Impossible Foods "Meats" Demanding Needs

As a foodie and an occasional meat-eater, I don’t usually seek out plant-based alternatives. So, I was eager to learn about Impossible Foods’ business model. My main questions were 1) How do you grow a business whose value proposition is arguably narrow in its appeal? and 2) Having identified a real environmental problem and its solution, how do you scale up for a sustainable future?

While the session was chock-full of profound insights into many internal and external aspects of Impossible Foods’ business, what spoke to me the most was Dr. Brown’s entrepreneurial journey. As someone who tends to be naturally interested in a broad array of social and environmental issues, I’ve often wondered if I should specialize in a domain to become qualified enough to make a difference.

I was intrigued to learn that throughout Dr. Brown’s career, he has sought out and worked on the most important problems that he could contribute to solving, without boundaries on what the problems could be. He even chose challenges he didn’t believe he was particularly qualified to work on, such as Impossible Foods! In his opinion, his most important qualifications are his initiative and the determination to succeed. My inner generalist couldn’t help but felt inspired!

As far as scaling solutions to solve sustainability issues, the discussion yielded plenty of applicable business insights, such as:

Positioning

Impossible Foods isn’t just looking to serve people looking for meat alternatives, nor is it merely trying to make vegan food more delicious. It's positioning is bolder and more audacious. The target customers are meat-lovers—people who like the taste of meat and potentially its nutritional benefits.

Market-centric approach

Impossible Food’s earth-friendly production process is just a bonus. Impossible Foods is focused on providing consumers plant-based meat that is delicious and tastes just like the meat they love, while also enhancing the nutrition profile and affordability. This approach is fundamentally different from appealing to people to give up food they enjoy or buy into environmental concerns. 

Branding 

The company’s go-to market strategy included launching at high-end restaurants rather than supermarkets. It was interesting that they were optimizing for awareness and not for margins. Having famous meat chefs and restaurants cook people their favorite meat dish with Impossible Foods was an astute branding move. 

We learned a great deal about issues in the meat industry, including the supply chain, production process, and labor market challenges. Dr. Brown seems only energized and excited at the prospect of dealing with them! I hope to one day turn my energies towards solving a sustainability issue (I personally feel disturbed by the amount of single-use plastics I end up bringing home with skincare products).

Sound business judgment is essential to tackle sustainability challenges—especially ones that try to solve fundamental and deep-rooted problems—and I’m confident that my learning at Booth, the lifelong resources I will have access to, and the Booth network will be invaluable every step of the way.

Learn more about future events and programming from the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation.