Some people are born to dance to their own tune, to forge their own path. Dubai-based Eve Lauren Heinz is a case in point.
When she was a young girl in Leipzig, Germany, even as her siblings and friends eyed the powder white ski slopes in winter, her mind was busy making calculations on how to turn a profit. She (and her siblings) set up tea stalls. “This was instead of the classic lemonade stand, because in Germany, it was quite cold. During winter, we would set up a tea stand and sell tea to people walking by, and I loved it. [I learned that] I love going up to people, talking to them. I love finding ways to sell a product,” she recalls.
This entrepreneurial spirit began to rumble once again after Lauren Heinz moved to Dubai in 2020, resulting in her opening her own company, Linafsi, at the grand old age of 18, one that would sell protein bars with a Middle Eastern twist. “One thing I noticed as a consumer myself of these type of products is that while the market is very well served by global brands, I didn’t see as much specifically for this region. It seemed like a lot of the bars existing were kind of bestsellers in the US and in the UK that were brought here,” she tells City Times.
She also noticed that protein bars seemed to be marketed to fitness enthusiasts. “I realised that there was a potential for appealing to a broader customer base, not just a fitness enthusiast, but also busy professionals, parents, students, because with all of us busy and on the go, having something that’s a little bit more substantiating than the average snack product can be helpful, because it just makes you fuller, and then you have more productivity and more energy to go about your day.”
Learning the ropes
From germination of the idea to realisation of the dream, however, would take some time. “I got into healthier baking and stuff like that, especially during Covid. I did a lot of bars myself in the kitchen, just for the family. And then the next step for me was I did an internship at a private label protein bar manufacturer where I gained the theoretical and the hands-on knowledge [of the industry], because I worked in the research and development department,” she explains.
She says she learned how the bars were made, the market for them, how does something that you make in a lab make it to a commercial production to be put out into the market? “And then after that, it was working on my business plan and learning things around business through taking an international business course and an entrepreneurship course. I took a marketing course in my free time as well,” she says. She also began to research who she could work with to sort out the logistics.
It helped that her mother is an arts and PE teacher. “So, she’s very creative and very active. And my dad is into B to B flavours and fragrances. I’ve learned so much from him, especially when it comes to the importance of taste in a product,” she explains.
This familial support also led to a seamless change in future plans when she told her parents she didn’t want to go to university. “Let me think back to the moment,” she muses. “There was definitely a lead up to it, because my dad had seen over the course of my high school education that I was taking business courses, I was doing certain internships. I was, after school, working on my business plan. You could see the signs of the direction I was going. And we had a lot of conversations about college at the dinner table. It was a lot of conversation leading up to the point where I pitched the idea to my dad, and he gave me his feedback on it, very honest feedback on the gaps in my business plan. And based on that, it was just a lot of revisions to my plan, until I could present something to my dad that he was okay with,” she says.
And while there may have been some who were shocked at her career path, she says, she hardly noticed any detractors. “I think you need to have a certain level of blinders on when getting into business, because you don’t want things like that to get to you. I’m a quite logical person. I like to take on rational advice because it helps. But you also have to kind of believe in what you’re trying to do. And if you let too much negativity in it’ll put doubt in you that hinders you,” she’s quick to point out.
The process
Linafsi’s flagship product, the ango Lassi Crispy Protein Bar debuted in May 2023, followed by new flavors like Coconut Milk Chocolate and Butterscotch in December 2023. This entailed a lot of sampling. “With any product, especially with protein bars like these, you have a lot of sampling – you start with a base formulation, and then the samples get sent to you, and you share it with your family, your friends, a test group, and you revise it, and you continue to revise and get samples. It’s a back and forth until I myself believe in the product,” she tells City Times.
And then begins the actual journey to the store. There are several hurdles one needs to overcome, says Lauren Heinz. “There are fluctuations in prices for raw materials. That’s something we faced, especially a few months ago. There was the cacao that went up that, that’s always an issue. You have shipping issues, lots of delays. I think when you start, I have a certain timeline. You can basically times that by six. This has definitely taught me a lot of patience. There is a lot of rejection; I feel like out of every 10 opportunities, you’re lucky if the one works out and it only takes the one,” she adds.
Her resilience has worked out. Currently, Linafsi products are available at Choithrams grocery stores, online on Amazon.ae and Linafsi.com, and select locations such as FIVE Hotels (Luxe and Palm), ZIA airport in Abu Dhabi, and UPro Sports Complex.
For others with a dream, she says it’s important to surround yourself with positivity. “Have a good support system, anybody who can really be there for you and support you,” she says. They don’t need to be in business themselves, but they do need to be there for you – emotionally more than anything else. “It’s going to be very, very difficult to be persistent and to keep going. You need to kind of sometimes ignore what’s happening and trust it’ll work out. There will be another opportunity. You can’t make it through the door, you’ll make it through the window,” concludes the 20-year-old.