Jess Haghani Lucille is the story of a private equity executive and Harvard Business School student who watched her grandmother get handed a chalky clinical shake in a hospital bed and decided the whole category deserved better. Haghani is the founder and CEO of Lucille Health, a Boston-area company, named after her grandmother, that makes a whole-food, high-protein, high-fiber nutrition shake for older adults. The company launched in March 2026 and, according to NutraIngredients, closed a multimillion-dollar investment led by Iris Ventures a month later. Here is how Haghani got there, what goes into the shake, who backs her and what questions remain.
Jess Haghani Lucille: Who Is the Founder?
Jess Haghani is the founder and chief executive officer of Lucille Health, Inc. According to the citybiz+ report on the funding round, she is a Harvard MBA graduate and a former executive at the private equity firm KKR. Her LinkedIn profile adds that she earned her MBA in 2025 and describes herself as a granddaughter, which is the same label she uses on the company website, where she signs as “Founder & Granddaughter.”
Lucille Health lists a Cambridge, Massachusetts address on its website, while press coverage describes the company as Boston-based. CPG Wire says it was founded in 2025, and the company’s launch release says it launched in 2026.
The way she presents herself is deliberate. Where many founders lead with credentials, Haghani leads with a family relationship. That choice is the core of the Jess Haghani Lucille story: a business built by someone who says she never planned to be an entrepreneur.
From Senior Housing and KKR to Harvard
Haghani’s early career was in places that touch older adults. According to a podcast summary from the newsletter How’s Your Boomer, she began in senior housing and real estate before enrolling in business school to pursue interests in food, nutrition, health and wellness.
CPG Wire describes her as an alumna of both Harvard Business School and KKR, and citybiz+ calls her a former KKR private equity executive. A Harvard Business School feature, quoted in her LinkedIn activity, says she did not come to Harvard to be an entrepreneur.
That background shapes the company in practical ways. Time in senior housing exposes someone to how older adults actually eat, who makes purchasing decisions and how facilities buy food. A finance background helps with investor conversations and building a plan. Together, they explain why Lucille has been built for senior living communities as much as for consumers. The senior-housing and finance years are the foundation of Jess Haghani Lucille.
The Hospital Moment
The company’s origin story is specific. On its Our Story page, Haghani writes that when her 91-year-old grandmother Lucille was in and out of hospitals recovering from atrial fibrillation, the nutrition options available to her were ultra-processed, clinical and joyless, the exact opposite of her spunky, full-of-life grandmother.
Other accounts describe the same episode slightly differently. The launch release says the idea developed while she helped her grandmother recover from heart surgery, and podcast summaries place the grandmother at 92. The different details are probably explained by timing and by the fact that the family dealt with several health episodes, but they are worth knowing when quoting the story.
On LinkedIn, Haghani describes watching her sharp, funny and stubborn 92-year-old grandmother handed a chalky Ensure in a hospital bed. The shake in that moment is the creative seed of Jess Haghani Lucille: a family member looking for something better and failing to find it.
The Problem: A Category That Has Not Changed
Haghani’s pitch is that senior nutrition has barely moved in decades. In a Q&A in the newsletter The Juicy Byte, the founder says Ensure and Boost basically have not changed in years, even though it is a huge market. The company’s Our Story page adds a statistic: adults 65 and older make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population, yet only 1% of food and beverage innovation is focused on seniors.
HNGRY described the opportunity as a clinical, ultra-processed category worth more than $6 billion, and said better-for-you CPG has reinvented nearly every aisle of the grocery store over the last 15 years while senior nutrition remains overlooked. Those market figures come from the company and trade press, not an independent study.
The company’s homepage names the emotional dimension too: clinical shakes feel like work, and Lucille is meant to feel like food. In the launch release, Haghani said it was an eye-opener that millions of older adults were being “reduced to their nutritional needs” and recommended products that felt sterile and dismissive. That is the problem Jess Haghani Lucille set out to solve.
Building Lucille: Formula and Ingredients
According to the Lucille website, the shake is a high-protein, calorically dense drink. The vanilla version has 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber and 230 calories per bottle, while the chocolate version has 20 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber and 240 calories. The brand says it has twice the protein and five times the fiber of Ensure Original Nutrition Shake, a comparison marked with an asterisk on the site.
The ingredient list is built around real food. HNGRY reports avocado oil, lactose-free milk protein isolate, date and agave syrups and chicory root fiber. The website lists what is left out: no soy, carrageenan, seed oils, gluten or sugar alcohols, and it describes the product as all natural, lactose free, grain free and certified gluten free.
The company also frames fiber as a digestive comfort feature, describing a prebiotic fiber blend that supports everyday comfort. These are company descriptions. For anyone with swallowing difficulties, kidney conditions, diabetes or other medical needs, a doctor or dietitian should guide choices. The formula is the product backbone of Jess Haghani Lucille.
The Expert Team Behind the Formula
Haghani had no food-science background, and she has been open about that. The Our Story page says the formulas were developed in partnership with nutrition experts from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and informed by leading nutritionists working directly in senior living communities across the country.
The citybiz+ report names food scientist Jarret Stopforth as a collaborator, and a podcast summary says she assembled experts from Harvard, Erewhon and a Chicago lab with no money or medical background at the start. The How’s Your Boomer summary adds that she worked with independent food scientists and took input from her own grandmother.
This is a smart way for a first-time founder to build credibility: borrow expertise from respected institutions and practitioners, then publish who they are. It also gives the brand a story caregivers can trust. The expert network is the credibility layer of Jess Haghani Lucille.
The Lucille Brand: Dignity and Super Seniors
The brand is built on language as much as ingredients. The homepage tagline is “Good Food, Great Years,” and the company talks about nutrition that brings dignity, joy and connection to everyday life. It calls its customers Super Seniors and has a page that features them.
Press quotes on the site frame the strategy: Lucille challenges legacy products that feel overly medicalized, is bullish on midlife and senior nutrition, takes inspiration from baby and toddler brands that upended longstanding norms and brings generations together. A Fitt Insider line shared by Haghani says what may matter most is the attempt to restore pride and dignity to a category that has treated seniors like patients instead of people.
In the Juicy Byte Q&A, Haghani sums up the promise: every product under the Lucille umbrella carries the mission that “nourishment doesn’t have to mean decline.” Expect the brand to expand beyond a single shake, and she calls the shake the first chapter. The positioning is the emotional engine of Jess Haghani Lucille.
Launching in March 2026
The company launched publicly on March 24, 2026, according to the BevNET press release. It described a launch with a line of simple-ingredient, high-protein, high-calorie, high-fiber shakes, available at LucilleHealth.com, through major assisted living communities and foodservice partners nationwide, with Amazon coming soon.
The product line is simple: Vanilla, Chocolate and a Variety Pack. The homepage lists a 12-count variety pack from $44 against a listed regular price of $88, or $3.33 per bottle, and offers $4 off a first order for new subscribers. Prices and promotions may change.
The business launched with a clear audience, older adults and the caregivers who buy for them, and a clear message about taste and ingredients. It also launched with unusual speed from founding to market. The launch is where Jess Haghani Lucille moved from a family story to a product.
Channels: Senior Living, Foodservice and Direct
Lucille is selling through more channels than most new consumer brands, and the order is notable. The launch release names senior living communities and foodservice partners alongside direct online sales, and the funding announcement says the company is onboarded with its first foodservice distributor for senior living communities.
That choice reflects how the category works. Many older adults get their nutrition shakes through facilities, hospitals and caregivers, not through a supermarket aisle. Winning a foodservice distributor opens a channel that standard CPG brands rarely reach early.
At the same time, Haghani says early data shows more older adults discovering the brand independently than she hypothesized, which suggests a direct-to-consumer path as well. In the NutraIngredients piece, she said the company is already seeing subscriber conversions from initial purchases. The multi-channel approach is the go-to-market backbone of Jess Haghani Lucille.
Inside the Multimillion-Dollar Round
In April 2026, Lucille announced a multimillion-dollar funding round. CPG Wire reported that the round was led by IRIS Ventures, with New Fare Partners and Able Partners also participating. NutraIngredients and citybiz+ identified the lead as London-based Iris Ventures, a firm that focuses on health and lifestyle brands.
No source reviewed gave the amount. The launch release in March named earlier backers: New Fare Capital, Able Partners, Amity Supply and Jesse Merrill, the founder of Good Culture, among other angel investors. So the April round was the first named institutional lead.
For comparison with companies that publish their round sizes, see our story on Nopalera’s Series A, and for more on how funding shapes young brands, see our Funding News section. The undisclosed amount is the one gap in the Jess Haghani Lucille funding story.
The Investors Backing Jess Haghani
The investor group mixes brand specialists and operators. Iris Ventures is a London-based fund backing health and lifestyle brands. New Fare is a CPG-focused investor, and HNGRY interviewed Elly Truesdell of New Fare Partners alongside Haghani. Able Partners is another early backer, as is Amity Supply, and Jesse Merrill brings founder experience from Good Culture, a better-for-you dairy brand.
Iris described the company, according to citybiz+, as a science-led effort to make nutrition for older adults more effective, more accessible and better tasting, and sees it as part of a broader shift in consumer nutrition. The investors argue that the senior category has lagged other wellness segments even as demand grows.
A cap table with several CPG-specialist funds helps with retail introductions, hiring and follow-on capital. It also means the company will be expected to show growth quickly. That mix of capital and category experience strengthens Jess Haghani Lucille.
Traction and Claims
The traction evidence is early. The company says it is seeing subscriber conversions from initial purchases and has onboarded a first foodservice distributor. It says early data shows more older adults finding it independently than expected, and the homepage lists AdAge, CPG Wire, Nosh and The Juicy Byte as press features.
The sources reviewed do not publish sales figures, number of customers or the number of senior living communities using the product. Statements like “2x protein and 5x fiber” are company comparisons against one competitor product, and the market-size and 1% innovation figures come from the company and trade press.
An honest reading is that Lucille is a young company with a clear story, early signs of demand and credible backers, but without public sales numbers. That is normal at this stage. The traction is early for Jess Haghani Lucille, and what is known comes from the company.
Where Lucille Stands Against Ensure and Boost
Senior nutrition shakes have long been dominated by a few large brands. The founder names Ensure and Boost as the incumbents, and the company’s homepage compares itself to Ensure Original Nutrition Shake. Both incumbents have wide retail and hospital distribution, strong brand recognition and clinical credibility.
Lucille’s differentiators are clear. It uses a short list of real-food ingredients and leaves out common additives. It targets taste and dignity, not just nutrition. It is built with expert input from a major public health school. And it is sold through senior living and foodservice channels as well as direct.
The risks are real. Incumbents can reformulate or lower prices. Premium pricing may limit adoption among price-sensitive caregivers and facilities. Clinical recommendations from doctors and dietitians strongly influence what older adults drink. And a lactose-free, milk-protein shake will not suit everyone. In a category dominated by legacy brands, Jess Haghani Lucille competes on taste and trust.
Risks and Open Questions
A fair article on a nutrition company should name the open questions.
Clinical acceptance. Doctors and dietitians often recommend established products, and the sources reviewed do not describe clinical studies of Lucille itself.
Comparisons. The 2x protein and 5x fiber claim is against one competitor product and is the company’s own.
Funding. The round amount and valuation are undisclosed.
Scale. The company has not published sales, customer or facility numbers.
Pricing. The shake is priced above many conventional options, and affordability matters for older adults on fixed incomes.
Individual needs. Older adults have varied medical conditions, and no single shake suits everyone.
None of these is unusual for a company at this stage. Naming them is part of an honest look at Jess Haghani Lucille.
Leadership Style and What’s Next
Haghani leads as a storyteller and connector. She is open about not having a food background and builds credibility by naming her experts. She also invites the audience in, with a page asking people to share stories of someone they love and a Super Seniors page that features customers.
Her stated direction is broader than one shake. In podcast coverage, she describes wanting Lucille to become the Once Upon a Farm of older-adult nutrition rather than its Ensure, with a full range of products one day sitting where the old shakes used to be. She told Juicy Byte that the shake is just the first chapter and she is excited to share more of the roadmap.
The visible next steps are Amazon availability, more senior living and foodservice partners and new products. The test will be proving repeat use among older adults and caregivers at scale. That discipline will define the next chapter of Jess Haghani Lucille.
Lessons From the Jess Haghani Lucille Journey
The Jess Haghani Lucille journey offers five practical lessons for founders.
First, start with someone you love. A grandmother’s hospital experience gave Haghani a clear, emotional standard for the product.
Second, borrow expertise and name it. Partnering with Harvard Chan nutrition experts and food scientists gave a first-time founder credibility.
Third, use a broken category. Ensure and Boost had not changed in years, which left room for a new standard.
Fourth, sell where your customer already is. Senior living and foodservice are channels where older adults get nutrition.
Fifth, pair a story with a spec. The family story gets attention, and the ingredient list and protein numbers back it up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Jess Haghani?
Jess Haghani is the founder and CEO of Lucille Health. She is a Harvard Business School MBA graduate and former KKR executive who began her career in senior housing and real estate.
What is the Jess Haghani Lucille story?
It is the story of a founder who saw her grandmother handed a clinical nutrition shake during a hospital stay and built a whole-food, high-protein shake for older adults, named after her, that launched in March 2026.
What is Lucille Health?
Lucille Health is a Boston-area company that makes a high-protein, calorically dense, high-fiber nutrition shake for older adults in vanilla and chocolate flavors.
How much protein and fiber does Lucille have?
The vanilla shake has 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber and 230 calories, and the chocolate has 20 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber and 240 calories, according to the company.
What is in a Lucille shake?
HNGRY reports avocado oil, lactose-free milk protein isolate, date and agave syrups and chicory root fiber. The company says it has no soy, carrageenan, seed oils, gluten or sugar alcohols.
How much funding has Lucille raised?
The company announced a multimillion-dollar round in April 2026, led by Iris Ventures, with New Fare Partners and Able Partners participating. The exact amount has not been disclosed.
Who invests in Lucille?
Investors include Iris Ventures, New Fare, Able Partners, Amity Supply and Jesse Merrill, founder of Good Culture, along with angel investors.
Where can I buy Lucille?
It is sold at LucilleHealth.com and through senior living communities and foodservice partners, with Amazon listed as coming soon in the launch release.
Who helped develop Lucille’s formula?
The company says the formulas were developed with nutrition experts from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and informed by nutritionists in senior living communities. Food scientist Jarret Stopforth is also named.
Is Lucille a medical product?
No. It is a food and nutrition product, not a medical treatment. Check with a doctor or dietitian about whether it suits an individual’s needs.
Conclusion
Jess Haghani Lucille shows how a family story can reshape a stale category. By building a shake with real ingredients, borrowing expertise from a respected public health school and selling through the channels where older adults actually get nutrition, Haghani turned a hospital-room frustration into a brand with multimillion-dollar backing within a year of launch. The open questions are whether clinicians, caregivers and older adults adopt it at scale, and what the numbers look like once sales are public. If they hold up, Haghani may help give senior nutrition the kind of brand it has lacked.
For more founder journeys in consumer brands, see Freddie Martignetti’s Rosaluna, Jen Phan’s Passionfroot and Dorsia’s Series A on Denote Press, or browse all Founder Stories.
