Q&A: 2025 Start-Up Stars winner targets AI-powered innovation

For Path Forward Formulator founder and CEO Shane Durkee, winning the 2025 Start-Up Stars competition at NutraIngredients-USA’s Sports & Active Nutrition Summit USA (SANS) was an important validation of the company’s mission to modernize dietary supplement formulation.

Since securing the award, the software company has continued expanding its formulation, costing and labeling capabilities, including early development of functionality for liquid products.

Now, the company is looking to take its technology a step further with Path Forward Substantiator, an initiative in development that aims to use AI to accelerate the evaluation and summarization of scientific evidence supporting ingredients and finished formulations.

The expansion reflects a broader ambition to address inefficiencies across nutrition product development, from ingredient selection and formulation through scientific substantiation and commercialization.

As the next Start-Up Stars competition approaches, Durkee shares how the recognition has helped build credibility, the challenges of encouraging an industry accustomed to spreadsheets to embrace new technology, and his advice for aspiring entrants.

NIU: What has Path Forward Formulator been up to since winning Start-Up Stars, and have there been any significant developments, milestones or changes in the direction of the business?

Shane Durkee: It’s been an exciting time for Path Forward Formulator. Since winning the 2025 Start-Up Star Award, we’ve continued to expand the platform’s capabilities while staying focused on the problem we originally set out to solve: making dietary supplement and nutrition product development faster, easier, and more accurate.

We’ve continued enhancing our formulation, costing, and labeling capabilities, including expanding beyond our original dosage forms of capsules, tablets, powders, and gummies to include the first iterations of liquids.

One of the more significant developments has been recognizing that the opportunity extends beyond dietary supplements. Many of the same formulation challenges exist throughout the broader nutrition industry, and we’re increasingly looking at how our technology can support those applications as well.

In addition to looking at how we can help teams make better decisions throughout the entire product development process, from ingredient selection and formulation through scientific substantiation and commercialization.

NIU: What impact did winning Start-Up Stars have on your company? Did the recognition lead to any new connections, partnerships, investment opportunities or increased industry visibility?

Shane Durkee: Winning the Start-Up Star Award was an important milestone for us.

When you’re introducing a new technology into an industry that has relied on their home-grown spreadsheets for a very long time, credibility matters. I feel the award provided valuable recognition of what we were building and helped reinforce that the problems we’re addressing are real and worth solving.

It also gave us something meaningful to share with prospective customers, ingredient suppliers, and industry partners. Being recognized as an innovator by your own industry carries a different level of credibility than simply telling people you have an innovative product.

NIU: Looking back, what was the most valuable part of participating in the competition? Did anything about the experience or its impact surprise you?

Shane Durkee: The most valuable part was having the opportunity to step outside the day-to-day challenges of building a business and look at what we had accomplished.

When developing software, you end up focused on the next feature, the next improvement, or the next problem to solve. Winning the award was a reminder that innovation doesn’t necessarily have to mean inventing something completely new. Sometimes it means taking a process that an industry has accepted as normal for years and asking why it can’t be done better.

What surprised me was how meaningful that recognition felt. I’ve spent much of my career in the nutrition and dietary supplement industry, so having an idea recognized by people who understand the challenges firsthand was very rewarding.

NIU: What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in growing the business, and how have you navigated them?

Shane Durkee: One of our biggest challenges has been introducing a new way of working into an industry where many companies have been using the same formulation processes for years. Being completely honest, people are very comfortable with what they know and even if a spreadsheet may not be the ideal formulation tool, convincing them to change requires more than demonstrating new technology.

We’ve learned that we need to show people the practical benefits, whether that’s creating a formula in minutes instead of hours, evaluating ingredient costs in real time, or generating Supplement Facts and product specifications without duplicating work across multiple systems.

Another challenge has been balancing innovation with focus. There are so many opportunities to expand what the platform can do, but as a start-up, I have to be hyper-focused on where I spend and what features I prioritize.

I navigate this by listening closely to users, prioritizing capabilities that solve real problems, and continuing to build on the core platform rather than chasing every possible opportunity.

NIU: What’s next for Path Forward Formulator? Are there any upcoming launches, expansions or other developments you’re particularly excited about?

Shane Durkee: I’m particularly excited about where we’re heading with AI and scientific substantiation. One of the developments I’m most excited about is a new initiative we’re calling Path Forward Substantiator.

The concept is to help product developers bridge the gap between formulation and scientific substantiation. Today, developing a formula and determining which claims are scientifically defensible can be two very separate, time-consuming processes. Our vision is to help companies research ingredients, evaluate clinically

Basically I want to dramatically speed up the ability to summarize the body of evidence for ingredients and for a finished formula. t’s still in development, but I believe it represents a natural next step in our mission to make product development more efficient, informed, and accessible.

NIU: What advice would you give to start-ups considering applying for Start-Up Stars this year?

Shane Durkee: Apply! Seriously, I would encourage any start-up that believes it’s solving a meaningful industry problem to put itself forward.

Don’t feel like you need to have everything figured out or have built a massive company before applying. Start-ups are works in progress. What matters is identifying a real problem, developing a solution, and demonstrating why it has the potential to make a difference.

Don’t forget to enjoy the experience. Building a business is demanding, and it’s easy to become so focused on what’s next that you forget to celebrate what you’ve already accomplished.

Could your company be the next Start-Up Star?

The journey doesn’t stop when the spotlight fades. As our latest Start-Up Stars success story shows, being recognized can help put emerging businesses on the radar of industry leaders, investors, and potential partners.

Now, NutraIngredients is looking for the next generation of innovative, science-driven start-ups shaping the future of sports and active nutrition.

Submit your free entry by November 13, 2026, for your chance to be crowned a Start-Up Star and showcase your business at the Sports & Active Nutrition Summit USA, taking place February 23–25, 2027, in Dallas, Texas.