The Original Vegan Business Talk By Shane Jeremy James

Meet Linda, CEO/Founder of Joni; Canada’s 21st century period care brand working to make organic and sustainable period care available to everyone who menstruates. Linda is passionate about moving period equity forward in Canada, globally, and believes strongly that 5 years from now, period care will be just as accessible as toilet paper. A budding social and conscious entrepreneur making a positive difference in the world with her sustainable product.

Joni Co-Founder/Co-CEO Linda Biggs highlights and discusses:

• The challenges of obtaining bamboo material for manufacturing in order to stay sustainable and true to the brand

• Brand strategy in order to resonate with the Joni brand like you would with a shoe company brand

• The importance of industry education while facing the decades old way of stigma discussions related to female hygiene with her period care company

Meet Adam, CEO of Slow Bottled Sunday; BC's harvest in rich and unique condiments. Their vegan, gluten-free, low sugar, low sodium flavours are loaded with whole food and help all with a taste for adventure plus savour summer's bounty year round in every meal while reimagining BC-grown food while reducing food waste. Together, with their customers, they’ve saved 35,000 pounds of fresh food from going to waste in 2021 alone and continue to add to those impactful numbers. A truly satisfying entrepreneurial journey making a positive difference in the environment.

Slow Bottled Sunday CEO Adam Harris highlights and discusses:

• A fateful encounter with a lifelong chef and food entrepreneur created a farm to bottle business model

• How to “survey the foodscape” and what foods to add value while factoring in seasonal waste

• The product challenges and ensuring the first ingredient must always be whole grown fruit sourced locally

Meet Marie, CEO/Founder of Lulubelle & Co; a certified Bcorp and Women Owned company with a mission to create delicious gluten-free baking products to delight the whole family! Lulubelle products are vegan, gluten-free, nut/hazelnut-free, soy-free, palm oil-free plus free of artificial colors and flavors. Proudly local, where products & packaging are entirely developed and manufactured in Canada. Tantalize your taste buds with this mouth-watering interview!

Lulubelle & Co. CEO/Founder Marie Brossard highlights and discusses:

• How she was able to address vegan, gluten, wheat, and lactose intolerances while creating baking products to please all dietary restrictions

• The incredible story behind the Lulubelle name of her company

• How to “never give up” in business and how hearing “NO” is just the beginning of a conversation

Meet Natasha; CEO/Founder of Three Farmers - a family owned and operated business based in Canada. A real deal family business with THREE FARMERS and TWO SISTERS at the heart. Bonded by a shared desire to connect consumers to the farmers who grow their food while being committed to healthy and wholesome food with natural, quality ingredients. A can’t miss family journey celebrating and engaging with community and neighbors.

Three Farmers CEO/Founder Natasha Vandenhurk highlights and discusses:

• A community story on how 2 daughters and their father partnered with 2 neighboring farmers to create this revolutionary company

• How they leveraged co-packing, pricing, players, and channels required to get from point A to point B in the most cost-efficient way possible

• Created the brand around the farm to fork concept as the current whole bean leader in Canada, with a future 10-year plan to be global

On today's show, we welcome Anya and Arina, founders of Woron, a Copenhagen-based collaboration between two sisters that creates sustainable and comfortable clothing, made by women for women. Both ladies, after finding their niche, have since been able to build out their brand by sticking to their values. Growing a supportive and inspired community worldwide. And expanding to make their products available and represented all over the world. As well as being able to ensure that everything they create and sell is ethically made and vegan approved!

Join us today in welcoming Benjamin Achache from Marphyl. They are an award winning supplement company based out of Vancouver island that create products for both humans and plants! Their materials have been sourced sustainably from the sea and they use phytoplankton to create incredibly nutritious compounds.

Lesley Jeavons and her partner Corin have turned their childhood love of sweets into a vibrant vegan toffee business located in Brighton UK. Coming from humble beginnings making products in their home kitchen, the Jeavons have been able to slowly scale their business. Building a base of loyal customers in the process who love their products and support their mission of providing cruelty-free treats to the world!

Highlights from this episode:

• The realities of being a relatively small business in a big market

• Recognizing their personal strengths as they expand and grow their business

•The pride and drive of being the only vegan toffee company!

In this episode, we dive in with Mike Hill from One Planet Pizza. Since his early teenage years, Mike has been a vegetarian, learning about Buddhism, and gaining greater compassion for animals. His initial inspiration for crafting a vegan pizza company came from his family's frequent pizza nights. After perfecting his pizza recipe over the years, Mike and his son Joe, also a vegetarian, partnered up and have been growing their business through strong vegan and family values ever since. Becoming the first frozen vegan pizza company in the UK! 

Highlights from this episode:

• The journey of creating one of the world's best vegan pizzas

• Using pizza as an agent for change. Converting the masses to vegan alternatives.

• Food realities from the future: exploring the possibility of expanding vegan options and eliminating the need for meat.

Meet Maximilian Justus; Founder of Grounded People - with a mission to establish a company that would create high-quality, ethically sourced sustainable clothing while combating the global fashion industry that produces over 92 million tons of waste. Helping to reduce these detriments by working together as a community, doing their part, and contributing to be part of a solution to fast fashion. Grounded products are indeed helping to be part of the solution and also helping to save the earth. A Grounded story for ages to come!

Grounded People Founder Maximilian Justus highlights and discusses:

• Education on animals plus the environment and the steps Grounded People is actively taking to make “sustainable stylish”

• Cruelty-free methods are indeed fashionable, and compassionate, and ensure that “every step matters”

• Team effort + Community = Greater goal accomplishments

Meet Margaret; Founder and CEO of Nuts For Cheese – Canada’s category leader in artisan, organic, plant-based dairy manufacturing. Vegan from an early age, Margaret developed a passion for plant-based cuisine becoming a vegan chef and experimenting with nuts and seeds to create deliciously creamy plant-based cheeses.

Nuts For Cheese Founder & CEO Margaret Coons highlights and discusses: