Launching a company can be lonely – even with a co-founder – which is why the CEO of startup Fudi Protein advises entrepreneurs at early-stage companies not to go it alone, but rather to partner early and often with experts whose skills, networks and resources complement their business needs.
“One of the things that is most important as a founder is understanding how can other people help you get to where you need to get,” said Udi Lazimy who co-founded Fudi Protein with former co-worker and current company CTO Aniket Kale.
For Fudi Protein this means building a leadership team with a proven track record and ability to work together, going straight to the source for raw materials and reaching out to a range of investors early to unlock and deliver what it says is the world’s most functional, sustainable and abundant protein.
What makes a strong founding team?
When a founding team includes only two members, they should complement and compliment each other to succeed – meaning their skills and knowledge must build upon and balance each other and they must know how to work together, even when times are tough.
Lazimy’s and Kale’s partnership was tempered long before they teamed to bring to market an egg white alternative sourced from alfalfa, Lazimy explained at IFT FIRST annual event and expo in Chicago earlier this month.
They each worked together at Eat Just, which makes egg alternatives from mung beans, but in very different roles: Lazimy was the head of supply chain and sustainability and Kale the pilot plant manager. They pulled on their experiences there as well as Kale’s experience as a former senior engineer at Impossible Foods and former director of technology at EVERY and Lazimy’s 25 years of leadership in food system operations, sustainability, business development and policy.
Together they cracked the code in how to extract RuBisCo from alfalfa in a format that was functional and user-friendly.
“Fudi Protein is specifically bringing to market a protein called RuBisCo, which is actually the world’s most abundant protein. It is found in every green leaf on the planet,” extremely functional and historically difficult to separate from the chlorophyll that makes leaves green, which means most RuBisCo is an “icky” green-brown “that people don’t really want,” he said.
He said Kale’s “phenomenal insights” allowed the team to purify the complete protein into a flavorless, oderless and colorless egg white replacement that emulsifies, gels, foams, is water soluble and pure white.
How can directly partnering with farmers lower COGs?
To meet anticipated demand and keep cost of goods down, Fudi Protein is working directly in the fields with farmers to access and extract RuBisCo from their fresh alfalfa in exchange for producing animal feed to spec as a value-added byproduct of the processing.
“We are plugging directly into the alfalfa supply chain,” with small mobile units that can extract the protein in the field and produce a co-product that is an “exceptionally valuable” feed source, Lazimy said.
Because farmers want the feed and Fudi “takes some of the steps off their hands” for processing the alfalfa, many farmers give or sell at a very low cost all the alfalfa the company needs to produce its protein, he added.
Dual fundraising strategy doubles Fudi’s access to experts and supporters
On the investment front, Fudi Protein is pursuing a two-prong approach that allows it to reach investors with different levels of expertise and capital.
The first is a fundraise for a SAFE note, or Simple Agreement for Future Equity note, which will appeal to investors who understand the market and can tap their own networks to support the business.
The second is a crowdfunding campaign via WeFunder that officially launches Aug. 5 and which will give the company access to investors with a wider range of lending power.
The funds will help the startup scale production for initial samples and level commercial partnerships with major food players, from whom Lazimy said he has received significant positive reactions.
It also will help build the team as they pursue GRAS status and lock down patents for IP protection.
In just two years, Lazimy predicts, the company will be working side by side with protein producers – animal and plant-based, to deliver a much-needed and sustainable source of nutrition.
