Focus Areas: Strategy | Business Development | Pitch Polishing | Marketing

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As a 3rd generation Pepsi bottler, I helped transform my and other Pepsi, Dr.Pepper and Coors distributors into last mile delivery platforms. What does that mean? I built the supply chains, trainings, marketing materials, and sales for people who sell beverage to sell toilet paper and other common items.

After a conversation with an energy executive, I realized the backhaul capacity of the beverage system is a globally untapped market for feedstock collection for waste to energy. I pivoted from portfolio and digital transformation to energy transformation. A year ago, I presented my decarbonization strategy to the oil and gas industry in Houston and it has been off to the races in converting waste into energy at scale. GODOT helps waste producers extract value from their waste streams. 

Focus Areas: Business Development | GTM/Product Marketing | Innovation Strategy | Fundraising

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With 15 years of experience driving growth for startups, leading corporate open innovation teams, and building ecosystems across scale and industry, I have a passion for solving problems as a hands-on collaborator in the innovation process. I have lived the founder and operator life multiple times, and have also worked within the Fortune 100 environment multiple times as a corporate innovator, and understand, from primary experience, how to harmonize the needs of startups with the resources of the corporation. 

I love working with founders to distill down to first principles value propositions, optimizing pitches, and helping folks build network to first revenues/revenue growth, etc. 

Focus Areas: Ingredient technology | Fermentation | Cell Culture | Strategic Partnerships | Product/Market Fit | B2B Business Development Strategy

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As someone with experience on the buy and sell side of innovation, start-ups who speak with me will leave with a better understanding of how to engage with potential partners, communicate a differentiated value proposition for their technology, or design a successful joint development agreement.

Shadia has over 15 years of experience in developing and commercializing biotech innovations ranging from therapeutics, to biomaterials and food ingredients. Prior to founding her current device venture, Shadia led Biotech & AgTech Open Innovation for the Americas at Ferrero Group for 3 years. In that role, she identified and partnered with start-ups and institutions to develop new technological approaches to solving food/agtech challenges and unlock opportunities for next-gen product development.

She gained experience commercializing new, deep tech products as a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Modern Meadow, a biomaterials start-up. As a cell culture process engineer at Genentech and Regeneron, Shadia developed novel manufacturing processes for the production of clinical and commercial biotech therapeutics and holds multiple patents.

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Betsy Tse’s passion is to utilize her experiences and network to advice and connect collaborators on mutually beneficial ventures in the food and beverage industry. She led innovations for large and entrepreneurial CPG companies by melding strengths of each business model in launching products that deliver growth. Betsy developed R&D strategies and executed innovation pipelines, taking ideas through concept, design, and commercialization stages. She has broad expertise in food & beverage research and product development including consumer insights, ingredient science, formulation, food safety, supply chain, and manufacturing. In addition to leading innovations, Betsy was also a Technology Scout at Coca-Cola where she sought novel technologies to compliment internal capabilities that drove strategic growth. She created and led high performing teams which solved complex system challenges. Background:

* Companies: Coca Cola (Simply Beverages, Odwalla), Nestle (DelMonte, Contadina, Ortega), ConAgra

* Mentorship: Plug and Play Tech Center, Food Science students

* Advisory Board: InnovaNutra

* Categories: Health & Wellness, Plant Based Beverages,

Protein Beverages, Snack Bar, Juices, Smoothies, Tomato

Products. Retail & Food Service

* Education: Cornell University - Food Science, BS & MS

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Dave Vosburg is CFO at Sound Agriculture. He was formerly CFO and Chief Innovation Officer of Local Bounti where he secured go-public funding and scaled the business from 0 to $30M ARR. Prior, he was CFO and Head of Emerging Technology at Sensei Ag, a market changing AgTech venture founded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Before Sensei, Mr. Vosburg served as CFO and Head of Business Development of Crop One Holdings where he established a Joint Venture with Emirates Airlines and Co-Founded Conception Nurseries, a micro-propagation company based in Sacramento, CA. In his early career, Mr. Vosburg founded and grew Ed-Tech and Fin-Tech companies in Zambia, working in C-suite roles while serving as President of the American Chamber of Commerce there. Mr. Vosburg earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management. 

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Mr. Pearson is an active member of several large angel investing groups.  He can help with advice on approaching the angel investing community, tips on what investors look for and advice on the screening process.  He can also offer insight on the CPG food/bev/agriculture space, drawing on his experience in both large corporations and his own CPG company.

Mr. Pearson is an active early-stage investor with a focus on food/beverage and agriculture.  Prior to that he owned and ran a national refrigerated foods company, California Creative Foods, for many years before selling it to PepsiCo.  He remained to run the company as well as Supply Chain and IT for their primary chilled food business, Sabra Hummus.  Doug is a classically trained marketer, having spent his early career at Procter & Gamble on a variety of home care and laundry brands.  Mr. Pearson has early-career manufacturing experience at General Electric.  He was also General Manager of Paramount Pictures’ Sound Systems division in the 1980s and (at the time) the youngest VP of the Studio.  He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Management from the University of Southern California.  He resides in New York City.

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Caroline Cotto is a Director at the philanthropy Food System Innovations (FSI) where she leads NECTAR, an initiative strategically advancing alternative protein adoption through sensory science. Prior to FSI, Caroline co-founded Renewal Mill, an award-winning upcycled food startup backed by Techstars. She served as the inaugural board president of the Upcycled Food Association, the world’s first trade association for upcycled brands. She regularly mentors food, tech, and circular economy startups and has been named to both Forbes 30 Under 30 and the 50 NEXT lists.

My approach to mentorship is to be catalytic, connecting you with the people and partners you need to make concrete progress on your goals. I help founders design rapid, small experiments to continually test and learn until they arrive at the ideal approach to GTM strategy, sales, and marketing for their business. Being a founder can be lonely, and I seek to be a trusted thought partner for founders to bounce ideas of in order to make better decisions faster. 

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Dr. Angela Marcobal is a biotech professional with over 20 years of experience in microbiome research and product development. Specializing in microbial-host interactions, women's health, and food microbiology, Dr. Marcobal has spent more than a decade working with startups, driving strategic initiatives from concept to execution. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at One Bio Inc., where she has played a key role in raising seed funding and overseeing the development and regulatory success of novel food fibers.

Dr. Marcobal holds a Ph.D. in Food Science from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and her contributions to microbiome and diet research have resulted in more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. She is also dedicated to mentoring young scientists and fostering innovation within her teams."

About Me:

I help startups walk the complex path from scientific discovery to market by integrating science with clear regulatory and clinical strategies. As a mentor, I focus on empowering teams to think strategically while staying grounded in scientific rigor.

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Phil is a corporate strategy and innovation leader with over 20 years of experience across the food, beverage and agriculture industries. He has advised Fortune 500 companies and startups alike, driving growth, sustainability and early-stage innovation through partnerships and new product development. As Managing Director and Founder of FBC Consulting, he helps global companies navigate emerging technologies and unlock new growth. Previously, he worked in corporate ventures and innovation strategy at Cargill, began his career in consulting at Deloitte and served as an Adjunct Professor of Management at Baruch College. Phil holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

About Me:

I help startups translate breakthrough ideas into scalable business models and compelling narratives that resonate with customers, investors and corporate partners. Drawing on decades of experience advising C-suite leaders, I work closely with founders to refine strategic pitches and capture high-impact opportunities.

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Steve Simitzis is Founding Partner at Replicator VC and Partner at Solvable Syndicate, where he backs early-stage startups accelerating the future of food and materials. With 25+ years as a founder and operator with 3 exits, he was CMO/CTO at Wild Earth, co-founded Cell Valley Labs, a food and biotech incubator in Berkeley, and joined Mars Petcare through the acquisition of his veterinary telemedicine startup, where he went on to incubate new ventures within Mars. He brings both successes and hard-won lessons to his support for founders, mentoring through Tufts University’s Center for Cellular Agriculture and accelerators including Brinc, Big Idea Ventures, Plug and Play, and ICA Fund.

About Me:

I mentor founders on fundraising, investor readiness, and commercial strategy, drawing on my experience as both a founder and investor. Startups that work with me gain clarity on defining milestones and managing their runway to achieve them.

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A Food Scientist with a MS degree and over 25 years of experience, Beth has developed products, led teams, and driven commercialization across food, biotech, and CPG industries. She has worked within Fortune 500 companies as well as emerging food tech startups, including building Impossible Foods from the ground up as VP of Product Development. Beth is known for applying her scientific skills to solve challenging technical problems. In her consulting business she serves as a fractional executive leading technical teams. She also helps small and early stage food companies grow and successfully launch by helping them navigate challenges with product development, scale-up to manufacturing, and food safety. 

About Me:

I’m able to help startups understand the arcane norms and practices of the food industry. I can help you predict and plan for scale-up challenges as you move from bench to manufacturing as well as help you understand how to communicate and position your technology or products for successful sale to large CPGs and industrial companies.

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Antonio's core purpose is to help change the way we eat to promote better relationships with our bodies, our earth and all the beings on it. He does that by helping food innovators GTM, launch, and flexibly scale capacity in (what are usually) resource-constrained and CapEx-dependent environments. Most recently, Antonio was CookUnity's first Expansion hire and helped the team launch in six new regions and scale over 10x nationwide. He holds a Master's in Management from Cornell and a Bachelor's in Philosophy from NYU.

About Me:

What I bring to the startup table is (1) lived experience of >10x hypergrowth ($30-330mm+ ARR) with its operational challenges and pressures to execute, (2) strategic frameworks that bridge tech innovation with commercial relevance and market value, and (3) a deep, global understanding of food/consumption culture and history that help make sense of why we're innovating and how we should think about messaging it.

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Innovator and Thought leader Guiding Growth & Transitions in Food, Agriculture, and Biotechnology.

Concept to Continuous Improvement; I foster a design philosophy for safe, efficient, robust, Food & Beverage facilities and their improvement directing Process Engineering, Equipment and Project Management. Building on the goals of Sustainability and Circularity of resources I bring value connecting the dots of new technologies and existing systems linking the opportunities to the interplay of machines, materials, manpower, and methods. I have a passion to educate on yield and effective asset utilization built around tools for utility management, CIP, OEE, Conceptual Twins, and throughput which incorporates emerging technology and mentoring innovators and entrepreneurs. 

Startups will find someone who can assess the path ahead bringing a wide world view and cross industry experience, an understanding of physics of technology, a view to synergies and accelerating enablers, Also, a talent and passion to see new ideas make impact and old ideas revisited in light of new enabling possibilities such as sustainability, AI, and connectivity.