In this Member Spotlight, mHUB connected with Tom Zhang, Founder and CEO of Zenblen, and Daniel Bernacki, Director of Engineering, to discuss how a passion for daily smoothies evolved into an innovative food robotics company reshaping wellness on the go.
Healthy eating is often the first thing people sacrifice when life gets busy. But what if technology could make wellness as convenient as grabbing a cup of coffee? That question is at the heart of Zenblen, a Chicago-based food robotics company building a fully-automated smoothie kiosk.
Before launching Zenblen, Tom Zhang was working as a strategy consultant in downtown Chicago. Among his colleagues, however, he was better known as the “smoothie guy.” Each morning, Tom carried a mini blender on his commute, stopped at the supermarket for ingredients, and prepared fresh smoothies for his team.
“It really opened my eyes to how much it benefited the rest of my team by having a healthy smoothie routine, a healthy kind of breakfast in general,” Tom recalls.
That experience planted the seed for Zenblen—a company on a mission to make nutritious options more convenient and accessible through robotics.
Like many early-stage founders, Tom faced the uncertainty and isolation that come with entrepreneurship. That changed when he joined mHUB, where Zenblen prototyped and incubated for nearly five years.
“The founder a lot of times in those early days, it feels really lonely. So having a community like mHUB, I think, is absolutely critical to the incubation of the idea,” he shares.
Looking back, Tom points to milestones that marked Zenblen’s growth within mHUB. One in particular stands out: the day the company moved from a floating desk to a dedicated office space.
“At that point we had a team of four and a small office. It seems small looking back, but at the time it was a huge moment for the company.”
Beyond workspace, the mHUB ecosystem of mentors, prototyping equipment, and peer founders provided the foundation Zenblen needed to develop its technology and prepare for scale.
As Zenblen began to scale production, Tom learned firsthand how critical it is to find the right partners. Identifying a contract manufacturer wasn’t a straightforward process—it took months of vetting and detailed RFPs.
“What we’re looking at is that passion, proximity, especially during such an early stage,” Tom explains.
Zenblen ultimately partnered with NuWay Manufacturing, a local company based in Chicago. The proximity turned out to be a game-changer.
“Something as small as the ability to get there really quickly was absolutely important. And that was the advice I received from other founders who had been through the process before and scaled up quickly.”
Like any startup, Zenblen’s journey has been defined by iteration. The robotic smoothie bar has gone through countless versions, each one bringing the team closer to the product available today.
“The experience in the product we have today is dramatically different from what we started out with,” says Tom. “And in a couple of years’ time, I think it’s going to be another very different user experience. That’s just part of innovation.”
For Tom and his team, iteration isn’t just about improving technology—it’s about reimagining how people access wellness in their daily lives. From offices to gyms to universities, Zenblen envisions a future where nutritious smoothies are easy to grab on the go.
What began with a mini blender on a morning commute has grown into a company building robotics for healthier communities. And as Zenblen continues to refine its technology, expand partnerships, and deploy its kiosks, one thing remains clear: the future of wellness is being built one smoothie at a time.