Nomiku

Company history

Nomiku was founded by Lisa Q. Fetterman, Abe Fetterman, and Wipop Bam Suppipat. Previously, Lisa and Abe started their first company together, called Lower East Kitchen, while living in New York City.

Lower East Kitchen supplied open-source easy-to-assemble DIY sous vide “Ember Kits” to provide home cooks an affordable alternative to expensive industrial machinery for sous vide.

Together they taught classes on how to “hack” together their kits and eventually met Wipop Bam Suppipat, a Thai national who was working as a chef in New York and who would eventually become the third Nomiku co-founder.

After relocating to the San Francisco, Lisa and Abe decided to pursue their sous vide endeavors further and joined the hardware startup accelerator Haxlr8r.

The pair moved to Shenzhen, China to work with Haxlr8r and develop their product. Taking a short break, Lisa and Abe went to Thailand and reconnected with Suppipat. Talking more deeply about their design, Suppipat—who Lisa and Abe found out is also an industrial designer—joined Nomiku back in Shenzhen and lead the design of the Original Nomiku.

The three co-founders launched their Kickstarter campaign in the summer of 2012, raising $586,061, nearly triple the amount of their intended goal. The team used the funds to start production on Nomiku and would split themselves up in between their homebase of San Francisco and their factory in China. Nomiku began taking preorders immediately after the Kickstarter ended and shipped the year after to thousands of homes and restaurants.

Nomiku has since finished a second Kickstarter campaign to fund the first-ever WiFi-enable immersion circulator and became a Y Combinator-backed company.

Nomiku's name is a shortened version of the Japanese phrase “Nomikui” (飲み食い), which means “eating and drinking”.

Founders

Lisa Q. Fetterman is the CEO of Nomiku. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism, Lisa worked in several fine dining restaurants like Jean Georges and Babbo . Fetterman also worked as a journalist at many publications including Hearst and The Daily News. Lisa has been named Forbes 30 Under 30 as well as Zagat 30 Under 30 for her work with Nomiku.

Lisa met her husband, Abe Fetterman, at a gym in New York City. Abe earned his PhD from Princeton specializing in Plasma Physics and Astrophysics. He is the CTO of Nomiku and helped Lisa conceive Lower East Kitchen and develop their Ember Kit.

Wipop Bam Suppipat is Nomiku’s third co-founder and designer. Suppipat earned his Industrial Design degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and was classically trained at the French Culinary Institute.

Kickstarter

Nomiku has completed two successful Kickstarter campaigns to date. The first raised nearly $600,000 and the second raised over $750,000. Both campaigns helped to finance the production of both the Original Nomiku and the upcoming WiFi Nomiku; both models are available world-wide.

Original Nomiku

The Original Nomiku Immersion Circulator is Nomiku’s inaugural product. Nomiku clips to almost any pot a homeowner may already own and will heat and circulate the water inside at a very consistent temperature.

Nomiku is also outfitted with a responsive touchscreen that is used to turn it on and off and toggle between Fahrenheit and Celsius as well as display warning icons such as cooking in the FDA “Danger Zone” or loss of power. A knob is used to adjust to what temperature Nomiku heats the water to. Nomiku comes with a state-of-the-art heating element, called a PTC heater; its design allows it to never burn out and heat water within a 0.2 Celsius accuracy.

WiFi Nomiku

The WiFi Nomiku was intended to be the first-ever WiFi enabled sous vide device, but manufacturing delays allowed Anova to ship first. It upgrades the specs of the Original and comes with a larger screen and with a front-facing clip. It will also come with a companion social network app called, Tender, for iOS and Android that will allow users to control their Nomiku wherever an internet connection is available. Users will be able to create and share recipes on Tender as well. The WiFi Nomiku is due out Summer 2015, but has been delayed multiple times into mid-to-late 2016.

Meat Delivery

Nomiku is the first sous vide immersion circulator company to integrate sous-vide-ready meats into their business model. Currently in beta, Nomiku offers sous vide-ready ingredients to be delivered in San Francisco that are ready to be dropped into a sous vide water bath.

Awards and Recognition

The Original Nomiku was named a finalist in the International Housewares Association Innovation Awards for Kitchen Electrics and a winner of the Edison Awards.