This podcast series, produced by vegconomist and Alex Shandrovsky, interviews investors to find out how they plan to fund Alt Proteins through 2024. They also uncover the investment playbooks for successful Climate Tech CEOs, and Leading VCs.
Alex Shandrovksy, the podcast host, is a strategic adviser to many global food tech companies and accelerators. He has advised leaders in alternative proteins and cellular farming. His focus is investor relations and post-raise scaling for agrifood technology companies.
Click on the links to find part one two three and four.
Episode 04: Sustainable Food Ventures: Mariliis Holm
In this episode Alex speaks to Mariliis. She is the Co-Founder and a Partner at Sustainable Food Ventures. They support early-stage founders who are building leading cell-based food, plant-based food, and fermentation-based companies. Mariliis discusses their investment process, and how investors can make a decision within two meetings if they have the right team in place and the market size information presented by the founders.
Key Facts on Sustainable Food Ventures:
- Objective: To assist founders to develop sustainable food products and scale profitable companies in the global food and grocery retail market of $12 trillion .
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Invested 59 companies.
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Deployed 4M
Alex’s Top Findings:
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- Outreach Strategies. Sustainable Food Ventures has found that applying via the website is a good way to get in touch with people. The other is warm introductions from people who are either fellow investors or founders. LinkedIn is a great place to reach out cold.
- Investors Insight. Investors provide more than just funding. They also offer guidance, support and a network of tools to help them succeed. Investors are looking for founders who are willing to learn and adapt. They also want to see a vision for the future and an understanding of both the market and the problem.
- Investors can make a decision in two meetings, especially if they place the right emphasis on the team, the market potential, and their own personal intuition regarding the founder’s passion. Investors will sometimes base their decision on the founder’s insight and attitude during a call, rather than just the pitch deck.
- Understanding Venture Capital is important. It is important for founders to understand if their venture-backed company makes sense or if they should even consider venture capital. Founders need to understand venture basics. It is important to determine if your venture will be a good fit for venture capital.
- Advice for Founders Passion, perseverance and a thorough understanding of the venture-funding process are all important. Prepare yourself for the complexities of venture funding and the expectations for rapid growth. It’s more than just the money and the immediate returns. It’s all about creating something lasting and meaningful, something that can transform the world. The road to a successful business is long and full of challenges, but anything is possible with the right team and vision.