Ep. 127 - [The Good Food Institute Series] How to be a Technical Co-Founder with Aylon Steinhart, Business Innovation Specialist at the GFI

Aylon Steinhart brings his entrepreneurial grit and amplifies it through convincing and motivating people to start plant-based meat and clean meat companies.

But isn’t that hard? To start your own company? The short answer is yes, but it’s something worth pursuing.

Aylon and I tag team to break down the tips and tricks to becoming more innovative and entrepreneurial. We go from tips on getting into Expos for free, why it might be a good idea to start corporate for a bit, and the amazing resources the GFI has, to help you start your plant-based or clean meat company.

To give you some sort of disclaimer, this interview was conducted before I decided to team up and start my own company. But perhaps this interview was one of the factors that when the offer was presented to me, I accepted.

 

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Show Notes

When someone asks what you do for a living, what do you tell them in a sentence or less?: I work for a non-profit that is transitioning to animal alternatives. We’re trying to create a healthy and sustainable food supply through healthy innovation. I help startups and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to go into this space Watch out for Aylon Steinhart at a Stanford video How did you become an entrepreneur?: I was an account manager in Puerto Rico. I was studying business at Berkeley. Afterward, I took a leadership development training course at AT&T. I saw joining a leadership program to explore the learning ground of corporate life. Once I found out about industrial agriculture, things picked up fast and I wanted to make an impact. I saw that Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger were making an impact, and I wanted to be part of it. Impossible Burger vs Beyond Burger Even though I didn’t have a food background, I did a consulting to make a website for a food company. However, it was my innovation skill set that helped me with the GFI. Me not leaving the GFI alone is also another reason How to get to Expo West: Looking at the list and asking anyone to volunteer at their booth Startup Advice: Ask the right questions, make things as simple as possible, you need to think: “how easy will this be for the consumer to understand?”. Think of the end consumer. Are plant proteins premium?: Not really. It depends on a lot of different things Clean Meat is hard to commercialize, right?: Yes, but people are bright. The issue is to find Technical Cofounder Good Dot – Plant-Based Meat India Market Impact on both Plant-based Meat and Clean Meat is much more impactful than Academia How can we get more technical cofounders in the alternative meatspace?: You might know more than you think if you study muscle or plant knowledge. The GFI has 2 really good white papers on alternative meats and just email us. The GFIdeas community Slack Channel Kraft Heinz Incubator Good Catch Memphis Meats Many innovative companies in Israel We need more companies in both fields GFI company database What is one thing in the food industry you’d like to know more about?: What do consumers really want? Do they care if the meat tastes exactly like meat? Or can we actually make a better meat? Rennet: used to be gathered form the stomach of calves and then we discovered that we can ferment it with bacteria. Same concept is being explored with clean milk and eggs Who got you into Veganism?: Kip and Keegan. I watched a documentary. Media is important Pat Brown and Ethan Brown convinced me to go to Food. Bruce Friedrich too. Favorite Book: Artisan Vegan Cheese. I'm am making a probiotic beverage made by soaking Quinoa, mixed with a cashew blend and makes a cultured nut product Zak’s Bechamel sauce using cashews Favorite Food: Tom Ka Gai Soup – Coconut Milk based soup using plant based chicken 24 Vegan – vegan fish sauce Any advice for anyone who wants to start a food business: If you want to start a food company, I would urge you to start a plant-based meat and clean meat company Plant-based meat is a quarter of 1 percent of the meat market. In 3 decades, it will be a 1/3 of the total market. This was before the plant-based meat was actually shown. 70 billion dollars of market share is up for grabs But that’s hard: Yes, it’s not easy. Things that aren’t easy are probably worth doing. GFI has a list of white space company ideas for you to start their own company The White Space Company Idea You could import plant based food in Asia and sell it in the US. There is pre-extruded textured products as well GFI Blog. Look for me and find the resources You can email me directly if you ever want to start a food company: aylons@gfi.org

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