Nona Lim’s early career experience in meal kits coupled with her Asian heritage helped launch a product that became a trailblazer in its category. As one of the first refrigerated bone broths in the country, Lim’s namesake brand Nona Lim launched in 2014 and quickly earned shelf space in Whole Foods nationally.
And the timing could not have been better. In the past decade, collagen-boosting foods and supplements have become increasingly popular among consumers. Nona Lim’s healthy approach to Asian comfort food arrived on the scene just in time for the bone broth trend in 2013.
But when it comes to innovation, Lim purposely chooses to take a more conservative approach.
“The important thing to remember is that I might be onto something today, but it might not be something tomorrow,” Lim told us, describing her experience walking around Expo West in 2017 when almost every booth featured bone broth. “It is a journey and you have to just keep at it and not basically rest on your laurels.”
We caught up with Lim to learn more about her career, the story behind her namesake brand, and more.
Check out some highlights below:
On Innovation
“I actually tried not to innovate on too many fronts as then that becomes less familiar to consumers.”
On Future Trends
“I think that at the heart of a lot of these trends that we’ve seen over the last decade is really the whole trend around functional medicine or the concept around food as medicine.”
On Being an Essential Business Amid a Pandemic
“Besides being an essential business, we actually have a manufacturing facility and so that made it really challenging because virtual working is not an option when making food. The first most important thing keeping people safe. How do we keep people safe but continue to produce so that we don’t actually run out of cash, because if we can’t make food we can’t sell food. Those were very challenging times. I think that definitely going above and beyond and always making sure that we’re not compromising in any way has been key.”
