Tara Haddad, an experienced accountant and entrepreneur, discusses creating plant-based meat alternatives at Modern Meat. She shares challenges faced amid the pandemic, strategies for entering the market, transitioning to a public company, and the importance of pricing and mentorship in entrepreneurship.
Modern Meat focuses on creating plant-based meat alternatives with a strong ethical mission for education, health, and the environment.
Modern Plant-Based Foods aims to continually innovate new products with a focus on excellence, quality, and sustainability to shape the future of plant-based food.
Deep dives
Supporting Small Businesses with Tools and Resources
MasterCard offers tools to help small business owners grow their businesses by enhancing sales, customer reach, and loyalty through streamlined checkout processes and new opportunities.
Innovative Plant-Based Foods by Tara Hadad
Tara Hadad, founder of Modern Plant-Based Foods, shares her entrepreneurial journey in creating plant-based meat alternatives focused on health, sustainability, and animal welfare despite gaps in the market for nutritious products.
Challenges and Growth Amid COVID-19 Impact
The impact of COVID-19 on the food industry disrupted Modern Plant-Based Foods' transition from food service to retail, leading to delays in product packaging and distribution, while also highlighting the challenges in entering and maintaining relationships with restaurants.
Future Goals and Vision for Modern Plant-Based Foods
Modern Plant-Based Foods aims to expand its product portfolio, educate consumers on healthy plant-based options, and continually innovate with a focus on excellence, quality, and sustainability to shape the future of plant-based food.
Tara Haddad is an accountant and entrepreneur who has over twenty years of experience building successful companies in the public and private sectors. She previously worked at Ernst and Young where she managed sectors in audit, tax and risk management. Currently, Tara provides strategic consulting to multiple companies, evaluating financial operations and overall corporate strategy. She also oversees large-scale, high-value property transactions, while creating companies that are viable and have a strong ethical mission for education, health and the environment.
Tara was the Founder and CEO of Aspire Learning Centre, an educational development company focused on math and language arts, before its successful buyout. Currently, she is a mentor in the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs Program (FWE), where she is an advocate for women in leadership roles. Tara is also the CEO of Modern Meat. Modern Meat focuses on creating plant-based meat alternatives that are non-GMO, soy-free, gluten-free, and preservative-free.
“We are continually innovating new products. We are almost like a technology company, constantly enhancing, researching new recipes and working to provide the highest level of nutrients.”
In this week’s episode of the #StartupCanadaPodcast, sponsored by Mastercard and powered by Zensurance, Tara Hadad shares her journey of creating products that will become the future of food. We also talk about the challenges the food industry is still facing due to the pandemic and how Tara thinks of her business like an innovative technology company.