My Food Job Rocks!

This is an episode of Crisis Meets Opportunity, a podcast I do every Monday WEEKLY with my friend Kai Wang. Enjoy listening about our week, current events, and the insider details on the launch of Sobo Foods!

Episode breakdown is generally 2 current events, a business diagnosis and a thoughtful end-of-episode thing about life advice.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6mCouRehIWU8tQsHqWqvMM

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crisis-meets-opportunity/id1615486011

Today we’re interviewing Karen Chiu, Senior Brand and Business Development Manager at Lypid Food. A foodtech ingredient company that creates Phytofat, a plant-based fat that’s healthier and more sustainable than animal fat.

I actually was able to meet Karen before the interview in which she invited me to try the phytofat burger at San Burino. This was a really interesting place in Taipei as it felt like I stepped into an American mini mall.

Anyways, we couldn’t do the interview over there so we did it when I was in Kaohsiung online.

Karen’s specialty is branding and she actually did a bit of branding in the United States. She’s specifically interested in community and what aligns in what Karen does has to do a lot with community.

Karen’s first job is with Green Monday, in what I see is a company with a huge presence in Asia. This company does a really good job with brand integrity as it seems like everyone in every Asian country knows them. She then talks about her experience working for both Green Monday and Lypid.

We also get into a deep dive on how to put a unique ingredient into the hands of restauranters and the feedback loop you develop when launching a successful collaboration.

Today we’re interviewing Evelyn Sun, Investment Manager at Foodland Ventures, a VC firm in Taiwan.

Ok so now we’re going to see Taiwan’s view on food tech. For those that don’t know, Taiwan is a powerhouse when it comes to innovation.

I went to about like, 3 museums per country and one of the most memorable museums I went to was the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung, the coastal southern city of Taiwan. Oh man, Taiwan smokes everyone when it comes to the thoughtfulness and more importantly, the investments they put into business-to-business play is impressive. 92% of the world’s tennis rackets, their semiconductor industry is a behemoth,

What I found interesting is Taiwan’s view on loyalty. The people in Taiwan love being Taiwanese. I’m not going into the politics here but what was interesting is that the General partners in Foodland Ventures were successful American entrepreneurs who came back to Taiwan to cultivate and grow better businesses.

Anyway, Evelyn shares with me some of the focuses and innovations happening in not just food tech, but also things like ag tech and restaurant tech. It really is a great overview of Taiwan’s entrepreneurial tech industry.

Today we’re interviewing Mai Bach, Co-founder and CEO of Oochacha, one of the first vegan restaurants in Taiwan that serve raw smoothies. She’s a social entrepreneur who walks the walk and talks the talk.

Mai and her husband/business partner did a 6-month trip around Asia and then settled down in Taiwan to start a vegan business. Sound familiar?

Mai is an amazing conversationalist. I didn’t even edit this episode all that much because she just spoke so eloquently and was just full of knowledge.

She talks about Taiwan being this small but big city and why she decided to set up shop here. Mai also goes through her vegan experience in Taiwan and talks about how hard it was to get nourished as a Vegan. So like all great entrepreneurs, she recognized a problem and then developed a solution which was green smoothies.

Also, why don’t Asian vegans eat garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, all the alliums? I was so confused by Mai demystifies it, it‘s apparently a Buddhist practice because alliums flare up the emotions. So if you’re ever entering the vegan Asian market, you might be at a disadvantage if you’re using garlic and onion. Wow, I don’t think I could ever cook without those.

Vegan is a relatively new term in Asia and it’s also super diverse so it’s been amazing unearthing on just how nascent the industry is 

Overall, Mai’s journey building Ochacha is a masterclass example of finding a niche, finding out how to build something in a foreign country, and just being persistent in the decade in building this amazing concept

We have a really good discussion before we actually started the podcast so I kept that in.

Sorry for the Noise, we actually do this in Mai’s café in Taipei. At lunchtime, it was packed.

Today we chat with Yuki Hanyu, Founder and CEO of IntegriCulture Inc., a cellular agriculture platform company developing cell-based meat and the technologies needed to produce it efficiently at scale.

He is also the Founder of the Shojinmeat Project, a citizen-science nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing an open-source, inclusive future for cellular agriculture.

Before starting Integriculture, Yuki started the Shojin Meats, is a project Yuki started that allows you to create cultivated meat from home. Yuki explains the unique process in the episode which I find quite insane.

If you had no money, and no expertise to create cultivated meat, how would you do it? Yuki gives us a playbook in this episode on how you could create it, in your house!

Yuki talks about crowdfunding a movement by using out-of-this world marketing tactics such as posting on video and putting a manual at a comic convention and reminds me of the early days of Apple, where a bunch of scrappy enthusiasts gathered together to create something amazing.

I first met Yuki in California at Alex Shirazi’s Cultured Meat Symposium where in his presentation, he showed a video of him making cultivated meat in his apartment.

If you get overwhelmed by technical jargon, you’re not alone! Yuki is an extremely smart and hyper-energetic drive.

We also talk about some of the frustrations of regulation of cultivated meat and the governmental understanding and perception of cultivated meat is well, across the board. There is some hope that Japan is being proactive about this type of technology.

We also talk about a lot of different anime and manga, science fiction shows and scenarios! So again, if you get lost don’t worry, it’s all part of the interview on how Yuki finds inspiration in his work, by the way, you might notice why Adam knows so much about this topic? Well… hard to explain

Yuki is amazing. His transparency, his brain, his drive and his geekiness is really magnetic. You’ll also see a geeky side of me, which I think was quite useful when talking to Yuki.

Today we’re interviewing Satoshi Umino, founder of Sustainable Foods Asia, a consulting firm that helps companies enter the Japanese market. Satoshi personally works with companies to prop and pop up restaurants and educates consumers about unique food ingredients.

I’ve met Satoshi multiple times when I was back in the United States and it’s been real good bumping into him. It seems like a lot of Japanese companies are going to the United States to find the next big innovation. Our manufacturing partner has been courting through Japanese companies through his facility so something’s there.

Satoshi does a great job describing the Japanese’s culture when it comes to tasting food and it’s been real interesting learning about how he’s introducing new food to the Japanese market. Pay attention specifically how he introduces things like jackfruit, spirulina and moringa, all fantastically new ingredients, to Japan

Our world is global, and food itself is global and people like Satoshi are needed to explain just why our global food system is so cool.

Satoshi echo’s Akiko’s interview in what the Japanese consumers look for in terms of the values go for food and some clarification on what the Japanese want in their food.

It’s always amazing just thinking about the new friendships I’ve made throughout this journey and just having a network of global faces that I’ve seen coming to America has been absolutely wonderful.

Today we’re interviewing Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ. A consulting firm in Japan. Akiko is also the main point of contact for Smart Kitchen Summit Japan, a satellite conference of Michael Wolf’s conference of the same name,

Akiko gives us a short history of the innovation of Japan, in which she played a huge part of in her past life.

I think this interview also gives me perspective on what exactly is food tech. Whenever I talk about food tech, I generally gravitate to alternative proteins, but that’s not the case. Food Tech is where we apply any technology to food. Though the material is the cool part, there are tons of other sectors in Food Tech I personally have no idea about!

One of my favorite quotes from Akiko was out discussion on the first SKS conference in Japan. Apparently, it was just a small 200 person conference but they were all full of crazy, passionate, people!

You’ll also learn how SigmaXYZ works with big companies and startups to win. The startup mentioned in this is Base Foods. Check them out! I remember talking to them like 4 years back and now they’re big in Japan.

And of course, I talk to Akiko about Japanese entrepreneurship. In general, Japan doesn’t have many startups because it’s too risky, but Akiko gives me hope that, that soon might change.

When it comes to sustainability, the Japanese have a very different viewpoint on food. Basically, they don’t really care if food is sustainable, but they care about other things in food tech.

Today we’re interviewing Jennifer Stokjovic, author of The Future of Food Is Female, Founder of the Vegan Woman’s Summit, and VC partner at Joyful VC. Jennifer is pretty much everywhere when it comes to food tech and coincidentally enough, she was in South Korea while I was there.

But unlike me who was in South Korea goofing off, Jennifer was there advocating for food technology at the World Knowledge forum. Helen told me after her interview that she was in town, I sent a quick text and 4 hours later, I took a Korean taxi to one of the fanciest hotels I’ve ever seen and met Jennifer, where we proceeded to do a podcast right at the hotel. Amazing.

Jennifer is, of course, a force. Extremely passionate, extremely productive, and extremely knowledgable and her ability to use her connections, knowledge pool and mission brings me in awe.

So expect a ton in this interview as we go back and forth on our predictions in food.

Lots of very interesting tidbits on policy, on environmental issues, and on the funding environment.

Big insights on the diversity of our current food tech environment and how Jennifer has taken charge to change this. We also dive into practical advice on how we can make our ecosystem flourish through diversity.

Jennifer has a great and compelling reason for fighting for compassion and animal rights. Deeply personal, but extremely valuable to learn and process.

One of the quotes I loved during this interview is how to think about the future. One of the quotes that Jennifer says is that: The world is not going to be worse but it’s going to be different

Today we’re interviewing Helen Gi, Founder of HAE Creative, a mission-driven consultant agency that helps a ton of plant-based brands understand South Korea. HAE stands for Human Health Animal Liberation and Environmental Sustainability

We do this in a district in Korea called Itaewon! Itaewon is crazy, it’s this unique, sloping melting pot of so many different cultures and vanity. My friend and I found a bar crawl there and we were surprised how many foreigners showed up.

Helen is such a helpful and giving person who has great insights on the Korean vegan community and has worked in a variety of industries throughout her life. She is eloquent and so community driven and has a lot of heart in what she does and it shows in the interview.

Since Helen collaborates with other food tech players globally, You’ll also get a better understanding on how the Korean market works. It’s a great testbed for innovation.

You’ll also get a good feel on the values and views of entrepreneurship in Korea. I find this topic fascinating as you realize that culture is a big part of being an entrepreneur. In America, we are really gung ho about entrepreneurship. We also have a lot of data, research, talent and drive in America compared to most countries.

What I’ve found most inspiring about South Korea’s food tech community is that it’s carried by some fantastic individuals who really care about the future they create. Perhaps one can say that all great things start with someone who will stop at nothing to make a difference in the world.

Today we’re interviewing Jimmy Sohn, founder of TechnoPlus, but does a variety of other things to help bring innovative food technologies to Korea. He is described as a one-man-army who has a vast variety of skillsets and understands food really well.

I’ve been a linkedin connection with Jimmy for years and it’s so awesome to meet him in person in Korea. Jimmy has been following and contributing to the cultivated meat movement since the beginning.

Jimmy has a degree in hotel management and used to manage restaurants and become a chef. Once he moved to Korea, he found out about food tech, specifically cultivated meat, and has shared his interest with other likeminded individuals.

Cool part of the interview is his insights to the Korean market. Jimmy has all eyes and ears in the Korean market when it comes to what they like and don’t like. This includes things like plant-based meat and cultivated. Jimmy brings perspective on the opportunities and challenges in the Korean market and is a great teaser to the wonderfully complex world of Korean pop culture.