Tara, and he almost liked watching the service and execution more than eating the food.

Michael also shares how MyLÚA Health is using agentic AI to connect communities, doulas, payers, and employers to moms, why he started an entire Instagram page devoted to Food Network recipes with funny captions, and what it was like being the first entrepreneur in a family of a firefighter dad and corrections officer mom.

CONNECT WITH MICHAEL: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelconward/

CONNECT WITH MYLÚA HEALTH: Website: https://mylua.health

MORE FOUNDERS FRIDGE: Website: www.foundersfridge.com

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"I've been eating ramen like several times a week since I was seven. It's kind of a miracle that I don't have scurvy." Isabelle Kent, head of Startup Leaders and founder of behavioral intelligence platform Gigsaw, on the convenience food that's followed her from childhood to founder life.

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Isabelle about building technology that helps people find roles aligned with their values and intrinsic motivations. They discuss how burnout at a corporate job led her to start interviewing others about fulfillment at work, why she took a remote job in Thunder Bay, Ontario sight unseen (and was sure she'd get kidnapped), and what it takes to run Philly's largest startup community while launching a global expansion.

Isabelle is a Ukrainian immigrant who grew up without much restaurant dining, which makes her current obsession with eating out feel like a reward she earned. Half her paycheck goes to restaurants and she doesn't regret it. She lived in Chinatown for years, a block from Reading Terminal Market, so her pantry is still stocked with Asian produce and ingredients she could grab within a two-block radius. She finds cooking deeply meditative and won't let partners near the stove for dinner. Her last meal would be noodles, any variety. When fall hits, she pulls out the Eastern European staples from her childhood: borscht, stuffed peppers, stews. She spent fifteen years in the restaurant industry, and she believes that experience taught her more about sales and investor relations than any degree could. She's closed deals sitting at bars, met the founders of the 9/11 fund at a food hall in Copenhagen, and landed a client chatting someone up at the Ritz.

Listen for:
• Why she thinks every founder should bartend or work in a restaurant
• The etiquette skills that help her sit in rooms with people "way out of her normal realm of existence"
• How food helps her "code switch" in investor dinners
• Why she'd rather spend $60K at cafes than on an MBA

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"I'm a huge fruit snacks person. I don't really do much candy anymore, but I love fruit snacks." Jonathan Bateman, secure-software developer and founder of deepfake detection platform Real Recognizes Real AI, on the one childhood food obsession he never outgrew.

In this episode of Founders Fridge, host Heidi Knoblauch talks with Jonathan about building technology that verifies real humans using something AI can't fake: shared memories. They discuss how a Star Trek storyline about changelings inspired his approach to stopping fraud, why the CEO of Ferrari avoided a deepfake scam by asking about a book recommendation, and what it's like to build a startup while finishing dual degrees at RIT.

Jonathan grew up in Colorado as a soccer player with a naturally thin frame, which meant his mom was strict about calories. Three thousand a day. Oatmeal, protein shakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. Packed lunches with peanut butter and honey sandwiches made with local Colorado honey because he never liked jelly. Chips in the lunch pail. His dad had a serious sweet tooth and would sneak to Walmart every Friday for Twizzlers and Mike and Ikes, a secret candy run his no-sugar mom didn't approve of. Now he's on a jerk chicken kick, experimenting with Caribbean seasoning in his stepmom's air fryer, which he describes as "sorcery." His mornings start with Chobani yogurt, chia seeds, and fresh berries. He eats to live, not the other way around, but he still has the foodie essence in him.

When things go well at Real Recognizes Real AI, he celebrates with Chick-fil-A. When things aren't going well? Rice and beans. For multiple meals straight.

Listen for:

• The Friday candy ritual his dad kept secret from his mom
• Why peanut butter and honey beats peanut butter and jelly
• The air fryer and pressure cooker combo that gets dinner done in minutes
• How his mom is now building her own startup and they eat dinner together at the office

Subscribe to Founders Fridge for more stories about the meals that fuel founders and the rituals that keep them going.

Check out our Substack!