George Peppou, the CEO and cofounder of Vow Food is extremely funny, quirky, and extremely knowledgable. He talks fast but really knows his stuff.
Vow’s approach to Cultured meat is a lot different than what you’ve heard. I’m sure you’ve heard the story of a well-funded cultured meat startup, which talks about their black box technology and replicating a chicken nugget.
Vow’s approach is to really sell cultivated meat as a new, unique type of product that’s never been eaten before. You’ll hear them talk about Morsel, their first product. I don’t do a good job explaining it, but the way George does it, well, it gets the gears turning.
Have to thank my friend and genius inventor Mike Manion for helping me hunt down George! George was Mike’s first employee and when I was telling Mike I was going to Sydney, he connected me with George.
George’s story is inspiring and an entrepreneur’s underdog tale in that creating an innovative company isn’t just about the product you produce, but the people you surround yourself with and the tenacity to get stuff done with the resources that you have.
Show Notes
Mike Manion
GROW lab – Accelerator
Tim Noakesmith
Australia has a 43% tax rebate for R+D
Lemonade
If you look at the problem as an outsider, you find things experts don’t usually see
Nick Hazel-v2 Food
Paul Shapiro Clean Meat
What’s Up with Adam
After 20 days, I’m done with Singapore and I am so excited to introduce the guests in about a month. From entrepreneurs to industry experts, to chefs to investors, you are going to learn so much about Singapore, it’s like you’re gonna live there.
And with that, I’ve gotten a pretty good understanding of the clean/cultured/cultivated meat industry in Singapore.
Singapore is so proactive in sharing the knowledge I had a government official come talk to me on my first day here breaking down the government approval process of cultured meat (and other food tech). Unfortunately, I couldn’t interview him due to government stuff but it tells you how serious they are. They talked to an average joe like me.
Singapore’s proactive stance toward cultured meat allowed it to bring it to commercialization for at least companies to bring it to action. Though JUST/GOOD Meat can only produce a limited amount of product a week (I had to beg my connections at JUST for a delivery as most of the immersion and hawker tastings are booked weeks out), it’s a start. The meal I got was delivered on whatsapp by a normal guy wearing a One Piece t-shirt.
More and more companies are applying for the 2 year (probably shorter) approval process in Singapore with no sign of stopping.
I’ve visited enough museums in Singapore to see how prideful the city is in sustainability efforts and they are hungry to be the most innovative city in the world. With that, a playbook has been developed and we can expect many cell-based companies to start rolling out tastings.
So a prediction: next year, you are going to see a lot more players opening up their companies for exclusive tastings. There are rumors that there’s going to be a regulatory approval process of some big country very soon, but right now, Singapore will most likely be the mecca for the people who want to try cell-based products. After all, they have a 2 year head start. We’ll see how this plays out.
End of Show Reflection
By now, you should have heard about Vow’s approach to cultivated meat. Basically, can we create a new type of food using this technology? Is it better to replicate or create something completely new?
This is a struggle when it comes to all of these alternative meat startups. There’s a lot of strategies to mimic beef, chicken, pork, well, you know all that.
So why is creating something totally new such a different, and less common experience?
Well, there’s more risk. It’s a lot harder to create something original than a copy but for people, especially investors who have to shell out money, it’s hard to justify.
There are many challenges to making something original. You not only have to take it to taste good, but you have to put a whole lot of education into it.
On the upside (pun intended), there are other factors that are anchored to a copy that you can get out of such as cost and perception.
Vow’s approach is really unique, but it will be really hard.
But we wouldn’t have what we have today. Roads, cars, cellphones, the internet, if people didn’t peruse hard things and we should celebrate different approaches on all angles to make a better world.