The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show: Recent Episodes
Jerry Sever
“It’s not all kittens and rainbows - any entrepreneur has tough days and weeks! But there’s an underlying that this is something that we kind of feel privileged that we’ve been given this piece of the plant-based pie to be able to bring out to the world. " LISA MORIMER & MEG DONAHUE
It's not all unicorns, either, when it comes to startups, and the plant-based space is no different. The needle is moved forward not just by giants like Beyond Meat and Just, but by a thousand brands that come in with less fanfare and bake their piece of the vegan pie.
MamaSezz is one of them - and judging by the number of times they actually popped up on my radar between this interview with the founders being recorded, and the actual release, I'd definitely say their piece is getting bigger.
Both Lisa and Meg bring their own entrepreneurial background into this meal delivery service, which grew out of Meg's mother's amazing, brink-of-death recovery with home-cooked, plant-based meals. It's probably no surprise that customer recovery stories keep coming in for them.
Take notes on this one, though - apart from the feel-good element of a successful vegan brand on the rise, this talk goes deep into the details of crafting convincing - and healthy - meals, as well as growth and funding strategies for small business. And, of course, the things that get you out of bed each morning when you you run a values-driven brand.
Main Points Of This Talk [02:29] Ground-breaking bread-making – Lisa’s background.
[03:00] Managing property and spaces – Meg’s background.
[03:37] Joint reflections on the shift from thinking of a healthy diet as organic food and lean meats.
[05:00] The inspiration - Millie’s story. Meg’s mom was unwell and given just months to live at 80. Now 87, Millie’s still driving, traveling and learning how to play the ukulele!
[07:12] Realizing the profound possibilities to help others through mimicking tasty hearty food.
[09:52] How do you entice non-vegans to eat plant-based meals?
[11:55] The evolution from making whole food plant-based meals for family and friends into a business.
[15:36] Understanding taste profiles and the multiple benefits of using local folk and existing customers for testing.
[19:36] The impact of the products and the amazing and emotional stories that come back in.
[22:44] Covering meal deliveries in the US with a multi-talented team, and plans to expand.
[24:15] Initial funding of a startup in terms of money, knowledge, and support – family and friends, working with your networks, and forming advisory groups.
[26:32] There’s no room for dirty vegetables or equipment under USDA clean room protocol!
[27:48] Seed funding and the time needed to become bankable.
[28:56] The transferable skills between different foodie businesses and learning new skills.
[30:37] Exciting plans to recycle ocean plastics for packaging!
[32:33] The meal kit space, good and bad, and marketing approaches.
[35:00] Is insurance cover for good healthy plant-based eating on the way?
[36:42] Doing subscriptions on demand “because it matters”!
[38:25] Good customer service involving time and care from a great t...
"Sometimes it might be a couple, he might be vegetarian, she's not: 'Hey can we try this place? We can go for two nights,' and that's when the magic happens!"
MIRIAM RODRIGUEZ
Nicaragua was not on our 2018 travel list. And it definitely wasn't on my radar as a vegan destination - but here we are, with the first podcast on the topic of vegan hotels recorded on site at the Apoyo Lodge, which actually is built in a volcanic crater. A dormant crater filled with water, just to be clear. There's no real danger there, same as we found that the country, for all the bad rap it may still get from its tumultuous past, is full of exceptionally friendly people (even for Latin-American standards) and actually ranks as the safest in all of Central America.
Still, what brought us here was one of those coincidences that Jung labels synchronicity, and is often described as the Law of Attraction. We met Miriam at the Tulum Vegan Fest in January, where she was promoting their 100% vegan hotel and retreat center, and apparently, we felt that is was such a good opportunity, both for a weekend getaway and for a podcast episode, that Maya ended up winning a free weekend at Apoyo Lodge.
And here it is, then, the story of how Miriam and her co-founder Maribel met on a peacekeeping mission, and how they turned their dream of owning a small hotel in a beautiful location into reality... plus what it really takes to set up a vegan hotel, how to run retreats, and why you really should put Nicaragua on your travel radar.
Main Points Of This Talk [02:02] How the luck of the draw at a Veg Fest in Mexico resulted in meeting Miriam and Maribel at their vegan lodge and retreat beside a lagoon in Nicaragua.
[05:28] Maribel and Miriam’s humanitarian work in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, sharing of hotelier ideas in Mozambique, and ending up with a vegan lodge by a lagoon in Central America.
[15:02] Buying, transforming, and making a hospitality business your own.
[16:23] Transforming non-vegans through the lodge experience, and guests who don’t read descriptions.
[17:49] Learning which of your existing skills are transferrable to the hospitality trade and running your own business - all in a location with no deliveries!
[21:46] Challenges of living cruelty free versus insect control and sourcing vegan and chemical-free products in Nicaragua.
[26:15] Seasonal changes in guests and different types of visitor experiences.
[28:41] Anti-resort experience - the rewards of offering a plant-based lifestyle and retreat vacation.
[37:10] Explaining vegan living to Nicaraguans, and that you eat food they fed to animals, or treat as a weed!
[44:56] Managing the staff who contribute to Apoyo Lodge.
[48:24] Responding to a guest who wants to grill meat on a barbecue, or a tropical storm that destroys your road?
[51:03] Achieving all the different types of bottom-lines in an ethical business.
[53:01] Marketing a vegan business in a Central American country.
[59:13] Cats, frogs and cashew shortages… dealing with, and learning from the unknown and unexpected!
[1:07:15] Miriam and Maribel’s hopes and aspirations for the next few years and the future.
Show Notes Main website: Apoyo Lodge
Booking.com
NY-based Buddhist studio doing silent retreat at Apoyo Lodge: Three Jewels
People mentioned in the interview
Dominick Thompson
Torre Washington
Dr. Mauricio Gonzalez
Marie Forleo (Not vegan, but a rockstar entrepreneur)
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"In 7 to 10 years, the companies not doing this, not creating a better world with their own brand, they're not going to survive."
MARGAUX KHOURY
No tongue-in-cheekness in this week's title. Margaux Khoury actually runs a brand called The Best Deodorant In The World. Nothing pretentious about the name, either - but you could call it setting your aims high... and then doing your best to hit them.
Vegan. All-natural ingredients and biodegradable packaging. More affordable than competing brands. Providing drinking water for one person for a year with every product sold, and donating 100% of sales made on the 1st of each month to animal charities. And if that weren't impressive as is, Margaux and her husband-slash-co-founder Josh also manage to home-school their three children, while running the business and putting the finishing touches on their relaunch.
Because there's a difference between being good and being the best in the world. And it takes a lot of courage to pull a good product from the shelves and spend two years rebuilding it, so you can make sure it actually hits all the requirements for the latter. I'll let you find out for yourself how well they're hitting them - but if you need inspiration on how to build a brand around giving back, this is one talk you'll want to hear!
Main Points Of This Talk [00:40] Introducing the rebuilding of a brand with values — and one that stops the stink!
[02:04] The journey to veganism, being an entrepreneur and an educator passionate about self-directed and real-world learning.
[05:42] The need to unlearn to grow in business.
[07:50] Moving from creating the product for personal use in the kitchen, to rapid growth and selling out in stores —to making a decision to pull it all back to rebrand.
[10:23] Difficulties running a business from another country, working with manufacturers and fulfillment centers.
[13:12] Finding cost-effective margins to ship around the world.
[14:53] The BIG decision to pull back and rebrand and how to survive financially and raise a family.
[18:24] Tweaking, testing and sourcing organic ingredients and biodegradable packaging.
[20:24] Giving a stink-free guarantee.
[23:19] The importance of giving back as a business and making a difference to others in the world.
[26:16] How scaling up can reduce the cost to consumers.
[27:38] Weighing up profit versus charitable giving and receiving unexpected bonuses.
[29:35] FYI - Cruelty-free is just one level of production.
[30:27] The many hats of an entrepreneur and handing some over to other team members.
[31:34] The planning for the relaunch of a socially responsible business.
[34:33] Big end goals and future plans for this business.
[36:39] The importance of making an impact and combined voices to raise awareness now and in the future for any company.
Show Notes Official Website: The Best Deodorant In The World
The relaunch Indiegogo campaign: The Most Important Deodorant In The World (At the time of publishing this interview,
"It's easy to get intoxicated with the social impact, but if we forget the bottomline, we're not gonna be able to ultimately achieve the goals that we set out. "
JOHN SHEGERIAN
The cans that John is holding in his episode cover shot are produced by his latest venture: Som. An all-natural, vegan drink, formulated to help you fall asleep. Being one of those people whose mind starts going off in a hundred different directions as soon as my head hits the pillow, I was really interested to try this (and I share my experience in the interview, the good and the bad)... but that's far from the only reason why I wanted to talk to John.
He's one of those people who seem to have entrepreneurship genetically coded into them, but what sets him apart from a lot of serial entrepreneurs is that the bottom line and impact go hand in hand for him. It's not just about filling a void or solving a problem - it's about finding problems to solve that will make the most good for the planet and everyone on it.
And then, of course, being exceptionally good at it, because bigger profits equal bigger impact.
It's a hugely important lesson that mission-oriented businesses often overlook. John Shegerian lays it our clearly in this talk on social entrepreneurship, changing lives, and taking care of yourself first to be able to serve others - especially when it comes to sleeping enough.
I hope you enjoy listening to this at least as much as I enjoyed interviewing him!
Main Points Of This Talk
[05:06] John’s perfect recipe for doing good in business.
[07:30] How love of horses translates into business.
[10:15] Seeing the world as a series of voids with the potential to be solved – and knowing how to pick the right ones for you.
[12:11] Nothing stops a bullet faster than a job - Homeboy Tortillas.
[16:52] Early dot-com success at ground zero of internet business.
[19:54] The three essentials of a socially-impactful business.
[23:57] Social responsibility, marketing, and constantly evolving and re-evaluating how to utilize forms of media.
[28:22] Re-learning the ropes with each new business launched.
[29:58] Managing the hours an entrepreneur puts into a day.
[32:36] The creation of Som from a series of sleep problems.
[37:32] Packaging a product for sleep to sell along aside energy drinks.
[44:55] Jerry’s sampling of Som and falling to sleep.
[48:40] Flying planes, driving trucks, surgery, sports… all go much better when you sleep well.
[51:00] Sleeping entrepreneurs – it is a non-negotiable necessity for resilience!
[53:29] Putting yourself first.
[56:41] John’s journey to full-on veganism.
[59:23] Inspiration in the vegan business space – and we are only getting started!
[1:02:39] Positive improvements happening in the world with - stats and quotes to back it up.
Show Notes John's personal website: JohnShegerian.com
Som Sleep's website: Get Som
Article on Som and NBA sthletes in Sports Illustrated
"Don't let anybody ever tell you that you can't make a difference by being one person. Those singularities are the people who actually change the world."
NIMAI DELGADO
I love learning about things I know next to nothing about. That's why it was so fun to get Nimai on the show. Because while I can hold my own in a discussion about plant-based nutrition, and I've been known to throw weights around from time to time, Instagram is an absolute blind spot for me.
Nimai, on the other hand, is getting exponential follower growth (with no ads used). He was recently featured in The Game Changers, the new documentary on top vegan athletes co-produced by James Cameron, and while this may either be a contributing factor of his growth, or a result of it, what is obvious is that most of it is Nimai himself being in tune with his message (and allowing things to flow his way).
It's also not just about the physique or being an IFBB Pro-rated bodybuilder. The true lesson of this interview is that visual content on Instagram is just the conversation-starter. It's what goes along with it that really makes the difference in growing a brand - and this is definitely where Nimai is headed.
Main Points Of This Talk [02:28] Argentinian roots and spiritual foundations in a Hindu temple in the Bible belt.
[06:17] Resilience and closing off from personal attacks on your beliefs.
[08:29] Awakening to veganism after being vegetarian from birth.
[11:20] First competition victory and discovering a platform for speaking out.
[15:37] The spiritual bodybuilder’s training and nutrition protocol.
[21:09] Vegan fitness supplements – the good ones, and the ones following the trend.
[26:13] From engineering in the Oil Industry, to VeganFitness.com.
[28:35] The team behind Vegan Fitness.
[32:47] “You’re quitting to be a vegan?!”
[36:26] If you’re going to fail, fail at something you love.
[39:10] The mental bank account of thoughts that affects your life.
[41:08] Nimai’s Instagram system.
[43:24] Photos grab the attention – but written content makes the biggest impact.
[44:34] Staying on top of social media algorithms
[46:54] The more you do something the better you get at it.
[48:48] Your daily life through the Instagram lens.
[51:53] Converting Instagram following into website traffic and email signups.
[55:20] Personal and professional plans for the future.
[57:45] Facing your personal truth and executing on your ideas to get to the next level.
[1:00:06] Generations of the future and the ripple effect creating a better world.
Show Notes Nimai on social media:
YouTube
Nimai's girlfriend Bianca Taylor on Instagram
Her Fitness Training Website
(Bianca is a bikini model... so some of her content may be borderline NSFW)
Nimai's big upcoming launch: VeganFitness.com
Main website of his partner, Stephen Coote: Rise Of The Vegan
It's been 18 months since The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show launched. 18 months, and 50 podcast episodes produced. There's just such a broad spectrum of topics covering all aspects of vegan business that it's nearly impossible for me to pick favorites - so for this first rundown of top episodes, we'll resort to download statistics.
If you're new to the podcast, the list below makes a great starting point... and if you're an old listener, check if there's any that you missed - because all these discussions are very worth listening to.
Thank you for helping us get this far - and here's to many more!
The Top10 Most Downloaded Episodes of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show (so far) 10. Episode #44: Nathan Runkle – What Non-profits (And Regular Startups) Can Learn From Mercy For Animals 9. Episode #28: Alexis Fox – The Vegan Tech Startup Creating a Healthier World 8. Episode #29: Molly Patrick – Dirty Talk About Clean Food 7. Episode #1: Josh Balk – The Passionately Pragmatic Approach to Changing The Future of Food 6. Episode #32: Tobias Leenaert – The Best (Business) Strategy For Spreading Compassion 5. Episode #48: Tom Ben-Arye – On The Frontline Of Making Clean Meat a Reality 4. Episode #46: Peter Thornton – Moving Towards Creative Consumption 3. Episode #41: Jodi Monelle – Live Kindly 2. Episode #43: Moby – A Strange Entrepreneur Guided by Activism 1. Episode #42: Lizz Hampton Wants You To Milk Your Nuts
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"Money isn't what makes us who we are. I like to think that if I am ass broke, naked on the side of the street, I can build myself back again fairly quickly."
JAYMIE FRIESEN
Kickstarter campaigns are hard, no matter how many over-funded multi-functional adventure jackets and ultimate backpacks Facebook ads serve you. And some categories are harder than others. Cosmetics seems to be one of them. Seriously - take a few minutes and search for 'cosmetics' on Kickstarter. The results paint a pretty bleak picture. Imagine, now, a vegan cosmetics company raising funds... and blowing up to nearly 300% of their goal. It's enough to warrant a first page listing on the 'Most Funded' page of the category.
Jaymie Friesen is one of the founders of Natural Vegan, and it's him on the campaign page, squeezing a stream of liquid hair conditioner into his mouth to demonstrate the natural aspect of the product.
But it wasn't just an of-the-cuff presentation that contributed to their success. In this interview, Jaymie discusses everything that went into setting up this business... from months spent in research, user feedback and owning all steps of the production process, to building and leveraging your network, creating a residual income model and pushing yourself so far out of the comfort zone that there's no other option but to succeed.
Main Points Of This Talk [01:09] Natural Vegan’s impressive Kickstarter results.
[02:50] Entrepreneurial hustling began for Jaymie at a young age.
[04:23] Lessons to be learned as an employee – and knowing when to get out.
[07:25] Wanting to do something more meaningful.
[08:26] Teaming up with Hannah, product creator and co-founder of Natural Vegan.
[09:41] The R&D lead-up to the Kickstart campaign in November 2017.
[11:50] Planning for sales and income with a subscription model.
[13:16] Pivots around presentation and packaging.
[15:25] Market research – knowing what your customers want.
[18:18] The team, the labor of love, and getting ready for production.
[22:14] Launch plans and customer reach.
[23:57] The success of the Kickstart campaign and connecting with partners.
[30:45] What would make a crowdfunding campaign even better?
[35:56] ROI on crowdfunding?
[37:53] Burning your boats and being uncomfortable to 10x your progress .
[41:55] Marketing “vegan” versus “natural” products and attracting the mainstream.
[44:44] How much of their products did Jaymie and Hannah eat while shooting the promo video.
[45:46] Keeping it simple – overpriced natural products are a load of s**t!
[50:07] Overcoming obstacles.
[51:45] A bigger vision – the brand, the farm and the sanctuary.
[55:26] Living the lifestyle.
[57:24] The contribution to the future.
Show Notes Natural Vegan - Main Website
YouTube (Definitely check out the cosmetics-eating video!)
NVC's Kickstarter project (succesfully closed Dec/2017)
The worldwide guide for vegetarian and vegan restaurants and shops: Happy Cow
The Beard Club (formerly the Dollar Beard Club), now providing plant-based beard-grooming products
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"If you care for animals, it's obvious that you need to solve the meat industry, because 98% of the animal abuse is there."
TOM BEN-ARYE
A word of warning: this is NOT a plant-based talk. Clean meat is a concept that seems to be quite divisive to the vegan community. To me personally, it is an incredibly important topic, and it's with great pleasure that I can introduce, for the first time, a podcast guest who's on the front lines of research into this technology.
Tom Ben-Arye is not an entrepreneur, so you won't hear many tips on how to build a business in this talk. But he's a Ph.D. candidate and an advisor to the Modern Agricultural Foundation, and he's working on something that has the potential to change entire industries... and our entire food system, when you get right down to it.
This interview is about the foundation of future business - about the science and technology that can bring us a lot closer to feeding the entire world without relying on animals. And, since it comes less than 24 hours after the human race launched an electric car at Mars, just because we can, it's also about technology that may one day be as common on our spaceships as it is in our kitchens.
It's a glimpse of the future... the kind of future this show was meant to discuss. (Also, introducing time stamped notes! Enjoy!)
Main Points Of This Talk
[03:13] Tom’s work as a clean meat researcher in Israel and how, as a vegan, his desire to solve problems for animals drove him to enter this field.
[07:02] Veganism in Israel – is the good news true?
[10:17] Tissue engineering and clean meat 101 - a plain language version of the steps involved.
[20:28] It still comes from an animal, right? Is that a one-off?
[22:53] The ultimate plant-based goal.
[23:38] So how big is a piece of clean meat?
[25:22] Back to the future – the history of interest in clean meat (and fish) research and advances in the field.
[28:59] Making clean meat available and getting it to market – it’s all about collaboration.
[31:24] The clean meat community – are they vegans?
[32:56] Possible types of clean meat products that may come.
[35:56] Clean meat and fish … what about bug burgers?
[37:43] The health benefits of clean meat – swapping out with Omega 3 fatty acids and supplements.
[39:35] What about food engineering and GMOs?
[41:09] Who is going to eat clean-meat, including findings from initial social science research.
[42:43] It’s all in a name – in-vitro, versus lab-grown, versus cultured, versus clean meat.
[44:42] Reactions from industry sectors to clean meat.
[47:50] Support offered by the Modern Agriculture Foundation in Israel.
[49:16] Chinese investment in Israel clean meat – is that true?
[51:02] Opportunities for employment and entrepreneurs in the clean meat sector.
[52:13] Tom’s revolutionary vision for the future – plant-based will come out on top!
[54:28] Changing societal attitudes to animal rights and animal abuse by changing what people eat.
Show Notes Tom's profile on LinkedIn
The Israeli non-profit set out to transform global food culture (Tom is a Scientific Advisor): Modern Agriculture Foundation
The institute where Tom's doing his Ph.D. research: Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
The US non-profit research institute accelerating breakthroughs in cellular agriculture: New Harvest
And our friends creating a healthy, humane and sustainable food supply: The Good Food Institute
Interview with Ryan Pandya, co-founder of Perfect Day: Episode #36 - Taking The Cows Out Of Dairy Industry
2017 Clean Meat Conference in Israel: Future Meating
The creator of the first clean meat burger, Professor Mark Post
A feature on Willem van Eelen, the Dutch doctor who pioneered the research of clean meat: The idea for lab-grown meat was born in a prisoner-of-war camp
Listen here or on iTunes.
"Go set some precedent. Do things that were never done before"
GEOFF PALMER
33 years ago, Geoff Palmer had gone through two suicide attempts and saw very little reason for carrying on with his life. Then, in what was literally an overnight transformation, he realized that he had a purpose. And a major part oft hat purpose was not hurting animals.
He went vegan. He turned his life around. And after years in bodybuilding and the supplements industry, multiple awards from competitions (which he still does, at 55), and looking for a way to turn his passion and experience into a business, he came across a source of plant protein that was beyond anything else on the market - and yet completely unknown.
So unknown, in fact, that the aquatic plant which is now the source of their signature Clean Machine protein blend, had no commercial use at all - and was being eradicated as a weed, until a forward thinking company (now Geoff's business partner) thought it might serve as biofuel, ran a nutrient analysis on it, and did a double take.
In a market as saturated as sports nutrition, with the growing plant-based part of it being no exception, Clean Machine does a very good job of carving out a niche all of its own. Main things discussed in this episode
How a chance encounter turned Geoff from depressed and suicidal, to vegan and full of joy. The amazing qualities of lentein, Clean Machine's (not so) secret ingredient. Using your body and positive attitude to start conversations around veganism. Starting and growing a business with no external funding or loans. The shifting of sales from retail to online. The all-vegan bodybuilding event coming in 2018.
Transcript
Geoff Palmer - Clean Machine
Jerry Sever [00:36] To kick off 2018 I’m talking today to Geoff Palmer. Geoff is a vegan of 32 years, a two-time bodybuilding champion in natural bodybuilding master class competitions, an expert in natural nutrition, an entrepreneur, inventor, and founder of Clean Machine Vegan Supplements. So that’s right, we’ll be exploring the plant-based supplements industry today as well as what sets Clean Machine apart from other products in this space. Geoff, welcome to the show.
Geoff Palmer: [01:57] Thank you for having me. It’s an honor and privilege to be here. I really love what you’re doing in bringing to light some very creative and entrepreneurial companies that are out there promoting the vegan lifestyle. I love what you’re doing for the community.
Jerry Sever: [02:13] Well, the feeling is mutual because I’ve been hearing good things about Clean Machine and I’m really excited to learn more about it. But before we into that, do you mind if we spend some time just talking about you. Because, first of all, anyone who’s been vegan for 32 years definitely deserves respect for that long, and I would really like to know more about what made you do this, and what set you on this path.
Geoff Palmer: [02:43] Absolutely, and I think you’ll better understand where my business comes from and why I chose the business I did by understanding where I came from. It was a very personal experience for me.
Jerry Sever: [02:56] Cool. How far back do we need to go actually? Like where and how did you grow up?
Geoff Palmer: [03:07] I grew up in a family of six. My father was an English professor and my mother was a psychologist, so I grew up in academia. My specialty was biology, I have always been amazed by science and nature. Jacque Cousteau was my hero growing up as a child. I loved the undersea world. I thought I was going to grow up to be a marine bio...
Listen here or on iTunes.
"We have this wheel of destruction which is based on consumption, it’s like a blind consumption. It’s people consuming things looking for short-term pleasures, which have long-term costs."
PETER THORNTON
As you probably know, this is a podcast about creating a plant-based future. And to do that, we need big ideas.
To give you a heads up - Peter Thornton's idea does not revolve solely around plant-based solutions, although they feature prominently in it. And it's about as big as they come - on the scale of blueprints for recreating our society.
How?
As Director of Impact Investment at iProsperity Group in Australia, Peter works with ultra-high net-worth individuals wanting to change the world. And at that level, recreating society is not out of reach.
I am really pleased to have the chance to wrap 2017 with an interview that, instead of focusing on a specific area of plant-based business, takes a bird's eye view of how things are now, and how they may change. How we might recreate and integrate our educational system, our health system, our food system and our energy systems into an interconnected system designed to lead people towards what Peter calls 'Creative Consumption'. Where the desires driving our production and purchases revolve around long-term benefits for individuals, society and the environment.
As I said, it's a big idea. Just the kind we need. And Peter is putting it in motion. If you think this is something that you can contribute to - his LinkedIn contact is in the Show Notes.
Enjoy, and a very happy 2018 from everyone at The Plant-Based Entrepreneur!!
Main things discussed in this episode
How meditation changed Peter's life. Viewing time as a resource, and investing it in yourself. The potential for profit in 'cleaning things up'. Destructive Consumption vs Creative Consumption Building an ultra-impact services organization. What areas and what companies Peter is looking for. What sort of individuals are needed to drive the change.
Transcript
Peter Thornton
Jerry Sever [00:43] Because this is our last episode before the holidays, I thought it would be a great opportunity to wrap the year up with an interview that will touch on the overarching theme of this podcast, which is, what sort of future can be built with plant-based business and what negative aspects of our society and culture and be countered by focusing our work and effort on things that make the most impact.
To do that I have with me today Peter Thornton, who is the Director of Impact Investment at iProsperity Group in Australia, and right now, he’s raising a fund specifically aimed at tackling some of the biggest issues that stand between us, and, well, prosperity. It’s a big ambitious idea, but we need those to move forward. I hope that this talk does it justice. Peter, welcome to the show.
Peter Thornton [01:37] Hi Jerry, thanks very much for inviting me.
Jerry Sever [01:40] Thank you for joining me. I’m really glad we’ve got this opportunity to talk about what you’re doing before you actually roll it up because this is right now in the inception phase, you’re just putting everything together to get the ball rolling. I’m really glad that we have the chance to talk about it at the ground floor.
Before we start that, let’s spend a few minutes just talking about you – where you’re coming from, and what drove you to this point.
Peter Thornton [02:13] Okay. Well, that’s a nice segue way to look into why I’m here. I think, like all of us, we’re on this planet and we go… who are we, what are we doing…why are we here.. and we sort of roll along with life as it unfolds in front us. We navigate as best we can to look for happiness. If you’re like me, you’re very lucky…I was born in a country which has so much of everything,
Listen here or on iTunes.
"People often say to me, 'why are you taking a product there, aren't they all vegetarians?' That's an absolute myth – 70% of India eats meat."
STEPHANIE DOWNS
I've been hearing about this plant-based startup in India called Good Dot for the past year. No website until recently, but people I've talked to were really excited about what the company was aiming to do. So I was really looking forward to talking with Stephanie Downs - one of Good Dot's 'three CEOs', as she puts it.
The other two are part of the core Indian team, which Stephanie joined when she was looking how to best leverage her past business experience with her desire to make an impact. And from the sound of it, Good Dot is absolutely making an impact in India - a country with more vegetarians than the entire US population.
And as for the rest (the 70% of people who aren't vegetarian) - a 'hardcore' meat eater in India may eat meat 3-4 times per week, according to Stephanie. Replace just one of those meals with their plant-based alternative, and you're 25% closer to another vegetarian.
We often point out the issues of food security when discussing vegan diets. But the fact remains that a lot of products on the market today are still very cost-prohibitive to a lot of people. That's one of the major points Good Dot is addressing, and I'd say of the major reasons for the excitement surrounding their launch.
This interview shows how plant-based foods can be brought to emerging markets, and how to build a vegan startup that's truly a force for good.
Main things discussed in this episode
Why 'vegan' isn't a very common term in India. How Good Dot sold 350.000 units in just 2 months of operations. Their Indian distribution network that makes this possible. Making plant-based solutions accessible to everyone. Building a business with the aim of scaling up. The Indian startup ecosystem
Transcript
Stephanie Downs - Good Dot
Jerry Sever [00:21] Today we’re talking about the plant-based industry in the country with the highest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and the second largest population. I’m talking about India of course.
I’m joined by Stephanie Downs, the co-founder of Good Dot, which is a plant-based meat start-up that I’ve heard a lot about in the past year. Although, they’ve been keeping things under wraps until very recently. The wraps are off now, and I’m very happy for the opportunity to give you a better view of Good Dot’s mission and purpose. Stephanie, welcome to the show.
Stephanie Downs [01:12] Wonderful, thank you, Jerry. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jerry Sever [01:15] Thank you for joining me, because like I said, I have been hearing things about Good Dot for the past 12 months. I’m really looking forward to learning more about it. Before we get to that, I’d to learn a little bit more about you. What’s your background, where are you coming from, what did you do before you decided to take on India’s plant-based meat industry?
Stephanie Downs [01:40] Sure. My past has been a little bit of a lengthy one as far as just finding what was really my personal path in life. My background is all from a business standpoint, primarily in marketing. I’ve worked for various high-tech startups and IBM.
In 1999 I started my own internet marketing company, and that was wonderful, but after a couple of years of it, I just didn’t quite feel fulfilled, so I started volunteering at an animal shelter, which was, I joke, my gateway drug into the animal rights movement. It was how I got started. I just went there to walk a couple dogs and hug some puppies, and the next thing I know I’m on the Board of Directors and running the annu...
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"We shoulnd’t let purity be the enemy of progress."
NATHAN RUNKLE
If there's one thing glaringly obvious from Nathan Runkle's new book, it's that he downplays his role in making Mercy for Animals one of the most influential animal rights organizations in the world.
It's always 'we' when he talks of its growth and accomplishments - although he emphasizes the 'I' when he admits he feels like he's only just beginning his work and has much to learn.
This, perhaps, is a big reason for his success. Even though Nathan started Mercy for Animals at 15, with no idea of what he was doing, he was wise enough to recognize the need for strategic thinking, and for surrounding himself with the right kind of people.
Plus - and this is another thing glaringly obvious, not just from the book, but from everything about him - Nathan Runkle is simply one of those people who are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. His mission is to make the world a kinder place for all sentient creatures. His approach to this could very well be used as a model for building a successful business, any sort of business, not just not-for-profits.
Hearing him talk about it is both educational, and a huge inspiration. And I stand by my assertion that Nathan should write another book about running a non-profit.
Enjoy!
Main things discussed in this episode
Major milestones and accomplishments of MFA How MFA does AB testing to choose which strategies work best (like any kind of startup should) Why non-profits aren't so different than for-profit organizations Why the focus of non-profits should still be money How to ask for and receive donations without feeling bad about it Why the bottom line should be positive change, not purity Plus an often overlooked side of undercover investigations that's painfully obvious from the book
Transcript
Nathan Runkle
Jerry Sever [00:27] Hi, this is Jerry Sever and you’re listening to Episode 44 of the Plant Based Entrepreneur Show, the podcast for and about the people creating a plant-based future and running vegan brands where you can inspired, learn how they got to where they are, what their approach is, and what works when you’re setting up your own plant- based brand.
In this episode today we’re taking a look at the non-profit side of vegan business from the founder of one of the best known and fastest growing animal rights organizations in the world. I’m talking to Nathan Runkle who founded Mercy for Animals in 1999 at 15 years old. Since then they’ve grown into an international non-profit that’s been behind many of the most impactful undercover investigations of industrial animal farming. They’ve achieved legal victories for animal rights, and they’re heavily active in corporate outreach and education. All of that was started by a determined teenager from Ohio farm country who still leads the organization today. Nathan, welcome to the show.
Nathan Runkle [01:28] Thanks so much for having me, it’s my honor.
Jerry Sever [01:31] The honor is mine. I’m really glad that you’re joining us today. I think you’re one of those rare people who are just completely in tune with their purpose on the planet, at least that’s the impression that I get about you. So what is your purpose, and how long have you been aware of it?
Nathan Runkle [01:50] Yes, I think one of my primary purposes in life is to make the world a kinder place for all sentient creatures. This is something that I have really felt in my core and in my being since was a young child. Growing up in a rural environment in a village of less than 2000 people on a farm, I was surrounded by animals from the moment that I...
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"Somehow, humans overturned slavery. Against their own economic interest. And that is so encouraging. It means that even when it's hard, humans ultimately do the right thing."
MOBY
I was so very tempted to title this one as Episode #43: Richard Melville Hall, just to allow you to go in without preconceived notions of Moby... the musician... that techno DJ from the 90s... or even Moby, that seriously weird dude.
Please try to leave them behind anyway. Sure, he's best known for his music. A lot of it came out more than 10 years ago. And yes, he can come off as weird. But Moby is also an incredibly well-spoken dude with unique views on lots of topics, spanning from music (fun, but not a revenue stream) and tech (profoundly baffled by it, but excited at the same time), to business and veganism.
And of course, being guided by activism, which is what seems to be the main driving force in his life these days, and what last year led to the first Circle V Festival, which is just about to launch in its second iteration.
The tickets, unfortunately, have sold out already... but you can hear Moby talk about it. And I like to think that you can hear him talk about some things that he doesn't discuss very often - like why you need to be very stupid to open a restaurant, how he ended up working with NASA, whether he prefers manned or unmanned spaceflight, and why he is, ultimately, optimistic about our capability for doing the right things. Main things discussed in this episode
Why he's driven by veganism. Running a restaurant - the second time around. Virtual products vs tangible, brick-and-mortar offerings. Two sides of tech. Making business decisions with informed intuition. The Circle V Festival. The moral arc of the universe.
Transcript
Moby
Jerry Sever [00:26] Hey, my name is Jerry Sever. You’re listening to Episode 43 of the Plant Based Entrepreneur Show, the podcast for and about the people creating a plant-based future and running vegan brands where you can inspiration and ideas, learn how they got to where they are, what their approach is, and what works when you’re setting up your own plant- based business.
Joining me today is a special guest who probably needs no introduction, but just in case you’re not familiar with Moby and his work, he’s often referred to as one of the most influential electronic music artists of the 90s. His albums have sold over 20 million copies worldwide, and he’s a devoted animal rights activist, but overall, I’d say he’s a guy who’s hard to label with just one thing.
We’ll be talking about some of his past business experience today, and about the upcoming Circle V festival in LA which will be his only live gig this year, and also a great opportunity to hear some amazing vegan musicians, talks from other activists, and of course enjoy the vegan food and drinks in a beautiful environment.
Right now, it’s a pleasure to welcome Moby to the Plant Based Entrepreneur Show. Before we dive in Moby, just to give a little bit of context, you’ve been vegan for 30 years now. How has that shaped your life and business path?
Moby [01:48] It’s interesting, because most people I grew up with what I think of as that strange western paradox, where when I was a child growing up in the suburbs, I loved animals but I also loved Burger King. I loved rescue animals but I also loved pepperoni pizza, bacon, and hamburgers.
Then when I was 19, I was petting a rescue cat that my mom and I had rescued and suddenly I realized this cat had two eyes, a central nervous system, and a rich emotional life, and a desire to avoid pain and suffering. Then I realized every animal has two eyes, a central nervous system,
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"People assume that because the current nut milk on the market is so convenient, that people are not going to take the time to make their nut milk. I'm proving that wrong."
LIZZ HAMPTON
Lizz Hampton probably knows every nut-milking joke in the world.
No, we didn't test her knowledge on the subject during the episode. If we did, we'd probably run out of time for other things - and there was plenty to discuss: Lizz is is the founder of Goodnus and wants to start a 'Milk-it-yourself' movement, aimed at vegan and dairy-free consumers who want to make their own nut milks, but without the hassle of getting up every morning at 5 and milking each almond separately.
The Indiegogo campaign for her flagship product, the Goodnuss Sack, has just launched - CHECK IT OUT HERE. (A word of warning - it's best not to be drinking anything when watching her videos. Spraying may occur.) Main things discussed in this episode
Developing a product takes time... and many, many prototypes. The advantage of freshly-milked nut milk over store-bought. Learn as much as you can about the food industry before getting in. How to make your marketing look professional on a tight budget. Knowing when it's time to stop polishing your product and launch. How to be kind to yourself as an entrepreneur and startup founder.
Transcript
Lizz Hampton - Goodnuss
Jerry Sever [04:28] You’ve probably heard this joke before Matt, but do you know what the hardest part about being a vegan is?
Matt Tullman [04:33] What’s that?
Jerry Sever [04:35] It’s getting up at 5.00am to milk the almonds! It’s an old joke, but one that our guest takes very seriously. She’s super serious about milking nuts, except when she makes nut milking jokes, which she does a lot. She’s Lizz Hampton, and she’s the founder of Goodnuss. She’s joining us today to talk about how she found this passion and why exactly you should be milking your nuts! So, Lizz, welcome to the show.
Lizz Hampton [05:06] Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Jerry Sever [05:08] Right, thank you for joining us. I hope I put enough nut milking jokes into that intro, you’re welcome to make another one right now if you wish!
Lizz Hampton [05:17] They were fantastic! They definitely kept coming.
Jerry Sever [05:22] Alright. You know the one about the 5.00am waking up for the almonds?
Lizz Hampton [05:26] I do actually, people love to send me that meme. I get it at least once a week!
Jerry Sever [05:32] I can imagine. You didn’t grow up on almond farm did you?
Lizz Hampton [05:38] No, I definitely did not!
Jerry Sever [05:40] What is your background?
Lizz Hampton [05:42] My background is with the University of Oregon, where I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Product Design. I’m from Portland Oregon, born and raised. I’m told I’m kind of a unicorn because there are not that many of us anymore.
Matt Tullman [05:56] I’d love to know how you ended up designing this product? Can you give us a little bit of the story behind the discovering the … I think there’s a couple of iterations beforehand right, and then you landed on the nut sack?
Lizz Hampton [06:09] Yes, I started in the spring term of my BFA year in Product Design School. It was kind of a free for all term, so we could do whatever we wanted.
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"Basically, we’re trying to make veganism look as sexy as it is."
JODI MONELLE
First thing hear you'll hear in this interview is my surprise by the fact that Live Kindly, the brand that Jodi started, has only launched in April. I'd been seeing their posts frequently on Facebook, and from the massive engagement and the sheer amount of content they seem to be producing, I figured they must have somehow flown under my radar for the past year or two.
Not so.
Live Kindly has actually only been operating for 6 months when we recorded this. So how come they look and feel like an established brand with a professional team of writers and video editors behind it? I was really happy to get the opportunity to talk with its founder about this.
Like many vegans, Jodi wanted to share her passion and ideas for making the world a better place... and like many vegans she started a blog. And like many bloggers (not just vegan ones - this one holds all across the board), she soon found out that blogging is tougher than it looks. First, you need to write. A lot, and consistently, even when your motivation is taking a break. And then you have to get your content in front of other people. (While at the same time learning to master whatever content management system you chose.)
That's where most people give up. And that's where Jodi did just the opposite.
As with most smart business ideas, she started thinking how she could solve her own problem - which, as she quickly realized, was shared by many aspiring vegan bloggers. Then she realized that a part of that problem was everyone trying to go at it alone, and Live Kindly, a platform for sharing compassionate ideas, started taking form.
In this interview, you'll learn how Jodi pulled together her core team of content creators (even though she couldn't promise them any sort of compensation), got Live Kindly funded (and began turning her non-vegan investor onto the growing potential of the plant-based industry), and turned it into the fastest growing vegan brand of this year.
With her team spread across the globe, you'll also hear how they use this to their advantage, how they stay in touch, what works for organic growth, and why they always strive to be inclusive with their messages.
When you're thinking of the bottom line of making the most impact, that last bit, making sure you include people who may not (yet) see things the way you do, is super important - and unfortunately, vegan brands sometimes forget about it. Tune in for a lesson on how to keep it a priority while still rocking social media like Live Kindly does.
Transcript
Jodi Monelle - Live Kindly
Jodi Monelle [02:52] Hi Jerry, thank you and thanks for having me on!
Jerry Sever [02:55] Thank you for joining me. You’re based in Canada right now, am I right?
Jodi Monelle [03:02] Yes that’s right I live in Vancouver. I’m obviously not from here.
Jerry Sever [03:06] Yes, I can hear that – originally you’re from the UK?
Jodi Monelle [03:10] Yes, originally from the UK and a small city called Bath, but I’ve been travelling for the last, I think, just over three years now. Prior to this I was living in New Zealand and now I’m settling here in Vancouver.
Jerry Sever [03:26] I’ve got to ask now, where in New Zealand did you live?
Jodi Monelle [03:27] All over, but mostly Wellington.
Jerry Sever [03:30] Cool, because I don’t know I mentioned when we spoke last week, but we lived in Wanaka until last year, so relatively close. It got a bit too cold for us!
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This week's episode is a bit different.
It's released less than a month before Plant-Based Business Week launches. To say that the past months have been crazy busy would be an understatement - we are launching an event that will condense the interviews, advice and knowledge of the first 9 months of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show into one single week of interview with the best and brightest of our movement.
And we're doing it with video, too.
In this episode, Matt Tullman (of whom you'll be hearing more on the show in the near future) and I discuss some of the best takeaways from the interviews we've already recorded for Plant-Based Business Week, and the enormous potential it paints for the entire plant-based industry. If you haven't already - click here to save your seat at the event.
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"Just catering to the vegan community is really limiting yourself and there needs to be a much larger marketplace that you should be going after. That’s one thing that we have always done from the beginning."
MEG & KOMIE VORA
I'll be the first to admit I'm not always the most fashionable person in the room. But despite my somewhat utilitarian approach to clothes, I am a big fan of brands making cruelty-free fashion a reality. So it's always a great pleasure to introduce another one on the podcast and explore the approach of the person running it.
This time, though, it's persons, plural. Meg and Komie Vora are the sister-founder of Delikate Rayne, a California-based, ethical and cruelty-free label that follows a zero-waste principle and aims to make compassion and sustainability fashionable.
Definitely something I can get behind, even though Delikate Rayne only produces women's apparel (and this deficit of options for guys is one white space we do cover in the interview).
Fun fact about Meg and Komie: they never ate meat in their lives. Fun fact about Delikate Rayne: it took them 2 years before they felt they were ready to launch their brand. Which, as you'll see, is part of their approach and making sure they have all their bases covered. On that topic, they seem to be a treasure trove of information on the newest plant-based and cruelty-free materials, although they also point out that not all of them are apparel-grade (which is something I probably wouldn't have considered, but if you're a fashion designer, it makes all the sense in the world to use materials that actually perform well when worn as clothes, rather than, for example, shoes).
Another part of the conversation that I really enjoyed is Meg and Komie's approach to brand building and their use of social media (if you've ever wondered how Twitter and Instagram complement each other, this interview has got you covered). And, of course, the Vegan Wardrobe Challenge Idea, which I absolutely think should be made into a monthly thing - Meg and Komie, I hope you're listening!
Show Notes Main website and online store: Delikate Rayne
The blog section: DR Diary
...and of course, Instagram
Meg & Komie's father's religion, and a big influence on their values: Jainism
The Ananas-Anam brand of pineapple leather: Piñatex
Speaking of fruit-based materials - this is apparently a thing, too: Banana silk
Let's not forget mushrooms: Muskin
And bioengineered spider silk: Bolt Threads
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"If you are starting a vegan business, you are starting it on the upper foot. You’re starting with an advantage because everybody’s there to help you succeed, because it’s also part of their own bigger vision."
CEM YILDIZ
There's a ritual that's probably as old as civilization itself - the 2am meal following a big night out. And the döner kebab is probably the meal of choice for thousands of revelers stumbling home in the early hours of the morning in cities all across Europe.
About time, then, that someone got serious about veganizing it.
Cem Yildiz first heard about it from his friend Roj whose uncle actually runs a vegan kebab restaurant in Germany (probably the country with the largest number of kebab stalls per capita, owing to its large Turkish diaspora). They flew over for a taste test, thought it was a great idea and brought it to the UK with the intention of testing it out, Lean Startup style.
That's already giving out some of the conversation we had with Cem - his business, What The Pitta, is a great example of how anything can be launched with the approach of setting an assumption and testing it with the least amount of money and time required to get results. In this case, the results were not what everyone around Cem and Roj was expecting - vegan döners turned out to be a hit (even among people who didn't know they were buying a vegan meal).
At the time of this interview, Cem is considering a third location for What The Pitta, which confirms what I've suspected all along; that the world is ready for a lot more vegan food than what's currently available. But this interview is NOT just about fast food. The lessons shared by Cem on building a team, knowing when to get your hands dirty and when to hand things to someone else, and about the right combination of founder skills are totally transferable outside of the food space. Also - and this is very important - why the vegan movement should absolutely NOT view profit as a bad thing. I agree 100% that this is a big discussion that needs to be had.
And of course, with Cem being a very multitalented person, we did touch on his other activities - such as the podcast he co-hosts, digital media production... and the fact that not much before he went vegan, he was going through a stick of butter per week trying to find the optimal fuel for his body and mind.
I'm kinda glad he found plant-based food. He's definitely the kind of talent the movement needs.
Show Notes Main website: What The Pitta
Cem's podcast: Powerful Nonsense
Where it all started for Cem: Feel Good Café, London
...with a lecture from Dr Michael Greger of Nutrition Facts
Some members of the UK vegan community mentioned:
Fat Gay Vegan
Vegans of London
Vevolution
The VERY valuable book for starting a business: The Lean Startup
Another source of inspiration: Seth Godin - How To Be Remarkable
Two more UK vegan startups mentioned
Votch
(Listen to Laura from Votch on Episode #34)
allplants
(Listen to Alex and JP from allplants on Episode #14)
Finally, an example of how big vegan fast food is getting: Veggie Grill
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"I really never even thought of becoming as large as this is today, and I certainly never anticipated all these other brands entering the market they way they have."
DAN STAACKMANN
That guy with the funny mustache styles. He's almost impossible to miss at the veg-friendly section in the store - a definite win at branding for Upton's Naturals.
Daniel Staackmann is the guy behind the brand, and as far as I can tell, he's not as big on facial hair as the face representing it. But he's big on veganism - as in, 25 years and counting. This puts him squarely into the category of people who can recall how the few vegan items that stores carried actually did taste like cardboard (if you were lucky), and soy milk was mostly chalk.
And of course, it also puts him in the category of entrepreneurs who got on the wave before there wasn't much of a wave to speak of. Upton's Naturals, which is today available in all 50 states, Canada, Australia, and Mexico, UK and Europe, started in a rented kitchen in 2005. Seitan created in commercial batches for restaurants was its first product, even though Dan had only tried making it once before making his business idea a reality and watching it take off.
Seitan, just in case you don't know, is essentially wheat gluten, and despite the current gluten-free trend, Dan says they haven't noticed any drops in their sales.
When Upton's Naturals was started, there was just one other company in the entire country making it. And that alone could have given them a solid position in the market, but if you've ever taken a closer look at their products, you'll know there's another meat substitute that they've pioneered in the United States - jackfruit.
I asked Dan whether Upton's was behind the viral growth of its popularity - around the time that they launched their first products, it seemed like you couldn't find a vegan Facebook group, Instagram channel or cooking blog that without at least one drool-worthy jackfruit recipe or post (for most of them, it was more like one per week, minimum). The answer I got was just cryptic enough to keep me wondering if there was some very clever, guerrilla-style marketing going on behind the scenes to promote jackfruit products.
No matter what the case, Upton's Naturals was the first brand to bring them to the market, but it was, as you'll find out, far from easy. The logistics actually took four years, and we talked a lot about the challenges of finding the right suppliers willing to work with a company proposing what (surprisingly) was a new processing method for Upton's partners in Thailand.
Apart from that, this interview also explores the pros and cons of retaining full ownership of your company; what taking on partners or investors means for your own business plans; why you'll rarely find more than 4 different Upton's products in a store, and how pivoting for slow, steady growth can be a better long-term tactic than going at things hard and fast.
Show Notes Main website: Upton's Naturals
A bit more about jackfruit and seitan
Jackfruit
Seitan
Where Dan first tried Seitan: Blind Faith Cafe
Another pioneering vegan brand that usually has the most space on store shelves: Tofurky
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"I was really hungry for a solution that could bring all the values of the plant-based movement to the animal farming industry so that we can really start to blur the line between what's a vegan product and what is not a vegan product. "
RYAN PANDYA
Milk without cows.
No problem, right? Soy, rice, almonds, hemp, peas... even potatoes, they all work nicely in some way or another to replace dairy beverages. Perfect Day Foods, the company created by Ryan Pandya and his co-founder Perumal Gandhi (with the help of Isha Datar, the Director of New Harvest) takes a very different approach.
They milk yeast. Not exactly in the sense of extracting milk from it, but they produce actual milk proteins in a process which Ryan says is more or less like brewing. I would say it's a lot more interesting than brewing - it includes 3D-printing DNA pulled from an online database, and that's just the start. What comes out is then combined and enriched with plant sugars, salts and minerals, and the resulting liquid is dairy milk in everything but the source (and the lack of lactose).
Or so I am told by Ryan. Perfect Day (originally called Muufri... get it?) has not launched their product yet, but they did attract a lot of interest when they brought their idea to the Indie Bio accelerator. So much, in fact, that Li Ka-shing's Horizons Ventures approached them with an offer of $2M in seed funding... and they were off to the races. 3 years later, Ryan and his team are close to having the perfect product, although there was an important pivot done during that time - instead of focusing on consumer goods and coming out with what could be another milk alternative, Perfect Day is now aiming primarily at the B2B market.
The reason why and the possibilities it opens is pretty impressive. Unlike plant milks, what Perfect Day produces is close enough to cow milk that it can be turned into any other dairy products using existing processes. And even more impressive is the fact that the dairy industry seems to be welcoming the opportunity. As Ryan points out, it wouldn't be the first time that biotech products replace animal-sourced ingredients (hint: we're talking about cheese).
This episode breaks new ground for the podcast in more than one way. It's the first time exploring the industry of milk alternatives, and the first foray into the field of bio-engineered food. It might be pushing boundaries for some people, and on a personal level, even I am not completely sure how it would fit into my mostly-wholefoods diet... but in terms of pushing our food system into the 21st century and making science fiction processes a reality that happens to be kinder to the planet and the animals, I say, bring it on!
Show Notes Main website: Perfect Day Foods
For getting in touch or checking for available positions: Email Perfect Day
Book by Jonathan Safran which turned Ryan to vegetarianism (and, later, veganism): Eating Animals*
The non-profit institute dedicated to research and development in the field of cellular agriculture: New Harvest
Another pioneering startup in the field of cellular agriculture (started with lab-grown meat and now pivoted to lab-grown leather): Modern Meadow
The world's largest biotech seed accelerator, where Perfect Day was started: Indie Bio
First major investor in the company, when it was still called Muufri: Horizons Ventures
Not vegan, but mentioned as an example of lightspeed growth and excellent marketing (and former workplace of Nicki, Perfect Day's Chief Communication Officer): Chobani
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
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"If you're honest from your heart, and you give people what you really want for their own benefit, not for you, abundance, money and business will come by themselves."
CHEF MIGUEL BAUTISTA
The first time I saw Chef Miguel, I was pretty sure he was a Mexican celebrity chef. It was at Tulum Vegan Fest and he spent most of the day leading up to his lecture posing for pictures.
It turned out I was right - he is a celebrity. He's also world-renown executive chef that regularly holds workshops for 5-star resorts all around the country and abroad, a sommelier, trainee herbalist (by his own definition, even though I'm sure his knowledge of herbs is vast) and co-owner of the widely popular Vegan Planet restaurant in Cancun (with another location in Mexico City). I hope he won't mind me saying he's fanatical, in the best possible way, about maintaining a whole-foods approach to plant-based cuisine, because I believe that it's this that places him in a category all of his own.
In fact, one of the things he emphasizes about his kitchen is that it contains no microwaves, no aluminium pots, and no can opener. And if that conjures up an image of an all-natural, down-to-earth, new-age eatery, or perhaps a fine dining establishment where serving sizes are inversely proportional to the prices, you'd be wrong on both counts. Vegan Planet is a modern, well-lit and airy eatery with regular 2-for-1 pizza nights, with a steady stream of local, repeat customers.
To me, it looks like exactly the kind of vegan eatery you'd expect in a not-so-distant future where eating plant-based is the norm... so I'm allowing for the chance that Miguel Bautista discovered the perfect formula for making functional healthy food mainstream. And perhaps cultural differences played a part as well - since moving to Mexico, I have been left very impressed with the availability and the general attitude towards plant-based food, so sitting down with someone who's making a business of it was the perfect opportunity to explore this.
The main takeaway of this conversation, for me, is that at some point, Miguel expects restaurants not to be 'vegan' anymore. They'll just be restaurants, and the fact that they're serving plant-based food will be considered normal. I forgot to ask whether Vegan Planet will be changing its name then, but the success it's been enjoying so far, and the experience of its owner make me think that day is not that far off.
Show Notes Main website: Vegan Planet
Directions to Vegan Planet Cancun
Directions to Vegan Planet Mexico City
Miguel's personal page: Vegan Chef Miguel Bautista
Instagram (You know you want to see this one)
Miguel's Facebook Page
Miguel's YouTube Channel (Most of it is in Spanish - but if you love cooking shows you have to check it out)
The twice-a-year, perfect excuse to visit the Mayan Riviera: Tulum Vegan Fest
The definitely different LA restaurant where Miguel worked as the Kitchen Line Manager: Inn of the 7th Ray
I'll admit I've never heard of shilajit before Miguel mentioned it - but this sounds intriguing: Pürblack
Mentioned as a source of herbal wisdom: Ron Teeguarden of Dragon Herbs
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"It's all about normalizing veganism. We don't hug trees - that's not being vegan!"
LAURA STAGEMAN
What would you do if all your skin suddenly started falling off?
Did that get your attention? I actually didn't know it is possible, but apparently a condition called Topical Steroid Withdrawal (which is pretty self-explanatory: brought on by withdrawal from steroid creams) can cause it to happen. And that's how Laura Stageman's journey to making vegan watches began.
There is a very obvious parallel to be drawn between losing your skin and the leather industry. And further on, there is a parallel between the leather industry and the fur industry that should be just as obvious, but isn't. Leaving the fur on the skin of a dead animal is generally frowned upon even in very non-vegan circles, while tanning the skin and wearing it, for some reason, is not.
What Laura decided during the months she spent in a bathtub, waiting for her skin to regenerate and watching documentaries, was that she wanted to help animals. And a while later, she figured out that there was a niche of the vegan fashion market that wasn't being filled all that well yet - watches.
Considering how leather is still marketed as the top-tier option on fashion accessories, there was obviously a need for well-made timepieces with straps that would perform and age just as well as the animal-based material. Thankfully, Laura wasn't worried about her lack of fashion or watchmaking background (and it's obvious from her products that there was no need to worry), but she quickly realized that keeping the production in the UK would push her brand from affordable luxury to the kind you wear only a few times per year because it's too valuable for everyday use.
Here is where our conversation gets really interesting - by this point she had already done the research on materials, but when she was faced with the decision to outsource her production to China, she was definitely aware that a lot of stereotypes about work conditions, ethics and animal rights there are grounded in reality.
The solution she found breaks a lot of those stereotypes and should be an eye-opener for anyone wary of doing business in China. And as for marketing and positioning her brand, Laura stays true to her mission, but even though the vegan market has been very supportive of Votch and her social media audience very receptive of her transparency in promoting the brand, the real challenge is to make wearing a vegan watch normal.
That is also a part of this interview - how to position yourself and how to shape the discussions with your potential buyers so the values you represent are conveyed effectively, without walls being triggered. And of course the future of materials, other potential and the future of fashion where being cruelty free becomes the norm.
Show Notes The official website and online store: Votch
Votch is also available from the largest online watch retailer in the UK: Watch Shop
One of the documentaries that influenced Laura during her recovery: Cowspiracy
Another great documentary on the dark side of the global fashion industry: True Cost
(Both Cowspiracy and True Cost are also available on Netflix)
You don't need to look for a Chinese production partner on your own - Laura used My Office In China
Since we were discussing the technical details of leather alternatives: ROHS Directive
And REACH regulation (both of these concern the non-use of hazardous materials)
Where do the Votch straps come from?
EnviroLeather
Soon, pineapples - Piñatex
...and mushrooms - MuSkin
Accidentally vegan, circular economy brand: MUD Jeans
Finally, the UK mockumentary showing a vegan future 50 years from now: Carnage
Official link above only works in UK – you may be able to see the film her...
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"By the end of January people just get used to it and it's a lot easier decision in February to stay vegan than it would have been at the end of December to go vegan in the first place."
MATTHEW GLOVER
Vegans are often accused of wanting to get other people to see things our way and eat what we do.
It's true. We do want that. Most of us, anyway. Not just because it makes choosing a place to eat so much easier - most of us are aware of the positive changes this brings for the planet, the animals and for every individual living this way.
So how do you amplify your reach? Matthew Glover had an interesting idea: if an online campaign can get men to do ridiculous things to their faces for a whole month - and I swear I'm not bitter about the fact that I won't be able to grow a proper mustache until I'm 60 (thanks for those genes, dad!) - could an online campaign also get them to change their eating habits and go plant-based for a whole month?
And what other month could be more suitable for new, healthy dietary resolutions than January? Matthew launched the first Veganuary campaign in 2014 with his wife (and first convert) Jane, and reached 3000 people. Three years later, they're up to nearly 60.000. At this rate, he reckons everyone on the planet will be vegan for at least a month by 2028. Not bad for a British chap from a family of butchers and meat workers.
Humor aside, the Veganuary campaign has been a massive success, both in terms of reach and in terms of results. Pretty much everyone taking part reports feeling better, healthier and having more energy. Retention rate is over 50%. And what's really cool - being a life-long entrepreneur and marketing guy, Matthew now knows how much it costs to convert a person to veganism (as long as you don't mind hearing the amount in UK pounds - but it's really lower than you'd expect).
With Veganuary growing, Matthew now has his sights set on something even bigger, and something even closer to the core of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur as well. In April 2018, he and his team will be putting on UK's first and largest plant-based food trade show. Not a vegan festival with food stalls and exhibitors - a show hosted at the National Exhibition Center that aims to attract over 20.000 flexitarians, reducetarians and plant-curious visitors (along with the already-vegan and vegetarian, of course).
It's called Thrive Show. It's a large undertaking and it's a large part of our conversation. April 2018 is still some time off, but make sure you listen in to learn more about the event. And I hope to see you there.
Show Notes Official website: Veganuary
Official website: Thrive Show
Matthew's personal Twitter channel: Renegade Guy
The venue of Thrive Show: National Exhibition Centre
Where Matthew met his wife Jane: Vegan Dating UK (caution: may connect you with vegetarians ;)
One of the things motivating Matthew's activism, the Peak Oil theory
PETA: Main website
PETA's “The video the meat industry doesn't want you to see”
Another full-length documentary that moved Matthew to veganism: Earthlings
Also, Gary Yourofsky's Best Speech You'll Ever Hear
(WARNING: all of the above films contain scenes of graphic violence)
Finally, the mail health (and facial health) movement that inspired Veganuary: Movember
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"We have to just accept that change is going to be slow, and I think the new system is going to be built with money from the old system."
TOBIAS LEENAERT
Of all the images that come to mind at the term 'vegan activist', the calm, pragmatic approach of Tobias Leenaert is probably right at the bottom of the pile for most people. But that, or the fact that he writes under the name of Vegan Strategist, shouldn't fool you into thinking he's not absolutely passionate about bringing change and eliminating animal suffering. He's simply accepted the fact that the bottom line can be achieved more effectively by understanding your audience, the things that may be holding them back and by making the change so effortless for them they don't even realize it's happening.
A man after my own heart, in short.
Tobias co-founded and led the Belgium-based vegan advocacy group EVA (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative) for years. He also works closely with Melanie Joy, best known for her theory of carnism as the invisible belief system that allows otherwise ethical, compassionate people to continue consuming animals. And part of his approach could actually be compared to Dr Joy's theory - Tobias understands that it's not just attitudes that lead to behavior change. It's the other way around too.
What that means is that adopting the attitude of veganism doesn't need to come from without, as a result of messages that often shock and repel at least as many people as they shock and convince. The attitude change can come gradually, as a result of the widespread availability of vegan options.
Even though Tobias writes about all manner of issues that the vegan movement is facing, I wanted to hear his opinions on vegan business in particular, and this aspect was the perfect starting point for our conversation on how companies can drive the change, and how marketing budgets often exceed campaign budgets of most organized animal-rights movements.
The end result, however, is the same - less suffering. A more plant-based future. A world where you get your vegan in-flight meal served as standard. This interview is about the ways that business can take us there.
Show Notes Vegan strategist: Main website
JUST PUBLISHED - Tobias's book: How to Create A Vegan World - A Pragmatic Approach*
The organization Tobias co-founded: EVA
Calendar of workshops at Vegan Advocacy
Melanie Joy's US-based organization: Beyond Carnism
More information on the reducetarian movement
Probably one of the most impactful documentaries on animal suffering: Earthlings (WARNING: graphic scenes)
Hampton Creek in its rebranded form: Just.
World's biggest meat processor getting into plant-based investments: Tyson New Ventures
The state of plant-based dairy in EU: Could be better
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
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"If you think about how many brands of consumer products there are that can be replaced with plant-based, then – bring it on."
JENNIFER PARDOE
Jennifer Pardoe began her first job in the food industry nearly 3 decades ago - working in a fast-food chicken shop back in Australia. That may not sound like the starting point that naturally leads to plant-based food consulting, but in the 3 decades since, she managed a chain of food-to-go restaurants in London and then opened up her own.
And then around 2010, she realized customers were asking for more healthy options and plant-based foods were becoming a hit. Jen tried to take her award-winning eatery in that direction, ran into opposition from investors (which kinda sounds like the Gust Organics story from NY) and decided that rather than stay in that business, she'd get in the emerging market of plant-based food and leverage all her experience to help new brands make a mark.
That was 2014, the year when she founded Zest consulting agency. Three years later, the agency has just gone through a rebranding and is now operating as Plant Based To Business - PB2B - making it even clearer what they do, and Jen has now helped launch over 100 plant-based products.
Seeing how Jennifer works with companies both in the UK and the States, I thought this was an excellent chance to talk about the cultural differences between the two when it comes to marketing vegan food (and about the state of veganism in UK, since it's been making headlines for a while now with its rapid growth). We discovered at least one product that you can't simply bring across the pond, put on the shelves and expect it to sell, and speaking of shelves - Jennifer has some really good advice for branding and designing your visual image to stand out, too.
Finally, and this is my favorite part, we went deep into opportunities that exist in the plant-based space, and I suspect we could have recorded an entire, stand-alone episode on this topic. But if you get any ideas, you know who to call to get them in stores.
Show Notes The new agency website: PlantBased2B
Ladybird restaurant in NY: http://www.ladybirdny.com/
Hear Kiki Adami's story on how Gust Organics closed after going vegan (and what she did next): Episode #2
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The motto of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show has always been "The Future Is Plant-Based."
That really sums it all up – plant-based solutions WILL have an enormous impact on our lives in the next decades, and we’re already witnessing a shift to some of these solutions right now, even though it's just the beginning of the swell that’s building up.
But more than that, it sums up the mission. The mission is to make this plant-based future happen. And the way we make this plant-based future happen is by spreading ideas, and nurturing them and helping new businesses grow and getting more entrepreneurs in the plant-based space to be the drivers of this change.
I’m really excited to announce that we’ve just taken a huge step towards making this happen. For the past few weeks I’ve been working with some really amazing people (you’ve actually heard some of them as guests on the podcast in the past) and it's time to pull the wraps off our biggest project for 2017.
You can hear or all about it in this special episode of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show.
Or if you can't wait - CLICK HERE to find out for yourself.
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"Our business and what I bring to the table isn’t just the food, it’s also about talking about real life sh*t, that may or may not be pretty."
MOLLY PATRICK
WARNING: Before you hit play, know that this interview contains some strong language. Definitely outside PG-13 territory.
Molly Patrick is a great example of an online personality brand done right - she's the face of Clean Food Dirty Girl and in a lot of ways, her business is her life.
Defining an online personality brand can seem deceitfully easy. After all, YOU are the core of every product, so having an intimate understanding of your offering is a given. Except it's never that easy. You know everything about yourself - but how much of it do you share with your audience? Do you keep it real? Do you polish away some of those details that you're not really comfortable with? And just how much is too much when using a filter on your photos?
Molly chose to keep things real and focus on what makes her unique - in her case, this means focusing on the food, not judging people for their flaws or slip-ups on their path to healthier eating and not holding back on the cusswords when they're warranted. Not because she decided she was going to swear to attract her audience, but because she decided to attract the audience that will love her for her way of talking.
Here's the crucial takeaway from our conversation, and the one thing you should absolutely always keep in mind when you're building a brand upon your personality: some people won't like you. And that's OK, because those aren't the people who matter, anyway.
What's more, this lesson applies even when your brand is built upon services or products. In fact, a lot of the things we discuss with Molly in this episode are just as relevant if you're launching a startup, as they are if you're deciding how to name your new Facebook page and start collecting likes (hint: in both cases you're allowed to pivot and rebrand if it works better).
So this interview is absolutely NOT just about talking dirty to get people to listen to your message about clean food. It's about finding the right way to express your message, finding your ideal audience, and it's about the universal rules for building a successful business, regardless of size.
Show Notes Main website: Clean Food Dirty Girl
Suscription to Molly's email list: Saturday Fuckeries
Facebook private group (this is where the action is)
And just in case you're in Austin, TX - Molly was the founder of this business: Arlos Food Truck Austin
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"Wouldn't it be better if we just used the technology that we were building to make the entire vegan movement 10X more effective?"
ALEXIS FOX
I have been really looking forward to this interview.
Alexis Fox and Micah Risk have been making waves with their company, Lighter, for a few years, but I actually found them when I was researching vegan meal planning apps and theirs was just in a totally different dimension both as a concept and as the implementation of it. And I've spoken to two of their investors on the show and it was obvious that they were thoroughly impressed with Lighter's product and mission. Beyond, really, what you would expect if you thought of Lighter as just a meal planning app.
By the way, I think both women on the founding team have absolute superhero names and it couldn't be more fitting for their mission of transforming the way we eat - with technology. I'll leave the details for the actual interview, but Lighter is definitely not just a meal planning app. At its core, it's a platform built to allow people to eat healthy by taking into account their requirements and their circumstances. So if you're a pro athlete switching to plant-based to improve your performance, the recipes created for you will be totally different than if you have a fast-paced office job that only leaves an hour per day for food preparation.
And on the other hand, Lighter is a platform where you can choose whose diet recommendations you wish to follow. Alexis talks of this as Lighter being nutritionally agnostic. It makes things easy for you - but it makes them REALLY easy for people like plant-based medical professionals to prescribe a certain diet to their patients via the platform. That's where the real strength and potential of Lighter really lie.
You'd have thought that building a tech startup like that requires a team of at least one tech founder - but neither Alexis nor Micah are coders. Alexis has a background in law and improv comedy, while Micah is a nutritionist and ultrarunner. They just took the idea for this tech solution and built it up bit by bit, iteration by iteration, from a manual meal plan creation service to a platform capable of choosing the right food for you from more than 2000 recipes in their database.
So this conversation is about building a world-changing product from scratch and bringing together the right kind of people to do so, beginning with the founding team. It's about focusing on the right things as a startup and letting go of those that don't move you towards your goals (focusing, for instance, on user retention and virality, instead of investing in marketing - like Lighter does). And it's about the role that technology plays in creating a plant-based future, and the ways we can get there.
Show Notes Official website: Lighter
Where Micah Risk studied nutrition: Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Highly recommended book on starting a business: Lean Startup*
One example of food supply moving online: Jet
Another - this one integrated with Lighter for grocery deliveries: Instacart
One of first badass vegan athletes on the Lighter platform: David Carter – The 300lb Vegan
David Carter on The Rich Roll Podcast
One among the many plant-based health professionals on Lighter: Dr Neal Barnard
Physician Committee for Responsible Medicine: PCRM
Alexis worked on policy with the Humane Society of the United States
The vegan entrepreneur and visionary transforming how Hong Kong eats: David Yeung (interviewed on Episode 11)
David is the founder of Green Monday
The plant-absed NYC chef who moved to Shanghai to help the movement there: Daphne Cheng
Brands mentioned
Perfect Day Foods
Clara Foods
Hampton Creek (currently rebranding to Just.)
Memphis Meats
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"If you're going to spend time and resources to create something, it should be to solve a meaningful problem"
MATT TULLMAN
As you know if you're a regular follower of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur, our mission is to create a plant-based future, and to do that, we need more vegan entrepreneurs bringing their ideas to life and more mission-driven investors and VCs supporting their visions.
Matt Tullman is somewhere around the middle, where the two fields overlap. As a kid he actually gave up business studies in favor of social sciences because he was more interested in how individuals could bring about change – this later led him to South America where he spent time studying FARC (the Colombian revolutionary-slash-terrorist group) and the one man who organized a worldwide digital protest against them.
But business pulled him back in. When he returned to the States, he began his path as a VC, led a fund/incubator called 7Wire and then turned his attention to education technologies and innovation... and the thing is, at this point, he still perceived food as a chore that had to fit among the more important daily tasks (but could be skipped if really necessary).
His transition to veganism was brought on by a month-long experience of the health system and the many ways it actually stacks the odds against the patients' recovery. And seeing how Matt can't be happy doing things that don't consume him completely, he dove into research and came out determined that the way to bring about the biggest change in terms of human health and impact was plant-based.
We tried to keep our conversation within the allotted time – but I'll admit it was hard. This interview spans topics from why studying business is not absolutely necessary for being good at it, knowing what matters as an entrepreneur, the different dimensions of bringing about change that go beyond business, Matt's current product launch with the No Meat Athlete, Matt Frazier and his greater vision for the world, which he calls 30-by-30 and will be the central point of his upcoming book... and that was us just getting warmed up. I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did.
Show Notes Matt's Homepage: Tullman.org
Wanna connect with Matt? He asked not to share his email here, but he does give it out in the interview.
The VC fund/Incubator where Matt served as Managing Director: 7 Wire Ventures
Matt's partner Matt Frazier, The No Meat Athlete
First brand and first plant-based complement launched by them: Lightdrop
Director of Science and Education of Lightdrop: Dr. Pamela Fergusson
Pamela Fergusson on No Meat Athlete Radio: Episode 162
Good Food Institute
The good kind of lobbying group: Plant-Based Foods Association
Documentaries mentioned
Forks Over Knives
Cowspiracy
What The Health
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"I think we opened with 25 styles and now we have over 200 styles of vegan shoes that we can offer to people."
ERICA KUBERSKY
In case you're wondering which one's Erica - she's the one on the left. The one on her right is Sara, her sister and co-founder of New York's oldest vegan shoe store, MooShoes.
Erica, who went vegetarian at 8 (a move that ended up with the whole family eating that way), was also early on being clear on her business goals. By high school, she was telling friends she would open a vegan shoe store. When she found out about Vegetarian Shoes (by our combined knowledge the first vegan shoe shop ever), she flew to England to get some for herself. And in 2001, way before the vegan snowball ever reached the critical point in its now unstoppable roll, she and Sara opened up MooShoes in a defunct butchery in Manhattan.
If you're thinking they were ahead of the times, I have to admit to wondering about it too. But apparently, New York in 2001 was a city ready for cruelty-free footwear. Their customer base grew. Their reputation grew (so much Sara says they are now a regular part of the 'Vegan Tour' for a lot of out-of-town visitors wanting to experience all the vegan options of NYC). Their business grew: from starting with 25 styles at opening they now stock over 200, have another store in Los Angeles and an online store that only recently surpassed their physical store in sales volume, showing that old-fashioned retail is far from dead. And based on the popularity of their numerous food events, they just opened a vegan grocery/deli next door to their Manhattan shop.
Along the way, MooShoes also realized the market needed more, and they moved into production. They now have an in-store brand called Novacas, which makes their own line of footwear at a factory in Portugal, using cruelty-free microfibre materials... what Joshua Katcher of Brave GentleMan (whose shoe line is also made by Novacas) calls future leather. Which is a huge step beyond vinyl materials often used instead of leather - in terms of looks, durability and sustainability.
This last characteristic is what Erica says seems to be the biggest selling point for a lot of her non-vegan customers. Eco fashion is slowly but surely catching on, and this episode is a dive into what that means for cruelty-free footwear: what new materials to look for, what parts of the market are still underserved... but also what is the reality of running a retail business. And what is the correct number of cats to have in your store to maintain the balance between cuteness, allergy potential and keeping at least some shoe boxes empty.
Show Notes Official website: MooShoes
Instagram - MooShoes NYC
Instagram - MooShoes LA
The oldest vegan shoe brand (and apparently worth worth flying over the Atlantic for): Vegetarian Shoes
The vegan grocer they opened next door to Moo Shoes: Orchard Grocer
Orchard Grocer on Facebook
Birkenstock's Vegan Essentials
MooShoes/Novacas makes all the shoes designed by Joshua Katcher from Brave GentleMan
Listen to Joshua's interview in Episode #20
Looking for an even more upscale vegan footwear? Try Stella McCartney
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"For every day - for every second that your message isn't out there ... how many people are suffering? What’s the impact? Use that as motivation!"
RON GANDIZA
Spending an hour talking to Ron about business is a bit like drinking from a fire hose. He totally fits his nickname, Ronnie Tsunami... which, incidentally, has been the trademark of his many business projects, along with his island-themed party music band (Ronnie Tsunami and the Wave Riders).
He calls himself a techie. He's certainly had a tech career - in the Air Force, at the Pentagon, with NASA and Microsoft... and that was before he ever decided to become a musician or business coach. He says he spent the first part of his career designing systems that take people out of the equation, then pivoted to building communities and focusing on people again.
But there was an even more important pivot that happened in his life in 2014 - he got sick. To the point of not being able to walk without a cane or stand up for longer periods of time before getting dizzy. And then he cured himself by going vegan and realized that none of his doctors ever mentioned a change of diet as a potential solution and that he probably wasn't an isolated case.
He went after this in his own Tsunami style and within a year he was working on the biggest ever vegan online event, the Plant Pure Summit, but that was just one part of what has been accomplished by the Plant Pure team since Ronnie joined it. What kinda blew me away was that they also launched a complete line of frozen meals - an endeavor which could easily be the sole purpose of a food startup. For Ronnie, it seems like it falls under the label of "in a day's work". (Not that he'll say it, but you certainly get the feeling that he doesn't get discouraged by large goals.)
Ronnie continues to work as a business coach and likes it best when he can help vegan entrepreneurs get their message out and make a difference with their business. And he specifically encouraged The Plant-Based Entrepreneur audience to contact him for guidance... so listen to what he has to say and then look for his email in the show notes if you want to bounce some ideas off him!
Show Notes Ronnie's email: rgandiza@plantpurenation.com
Personal website: Ronnie Tsunami
Band: Tsunami Wave Riders
First of the movies that changed Ronnie's life: Forks Over Knives
Second: Cowspiracy
Plant Pure Nation: Main website
Plant Pure Nation: The Movie
Plant Pure Summit: 2016 Edition
Plant Pure Facebook Group
Non-profit arm, Plant Pure Communities
HuffPost interview with Plant Pure Nation founder, Nelson Campbell
The Microsoft educational platform Ronnie helped build: Imagine Academy
The vegetarian conference with a 40+ year history: Summerfest
Miyoko is a good friend of Ronnie's and woner of Miyoko’s Kitchen
(You can listen to Miyoko's interview in Episode #24)
The CRM system used by Ronnie and the team at Plant Pure Nation: Green Rope
Ronnie's own social media management tool: Tsunamisize
Influencer marketing and outreach tool: Pitchbox
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"I believe in a vegan economy. I believe that's the only way we are going to make lasting change."
MIYOKO SCHINNER
Among all the doubts and questions that go through your mind when you're starting a business, "What happens if we grow too fast?" probably doesn't pop up too often. Miyoko Schinner was both a long-term vegan (she went plant-based in Japan in the 1980s) and a long-time entrepreneur when she launched Miyoko's Kitchen in 2014, but having already built and sold one vegan company in California, she knew that it's often better to test the waters first and grow your business organically.
Except that in 2014, the market was ready for vegan companies aiming to scale up hard and fast.
Miyoko's Kitchen has been experiencing triple digit growth since they started - amazing even for the vegan cheese market which is growing at an admirable 30% per year and sits solidly among our Top 7 Plant-Based Business Opportunities. This may sound like a good problem to have, but runaway growth and not being able to keep up with orders can bring a young company down real fast.
This is one of the things we discuss from a few different angles in this talk - how to plan your approach and keep your fulfillment rates from dropping to a point where distributors would consider dropping you to make better use of available shelf space. But if you're a cheese lover, don't worry - Miyoko's Kitchen is not going anywhere.
Well, not exactly. They are. After closing a 6 million dollar Series B round, the company will be moving to a new facility this summer where they will be able to increase their output by as much as 3000% (considering they are now putting out about 25 tons per month, that's gonna be a whole lot of cheese). And you can learn just what kind of investors have been backing their move and what kind of relationships Miyoko recommends for getting the best deal for your startup.
We also talk about the future of vegan cheese and a certain approach that can make it even more attractive to consumers over its dairy counterparts. We talk about the reason creating food is kinda like philosophy, why paying your dues and giving out your product for free is essential for brand recognition, and how to avoid getting entangled with the local mob when your business starts taking off.
No, I didn't make that last one up. The yakuza do make a brief appearance in this interview. Check it out.
Show Notes Miyoko's Kitchen (where you can beta test new, limited edition products): Main Website
Miyoko's farm rescue: Rancho Compasión
Some background on devotion cuisine - how plant-based food is called in Japanese: shōjin ryōri
Miyoko's first book: The Now and Zen Epicure*
Miyoko's cheese cook book that in a way launched her brand: Artisan Vegan Cheese*
The recipe discussed: Vegan mozzarella
Of course, you can find Miyoko's products in Whole Foods
First investor in Miyoko's Kitchen: Seth Tibbott of Tofurky (first investor)
COO of Miyoko's Kitchen: Billy Bramblett
...also co-founder of Wildwood
Other very early investors: Humane Society of the United States
...and Evan Williams
Besides being CEO of Twitter and creating Medium, Ev Williams co-founded the mission-based VC fund Obvious Ventures (which also invested in Miyoko's Kitchen Series B round)
Lead investor in Series B: JMK Consumer Growth Partners
Another Series B investor: CircleUp (online investment platform)
Miyoko is a founding member of Plant-Based Foods Association
You can hear Michele Simon, the Director of Plant-Based Foods Association, in Episode #21
Finally, the UK mockumentary showing a vegan future 50 years from now: Carnage
Official link above only works in UK - you may be able to see the film here (unless it is removed): YouTube
How To Subscribe
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"Crowdfunding is such an amazing platform for any entrepreneur with an idea who wants to test it out... but you have to be prepared."
BOBBI JO PAIDEL
You don't often stumble upon websites that simply radiate positive energy, but Tribe of Lambs has one. And even though they are not a plant-based business per se, their founder, Bobbi Jo, is vegan, and her mission is definitely in alignment with the collaborative, more compassionate future this podcast is helping usher in.
Bobbi made the slightly unlikely transition to veganism after growing up on a cattle ranch in Alberta and saw her future in the fashion industry. But after a time, the cuthroat corporate culture and the very questionable ethics of fast fashion got her re-evaluating her path.
So she did the totally right thing, even though it seems so hard to so many (perhaps less so to millennials), and took off on a self-searching trip that first took her to Australia and finally to India, where she found herself managing a small clothing market and volunteering at an orphanage... and something clicked. Bobbi started a crowdfunded company that would help children affected by HIV in the orphanage and at the same time work with local artisans, and raised enough money in a month to buy winter jackets and warm clothes for 80 kids. And of course start the business – and so Tribe of Lambs was born.
Today, Bobbi manages a team that's partially in India (production) and partially all over the globe, often while working in the field herself. They keep raising the bar for what they can accomplish and they stay true to their circular business model, bringing the proceeds of sales back to the communities where their products are made.
What we talk about with Bobbi in this interview spans both her personal background and experiencing India for the first time, along with her approach to doing business and very practical lessons learned for managing an ethical, not-for-profit brand that literally spans the globe. Tools used, crowdfunding tips, reaching your target audience, the challenges of transporting two hockey bags full of supplies on Indian buses... it's all there.
Show Notes Main website and online store: Tribe of Lambs
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tribeoflambs
Bobbi's main tool for managing her global team: Slack
This sounds like it can be a lifesaver if you're travelling around India with an online business: Jio Personal Router
More on the topic of ethical fashion
Episode #20: Joshua Katcher
Episode #3: Bianca Zvorc Morris
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"You can't just sit around with good food and think people are gonna come to your restaurant. You have to do a ton of marketing."
KEN SPECTOR
Here's an interesting fact about Ken - he's always had the fear of one day waking up to find himself old and unhealthy... so he started eating in the healthiest way that he could find, without even realizing that he was turning vegan. Years later, and once he was already clear on his dietary preferences and views, he found himself sitting down with Eric Brent, the man who started Happy Cow, and saw an opportunity to really make his mark on the vegan world.
If you've ever had to look for a vegan restaurant in an unknown city (or your own, as it turns out in our talk), you are definitely familiar with Happy Cow - the largest and oldest listing of vegan and veg-friendly establishments in the world. No exaggeration there: there are perhaps 10 countries in total missing from their list (Ken says he'd love to talk to someone form North Korea, by the way) and a staggering 51000+ restaurants, bars, coffee shops and food stalls on their site, with more than 2 million people accessing the information there every month.
Eric Brent started Happy Cow as a labor of love (and some frustration with food options where he was living) in 1999, hand coding everything and adding listings manually. When Ken came on board as co-owner, the site still retained some of its old-school look, and that's one of the things he's changed about it. The other is that Happy Cow now lives as an app which regularly makes it into the Top10 Travel section of iTunes.
You can listen to this interview just to discover what vegan hotspots you can include on your next trip... but if you have a plant-based restaurant or are considering opening one, you'll want to hear what Ken has to say about planning your offer and what item on your menu increases customer satisfaction and your long-term outlook.
Also, what question is very likely to get a 'Yes' from 20-something females (no, we're not turning into a dating advice show... but it was an interesting bit of info).
Enjoy!
Show Notes Main website: Happy Cow
Ken has done thousands of interviews in his career - a lot of them are available on the Happy Cow YouTube Channel
The book by Dr Diamond that changed Ken's diet: Fit For Life*
Sierra Club (apparently, hikes with them were a good way to meet fellow vegans in the 90s)
A very old, archived article on 02, Woody Harrelson's raw food restaurant and oxygen bar
Dr Michael Greger's great source of study-based nutritional info: Nutrition Facts
One of Happy Cow's event partners: Green Festivals
A great place to take your non-vegan relatives (according to Ken): Crossroads Kitchen
Hopefully just the first of successful plant-based fast food chains: Veggie Grill
An example of a vegan cheese company attracting investors: Miyoko's Kitchen
And the two makers of vegan burgers and big waves: Beyond Meat (makes other products, too)
...and Impossible Foods
Warmly recommended documentary, from the makers of Cowspiracy: What The Health Film
An example of a very non-skinny vegan: Patrik Baboumian
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
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"Every single one of our members companies is mission-based. They're not in this just to make a quick buck, they're in this to make a difference."
MICHELE SIMON
Shifting our food supply from the destructive, animal-based situation it is in today will require a collective effort of many companies. But beyond being only collective, the effort must be coordinated and supported by new food policies.
This is why you need to listen to Michele Simon if you have any type of plant-based food business, whether it's in the United States or anywhere else. Michele is the Executive Director of The Plant Based Foods Association, a trade group that just recently celebrated its first anniversary, and she has been researching and writing about the impact of the food industry on the society and our health for over 20 years.
Leading The Plant Based Foods Association is different from her past work, though – before, she was writing about the 'dark side' of the food industry, and about policies favoring the big meat and dairy companies at the expense of consumer health. Now, she gets to actively promote and support companies at the frontlines of the plant-based revolution.
In this interview (short as it may be – we couldn't get our schedules aligned for a full hour), we talk about the role of the group in influencing food policies and the benefits for members, which range from media exposure to networking and mentorship from larger, already established businesses.
Michele just returned from the Natural Products Expo West 2017 a few days before this interview, so we spent some time talking about all the new trends in the plant-based space, about a huge market opportunity that vegan food companies have yet to seriously tap into... and I couldn't miss the opportunity to ask about the notorious 'Dairy Pride Act' that has been making waves for a few months.
Hit Play and find out if it's a threat to dairy-free alternatives, or just a lot of noise by a giant in decline...
(You do not need to be a plant-based food business to join or support The Plant Based Foods Association - like The Plant-Based Entrepreneur, you can join as an affiliate, or simply donate through their website linked below.)
Show Notes Plant Based Foods Association: Main Website
PBFA's 1st Year Accomplishments (pdf report)
Michele's book on food industry and health: Appetite For Profit*
Natural Products Expo West
The brand coming out with 9 flavors of yogurt: Follow Your Heart
10 new products at this year's Expo West from Upton's Naturals
Makers of flaxseed milk... and also yogurt: Good Karma
DIY plant-based meats coming this year from Tofurky
Makers of organic coconut ice cream (you have been warned): Coconut Bliss
More from Michele on checkoff programs in the new documentary from the creators of Cowspiracy: What The Health
How the Dairy Pride Act actually generated positive media coverage for PBFA
The US producers aren't the only ones afraid of plant-based food: NZ MP sees vegan labels as threat
And in EU: German Agricultural Minister Wants To Ban Vegan Meat Substitutes
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
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"The only thing to combat the perception that an ethical lifestyle sacrifices pleasure is proof that it's, in fact, extremely pleasurable."
JOSHUA KATCHER
Joshua Katcher never saw himself getting into fashion. Or Fashion with a capital F. Vegan since high school, with anti-establishment, activist tendencies and an interest for punk-rock music, it's pretty easy to understand why the fashion industry wouldn't feature high on his radar. And yet...
Today, Joshua owns a brand of fine vegan menswear called Brave GentleMan which he established in 2010, shortly after he started blogging as The Discerning Brute (like the name? I love it!) about the effects and impact of fashion. Especially ethical, vegan fashion and how it can bring together the concepts of empathy and kindness with mainstream notions of masculinity.
If that sounds intriguing to you, you absolutely need to listen to this interview. Joshua is both concise and incredibly eloquent in his reasoning - one of the consequences of his fashion-based activism was a teaching post at Parsons School of Design, and I can imagine his lectures must be well-attended.
To tell you the truth, I could have spent the entire hour of our talk picking his brain for opinions on the fashion industrial complex, its parallels with the food industry, its anachronistic foundations and how to shake them by offering a different discourse on fashion. One that views it not as vanity, but as an extension of our natural sense of beauty.
This sets the basis of what Joshua does - the very practical lessons you can take away from this episode are his views on future materials and his approach to building an ethical fashion business. One that started with a pair of elegant black vegan dress shoes (even though he justifies well why he's NOT marketing to vegans) and grew into a brand with a brick-and-mortar store in Brooklyn and investors knocking on the (figurative) door.
This talk is also a great example of how to set yourself up not to quit, regardless of how many chances you get, what being in the fashion business really means, and where are the areas of untapped potential that anyone looking to change the world with ethical, vegan clothing should consider.
Show Notes Physical address of the Brave GentleMan store: 367 Graham Avenue (L Train Graham Avenue stop)
Main website and online store: Brave GentleMan
Joshua's blog: The Discerning Brute
Brave Gentleman Instagram
The Discerning Brute Instagram
Book that reinforced Joshua's vegan beliefs in high school: Peter Singer's Animal Liberation*
PETA
Armani's fur-free policy
Footwear and future leather collaborator: Moo Shoes
TechCrunch article on bio-fabricated spider silk
Finally, some vegan shops yo can find around Joshua's Brooklyn store:
Donewell Donuts
Modern Love restaurant by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Gristle Tattoo
Screamers Pizzeria
Haymakers
Pine Box Rock Shop Pub
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"The reason I am very selective is that I think we have a responsibility to invest in businesses that have the maximum possible impact on the lives of animals."
SEBASTIANO COSSIA CASTIGLIONI
Sebastiano is likely a major force for vegan good that most vegans have never heard of. He's a very private person - doesn't share his life on Instagram, doesn't rant on YouTube, can't be found on Facebook and only occasionally tweets out things that he finds insightful or thought-provoking. On the business side, he's a true renaissance man: he started his first graphic design company at 16, is a lover of fine art and classical music, chairman of an exclusive network of art collectors, international business consultant and former strategic advisor on foreign investments to the Italian government, and owner of a pioneering biodynamic and organic winery in the heart of Tuscany called Querciabella that was founded by his father. He has also been plant-based since he was 15. Vegetarian for decades and 100% vegan for the last few years. Over 35 years ago, he picked up a leaflet on the subway about animal vivisection and immediately decided such treatment of living beings was wrong. This is the guiding principle for everything that he does and he is very clear that he does not bend his views when it comes to business. Now a man like that, you might expect to find him among animal rights activists. He is an animal rights activist. But not your average kind. He is a millionaire businessman who figured out early on that supporting animal rights organisations can exponentially increase his impact. He's supported many over the years, including serving on the Board of Advisors for Sea Shepherd, but more recently, he also discovered that he can amplify his reach even more by investing in for-profit plant-based companies. Sebastiano is mostly a seed investor, but the same way he does not compromise on his principles, he doesn't compromise on business. It's not about nice people or things that sound good or overconfident founders with overconfident sales projections. He looks for solid ideas, backed by the right people - preferably women, simply because they are statistically more reliable and successful. Which of course doesn't mean he hasn't invested in male-led companies. it's just to give you an idea of how he thinks. He's a very discerning investor, but listen to this interview and take special note of the advice he gives for vegan founders. You'll see that his support is worth it.
Show Notes Sebastiano on LinkedIn
Have an amazing plant-based startup? Here's the email for your pitch: info@nkgb.ch
Sebastiano's biodynamic, veganic winery: Querciabella
Organizations Sebastiano supports or is otherwise involved with:
Sea Shepherd
Mercy For Animals
Farm Sanctuary
PETA
People mentioned in this interview:
A major animal rights author - Tom Regan (note - Sebastiano speaks of him in the present. Professor Regan sadly passed away 3 days after this interview was recorded.)
Tom Regan's most influential book on animal rights: The Case For Animal Rights*
Another very influential animal rights philosopher - but second to Regan, according to Sebastiano: Peter Singer
Peter Singer's most famous work: Animal Liberation*
Sebastiano's reason for starting to invest in plant-based businesses - Chris Kerr, co-founder of New Crop Capital and Entrepreneur-in:Residence at the Good Food Institute: Interview in Episode #6
Sebastiano's connection that lead to his position on the Board of Advisors of Sea Shepherd: Kim McCoy
Sea Shepherd's founder and CEO: Captain Paul Watson
Founder of Green Monday and a huge force for plantbased good in Hong Kong - David Yeung: Interview in Episode #11
Some companies backed by Sebastiano
First investment: Beyond Meat
Listen here or on iTunes.
"Being in the food business, something literally goes horribly wrong every single day. And you have to learn how to stay extremely zen about the whole thing."
NANCY KALISH
To start a food business, solving a problem, preferably one that you experience yourself, is just as essential as starting any other business. Nancy always had a sweet tooth and she started her brand of allergen-free, vegan snacks (brownies and blondies made with chickpeas) to improve what was available - or rather, give an option that was actually healthy, not just 'healthy' because it says so on the packaging.
There was a lot of prototype-testing going on in the early days, before she officially launched. That part is probably easy to imagine when you're thinking about a food business. What comes next, though, how to get from figuring out which legumes to use for your brownies to landing a contract with Whole Foods, that's the part of the journey that can drag a fledgling company down faster than you can say 'shelf-life'.
Nancy had to learn everything on the go - she literally started the company with no previous experience in the food business whatsoever.
And was the one running the business and baking the brownies at the start.
And bootstrapped pretty much everything.
And went through a recent name change due to a trademark that fell through.
And today, Rule Breaker Snacks (formerly known as Pure Genius Provisions) are available in over 60 Whole Foods stores, a number of smaller local outlets, as well as online. The Brooklyn-based company is still very much bootstrapped and Nancy does a lot of everything (minus the baking), but when you listen to the interview and check out their website, you'll see the team she's put together is more than capable of handling things when they go horribly wrong.
This episode is a great walk-through of all the necessary steps you should take when starting out as a small plant-based food business, from getting the right advice before you begin, linking up with the right suppliers and knowing when you should outsource things, to details that can stop you cold if you're not ready for them.
(And incidentally, black bean brownies are a recipe Maya and me have made many times when we needed to impress non-vegans. So even though it was impossible to get some samples from Rule Breaker Snacks down across the border, I can safely say that brownies with beans are an excellent idea!)
Show Notes Official Website and Online Store: Rule Breaker Snacks
Facebook Page
Instagram Channel
Amazon Store*
Check out some of Nancy's articles
The starting point: Food + Enterprise Summit
Biggest natural products trade show on the East Coast: Expo East
Nancy's Brand/Packaging Designer: Miller Creative
Distribution Partner for Rule Breaker Snacks: UNFI
Consultants and CFO/COOs for Rule Breaker Snacks: Relish Food Project
Source of (minor) crowd-sourced funding: Kiva Zip 0% crowd-funded loans
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
iTunes - Search for The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show within the iTunes app or follow this link: https://itunes.apple.com/mx/podcast/plant-based-entrepreneur-show/id1203332540?l=en and select 'Open in iTunes'. Click on 'Subscribe' and you're done.
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"You can't, realistically, always follow your passion. What you CAN always do is find something you're passionate ABOUT."
JEFFREY SASS
I probably wouldn't know about Jeffrey if his article, What Travelling As a Vegan Has Taught Me About Business Negotiation, hadn't been published on Entrepreneur.com and subsequently blown up on social media. Raise hand if you started your vegan path by reading, watching or listening to at least three different variations of the list of solutions to the issue of eating out when all you eat are plants: be polite, 'veganize' vegetarian meals, know which innocent-seeming dishes often contain animal ingredients...
So here was this person, obviously with years of experience both as a vegan and as a businessman, connecting the two in a completely novel way and giving a business spin to the problem of communicating your vegan preferences in a steak house. Yeah, I wanted to know who it was.
Well, it turns out Jeff is no stranger to podcasting himself, having been both a host and an occasional guest in the past. He's been vegan for 12 years and vegetarian for 15 prior to that. And he's a self-confessed gadget geek with decades of experience in marketing and the entertainment industry - at one point, he helped produce low-budget horror classics like The Toxic Avenger, he hung out with William Shatner, set up a company for checking barcodes on your cellphone back at the turn of the millennium, and another for getting ringtones and wallpapers on your phone back when you'd get content by downloading it from the internet and putting it on your phone, before Play Store and iTunes came along.
So yeah, I admit, part of this interview is me channeling my inner geek and delighting at the opportunity to be talking to someone who was there when the technologies we take for granted now were only taking off. But even if you're not a geek yourself, you should listen for the nuggets of wisdom Jeff shares throughout the interview. That quote about passion, that's just one of them.
Right now, Jeff serves as CMO for .Club Domains - which is who you call when you want to register a domain ending in .club. If you're considering one, definitely check his suggestions for the registration process, because some of the more premium names can go for thousands of dollars - but there is a way around it that he talks about in this interview.
And of course, we do talk about how you can always find something vegan to eat, wherever your business travels take you, and why the same people skills apply to ordering food and to negotiations.
Show Notes Website: JeffreySass.club
Sassholes! blog
Dadomatic Blog
For all info on .Club domains: Get.Club
Entrepreneur.com article: What Travelling As a Vegan Has Taught Me About Business Negotiation
The producer of B-horror flicks where Jeff worked: Troma Entertainment
Definitely check this one out: The Toxic Crusaders, Episode 1
On a similar note: The Toxic Avenger Movie
William Shatner's series: Tek War
How Star Trek influenced technology: Motorola StarTac cellphone
Global directory of vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants: Happy Cow
Meal delivery service with vegan options: Blue Apron
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"I want to help people see and become who they truly are, versus who someone tells them to be."
TORRE WASHINGTON
A few days before we sat down to record this episode with Torre, I watched him wow the crowd at the Tulum Vegan Fest, first with his words, then with his body. He is definitely a sight and about the best case against the myth of weak vegans - but it's his words you should really pay attention to.
Pay attention when he talks about fitness and nutrition and you'll notice he doesn't promote any particular brand of vegan bodybuilding supplements, even though with his results, his looks and his social media following, he could be making a killing on sponsorship deals. But that's not who he is. As a vegetarian since birth and a vegan since 1998 (before he actually knew what the term meant), what guides him is being natural.
That means his approach to food and training goes against many of the established 'truths': that you need to track your nutrient ratios , your calories and your protein intake. That you need to eat every 3 hours if you want to get lean. That you need to follow a strict training program. Torre goes by feel - eats what feels right (mostly unprocessed food, though he dislikes calling it 'clean' eating), trains the body parts that feel like they need work, and if you've ever seen a picture of him on stage (if you haven't, go check out his Instagram channel while you listen to the interview), you'll know his approach is extremely effective.
Pay attention when he's not speaking about bodybuilding, though, and you'll find an incredibly kind and humble man guided by compassion and unity of all beings. By the way, did you know he speaks Japanese and worked for more than a decade as an engineer? Or that we're both fans of Wolverine, although I'd say Superman (his other comic book inspiration) is more along the lines of his integrity.
We covered all that and a lot more, from his beginnings to his biggest challenge (a very unexpected one) and upcoming big projects in this interview, so if you ever wondered about the man behind the muscle, I am honored to be able to bring you a glimpse of him.
Show Notes The official website: TorreWashington.com
Reason Torre was in Mexico and a great break from winter: Tulum Vegan Fest
Largest vegetarian producer in the US: Morning Star Farms
The rastafarian concept of living off the land: Ital
Since we discussed both... who would win, Superman or Wolverine?
You'll notice Torre is HUGE fan: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger movies mentioned:
Comando
Predator
Raw Deal
Conan The Barbarian
Pumping Iron (bodybuilding documentary)
Hercules in New York
Escape Plan
A favorite suppplier of ready-made meals: Amy's Organic Burritos
Vegan café and bakery in Playa Del Carmen: The Pitted Date
The scene from Wall-E - is this our future?
Finally, if you're visiting Tulum, check out:
Azulik Resort & Maya Spa Tulum
Maria Del Mar Hotel Tulum
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"We were looking to light that fire straight away... we had a 1000 likes within a day of releasing the first video."
IAN THEASBY "We pretty consistently grow by about 100.000 a month now."
HENRY FIRTH
This is what goes on behind the scenes of some of Facebook's most shared content - food videos.
If you have a Facebook account, you've seen them of course. Shot from the top and sped up so you can watch the entire dish come together in less than a minute. Ian and Henry are behind what is probably the most popular plantbased incarnation of this trend - Bosh! And just to be clear, they are not at 1 million likes yet.
After all, they've only been doing this for 6 months now, so it might take until March or April to hit that mark.
Hitting those kind of numbers just by constantly putting out viral content - that's the kind of success that most social media marketers will tell you is in the past, in the early golden days when nearly 100% of your audience would still see your posts in their feed, before Facebook (gasp!) turned into an advertising platform.
At its core, though, sharing and likes are still what drives Facebook's algorithms. If you want to use this to your advantage, you just need to play along and put out content that gets shared and liked, in a form preferred by Facebook - video.
In this interview you can find out exactly how Ian and Henry combined and leveraged their skills to knock it out of the park with Bosh! (we talk about the origin of the name, too), even though they've never done food videos before. You'll learn what approach they took when they were setting up and how their creative process evolved.
Also, how one of their most shared videos was a result of 23 hours of non-stop filming, Jaegermeister and the only thing left in the fridge.
What I personally like about Bosh! and this episode - besides being a great case study of how you can still grow your following with viral content in 2017 - is their approach to sharing the vegan message: through fun and amazing-looking food, without being preachy, and often without the audience even realizing that what they're liking and sharing is completely plantbased. In other words, making the change so smooth it simply happens without even being noticed. Which, for me, is one of the most effective ways of getting more people on board and shaping the future.
(NOTE: At the time this episode aired,Ian and Henry were looking at expanding the team at Bosh! Check out the podcast and if it sounds like they would absolutely need your skills, get in touch below.)
Show Notes For everything, including getting in touch: Bosh! Facebook Page
Worth checking out (but not a priority yet): Bosh.tv Website
The music messaging app Henry and Ian worked on previously: PingTune
An affordable and socially responsible vehicle option for Africa (Henry is a seed investor): Mobius Motors
The documentary that brough them both to veganism: yes, it's Cowspiracy
Is he the reason the word 'Bosh' got associated with food? Possibly: Jamie Oliver
The first and biggest video recipe Faceboook page: Buzzfeed Tasty
Henry is also involved with allplants – hear their founders in Episode 14
Inspiration for Henry's morning routine: Christopher Sommer on the Tim Ferris Show
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"As much as we could bring the food system back to local, the challenge is still to feed everyone."
ALEX PETRIDES "We don't want to be just another flash in the pan. We really want to build something that is going to make a really big difference and give us stable foundations."
JONATHAN PETRIDES
Alex and Jonathan (JP) are founders of allplants (lowercase a), a new meal delivery startup aimed at vegans, vegetarians and the growing category of the plant-curious - but the lessons shared in this interview apply to pretty much any startup that aims to be socially responsible and world-changing from the get-go.
They went vegan less than 2 years ago - JP is a fellow member of the vegans converted by spouses/partners club, while Alex took a pretty uncommon path through his then-job - but they spent almost a year researching recipes and pain points before soft launching their business in October 2016.
They worked in the kitchen, as chefs, decorators and dishwashers. Then they designed their packaging and delivery system from the ground up and pulled together a passionate team of people to help them run things - while still bootstrapping. Actually, their entire approach could be a case study on building a lean startup.
Things aren't that hard to understand when you consider their background. Both have years of startup experience. JP helped run and launch a number of socially-responsible businesses in Africa, like the micro-lending mobile platform M-Shwari and the low-budget, high-value medical network Penda, and Alex spent the last 5 years building the snack brand Propercorn from scratch alongside its two founders.
They are also both big foodies, but more importantly, they complement each other like a good founding team should. Not just in terms of different skillsets. Of course you can imagine Alex would be more familiar with supply and distribution in the food biz, and Jonathan to have experience navigating a new startup through all the early-stage issues (as well as being an excellent dishwash, apaprently).
But there's also a more intangible feeling of complementary energies when you listen. For this you'll have to hit play on that big button above or download the episode. And if you're an investor, listen extra carefully, because I hear allplants will be raising funds soon.
Show Notes allplants: Main website
Emails: Alex and JP
Alex's Medium article on the logic behind eating vegan: Mind Over Meat
The popcorn brand where Alex went from intern to Brand Manager: Propecorn
The mobile lending platform JP helped build: M-Shwari
Kenyan chain of medical centers, also JP's work: Penda Health
Jonathan Saffran Foer: book Eating Animals*
Blue Apron meal delivery service
Vegan Jobs UK http://veganjobs.org.uk/
Head of Food Operations at allplants: Anna Pinder
...and the culinary institute where she trained: Leiths School of Food and Wine
*This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
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"It's such an amazing experience to have 500 people come together and share ideas. At the end of the day, I had a queue of about 50 people who wanted to hug me and tell me how amazing their day had been. "
DAMIEN CLARKSON
As Damien himself puts it, he's a natural storyteller who's 'wired up to want to change things'. And he also admits he probably didn't even know a vegetarian growing up, though he ended up being one – for environmental reasons, pre-Cowspiracy, which probably earns him some bonus points, if anyone is keeping score.
When you want to tell stories that change the world, a career in marketing makes more sense than just writing, especially if you're also passionate about helping other people craft things that show how they really feel. This is the first thing we touched upon in this podcast – how stories are changing the landscape of marketing, and why it's getting more important than ever for brands to shape their stories in a way that is personal, utilizes experiences and influencers and connects with their target audience on a one-on-one level.
All of which are parts of Damien's approach in his creative agency, The Growing Box, which grew out of his first marketing business around the time when he landed his first vegan client and expanded his passion for driving social change (he's previously been involved with green NGOs and environmental activism, and also posted up to 20 times a day about vegan issues on his Facebook wall) to his work as well.
That's not all I wanted to talk about, though. More recently, Damien started a vegan event that pulls away from the usual model of exhibitor stalls, food vendors and a handful of big names on stage. Launched as Vegan Futures in 2015, it turned into Vevolution in 2016, when it also grew by more than 100% and became the largest vegan conference in Europe.
The idea behind it is to have a platform for vegan ideas worth spreading, where people could talk about their passion and inspire others (if it sounds a bit like TED it's because that is where the inspiration comes from, in part).
But besides the success, planning and executing an event is a lot of hard work, 16-hour days, last-minute improvisations and quiet meltdowns when noone is looking. (Especially when your core team is... well, I'll let you guess the number. It's larger than 1, but not by much.)
It is intense and it can be hugely rewarding when you touch lives and change them for the better, so in a very real way, it's very similar to launching any other kind of business venture – except that with a regular startup, you rarely get 50 people lining up to give you a hug because of the work you did. And with everything planned for Vevolution in 2017 (there's an exclusive announcement regarding that about halfway through the interview, so pay attention), that line is bound to get even longer for Damien.
Show Notes Connect with Damien through his personal website: www.damienclarkson.com
Instagram (see if you can find the photo of the Vevolution goodies bags)
Damien's creative agency: The Growing Box
And of course, the festival: Vevolution
Vevolution Youtube Channel
The movie on antibiotic resistance: Swine
...made for VIva
The series that turned Damien onto environmental vegetarianism (and activism): The Blue Planet*
Coppenhagen Climate Summit
Damien's activist friend, Tamsin Omond
UN Report – Livestock's Long Shadow
Damien's first vegan client: Veganuary
Another of Damien's clients: One Planet Pizza
The director of One Planet Pizza, Mike Hill, in Episode #9 of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show
Damien's Guardian articles
Damien's Huff Post articles
The 360° movie project discussed: iAnimal
Vevolution's main sponsor: Tideford Organics
Vegan Life Magazine
Naomi Klein book: The Shock Doctrine*
Listen here or on iTunes.
"If you're not able to paint the picture of how a brand will be helped by working with you, then you're dead in the water. You gotta do something for the big brands first, for free. And when you do it, make it awesome. Make it amazing!"
CORY WARREN
I love flow. Not just that state when you are so into whatever your work that time seems to soften up around you, but also when events flow your way. Like when I put a name on my list of people I want to interview on the show, and then a few weeks later, that person contacts me first.
That's what happened with Cory, the creator of Lean Green Dad. I've been following his podcast for a while, because it's way more than just about parenting. Just a few weeks ago, for instance, his guest on the podcast was Joh LaJounie, a former obese hunter-turned vegan ultra-runner (Cory himself is a triathlete), sharing how he deals with this fond memories of hunting. See why I find it interesting? Not to mention that he is an incredibly profilic content creator who really knows how to keep things real and engaging. So Cory's name was on my guest wishlist for a while - and then one day he was in my inbox as well!
Since I only have second-hand experience with parenting, the main idea of this interview was to talk with Cory about his experience building an online personality/lifestyle brand in a niche that may be smaller, but as it turns out, smaller can often mean more engaged. I also knew I wanted to find out more about the cease-and-desist letter he received when his site and podcast were already well established (he actually managed to rebrand and migrate everything in a ridiculously short amount of time).
In his other life, Cory is a sponsorship activation specialist, meaning he knows the ins and outs of connecting with bigger brands from the standpoint of a small(ish) blogger, and if you check some of the brands supporting him, you'll see exactly what I mean. For me, the real gold of this episode is in his step-by-step explanation of how to approach and start a relationship with potential sponsors. So having kids is not a requisite for getting tremendous value out of this interview.
...although if you do have some, I'd love to know what you think of his 'definition' of parenting. I thought it was the best I ever heard.
Show Notes Lean Green Dad: Main website
Podcast on iTunes: Lean Green Dad Radio
Story of the rebranding: When a Giant Sends You a Cease And Desist
Lean Green Dad's 3-part Grocery Guide Video Series
Cory will soon have certificate in Plant Based Nutrition from eCornell University
An early vegetarian influence and friend from when Cory was producing musicals: Anthony Rapp
Yes, Anthony Rapp as in Rent
Cory's plant-based transition was helped along by Forks Over Knives
And listed as a huge source of inspiration: Rip Esselstyn of The Engine 2 Diet
Another vegetarian triathlete mentioned: Dave Scott, 6-time Ironman champion
Speaking of triathlons, this one is held where we used to live in New Zealand and is supposed to be one of the msot scenic in the world: Challenge Wanaka Triathlon
Challenge Wanaka was a huge motivation for my wife during her recovery: Maya Novak – story of the broken ankle and recovery
A really good source of medical information for vegans and vegan parents: Dr John McDougall
Finally, a startup working on bioengineering a baby formula that would mimic human breastmilk: BioNascent
How To Subscribe Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new episodes coming out weekly:
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"After 4 years of Green Monday, 22% of the city is now practicing at least one day a week of vegetarian diet."
DAVID YEUNG
The quote above is no typo - 4 years after David launched Green Monday with his friend Francis, nearly a quarter of Hong Kong's population is doing at least some form of the flexitarian approach that is one of the cornerstone of their approach and making one day a a week meatless. It may seem like a small step, but only at a glance. For a city that's pushing 8 million and boasts (or used to) an embarrassingly high meat consumption per capita, it's actually massive.
And massive change is very much a part of David's vision. Visit Green Monday's website while you're listening to the interview and have a look around; going green on Mondays is far from the only thing they do. Actually, even at the beginning, it wasn't just about getting people to eat less meat on a certain day. One of the first steps they took as a newly-funded non-profit was getting the largest fast food chain in the city to introduce vegetarian meals to their menu. And then it was banks and company cafeterias and schools, and then, as David says, it started snowballing.
And that was just the first pillar of Green Monday which aims to change the culture of eating. The second one, solutions, started with their own grocery store which is over 90% vegan and doing great (so great, actually, that they now have three more stores across the city center). Refer again to the meat consumption part in the opening paragraph - you really need to understand just how massive this change is.
The final pillar of Green Monday was solutions and for this, the company evolved a venture fund which aims to support startups and technological solutions that are poised to disrupt the way we eat. Oh, and act as a bridge for foreign companies in the sector who need a strategic partner in Asia to bring their products to the market.
So in short... a non-profit that went straight to changing the biggest food venues in the city... then added a chain of vegan grocery stores... and then expanded into green venture capital. All in the span of four years, meaning they are just getting started. For a guy spearheading it all, David is incredibly humble about his achievements. Actually, the way he talks about Green Monday is less as a founder passionate about his idea (and I hope he won't mind me saying this) and more like an inventor describing the solution to a hugely complex problem - but one that he knows has massive potential. Like electricity, maybe.
Oh, and an hour-long interview was definitely not enough time to cover everything that Green Monday does AND the way David views business. But I think we did a pretty good job of painting an overall picture of his particular way of changing the world. And seeing the big picture, according to him, is what allows you to find your leverage and understand how you can make the most difference.
Show Notes Main website: Green Monday
The department store chain: Green Common
UN report on climate change and livestock: Livestock's Long Shadow
First restaurant chain that Green Monday signed up: Cafe de Coral
The venture fund of Li Ka Shing: Horizon Ventures
Brands mentioned
Beyond Meat (Green Monday is an investor)
Lighter (Green Monday is an investor and I personally see huge potential in bringing Lighter to Asia)
Hampton Creek
Impossible Foods
Daiya
Califia Farms
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"Take a breath for a second, and think about when you weren't vegan – and then think about everyone else and how they have the possibility to change."
MATT LETTEN "When mainstream America and the mainstream world looks at us, they know us as these vegans who are just f**king normal."
PHIL LETTEN
WARNING: Before you hit play, know that this interview contains some strong language. Definitely outside PG-13 territory.
If your social media feed algorithms know to bring you vegan updates, you’ve probably come across their posts or videos before. Often with a bottle nearby and very often with a title just asking to be clicked. And at first glance, they do seem like a couple of guys who enjoy swearing and stirring sh*t up.
That being said, Matt and Phil Letten, better known as the Vegan Bros, aren't nearly as foul-mouthed in person as they come across online. But maybe that's because we spoke in the middle of the day, over Skype, and not later in the evening over a bottle of liquid inspiration, as they like to refer to alcohol. They did loosen up pretty fast, but if you expect this episode to be a swearfest, you’re in for a surprise. I know I was, because once we started talking, I quickly realized there’s more to them than meets the eye or the not-so-sensitive ear.
Did you know, for instance, that Matt’s goal for 2016 is to read 100 books, or that Phil crossed the country 9 times as a spokesman for various vegan nonprofits? But that was before an epic rooftop party gave birth to the idea of starting an online brand built around showing how veganism is becoming so mainstream it’s being promoted by the guys pumping iron next to you at the gym (both bros are personal trainers), whom you’d sooner expect to yell BACON! at the mention of the word vegan.
Matt actually admits to being that particular kind of person way back… but then again, so was I. Their biggest takeaway here is that anyone can change, which makes up a large part of their message, and occasionally puts them at odds with the vegan community, like when they published a video about why you shouldn’t ask if your beer is vegan or not.
The thing is, for the path they’re showing, this message is spot on. Matt and Phil are 100% certain that the world will turn vegan sooner or later and they want people to get there by making things as simple as possible. Plus they don’t let the negative feedback pull them down - just the opposite. And that right there is another big takeaway for anyone considering a personality brand: sooner or later, you’ll get people who don’t agree with you. And that can be a good thing.
So if you want to know how exactly The Vegan Bros brand was built and how it evolved from a vegan fat-loss course to multiple streams of income, including t-shirts, publishing and business consulting (including Matt and Phil’s message for all vegan entrepreneurs), this is the episode for you. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get much out of them about their upcoming book, but I’m sure it will be insert favorite expletive epic!
Show Notes The Vegan Bros: Main website
The Ultimate Vegan Fat Loss Course
Get a 'Vodka Is Vegan' t-shirt here: Vegan Bros Swag
Recent post we talked about: Get The Lukewarm Motherf**kers Out Of Your Life
NOTE: The fat loss course opens periodically and there is no link to the business consulting offer on the page yet - best way to keep up to date is to join Matt & Phil's email list. They're pretty cool at not sending out too many emails.
In the UK? You can catch up with the bros here: Vegan Camp-Out 2017
The movie that got Matt on board with veganism: Death On a Factory Farm
Followed by: Meet Your Meat
Non-profits where Phil has worked
Mercy For Animals
Humane League
Vegan Outreach
Finally, sources of inspiration other than alcohol:
Listen here or on iTunes.
"If you want to get your vegan pizza next your Papa Joes Pizza or Celeste Pizza in the supermarket, you've got to be happy and be quite good at playing that mainstream game. "
MIKE HILL
This episode is airing on the morning after United States vote for their 45th president. But regardless if you're celebrating or mourning the election results, I'm sure we can all agree on one thing: we should have waaayyyy more options for vegan pizza. Right?
Mike Hill, Director and Chief Pizza Taster of One Planet Pizza, certainly thinks so, and he's no rookie in the field of vegan business. He started his first company fresh out of university - a vegetarian pub that played live jazz music and didn't allow smoking. Unfortunately, this was in the early 80s, and a non-smoking vegetarian pub in Norwich, UK, had a potential customer base somewhere in the very low double digits, according to Mike. They went broke in under a year, but as you'll see, that didn't stop him from pursuing other ventures that would cater to the plant-based crowd.
Fast forward to 2016, and Norwich is a different place. UK is a different place altogether, with over 10% of the population now following either a vegetarian or a vegan diet. Some things are still lacking though, and vegan pizza options, like mentioned before, are among them. (I love pizza, can you tell). At this point, Mike already had three decades of business experience behind him, as well as an established restaurant business with a much larger client base, so when he realized the blank space in the vegan pizza market, he had both the knowledge and the connections to put One Planet Pizza in motion. 6 months later, the startup is about ready to launch and tackle the frozen pizza market which is worth 420 million Pounds (about 520 million US dollars) in the UK alone.
The way they're doing it is, in my opinion, an example of how to set yourself up for success - from getting the right people on the founding team, to getting well-connected supporters, whether it's bloggers and social media personalities or partners and suppliers like Bute Island who can help you with distribution once you have your product perfected and ready to hit the shelves nationwide. And of course, a CEO with 25+ years of management experience in the leisure and hospitality industry. And going beyond that, One Planet Pizza also aims to be a company owned in part by their target customers - when we recorder this interview, their equity crowdfunding campaign for 20% of the business was just hitting its halfway point and showing no signs of slowing down. Which was of course a great opportunity to talk to Mike about the pros and cons of financing a vegan venture in this way, so we're not just talking about food business and how to get in the frozen goods space.
If you're in the UK (or anywhere in Europe, actually, since this is their second phase of expansion), keep an eye out for this company because I think it's poised to cut itself a nice slice of the frozen pizza market. And keep an eye out for Mike as well! You might spot him at a vegan festival promoting his products... or you might run into him (or with him, at least) at a triathlon - he's been a vegan endurance athlete since way before it was a thing. But more importantly, he's the kind of vegan who's accumulated a whole pile of useful vegan experience and is looking forward to sharing it to help other companies grow. I'm happy we got to share some of it in this episode!
Show Notes Main company website: One Planet Pizza
Seedrs Crowdfunding Campaign: Help us raise our dough
Vegan bakery owned by Tanza chapman, vegan pizza creator and part owner of OPP: LuVegan
A UK YouTuber amongst Mike's supporters: Martin the Vegan Geezer
Suppliers of vegan cheese for One Planet Pizza and makers of Sheese: Bute Is...
Listen here or on iTunes.
"In any other business, if you had 2 cheese companies, they would say they're competitors. But in this business, I've had clients tell me not only do they not mind that I work with their competitors, but they want them to succeed because it grows the category and helps save more lives."
DAVID BENZAQUEN
Google David Benzaquen and chances are your first hits will be of a South American Kabbalah master... who looks very much like David Benzaquen, the CEO and founder of PlantBased Solutions. So much that I just had to ask that he's not by chance leading a double life.
He's not. But David and his company probably aren't well known to you if your main contact with plant-based brands is as a consumer. It's very likely that you buy a brand or two that he's involved with, though. David started PlantBased Solutions as a B2B company offering marketing and brand management services to other companies, which, incidentally, is definitely a runner-up for the list of plant-based business ideas with great potential. The funny thing is, he started the company without much knowledge of brand management or marketing, with just a clear idea of what he wanted to accomplish... the how he learned as he went along.
Today, his clients range from established food brands like Gardein to exciting new startups like Ocean Hugger, the maker of Tomato Sushi (and when I say exciting, I also mean both David and me are personally excited about the idea of vegan tuna chunks made with tomatoes and not much else). Basically, it doesn't matter if you've been on the market for over a decade or if you're just starting out - you should be paying attention to the things we covered in this interview. Things like how to cater to vegans and non-vegans. How to make the biggest difference with your products and how to brand and market them so your potential clients don't feel like their way of life and eating is being challenged.
The most important thing, however, is the overlying message of collaboration. It's what sets the plant-based sector apart from others (another thing besides tomato sushi being a phenomenal idea that David and I agree on wholeheartedly); the fact that there is a larger sense of mission that goes beyond mere profit, but of course doesn't prevent it in any way. Just the opposite - working together we can accomplish more on all levels. Thank you, David, for that nugget!
Now go push play. You'll be glad you did.
Show Notes Plant-Based Solutions - Main website
David's business email
LinkedIn Profile
Mentioned as a big source of inspiration for his ideas on taking marketing tactics employed by companies like Coca Cola and applying them to healthy food: Jeff Dunn
Jeff Dunn actually ran Coca Cola, before he became the Chief Carrot Officer at Bolthouse Farms
Another huge influence on Plant-Based Solutions, and their Managing Director: Mary McGovern
The movement for transitioning to a plant-based diet that started in Hong Kong and now spans the globe: Green Monday
A very similar initiative launched over a decade ago in the US: Meatless Monday
A plant-based company that shifted to calling their products an 'option' as a way to reach more hesitant customers: Gardein
'Honest Seth', founder of Honest Tea – praised by David for transparency in his business: Seth Goldman
Honest Tea Story: »We Were Thirsty«
The company where Seth is currently Chairman of the Board (you've probably heard of it): Beyond Meat
Seth's book: Mission in a Bottle*
How Pinnacle Foods bought Gardein - Food Navigator
Tyson foods invest in Beyond Meat - Fortune
The vegan research panel David is collaborating on: Faunalytics
Ocean Hugger Foods – Tomato Sushi
Tomato Sushi on Twitter
Tomato Sushi on Facebook
Founder of Tomato Sushi and future guest on the show,
Listen here or on iTunes.
"4 or 5 years ago, when we told people we were doing dairy-free products, treasonous is actually a good way to describe the reaction. People were quite shocked."
ALICE SHOPLAND
There's this thing about New Zealand that most people who only visit it as tourists don't realize: yeah, it's very green, but a lot of that are pastures. And while sheep are more often used on postcards, cows still outnumber the human population at more than 2 to 1 and dairy products make up nearly one third of the exports (and about 3% of the nation's GDP). So speaking or acting against the dairy industry is indeed akin to treason - which is why I really wanted to talk to Alice, whose company, Angel Food, is New Zealand's first dairy-free cheese producer, as well as the oldest vegan company, having just celebrated their 10th anniversary.
The other reason I wanted Alice on the show is because they are about to launch a new range of products (including feta, cheddar and salami) and she was kind enough to send some samples over, so I may be slightly biased in my judgement (but this is not a paid promotion or anything - if she hadn't offered, I would have gladly gone and used this episode as an excuse to go out and buy some Angel Food cheese). At the time of the recording, these products were available in pre-sale as part of Angel Food's crowdfunding campaign (check the show notes!) to get them to market faster. Crowdfunding is a strategy that has worked very well for them in the past, so I was curious to hear what Alice had to say about the experience, especially since I knew there were some stumbling blocks this time...
Regardless of that, Angel Food is poised to go big, in my opinion. First of all, the vegan cheese market nowhere near saturation, considering that more and more customers of dairy alternatives aren't even vegan, just health. or environmentally-conscious (or lactose intolerant, of course). And with China currently being the main buyer of New Zealand's dairy, the trade channels are established for Angel Food to start reaching into the Asian market. Which is a deal under wraps, but currently still classified info - so that's one thing I couldn't get Alice to share. But I'm certainly glad she made the not-so-obvious switch from freelance writer to vegan cheese maker, because their cheese is definitely worth exporting and supporting, so if you find yourself down here, treat yourself to some Angel Food products.
Show Notes The main website with all products, retail locations and an extensive blog site, where I suspect Alice still puts her writing skills to good use - Angel Food
Current PledgeMe crowdfunding campaing - Four new vegan cheeses!
Past (equity) crowdfunding campaign with plenty of information on Angel Food products and plans - PledgeMe/Angel Food
The nationwide pizza chain where you can have AF Mozzarella on anything (WARNING - while they do cater well to vegans, they are in no way a vegan brand) - Hell Pizza
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"All ships are rising in the plant-based foods sector - not only is the demand there, it's not even being met."
CHRIS KERR
I love this episode for so many reasons! First of all, because The Plant-Based Entrepreneur probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for what Chris Kerr is doing. Second, because the things we discuss here and his knowledge are exactly what you need when you're running or setting up a new plant-based business. And finally, because Chris is one of those people where if you have the chance to talk to him and pick his brain for an hour, you'll soon wish you could be taking notes. Good thing we recorded everything, right?
As you can imagine, we spent a lot of time talking about the food industry – how it's being transformed by plant-based products, what's the role of NCC and other investors in this, what makes high-tech food startups different than low-tech food startups and how they both differ compared to just-tech startups, how much untapped potential exists in the sector and where we are taking it.
You'll notice the term "Share of stomach" comes up a lot in our talk. As Entrepreneur In Residence at the Good Food Institute and one of the founders of New Crop Capital, it's at the core of what Chris does - help companies developing plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy and egg products get on the market and establish their share. Since its inception 6 months ago, Chris has been busy, with New Crop Capital investing in companies such as Beyond Meat, Miyoko's Kitchen and New Wave Foods. Not bad for a guy who, by his own admission, was "on the wrong side of history for pretty much all the social issues out there" not so long ago. Just shows what a helpful nudge in the right direction and a desire for vegan comfort food can do (you'll also notice Chris is very much a cheese guy), when it's coupled with decades of entrepreneurial experience.
Once again, this interview is one where you'll definitely want to listen closely and rewind a couple times so you're not missing anything. And if you're working on filling one of those white spots in the industry or figuring out how to get your share of stomach in the market, I can really very warmly recommend reaching out to Chris and the team at New Crop Capital/Good Food Institute!
(Oh, and I don't require my guests to send in pictures with their favorite animal... but there's definitely a pattern happening here.)
Show Notes Chris on LinkedIn
The venture fund Chris manages: New Crop Capital
...and its twin: Good Food Institute
Chris mentions both NCC and GFI as the brainchild of two people: Nick Cooney
...and the founder of Mercy For Animals: Nathan Runkle
The first investment partner of NCC: Stray Dog Capital
The Japanese concept of interconnected, collaborative business relationships: Keiretsu
An example of plant-based foods in the big league: White Wave Foods
The FAIRR/ShareAction report in favor of phasing out animal products: The Investment Case for a Protein Shakeup (pdf)
Some of the brands in Chris's fridge:
Miyoko's Kitchen
Beyond Meat
Impossible Foods
Gardein
Treeline
Kite Hill
Field Roast
Favorite restaurants mentioned (NYC):
By Chloe
Terri
Candle Cafe
Blossom
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"The reason why we're so unique is probably because no one is crazy enough to attempt this kind of product. It takes Vanessa almost 48 hours to make a truffle."
RON KENAN "When I say good chocolate, I mean French criteria."
VANESSA MORGENSTERN-KENAN
I was intrigued when I first found Vanessa and Ron's company, Hnina Chocolates. I mean, at first glance, the prices seem way at the top end of the scale. That is, until you realize how much chocolate you get with one truffle. That's what really caught my eye - their largest piece, the aptly called Brick, is 6.5 ounces, and the smaller Boulders still weigh in at 2.1 ounces each. That's a mouthful!
Of course you wouldn't be reading this if it was just about oversized chocolate truffles. What really drew me in (apart from the fact that they're vegan and almost entirely raw, with the exception of those that contain maple syrup) was the story behind Hnina Chocolates and their mission to make their products not just incredibly delicious (To quote Vanessa: "We like to eat. I'm French."), but also nutritionally superior to probably any other chocolate you'll find out there.
The story that I'm referencing... well, it's no secret, but you're best hearing from Vanessa herself how her pregnancy with their twins and her health concerns actually resulted in the best possible chocolate truffle she could make, where all the ingredients could be traced back to their origins, no preservatives would be used and the truffle would not be just about satisfying her cravings, it would be about getting the best nourishment possible for her needs. For non-pregnant women as well, of course (and men, for that matter)!
Funny thing is, neither Vanessa or Ron have much background in the food industry or in making chocolates - she was a high level businesswoman for a major makeup brand and he was a music producer that surprisingly marked my childhood. But the approach they're taking with Hnina Chocolates, from their biodegradable packaging, to the traceable, organic ingredients and of course the final product, it just shows how what you can accomplish with a crystal clear vision and a lot of heart. And the French love of good food, naturellement.
Show Notes Hnina Gourmet: Main Website
Jena Pincott's book on chocolate and pregnancy and chocolate (reference to study mentioned by Vanessa): Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies*
Where to find Hnina products
Erewhon Market
Pacific Coast Greens
Urban Radish
Zeytuna (New York)
Amazon*
Thrive Market
Finally - if you were a kid in the 90s, chances are Ron did the music for some of your favorite shows - Ron's IMDB page
...and the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Theme Music, with Ron on the guitar: Go Go Power Rangers! *This is an affiliate link – purchasing through it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll receive a small percentage of the sale, which I’ll gratefully use to create more great content for this site.
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"Unfortunately, there are no vegan soup kitchens in New York. So after I did my Google search and came up with nothing, I said, well, let me just do it myself!"
MICHELLE CARRERA
On Thanksgiving 2014, Michelle Carrera wanted to teach her young son Ollie about helping others and volunteer work, but she couldn't find a place that would be handing out vegan meals to those in need... so she decided to cook up some vegan chili and distribute it herself. Well, with Ollie's help of course - now 6 years old, Ollie is the co-founder of Chilis on Wheels and proudly handles the distribution of the meals. (Check out the interview for a cameo appearance by Ollie, a glimpse into his future plans for the company and a very important discussion on whether Minecraft will ever feature a vegan chili mod.)
2 years after Michelle and Ollie first handed out 15 thanksgiving meals, Chilis on Wheels now has 4 chapters in the continental US and another one in Puerto Rico and delivers 800 vegan meals per month, in addition to distributing pet food and cruelty-free personal care items to the homeless, and spreading the word on veganism and compassion to all living beings.
This is a special episode of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show. Every month, the show will feature a vegan charity or non-profit organization that is helping out people in need, communities, animals or the environment, and doing it with no harm to others. And with their 2 year anniversary and their annual Thanksgiving drive coming up next month, Chilis on Wheels was just the perfect choice for kicking this off.
(Chilis on Wheels a 501(c)(3) registered public charity. Donations are tax-exempt.)
Show Notes
Main website: Chilis on Wheels (and check out the Chapters section on how to start one locally)
YouCaring crowdfunding campaign (ongoing): Help this 5-year-old Feed the Homeless
Online Vegan Food Drive for Chilis on Wheels: Amp Your Good, ongoing for the month of October
One of non-profits supporting Chilis on Wheels: A Well-Fed World
First source of funding for Chilis on Wheels: The Pollination Project
Research on the effects of the vegan diet on prisoner behavior: NEWSTART program
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"I do want to make a big difference. But I want to find the right way to make a big difference. This is very important to me - that somebody else is not gonna suffer at the expense of me making it bigger."
BIANCA ZVORC MORRIS
I've known about Bianca - or BeeZee - and her sustainable, vegan fashion brand for a long time. But when I went to double check her online store (link in Show Notes) before our interview, I was amazed. In the last couple years she expanded her brand from kids' clothing to toys, underwear, female fashion and even some items for men. And we're talking really well designed items, made with fair-trade, organic materials and processed with non-toxic chemicals.
Because that's Bianca. For her, making sure that everything she sells is 100%, PETA-approved vegan is just the start. It also needs to be good for the environment, good for the wearer, and good for everyone involved in the production process. That's probably why her brand BeeZee EcoLand has been winning award after award for sustainable, eco-friendly fashion. That, and her drive for making things absolutely perfect. (Check out the portfolio included below to see the attention to details that goes into her products - not just the actual clothes, which can be ordered in standard sizes or tailored to fit, but marketing materials and packaging, too.)
But as you'll learn in this episode, the journey of building a sustainable fashion brand is not always smooth. Bianca only launched BeeZee EcoKid when she left her high-paid marketing job in Manhattan and moved to Germany - and as I suspected, she does feel the business culture in the EU is among the things that hold her back at times.
Rather than make it all rosy, this episode is also about the challenges you face when the core principles of your brand fly in the face of everything that is standard practice in the fashion industry nowadays. It might seem like an uphill struggle at times, but just like in the food sector, attitudes are changing both on the consumer and on the supply side. And responsible, sustainable fashion brands like Bianca's are at the forefront of this transition.
Show Notes
Main website and online store (worldwide shipping available): BeeZeeEcoKid.com
Facebook: BeeZeeEcoKid
Instagram: BeeZeeEcoKid
Etsy Store: BeeZeeEcoLand
Bianca's designs, including marketing and packaging, plus a full list of awards for BeeZee EcoLand: Portfolio on BeHance.net
A glimpse into the story of Mura, the clothes and fashion brand in Bianca's home region of Slovenia. (Her current employees were among those that lost heir jobs in the bankruptcy): Bankruptcy Declared for Clothing Maker
Finally - if you haven't watched Andrew Morgan's documentary on the fast fashion industry, I strongly suggest you do. We need more films like this: The True Cost
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"I've realized that if I try to spread myself too thin and try to be an every-man activist, I'll dilute my particular brand of activism. And my particular activism requires my full attention because one restaurant is doing the damage of hundreds of people."
KIKI ADAMI
If you've been following vegan-related news, you might remember Kiki Adami from back in 2014. That was when GustOrganics, the restaurant she ran with her husband Paul, changed their menu to become the first USDA organic certified vegan restaurant - and promptly came under fire from their (former) paleo clientele. This was followed by a lawsuit by the investors, and even though the numbers were on the way up, GustOrganics was forced to close in August 2015.
But I didn't want to dig into that particular moment in the past, because her present is a lot more interesting. Lucky for New York City, Kiki came through the GustO experience even more determined about the idea of turning regular restaurants vegan - even if for just one evening. And that's how Veganizer NYC was born.
Veganizer is one of those ideas that you can just see snowballing – what would happen if you took a regular restaurant and replaced the entire menu with vegan alternatives? Would people still eat there? Would it still make a profit? How do you even pull it off with dishes like escargots, scallops or even steak? And who do you ask to jump in when you're setting up a 12-course meal and realize you're short a dishwasher? We covered all of that in this interview... and yeah, we even found a few (genuinely) nice words for the paleo crowd.
The one questions that still remains is when will this startup be snatched by plant-based-conscious investors? I'm betting on sooner rather than later.
Show Notes VeganizerNYC: Main website
Twitter: @VeganizerNYC
Instagram: @veganizernyc
If you haven't seen it, this movie is a must: Cowspiracy
The 2005 classic on animal exploitation (GRAPHIC CONTENT): Earthlings
Diego Castro: Raw Chef (link in Spanish)
Chef Hadara Slok
And in case you need more proof: By Chloe
The success of chef Ravi DeRossi in turning his restaurants plant-based shows that New York is totally ready to be veganized: A New York Restaurateur Goes Vegan, Sales Double
Finally, Tony Robbins probably needs no introduction and I agree with Kiki 100% on his work-life integration idea: Results Life Coaching
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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"After working with so many food companies, I realized, they're not made of bad people... They're not evil, they don't want to see animals suffer. They just happen to work at companies that are caught up in a system - and that system is bad."
JOSH BALK
It's no coincidence Josh Balk gets photographed with chickens a lot. There's not too many people around who had done more to disrupt the egg industry. A the Senior Director of Food Policy at the Humane Society of The United States, he's spearheaded multiple campaigns for the elimination of battery cages.
He also co-founded Hampton Creek, which continues stir things up for companies that would much prefer people didn't think about whether plant-based alternatives to products such as mayonnaise might be a better option.
And way back, even before he officially joined HSUS in 2005, Josh's first undercover assignment with Compassion Over Killing was in a poultry processing plant – a chicken slaughterhouse. Those aren't nice memories, but they're among the things that fuel his passion for animal welfare and finding ways to move our food system further along towards the ultimate goal, where we can stop relying on animal products altogether.
Josh calls himself a passionate pragmatist – I thought he was the perfect fit for kicking off The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show. I was right.
Our interview is a blend of how an All-American poster boy from Pennsylvania (yes, I actually called him that – thanks for being so graceful about it, Josh) found veganism, the huge steps being made in food policy by organizations like the Humane Society of The United States and their cumulative effect on the lives of millions of animals, and why starting a company that focuses on making the world a better place is always a good idea, even when your opponents are secretly discussing taking out a hit on you.
And to think he almost ended up a professional baseball player instead...
Show Notes Best way to find and connect with Josh is through Twitter: @JoshBalk
The Humane Society of The United States
Compassion Over Killing
Hampton Creek
One of the documentaries that brought Josh over to the plant-based side (YT link - GRAPHIC CONTENT): To Love or Kill - Man Versus Animal
The other movie that influenced his decision (YT link - GRAPHIC CONTENT - not really recommended): Faces of Death
Round 1 of JustMayoGate: The 2014 response of the egg industry to Hampton Creek
Round 2 of JustMayoGate: Bloomberg article that started the 2016 investigation of Hampton Creek
How To Subscribe Enjoying this episode? Here's how you can subscribe to The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show podcast and keep up to date with new ones coming out weekly:
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To leave a review, find The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show in iTunes, click on the show graphic, then select 'Ratings and Reviews' and click on the button 'Write a Review'. You rock!
Podcast Addict & other podcast apps - Add The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show to your list of favorite podcasts by using the iTunes search engine or adding the podcast feed directly: http://theplantbasedentrepreneur.com/feed/podcast/
Email - Get on The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Insider List by clicking here or subscribing in the footer below with your name and email, and you will get links to all new episodes delivered straight to your inbox, along with other news from the rapidly expanding plantbased world and specials only shared with our tribe.
"In the 21st century, plant-based solutions are simply common business sense."
JERRY SEVER