After four months of breastfeeding her son, Ara Katz felt especially defeated about being unable to supply all of her son’s breast milk. She’d done all the right things but her body wouldn’t respond. To make matters worse, when looking for supplements to help, she couldn’t believe how little science informed the products available, especially given what’s now known about an infant’s developing microbiome.

Katz knows an opportunity when she sees one. She had previously co-founded Spring, a mobile marketplace, and was on the founding team of social commerce company, BeachMint, where she launched six direct-to-consumer, influencer subscription brands. When she read that probiotic infant formula would go from 10 per cent of the global infant formula market to over 90 per cent in the next five years, Katz knew she wanted to help other mothers and apply microbiome science for her next venture. And so, Seed was born—with a vision to bring transparency and disruption to the global $57 billion probiotics market. Katz and her co-founder Raja Dhir, launched their first flagship Daily Synbiotic this June, and more recently announced their first SeedLabs probiotic for honey bees to protect against Colony Collapse Disorder. Here Katz explains the microbiome, why she believes probiotics are so important, and shares where to get the most nourishing and delicious food in Los Angeles.