My Food Job Rocks!

Today we’re interviewing Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, or Durga for short. She’s the COO and first employee for Shiok Meats, one would say the most ahead of the cultivated meat ecosystem in Asia. It’s currently, in Series B and raised $21.5 million according to CB Insights and is valued around $99 million. Though a modest amount in United States standards, this is huge when it comes to Asia. So I learned shiok is basically a term for deliciousness which embraces the focus of Shiok Meats as it is specifically headquartered in Singapore. What was surprising is that Shiok actually does more than just shrimp. It’s also doing Wagyu beef thanks to an acquisition. Do they synergize? The answer’s fuzzy. You’ll not only learn why Shiok focuses on seafood but also the perception on cultivated meat in Singapore, and we compare it to places in the United States. Though the data is ever-changing. Durga herself gives some valuable advice on some of the skillsets you need in the industry as well as trying to find your ikagai, or purpose in life.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re interviewing Dr. Dalal AlGhawas, Director at Big Idea Ventures, a global accelerator focusing on protein technology. Well, Big Idea ventures isn’t just an accelerator, it’s also a venture capitalist arm, a networking hub, and all around, global player in the food tech space. I remember interviewing Andrew Ive, the CEO of Big Idea Ventures. Pre-pandemic just when they were getting started and Big Idea has grown so fast. Last I’ve heard, they’ve been going global hosting competitions and demo days in Korea and Japan. Now I’m interviewing Dalal, who’s been so helpful in connecting me to not just some amazing interviews in Singapore, but also in general, meeting some awesome people personally and professionally! Dalal is a wealth of knowledge and I’ve noticed she has a great understanding of the history of whole industries, which allows her to gather insights to give out practical advice. If you’ve been following this series since the beginning I hope after this episode, you might be seeing a sort of congealment in all of the guests we’ve had and how they work with and synergize with each other. It’s probably the most beautiful thing about Singapore, in that everyone truly knows and wants to help each other. You’ll hear several companies in this interview that we’ve been able to talk to and it’s so nice to hear just how networked the whole Singapore ecosystem is. Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/264Dalal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re interviewing Max Rye, co-founder and Chief Strategist at Turtle Tree Labs. Which is a precision fermentation company focusing on lactoferrin, a supermolecule in cow’s milk. One of the most unique things about Turtle Tree is that they have hubs in Singapore, Davis California and Boston Massachusetts. I know a few companies who are taking this approach because certain areas have certain talents. To level set, Turtle Tree has raised around $40 million dollars so you do need a lot of money to prepare for managing a global company. Though the world is changing thanks to technology and it seems like event startups can take advantage of location. Max tells us how turtle Tree manages that. Talent is surprisingly more location dependent than you think. This is generally why despite what anyone says, the United States still produces the most talented employees in the world. Ok enough bragging. Max ran a software company for about 15 years before handing it off and diving into solving sustainability problems. I found Max’s talk to be insightful and there are a plethora of inspiring insights and stories that might help you consider going into this space. You’ll learn about Max’s journey on building Turtle Tree and it shows that he is an example of the many people who are transitioning from tech to solving big and meaningful climate problems. It’s really inspiring and he’s inspired others to do so too. Special thanks to long-time fan Vien-An Freidel for connecting me with the Turtle Tree Team I would have never gotten a chance with such a high profile interview without her. show notes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/263Max Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  Today I’m interviewing Mihir Pershad, co-founder of Umami Meats, a cultivated seafood company in Singapore. Mihir has great in-depth knowledge of the fish farming industry and does an amazing job explaining and articulating the complexities in traditional seafood agriculture. What I really enjoyed is that he captures the nuances and the problems quite well. This gives him a significant advantage when he launched Umami Meats, which focuses on cultivated seafood. After this interview, Umami Meats had people try their product in Singapore’s fine dining among other cultivate meat brands so they are innovating fast! Be prepared to swim in fish and seafood facts in this interview. Mihir is super knowledgeable in not just the fish industry but understands just how the whole world works and that insight enlightened me a lot in just how it’s all connected. If you’re planning to start a business, Mihir does a great job explaining just a lot of things that are really useful for entrepreneurs such as understanding your market, funding in Singapore, and finding research on research that doesn’t even exist. One thing is prominent in this interview is that Mihir knows fish facts! Shownotes: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/262Mihir Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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