My Food Job Rocks!

Today I’m interviewing HonMun Yip, currently asset manager for KICL Group which manages investments but he does a lot of stuff. Mainly, he’s invested in a ton of alternative protein companies as an early-stage investor. His list can be found on LinkedIn but some of his portfolios includes but is definitively not limited to: Impossible Foods, Eat JUST, Motif Foodworks, Gingko Bioworks, and Youkuai Meats. HonMun has been through it all in his career seeing the rise and fall of the dot com era and the eventual adoption of the smartphone era and now he’s in the action of the food tech era. In this interview, you’ll gain deep insight on a bird’s eye vision. HonMun compares the current food tech landscape like the smartphone industry. It took 30 years to fruition so as an investor, you have to recognize trends and stay for the long term I caught HonMun right after his trip to the United States, and he tells me just how exciting it is to see the technology progressing and the energy that exudes from meeting with founders face to face. What’s important to mention in this interview is that HonMun sees one thing that resonates in this sector. Purpose. Compared to the digital age, food is so connected and so personal, the potential benefits to the world are blatantly obvious, that the investor community notices the intense passion of these entrepreneurs. One quote I always love from mark Twain is that history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes and I think it bares repeating this over and over again. I think we need this focus whenever it comes to exciting new technologies. Enjoy this Interview with HonMun Yip. We do this in some corporate office in Singapore. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/261HonMun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're interviewing Chef Jeff Yew, Product Development Lead at GOOD Meat Asia in Singapore and this guy plays with cultivated meat every single day. He works for the only country that has actually commercialized cultivated chicken commercially, GOOD Meat. In America, you might be familiar with JUST. The company that makes a very popular plant-based egg. It’s the same company. Throughout this interview, Chef Jeff shows time and time again how for lack of a better term, ballsy, he is in making big changes to his career. From jumping on a plane to interview for a New York restaurant, to moving to Indonesia to build his own, to trying half a cultivated chicken nugget and totally pivoting his whole career to bring this technology to market, Jeff is an inspiring innovator who really follows his heart.   So besides that, this episode gives me the opportunity to talk to someone who’s actually worked with, as in, has felt, understood it, and optimized, cultivated chicken so I asked him all sorts of questions. You’ll have brief insight on the commercialization process on cultivated chicken, and Jeff’s viewpoint on how to make dishes with the stuff. He also goes into the activation events that GOOD Meat does all around Singapore and also some secrets on how to get this hot commodity that sells out in seconds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is with Valerie Pang, the Innovation Associate for the Good Food Institute Asian Pacific, shorten to GFI APAC, and is generally the first point of contact for anyone who wants to know about the Asian Pacific Region in alternative proteins. If you’ve been a long-time fan of this podcast and listen to the alternative protein stuff, you hear their name often as the go-to source for getting into this field. During the short time, GFI has existed, they have been a center point of supporting the food industry in adapting to the alternative protein space. Whether big companies are anxious to dip their toes, to ex-business consultants looking for a technical cofounder, GFI has always been at the forefront in developing this ecosystem. And GFI has grown tremendously. What was once a budding organization in the United States has gone global and of course, they have an APAC section, where I was introduced to Valerie Pang, a bright, engaging, and knowledgeable employee who shared with me some of the vegan food Singapore has to offer. It’s pretty good. Everyone I know at the Good Food Institute is a rockstar who put their whole self to work. I was fortunate to collaborate on a series like, 4 years ago with some amazing young people. Some who are still at GFI today. I’d say this interview is split into two parts. Part one is Valerie’s work experience, in which she actually spent a few years in America working for tech startup categories such as AI and block chain, and switched to food. She then worked at Ryan Bettencourt’s company, Wild Earth. In here, we compare and contrast working in tech versus food, and also the differences between America’s and Singapore’s work culture I did this interview right before visiting like 7 other countries and I ask about work culture to each person I visit.  I will say, I feel a bit ignorant in this interview and I think I glamourize American work culture a bit too much here. I think my findings after all of it is that every company truly is a bit different in their management style and the expectation of work but I digress. The second part of this interview introduces a ton of interesting events and resources that help startups flourish in Singapore. Valerie and GFI APAC do a fantastic job sharing and compiling the useful accelerators, agencies, and other niceties to help support startups and businesses in Singapore.   Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/259Valerie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m interviewing Aparna Venkatesh, the Collaborative Innovation lead for Southeast Asia and Oceana at Buhler where she leads collaboration on innovation strategy in emerging opportunities for sustainable foods and novel food technology applications For those that don’t know, Buhler is a swiss multinational business-to-business giant. Though they do a ton of things, if you’ve worked in the food industry, you would know that they do a lot of process equipment. Arpana goes into a lot more detail about the many industries that Buhler innovates in and properly educates me on the origins and capabilities this company has. Aprana also has had a decade of experience working for the Singaporean government and was one of the scientists that began the process of approving cultivated meat in Singapore. So we deep dive into the technological advancements in both cultivated and plant-based meat and we discuss just how important a proactive government is when it comes to pushing this technology. We also discuss how companies can invest in long-term innovation, especially with the help of Buhler. Shownotes, discussion about current news and reflections on Momofuku Ando: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/258Aparna   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m interviewing Ratna Juita, a well-being strategist and a TEDx speaker, facilitator, and trainer based in Singapore to talk about mental health and how to avoid burnout. Scrambling to figure out what to do in Singapore, I found Ratna’s content on LinkedIn really informative so I reached out and she agreed to be on the podcast. Ratna is a joy to talk to and is very organized in her approach to mental health. In this episode, you’ll hear a few exercises that might help you figure out how to control burnout or overworking. Ratna’s methods have been presented to a lot of corporate teams so they are legit. Ratna also talks about her own struggles. For example, how she overcame her fear of public speaking after a devastating failure I think mental health is extremely important in this day and age and it’s only recently that we are more open about it. Just like physical exercise and rest, our brains must go through the same thing. We talk a lot about big problems on My Food Job Rocks, so having Ratna on is a nice and well-deserved mental break from the existential crisis we go through daily. Coincidentally, we’re launching this episode after Mental Health Day. We do this in a rental office in Singapore. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/257Ratna   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m interviewing Jolene Lum, client development, for Asia Sustainable Foods newly named NURASA. They are a wholly owned company of Temasek Holdings, for those who don’t know, Temasek is one of the most well-known private holdings company that is known for its moonshot investing and is directly owned by the government of Singapore. Jolene is an entrepreneur at heart, extremely passionate about all things sustainability, very eloquent, and can explain things really easily. I really enjoyed our discussion discussing some of the interesting challenges going on with the current food tech space in Singapore. Jolene also has great insight into the farmer side of the industry. Singapore imports 90% of its food and the food they do grow is vegetables. Her first business was to connect these farmers to consumers for higher quality produce. I find her empathy with the farmers really enjoyable. We do this in a WeWork in downtown Singapore Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/256Jolene Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m interviewing Andrew Yip, Head of Future Food at Monde Nissin Singapore, what the heck is Monde Nissin and why are they interesting? They are a philipino based mega food corporation that bought Quorn about 7 years ago. Andrew was one of the first people I contacted in Singapore mainly because he posts great food content on Linkedin. When I visited him, I was introduced to some amazing food applications using Quorn technology.  If you want to see some pictures, check out the shownotes. I have mixed feeling about Quorn. Some products in the United States are not my favorite. Their hot dogs taste like cat food and their nuggets taste like fish but I was super impressed with the spam sticks and bao I tried using Quorn technology. Anyways, we then did a podcast in the Monde Nissin office. You’ll learn about Andrew’s journey from being a chef to an R+D scientist, his philosophy in product development and also why Andrew believes Singapore is such a central place for brands like Quorn to set up an Asian HQ there. They are not the only ones. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/255Andrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re interviewing Franklin Yao, who is the CEO of Youkuai Group, where they make Zrou meat. For those who don’t know, it’s a kinda pun of zhurou, which means pork in Chinese. Yes, even though I don’t know a lick of Chinese, I know a lot of food in Chinese. This interview is my first Chinese startup. So my favorite part of this interview is asking Franklin a million questions on the differences between Chinese and American everything. Consumer mindset, entrepreneur culture, and the value of meat and we volley back and forth comparing and contrasting how we see each culture act on each subject. You’ll learn similarities and difference a lot of aspects in what a young Chinese alt protein startup has to deal with and it’s enlightening to know we have the same successes and the same challenges that many other alternative protein companies have I really enjoyed this interview with Frank. It’s an inspiring story on how to form a stellar team, winning superfans and building for the long game. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/254Franklin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Fleming is the CEO of Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology; FAIFST and Principal, FJ Fleming Food Consulting You know, people say this is a food tech podcast and I’m quite flattered I’m considered one but one thing I pride myself in is the diversity of our guest list. So I’m really excited to interview Fiona because her vast array of knowledge about the Australian food industry is really enlightening. You’ll get a big breakdown on some really interesting stuff such as the farming industry in Australia, or how bush fires and floods affect the food supply down under, and my personal favorite topic, demystifying regulatory hurdles in Australia. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/253Fiona Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re interviewing Simon Newstead, founding partner of Better Bite Ventures. A Venture fund that focuses specifically on Asia Pacific. Why? You’ll find out in this episode! Simon has an entrepreneurial background in tech and started investing in the early stages alt-protein companies because of his compassion for animals. Some of his and his business partner, Michel Klar’s portfolio includes notable brands like Tindle and Green Rebel Ok, so you might have heard me rant before, he's a tech entrepreneur? Does he even understand food? Did you know before starting Better Bite Ventures, Michel Klar and Simon Newstead started and sold their own chocolate company just to understand how the food industry works? That’s dedication. Simon’s interview is full of data and statistics that show APAC as an amazing land of opportunity for alt-protein startups. You’ll also learn some practical tips on how to get into investing. If you’re interested. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/252Simon   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices