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Nowadays

The Secret to Scaling a Plant-Based Meat Startup With Nowadays’ Max Elder

In his previous life, Max Elder worked as a futurist, where he helped food brands develop strategies for the future.

One of his primary motivations in this work was the belief he could help steer these brands away from animal agriculture and toward a future centered around more humane and sustainable foods. Over time, however, Elder realized that to have a meaningful impact, he’d have to create his own product.

“I always thought that I could sneak into the boardroom and try to shift the Titanic,” Elder said. “That was meaningful work, but it’s quite hard to do. Structural sort of incentives aren’t aligned in these kinds of companies. And Titanics sink. That’s the story, right?”

So in late 2020, Elder left his job as a futurist and created a plant-based meat company. With Nowadays, Elder envisions a future where he can have a bigger impact by scaling meat utilizing production techniques perfected for traditional animal agriculture.

“To truly scale these products efficiently so that the category can realize its potential, we have to think more creatively about our manufacturing process, our finishing process, and partnering with existing players across the meat value chain,” Elder said.

He sees many plant-based meat startups trying to create entirely new ways to make their products when, in truth, many existing processes built for the world of animal agriculture work and are already highly scalable.

“A lot of work is being done to recreate wheels,” Elder said. “And the (existing) wheels are cheap, ubiquitous, and super efficient. They’re just pumping out conventional protein that isn’t as good for people or the planet.”

So while Titantics may sink, Elder thinks he has created a way to leverage much of the existing know-how from the old world to lift the tide of alternative proteins by making them more efficient and affordable.

“As a founder, Nowadays is my version of a speedboat. Hopefully, one that we can grow to have impact.”

Elder was this week’s guest on The Spoon podcast, where we talked about his transition from strategist to entreprenuer, and Elder put his futurist hat back on to look at where things are going in the world of alternative protein.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking play below or get it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Nowadays’ Alternative Chicken Nuggets Taste Like the Real Thing

If you keep up with news in the plant-based space, then you might be aware that there’s somewhat of a “chicken war” going on. Big players like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and others have now turned their attention to bringing alternative chicken products to market. A new company called Nowadays recently joined the alternative chicken space with its first product: plant-based chicken nuggets.

Nowadays raised $2 million in a pre-seed round several months ago, which is being used for the rollout of its first product. Due to the buzz around alternative chicken products, I was excited when Nowadays sent me samples of its nuggets to taste test.

Upon opening the box and inspecting the product, the nuggets passed the first test; they definitely looked like real chicken nuggets. The company recommended that I throw the nuggets in an air fryer for seven to nine minutes at 370 degrees. For those who don’t have an air fryer, the product can also be cooked in an oven, on a skillet; however, a microwave is not recommended.

I pulled the nuggets out of the air fryer and they were golden brown and crackling. I served them with a side of vegan ranch and took my first bite. Right away, I loved the crispy breading on the nuggets. They did not taste like a fried fast-food chicken nugget, but more of a healthy, baked chicken nugget (which is a good thing).

The inside of the nugget was moist and fatty, and there was the familiar chewiness that you would find in your standard chicken nuggets. The texture was also spot-on. Although I could tell that the product was not actually chicken, I found it to be a great alternative to real chicken nuggets.

Nowadays boasts of its minimal ingredient list, which consists of only water, organic yellow pea protein, whole wheat flour, sunflower oil, yeast extract, maple fiber, and mushroom extract. I’m definitely used to seeing longer lists on alternative protein products, so it’s impressive to see what can be done with so few ingredients.

Multiple companies have brought plant-based chicken nuggets and tenders to market already, including Rebellyous, NUGGS, Beyond Meat, Target’s Good & Gather, and Tyson’s Raised & Rooted. Max Elder, the founder of Nowadays, previously shared with The Spoon that he doesn’t necessarily consider these other companies as competition. This is because, according to him, Nowadays’ the nuggets ingredient list is cleaner and simpler than those from other companies.

If you’re interested in trying Nowadays’ alternative chicken nuggets for yourself, the product is currently only available on the company’s website. One box of 50 nuggets costs $39.99, and two boxes cost $49.99.

Nowadays Raises $2M and Launches First Product, a Plant-Based Chicken Nugget

Max Elder had a pretty good day job. As a former futurist for the appropriately named Institute for the Future, he got paid to look into a crystal ball.

Then he decided to throw that all away to make a difference in the world.

To that end, he left his job last year and went into stealth mode to start a company, the details of which he just unveiled this week.

Elder and his cofounder Dominik Grabinski, a long-time food industry executive, have founded Nowadays, a company which makes plant-based meat, specifically chicken. The company, which raised $1.5 million raised $2 million (editor note: while Tenacious Ventures indicated they’d raised $1.5M, Elder emailed to clarify Nowadays has raised $2 million in total) in pre-seed funding from a group that included Tenacious Ventures and other early stage venture firms, plans to roll out its first product, a plant-based chicken nugget with pea-protein as the primary ingredient, this year in California via direct-to-consumer channels.

To find out more about the decision to start a new career as a plant-based meat entrepreneur, I interviewed Elder yesterday on Clubhouse (where else?).

I asked him how Nowadays is different than other startups in this space. Elder pointed out that most consumers aren’t thinking about saving the world, but just about getting something on the table and, if they can do it in a healthy way, all the better.

“Nowadays was really born out of this assumption that most consumers don’t really want just plant based meat, that removing animals from these products isn’t enough,” said Elder. “The majority of people who are flexitarian, who are looking for an occasional plant based meat alternative, are doing it for health. And nowadays was really started to make plant based meat that is as good for you as it is for the planet.”

In the announcement, Nowadays made clear they would be focused on making healthier, plant-based versions of what is typically categorized as “junk food”. Nuggets clearly fit, but still I wondered why Elder decided to start off in a category where there are already a couple players offering plant-based products.

“Nuggets have a very emotional pull on a lot of American consumers, but they’re also full of junk,” said Elder. “And everyone knows that people who feed their kids nuggets know that they’re junk food. People eat nuggets despite what they are not because of what they are, and to me that’s the best type of category to enter.”

When I asked him directly about rivals like Rebellyous and Nuggs, Elder pointed to Nowadays’ emphasis on a simple and clean ingredient list, while also making clear he doesn’t see these companies as his primary competition.

“I think what we have is a nugget that has the best nutritional profile, and the cleanest ingredient list of any nugget,” said Elder. “I don’t think of our competitor set as Rebellyous and Nuggs. If you’re fighting for 1 percent of the market, you’re in the wrong ring. We’re going after chicken nuggets.”

One of the things I was wondering about is whether Nowadays plans to create other types of meat analogs, and what that might be. Elder made clear that they’ll be sticking with chicken.

“We’re focused on chicken,” said Elder. “I’m deeply concerned about chicken. I’m deeply concerned about the suffering of broiler chickens around the world. We kill about 66 billion of them globally. I also just think that there is a huge environmental crisis.”

Elder said they plan on creating a gluten free version of their nuggets, but then will also explore other types of plant-based chicken products beyond the nugget.

“We are focused on other formats of chicken products using our proprietary blend of of pea protein and ingredients to extrude whole cuts of meat. So the next product is going to be a tender. “

Beyond that, Elder said Nowadays is exploring plant-based chicken breasts and products like schnitzels.

The company raised $1.5 million and Elder said they plan on raising a bigger seed round at the end of this year as they scale beyond their initial direct-to-consumer phase in the California market.

You can hear my full conversation with Max by clicking play below or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get our podcasts.