About FlavorHawk

An Extraordinary Opportunity

FlavorHawk emerged from recognizing a critical gap in the data infrastructure of food discovery: while recommendation engines had matured for digital media and financial services, the food industry lacked the fundamental data architecture needed for taste-based matching. The core challenge wasn't technology - it was the absence of two essential datasets: comprehensive menu item data and scalable flavor preference profiles.

Comprehensive Menu Item Data for Machine Learning Applications

FlavorHawk's timing coincided with a unprecedented digitization of menu data following COVID-19. The founders identified multiple data ingestion points that could access 95% of America's menu items across the U.S. market. This massive unstructured dataset required a sophisticated solution, leading to the development of C.H.E.F. (Culinary Hierarchical Enrichment Framework) - a proprietary data architecture that standardizes, enriches, and structures menu data for machine learning applications.

Gathering User Flavor Preferences At Scale

The second dataset challenge - gathering user flavor preferences at scale - aligned with an untapped demographic opportunity. Generation Z, despite being digital natives with strong food spending patterns, lacked a dedicated platform for food discovery. Drawing on extensive experience in data analytics, UX design, and youth market engagement from work with major brands, the team developed a data collection strategy that disguises sophisticated preference tracking within an engaging user experience.

FlavorHawk solved the data collection challenge through FeedMe, a strategic fusion of consumer engagement and data architecture. The app serves as a sophisticated data ingestion layer, capturing rich preference data through a seamless user experience. While users enjoy an efficient solution to their daily dining decisions, the platform simultaneously builds a comprehensive flavor preference graph - something traditional food discovery methods have failed to accomplish. This two-sided approach transforms routine food decisions into valuable data points, creating a continuously enriching dataset that powers increasingly accurate taste predictions while eliminating the friction points of conventional food discovery methods.

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A Functional-First: A Dedicated Flavor Inference Engine Solution

The technical breakthrough came through strategic partnerships with the Monell Center's flavor science expertise and collaboration with Google's engineering team. The resulting PADRE™ (Personalized AI Dish Recommendation Engine) platform represents a significant advance in preference prediction, achieving exceptional accuracy rates in real-world testing through sophisticated machine learning models.

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Emergent Solution for The Industry's R&D Failure Rate

The existing food and beverage R&D ecosystem, representing $100 billion in annual investment, operates on fundamentally flawed data practices. With product failure rates ranging from 40% to 85%, the industry relies heavily on lagging indicators and small-sample qualitative research. Traditional methods consume 6-12 months of development time while providing limited predictive value. FlavorHawk's C.H.E.F. PADRE platform offers a data-driven evergreen alternative, replacing subjective decision-making with real-time, large-scale preference analysis and predictive modeling.

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WORLD CLASS TEAM

The team below believe it’s time for the industry to embrace a smarter, faster, and more accurate way to predict success. FlavorHawk’s vision of the future is to service people, partners and clients with C.H.E.F. PADRE’s agnostic match-making technology to remove the friction of today’s problems built on yesterday’s methods. Senior industry powerhouses would not typically be drawn to a company of our size, but the problem is ready for repair and the tools are built.

Mark Weber

Chairman

Mark serves as chairman of FlavorHawk and has over 25 years’ experience running a private equity and venture capital firm with over $2 billion of completed transactions. In particular, Mark has been at the head of multiple transactions in the food, online services, and consumer goods space

Ben Irwin

Co-Founder

Ben has over 15 years of expertise as a Senior Software Technology Executive, having led Technical Program Management and Product Engineering organizations at organizations such as Sweetgreen and Amazon. Ben has a knack for delivering both visionary and practical solutions, having championed the development of massively scalable systems and ruthlessly prioritized prototypes. His passion lies in leveraging technology to serve as a catalyst for good and breaking down obstacles for customers and internal stakeholders alike.

John Morrell

Co-Founder

John serves as a technical advisor for the firm. With experience driving strategy at Snowflake and Cisco, John is an accomplished leader with a reputation for developing portfolios of innovative technologies, solutions and services that are strategic and sustainable.

Scout Underwood

Co-Founder and CEO

A builder by nature, Scout brings decades of entrepreneurial experience across venture development, brand consulting, alternative GTM tactics, and direct startup leadership. His multidisciplinary background spans technical architecture, creative direction, and data-driven marketing from digital to spokespeople to engineered viral loops to partnerships to events; enabling him to consult complex go-to-market strategies for Fortune 500 brands including Harley-Davidson and Toyota young adult efforts.  As FlavorHawk's CEO, he leverages this unique convergence of technical depth and strategic marketing expertise to pioneer the first enterprise-grade flavor recommendation cross-silo ecosystem, positioned to transform how the food and beverage industry understands and predicts consumer preferences at scale.

Joseph Schwartz

Co-Founder and Head of Data

Joseph is a co-founder of FlavorHawk and Head of Data operations for the firm. Joe was instrumental with creating proof-of-concepts then leading the full team building the scalable, proprietary “PADRE” platform which powers the flavor matching engine.

Jaxon Merril

Head of Product

Jaxon drives guidance for all applications of Padre across the product suite. Jaxon is an analytical and innovative product development executive responsible for revolutionizing customer experiences, company revenue, and market awareness through strategic innovation, and alignment of people, process, and technologies. He has a proven track record of successfully managing cross-functional teams, budgets, processes, and partnerships for diverse industries and companies including Sony, Disney, FOX Broadcasting, and Warner Music.

Phil Irvine

Head of Marketing

Phil provides strategic direction for all consumer facing and B2B messaging, positioning, and revenue growth. Phil is a transformational marketing executive with over two decades of success driving direct to consumer and omni-channel brand growth in early stage up to $1B+ organizations. Phil has strong expertise in leveraging data and analytics to make informed business decisions as well as integrate cutting edge technologies in customer acquisition, retention, and digital experience design.

Duc Huy Tran

Head of Operations & Strategy and Flavorhawk iQ

Duc serves a dual role as Head of Operations and Strategy and as the Business Unit Head of Flavorhawk iQ, the B2B data division of Flavorhawk. He provides strategic leadership in operations, sales, and business development, with a proven track record of managing multi-billion-dollar product lines at companies such as Bombardier and VinFast. Duc has extensive experience growing AI-focused businesses, running a software company, and contributing to organizations at both C-level and startup stages.

Henry brown

Field Agent

A versatile marketing and sales professional who leverages his unique blend of field sales, alternative marketing and business acumen to create systematic solutions for complex challenges across multiple channels. As Territory Sales Manager at OLN Inc with previous experience at HiveWatch and AT&T, Henry excels at bridging the gap between innovative technologies and their practical applications through his exceptional analytical thinking, client relations, and ground research capabilities.

Andrew H.

Security & Compliance

Protecting the investment, Andrew is a certified Cyber Threat Analyst with SOC experience and a passion for continuous learning. His diverse background, including expertise in geopolitics and China, strengthens his ability to detect and mitigate threats, ensuring FlavorHawk remains safe and compliant.

Rane Pakiz

Original Founder & Visionary

Over two decades in the F&B space, the one who named the company, and a passionate foodie, the FlavorHawk venture began with his curiosity on why a recommendation engine for food never existed. From there, he recruited the first contributors to this business.