#HerImpact: Fueled by Passion, Sustained by Adaptability, Right Bite Scales Wellness in Dubai
Endeavor Entrepreneur Nathalie Haddad reflects on challenges she’s faced as a founder and her recipe for success
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Nathalie Haddad wanted to help people protect the most precious thing in their lives: their health. After seeing people struggle with limited options for nutritious food and the lack of education surrounding the topic, Nathalie was motivated to get involved. She launched Rite Bite in 2004, starting off by offering cooking classes and one-on-one nutrition consulting, and eventually grew the company to what it is today — one of Dubai’s leading centers for nutritional consulting and gourmet personalized meal delivery.
With Rite Bite, Nathalie sought to educate people on their diet to help them reap the benefits of a healthy body and mind — to great success. Her clients have seen many positive effects of the meal plan. In addition to weight loss, many report feeling an increase in energy and becoming more productive during the day.
Nathalie cites her strong team as a key component to the company’s success. The company thrives on feedback not only from clients — but also from each other. When managing her team of 180 people, Nathalie makes sure to maintain open communication and feedback.
“I believe we all grow together and learn and change as a team,” she said.
This type of dedication has proved integral to scaling Rite Bite and overcoming some of the more formidable challenges the company has faced in its growth.
In November of 2015, as Nathalie prepared for her local panel in Endeavor’s selection process, pregnant with her second child, the Rite Bite warehouse caught fire. As the flames spread, Rite Bite’s team remained, continuing as many operations as they could safely to ensure customers received everything they had ordered. Nathalie made it to the Local Selection Panel at Endeavor UAE the following morning, returning to the warehouse after, humbled to find that everyone had returned to salvage the damage.
Despite the company’s considerable setback, Rite Bite’s team was undeterred, determined to return operations to normal, putting in as many extra hours as rebuilding required. Nathalie realized: Her team is her family. Backed by the dedicated team, Rite Bite would prevail through the good and bad.
Today, while Rite Bite’s setbacks are far less formidable, the company faces new challenges, such as competing with the continuously growing health and wellness industry. With the wellness industry evolving every day on different social media platforms, Nathalie deems it of utmost importance to stay honest and give her clients real results rather than “quick fixes.” The focus of the company is not to teach clients how to diet, but rather how to educate clients on how to eat better and adapt best practices to their lifestyle.
Due to the rapid growth of Right Bite along with the health industry, the team stays continuously in scale-up mode, focusing on new ways to innovate and remain at the top of the market. Nathalie and her team test new menu items on a weekly basis to provide customers with variety. Recently, the Right Bite team realized that many of their competitors were gaining customers who followed special diets. Wanting to ensure that anyone looking to live a healthy lifestyle can do so with Right Bite, Nathalie worked with her team to develop a fully vegan meal plan.
At the same time, Nathalie recognizes there must be a balance, making it a top priority that innovation never gets in the way of the ethics at the heart of Rite Bite — never making choices to gain customers if it means compromising their long-term health and wellness.
Apart from leading and scaling Rite Bite, Nathalie also juggles another full-time job: being a mom to her three children under the age of six. Nathalie credits her great support system both at home and at work with keeping her motivated, and encourages other entrepreneurs to take the leap.
“Love what you do and focus on it,” Nathalie said. “It’s hard work but extremely rewarding at the end of the day.”
