In just a few years, SmartEat has transformed from a bootstrapped idea into a thriving nutrition platform serving clients across 2 continents. With a sophisticated algorithm that turns complex nutritional science into simple, actionable meal plans, the company has helped thousands of fitness trainers and individuals deliver better results to their clients—while learning hard lessons about what it takes to crack the American market.
At the heart of this journey is Anton Krasavin, co-founder of SmartEat, whose unconventional path from poker tables to nutrition algorithms offers a masterclass in persistence, adaptation, and the art of pivoting without losing sight of your core mission.
Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to expand globally, a founder navigating product-market fit, or simply curious about the intersection of technology and wellness, this conversation is packed with honest insights about the reality of building across cultures, markets, and continents.
Anna: Anton, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Let's start with something that immediately caught my attention—your journey to entrepreneurship is far from traditional. Can you take us through this winding path and how it all led to SmartEat?
Anton: Sure, my story is definitely non-linear — I love telling people about it because everything actually connects in unexpected ways. I studied economics at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, got expelled twice, and during my final years I got seriously into online poker. For a while, it was relatively successful, but eventually it became just routine: you're sitting at a computer, doing the same thing over and over, and it narrows your worldview significantly.
When my poker initiative started declining — partly because my enthusiasm waned — I went into trading, then moved into investment sales. None of it really clicked. But then I stumbled upon strategic consulting — companies like McKinsey — and fell in love with the thought process. Breaking down big problems into components, understanding dependencies, finding step-by-step solutions. That's when my brother and I decided to try something of our own. We initially wanted to create a game, but the idea that stuck was nutrition planning. We'd always been interested in fitness and nutrition, and we kept seeing the same mistakes people make — the myths, the confusion, the yo-yo dieting. Here's where my background suddenly made sense: nutrition is numbers. Pure, precise calculations. If you love working with data and formulas, like I did from poker and trading, nutrition planning becomes fascinating rather than tedious.
Anna: So the algorithm was born from your love of numbers and precision. But how did you go from personal interest to actual business? What was that first breakthrough moment?
Anton: The funny thing is, we tested the concept for almost nothing. We spent maybe 5,000 or 10,000 rubles over two days building a quiz, found a couple of groups, posted some ads for 300-700 rubles, and got a handful of leads. We had some sample meal plans ready for different calorie ranges, and I personally called everyone who submitted a request. Three people actually bought from us. We had no service, no website, not even a proper Excel system yet. We promised to deliver their monthly meal plan within a day, and we literally spent the entire night creating it. We promised to deliver their monthly meal plan within a day and literally spent the entire night creating it — calculating the nutrition, handling the design, and formatting everything by hand. And the clients loved it! That's when we knew we had something real. But the validation process taught us our first major lesson: b2c users are hard to convert because of all the nutrition myths out there. Everyone has a neighbor who lost weight on 1,000 calories or a friend who swears by some extreme diet. Breaking through that wall of misinformation is exhausting sometimes.
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Anna: Oh yes, I’ve tried a couple of those trendy diets myself, so I totally get what you mean! So after getting a better understanding of your users, you pivoted to personal trainers as your main target market, right?
Anton: Exactly. Trainers have the fastest return on our service. If someone wants to lose weight, they need weeks or months of following a nutrition plan to see results. But a trainer saves 2-3 hours immediately on meal plan creation, plus they can sell this as an additional service to their clients. We give them beautiful formatting, detailed recipes, shopping lists — everything ready to go. This worked perfectly in Russia. We understood the culture, the products, how and what people eat. We could scale through targeted Facebook ads, Instagram marketing, blogger partnerships. The economics made sense, and we were bootstrapping everything — no investors, just our own money, which meant we had to be extremely precise about our unit economics.
Anna: And at which moment did you make a decision to expand to the American market?
Anton: 2022 was a real turning point. We had originally planned to try the American market, but when Instagram stopped working for us in Russia, it became an urgent necessity rather than a future plan. We had to move fast. The reality hit us immediately — even though products seem similar, everything is completely different. In Russia, you go to any store and half the shelf is sunflower oil, then olive oil, then a few others. Here you walk into a store and there's canola oil, vegetable oil, flaxseed oil... and if you want sunflower oil, you have to hunt for one or two bottles that cost more than olive oil, like it's some exotic product.
The products are labeled differently too. There is no nutrition info per 100 grams. Here it's per serving, and every manufacturer has different serving sizes — 35 grams, 48 grams, whatever they want. Milk contains vitamins, portion sizes are completely different. After going deeper into the cultural reality, we realized we had to rebuild it nearly from scratch.
Anna: Makes sense! Speaking of adaptation, I know you're working with Konstantin from PTC. How has that partnership been crucial for your U.S. expansion?
Anton: PTC and Konstantin specifically were absolutely vital. When we reached the point where we urgently needed to open an American company, I was researching different attorneys and services. Prices ranged wildly - $3,000 to $10,000 just for company formation, and we had no idea what we actually needed. Some colleague recommended Konstantin, and in one hour he explained everything clearly: what we could do, how much it would cost, what made sense for our specific situation. For a startup, this was the perfect solution: fast, simple, affordable. When you have a limited budget, spending $10,000 on attorney fees means $10,000 less for marketing or customer interviews.
And beyond the technical setup, Konstantin helped with banking when Mercury closed our account with two weeks' notice, guided us through the entire relocation process, and became someone we could always reach out to with questions. He essentially served as our business guide for banking, legal, and general adaptation in America. We value it a lot.
Anna: That’s such a great point — it’s exactly what I love about PTC: the personal approach and real empathy. You mentioned earlier that your economics have to be precise since you're bootstrapping. How does the American market compare financially?
Anton: The American market has incredible demand, which is both good and bad. If something has any demand at all, people will buy it regardless of quality. I've been shocked by how many businesses here succeed with what I'd consider poor UX, unclear messaging, or bad service.That makes it harder to understand what Americans actually value.
If there's demand for your category, mediocre execution can still generate sales. The positive side is that American consumers, especially fitness professionals, are willing to invest in tools that save them time and help them serve clients better. When my team gets the positioning right, the response can be very strong.
Anna: By the way, how is your team structured?
Anton: I’m one of the co-founders, so I know the ins and outs of the business, but I’m not involved in day-to-day operations. We have a small remote team managed by those who I trust.
Anna: Good! What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who dream of taking their business global, especially to the American market?
Anton: Two critical pieces of advice. First: if you think of going global, start global immediately. Don't think you can perfect your product in one market and then easily transfer it. Different mentalities, different behaviors, different everything. You'll essentially be rebuilding your product anyway, so you might as well understand your target market from day one.
Second: start selling as soon as possible. We spent time doing paid interviews with American trainers and nutritionists on research platforms. Everyone said our product sounded interesting, but when we gave them promo codes, almost no one even tried it for free. These people came to earn money from interviews, not to solve actual problems.
Real customers behave completely differently than research participants. Only when people pay with their own money do you understand if you're actually solving their problems. We have customers from our very early days in 2018 who are still actively buying from us — that's the real validation.
Don't waste time asking family and friends about your startup if it doesn't solve their problems. Ask strangers to buy from you. It's scary, but if you're genuinely solving problems for people, they'll happily spend time with you, help you improve, and become loyal customers.
Anna: Looking ahead, what does the future hold for SmartEat? Are you planning to raise investment, or do you prefer the bootstrap approach?
Anton: We're in a re-evaluation phase, like in poker when you have to reassess your hand after each new card. I can't plan too far ahead — I prefer to stay flexible and adapt based on what we learn.
We're currently integrating AI into our service, but carefully. Most AI nutrition tools hallucinate or give low-quality results. Our core algorithm is super stable and gives perfect results — that's our competitive advantage. We're using AI for scaling around the edges: customer support, client management, expanding our ingredient database.
As for funding, we're exploring different paths. I know there's already a unicorn doing something very similar to what we're building. That's both validation and competition. Whether we pursue the venture capital route or build a profitable lifestyle business depends on how the next phase develops.
My goal has always been to create something that genuinely helps people. The most satisfying moments aren't about awards or money — it's when someone sincerely says "thank you" because we've made their work easier or helped them serve their clients better. When you build something that creates value for others, everything else follows.
Anna: Before we wrap up, can you share what's been the most rewarding part of this journey so far?
Anton: There is a client who has been with us from the very beginning, he is still one of our most active customers. That's from 2018, almost seven years ago. Seeing that consistency, knowing we've built something that continues to deliver value year after year — that's incredibly rewarding. We survived launching during COVID when the fitness industry was devastated. We've adapted across completely different markets and cultures. We've proven that if you focus on solving real problems with precision and consistency, you can build something lasting.
The entrepreneurial journey is never linear, but that's what makes it fascinating. Every challenge teaches you something. Every market teaches you something. The key is staying curious, staying flexible, and never losing sight of the people you're trying to help.
Anna: Anton, thank you so much for sharing this incredible journey with us. I'm sure many entrepreneurs will find your insights about global expansion and product-market fit invaluable. For anyone interested in learning more about nutrition planning or SmartEat's services, we encourage you to visit their website and follow their continued growth across both continents.
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