#240 - Introducing Startup CPG's R&D Radio with Adam Yee

0:09I just really like bringing ideas to life from zero to one. The tagline for the company I made called UmaiWorks is we help people with just an idea. And I think that is, for me, I love doing that. I love working with people and some consultants don't because they might not deal with the coaching and the teaching of like food entrepreneurs. because as you know, it's totally different when you start versus like when you kind of are in the weed. But for me, I developed a sort of passion for it.

0:36Hello, everybody. You know that saying no new friends? Well, yes, new friends, because you're about to make a new one, which is my friend Adam Yee. Adam is a very experienced food scientist, product formulator, R &D pro, and he is also a very experienced podcast host, and he is joining our team to take you deep into the world of R &D in a new segment that we call R &D Radio. And it is a gentle introduction. You don't have to be super technical to understand what's going on. But our goal is for you to really learn a lot about the world of ops. It's so important. It can make or break a brand, especially bringing your product dreams to life.

1:14He's going to be interviewing tons of his friends and experts from the R &D community. I'm so excited for you to learn all about it and him. So I hope you enjoy this episode where you will get to know him and why I am such a big fan of his. All right, here we go.

1:32Welcome, everybody. I am so excited to introduce all of you to one of our new podcast hosts. It is a man who doesn't need an introduction, but we will do one anyways. It is Adam Yee. Adam, welcome. Do you mind then doing an introduction, please? Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Adam Yee. I'm still figuring out the tagline, but I generally call myself a food scientist, a serial entrepreneur, and a podcast host. And I'm glad to be part of the Startup CBG team to really dive into research and development. I'm very excited about it as well. So the title for this new series that you guys will be hearing more about with Adam is called R &D Radio.

2:10Why are we doing it? Probably you've seen us dipping our toes and then ankles and calves and then whole leg into this world of operations because we are operators. My team, we come from the brand side of the business and we really recognize and love the importance of ops for the success of brands. And we are technical people. We try not to bore people too much, but we do really think it's important to educate emerging brands about the important parts of ops. And so I'm so excited that we can bring Adam onto the team here to deliver some content that any of the rest of us would be completely incapable of doing because Adam comes from that world.

2:52He's still in that world. He lives it, but he also knows how to have a good time on a podcast. So, Adam, can you tell me a little bit about your background, which makes you the guy? Yeah. So I'm a food scientist with like maybe 12 years of experience, I would say. I am also an entrepreneur and I started two food businesses, which are still alive, which is always great to know. One is Better Meat Co., which was an ingredient business. And then one was Sobo Foods, which is a CPG dumpling business. And I think what I really liked about those two experiences was that I feel like I have this good connected spectrum of how R &D works and of how the tactical stuff works and how we can translate the valuable tactical things to people who may not have that type of knowledge.

3:34So I do a lot of other stuff, too. So one of the projects I've been working on for the past like nine years was a podcast called My Food Job Rocks, which we interviewed 300 food professionals around there more, more and more every week. And this is how I got introduced to you, Daniel. I was going to say, I heard there's one really good episode with a, you know, fresh faced, naive. That was my first ever podcast with you years and years ago. That's crazy to think about. Now you're like doing five a week or something like that. But hey, that's why we got you. I'm happy. I'm happy to. And I love the format that we worked with this time.

4:09Because for MyFoodJetRocks, you know, we kind of go into the career. And it's like an hour long talk. But this one, we get a little bit of that. But it's more real practical advice and real stories about the product developers who love making products. And I'm super pumped about that, especially the product developers, the formulators, people like you, Adam. Because I feel like I was really privileged. I worked at a company called Just Egg. It was called a bunch of other things also while I was there. But VC-backed, it was like a unicorn before I even started there. They had, because they were very technical, a whole team of food scientists who I got to know and got to see what they did and how skilled they were, how deep their experience went, and just some really advanced technical skills that they had to make the products great.

4:51And I loved that. And I loved learning from them and getting to taste that stuff in the office. I didn't realize that not all companies have the benefit of all of that money and expertise in-house under one roof. And so I think when I met you, I immediately just had a great appreciation for you and the skills that you have and what you can contribute to brands. So I really feel like it's a huge privilege for us to get somebody like you who also knows how to bridge it to what the brands and emerging people can really take away from it. And you don't often get to hear directly from these product developers.

5:23They have these massive skill set. They have made some of the products that are in everybody's fridge and pantry right now, but you've never met them. And you only know about the company who owns the brand. And so just getting to hear some of their stories and how they work on the products and what that interaction is like and how to get the best out of them, how to collaborate in the best ways with them, I think is so powerful. So I'm really excited to have you on here to help them tell these stories and help the brands learn about this really interesting, important facet of the business that I'm not equipped to really do with them.

5:59A lot of other people aren't either, but you are, Adam. You are the one who can pull the sword out of the stone on the R &D radio. Do you feel like the chosen one? Have I hyped you up enough? Well, I've worked hard to get to where I am today. So I'm honored to be the chosen warrior for this quest. But I also love talking to essentially my friends. A lot of the product developers on the product development directory are people that I know. And we've talked a lot in the past and they're really passionate in making products. And I think they're very knowledgeable. And I think what I noticed is food scientists are really bad at marketing and branding.

6:35And I think something that I'd love to get out of this kind of program, R &D Radio, is telling better stories or having product developers tell better stories about the products they make. I like that. And probably a lot of people have heard about our product developer directory, which this is the first time anyone has ever actually built a directory of all of the formulators out there. Why did I do it? Because you guys asked enough times in the Slack channel, hey, does anyone know someone who can do this or that? And as I know a couple people, but it's not exactly who you need. And also they're kind of across the country.

7:09And it's so cool if you could even find someone near you who has the skill set and go and formulate in person. Oh my gosh, that would be nice. that was the impetus for the database and we ended up with hundreds of formulators submitting and the management consultant and me make sure it's very well organized because a little bit of central effort can save everyone a time and so adam i talked to you about it i talked to our friends from catapult about it we wanted to make sure that we had all the nomenclature right all of the drop downs correct where we would ask people to fill in really comprehensive info without it being hard to use because it was too complex so we have the capabilities what size of brand they are willing to work with, where they're located, of course, what kind of projects they've worked on in the past.

7:50So I think it is a very user-friendly tool. So thanks a lot for your help and input on that. We really appreciate it. And it also is this wonderful source for us of people that we want to circle back to and feature because, yeah, I think you're totally right. A lot of them are freelancers, and that is especially who we want to make sure that the brands have access to because often they're on a budget and they're just, you know, they have not raised all that money and they just need to find someone who is the right person to get a good quality product out and they don't want to pay the overhead of a big agency because they just can't yet and so yes we love that and i also love i really do have very special place in my heart for formulators having known so many and i love the idea that this can also help them have a really important source of income help us do some of the marketing for them and help the brands at the same time.

8:39So I'm super pumped about it. I'm super pumped to have you here. Just having a friend back on the team, I'll get to listen to you on my workouts, just bringing that R &D radio straight into my dome. So can you tell me a little bit more about what we can expect from some of these episodes? What are some of the things that you're curious or excited to chat with them about? Yeah, I think let's say the first two episodes are coming out with like my friends in California, Brian and Rachel and I've known them for a long time but honestly with these interviews I can ask questions that I really didn't know how they think what kind of technical advice they give to clients really and I think that becomes really vital once you vet out product developers because one might not fit your needs but another one would right like some like to start in the very beginning stages and I'd like to start with people who just have an idea like I love doing that personally helping people really get an idea and build out kind of a plan to commercialize.

9:36But others are more technical in terms of like how they use contract manufacturers. Others have assets, literal like extruders in their garage or microfluidizers or whatever. And I think that's something that I love to learn more about because us private developers also help each other out too. If we don't think that someone is the right fit for like, let's say me, that I would recommend it to someone else. So I think that's also very helpful for other product developers who I hope can listen to R &D radio as well. But also for the CBG companies, there is someone who is a good fit for you. But it can take a long time to figure that out, especially if the food scientist doesn't want to spend time marketing or can only say things through like a client call, which is generally how it works.

10:17So I want to give more oxygen to that. I love it. And by the way, do you remember I saw you in the middle of last year at the IFT show, the Institute of Food Technologists? And it was the day before the show opened. Institute of Food Technologists, obviously you know more about this than I do, but a lot of the product developers go to this conference that they have in the middle of the year. And I walk up and you're like, what are you doing here? I was like, well, you know, we're like working on this thing. We really want to try to get this database done. And so here we are, you know, six, seven months later and it's out there in the world.

10:50That's crazy. You guys do stuff. Yeah, we do stuff. You guys are one of the best resources in CPG, right? Like you guys have helped a lot of companies out. You guys give so many opportunities to like trade shows and connections. I remember like when we first did our podcast interview with My Food Job Ropes, you had the idea of like a Bay Area CPG or something like that. Like it was like so localized. And then out of the pandemic. SFCPG. Yeah, SFC. Right? You just bought it San Francisco, right? Yeah, I've rebranded since then. Yeah, right. Yeah. I think once it's been dedicated, just like, boom.

11:23And I thought that was like, just amazing what you've built, like literally, nationally, maybe internationally soon. But I just think that it's been awesome seeing this thing grow to what it is today. Thank you, my friend. I really appreciate that. And I appreciate all the help that you've given us along the way. And it's so great to have you on the journey with us as well. Last question for you. As brands are listening to your episodes, what are some tips for them? What are some things that you really think they should try to get out of it? How they should listen to it? What they should pay attention to?

11:52What it could really mean for them if they can learn more about this world of R &D? I do think personality goes a long way when working with a food scientist. And I think the personalities really shine through. Are they a little geeky? Yeah. Are they a little bit more technical? Yeah. But there is still a personality associated with every technical person you talk to. And I think that is really important when it comes to working with someone, especially if it's a field that you're not super familiar with. You don't want to just hire a mercenary. You want to hire someone passionate. And a lot of these product developers do have, I'll call it a passion ingredient.

12:27I think Brian really likes mushrooms. There's some people who really love chocolate, for instance, or coffee, or just so many like secret passion projects that a lot of formulators can't really express too much. I'm trying to unearth that through these interviews. It's like, what are they really passionate? It might not be product even or ingredient. It might be the process of hiring a co-packer, or it might be the process, like really weird idiosyncratic passions that I think are really interesting to kind of unearth. Yeah, I bet that's a great way to drill deep on a topic you might not expect when it turns out that because they're so passionate about it, they really know a lot.

13:01And there's something that you can learn before making some huge mistake yourself. Yeah. One product developer might not find your product fun, but another product developer might find your product super fun to work with. So for me, Asian food is actually a very popular segment that I work on a lot. And I love Asian food, honestly. I love the flavor. You know, Yuz is getting really popular. I love just chili crisps, honestly, and kind of the mala seasoning. And I love introducing more Asian flavors into the general public. So for me, like that's a very big passion of mine that I've noticed gets a lot of gravity on my end.

13:36All right. As we wrap up here, Adam, what is your technical expertise? Where do you go the deepest? Yes, I also am a consultant and I do a lot of things. I'm in graduate school right now, so this is very fun to work on. What I like about it is that being in graduate school gets me like a step in academia. But here I can get a step into commercial or consider packaged goods. And I think that allows me to stay sharp and allows me to kind of synthesize a few things as I go on into my journeys, so to say. What I specialize in, though, and what I've noticed like during my the two startups I founded was I just really like bringing ideas to life from zero to one.

14:13The tagline for the company I made called Umaiworks is we help people with just an idea. And I think that is for me, I love doing that. I love working with people and some consultants don't because they might not deal with the coaching and the teaching of like food entrepreneurs. Because, as you know, it's totally different when you start versus like when you kind of are in the weeds. So but for me, I developed a sort of passion for it. And building these two startups like Better Me, Concella and Sobo Foods, I just realized that this is what I really like doing. I really like seeing these ideas turn into actual products.

14:44I love it. I can't wait for all of this. It's going to be so much fun for everybody to get to hear you. I'm so excited for this new segment that we will have. Oh, there's a newsletter too, right? There is a newsletter as well that Adam will be working on. So get ready for some fresh content delivered into your mailbox as well. And we know you're good with the pros. I like your tagline for Umai Works. I like the new tagline you just gave us, I think, which is Startup CBG. We do stuff. You guys do stuff. We do good. Or was it a lot of stuff? We do a lot of stuff. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Both are true. We do stuff.

15:14Startup CBG. We do stuff. All right. Cool. Well, thank you, Adam. this is going to be such a good time and everybody out there is really pumped you're going to hear adam freestyle and sing and dance on the no just kidding but you'll have a good time that is guaranteed all right i hope everyone is as pumped as i am and let us know what you think of these episodes they're gonna be great thank you so much for having me on thanks well my friends we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast, the top globally ranked podcast in CPG. As you may know, we're not just a podcast, we're a community of brands and experts, and you should join.

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