It’s really really hard to keep up blogging! I’ve sneaked out from my holiday today leaving my wife and 3 kids to catch up on some work and voila, here’s a summary of 2020 and what to expect from us next year!

More scientists = more cheese + better cheese

Last year we spent a gigantic amount of time and effort to find, charm and onboard another 5 amazing people to the now 8 full-time strong team.

Luke Colleran, food scientist, was the first to join us from Ireland having worked with R&D at a large dairy co-op and as a cheese monger for 5 years in both Cork and New York City. Andrea Comasio, PhD, joined us from Belgium having done extensive research on fermenting food systems and as our master in sourdough. Lubica Macakova, PhD, joined us from the Swedish Research Institute RISE with a wide experience from research projects in food, life science and is now leading the laboratory work and team. Joanna Li joined us as a Product Developer from Arla Foods in China, Denmark and Sweden. …

Today I shared some reflections with the Noquo Foods team and I thought it could be useful for others too in these overwhelming times.
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Hi team,

last night my head was wandering around trying to make sense of the current Corona crisis, it’s severe impact on society, the pain and suffering, the potential solutions etc. as I’m sure you all can relate to.

How on earth can I relate to the biggest humanitarian crisis since the second world war?

These overwhelming times deserve reflection and perspective which is what I want to offer you with this email. …

Today we have some good news for all you 🧀 lovers out there!

One year ago Anja and I founded Noquo Foods to re-invent our favourite foods, starting with cheese. We believed that the old school cheese making technology based on animal milk was no longer a status quo we could support, knowing what we know today about its environmental impact, health issues and animal welfare challenges.

Unfortunately, the alternatives made from plants were, and one year later still are, nothing a cheese eater would buy. Nutrition, functionality and texture aside; the alternatives simply don’t taste good enough. Sales are still below 1% of the total cheese market despite a large number of new product launches and in contrast to other plant based categories such as milk that are taking off. …

A couple of months after moving back to Stockholm from NYC, I was told I had to meet Daniel Skavén Ruben, who also had just moved to Stockholm from DC and NYC before that. Our first meeting was super intense, both of us getting into a New Yorker talking pace discussing global challenges and lack of ambition in trying to fix things!

Daniel had spent a year with the Rockefeller Foundation, where he still works, looking at our global challenges around food and health meeting almost all of the leading scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs trying to bring change. …

Yesterday the Oatly CEO Toni Petersson was a guest at Norrsken Sessions here in Stockholm and as part of the event, I was asked to talk about what we are up to at Noquo Foods. See the 7 minutes video here.

Toni’s feedback: making cheese using plants is really really hard so you are clearly focusing on a real issue.

Enjoy!

A while ago a friend of mine told me I’m like an airplane with all engines running, eagerly waiting to release the brakes. For the last two years I’ve been exploring how to start a company that can truly help battle climate change leveraging our capitalistic financial system, not fighting it. It’s been a long, unpredictable, exciting and challenging process (read here and here) which finally has resulted in me achieving my goal and I’m super excited to get going!

I have found an exceptional technical co-founder who shares my passion and lacks no ambition as we are embarking on a journey to challenge the status quo on our broken food system! …

After spending about 4 months evaluating how to commercialise the worlds most sustainable protein plant, Duckweed, I’ve eventually decided not to pursue it. Given I wrote an extensive post about it then, I’m here writing the follow up sharing my main learnings and personal reflections.

What is needed to successfully commercialise Duckweed

“What happened?!” Well, as I was getting ready to start playing around with Duckweed I needed to secure some supply. I quickly learned there is no potential provider for me. None of the companies mentioned in my last post are ready at commercial scale except maybe one. …

Tomorrow we are having a Videoplaza reunion in Stockholm with about 50 of us flying in from various parts of the world. This is a good time to reflect a bit and also open up some of the very early archives.

Videoplaza started with an idea in the shower May 2007 and together with Dante Buhay and Alfred Ruth we formed a company in October that year. This was after two pivots and some time with Fabian Bonnier. …