Igniting Your Business: Lessons from a Vegpreneur
- Ximena Diaz Velazquez
- Sep 17
- 24 min read
In our latest Plant Based on Fire episode, we sat down with Noah Hyams, the serial entrepreneur and visionary founder behind Vegpreneur. His journey from the world of music and film to building a global community for plant-based businesses is a powerful lesson in turning passion into a profitable venture.
Noah's "aha" moment came from a simple question: "Why doesn't this exist for mission-aligned founders?" He saw a void in the market for a dedicated community that could give vegan businesses an extra advantage. He understood that building a business is tough, but doing it in a niche, value-driven market requires a special kind of support. That's why he built Vegpreneur: a hub where founders can lean on each other and find the resources they need to thrive.
The conversation with Noah revealed some key truths about the current plant-based market. He believes we are in a new phase, what he calls "vegan 3.0," where a product being vegan is no longer the primary selling point for the mainstream consumer. In fact, Noah shared a great example: if you put a vegan sticker on bananas, he believes sales would dip. The key, he argues, is to focus on other value propositions, like great taste, health benefits, and convenience. This is especially true for plant-based startups trying to attract a wider audience.
His advice for aspiring plant-based entrepreneurs is as straightforward as it is powerful: "Start." He reminds us that grit and perseverance are essential, because a lot of success comes down to good timing. Instead of waiting for the perfect moment or a pile of cash from investors, you should start building traction, proving demand, and creating an engaged community. This not only sets you up for success but also makes you a more attractive prospect for investors when the time is right.
For anyone looking to take the leap into plant-based entrepreneurship, Noah's story is the perfect inspiration to get off the couch and keep that fire burning.
Ready to build a business that's truly aligned with your values? Check out the full episode of Plant Based on Fire to learn more from Noah's journey.
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Episode’s Transcript
Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.
Bryan (00:01)
Hey everybody. Welcome to Plant Based on Fire, where we talk about plant based businesses and their inspiring stories to thrive in the industry. I'm your host Brian. And joining us today is serial entrepreneur who saw a massive opportunity in the plant based world and built a platform to support it. Please welcome the founder of Vegpreneur, Noah. Welcome to the show Noah.
Noah (00:01)
Everyone.
Thank you so much, Brian. It's an honor to be here.
Bryan (00:28)
That's awesome. Well, I like to kick things off in the beginning, just to sort of say, like, give us that little bit of background. You're a serial entrepreneur, a background, I think in music and film, right? What was that like aha moment that said like shift to this plant based world, the sustainability space, know, consumer packaged goods, all that kind of stuff that you do on a regular basis and ultimately founding Vegpreneur.
Noah (00:54)
Great question. I've been a drummer my whole life and started playing when I was about six, took lessons, went to pre-college for it and then got into NYU's jazz program. So I was very much on the music track and I'd also always been interested in film. So I minored in film producing, ended up switching my major in music business, but never thought I'd end up running a vegan business community. It's in college where I first met vegans for the first time and learned.
And luckily I was open-minded enough to, you know, give it a, give it a shot. And that's where I decided, Hey, this is kind of the way I want to live my life. This aligns with my values. And that's also where I started getting into entrepreneurship. ⁓ I was accepted into a startup program at NYU called SLP, where they select 10 companies to spend the summer. And ⁓ I really, really enjoyed that experience. learned so much that startup didn't go ⁓ far.
which is fine because it led me to where I am here today, which is ⁓ providing a hub, if you will, for anyone looking to launch or grow a plant-based business.
Bryan (02:04)
That's right. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, I've had my share of failed startups along the way as well, but it's a get, it's the grit that gets you to get up and try again and take another crack at it. Cause it is an awesome ride. I have to say I first stumbled upon your, your website maybe five or six years ago. And I know I joined the community just a couple of years ago now at this point, but the name vegpreneur is such a clever blend of vegan and entrepreneur.
When you launched in, I think it was 2018, right? What was the biggest void you saw in the plant-based ecosystem? And what was you, what were you hoping that Vegpreneur could fill?
Noah (02:44)
Yeah, it's a great question. So after I graduated school, I joined a network called the Startup Leadership Program. Pretty generic name, but essentially brands itself as the AA for founders. And I went through the program and it was awesome. And I asked myself, you know, why doesn't this exist for Mission-Aligned founders? Like, where do we, where do we find that community? Because, you know, in my opinion, I think if you're building a plant-based company, should get extra perks and extra advantages.
Bryan (03:05)
Mm-hmm.
Noah (03:13)
And so how do we create that community? so that was the mission and Vengeporn Country slipped out of my mind and my mouth and it was available on Instagram and the website was available and I was like, cool, I guess I'm doing this. so launched the first event at the end of 2018 in New York City and kind of, yeah, grew from there.
Bryan (03:14)
That's right.
That's awesome. It parallels me. I mean, my name came from forks over knives with, with rip with real many plants, but that the name was available and it helped me just double down and commit to the life I wanted to, to showcase to people on that front. So such an awesome story. So if I, if I got this right in my notes here, Vegpreneurs mission is to inspire showcase and invite as many people are interested in interested in entrepreneurship.
consider building a plant-based company. And I love that like analogy to like solar panel credits or electrification of America that's happening, discounts and stuff like, so you're well on your way. What do you see as like some of the most significant barriers that aspiring entrepreneurs are looking or are facing as they look to enter into this kind of a space?
Noah (04:23)
Yeah, it's a great question and it's a varied one because we have businesses in our community that are restaurant owners. have people building CPG products. We've got beauty, food, fashion, all that great stuff under CPG. So everybody's facing a variety of obstacles. ⁓ Primarily right now, the biggest obstacle I would say for all of them that I can speak to is that vegan has become a bad word for some reason. ⁓
We are living in a world right now where being vegan or having a vegan business or being a product isn't as favorable as it might have been a couple years ago. So those are headwinds I think everyone's facing.
Bryan (05:02)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, it is. It's such a, and I've seen even some of the discussions online, whether you use plant-based or vegan or whatever, because it is such a dichotomy. ⁓ and you don't, you want the whole world to realize the value of this and you have to, you have to weigh out those, some of those tough ethical decisions. But I have to say, like, I've been a part of the community almost two years now and
And I do feel like that's some of the secret sauce. Like I do feel like you are building a true community of people locking arms and helping on that front a lot more than just, ⁓ these other types of groups that I've been in where, yeah, we get to network and rub elbows and a few things like that, but it's, it's lacking a little bit of a sense of truer community. ⁓ so what do you think is the secret sauce? Cause for other people trying to build community or like,
help us unpack that community sense that you have going there.
Noah (06:02)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it starts with our mission, right? My mission and everyone who works on or with entrepreneurs to give vegan businesses an unfair advantage. And so I think anyone is in the community is really intrigued by sort of that mission. How do we make it easier to start and grow a vegan business? And so in terms of the community, I think that inherently makes it a little bit stronger because I think we're kind of at all like we're on this together.
versus some of the other entrepreneurship communities that aren't there that are, know, great, but they might just be more sort of like a tech community where, you know, everyone's doing the different thing. I think everyone in the venture community is to a degree willing to make really difficult choices and align with their values ⁓ and while also building a business, right? Like doing good and doing well at the same time. Whereas in other...
Bryan (06:36)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
Noah (06:52)
know, business communities that might be frowned upon. might all be about, you know, value and not necessarily making some of the tougher decisions regarding, you know, the planet and its inhabitants.
Bryan (07:02)
Yeah, it almost, brings me back to that, Japanese, ⁓ Icky guy. You know what I mean? Like do something you love, do something that's going to help the planet, do something that you can get paid for. And I forget what the fourth one is do something that, that, don't know, there's, there's four plates of the icky guy, but whatever it is, but like that really, ⁓ embodies exactly what vegpreneur is trying to do. So I want to dive into like the plant-based business landscape with you because like you get to speak to so many people all the time.
And you bring together, ⁓ founders, investors. So you have a very unique vantage point, think compared to me, I'm in the trenches to a degree. Like, what do you see as some of the most common mistakes that plant-based startups are making in their first year or two as they get started?
Noah (07:49)
Yeah, that's a great question. And I can talk about different types of businesses in different industries. But I, yeah, it's confusing, right? It's really confusing. Because for some reason, consumers or customers, as I like to call them, you know, they they want, you know, vegan when it comes to beauty products, right? So when it comes to putting things on your face or your body, that's an advantage.
Bryan (07:54)
Please, yeah.
Noah (08:11)
flipped that when you talk about putting things in your body, food, that's where it's not as attractive to right now be plant-based or vegan. it's also confusing. It also varies by region, right? Some places I would say are far more advanced and the word vegan isn't as dirty as maybe in the US. I think a lot of brands that are struggling are brands that are putting a lot of focus on being vegan. I don't think that's not a value prop as much anymore.
Bryan (08:19)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Noah (08:40)
especially for non-vegans. Obviously for vegans it's great and you should let them know, but in general they'll find out. It's seven o'clock. I always tell people, ⁓ apologies, I have that set up. I'll make sure I get on my calls. I remind people that I think today if you put a sticker on bananas that said they were vegan, think sales would dip.
Bryan (08:44)
Mm-hmm.
All good.
Noah (09:03)
Because I think a lot of people don't what that word means. They're scared of things they don't know. And so I think it's our job to make it as easy as possible for customers to understand that what they're eating is delicious or nutritious versus words like vegan or gluten-free. mean, I don't know how you are, but in the past, I thought maybe if something was gluten-free, wasn't going to be as good. Now, I'd rather not even know, because if it's good, it's good. Oreos are plant-based.
Bryan (09:03)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
That's right,
Noah (09:32)
Nobody
needs, you don't need to let people know that they are necessarily. So businesses that are focusing on letting people know that they're plant-based and vegan, I just don't think that's as much of a value prop as it was in the past. And I think you're also seeing that with the restaurants. A lot of the ones that made that sort of their unique offering are struggling right now. There are exceptions, of course, but I think it's just, it's a smaller group of people that are interested in, you know, that.
Bryan (09:57)
Yeah.
It's yeah, it's so, so true. Like you, you point out some of those fallacies that we all have. We all have our, our biases that we grew up with, but I, I almost like you made me think of something from back in my COVID days. Cause I spent a little bit of time in Mexico during the COVID years and you go to the grocery stores in Mexico and they all have these giant black stickers on it. Contains too much salt contains too much sugar contains too many calories. Like
If you really labeled a lot of the American food the right way. I hope everybody who's watching this goes and signs up for Vegpreneur and gives Noah a little bit of bucks so he can build his big, huge lobbying group to help put better food labels on everything that we need. But I'm, I support you a hundred percent in getting, figuring out the dichotomy between plant-based and vegan, but helping just people make better decisions when they choose the food that they're about to eat. ⁓ the plant-based market.
I still think is blowing up. still see rapid, rapid growth as much as maybe it's a vegan word is, is a little and a downward trend in some fashion. What is your like higher level picture state of the current plant based economy? Where do you see some of the biggest growth in the coming years?
Noah (11:17)
Yeah. And again, this varies on, you know, products and industry. So, you know, if you're looking at CPG in general, two of the biggest acquisitions this year were both vegan, right? Poppy and, um, oh, I can't, I can't point right now. It's Yeti, right? Both inherently vegan products. One focusing very much on like, you know, probiotics, fiber, something that you're only going to get from plants. And those got acquired by Pepsi. And, you know, those are sort of, you know, darling stories right now in this world.
Bryan (11:22)
Mm-hmm.
Noah (11:46)
Shift over to plant-based meat, it's a different conversation, right? That's where you're seeing companies get acquired or going out of business or just plain struggling. So I think it just really depends on the category you're looking at. ⁓ Restaurants, same story, but I don't want to misquote any data here, but I don't know if vegan restaurants are struggling in general more than non-vegan restaurants. I know the industry in general is struggling with increases in workforce costs and also food costs.
Bryan (11:46)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Noah (12:16)
And also in general, and again, this is an assumption, I don't know if this is data backed up, but something tells me vegans or people who frequent vegan restaurants probably drink less on average. I know that's hit a new low point in terms of people who drink in the US. And so restaurants make most of their money on alcohol. So, you know, I'm also curious how that plays into that. So I just think it's like a more nuanced conversation in general. Yeah. So in the market, I see tons of opportunity.
Bryan (12:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
That's right.
Noah (12:42)
But I just think we're in sort of vegan 3.0 now, right? Like now we really need to evolve and meet the moment.
Bryan (12:47)
That's right.
But I think, you know, for all the restaurateurs out there watching this, like get your non-alcoholic drink menu out there. Like I don't mind paying for the fancy umbrellas in my drinks. ⁓ yeah. That's right. Exactly. Exactly. So leachies rule, ⁓ you're connecting to a lot of investors in this space too. So like, let's look at it from that angle. Everybody has seen the shark tank and watched Silicon Valley and stuff like that. So there's.
Noah (13:01)
I wanna pay $18 for that Sprite ginger mix.
Bryan (13:20)
There's this preconceived notion that money's just out there flowing and stuff, but what do you know in your conversations with investors that they're really looking for in a great product or what really makes a plant-based company truly investable, especially in today's day and age?
Noah (13:40)
Yeah. So the market for investment is completely changed over the last couple of years. Money was free flowing in 2020 and now has sort of come to an abrupt halt for better and for worse. I think a lot of brands that didn't need that much money got too much. And then there's obviously brands who never got money that they needed. in terms of what investors are looking for now, especially early stage, they just want to see traction. They want to see that you've
Bryan (14:08)
Mm-hmm.
Noah (14:10)
done as much as you can before they come in. And now many founders will say, well, what do I need you for then? Because I've already got it this far. But I do think often it is the founder's job to light the fire and then for the investors to pour gasoline on it. I don't really understand when founders come to me too early on in telling me that money is their number one issue. ⁓
Bryan (14:18)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Noah (14:36)
It depends. If you're building a tech forward company where you have to do a bunch of R &D and you need expensive equipment, sure, it's a different conversation. But in general, you know, can you first start building an Instagram following, right? Can you show some traction, some indication that what you're bringing into the market, it has demand and an engaged community. So I think ⁓
Bryan (14:55)
That's right.
Noah (14:58)
That's what investors right now want to see. But again, it's hard. know brands in our community that are doing millions of dollars in sales that are struggling to get investors. So it's definitely not as easy of an answer as I'm making it out to be.
Bryan (15:08)
That's right. Well, it's, so nuanced on so many levels, but you hit a lot of the key points. I mean, at a certain point you do need to scale ableness to get the machines or the equipment or whatever it is, but like, think even bigger, like when you do get a successful brand in a city or something, now you want to expand and you, know, you're, you've outgrown the farmer's markets or wherever you started and you've built your little empire. have to take it.
nationwide or even international. And there's all these rules and regulations and you'll need some capital to do that. And like you said, they, the investors will come and pour that gas on it for sure. ⁓ I'm curious, so throw out like a little anecdote. You've seen so many different variety of things. What's the most innovative or unexpected plant-based business maybe in the non-food sector, like fashion or beauty or something like any, any fun ones that you want to talk about briefly.
Noah (15:44)
Exactly.
Yeah, I mean, I was gonna give an example of one of our members who I think is going about building her company today in a very sort of bootstrapped, built traction kind of way. But I can also give an example of a company that I think is doing something cool, but I don't, I haven't interacted with them enough to give you too many anecdotes. So I can I can share both if you'd like. Okay, so sure. So I'll start with the company that I think is doing some really cool. A lot of hair extensions are often made of plastic. So there's a company I believe called
Bryan (16:19)
Okay? Please, yeah.
Noah (16:32)
CREA, C-R-I-A, that is making them out of plants. ⁓ I think that's really cool. That's something that I think not a lot of people are thinking about. ⁓ So I think that's very cool. They have a crowd funder live right now, a crowdfunding campaign so you can support them. And then in terms of like, you know, starting a company today, again, very challenging environment. There's a company run by a woman named Lindsay Masterman who recently became a veteran member and she launched a lasagna company called
Bryan (16:41)
Yeah.
Noah (17:01)
Kachina Phantasma. Yep, Kachina Phantasma. And the way she's going about it is it's a vegan, take and bake vegan lasagna that is ⁓ the way that her distribution, way she's going about it is she's sort of ⁓ delivering through DoorDash, but also partnering with local businesses where people can come and pick up their lasagna. So it's sort of a win-win for the business. get, you know, people to come in and then also she doesn't have to build infrastructure like, you know, a restaurant or
Bryan (17:23)
That's right.
Noah (17:30)
some kind of pickup point for her product. And I think that's a really innovative way to use existing infrastructure and, ⁓ you know, yeah, to build your business without having to spend a lot of money. So, you know, she's got a I believe she's got a commercial kitchen, she makes the lasagna is there based on the orders and then, you know, gets them out and basically, you know, drops them off. And so I love seeing things like that.
Bryan (17:42)
That's right.
That's right.
Vegan lasagna is gotta be one of my favorites to make and eat and you don't find it out there enough. So I think she's gonna be wildly successful. The one that's in my local area is Clean Eats. So have her reach out to Clean Eats, because they have that frozen section for meal delivery stuff. She should just be shipping them straight to them all over the place. I'll make sure I drop a note in the community and tell her about that. I want...
Noah (18:20)
Yeah, please do. Please do. Absolutely. Yeah.
Bryan (18:23)
I wanted to take
a quick break and say, if you are enjoying this episode, please click that subscribe button down below. It's going to help us out a great deal. You can listen to other amazing interviews like Noah's here. Let us know what you loved about this episode and suggest some other awesome guests you want me to interview. So hit that comment section down below. I want to flip over to like advice for entrepreneurs a little bit more. So when our listeners are maybe veg curious or not.
fully on the vegan bandwagon, are interested in starting a plant based business. It's surprising. I do know several people that are running a vegan business, but they are not vegan themselves on that front. They just stumbled into it. And I, I tell them about this community and this way that you can get a bunch more people to buy your product if you just get it into those communities. But what, like, what's your message to them? Does somebody have to be vegan to be a vegpreneur and talk to us about that dichotomy?
Noah (19:21)
Yeah, absolutely not. You don't have to be vegan. And not everybody in our community is. And I think that's great because this is a great way to learn more about veganism. We are at heart, we are a business community. So whilst building a vegan business has its own unique challenges and opportunities, you're building a business at the end of the day. So we also want to ensure that you're successfully building a business. So that is for anyone who's deciding to build a plant-based business. We've had businesses drop.
ingredients so they could join the community and work with us. That's just like a really reassuring thing to see. Yeah, just again, giving vegan businesses an unfair advantage.
Bryan (19:55)
Mm-hmm.
We've, we've touched on it here a couple of times, like building a business is very, very tough. The journey you've been on, I've been on, others are in this community. The burnout rate is high. Like what advice or strategies do you give to help people with their mindset to founders to help them stay resilient and passionate in the long haul? Cause it's easy to plow through it for the first year or so, but like it starts to wear on you when you haven't seen the light at the end of the tunnel yet.
Noah (20:35)
Yeah. So the first thing I'd like to say is it's not for everyone. And I think a lot of people should try and I, you know, by looking at the sheer, you know, numbers and not everyone's going to succeed, unfortunately, but I think it's a great learning experience. And even if you end up not being successful, I think you're going to take a lot away from it for entrepreneurs who are in this though. think like perseverance and grit is like a decent percentage of the game is just outlasting.
Bryan (21:00)
Mm-hmm.
Noah (21:01)
the moment because you know, a lot of what you're doing is lining up hopefully for the right timing, right? Like if Beyond Meat launched today, probably wouldn't have the biggest IPO of the year, right? Like they did in 2019. it's, it really, and Beyond Meat have been in development for years. So a lot of it is about timing. So keep that in mind. A lot of the things, you know, a lot of the things that you're, that are going to go poorly are not your fault. And a lot of things that are going to go well are not your fault either.
Bryan (21:24)
Mm-hmm.
Noah (21:31)
A lot of it is timing and so you're sort of just hopefully setting yourself up to have the best shot at the moment that you are in. So that's just another thing to remember. Don't let it personally affect you too much. Obviously there's always things you can improve, but timing is key. Perseverance, grit, then, you know, community, right? Like find people who have done it right. Like, know, like skip a couple steps, right? Find ways to integrate like, like Lindsay, like find businesses that are mission aligned.
that are gonna help you with your distribution cost.
Bryan (22:02)
I love it. And you have got quite a few number of those experts on your website there. ⁓ yeah, that's right. Yeah. I'm on the technology side. So if anybody's got some questions, reach out. I'm curious, like, cause this, I'm a, I'm a CTO type who pretends to be a marketer at times. So I'm curious your answer on this question in this world of like social media noise so much. How do plant-based founders like cut through that clutter?
Noah (22:07)
You are one of them. You are one of them, yes.
Bryan (22:30)
and try to really get a message that resonates to their target audience.
Noah (22:36)
Yeah, it's a great question. First, find out, you know, who is your audience. It might not be plant-based people and that's great. There's a lot more, unfortunately, of them than there are plant-based. So, you know, go hit the vegetarian and the flexitarian community. ⁓ You know, get people who wouldn't otherwise try plant-based to try it. So I don't think your company or your messaging needs to look like any other plant-based company, you know, like focus on.
Bryan (22:45)
That's right.
Noah (23:02)
Again, those other value props besides being plant-based and vegan, which to us and our community are like number one, but if you want to expand bigger, not necessarily. that's just the moment we're in. I'm forgetting your question just a little bit.
Bryan (23:18)
No,
the marketing angle, like cutting through that noise, know, like Savannah bananas or, some what's the unique stunt. You can't always wear a yellow suit, I guess. Right. So.
Noah (23:21)
⁓ yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it depends on who your audience is, right? Like speak to them. know, if it's vegans, know, double down on, you know, vegan content. If it's non vegans and you you want to, you want to wear a bread suit, do it. I would really just understand your audience and what reaches them. It's more about them than it is about you. That's just, you know, important to remember.
Bryan (23:32)
Right.
That's right.
That's right. Well, I got a couple of future looking questions as we head into wrapping up today. ⁓ Tell us some of your predictions. Where do you see the plant-based industry in five to 10 years? Are we going to hit the mainstream a little bit more? Are we still going to be niche-y? Tell us some of your thoughts and what you're seeing.
Noah (24:08)
Yeah, not a huge fan of predictions because it's very easy to be wrong. But I do think we're going to see a lot more businesses close, unfortunately, in the near term. We're going to see a lot more consolidation. ⁓ think, you know, I'll probably stay this way for the next two or three years. It's hard for me to imagine a world where we suddenly have resurgence plant-based. I think other markets around the world might step up and become a little bit more ⁓
or just be more accepting of plant-based and vegan products. But my hope is that in four or five years, we see a little bit of a return to recognition of the impact that plant-based has on the environment, our health, food systems, et cetera. So in 10 years, I think it'll be just more normalized. You see it just with younger generations choosing vegan more often ⁓ as they get more
⁓ spending power. I think, you know, that'll dictate sort of the future of, of plant-based. And again, I think brands need to step up to the moment restaurants need to step up to the moment and really meet where consumers are at. You know, it's really hard. I mean, I don't know if you've heard of this, but like the founder of Chipotle, you know, started ⁓ a robotic vegan restaurant in New York city. And I think they switched to non-vegan and I think they've shut since within months. So, you know, like it's, hard.
Bryan (25:24)
It is.
Mm.
Noah (25:37)
It's difficult. It's someone who built a chain with many locations.
Bryan (25:38)
Yeah, it is. It is.
It's a good reminder if you've got your favorite plant-based restaurant to get out once a month and support them for sure as well. Like get out there and buy some of these products that we want to see happening. So yeah, I'm curious, Noah, like what else is going on in your world? What's next for Vegpreneur? Like talk to us about initiatives, events, some stuff that's on the horizon.
Noah (26:08)
Yeah, absolutely. So first off, we host at least two events per quarter, one in New York and one in LA. So if people want to come engage with the community, you don't need to be a member to join. But there's perks if you are. So that's a great way. We've got our WhatsApp community as well, which is free to join. You can join at vegprinter.org. You'll see a little WhatsApp at the top there. And then specifically right now, what's going on is our next event, which is going to be at Climate Week in New York City on September 26.
⁓ We also have our VegPrim Rewards Live right now. Anybody who's got a vegan product should submit. You can get in front of some really cool judges from Whole Foods and restaurant chains and investors, et cetera. It's a very, very cool experience. And then we announced the winners of the Plant-Based World Expo in New York City. But then I'm exclusively announcing that ⁓ myself and a couple of investors just acquired a vegan marketplace that...
was ⁓ founded like 10, 12 years ago and went through a series of owners and most recently was not owned by vegans. And we have now acquired it and are ⁓ going to utilize it to help veg-per-brands reach even more customers. And it's called Vegan Cuts. So if you want to discover the best beauty and snack products ⁓ out there, Vegan Cuts, deliver a monthly box with a variety of
products that you can try and it's a lot of fun and it's a really engaged community and I'm excited to grow it even more.
Bryan (27:40)
That's awesome. I will make sure we put that link down in the show notes. Congratulations on the acquisition. I know that can be a fun and challenging time to pull some of those things off. So I look forward to hearing more about that in the future here. I want to, I got two more quick questions. ⁓
Noah (27:44)
Thank you.
Thank you, Brian.
Bryan (27:58)
You know, I'm curious on the, the men angle a little bit, you know, I started this whole thing for real men eat plants to try and bring more men to the plant based life. Cause I we're outnumbered, think four to one, ⁓ for in most communities that I joined. What do you think some of the biggest opportunities are for the plant based movement to reach a broader male audience and maybe help challenge some of those traditional stereotypes?
Noah (28:22)
Yeah, it's really interesting because for some reason, the moment in time we're in right now, being empathetic and protecting the vulnerable isn't seen as manly, which I completely disagree with. think being a man to me means protecting the vulnerable, which that's animals, that's the planet, that's others. ⁓ So I just, it's a very confusing time to be a man. I'm not, you know, ⁓ I'm not a bodybuilder of any...
Bryan (28:51)
I'm with you, same here,
same here. We aren't Jeff Palmer, by the way.
Noah (28:53)
So
I think this idea of grouping all men together, know, like, you know, if I was a traditional man, I'd be eating animals. I wouldn't be vegan. So I think again, the same with building a business. Like understand your audience. know, I'm who I speak to might not be the same person. know, James Wilkes from the Game Changers might reach.
veganism that we enjoy. I think, yeah, obviously, you know, showing strong guys with muscles is, you know, a move, but that wouldn't have convinced me to go vegan. That's not why I did it. ⁓ I understand the audience, I think just like normalizing it, getting more average guys out there to be vegan and show that it doesn't impact their manliness in any way, or form.
Bryan (29:51)
Right, yeah.
That's right. Well said, well said. You hit so many good points there.
I love it. Noah, I really appreciate your time coming on the show and talking to us about Vegpreneur. I'm so excited. I hope you ⁓ continue and are wildly successful with both your big ventures you've got going. If you could leave our Plant Based on Fire audience with one key takeaway or like a single piece of Firestarter advice for the entrepreneurial journey that they're on, what would it be?
Noah (30:35)
Start.
Bryan (30:37)
Start I love it Thank you. Yes, just get off the couch and do it. I love it ⁓ Tell us one more time. How do people get in touch with you and the community and hit us with a couple of your links?
Noah (31:01)
V-E-G-P-R-E-N-E-U-R. So, entrepreneur vegan put together. can reach me at wetvegetrpeneur.org. Our website is vetrpeneur.org. Yeah, those are probably the best ways to reach us.
Bryan (31:13)
Thank you again, Noah. We really appreciate you being on the show with us. That is all the time we have for this episode of the Plant Based on Fire podcast. Thank you again, Noah. You had some amazing insights and awesome experiences to share with us. Until next time, everybody, keep that fire burning.
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