On this episode, Erik is joined by Renata Quintini (@rquintini), partner at Lux, and Brian Frank (@bfrank), early stage investor and advisor to food tech companies.

They start out by talking about what food tech really is, why it’s exciting, and what some of the coolest companies in the space are doing. Brian points out that food is an 8.1 trillion dollar market worldwide, and that the industry is “all up for grabs.” They discuss what it takes for new entrants to get into the market and some of the advantages and disadvantages that the massive incumbents have.

They discuss trends in the industry, including mechanization and automation, artificial intelligence, the demand for plant-based and organic food, and the newly health-conscious consumer. Renata and Brian talk about some of their investments in the space. They break down what new entrants in the space need to do to get in front of customers and talk about some of the data advantages that direct-to-consumer companies have that incumbents don’t.

Erik also asks what kinds of opportunities they see in the space, what their requests for startups would be, and what kind of company they would be founding if they were an entrepreneur rather than an investor.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global and is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg. Colin Campbell is our audio engineer and the show is produced by Brett Bolkowy.