The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show
by Jerry Sever
The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show with Jerry Sever is a weekly podcast with startup founders, business owners, investors, inventors, marketers and others who are disrupting industries and making our lives more sustainable and less dependent on animal-based products. Because the future is plant-based and there are many different ways of getting there. If you are plant-curious, flexitarian or vegan, this is the best resource to learn the skills of running a successful business in this space, go behind the scenes and find out what's happening in this sector, what new companies and products are coming out and hear the stories behind your favorite brands.
Episodes
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Episode #55: Meg Donahue & Lisa Lorimer – Creating Your Niche In The Food Delivery Space
“It’s not all kittens and rainbows - any entrepreneur has tough days and weeks! But there’s an underlying that this is something that we kind of feel privileged that we’ve been given this piece of the plant-based pie to be able to bring out to the world. " LISA MORIMER & MEG DONAHUE It's not all...
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Episode #54 – Maribel Martin & Miriam Rodriguez: The Vegan Hotel In The Crater Of A Volcano
"Sometimes it might be a couple, he might be vegetarian, she's not: 'Hey can we try this place? We can go for two nights,' and that's when the magic happens!" MIRIAM RODRIGUEZ Nicaragua was not on our 2018 travel list. And it definitely wasn't on my radar as a vegan destination - but here we are,...
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Episode #53: Margaux Khoury – How To Be The Best In The World
"In 7 to 10 years, the companies not doing this, not creating a better world with their own brand, they're not going to survive." MARGAUX KHOURY No tongue-in-cheekness in this week's title. Margaux Khoury actually runs a brand called The Best Deodorant In The World. Nothing pretentious about the...
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Episode #52: John Shegerian – A Serial Entrepreneur Doing Serious Good
"It's easy to get intoxicated with the social impact, but if we forget the bottomline, we're not gonna be able to ultimately achieve the goals that we set out. " JOHN SHEGERIAN The cans that John is holding in his episode cover shot are produced by his latest venture: Som. An all-natural, vegan...
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Episode #51: Nimai Delgado – The Big Guns Of Vegan Instagram
"Don't let anybody ever tell you that you can't make a difference by being one person. Those singularities are the people who actually change the world." NIMAI DELGADO I love learning about things I know next to nothing about. That's why it was so fun to get Nimai on the show. Because while I can...
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Episode #50: The Top10 List
It's been 18 months since The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show launched. 18 months, and 50 podcast episodes produced. There's just such a broad spectrum of topics covering all aspects of vegan business that it's nearly impossible for me to pick favorites - so for this first rundown of top episodes,...
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Episode #49 – Jaymie Friesen: How To Launch A Business By Eating Skincare Products
"Money isn't what makes us who we are. I like to think that if I am ass broke, naked on the side of the street, I can build myself back again fairly quickly." JAYMIE FRIESEN Kickstarter campaigns are hard, no matter how many over-funded multi-functional adventure jackets and ultimate backpacks...
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Episode #48 – Tom Ben-Arye: On The Frontline Of Making Clean Meat a Reality
"If you care for animals, it's obvious that you need to solve the meat industry, because 98% of the animal abuse is there." TOM BEN-ARYE A word of warning: this is NOT a plant-based talk. Clean meat is a concept that seems to be quite divisive to the vegan community. To me personally, it is an...
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Episode #47 – Geoff Palmer: Shaking Up The Vegan Protein Market
Listen here or on iTunes. "Go set some precedent. Do things that were never done before" GEOFF PALMER 33 years ago, Geoff Palmer had gone through two suicide attempts and saw very little reason for carrying on with his life. Then, in what was literally an overnight transformation, he realized…
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Episode #46 – Peter Thornton: Moving Towards Creative Consumption
Listen here or on iTunes. "We have this wheel of destruction which is based on consumption, it’s like a blind consumption. It’s people consuming things looking for short-term pleasures, which have long-term costs." PETER THORNTON As you probably know, this is a podcast about creating a…
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Episode #45: Stephanie Downs – Making India Even More Meat-Free
Listen here or on iTunes. "People often say to me, 'why are you taking a product there, aren't they all vegetarians?' That's an absolute myth – 70% of India eats meat." STEPHANIE DOWNS I've been hearing about this plant-based startup in India called Good Dot for the past year. No website until...
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Episode #44: Nathan Runkle – What Non-profits (And Regular Startups) Can Learn From Mercy For Animals
Listen here or on iTunes. "We shoulnd’t let purity be the enemy of progress." NATHAN RUNKLE If there's one thing glaringly obvious from Nathan Runkle's new book, it's that he downplays his role in making Mercy for Animals one of the most influential animal rights organizations in the world. It's...
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Episode #43: Moby – A Strange Entrepreneur Guided by Activism
Listen here or on iTunes. "Somehow, humans overturned slavery. Against their own economic interest. And that is so encouraging. It means that even when it's hard, humans ultimately do the right thing." MOBY I was so very tempted to title this one as Episode #43: Richard Melville Hall, just to…
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Episode #42: Lizz Hampton Wants You To Milk Your Nuts
Listen here or on iTunes. "People assume that because the current nut milk on the market is so convenient, that people are not going to take the time to make their nut milk. I'm proving that wrong." LIZZ HAMPTON Lizz Hampton probably knows every nut-milking joke in the world. No, we didn't test…
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Episode #41: Jodi Monelle – Live Kindly
Listen here or on iTunes. "Basically, we’re trying to make veganism look as sexy as it is." JODI MONELLE First thing hear you'll hear in this interview is my surprise by the fact that Live Kindly, the brand that Jodi started, has only launched in April. I'd been seeing their posts frequently on...
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Episode #40: Behind The Scenes of Plant-Based Business Week
Listen here or on iTunes. This week's episode is a bit different. It's released less than a month before Plant-Based Business Week launches. To say that the past months have been crazy busy would be an understatement - we are launching an event that will condense the interviews, advice and...
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Episode #39: Meg and Komie Vora – The Ethical Fashion Challenge
Listen here or on iTunes. "Just catering to the vegan community is really limiting yourself and there needs to be a much larger marketplace that you should be going after. That’s one thing that we have always done from the beginning." MEG & KOMIE VORA I'll be the first to admit I'm not always the...
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Episode #38: Cem Yildiz – Going Lean on Vegan Fast Food
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you are starting a vegan business, you are starting it on the upper foot. You’re starting with an advantage because everybody’s there to help you succeed, because it’s also part of their own bigger vision." CEM YILDIZ There's a ritual that's probably as old as...
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Episode #37: Dan Staackmann – How Made-up Mustache Built a Vegan Food Empire
Listen here or on iTunes. "I really never even thought of becoming as large as this is today, and I certainly never anticipated all these other brands entering the market they way they have." DAN STAACKMANN That guy with the funny mustache styles. He's almost impossible to miss at the…
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Episode #36: Ryan Pandya – Taking The Cows Out Of Dairy Industry
Listen here or on iTunes. "I was really hungry for a solution that could bring all the values of the plant-based movement to the animal farming industry so that we can really start to blur the line between what's a vegan product and what is not a vegan product. " RYAN PANDYA Milk without cows. No...
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Episode #35: Chef Miguel Bautista – Blurring The Line Between High Cuisine And Functional Healthy Food
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you're honest from your heart, and you give people what you really want for their own benefit, not for you, abundance, money and business will come by themselves." CHEF MIGUEL BAUTISTA The first time I saw Chef Miguel, I was pretty sure he was a Mexican celebrity…
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Episode #34: Laura Stageman – Founder of Votch on Normalizing Cruelty Free Fashion
Listen here or on iTunes. "It's all about normalizing veganism. We don't hug trees - that's not being vegan!" LAURA STAGEMAN What would you do if all your skin suddenly started falling off? Did that get your attention? I actually didn't know it is possible, but apparently a condition called…
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Episode #33: Matthew Glover – Here’s Why Veganuary Is Only The Beginning
Listen here or on iTunes. "By the end of January people just get used to it and it's a lot easier decision in February to stay vegan than it would have been at the end of December to go vegan in the first place." MATTHEW GLOVER Vegans are often accused of wanting to get other people to see things...
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Episode #32: Tobias Leenaert – The Best (Business) Strategy For Spreading Compassion
Listen here or on iTunes. "We have to just accept that change is going to be slow, and I think the new system is going to be built with money from the old system." TOBIAS LEENAERT Of all the images that come to mind at the term 'vegan activist', the calm, pragmatic approach of Tobias Leenaert is...
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Episode #31: Jennifer Pardoe – How To Brand Your Vegan Food Product
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you think about how many brands of consumer products there are that can be replaced with plant-based, then – bring it on." JENNIFER PARDOE Jennifer Pardoe began her first job in the food industry nearly 3 decades ago - working in a fast-food chicken shop back in...
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Episode #30: The VBS Announcement
Listen here or on iTunes. The motto of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show has always been "The Future Is Plant-Based." That really sums it all up – plant-based solutions WILL have an enormous impact on our lives in the next decades, and we’re already witnessing a shift to some of these solutions...
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Episode #29: Molly Patrick – Dirty Talk About Clean Food
Listen here or on iTunes. "Our business and what I bring to the table isn’t just the food, it’s also about talking about real life sh*t, that may or may not be pretty." MOLLY PATRICK WARNING: Before you hit play, know that this interview contains some strong language. Definitely outside PG-13...
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Episode #28: Alexis Fox – The Vegan Tech Startup Creating a Healthier World
Listen here or on iTunes. "Wouldn't it be better if we just used the technology that we were building to make the entire vegan movement 10X more effective?" ALEXIS FOX I have been really looking forward to this interview. Alexis Fox and Micah Risk have been making waves with their company…
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Episode #27: Matt Tullman – A Vegan VC on What Really Matters
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you're going to spend time and resources to create something, it should be to solve a meaningful problem" MATT TULLMAN As you know if you're a regular follower of The Plant-Based Entrepreneur, our mission is to create a plant-based future, and to do that, we need…
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Episode #26: Erica Kubersky – On Building A Vegan Shoe Empire
Listen here or on iTunes. "I think we opened with 25 styles and now we have over 200 styles of vegan shoes that we can offer to people." ERICA KUBERSKY In case you're wondering which one's Erica - she's the one on the left. The one on her right is Sara, her sister and co-founder of New York's...
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Episode #25: Ron Gandiza – Plant-based Business, Tsunami Style
Listen here or on iTunes. "For every day - for every second that your message isn't out there ... how many people are suffering? What’s the impact? Use that as motivation!" RON GANDIZA Spending an hour talking to Ron about business is a bit like drinking from a fire hose. He totally fits his...
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Episode #24: Miyoko Schinner – Vegan Cheese Ripe For Triple-Digit Growth
Listen here or on iTunes. "I believe in a vegan economy. I believe that's the only way we are going to make lasting change." MIYOKO SCHINNER Among all the doubts and questions that go through your mind when you're starting a business, "What happens if we grow too fast?" probably doesn't pop up…
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Episode #23 – Bobbi Jo Paidel: How To Manage Your Crowd-Funded, Global Ethical Business From India
Listen here or on iTunes. "Crowdfunding is such an amazing platform for any entrepreneur with an idea who wants to test it out... but you have to be prepared." BOBBI JO PAIDEL You don't often stumble upon websites that simply radiate positive energy, but Tribe of Lambs has one. And even though…
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Episode #22 – Ken Spector: Tracking All The Vegan Restaurants In The World With The Co-Owner Of Happy Cow
Listen here or on iTunes. "You can't just sit around with good food and think people are gonna come to your restaurant. You have to do a ton of marketing." KEN SPECTOR Here's an interesting fact about Ken - he's always had the fear of one day waking up to find himself old and unhealthy... so he...
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Episode #21 – Michele Simon: Leading The First Plant-Based Foods Trade Group
Listen here or on iTunes. "Every single one of our members companies is mission-based. They're not in this just to make a quick buck, they're in this to make a difference." MICHELE SIMON Shifting our food supply from the destructive, animal-based situation it is in today will require a collective...
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Episode #20 – Joshua Katcher: Bravely Challenging The Perception Of Ethical Fashion
Listen here or on iTunes. "The only thing to combat the perception that an ethical lifestyle sacrifices pleasure is proof that it's, in fact, extremely pleasurable." JOSHUA KATCHER Joshua Katcher never saw himself getting into fashion. Or Fashion with a capital F. Vegan since high school, with...
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Episode #19 – Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni: Never Compromise On Your Views And Put Your Money To Good Use
Listen here or on iTunes. "The reason I am very selective is that I think we have a responsibility to invest in businesses that have the maximum possible impact on the lives of animals." SEBASTIANO COSSIA CASTIGLIONI Sebastiano is likely a major force for vegan good that most vegans have never...
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Episode #18 – Nancy Kalish: Breaking The Rules of Snacks
Listen here or on iTunes. "Being in the food business, something literally goes horribly wrong every single day. And you have to learn how to stay extremely zen about the whole thing." NANCY KALISH To start a food business, solving a problem, preferably one that you experience yourself, is just…
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Episode #17 – Jeffrey Sass: This Is the Vegan Geek-out Episode
Listen here or on iTunes. "You can't, realistically, always follow your passion. What you CAN always do is find something you're passionate ABOUT." JEFFREY SASS I probably wouldn't know about Jeffrey if his article, What Travelling As a Vegan Has Taught Me About Business Negotiation, hadn't been...
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Episode #16 – Torre Washington: Wearing the Mantle of the Humble Hero
Listen here or on iTunes. "I want to help people see and become who they truly are, versus who someone tells them to be." TORRE WASHINGTON A few days before we sat down to record this episode with Torre, I watched him wow the crowd at the Tulum Vegan Fest, first with his words, then with his…
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Episode #15 – Ian Theasby and Henry Firth: How To Get 1 Million Facebook Fans With No Advertising
Listen here or on iTunes. "We were looking to light that fire straight away... we had a 1000 likes within a day of releasing the first video." IAN THEASBY "We pretty consistently grow by about 100.000 a month now." HENRY FIRTH This is what goes on behind the scenes of some of Facebook's most…
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Episode #14 – Alex & Jonathan Petrides: How To Create a Solid Foundation for a (Meal-Delivery) Startup
Listen here or on iTunes. "As much as we could bring the food system back to local, the challenge is still to feed everyone." ALEX PETRIDES "We don't want to be just another flash in the pan. We really want to build something that is going to make a really big difference and give us stable...
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Episode #13 – Damien Clarkson: Crafting Stories and Vegan Events
Listen here or on iTunes. "It's such an amazing experience to have 500 people come together and share ideas. At the end of the day, I had a queue of about 50 people who wanted to hug me and tell me how amazing their day had been. " DAMIEN CLARKSON As Damien himself puts it, he's a natural...
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Episode #12 – Cory Warren: Fuel For Families with The Lean Green Dad
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you're not able to paint the picture of how a brand will be helped by working with you, then you're dead in the water. You gotta do something for the big brands first, for free. And when you do it, make it awesome. Make it amazing!" CORY WARREN I love flow. Not just...
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Episode 11 – David Yeung: How One Company Is Massively Changing The Way Hong Kong Eats
Listen here or on iTunes. "After 4 years of Green Monday, 22% of the city is now practicing at least one day a week of vegetarian diet." DAVID YEUNG The quote above is no typo - 4 years after David launched Green Monday with his friend Francis, nearly a quarter of Hong Kong's population is doing…
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Episode #10 – Matt & Phil Letten: The Vegan Bros on How To Build a Personality Brand Online (and love your haters)
Listen here or on iTunes. "Take a breath for a second, and think about when you weren't vegan – and then think about everyone else and how they have the possibility to change." MATT LETTEN "When mainstream America and the mainstream world looks at us, they know us as these vegans who are just...
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Episode #9 – Mike Hill: Vegan Pizza Done Right
Listen here or on iTunes. "If you want to get your vegan pizza next your Papa Joes Pizza or Celeste Pizza in the supermarket, you've got to be happy and be quite good at playing that mainstream game. " MIKE HILL This episode is airing on the morning after United States vote for their 45th...
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Episode #8 – David Benzaquen: Collaboration Is The Best Way To Sustainable Success
Listen here or on iTunes. "In any other business, if you had 2 cheese companies, they would say they're competitors. But in this business, I've had clients tell me not only do they not mind that I work with their competitors, but they want them to succeed because it grows the category and helps...
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Episode #7 – Alice Shopland: A Cheesy Story of New Zealand’s Oldest Vegan Business
Listen here or on iTunes. "4 or 5 years ago, when we told people we were doing dairy-free products, treasonous is actually a good way to describe the reaction. People were quite shocked." ALICE SHOPLAND There's this thing about New Zealand that most people who only visit it as tourists don't...
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Episode #6 – Chris Kerr: On Transforming The Worst Offenders In The Food Industry
Listen here or on iTunes. "All ships are rising in the plant-based foods sector - not only is the demand there, it's not even being met." CHRIS KERR I love this episode for so many reasons! First of all, because The Plant-Based Entrepreneur probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for what Chris…
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About this show
The Plant-Based Entrepreneur Show with Jerry Sever is a weekly podcast with startup founders, business owners, investors, inventors, marketers and others who are disrupting industries and making our lives more sustainable and less dependent on animal-based products. Because the future is plant-based and there are many different ways of getting there. If you are plant-curious, flexitarian or vegan, this is the best resource to learn the skills of running a successful business in this space, go behind the scenes and find out what's happening in this sector, what new companies and products are coming out and hear the stories behind your favorite brands.
Hosted by
Jerry Sever