“Here’s to the crazy ones” … and to the new category we built for EveryBODY
🚨 In 2020, I stood at a fork in the road.
One direction was paved, profitable, and familiar: scaling the Global Performance Nutrition Institute (GPNi®), the online education company I had founded years earlier. The tailwinds were strong; demand for world-class sports nutrition education, in multiple languages and regions, was exploding. As an official partner of the global leaders in sports nutrition research and science, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), GPNi® could have been my simple, safe pathway. Double down on the boom, and I’d be telling you this story as the guy who stayed in his lane and maximized the upside.
But that’s never been me.
For nearly 30 years in the industry—and almost 40 years using sports nutrition supplements personally—I’ve learned that the real breakthroughs live just beyond the edges of what feels “sensible”. I’ve never been a follower of the herd. If anything, I’ve worn the “tin-foil hat” proudly, because paradigm shifts don’t arrive via consensus. They come because someone chooses to think differently—and yes, to be a little crazy.
So, I took the unconventional road. I put almost everything into a vision many called impossible: build a new category of protein. Not whey. Not “plant.” Something beyond the dairy vs. plant cage match. Something that could deliver elite amino-acid quality and effortless digestion—with a sensory experience so good that people would actually love drinking it day after day.
That choice was made to build NiHTEK®, Nature’s Innovative Health Technologies. And it’s flagship branded protein ingredient Hydrolyzed NiHPRO® Protein Isolate.
Our foundation: a university without walls
NiHTEK® wasn’t conjured out of thin air. It was forged inside GPNi®.
GPNi® gave us something invaluable: a living, breathing network of global top-tier PhDs, clinicians, formulators, and researchers willing to debate, test, and co-create. We have already sat at the table with the best minds in sports nutrition—people who understand protein quality, digestion, amino acid kinetics, sensory science, clinical outcomes, and compliance.
That “university without walls” became NiHTEK’s R&D engine. We did not start as a commodity trader that decided to dabble in protein. We began as educators and practitioners obsessed with evidence, who then built the lab, the IP, and the process science to make the evidence drinkable.
This is why NiHTEK® could do what others could not and did not: translate the science of quality and digestion into a daily habit people actually enjoy.
The fork, the crisis, and the commitment
People forget how volatile the protein world became in 2022. Whey prices surged—up 150% at times—and a lot of brands went broke. Some brands cut quality, mix it with cheaper Milk Proteins, or dilute the higher quality, but now it is too expensive Whey Protein Isolate Protein ingredient.
We learned into creation to be different, think differently, and build a protein ingredient unlike anything the world has seen before.
- We raised capital to support a research program, not marble lobbies.
- We recruited top-tier PhDs in protein chemistry, food engineering, and sensory science.
- We built our own in-house laboratory to iterate faster and go deeper.
We invested in IP and proprietary processes, not comfort. We knew the category needed more than a price hedge; it required a new spec.
The technologies: APH™ + MPi™ (cut + polish)
Two core technologies sit at the heart of NiHPRO®:
Advanced Precision Hydrolysis™ (APH™)
Hydrolysis is easy to get wrong. APH™ is built around precision. We tuned peptide length distributions to balance digestive comfort with flavor and mouthfeel. Hydrolyse too far and you unleash bitterness; too little and you keep grit and heaviness. APH™ is our “master cut,” the facet work that reveals clarity—pre-digested for comfort without the taste penalties people associate with hydrolysates.
Molecular Protein Infusion™ (MPi™)
If APH™ is the cut, MPi™ is the polish. MPi™ refines the matrix—lifting solubility, minimizing foam, and scrubbing away taste and texture liabilities. It also combines all raw materials and folds them all into one unique protein particle. That’s why NiHPRO® mixes clean, carries flavor naturally, and drinks creamy like dairy—without dairy.
Together, APH™ + MPi™ transformed a rough idea into a new class of protein isolate that’s non-dairy, allergen-free, lactose-free, and FODMAP Friendly Certified—the bloat-free seal that matters when everyday comfort is the difference between a promise and a habit.
Not “versus whey.” Beyond whey.
I respect whey and dairy proteins. I still consume dairy myself, and my favourite food is steak. I am not a vegan, nor do I advocate a vegan diet as healthier than others; each to their own. However, whey protein has, for decades, set the protein-quality benchmark for superior digestion, high DIAAS and PDCAAS scores, and is exceptionally high in L-Leucine, the king of amino acids when it comes to Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS).
But the future isn’t a “whey versus plant” rerun. The future is Category Three—a non-dairy, allergen-free protein with elite quality and gut-first design.
NiHPRO® is:
- DIAAS 116 with PDCAAS 1.0—a higher protein-quality profile than whey isolate on DIAAS, while remaining complete and digestible.
- FODMAP Friendly Certified and engineered for gentle digestion—because comfort drives consistency, and consistency drives results.
- Designed to taste as good—or better—than dairy when you build the flavoring system the NiHTEK way (you cannot use a WPI or WPC recipe and have it taste the same as whey – again, this is not a WPI replacer, but something unique and new).
By November 2024, our first shipments of Hydrolysed NiHPRO® Protein Isolate left the facility. By 2025, NiHPRO had evolved from a “crazy idea” to a global movement, with partners across the U.S., UK, Japan, Australia, South Africa, South America, and Canada. And this is just the opening chapter.
You’re not what you eat—you’re what you digest.
People love to say, “You are what you eat.” I disagree. You are what you digest—and what you digest consistently.
Digestion is the gateway to everything that matters:
- Muscle & recovery: delivering indispensable amino acids (IAAs) and hitting per-meal leucine
- Skin & hair: steady amino supply and a calmer gut-skin axis mean fewer flare-ups and a stronger barrier.
- Mood & energy: a predictable gut often travels with steadier energy and fewer “spikes.”
- Metabolic health & fat loss: protein’s satiety and thermic effect are only useful if you actually finish the shake—every day.
NiHPRO® is more than a superior protein compared to other proteins. It is the Gut-Friendly Protein—the daily anchor for people who want better digestion, better absorption, and better outcomes for performance and wellbeing. That’s why we talk about Protein For EveryBODY™. It’s inclusion by physiology, not by marketing.
The Female Glow, GLP-1, and real-world adherence
Women now lead the global rise in protein intake. They’re choosing strength, longevity, and metabolic health—and they’re done tolerating products that fight their bodies. The Female Glow lens is simple: clearer skin, calm digestion, steady energy, and lean tone. NiHPRO® fits because it’s light on the gut, complete, and delicious—so the habit survives on day −3 to +2 of the menstrual cycle, during high-stress weeks, and in the GLP-1 era when appetite is blunted and quality per sip matters.
We didn’t design NiHPRO® to win a bench-top spreadsheet. We designed it to win real life.
Designed in Japan: taste, texture, and gut alignment
A daily habit has to be enjoyable. We spent years co-developing manufacturer-ready recipes under our Designed in Japan program—where precision and natural health standards meet culinary common sense.
What that means for partners:
- Dairy-like creaminess without dairy, built from the ground up (not a copy-paste whey formula).
- Clean flavor frameworks (vanilla, chocolate, and beyond) that let NiHPRO’s neutral profile shine instead of fighting it.
- Sweetness curves layered for a natural finish—no sharp aftertastes.
- Gut-friendly inclusions: selective L-Glutamine for rounding edges and comfort; GoFOS® (a chosen prebiotic FOS) for fullness and perceived creaminess without heavy sugars; selective MCT to add body and viscosity without greasiness.
- Process parameters to lock in solubility and low foam in RTD/RTM: solids %, shear, hydration time, and hold behaviour’s.
Result: NiHPRO® that tastes as good—or better—than dairy and drinks lighter. If you’re building for women’s digestive health and long-term compliance, ask us for the Designed in Japan recipe books and info sheets. They’re the blueprint that turns first trials into finished systems that consumers finish.
The B2B playbook (how partners win fast)
NiHPRO® is a branded ingredient for B2B innovators who want dairy-like cues without dairy, elite digestibility, and clean-label credibility.
Mindset: Gut-first, taste-forward, quality-led.
Choose your canvas:
- NiHPRO®Core→ powders & blends
- NiHPRO®Bev→ RTD/RTM beverages with silky, dairy-like mouthfeel
- NiHPRO®Puffs→ ultra-high-protein crisps for bars, bites, cereals
In short: build for NiHPRO®, not against an old whey template.
The diamond standard (why we say it—and mean it)
I often explain NiHPRO® with a diamond analogy, and as a diamond is always judged by what it has become, not by what it is made from (coal). The story of NiHPRO is the same, and what it has become through years of research matters, not what the raw material it is made from.
- The rough— We started with a world that tolerated “chalky,” “foamy,” and “bloaty” because that’s how things were.
- The cut (APH™)— Precision hydrolysis revealed digestibility and smoothness without unleashing bitterness.
- The polish (MPi™)— Purification cleaned flavor, increased solubility, and calmed foam.
- The clarity grade— Third-party validations: DIAAS 116, PDCAAS 1.0, FODMAP Friendly Certified.
- The carat— Real-world value: daily adherence, glowing sensory feedback, and partners telling us their first NiHPRO® run tasted better than their tenth with what came before.
A diamond is measured by what you do with the rough. We chose the more challenging cut—and it changed everything.
What six years taught me
From 2020’s “are you crazy?” to 2025’s global adoption curve, I’ve relearned five lessons at the fork in the road:
- Safe bets build income. Bold bets build industries.
Doubling down on education would have been a comfortable approach. Building Category Three transformed the category. - Real moats are intellectual, not material.
Buildings fade. IP, process science, and obsession - Obsession is the advantage you can’t buy.
When you care enough to keep shaving bitterness by half a point and foam by half a millimetre, outcomes compound. - “It can’t be done” is a compass, not a wall.
When the room laughs, you’ve found your direction. - The future isn’t dairy vs. plant.
It’s Protein For EveryBODY™—gut-friendly, high-quality, dairy-like, delicious, and non-dairy.
“Here’s to the crazy ones…” (our version)
With deep respect to Steve Jobs and the famous toast:
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The contrarians, the skeptics of “good enough,” the tinkerers in lab coats, and the athletes who demand more.
The ones who see comfort not as a feature, but as the foundation.
You can doubt them, ignore them, or even call them “tin-foil hat” dreamers.
But you can’t stop them—because they’re building what the rest of us will someday call obvious.
They don’t just improve categories.
They invent new ones.
Here’s to thinking differently—so EveryBODY can feel the difference.
That’s NiHTEK. That’s NiHPRO®.
Personal note: why I’ll always choose the more challenging path
People ask if I regret not maximizing the “easy” route. I don’t. My own health journey—including wrestling an autoimmune condition out of my life—made one truth unavoidable: gut health leads everything. If a product doesn’t respect digestion, it won’t become part of someone’s life. And if it doesn’t become part of their life, it won’t change their life.
So, we built the Gut-Friendly Protein: non-dairy, allergen-free, FODMAP Friendly, hydrolyzed, and high-DIAAS—with a sensory standard that makes people want the next sip. We built it with the best minds we could find—thanks to the foundation of GPNi® my sports nutrition education company—and we refined it with a level of obsession only outsiders are willing to endure.
We did not take the easy path. We took the right one.
Invitation
If you’re a brand, formulator, or manufacturer who believes the next decade belongs to gut comfort-first, quality-led nutrition—and you want a dairy-like experience with zero dairy—let’s talk.
Request our ‘Designed in Japan’ recipe books and information sheets. We’ll share flavor frameworks, sweetness layering, viscosity targets, anti-foam, mixing curves, and the gut-friendly inclusions that make NiHPRO® sing in real life.
If you’re an athlete, coach, clinician, or simply someone who wants clearer skin, steadier energy, and lean tone without the bloat, welcome to Protein For EveryBODY™.
NiHPRO® isn’t a better “version” of what came before.
It’s the third way—a diamond-standard protein designed for how we want to feel and live now.
— Drew John Campbell, Chairman, NiHTEK® / Founder, GPNi®
