CLIENT: TUMME
OUTLET: Newscorp Syndication
When life serves you lemons, entrepreneurial spirit can turn them into something far bigger than lemonade. For Rudi van der Vlies, a personal health crisis became the catalyst for a business with the potential to help thousands of Australians.
After being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 50, Rudi discovered the one fibre that worked for him had disappeared from Australia.
So he brought it back.
The entrepreneur, who helped launch ALDI’s Expressi coffee system and co founded Vöost Vitamins, turned his personal problem into TUMME, Australia’s only sterculia based fibre supplement.
Within its first year, TUMME passed 10,000 orders and generated more than $1 million in revenue.
What began as a necessity for Rudi has become a much bigger mission. He realised that the problem he was trying to solve for himself was shared by thousands of other Australians.
It is perhaps the ultimate example of entrepreneurial thinking, turning adversity into an opportunity, then building a business around solving a problem you know firsthand.