Reference
Plain-English definitions for every term that shows up across the Tiny Tribes materials.
66 terms · alphabetical · use ⌘F to search
A gene used to identify bacteria from a sample — the standard microbiome test.
The 16S rRNA gene is present in all bacteria, with regions that vary enough between species to identify them. Sequencing this gene from a stool sample reveals which bacteria are present and in what proportions. It's the standard for consumer microbiome tests (InnerBuddies, Atlas, ZOE) — fast, affordable, but limited to genus/species resolution.
Tiny Tribes' four bacterial cohorts: Foundation · Mediterranean · Blueprint · Origin.
The Four Tribes are the four 90-day phases of the protocol. Each is a distinct bacterial cohort with its own strain mix and prebiotic substrate: Foundation (broad-spectrum repair), Mediterranean (polyphenol metabolisers), Blueprint (HMO-fed deep personalisation), Origin (psychobiotics + resilience).
Active Fluorescent Units — a microbiology assay measuring living, metabolically active bacteria.
Seed Health uses AFU instead of CFU on their labels, arguing AFU more accurately reflects how many bacteria are actually alive and functional at point of consumption. The two metrics aren't directly comparable but generally yield similar order-of-magnitude counts. The supplement industry mostly still uses CFU as the standard.
A keystone gut bacterium that lives in and maintains the mucin layer.
Akkermansia muciniphila is a beneficial bacterium that degrades and replenishes the mucin layer, supports gut barrier integrity, and is associated with metabolic health (lower obesity, better glucose control). Low Akkermansia is common in metabolic disease and IBD. It's a Phase 2 (Mediterranean) anchor strain at Tiny Tribes.
See Akkermansia — a keystone gut bacterium.
A fermentable fibre extracted from grain bran — the Phase 1 prebiotic anchor.
Arabinoxylan is a complex fibre found in wheat, rye, and oat bran. It's selectively fermented by butyrate-producing bacteria, improves gut barrier integrity, and has the cleanest EU regulatory profile of any prebiotic candidate (no Novel Food approval needed). It anchors Phase 1 (Foundation) at Tiny Tribes.
Annual Recurring Revenue — total subscription revenue over a year.
ARR is the standard SaaS/subscription metric: monthly subscription revenue × 12. For Tiny Tribes: 2,000 subscribers × €89/month × 12 = €2.1M ARR by Year 1. Investors care about ARR growth rate more than absolute ARR at pre-seed.
Certification awarded by B Lab to companies meeting verified social and environmental performance standards.
B Corp certification signals "purpose-driven business" — relevant for premium DTC wellness brands. Tiny Tribes plans to begin B Corp application at Series A scale (covered in `00-executive-summary.md`). Certification cost: ~€12K + ongoing compliance. Brands holding B Corp status: Patagonia, Allbirds, Bombas, Innocent Drinks, Tony's Chocolonely.
A genus of Y-shaped beneficial bacteria, abundant in healthy adult guts.
Bifidobacterium is one of the two most-studied probiotic genera. Key species include B. longum, B. bifidum, B. breve, B. lactis, B. infantis. Especially important in HMO (human milk oligosaccharide) metabolism — B. infantis EVC001 is a Phase 3 (Blueprint) anchor strain at Tiny Tribes.
Phase 3 — HMO-fed Bifidobacterium cohort + the deepest personalisation tier.
The Blueprint phase delivers 12 strains anchored by B. infantis EVC001 plus HMO substrates (2'-FL, LNnT). The HMO-strain combination is mechanistically specific — HMOs feed B. infantis selectively. The Intelligence subscription tier maps test results to Blueprint emphasis.
A short-chain fatty acid produced by gut bacteria — fuel for colon cells.
Butyrate is one of the three main short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), produced when bacteria ferment fibre. It's the primary energy source for the cells lining your colon (colonocytes), supports mucin production, modulates inflammation, and is increasingly linked to gut-brain signalling. Low butyrate is a common marker in microbiome dysbiosis.
Customer Acquisition Cost — total marketing spend divided by new customers acquired.
CAC = total acquisition spend / new subscribers. Tiny Tribes target: <€120 blended. Paid social CAC will be higher (€150+); practitioner-referred and content-driven channels lower (€40–€80). LTV:CAC ratio >3:1 is healthy; Tiny Tribes targets >8:1 by Year 2.
Colony-Forming Units — the standard count for live bacteria in a probiotic dose.
CFU measures how many viable bacterial cells can grow into colonies in a lab dish. Typical effective dose: 1–50 billion CFU per serving. Higher CFU isn't automatically better — strain specificity and survival matter more. Seed uses AFU (Active Fluorescent Units) as an alternative metric.
Test → Protocol → App → Product → Re-test — the 5-stage system.
The closed loop is Tiny Tribes' operational model: subscriber tests their microbiome, gets a personalised protocol, follows it via the app, receives the product, then re-tests to measure change. The loop closes by feeding test data back into protocol refinement — making the system get smarter with every cohort.
A defined group of bacterial strains (or human subjects) studied or delivered together.
In the Tiny Tribes protocol context, a cohort is the group of 10–12 strains delivered in a single phase — Foundation cohort, Mediterranean cohort, etc. In clinical research, a cohort is a group of subjects sharing a defining characteristic (age, condition, intervention). The RCT design at Maastricht will use a treatment cohort and a control cohort.
When introduced bacteria successfully establish residence in the gut.
Probiotic colonisation means a strain not only survives transit but takes up residence, multiplies, and persists for weeks or months. Most commercial probiotics achieve only "transient" colonisation — the strains pass through, exerting effects while present but disappearing within days. Tiny Tribes' sequenced 90-day phases are designed to maximise true colonisation.
When introducing multiple strains at once causes them to crowd each other out.
Competitive exclusion is the ecological principle that organisms competing for the same niche cannot stably coexist. In probiotic delivery: when 24+ strains arrive simultaneously, the most aggressive colonisers crowd out the slower-establishing ones, reducing individual colonisation rates by up to 40% (Zmora et al., Cell 2018).
Direct-to-consumer — selling subscriptions or products through the brand's own channels (website, app), bypassing retailers.
Tiny Tribes is DTC-first: subscribers buy directly via tinytribes.eu, paid monthly, fulfilled to the home. DTC economics depend on customer acquisition cost (CAC) staying low and customer lifetime value (LTV) staying high. The model contrasts with pharmacy or grocery retail (Cuure does both; Tiny Tribes is launching DTC-only).
An unhealthy imbalance in the gut bacterial community.
Dysbiosis is the umbrella term for a "broken" microbiome — low diversity, missing keystone species, overgrowth of opportunistic species, loss of bacterial functions like SCFA production. Associated with IBS, IBD, metabolic disease, allergies, and mood disorders. The protocol exists to address it.
European Food Safety Authority — the EU regulator for food and supplement claims.
EFSA is the EU's scientific advisor on food safety. Critically for supplements: EFSA evaluates health claims under Regulation 1924/2006. Approved claims (like the hydroxytyrosol blood-lipid claim) are usable on packaging across the EU. Most probiotic claims have been rejected — the word "probiotic" itself is restricted in many member states.
A class of polyphenols found in pomegranate, walnuts, and berries — converted by gut bacteria into urolithin metabolites.
Pomegranate peel (Phase 2 Mediterranean ingredient) is the richest commercial source. Only ~40% of people have the gut bacteria needed to convert ellagitannins into urolithin A efficiently. Tiny Tribes' Phase 2 protocol pairs ellagitannin-rich substrate with the strains that perform this conversion.
Employee Stock Option Pool — equity reserved for future hires.
The ESOP is a slice of company equity (typically 10–15%) set aside before fundraising, used to attract employees. Carved out of founder equity pre-investment so investors don't get diluted by future option grants. Tiny Tribes: 15% pre-seed ESOP.
European Union Intellectual Property Office — for EU-wide trademark filings.
EUIPO handles a single EU-wide trademark application covering all 27 member states. Tiny Tribes filing priority: classes 5 (supplements), 29 (functional foods), and 44 (medical/health services, defensive). Faster and cheaper than filing per country.
A major butyrate-producing gut bacterium; low levels are a dysbiosis marker.
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is one of the most abundant species in a healthy gut and one of the strongest butyrate producers. Low F. prausnitzii is a robust marker of dysbiosis, especially in IBD. Difficult to deliver as a probiotic (oxygen-sensitive), so the strategy is to feed it via prebiotics rather than supplement it directly.
The metabolic process where bacteria break down compounds (like fibre) anaerobically, producing useful byproducts like SCFAs.
Bacterial fermentation in the colon takes dietary fibre and polyphenols you can't digest yourself, and turns them into short-chain fatty acids (butyrate, acetate, propionate), polyphenol metabolites (urolithin, equol), and other bioactive compounds. Fermentation is the engine of postbiotic production — without it, prebiotics don't do anything.
Faecal microbiota transplant — transferring stool from a healthy donor into a recipient to restore microbiome function.
FMT is an established clinical procedure, primarily used to treat recurrent C. difficile infection (cure rate ~90%, the only condition with formal regulatory approval in most jurisdictions). Research is ongoing for IBD, IBS, and metabolic disease. The Suez et al. 2018 Cell paper showed autologous FMT (using the patient's own pre-antibiotic stool) outperformed standard probiotic cocktails for post-antibiotic microbiome recovery — a key citation supporting Tiny Tribes' "sequenced beats simultaneous" thesis.
Phase 1 of the protocol — broad-spectrum barrier repair, ~90 days.
The Foundation phase delivers a 10-strain broad-spectrum probiotic cohort (Lactobacillus + Bifidobacterium dominant) plus arabinoxylan prebiotic. Goal: restore baseline diversity and gut barrier integrity. Most subscribers begin here.
The first 500 Tiny Tribes subscribers — early adopters with preferential terms.
The "Founding 500" launch programme offers the first 500 subscribers locked-in pricing, founder access (monthly Zoom), and influence over Phase 2 formulation choices. Beyond the obvious customer-loyalty value, this cohort is the seed dataset for early protocol refinement and case-study generation ahead of seed-stage marketing.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 — a gut hormone that triggers insulin release, slows gastric emptying, and reduces appetite.
GLP-1 is naturally released by gut cells (L-cells) in response to certain bacterial metabolites — notably butyrate and other SCFAs. The Ozempic / Wegovy class of drugs are synthetic GLP-1 receptor agonists. The Tiny Tribes "GLP-1 companion" marketing angle (Chapter 07) addresses the gut side-effects of these drugs and supports natural GLP-1 production through SCFA-producing strains.
The mucin + epithelial cell layer that separates gut contents from your bloodstream.
The gut barrier has three components: the mucin layer (outer), the epithelial cell wall (with tight junctions between cells), and the immune cells immediately behind it. When the barrier weakens — sometimes loosely called "leaky gut" — it lets bacterial fragments cross into circulation, triggering low-grade systemic inflammation. Phase 1 (Foundation) of the protocol prioritises barrier repair via butyrate-producing strains and fermentable fibre.
The bidirectional communication between gut bacteria and the brain.
The gut-brain axis is the network of signals — neural (vagus nerve), hormonal (gut hormones), and metabolic (SCFAs, neurotransmitter precursors) — by which gut bacteria influence mood, cognition, and stress response. Anchored at Phase 4 (Origin) at Tiny Tribes via psychobiotic strains like B. longum 1714.
Human Milk Oligosaccharides — complex sugars in breastmilk that selectively feed beneficial bacteria.
HMOs (notably 2'-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-neotetraose) are the third-largest solid component of breastmilk. They are not nutrition for the infant — they are food for specific bacteria (especially B. infantis). Now commercially produced by precision fermentation, HMOs are the substrate that defines Tiny Tribes' Phase 3 (Blueprint).
A potent olive polyphenol with EFSA-approved health claim.
Hydroxytyrosol is the principal antioxidant polyphenol in extra-virgin olive oil and olive pomace. At 5mg/day, EFSA permits the claim "contributes to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress" — one of the few hard health claims in EU food law. Phase 2 (Mediterranean) ingredient.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome — a functional gut disorder with no structural damage but clear symptoms (pain, bloating, irregular stools).
IBS affects 10-15% of adults in Europe. Diagnosis is clinical (Rome IV criteria) — there's no biomarker. Microbiome composition is consistently abnormal in IBS subjects, and probiotic / prebiotic intervention is one of the few approaches with reasonable evidence for symptom relief. Tiny Tribes is NOT positioned as an IBS treatment (would require medicinal product authorisation in EU), but the underlying biology overlaps substantially.
International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics — the global scientific authority on category definitions.
ISAPP publishes the canonical, peer-reviewed definitions for probiotic, prebiotic, postbiotic, and synbiotic. When the brand deck or learn articles cite the formal ISAPP definition, that's the authoritative wording recognised across the scientific community. ISAPP also runs annual meetings and publishes consensus statements that shape what supplement brands can credibly claim.
A genus of rod-shaped lactic-acid-producing bacteria — the workhorse probiotic genus.
Lactobacillus species are the most-studied probiotics globally. Key strains: L. rhamnosus GG, L. acidophilus NCFM, L. plantarum 299v, L. reuteri DSM 17938. Broad-spectrum benefits across gut, immune, and metabolic health. Anchor genus in Phase 1 (Foundation).
Lifetime Value — total revenue from an average subscriber across their full tenure.
LTV = monthly revenue × gross margin × average subscription duration. Tiny Tribes target: €89 × 60% × 18 months = ~€960 LTV. The 18-month average lifetime is the critical assumption — sustained by phase rotation novelty, app engagement, and the testing layer.
Phase 2 — polyphenol-metabolising specialists, ~90 days.
The Mediterranean phase introduces polyphenol-metabolising strains (incl. Akkermansia muciniphila pending Novel Food approval) paired with olive pomace and pomegranate peel polyphenols. Builds metabolic and mucin-layer support.
A small molecule produced (or consumed) during metabolism — including the bioactive compounds bacteria make from food.
Postbiotics ARE metabolites — butyrate is a metabolite of fibre fermentation; urolithin A is a metabolite of ellagitannin. Much of the gut microbiome's health impact runs through metabolites the bacteria produce and your body absorbs.
The full community of microbes — bacteria, viruses, fungi, and their genes — living in or on the human body.
Your gut microbiome alone holds an estimated 100 trillion microbial cells from around 1,000 species — collectively weighing about 1–2 kg. It interacts with digestion, immunity, mood, metabolism, and inflammation. "Microbiome" specifically refers to the microbes plus their genes and metabolites; "microbiota" is the microbes alone. Tiny Tribes works on the gut microbiome specifically, but most healthy humans also have distinct microbiomes in the mouth, skin, lungs, and vagina.
Glycoprotein that forms the protective mucus lining of the gut.
The protective mucus coating lining your gut wall.
The mucin layer is a thin gel of glycoproteins that coats the intestinal epithelium, separating gut bacteria from your gut wall. It's your first line of defence against pathogens, the home of beneficial mucin-degrading bacteria like Akkermansia muciniphila, and the structural foundation of gut barrier integrity.
EU classification for ingredients that need authorisation before sale.
Under Regulation 2015/2283, ingredients without a "significant history of food use in the EU before 1997" require Novel Food authorisation. Akkermansia muciniphila, HMOs like 2'-FL, urolithin A — all require Novel Food clearance. The process takes 18–24 months and constrains product roadmaps.
The fibre + polyphenol residue from olive oil pressing — a Mediterranean prebiotic.
Olive pomace is what's left after pressing oil from olives. It's rich in fibre, hydroxytyrosol, and other polyphenols metabolised by Akkermansia and other Phase 2 strains. EFSA has approved a hydroxytyrosol health claim (5mg/day for LDL oxidation) — a rare and valuable regulatory asset.
A clinical study where both researchers and subjects know which treatment is being given (no blinding).
Open-label studies are simpler and cheaper than blinded RCTs but lack control for placebo effects. They're useful as pilot studies — to surface dosing issues, side effects, and likely magnitude of effect before committing to a full RCT. The Tiny Tribes pilot at M+12 is open-label; the M+24 study upgrades to a proper blinded RCT.
Phase 4 — psychobiotic + resilience cohort, ~90 days.
The Origin phase focuses on gut-brain axis strains (L. rhamnosus JB-1, B. longum 1714) plus multi-mushroom substrates (Lion's Mane, Reishi). Anchors mood, stress resilience, and cognitive support to the protocol.
Tiny Tribes' delivery model: 4 strain cohorts rotated quarterly, 90 days each.
Phase rotation is the architectural choice that defines Tiny Tribes. Instead of delivering all 24 strains simultaneously (Cuure, Seed model), we rotate 10–12 strains per phase across four 90-day windows: Foundation → Mediterranean → Blueprint → Origin. Each cohort gets time to colonise before the next arrives.
Plant compounds metabolised by gut bacteria into bioactive postbiotics.
Polyphenols are bioactive plant compounds — found in olive oil, pomegranate, grape skin, cocoa, tea, berries — that pass through the small intestine largely intact. In the colon, specific bacteria metabolise them into smaller bioactive compounds (urolithins, equol, etc.) that drive much of the polyphenol health effect.
The bacterial process that converts polyphenols into bioactive postbiotic compounds.
Most polyphenols are barely absorbed in the small intestine. Their health effects depend on gut bacteria (especially Eggerthellaceae, certain Bifidobacterium species) metabolising them into smaller bioactive compounds like urolithin A. Without the right bacteria, polyphenol-rich foods deliver far less benefit.
Compounds that bacteria produce — the active output of microbial work.
Postbiotics are bioactive compounds made by bacteria, including short-chain fatty acids (especially butyrate), peptides, enzymes, and polyphenol metabolites like urolithin A. Often the actual "active ingredient" of probiotic activity — what the bacteria do, not what the bacteria are.
The earliest external funding round — usually angels, friends, founders.
Pre-seed funding (€250K–€1M typically) covers the period from incorporation to first product. For Tiny Tribes: €600K to reach 500 founding subscribers, lock partnerships (Novonesis, InnerBuddies, Maastricht), and validate unit economics for a seed raise at M+18.
Fibres and substrates that feed beneficial bacteria.
Prebiotics are non-digestible food ingredients (fibres, oligosaccharides, certain polyphenols) that selectively stimulate the growth and activity of beneficial gut bacteria. Examples: arabinoxylan, inulin, HMOs, polyphenol-rich extracts like olive pomace.
A planning exercise that imagines the project has already failed, then works backwards to identify causes.
Brand deck Chapter 06 (Competitive) includes a premortem table — "what would kill this brand?" — covering claim restrictions, competitive moves, supply failure, and clinical disappointments. The premortem complements the risk register in `context/rnd/06-risk-register.md`.
Live bacterial strains that, when delivered in sufficient quantity, confer a health benefit.
Probiotics are live microorganisms — usually specific strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium — that survive transit to the gut and either colonise or modulate the existing microbial community. ISAPP's formal definition: "live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host."
A probiotic with documented effects on mood, stress, or cognitive function.
Psychobiotics are probiotic strains with clinical evidence of mental health benefits. Best-studied: L. rhamnosus JB-1 (stress modulation via vagus nerve), B. longum 1714 (cognitive function under stress). The category is young — much of the evidence is animal model or small clinical trials — but the gut-brain mechanism is real.
Randomised Controlled Trial — the clinical study format that randomly assigns subjects to treatment vs control groups.
RCTs are the gold-standard study design for proving a treatment effect. The Tiny Tribes roadmap includes an open-label pilot at M+12 (no control group, just measuring change in subscribers) followed by a multi-centre RCT at M+24 (treatment cohort vs static-protocol control cohort). The RCT publication is the strongest single piece of evidence we can produce by Series A.
How many months of cash a startup has before it needs to raise more or hit profitability.
Pre-seed at €600K covers 18 months at the planned burn rate. Seed conversations begin at M+9 to leave 9 months of cushion. The "bridge round" risk mitigation (in `06-risk-register.md`) keeps optionality if the main seed round is delayed.
Simple Agreement for Future Equity — the standard pre-seed funding instrument.
A SAFE (popularised by Y Combinator) is a contract where investors give money now in exchange for equity at the next priced round, usually with a valuation cap and/or discount. Faster and cheaper than priced equity. Tiny Tribes uses a SAFE structure with €4M cap and 20% discount.
Short-chain fatty acid — bacterial fermentation byproducts (butyrate, acetate, propionate).
SCFAs are produced when gut bacteria ferment dietary fibre. The three main ones are butyrate, acetate, and propionate. They lower colonic pH, fuel gut cells, regulate immunity, and reach the bloodstream to influence appetite, blood sugar, and inflammation systemically.
The first major institutional funding round after seed — typically led by a venture capital firm.
Series A rounds are typically €5–15M at €15–40M pre-money valuation. For Tiny Tribes the target is €10M Series A at month 36, after the Maastricht RCT publishes and subscriber count crosses ~22,000. Series A investors take board seats and major governance rights.
A statistical measure of how varied your gut bacterial community is.
Shannon diversity index combines two things: how many different bacterial species you have (richness), and how evenly distributed they are (evenness). Higher Shannon = more diverse, generally more resilient gut ecosystem. It's a primary endpoint in many microbiome clinical trials.
A formulation that survives at ambient room temperature without refrigeration — typically 12-24 months shelf life.
Shelf-stable strain formulations use freeze-dried (lyophilised) bacteria, often in delayed-release acid-resistant capsules. Tiny Tribes is deliberately formulating shelf-stable from Day 1 — refrigerated probiotics carry a 2–3× shipping cost penalty and significant consumer churn risk (forgotten in transit, melted, abandoned in the fridge).
A specific genetic variant of a bacterial species — like a "breed" within a species.
Two strains of the same species can behave completely differently. L. rhamnosus GG (proven beneficial) and L. rhamnosus DR20 are the same species but different strains, with different colonisation patterns and health effects. Strain specificity matters — generic "Lactobacillus" claims are mostly meaningless.
A formula combining prebiotic fibres, probiotic strains, and postbiotic compounds — designed as one system.
A synbiotic is the technical name for a supplement that delivers all three layers together: prebiotics (food for bacteria), probiotics (live strains), and postbiotics (the compounds bacteria produce). The three layers feed and support each other. Most "gut health" products only deliver one.
Tiny Tribes' internal name for the three-layer synbiotic formula (prebiotic + probiotic + postbiotic).
The Synbiotic Trinity is the architectural commitment to deliver all three layers in every formula, not just two — and to rotate them across the four phases. Branded label for what ISAPP calls a complementary synbiotic.
A postbiotic produced when gut bacteria metabolise pomegranate ellagitannins.
Urolithin A is a postbiotic compound, made when specific gut bacteria metabolise ellagitannins from pomegranate, walnuts, or strawberries. It supports mitochondrial health, muscle function, and longevity-relevant pathways (mitophagy). Only ~40% of people have the bacteria to make it efficiently — a strong case for the Phase 2 protocol.