Happy Sunday!
Welcome back to Founders Feature, a weekly newsletter all about the journeys of young startup founders.
For this week's edition, I interviewed Tristan Maurel, Co-founder of Umiami, a plant-based food-tech company based in France.
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Here’s what Umiami is all about:
🏠 The Basics
The Problem:
The meat industry is one of the industries that destroy the most value globally: it is responsible for 15% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and more than 50 billion animals are slaughtered every year in the world for meat consumption.
Within the industry, plant-based meat solutions are either minced meat or small chunks, but there are no large filets of fish and meat available.
The Solution:
Umiami is a food-tech company specialising in texture and technology for plant-based meat applications.
We are working on creating large pieces of plant-based meats, to enable the plant-based meat industry to expand.
With our B2B model, our goal is not to compete with existing brands in the market, but rather to create new products for the brands that are already in the market.
The Team:
Tristan is the CEO and Co-founder of Umiami. He has a background in biotechnology and some background in finance. Hugo is the CTO and has a background in research development in the food and beverage industry. Martin is the CMO, with a background in sales.
🚀 The Journey
How did you come up with your startup/solution?
I am vegan for ethical reasons, and I can't cope with the way we treat animals in intensive farming and slaughterhouses. So this is really what drove me into the industry. What drove the more technical application then was the fact that I wanted to avoid competing with the existing players in the market, I wanted to help them.
Why is this the right time for this problem to be solved?
The plant-based meat industry is a very fast-growing industry. More and more people are now becoming aware of what actually happens in the slaughterhouses, for example, through social media.
Also, most people are now crucially aware of the climate emergency the earth is facing, and one of the ways to reach our climate goals is to change the way we eat.
Lastly, the covid-19 pandemic is just another example of a global health crisis born in the meat industry. 80% of pandemics stem from animals, and so to avoid this we need to drastically reduce our animal consumption.
What is a recent success you are proud of?
We recently managed to overcome our last big technical challenge before being able to actually produce the meat substitutes. We managed to make a chicken breast including high levels of fat, which is something that was quite difficult to resolve because the dry extrusion doesn't allow you to add the level of fat you want. Our entire R&D team was very excited when we solved this. We still have some smaller technical challenges to face, but we are very confident in our ability to produce and scale very soon.
What is a recent challenge you have faced?
I feel very lucky to say that, given the recent progress we've made, I can't think of anything big we've struggled with recently. Things are just going very well right now.
That being said, we are currently working a lot. We have very intense and long days. We don't feel tired now, because we are extremely excited and passionate about what we're working on. But, maybe one day we will pay for this, and that is a struggle we might face.
What do you wish you knew before you started and is there anything you would have done differently in hindsight?
There are a few things. I think the most important thing to learn for me and others in my positions was to face and accept uncertainty. It's really hard to know when what results might come out from the lab especially in the early stages.
Another thing I would have liked to know is just how much a startup can benefit from a B2B model. Initially, I only really knew about the B2C market and completely underestimated the size of the B2B market.
Also, I learned over time, and many people had told me this, that the main reason why startups manage to disrupt big companies is focus. So if I had to change anything in hindsight, I would have placed more focus on just one product, and focus more on technology, and less on business development. I would put all my focus in the exact same direction. I really think diversifying is the enemy of startups.
🧠 The Lessons
What is the best advice you have been given recently?
Focus, focus, focus. Don't diversify, start with one direction and become the best at that one very specific task or area in your industry.
What advice would you give to other young founders?
I think today, more than ever, it's possible to dream big, even when we are young. The bigger you dream, the greater response you will get from others, especially when you are fundraising. If you dream of making a $1 million sales business, then you will get funding for a $1 million sales business. If you dream of a billion-dollar company, I think you will get funding for a billion-dollar company if you put in the work. And it's not much harder when you do the exact same thing to make a very big or a very small company. So dream as big as you can.
What is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
I think that one of the most important skills in a startup is to hire people whose values are in line with your goals and who you are as a company. It's really important to spend a lot of time and energy hiring these people.
✨ The Inspiration
Who inspires you?
The CEO of impossible foods, Patrick Brown. What I really like about him is that he says what he thinks, he doesn't play politics, and he's not afraid of saying things that will not please the biggest companies and most powerful people in the world. He's very honest and true to himself and I love that.
What book do you think everyone should read?
For Business: The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz
For Veganism: A Plea for the Animals - Matthieu Ricard