The Spoon Podcast

If you follow the world of kitchen and consumer food tech startups, you know there hasn't been much in the way of venture funded startups targeting food waste in the home. That changed last year when Mill lifted the veil on the company and its first product, the Mill Bin, a smart food recycler. The company had a unique approach, offering a subscription-based home food waste recycler and an accompanying service that would turn the food grounds into chicken feed.  We decided to catch up with the company's CEO, Matt Rogers, to hear about the journey to making Mill. During our conversation, we also talk about: The early lessons in building a tech-powered food recycling appliance and service Why Matt decided to target food waste after building a smart home company in Nest The challenges in getting consumers to think about wasting less food How better data could help us change consumer behavior  The future of food waste reduction technology in the consumer kitchen If you want to learn more about Mill, you can head to their website or join us at the Smart Kitchen Summit where we will be hearing from company cofounder Harry Tannenbaum. Use discount code podcast for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Spoon crew got together to discuss some of the big stories of the week on a new weekly video news show we’re launching called The Food Tech News Show.The stories Carlos Rodela and I discuss include: Keurig Unveils Plastic-Free Coffee Pods, Developed With A Little Help From The Maker of CoffeeB Keurig Takes Another Swing at Cold Beverages With the Launch of QuickChill Cold Coffee Technology Not Surprisingly, Starbucks Is Shutting Down Its NFT Program Watch The Figure 01 Robot Feed A Human, Sort The Dishes, And Stammer Like Us Meatbags Why a Small Startup in the Middle of Valencia May Be Leading the Wireless Energy & Invisible Cooktop Trend Bellwether Debuts Small-Format, Countertop Electric Coffee Roaster for $15 Thousand  You can watch the full show on YouTube, or listen to it on the Spoon podcast.And, if you’d like to watch next week’s Food Tech News Show, join us on March 22nd at 1 PM Pacific on Streamyard, Twitter, or on our YouTube channel.Music from #Uppbeat License code: HKXBEQJCPWPRMN7H   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the past decade, Fresco has been building technology that helps appliance and housewares brands to create smart kitchen products. The journey for Fresco started when the company - then known as Drop - created a connected kitchen scale. After finding success selling its scale in the Apple store and other locations, the company started working with other brands to help provide enabling technology to power their smart kitchen solutions.  Fast-forward to today, and Fresco is now working with some of the world's biggest kitchen brands, including Panasonic and Viking, to help them build out their smart kitchen solutions. To hear about this journey, we welcome Anthony Sullivan, the Chief Product Officer for Fresco, to the podcast.  On the podcast, host Michael Wolf talks with Anthony about: The journey from a consumer product company to a platform company Building software for appliance brands The evolution of the mindset of appliance companies around creating solutions that enable cross-brand connectivity The challenges of getting consumers to adopt more tech-forward solutions in the kitchen And lots more! You can learn more about Fresco at www.frescocooks.com  If you are interested connecting with Fresco and other kitchen tech companies, you'll want to be at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th in Seattle. Use the discount code PODCAST for 15% off tickets at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Around 2009, Ralph Newhouse's company hunted down excess inventory of small electrics and would re-sell them into the secondary market. However, it wasn't long before Newhouse realized he wanted to make his own appliances, and that's when the Chefman we know today was born. Newhouse wasn't done. As he and Chefman started to see how new connected products made their way into the market over the past decade, he realized he wanted to create a brand around more tech-forward connected products, and that thinking led to the creation of ChefIQ, a startup within a startup focused on the smart kitchen. In this conversation, Newhouse talks about this journey, why he decided to create a separate company for his connected products, and where he sees the future of the connected kitchen going.  And...for those interested new products, we have a couple reveals by Ralph in this podcast that are heard for the first time.  Have a listen! For those interested in checking out where the future kitchen is going, you'll want to be at the Smart Kitchen Summit on June 4-5th in Seattle. Use discount PODCAST at checkout for 15% off tickets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ty Thompson and the rest of the Ovie team recently passed a major milestone: They shipped their first piece of hardware. The product, a consumer food waste management system, was over half a decade in the making. Along the way to market, the founding team faced numerous challenges around funding, finalizing the product concept and design, building prototypes for manufacturing, and finding the right manufacturer to work with. Ty talks about all of these challenges and the lessons learned, including: -Battling mission creep around the product's vision -How to find the right minimum viable product to get it into production -What you need to do (and what you shouldn't do) when looking to find the right manufacturing partner -How to balance your life and your day job while hustling to build a startup And much more.  Ovie will be at Smart Kitchen Summit, so if you like what you hear and want to connect with the team in person, get your ticket at www.smartkitchensummit.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Young is one of the most provocative and interesting thinkers in the future of food and cooking, so any time he visits The Spoon podcast we learn a lot. This time was no exception.  In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we talk about: How he has put AI compute into something as small as a thermometer  Where he thinks generative AI and other AI is going in the food and cooking space How he thinks big companies should approach the AI era  Why he's back creating content for Youtube and other channels again And much more! Chris will be back at Smart Kitchen Summit this summer in Seattle, so if you're interested in seeing him there or learning more, head to www.smartkitchensummit.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Food delivery through underground tubes? Sounds crazy, but it's already happening today, and Pipedream's Garrett McCurrach thinks it just may be the future of delivery. We catch up with Garrett just a week after they announced their first pilot in the Atlanta suburbs, where they have built a system that delivers food and other items underground for nearly a mile. During this podcast we talk about how Garrett came up with the idea, what it was like to showcase the system to Jeff Bezos, how the company is working with fast food restaurants to rethink drive-thru pickup and what he sees for the future of underground delivery.  As always, like or subscribe if you haven't already.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week SuperGut CEO Marc Washington joins the podcast to talk about why new GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are keeping CPG brand CEOs up at night. These new drugs, which got their start as a new class of pharmaceuticals that help contol type 2 diabetes, have become very popular in recent years as weight loss drug. They are hugely effective in suppressing appetites and reducing the overall calorie intake of those taking them, so much so that some speculate that they could have a significant impact on overall demand for food if, as predicted, tens of millions begin to take them in coming years as the price comes down and more accessible formats (i.e. not shots) become available.   Marc thinks a lot about these drugs because his company, SuperGut, creates a natural alternative to GLP-1 drugs in the form of supplements, snacks and bars. His journey to leading the company was born out of both a personal loss as well as a chance meeting with Dave Friedberg, the CEO of The Production Board.  You can learn more about Super Gut on their website. And a quick plug before we go: The Spoon is heading up the food tech conference at CES, the world's biggest technology expo. If you'd like to become involved as a sponsor, just fill out this form and we'll be in touch! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of The Spoon Podcast, we welcome Ari Tulla, CEO of Elo Health. Ari got his start in tech working for mobile giant Nokia, where he helped lead the company's mobile app studio.  However, after his wife experienced a health scare in the late 2000s, Ari decided to turn his attention to the broken health system and built what he describes as a "search engine for doctors." After he sold that company, he began to think about how the explosion in personal data using wearables and other inputs could help pave a way for food as medicine and personalized nutrition. That journey eventually led to the creation of Elo Health, a company that uses AI to power a personalized nutrition and supplement platform.  Ari will be joining The Spoon and others at the Food AI Summit on October 25th to discuss his journey. If you want to connect with Ari personally (and try an Elo Health personalized supplement!), join us in Alameda. Use the discount code PODCAST for 25% off tickets.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Simmons is an open book. When the long-time entrepreneur decided to buy a restaurant in 2020, little did he know that in just a few months he would be forced to close his doors due to COVID.  But instead of giving up, he had to get creative and, after surviving the pandemic, he kept on tinkering, trying to figure out how new technology could make his restaurant more efficient.  During this whole experience, Andrew has been documenting his journey via posts on Linkedin and on a blog. As he reinvents his restaurant through technology, he talks about what works and what doesn't, providing a potential blueprint for other operators who are thinking about how technology could change their business.  During this podcast, Andrew and Mike talk about: How the installation of a pizza robot from Picnic completely changed how he does business How one piece of game-changing technology, like a pizza robot, forces other changes and adoption of new technology throughout the restaurant's work flow The impact of new technology on his unit price for pizzas  How analytics software helped him realize his dine-in business was not profitable and how it changed his thinking about how he ran his restaurant How he was forced to rethink how he used employees through the use of technology and how the employees (and former employees) have reacted His pizza subscription concept and how he believes it can help him pay for opening new restaurants Andrew's plans to launch a 100 unit restaurant chain built using off-the-shelf restaurant technology If you are considering using technology such as robotics for your restaurant, this episode is a must-listen!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices