Today we’re interviewing Widya Putra, CEO and co-founder of Meatless Kingdom. They are a company that makes delicious Indonesian CPG products using mushrooms.
I was fortunate to talk to Widya when he was visiting Singapore and did this interview at the Big Idea Ventures Office. I find that super cool! As you’ve been listening to this episode, Singapore is such a focal point to the whole investment scene and food is no exception. Talking to entrepreneurs locally in Singapore, from China and now Indonesia has been so interesting and shows just how centerpoint the city is.
Anyways, I don’t know much about Indonesia and it wasn’t really in my plans to visit when I was planning my world trip so I’m fortunate to have interviewed Widya to learn more about the ecosystem. Maybe next time.
In this interview, you’ll learn about Indonesia’s perspective on plant-based meat and what Meatless Kingdom is doing to help introduce Indonesians to plant-based cuisines.
You’ll also learn why Meatless Kingdom applied to Big Idea Venture’s Cohort 5 and how Big Idea helped Meatless Kingdom grow its business through its accelerator program.
There are only like 5 players in Indonesia each tackling different products so it’s pretty small. But for me, I see a glimmer of excitement in a whole new market looking for delicious new products.
What’s Up With Adam
Well, I’m recording this in South San Francisco.
I’ve been meeting with a few friends. I got lunch with a well-known scientist, Ron Shigeta and we chatted a bunch about what’s going on, Ron’s been sort of this pioneer who’s been the scientific mind of IndieBio and Wild Earth so it’s always nice to talk to an entrepreneur with a science-minded thought process.
So let’s talk about Indonesia. The only thing I know about Indonesia is about Bali, which like, every traveler talks about. So I’ve tried to get some context about Indonesia’s food tech scene and to be honest, there’s not much information. A few reports that I have (by the way, thank you Michal Klar for those) show that Indonesia shows more interest than most countries, but is definitively a small market. It seems based on the reports and based on Widya’s interview, education of plant-based protein is what most companies are focusing on.
Educating is hard because it takes a lot of time and energy. Most companies say they’ll educate the consumer, but most do a pretty bad job at it. It’s really hard as it takes a lot of humility and practice to refine your message well. Education takes time, but time is generally not on the businesses’ side. This is generally why companies with a lot of money target richer countries. They are generally more educated on the things they are selling to them.
It’s always interesting to see just how everyone views technology and when we’re all in the center of it, we can get a bit of a neurosis of every single little detail in this small little food tech world.
In the next week, we’re going into the interviews I’ve done in Malaysia and you are going to see a dramatic shift in who’s being interviewed. It’s more grounded, less about food tech, and more about the people in food. I think that’s the best part about this podcast, it’s not a food tech podcast. Most of the time, it’s the people who make and move our food to show how at the end of it all, we’re all just trying to feed people.
Enjoy this episode with Widya Putra. We do this episode at the Big Idea Ventures office in Singapore.
Links
Big Idea Ventures
Indonseia Bandung
Curry Rendang
Dendeng – Beef Jerky
Nasi Goreng -Fired Rice
Ministry of Industry
Topuuk – Traditional Indonesia Food
Wageningen University
Bali
Komodo Dragon
Moto GP
www.meatlesskingdom.com
Instagram
End of Show
Let’s talk about a new technology that recently has shaken the scientific community. Nuclear Fusion. For those that don’t know, humanity has figured out how to create a net positive energy yield by creating a reactor that can fuse atoms together.
This is different from the current way we harness nuclear energy, which is fission. However, currently, nuclear fission creates waste while nuclear fusion does not.
This took about 192 lasers hyper-focused in a small capsule the size of your hand. Scientists all over the world contributed to this technology to make sure we strive to a better future.
It took about 60 years with really smart people all over the world to just develop a proof of concept, to unlock the potential in people’s minds that this exists and we are still in the very beginning stages of actually using this. There are a lot of things that need to get done.
Technology takes a long time to actually fruition and when we get out of our own little food bubble, we realize just how complex the world really is. Every single industry is racing towards a better future and it might take decades of silent progress for us to suddenly see results. From the packaging peanuts you get in your box to the lotion you put on your skin, there are industries working everywhere in the background and in silence that will change the world before you know it.