This is an episode of Crisis Meets Opportunity, a podcast I do every Monday WEEKLY with my friend Kai Wang. Enjoy listening about our week, current events, and the insider details on the launch of Sobo Foods!

Episode breakdown is generally 2 current events, a business diagnosis and a thoughtful end-of-episode thing about life advice.

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6mCouRehIWU8tQsHqWqvMM

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crisis-meets-opportunity/id1615486011

Today we’re interviewing Karen Chiu, Senior Brand and Business Development Manager at Lypid Food. A foodtech ingredient company that creates Phytofat, a plant-based fat that’s healthier and more sustainable than animal fat.

I actually was able to meet Karen before the interview in which she invited me to try the phytofat burger at San Burino. This was a really interesting place in Taipei as it felt like I stepped into an American mini mall.

Anyways, we couldn’t do the interview over there so we did it when I was in Kaohsiung online.

Karen’s specialty is branding and she actually did a bit of branding in the United States. She’s specifically interested in community and what aligns in what Karen does has to do a lot with community.

Karen’s first job is with Green Monday, in what I see is a company with a huge presence in Asia. This company does a really good job with brand integrity as it seems like everyone in every Asian country knows them. She then talks about her experience working for both Green Monday and Lypid.

We also get into a deep dive on how to put a unique ingredient into the hands of restauranters and the feedback loop you develop when launching a successful collaboration.

Today we’re interviewing Evelyn Sun, Investment Manager at Foodland Ventures, a VC firm in Taiwan.

Ok so now we’re going to see Taiwan’s view on food tech. For those that don’t know, Taiwan is a powerhouse when it comes to innovation.

I went to about like, 3 museums per country and one of the most memorable museums I went to was the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung, the coastal southern city of Taiwan. Oh man, Taiwan smokes everyone when it comes to the thoughtfulness and more importantly, the investments they put into business-to-business play is impressive. 92% of the world’s tennis rackets, their semiconductor industry is a behemoth,

What I found interesting is Taiwan’s view on loyalty. The people in Taiwan love being Taiwanese. I’m not going into the politics here but what was interesting is that the General partners in Foodland Ventures were successful American entrepreneurs who came back to Taiwan to cultivate and grow better businesses.

Anyway, Evelyn shares with me some of the focuses and innovations happening in not just food tech, but also things like ag tech and restaurant tech. It really is a great overview of Taiwan’s entrepreneurial tech industry.