How Kate Gatfield-Jeffries built Moodi

At 17, Kate Gatfield-Jeffries wrote down a goal: become the chief executive of her own company by 40.

She was 27 when the University of Auckland included her in its 40 Under 40 list. In May 2026, Forbes included her on its 2026 30 Under 30 Asia list.

Gatfield-Jeffries co-founded Moodi, developed a range of wellness supplements and drinks, and has taken the brand from online sales into supermarket aisles across New Zealand. She says the company sold more than two million cans in its first year in retail and that one in 13 New Zealand women has ordered from the brand online.

While studying for law and commerce degrees at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, Gatfield-Jeffries was dealing with stress and burnout. She started taking supplements, but found the options uninspiring, with much of the industry’s marketing preoccupied with appearance.

That’s when she started envisioning Moodi.

There was, however, a more conventional future available. Gatfield-Jeffries graduated with several lucrative job offers. She chose instead to work on the business, pet-sitting to cover her expenses, eating a great deal of oats and going without a salary for two years.

“I think those early hardships taught me resilience, speed and the importance of knowing every part of the business inside out,” she says.

Moodi received an early test through the University’s Velocity $100k Challenge, run by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Gatfield-Jeffries entered with co-founder Nick Ward and credits the experience with giving her the confidence to build a minimum viable product. She spent her final year at university on research and development; the first two Moodi products followed the next year.

The business has remained independent, growing without outside investors. Its expansion has also involved a willingness to make unusually large bets on whether customers actually want what Moodi is making.

Before launching its protein snacks, the company spent more than a year developing them. Then it gave away $150,000 worth of product before asking customers to buy it. According to Gatfield-Jeffries, 27,000 people joined the waiting list and the initial allocation disappeared within three minutes.

“Sometimes the best opportunities in business come from solving your own problems.”

That instinct has taken Moodi well beyond the supplement company it began as. Its range now stretches across wellness drinks, supplements and protein snacks, while the team has grown from three people working around a dining table to an operation that has twice outgrown its office.

Gatfield-Jeffries has also begun putting some of that momentum behind other women.

As a student, she co-founded the Women in Law Mentoring Programme and led University of Auckland Women in Business. More recently, she established Moodi’s Female Founder Fund, which this year awarded $15,000 across four women building businesses in financial literacy, textile recycling, carer support and pelvic health.

The grants come without equity or prescribed spending rules. Recipients can use the money for inventory or marketing, but also childcare or looking after themselves. For Gatfield-Jeffries, who remembers what a relatively small amount of early funding meant when Moodi was precarious, that freedom is deliberate.

“This grant exists because I want to pay forward the times when people took a chance on me. Sometimes a vote of confidence can change everything.”