Missed part 1? Click here!

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Dan Greene is….the Senior Vice President of North American sales at Impossible Foods, the Earth’s most scrumptious plant-based meat company that has science & optimization at its core. Their mission is simple, yet universe-big, in thinking: eliminate the need to make food from animals. 

Back to Dan! He started his career not in tech but as an aviator for the US Navy. Aside from having over 1,500 hours of flight time & enforcing no-fly zones over Iraq, Dan spent 12 years managing operations of 400 aviators, 40 aircrafts, and $30M in annual budgets.

Afterwards, he got inroads to Twitter, Google, & ultimately Impossible where he brought sales prowess and a passion for leading high-performing teams.

Impossible itself has a colorful history, all beginning with a crazy idea and discovery by CEO Pat Brown, a former Stanford professor. Piece by piece, Impossible imitated the kinesthetic experience of eating a juicy burger (for example, potato starch to imitate browning, coconut oil to imitate grease sizzling, and beets to imitate a bloody juice). 🥔

Since 2017, Impossible has expanded beyond its wicked tasty burger (and it really is tasty) into sausages, chicken patties, & so much more.

We dive deep into…What does ‘getting winged’ mean? What was the transition from military to tech like? How do you go about replacing a food staple, beef, with an alternative? And how much does Impossible care about their competition (you might be surprised)?

This episode is particularly valuable for…plant-based meat haters who think Impossible burgers are just for weaklings, climate action skeptics who think ‘what you eat’ doesn’t really matter, and finally for sales professionals who might have been flirting with the idea of working in climate tech but don’t have faith in its longevity as a sales career.

Guten appetit! (German for ‘bon appétit’) 🌍

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Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Show Notes

• [0:39] How Tesla is using market demand, to create change.
• [1:29] Is there something similar of open intellectual property (IP) and welcoming hundreds of competitors?
• [2:58] Are alternative sources of foods we already know, helping Impossible?
• [3:56] How we can’t sustain the food supply, the way it’s currently operating
• [6:17] How do you talk about your supply chain and your ingredient base?
• [8:13] What do you see as the next big step change in climate change or sustainability?
• [10:43] What ‘Impossible for transportation’ looks like
• [11:49] Rapid Mayhem questions!
• [15:48] What is something a listener could do TODAY?

Links from Episode

• Connect with Dan: LinkedIn | Twitter
• Impossible Foods
• Gardein
• Litelife
• Atomo Coffee (Beanless Coffee)
• What percent of the Earth is inhabited by humans
• Textured Soy Protein
• Methylcellulose
• Leghemoglobin
• How leghemoglobin works in Impossible meat
• Plenty (vertical farming)
• Rapid Mayhem questions
  • 90% of Earth’s land is ice-free
  • Annually, animal agriculture produces more GH emissions than every car/bus/truck/ship/plane/rocket ship
  • China & Brazil are 2 countries where meat consumption is growing the fastest
  • In 2013, $53B went to livestock subsidies in 35 countries
  • Plant-based Meat Production Leads to Between 30- 90% Less CO2 Emissions Than Conventional Meat
• Impossible Locator
• Impossible Recipes
• Impossible Cookbook

Do you have any reservations about plant-based meat? What have you heard and have you checked if it’s true? 🍔 Comment down below!