Podcast
My Food Job Rocks!
Hosted by Adam Yee · EN
My Food Job Rocks is a podcast created by serial entrepreneur and food scientist Adam Yee where he interviews an expert in the food industry every week on their career path or a specific hot topic going on in the world today.
He connects the dots in the complex world of food. From farmers to ingredient manufacturers, to entrepreneurs and global players join Adam as he explores all angles in the food industry and tackles it with engaging conversations and impactful insights. It’s all interesting and it’s all complicated.
This podcast is a wealth of knowledge to anyone who’s interested in food and we are fortunate to be partnering with the Spoon Network to amplify our reach and impact.
Message us any time at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com to get in touch.
386episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
What Adam Is Doing With His Life: An Interview with Nathan Schmidt on The CPG Level Up Podcast
Yesterday01:04:05Tap to summarizeAn interview about my past career, present-day projects, and future insights Check out Nathan Schmidt's website: https://progressusolutions.com/ The CPG Level Up Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4rKQ00Gayuk2kIqERYWyTK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →My Food Job Rocks Every Other Week
1w ago00:04:45Tap to summarizeStarting next week, we will do an episode twice a month. But I'll still be on every week! Listen to the R&D Radio podcast on the Startup CPG podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Meat As a Technology with Bruce Friedrich, Author of MEAT, President and Founder of the Good Food Institute
3w ago01:07:20Summary readyBruce Friedrich, president and founder of the Good Food Institute, joins the show to mark GFI's 10th anniversary and unpack a decade of building the plant-based and cultivated meat ecosystem. Drawing on his acclaimed new book Meat (a Publishers Weekly Top 10 and Nature Top 5 science pick, praised by Jane Goodall, Nobel laureate Michael Kremer, and Kim Stanley Robinson), Bruce makes the case that the real challenges were never about taste or technology alone. They were about scaling, regulation, and money. Adam and Bruce dig into how cultivated meat costs have plummeted 100,000-fold on a fraction of the funding of any comparable technology, why so many plant-based startups mistook themselves for "the next Impossible," and how 30+ governments went from zero funding to hundreds of millions in just six years. Along the way: Gartner hype cycles, the Waymo and Tesla parallels, the surprising promise of blended products, and honest career advice for food scientists eyeing an underserved field. A grounded, optimistic conversation about technology adoption, the fragility of our food system, and the unglamorous work of changing the world one tech challenge at a time. 📘 Learn more about the book at meatbook.org · Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn · Newsletters at gfi.org/newsletters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Summary
Launching Founders and Formulators: a cool event before IFT FIRST with Adam Yee and Daniel Scharff
4w ago00:29:21Tap to summarizeLight bites and refreshments are included with your ticket; please indicate any dietary restrictions in your ticket order confirmation form. Heads up, as always, we'll have VIPs in attendance as well! Hey Chicago: Startup CPG is hosting our first-ever Founders & Formulators event! Join us at the historic Palmer House Hotel for an afternoon of structured "speed-dating" with the top food scientists and product developers in town for IFT FIRST 2026. Finding the right formulator on your own usually means months of cold outreach, dead-end calls, and guessing whether someone's expertise even fits your product. This event skips that process entirely, giving you 1:1 time with multiple formulators. Each expert brings different knowledge, experience, and working style, so you’ll get lots of different perspectives which you can use to improve your product. Not necessarily looking to bring on a formulator? Come anyway. These formulators can taste your product, evaluate your formula in person, and give you expert insights you can't get from a call with someone who's never actually seen your product. Whether you're still in development and looking for a partner or trying to scale something that's already on shelves, bring what you're working on! Light bites and refreshments are included with your ticket; please indicate any dietary restrictions in your ticket order confirmation form. Heads up, as always, we'll have VIPs in attendance as well! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Dig In: How AI Saved Her Plant-based Cheese Business $250,000 Dollars with Kirsten Maitland Co-Owner at Rebel Cheese
Jun 2500:53:16Summary readyKirsten Maitland co-founded Rebel With Cheese out of necessity — she went plant-based overnight, went looking for real artisanal vegan cheese, and couldn’t find any. So she started making it herself, first in a wine fridge, now in a full-scale cheese cave (the only vegan one of its kind, designed with a 40-year dairy expert). The cave-aged brie takes two weeks to make, gets touched by hand every single day, and convinced both Mark Cuban and Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank. But this episode isn’t just about cheese. Kirsten made Fast Company’s radar for something else: using AI to fight back against the notoriously opaque distributor model that quietly bleeds small CPG brands dry. After discovering she’d been overcharged by a quarter million dollars in shipping fees buried across hundreds of pages of invoices, she built her own AI-powered auditing tool — no developer background required — that now automatically flags billing variances every week. Adam and Kirsten get into how she did it, which tools she used (and why she uses Claude and Manus together rather than either alone), and the practical AI workflows she now runs across her whole business: weekly cash flow modeling, what-if scenario planning, brand handbooks, and her standout “100 questions” technique for building deep AI context from scratch. Resources Kirsten mentioned: Podcasts • Leveraging AI • AI Explored Newsletters • Superhuman (superhuman.ai) — her favorite; quick, to-the-point, always valuable • The Rundown AI (therundown.ai) • Rubin Hassid — good for getting started (verify exact spelling) Tools • Claude — projects, skills, cash flow modeling • Manus — vibe-coding and tool building Find Kirsten • Substack: Rebel Founder — weekly writing on AI and hard business problems • Website: rebelcheese.com • Fast Company article — on using AI to audit distributor invoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Summary
Innovation Topics on Consumer, GLP-1, Ultraprocessed, and How We Are Currently Marketing Things with Suzanne Allers, Founding Partner at Untapped Innovations
Jun 1801:01:54Tap to summarizeSuzanne Allers built her career bridging two worlds most people never connect: P&G beauty product development and the fast-moving, low-margin world of food innovation. As a partner at Untapped Innovation Consulting, she's spent over 20 years helping brands translate consumer insight into product and product back into story. In this episode, Suzanne breaks down why food consumers don't think in "problems" the way skincare consumers do, and what that means for how you research and design a product. She digs into why R&D teams are often the best-positioned people in a company to write a brand's core story (and why marketing still has a critical role to play after that). The conversation also covers the GLP-1 effect rippling through food and beauty, the "premiumization" of ingredients like fiber and protein, and how to tell a real cultural shift apart from a fad before you bet your roadmap on it. Suzanne also shares a first look at her upcoming book, Untapping Innovation, a practical playbook of the tools and frameworks her firm has used across categories from personal care to PepsiCo. What we cover: Going from theoretical chemistry and a P&G internship to co-founding Untapped Innovation Why food and beauty consumers need to be researched differently Using storytelling frameworks in R&D, and why the consumer (not the product) is the hero How GLP-1 medications are reshaping cravings, spend, and product strategy in food Premiumization trends in fiber and protein ingredients Telling fads from trends, using the plant-based meat boom and bust as a case study A preview of her new book, Untapping Innovation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Dig In: Beverage Science and Taste Modulation with Lauren Senne, Senior Application Scientist (and more) at Imbibe
Jun 1100:55:36Tap to summarizeLauren Senne, Senior Manager of Applications and Taste Modulation at Imbibe, joins the show to demystify what flavorists actually do and why their work is one of the most fascinating fusions of art and science in our industry. We dig into the realities of formulating beverages with high-protein, functional, and botanical ingredients, the difference between bitter blockers and maskers, and why sweetener proteins like Thaumatin and Brazzein are a space to watch. Lauren also shares practical tips for vetting flavors quickly, choosing flavor profiles that harmonize with off-notes (peaches, berries, anything-and-cream), and what it really takes to become a certified flavorist. A must-listen for anyone formulating drinks, working with functional ingredients, or just curious about the hidden craft behind your favorite RTD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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From Corporate to Fractional with Stephanie Zhuang, Founder of Title Brand Management
Jun 401:09:30Tap to summarizeStephanie Zhuang is the founder of Tidal Brand Management, a fractional marketing services firm specializing in startup CPG brands across food, beverage, and supplements. In this episode, we cover her journey from fine arts to corporate brand management at Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Vega, and Campbell’s — and what finally pushed her to go out on her own. Stephanie shares why CPG marketing is more analytical than people realize, why supplements outperform food in DTC, and the real math behind premiumization. We also talk about the honest questions you should ask yourself before leaving a corporate job to build something solo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Dig In: How Digital Ads Work In Food with Mateusz Drela, Co-Founder of Retail Media IQ
May 2800:48:05Summary readyEver wonder why some food brands seem to blow up on Amazon or Instacart while others burn through their ad budget with nothing to show for it? In this episode, I sit down with Mat Drela, CEO and founder of Retail Media IQ, who has spent 17 years mastering performance marketing across thousands of campaigns. We dig into the world of retail media the ads you see on Instacart, Amazon, and your favorite grocery apps and what CPG founders actually need to know before they spend a single dollar. If you're building a food brand and you're curious about how to turn digital shelf space into real sales, this one is for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Building a Food Business in North Carolina with Becca Wright, Founder and CEO of Piedmont Pennies
May 2100:55:10Tap to summarizeBecca Wright, founder of Piedmont Pennies, joins the show to share how a grandmother’s cheese cracker recipe became a Southern specialty brand sold in 450+ stores across 47 states. She breaks down why specialty retail is the smartest launchpad for new food brands, how demoing reveals truths your spreadsheet never will, and the mindset shift that keeps founders steady through the highs and lows. We also dig into the North Carolina food ecosystem, Eastern vs. Western barbecue, and what “community over competition” really looks like in CPG. A masterclass in scrappy, intentional brand building from the heart of the Carolinas. Promo Code Use code FOODROCKS20 for 20% off at PiedmontPennies.com Key Links for Show Notes • Piedmont Pennies website: piedmontpennies.com • Social: @PiedmontPennies (Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook) • NC IDEA grant program • NC State Food Lab • Startup CPG community • Weaver Street Market (Raleigh/Carrboro/Hillsborough/Southern Village) • Reed’s Fine Foods (Charlotte) • Fresh Market, Lowe’s Foods (NC local sections) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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