Vegan Business Talk

In this episode, I interview Jecks Stone, interior designer and founder of Persona Abode in the UK. Her background in recycling management and historic building conservation were the foundation of marrying interiors with environmental impact. After wrestling with balancing her morals with the perceived frivolity of the interior design industry, Jecks became one of the first UK designers to be vegandesign.org certified. Through Persona Abode, her vegan lifestyle and interest in mental health she advocates for healthy living environments, being mindful of designing for people, place and planet. In this interview Jecks discusses: • How she got her first interior design client • The importance of your personal brand and sharing more of yourself, even if you’re an introvert • How she’s funding her interior design business for now by continuing to work at her full-time job • How Covid helped her business grow • Why she doesn’t feature the word ‘vegan’ prominently in her branding and marketing • How domest

In this episode I interview Lena Ludwig, founder and principal of Vital Gains mergers and acquisitions consultancy in Washington D.C. A vegan of 26 years, Lena started working in mergers and acquisitions and finance over 20 years ago, and she’s helped hundreds of businesses with successful acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic growth planning. For the past 10 years, she’s been a financial and administrative executive in the plant-based foods and animal rights movements. Vital Gains is a woman-owned, women-operated mergers and acquisitions consultancy, focused on the alt-protein sector. In this interview Lena discusses: • Business valuations and the different ways they’re calculated • How to determine if you’re ready to merge or be acquired • What to look for if you want to buy or sell a business • What steps are involved in a merger or acquisition • Red flags to be aware of when considering a merger or acquisition • The importance of ethical clauses to protect your brand during an acquisition

In this episode I interview Natasha and Ed Tatton, co-founders of BReD, a vegan, organic, sourdough bakery in the ski resort town of Whistler in Canada. Both originally from the UK, Natasha is a former English teacher, and Ed is a professional fine-dining chef. The couple moved to Canada, became vegan and passionate environmentalists and opened BReD three years ago. Earlier this year, the husband and wife team recently won the Best Youth Entrepreneur Award at the Small Business British Colombia Awards. In this interview Natasha and Ed discuss: • Why they decided to sell their house in the UK and open a vegan bakery in a ski resort in Canada • How they tested the market with little financial outlay before opening their store • The impact of Covid on their fledgling business that was in two sectors hit the most hard and how a fast pivot and adding extra streams of income saved the day • How they’ve grown BReD into a thriving business, despite locals telling them it wouldn’t work • How they landed local

In this episode I interview James McInnes, co-founder of Odd Burger vegan fast food chain in Ontario, Canada James, who was a software executive, was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2014 and changed his lifestyle for the better by going vegan. He and his wife Lia began developing their own plant-based meats and soon were selling vegan meal kits featuring local ingredients. But they couldn’t shake the idea that what the world needed was vegan fast food, at a price that could compete with animal foods. In 2016 they debuted a food truck with a chickpea burger they called the “Big McInnes,” earning them a cease-and-desist from McDonald's – and they knew they were onto something. Formerly called Globally Local, Odd Burger produces its own meat and dairy alternatives for use in its restaurants. In April 2021, the company went public, and plans to have 20 locations by this time next year. In this interview James discusses: • How he turned getting a legal letter from McDonald's into an advantage • How

In this episode I interview Tyler Mayoras, CEO and co-founder of Cool Beans, a plant-based food company in Chicago whose first products are globally-inspired, healthy frozen wraps. After nearly two decades investing in agriculture and food brands, Tyler had seen the dark underside of the American food industry first hand. After learning about the negative impact of animal agriculture on the environment, he began a journey into plant-based eating. Tyler co-founded Cool Beans in 2018 with a few other like-minded investors and to date the product is in 1200 retail stores across the US. In this interview, Tyler discusses: • The ‘dark undersides’ of the American food industry that he’s witnessed • How he helped Boca Burger (Kraft Heinz’s veggie burger) go from $7M to $50M in revenue over 3.5 years • Why he segued from impact investor to starting his own company • Why Cool Beans launched with frozen products – and the new technology of freezing that keeps products fresh • What ‘digital demos’ are and why h

In this episode I interview Bailey Ruskus (aka Chef Bai). Classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco, Bailey has been in business for herself for 10 years, but three years ago made the switch to become a completely vegan business. Host of the Plant Remedy podcast, she’s been a long-time warrior of endometriosis and has discovered her own tools to heal her body through food and health. Now based in San Diego, she cooks for top executives, professional athletes, and others, hosts virtual cooking classes in her online membership and hosts corporate wellness programs around the globe. Her first book Cook. Heal. Go Vegan! has just been launched. In this interview Bailey discusses: • The moment she decided to turn her business vegan while gutting a fish as she remembered a talk by a well-known animal activist • How she handled losing clients and dealing with a lot of online hate after announcing she was transitioning her business to be vegan • The impact of endometriosis and chronic pain on her

In this episode I interview Mitchell Scott, co-founder and CEO of The Very Good Butchers, a Canadian plant-based meat company. After selling out the farmers’ markets on Denman Island, British Columbia, Mitchell and his co-founder and fellow ‘bean butcher’ James Davison knew they were onto something. They brought their beans to Victoria and opened the Canadian West Coast’s first plant-based butchery. The pair are currently opening a new facility that will be able to produce up to $100 million more in product a year which is an increase of more than 2,500%. Last year they became the second plant-based meat company to release an IPO. In this interview Mitchell discusses: • Why they use the terms ‘butcher’ and ‘butchery’ • How they raised $600k from 240 investors in an equity crowdfunding campaign in 2018 • The unexpected turn of events after they received several offers of a deal on Dragon’s Den (Canada) • Why they went public last year and the benefits and challenges it’s brought • How to go public an

In this episode I interview Professor Johanna Sophia, founder of Johanna’s Raw Foods in upstate New York. After a music, film, and writing career that saw her travel the globe, Johanna – who was raised in Germany – settled down in the US and raised her children. When her kids were barely in their teens and she was almost 50, Johanna found herself lying on the floor, paralyzed for what seemed an eternity experiencing a stroke. She made the decision to change her life but the lack of available prepared vegan raw foods that fit her new strict but busy lifestyle forced her to make her own meals and in 2013 Johanna’s Raw Foods was born. The company’s product line includes a range of organic, gluten-free grab and go, ready-to-eat, mix and match, raw, vegan snacks. In this interview Johanna discusses: • Why having a diverse career that included teaching stints at Yale and Columbia universities, rather than sticking to one professional area, has been an advantage to running her own business • How she got her r

In this episode, I interview Vikas Garg, the founder and CEO of abillion, a sustainability platform for plant-based dishes and cruelty-free products. Four years ago, Vikas left his high-flying career at one of the world’s largest hedge funds after he found a new mission — to help and inspire a billion people to go vegan in the next 10 years. Based in Singapore, Vikas is dedicated to grassroots education and conservation initiatives around the world. Abillion currently has more than 300,000 active users and the app has been downloaded nearly 1 million times. Through its giving program, the business has donated over $500,000 to impactful causes and is aiming to donate more than $1 million by the end of 2021. In this interview, Vikas discusses: • How he came up with the idea of abillion and its unique offering • The challenges of creating an app based on user-generated content, with no tech experience in a new country where he knew no one and a precarious visa situation • How he attracted millions of doll

In this episode I interview Jenny Goldfarb, founder of vegan meat company Mrs Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli in Los Angeles. After becoming vegan, Jenny craved the familiar flavors of her family's New York Jewish delis from her youth. The former tech entrepreneur began experimenting in her tiny kitchen, trying out the recipes on vegan and meat-eating family and friends. Encouragement from them quickly led to Jenny shopping around her first plant-based meat products and getting placed in all the major Los Angeles delis. The products – made in LA from whole ingredients from local farms – are now available in major grocery stores nationwide, Jenny landed a spot on Shark Tank in 2019 where she got an investment from Mark Cuban, who recently went vegetarian, for more than double what she asked for. The company took revenue from $10k in profits to $100k shortly afterwards and continues to expand. In this interview Jenny discusses: • How she got the attention of restaurant chains, grocers and one of the biggest food

This episode is a recording of a live virtual event I hosted recently: Power Chat with Anne McKevitt. From property developer and interior designer (with a homewares product line of 1600 sku’s) to prime time TV star (dubbed ‘Britain’s Martha Stewart’ by the media) and bestselling author of millions of books, Anne McKevitt’s skills and expertise in brand-building are sought after by the world’s leading entrepreneurial companies and A-list celebrities. Her client list includes Beyonce and Jay Z, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mercedes, IKEA, and many, many more. Her business and philanthropic work has also seen her consult with several heads of state including President George Bush, President Bill Clinton and the Obama administration. Passionate about animal rights and protecting the planet, Anne – a vegan for 47 years – has been quietly influencing global corporations, political figures and high-profile entrepreneurs and personalities on the importance of compassion and sustainability. In this interview, Anne discusses

In this episode I interview Rebecca Ettridge, the owner of Wombat Café & Store, the Mornington Peninsula’s first 100% vegan café in Victoria, Australia, founded in 2016. Wombat regularly raises and donates substantial amounts of money to Australian animal sanctuaries along with ongoing monthly payments to #paytherent, a grassroots Indigenous organization. The café, which has expanded to a team of 16 employees, also funds the running costs of its own farm sanctuary, Plumfield Farm, which currently houses 92 residents. Rebecca has managed all this by running the café remotely (she lives 3 hours away) since the business was only 18 months old, despite being told this couldn’t be done – and without any online sales. In this interview Rebecca discusses: • Why she decided to open a vegan café in a non-metropolitan area • How she’s managed to retain staff in an industry that typically sees a high turnover • How she’s able to run the business remotely so she can focus on working in her animal sanctuary • The

In this episode I interview Izzy Shu, one of four co-founders of JOI (Just One Ingredient), a plant-based milk company with a difference. When Izzy and her fellow co-founders met in grad school, they quickly realized their shared passion for healthier lifestyles and a quest to make the world more sustainable, and created a thesis project: An innovative solution to make plant-based milks cleaner, more accessible and more eco-friendly. In 2016, JOI was created. The company offers concentrates made from whole, natural, raw ingredients which, when blended with water, create customizable, instant clean and nutritious plant-based milks. Before founding JOI, Izzy worked in marketing and brand identity, as well as graphic and production design. In this interview Izzy discusses: • Why the company pivoted from hardware manufacturer to creating food products, despite investing time and money in the former • How JOI is different to other plant-based milks and also to standard ‘instant milk’ • The benefits of a sub

In this episode I interview Jena Bautmans, the founder of Jenah St., a vegan handbag and accessories brand in Germany. Before founding Jenah St. in 2019, Jena was the co-founder of Buckle & Seam, a men’s accessories company that uses animal leather. While working in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan, she experienced an awakening of how the land and people are impacted by heavy industries like fashion, which changed the way she looks at the world. She decided to make a difference as a result of seeing how tanneries actually process animal leather and its impact on the environment, people and animals. In this interview Jena discusses: • Her diverse career journey from legal intern, marketing assistant and creative director to co-founder of a startup • Her experience of being a female serial entrepreneur in a male-dominated startup space • What she learned from founding Buckle & Seam that was useful in launching Jenah St. • How she avoids the issue of over-production that is prevalent in mainstream fashi

In this episode, I interview beauty industry veteran Tev Finger. He started in the industry in 1990. Since 2006, Tev has helped to create, launch and grow beauty brands across the globe through his company Luxury Brand Partners (LBP). He does this by partnering with key talent while focusing on unique distribution models and collaborating on product innovation, while staying on top of the latest consumer trends. Based in Miami Florida, LBP products are currently sold in 23 countries across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and can be found in top salons and specialty retailers including Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter. Some of the brands he’s built have sold to large corporations including Estée Lauder for billions of dollars. Now a vegan himself, Tev is focusing his efforts on investing in cleaner brands and ideas to not only help the planet, but to help push the beauty industry as a whole to reach for higher, cleaner, more sustainable standards that haven’t been done before. In December 2020

In this episode, I interview Bonnie Brown and Paul Turcotte, co-founders of Passion Placement, a new employment platform focused on connecting people with mission-driven organizations doing work that matters to them. Bonnie is a CPA, senior level executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years hands-on experience in finance, management, information systems and business leadership. Paul is an entrepreneur and business executive who built, owned, operated, for 20 years, and sold a successful, high-volume, real estate brokerage of 70 sales associates with offices in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. Passion Placement curates every job that the platform posts to make sure member companies are in support of sustainable living, animal advocacy or creating alternatives to animal-based products. In this interview Bonnie and Paul discuss: • How Passion Placement differs from other vegan job boards and platforms • How the platform works for both job seekers and employers • The kinds of jobs that are currently

In this episode I interview Kati Ohens, co-founder of vegan deli meats company Plantcraft in New Zealand. After a 20-year marketing, advertising, and software executive career, Kati exited her agency to start working in the mission-based space. While working as a vegan transition coach, she noticed the gap in the alternative meat market, and the need for deli slices. Kati met commercial banking executive Csaba Hetenyi, a fellow Hungarian, during a work project as they were looking at commercializing a new food tech IP. As she learned about the technology, Kati discovered that it could be used to make groundbreaking, sustainable, plant-based meat alternatives, and in 2018 the pair founded Plantcraft. The company is just about to launch its first products into the US market. In this interview Kati discusses: • The challenges of running a services-based business to a product-based business and she’s handled them • The different roles she and co-founder Csaba’s have and how they complement each other •

In this episode, I interview Stephanie Miklosvary, founder of Lucky Chick, a vegan cosmetics brand in New York. Stephanie founded and created the company in 2000 as she was putting her art degree to work as a shoe designer in New York City. Nicknamed “Lucky Chick” by a friend for living in her LC (Lobby C) apartment, she decided to create a persona around her new name. Inspired by art and self-expression, Lucky Chick Cosmetics makes a vibrant range of color-intensive glosses, lipsticks, shimmers and shadows to encourage people to treat themselves as the masterpieces they are. In 2007, Stephanie put the business on hold for over a decade, and relaunched in 2018. In this interview Stephanie discusses: • Why she took a break from the company for over a decade and what motivated her to revive it • The challenges she faced with the relaunch compared with the challenges when she first started the brand nearly two decades earlier • How she landed a deal with luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus, onl

In this episode I reveal a couple of situations I experienced recently when publicists pitched me their guests to be on this show, that I want you to avoid. Making journalists’ jobs easy is super important when you’re doing your own PR (or pitching a guest on their behalf). I include podcasters and bloggers in the journalist category too. I receive heaps of pitches from both PR agencies and vegan business owners and to be honest, most of them fall flat, because the person pitching hasn’t done their homework. Also, even when I am potentially interested in having a guest on, things don’t always go smoothly. So, in this episode, I share with you what doesn’t work, and then what does, so you can maximize your chances of landing yourself a guest interview on (the right) shows. RESOURCES: My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business Services: Work with me Follow Vegan Business Media on: Facebook   Twitte

In this episode I interview Che Green, co-founder of Moonshot Collaborative, a new consumer research firm offering affordable solutions for vegan and plant-based brands. Based in Washington State, Che is a 25-year market research veteran focused on sustainable and ethical consumerism, including plant-based foods. He has led research efforts for groups ranging from Fortune 50 companies to international nonprofits. Che co-founded Faunalytics more than 20 years ago, which provides data for animal activists to enable them to be more effective. His work has involved understanding consumers’ behavioral motivations and decision-making, and applying these insights to help companies expand their customer base and increase sales. His deep consumer research experience includes a range of quantitative (surveys, experiments), qualitative (focus groups, interviews), and mixed-method research. In 2021, along with investor and plant-based industry veteran David Benzaquen, Che co-founded Moonshot Collaborative, a rese