(November 20, 2025) Before he became a founder working at the edge of personalized health, Khushang Hirpara was a student at CU Boulder, where he started a fitness club with nearly 250 athletes. Day after day, they came to him with the same question: What supplements should we take? He knew the answer mattered, but he also knew that no student, no coach, and certainly no consumer could sift through hundreds of scientific studies to tailor a formula to a single body. The gap between what people needed and what the industry could provide was impossible to ignore.
He began to wonder whether he could use his expertise in artificial intelligence to solve the problem. What if an algorithm could analyze a person’s health goals, lifestyle, and biometrics and build a formula just for them? That question led to a system capable of generating 28 million possible supplement combinations. His model also avoids the inaccuracies common in many AI-driven natural language tools; instead, Hirpara uses a technique that produces more precise predictions while relying entirely on open-source models.
This breakthrough led Khushang to lay the foundation of his company, Cloud9 (CLD-9), which uses artificial intelligence and robotics to create hyper-personalized supplementation formulated down to the milligram for everyday users. “I risked three years of my life and over 10,000 prototypes into building something to solve this. I’ve literally bled through hundreds of CNC part runs,” he recently wrote, sharing a video of the machine he built to automate the creation of personalized supplements. “The automation and mass production of hyper-personalized medicine has been the greatest barrier to improving the health of the world,” Hirpara wrote. “I’m proud to say we’re getting to the finish line. And we’re gonna make it open to the public, companies and clinics soon.”
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How does it work?
CLD-9’s process is simple. A user begins a five-minute chat with the company’s AI bot, which collects information about their health goals, lifestyle patterns, and biometrics. Behind the scenes, the system analyzes this data against 28 million possible supplement combinations to identify a formula tailored to that individual’s needs.
Once the blend is generated, CLD-9 produces a custom supplement mix formulated down to the precise dosage. Hirpara is proud about the fact that his company wil be the first company to build a custom formula specifically, down to the dosage based on a person’s biometrics. For those who would purchase it, each month, the personalized mix would arrive at the user’s home in a sleek box, complete with their name printed on the front. All they have to do is mix it with water and drink.
A founder by choice
As a high-schooler in Seattle Kushang began questioning whether to take the conventional path into computer science or leap into entrepreneurship. In his interview with his alma mater the Leeds School of Business, he recalled the decision that set everything in motion: “I could always learn computer science at some point, but this was my chance to chase a dream.”
Raised in a family connected with the tech industry, innovation didn’t intimidate him. And hence, instead of the University of Washington, he chose the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, drawn by the freedom it offered to build something new. At CU, he immersed himself in classes that treated entrepreneurship as a discipline, especially the New Venture Launch course, where weekly pitching and critique turned ideas into resilient ventures. The pressure sharpened him.
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Winning the New Venture Challenge
Two years ago, Khushang entered CU Boulder’s New Venture Challenge (NVC), the university’s most competitive startup competition. His concept stood out for its blend of robotics and AI. He won the $50,000 grand prize.
As he later reflected, the win was only the beginning. “So much of the benefits came afterward, from raising capital to building partnerships. I’m still reaping the rewards,” he told the Leeds School of Business. Through connections forged at NVC, he secured an additional $125,000, built his first product infrastructure, and refined the technology that would eventually handle millions of possible supplement combinations.
From campus gym that led to health-tech breakthrough
At the same time, Khushang founded the athletic club at CU Boulder which proved to be a turning point in his entrepreneurial journey. In an age when wellness has become both a booming business and a personal obsession, the problem personalization has persisted. Vitamins and supplements may come in glossy jars with buzzy labels, but most people want something that actually reflects their unique biology, ad not a one-size-fits-all blend. Being around athletes every day meant hearing the same question repeatedly: What supplements should I take?
What he discovered was that the problem wasn’t product availability. It was confusion. People were overwhelmed by choice, yet underserved by information. Cloud9 began as an attempt to solve that confusion through software.
Entrepreneurship as a way of becoming
For Khushang, Cloud9 is more than a business, rather a way of personal growth. In the Leeds interview, he said, “Entrepreneurship is the fastest way to become the best version of yourself.” The journey has tested him with technical failures, financial pressures, and emotional strain, forcing him to grow fast and learn faster. However the emotional and physical toll was immense as he nnoted that Most people build larger startups at 30 or 40. Taking this on at 22 came with a whole other level of stress. Yet he continued, supported by a small team he describes as exceptionally talented and aligned with his mission.
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Unlocking the future of personalised wellness
Now, as Cloud9 prepares for public release, Khushang is focused on bringing his technology not just to individual consumers but to clinics and companies as well. The upcoming launch represents years of intense iteration, sacrifices, and breakthroughs. The young entrepreneur is attempting to transform how personalised wellness is designed, delivered, and experienced. And he is doing so with prototype by prototype, failure by failure, and insight by insight.