Today we have the honor of interviewing Cheryl Sew Hoy, the CEO of Tiny Health a leading gut micro biome testing platform.

Tiny Health is an at-home gut microbiome testing platform that uses stool-based testing to provide detailed insights into an individual’s microbiome, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. For professional sports teams, Tiny Health could complement blood biomarkers, wearables and other performance data by helping practitioners understand what Cheryl Sew Hoy describes as an often-overlooked foundation of athlete health: the gut. According to Cheryl, microbiome insights can help inform nutrition and nutrient absorption, gastrointestinal and immune health, inflammation, recovery, sleep and overall performance.

She notes that the gut is involved in functions related to serotonin and melatonin production, while short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate can play a role in nutrient utilization and metabolic health. This could be particularly relevant for athletes managing heavy training loads, frequent travel, disrupted sleep or GI issues. Tiny Health can also train team dietitians and sports medicine practitioners to interpret testing across their athletes and use the data to individualize nutrition and lifestyle strategies, although Cheryl acknowledges that research directly linking microbiome interventions to improved athletic performance is still emerging.

You can watch the video interview below by clicking on the Youtube link. You can also listen to the audio interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Here is a look at the Tiny Health’s gut and vaginal health test kits, and mobile app:

Here is below a video of the Tiny Health’s practitioner portal:

📝Show Notes: During this interview with Cheryl, we discussed her entrepreneurial journey and the personal experience that led her to launch Tiny Health; how the company’s gut and vaginal microbiome testing platform works; and why she believes the gut can be an important but often overlooked part of athlete health and performance. We explored how microbiome insights could help teams and athletes better understand and optimize nutrition, nutrient absorption, gastrointestinal and immune health, inflammation, sleep, recovery and overall performance, particularly during periods of heavy training and frequent travel.

Cheryl also discussed the rapid growth of the microbiome market, the importance of taking a “test, don’t guess” approach, Tiny Health’s work with practitioners and enterprise partners, and the company’s plans to partner with more professional sports organizations while investing several million dollars in interventional microbiome research over the next 12 months.

Here are the best quotes from the interview with Cheryl:

Q1. Cheryl’s professional journey, inspiration for Tiny Health & role as CEO

On her entrepreneurial journey:

“When the financial crisis hit, I was in New York as a management consultant, and I really wanted to be an entrepreneur and start a tech company. So I did that. My first tech company I built in New York, and then I ended up selling that to Walmart Labs in 2013.”

On the personal experience that inspired Tiny Health:

“With my C-section baby, she ended up having eczema, allergies, food sensitivities, a lot of chronic conditions. She couldn’t sleep well and was colicky. So I looked into her gut health and realized that she was exposed to antibiotics during my C-section operation. I didn’t want my daughter to grow up with that destruction and higher risk of chronic conditions, so I tried to restore her gut microbiome.”

On Tiny Health’s mission:

“I really wanted to set up this company to help educate people around the microbiome literature and around how 80% of your immune system actually lives in your gut. Your gut health is so important as a foundation for overall health, wellness, optimization, performance and increasing longevity.”

Q2. What problem Tiny Health solves, how the platform works & differentiation

On why gut testing complements traditional biomarkers:

“These blood biomarkers can really help you figure out what your supplement stack should be, supplement your deficiencies, or if you have a high risk of anything, you can tell before they hit you. They tell you what’s wrong, but they don’t tell you what the underlying cause is. So gut testing is really the next evolution of that.”

On the connection between gut health and inflammation:

“If you have chronically high inflammation, the test doesn’t tell you what the root cause is. But oftentimes what we see is the root cause is in your gut because your gut lining and gut barrier integrity is where immune function lives. A lot of times that’s the hidden piece that you don’t see happening.”

On what makes Tiny Health’s testing comprehensive:

“Why don’t you check in on your gut data and see what is there, what is not there, what you really need to support, rather than buy random supplements that may or may not work? ‘Test, don’t guess’ is our main mantra. The way we are also different is that we can see everything in your gut—including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites if you have them. It gives you a really comprehensive picture of what’s in your gut.”

Q3. State of the microbiome market, trends & misconceptions

On growing consumer interest:

“Gut health is definitely trending up. If you do a Google search on trends between ‘sleep better’ and ‘gut health,’ gut health actually surpasses the search for sleep better. It really has taken off in the past two years, probably due to a lot of supplement companies selling prebiotics, probiotics and a lot of gut-health supplements.”

On taking a data-driven approach rather than simply selling supplements:

“As a testing company, we don’t sell you supplements. We don’t make money from trying to recommend you a product, because we’re very scientific and science-backed. Do you need this prebiotic fiber? If you do, what kind do you need? Do you even need a probiotic? Which strains can help you? What are you looking to optimize? Maybe your gut already has that strain, then you don’t need to supplement it.”

On the misconception of a single ‘healthy’ microbiome:

“I always hear, ‘There’s no one universal healthy microbiome, right?’ Yeah, there’s no one universal healthy microbiome. We now know with scientific advancement that there are hallmarks of a healthy microbiome. Each person’s microbiome, like you and me, is like a fingerprint. It’s a unique fingerprint.”

On what can still be measured despite individual differences:

“There are hallmarks of a healthy microbiome. Do you have high butyrate function? Do you have low pathogenic bacteria? Do you have high capacity to produce GABA, this calming thing that helps you sleep at night? Your gut naturally produces serotonin and melatonin. We can see those things in your gut, so we can identify if your gut is lacking in certain areas and support it.”

Q4. Value for professional teams and athletes

On the gut potentially being a blind spot for elite athletes:

“The athletes we see are already spending a lot of resources optimizing sleep, load management and nutrition. But gut is often the blind spot that they don’t realize is foundational, that influences sleep, melatonin and serotonin production, and short-chain fatty acids for nutrition absorption. All of that is upstream of what you’re trying to optimize.”

On athletes who have plateaued:

“Some athletes plateau after a while. But if they start working on their gut, their coaches see performance increasing again and recovery times taking shorter. In nutrition, athletes are often already on aggressive individualized diets, usually high protein. Gut function actually determines how much of that nutrition gets absorbed and utilized.”

On protein, fiber and athlete nutrition:

“A lot of athletes are focused on protein, and sometimes the fiber equation is forgotten. But fiber is what feeds the gut bacteria in your intestines. Our tests will help you really nail in on it—not all fibers are equal. Are you lacking resistant starch? Is it pectin from fruits? Is it more leafy greens that would give you more cellulose? We help you identify what kind of fiber your gut is lacking and where you need to supplement more.”

On training, travel, stress and recovery:

“As athletes, the gut is so influential to overall performance and recovery. In travel, there’s a lot of stress and inflammation naturally added to your body because you’re training really hard, constantly traveling and changing time zones. You may not be sleeping well. There are a lot of reasons why you should really optimize your gut health to increase your performance and recovery.”

On why teams need actual data:

“A lot of pro athletes are already on this track of, ‘The gut is important. I need to optimize it.’ But how? Without the data, it’s really hard to optimize. Why wouldn’t you pay a couple hundred dollars to look at your gut health and figure out where you can support it?”

On the fact that Tiny Health already works with high-profile practitioners/coaches and professional athletes:

“We have some practitioners who are really high-profile coaches, and they train these pro athletes. So I can’t reveal who they are, but through working with them, we see that they’re already spending a lot of resources optimizing sleep, load management, nutrition. But gut is often the blind spot that they don’t realize is foundational.”

Q5. Tiny Health’s business model & customer segments

On how the customer base has expanded:

“We launched in 2022 to just moms and babies at the time because we wanted to optimize the baby’s gut for the long term and longevity. A few years after that, we had so much demand from parents and adults that we started a whole adult marketing segment, and we do have a big group of professional athletes and people who are working on fitness.”

On the D2C business:

“Our business model has evolved. We have a D2C arm where you can go to tinyhealth.com and buy a kit or subscribe to a membership. That membership gives you twice-a-year testing, and you get cheaper kits for ongoing testing, and you can test your whole family as well.”

On how Tiny Health can work directly with sports organizations:

“We have a B2B enterprise segment where we work with healthcare practitioners. We have some athlete teams whose dietician on staff is ordering Tiny Health. We train them how to interpret the gut tests so that the dietician does it for their entire team. That is one way we can work with your teams—through your dietician, your sports medicine person or health coach.”

Q6. Priorities for the next 12 months: teams, research & partnerships

On working with more sports organizations:

“We would love to partner with more athletic teams, frankly. We provide free education as well. We’ll come give you a webinar or seminar. I’ve done that with a few groups now at an in-person summit or a dinner. We’re really passionate about this education and really helping teams optimize their microbiome.”

On the major research investment:

“In the next 12 months, we’re going to actually dedicate a chunk of money—a few million dollars—in interventional research. One of the biggest ways Tiny Health differentiates ourselves is that we’re really investing into research in the gut microbiome space right now.”

Perhaps the most important quote from the interview because it acknowledges where the science stands today:

“There are not so many studies showing that if you intervene in the microbiome, you can actually reduce a condition, a symptom, and/or improve performance. There are some studies out there—very emerging—but not enough. We want to use our testing platform to show more interventions like that.”

On what Tiny Health wants to prove next:

“In the next 12 months, we’re really investing in groups who are interested in proving out a certain intervention or a certain protocol that can help optimize or reduce chronic conditions. Anyone interested in doing research with us, please reach out as well.”

On the best way for teams, practitioners and potential partners to reach out:

“You can reach out to me at hello@tinyhealth.com. I’m also on Instagram—our tiny.health Instagram—and you can DM our handle and ask for a partnership introduction. Or maybe through you too. I would be happy to speak to anyone.”

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