John Shegerian: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. I’m John Shegerian. I’m so honored to have with us today, Christine[?] Lagally. She’s the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods. Welcome to the Impact Podcast, Christie.

Christie Lagally: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

John: Oh yeah. It’s an honor. You’re up in Seattle today. We’re here in Fresno and Seattle seems to be this hotbed of startups and technology. We’re going to get to that in a little while. Before we do that, share with our listeners and our viewers, a little of the Christie Lagally back story. How do you even get here, Christie?

Christie: Yeah. I’m a mechanical engineer by training. I started my career in the aerospace industry. My early jobs were working on spacecraft. I worked on a solar sail for NASA and did a couple of other fun projects in the space world. I went on to work for Boeing commercial airplanes. I actually worked at a couple of other consulting companies in between working on spacecraft and essentially, roller coasters and things like that. I had a really good time being a mechanical engineer and doing everything from design work to manufacturing work, to a wide variety of things like that. But as many people often feel in their lives, that sometimes you just get to a point where you want to either try something different or you’d really just want to address something important to your heart and your soul, for me, that was addressing large-scale meat production because I saw the impacts that it had on on animals, and on the environment, on people’s health, and really, really just wondered why can’t we make more plant-based meat? What is just stopping us? What is holding us back? A lot of people don’t realize that in the United States alone, we produce over a hundred and eight billion pounds of animal meat. And yet, we only produce about one-half of 1% of that volume in plant-based meat. As a result, the vast majority of Americans don’t have access to meat replacements even if they wanted to. That just didn’t seem like the right way to solve the problem because it wasn’t actually solving the problem.

John: Right.

Christie: And so, I started Rebellyous Foods based on the idea that if we could address the manufacturing problems, which I had experience as an engineer, that I could actually make a meaningful difference in how much plant-based meat was available to the world.

John: Where did you grow up?

Christie: I grew up in Golden, Colorado. Shout out to Golden, Colorado, and lived for a time in California. I went to school in California at Sonoma State and did my engineering degree at UC Santa Barbara and eventually[?], just went up the West Coast all the way to– I did my masters in engineering at the University of British Columbia. So, all over the map but all over the West Coast really.

John: If my geography’s right, you grew up at the home of Molson Coors area?

Christie: That’s right, actually. I mean, very, very, very close to the Coors plant. We used to say on the playground that it smells like a Coor’s Day because you could smell the malts just about a mile away. But yep, it’s Golden, Colorado for you[?].

John: That’s wonderful. Wonderful. You’re in Seattle, which is not only a wonderful city to live and to work in, but it’s truly the hotbed in many ways. Besides Silicon Valley, and Silicon Alley, and Boston, and San Diego, it’s really a hotbed for great startups. I mean, some amazing wonderful brands obviously. Just to share the obvious, you have Amazon, Starbucks, but you have Boeing, and Nordstrom’s, and Costco, and so many great brands. Alaska Airlines, out of your Seattle area, isn’t it a great place for a young person like you to make a start-up like this? A technology startup?

Christie: I think it’s a great place to start up a company. There are a lot of reasons too. First of all, in the food industry, the Northwest is a hotbed so to speak for, it’s not very high here, but it’s a hotbed for the food industry.

John: Right.

Christie: Plus[?] protein the industry. I mean, not only that, we actually have a lot of the oldest and most successful plant-based meat companies in the entire world, which are actually here in the Pacific Northwest. Gardein, Tofurky.

John: I realized that. They’re [crosstalk] all [inaudible]

Christie: Yeah, all right here. Field Roast, right here in Seattle, Washington, Nutpods here in Seattle Washington, Good Planet Foods, to plant-based dairy as well.

John: Whoa[?].

Christie: This really is a fantastic place. Part of the reason is that we have the schools around, that our agricultural school. So, there are lots of great food scientists and people who study agriculture and food production. We have professionals who know how to do these things. Lots of great engineering schools, lots of great engineering tech, so that combination of food and tech ends up being a really good match here in the Pacific Northwest.

John: So interesting.

Christie: Yeah, a lot of people care about these issues.

John: Right.

Christie: Lots of motivated people too.

John: We talked a little bit off the air and I want to share that my listeners and viewers know that I’m a vegan. I’ve been a vegetarian a long time but what I find with one common thread with all great entrepreneurs, is not only do they find white space in voids but they also find things that matter to themselves and you share with me a little bit when we’re off the air that you’re vegan yourself.

Christie: I am.

John: Share a little bit about your journey in plant-based eating and why then you saw this void. I’m sure what informed you were part of your journey in plant-based eating. Seeing this void then and deciding this is a great and important void to fill. Share a little bit about that part of the journey.

Christie: Yeah, sure. I mean, we were kind of talking about how long we’d been vegan and I just calculated in my head. It’s been 26 years.

John: Whoa. Whoa.

Christie: I’ve been vegan for a long time so I’m going to date myself. I was 19 when I went vegan and I actually went vegan for animals. I cared about what’s happening to animals. I was already a vegetarian like you.

John: Right.

Christie: And then I learned about the dairy industry, I learned about the egg industry and was said, no horrible pun intended, but just cold turkey. I just said[?], [crosstalk] “Oh, I’m definitely not doing that.”

John: Right.

Christie: The interesting thing is I’ve never been a very good eater which is just a silly thing to be. But I always thought it was just because it always made me so sick. I went vegan and suddenly I was like, “Oh, my God. Food is good.”

John: So interesting.

Christie: But I was so allergic to dairy. I was so allergic to eggs and I didn’t know it. But I was just suffering horribly from allergies, and intolerances, to eggs, and dairy. I’m like the world’s worst person to ask how to go vegan. Just [inaudible]. Just go. Just go. Just do whatever. It was so easy for me.

John: Get out[?].

Christie: Yeah. It was so easy for me because my reaction to it was just to, instead of feeling different, I felt just so much better.

John: Same goes for me.

Christie: Yeah.

John: But let’s go to that word you just use though because I’m much older than you. So, go back to that word easy. When I became a vegetarian, when I was 17 years old, which is now 41 years ago, then a vegan, I don’t know. Anywhere between, let’s just say 13-14 years ago. It was such a void of fun things to eat. Comparatively speaking to where we are today, today’s are[?] the light[?] to go to the store and see [crosstalk] all the plant-based food.

Christie: That’s true.

John: I mean, but it wasn’t even that way seven years ago, you know?

Christie: No, it wasn’t. Yeah. It’s been a big difference now.

John: Yeah.

Christie: We have plenty of replacements now. I think for me, some of the biggest best replacements have just been in the cheese space. Like, I love Miyoko. I’m so addicted to Miyoko’s cheese.

John: Oh, huge fan. Huge fan.

Christie: I know. I’ve always just like, “God. It was full. Actually, really good after I eat it.” It’s like all these micro-bacterial [inaudible]. It was good.

John: Just think about the pea protein milk that they have and the almond milk. When you go to the plant-based yogurt section, it wasn’t like this.

Christie: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We’re very lucky now to have [inaudible]

John: We’re really lucky. But I was so excited about what I shared with you off the air, 10 years ago when I had Ethan Brown. When Seth[?] asked me to have[?] Ethan on, and Ethan came on and just was so fantastic. He came on a couple of times and of course, his company has been doing so well but I’m a huge fan of his company. I love Impossible, I love Gardein, they’re all wonderful for different reasons. So share with our listeners a little bit about, so you, now have been in that world because you’re living it and eating it, where did you see the specific void that you wanted to fill and how did you want to fill it, and how’s that journey going?

Christie: Yeah. I mean, I started to look at this when I was looking for opportunities to start a company, to make a difference in this space. I really looked at it from an engineer’s perspective. As a mechanical engineer, what I was trying to understand is how do I use my skills? A lot of people are looking for the same opportunity. How do you use your skills? What do you know? How to do it professionally? How to do well in order to make an impact?

John: Right.

Christie: I’ve come to since believe that almost anybody can make an impact to make the world a better place in terms of plant-based eating, and vegan options, and just making the world a better place for animals, people, and the environment. But I was really looking for where my skills would fit in and as a manufacturing engineer, that was the best use of my skills. It was to come up with a company that was solving the manufacturing disparity between the volumes and the hundred of billion pounds of animal-based meat that I mentioned earlier, versus that small 500 million pounds of plant-based meat that we make now. And realizing that, we’re very much in a lot of ways, this industry as it is today, is standing on the shoulders of giants who have developed really, really good products for plant-based meat. The early Tofurkys you know? I was always a big fan of Tofurky. I can’t even eat anything else. I’m so addicted to it.

John: Right.

Christie: The early Tofurkys were just the beginning and we’ve created more and more interesting and more flavorful products ever since, although I’m still a big fan of Tofurky in every way, shape, and form. Seth Tibbett and his vision, David Lee at Field Roast, and his vision, [crosstalk] for making all sorts of interesting plant-based meat products, has really given us the opportunity to go to the next level.

John: Right.

Christie: We wouldn’t be in a space where we were ready. There was so much demand that we could garner investment that we could use to develop the next tools to make plant-based meat. If we hadn’t had that history 20 years before [crosstalk] of Artesian cooks, and product developers making really good products and making them better and better.

John: Right.

Christie: But now we’re at a place where we need to get it out to everybody and being able to do that is another whole skill set and it just happened to be the skill set that I have, which is to develop tools that can essentially make plant-based meat more available, affordable, and high-quality for everyone. Because once you make good products, then you’ve got to always make good products and you got to make more and more good products, and it’s really quite mind-boggling how much infrastructure we have to put in to support a measurable difference in the plant-based meat industry when it’s compared to the animal-based meat industry. And so, that’s where I chose to start a company around and that was the company that I started in 2018, called Seattle Food Tech actually, 2017.

John: Right.

Christie: Seattle Food Tech now goes under the name Rebellyous Foods.

John: Which for our listeners and viewers who’ve just joined us, we’ve got Christie Lagally, she’s the founder and CEO of Rebellyous Foods. To find Christie and her colleagues, and the great food product she’s making, please go to www.rebellyous.com, R-E-B-E-L-L-Y-O-U-S. I am on your site now, I love your site. It makes me hungry [inaudible]. Where are you on the journey right now? Because you took on, instead of just plant-based meat protein, you took on the chicken sector.

Christie: That’s right.

John: When you really understand what’s going on with regards to chickens, and how many chickens a year are slaughtered for consumption, and the antibiotics and the other, share with our listeners the impact you make by taking on this sector and where are you in that journey right now?

Christie: Yeah, chicken is the most consumed meat in the entire world. It used to be pigs or pork until early or late 2019 when much of the pig population in China was wiped out by swine flu. While a lot of us were seeing the pandemic come down the pike, China was also dealing with a massive swine flu episode, of the swine flu epidemic, if not a pandemic in the animal agriculture industry in late 2019. Until that time, pork was the most consumed meat in the entire world. It’s now chicken and a lot of the reason that it’s chicken now is because people are pretty shy about growing the pork industry as much as it did because it got huge, and of course, it got wiped out by swine flu.

John: Wow.

Christie: I think it was like 25% of the industry [crosstalk] but I might have that wrong.

John: Wow.

Christie: Somebody look that up. I don’t know.

John: Right. Right.

Christie: But it was really, really massive so much so that it actually shifted the balance in terms of animals that we consume for meat. So, chicken, being the largest consumed, the largest portion of the, basically, the meat industry, and then also the food industry, because the food industry is largely dependent on meat. Here in the United States, about 25% of it is cows or beef, as we call them, and 25% is about pork or pigs. And then out 50%, almost 50% is chicken and then we also eat turkey, and rabbits, and things like that. It’s amazing that we eat the[?] animals. But we do eat more chicken than anything else. This actually poses a number of major problems. I mean, first of all, it’s the slaughter of billions upon billions. About nine billion chickens in the United States alone, which often suffer far more than any other animal although who can say who suffers more sometimes?

John: Right.

Christie: We also see a lot of unnecessary risks in the chicken industry. From the time they’re grown in huge warehouses, they are at major risk of bird flu. We just talked about swine flu, we just talked about [crosstalk] coronavirus and the pandemic bird.

John: Yeah.

Christie: Bird flu is a major fear [inaudible] [crosstalk]

John: With Avian flu?

Christie: Avian flu.

John: Yeah.

Christie: Yes, exactly. A lot of people are tracking this very, very closely, and in December of last year while, again, all of us were distracted by and rightfully so, our own pandemic, swine– Pardon me, bird flu or avian flu, actually jumped to seven poultry workers in Russia and they eventually reported it to the World Health Organization. Avian flu is a risk in every intensive animal agriculture of birds across the world. There are no continents that don’t have bird flu anymore. So, it is a major risk and the riskiest part of bird flu is when it jumped in 2014 to about a hundred people. I can’t remember which country was in. It killed 60% of the people that got it.

John: Oh my God.

Christie: You would think about COVID-19 being a 3-5% loss of the people who got it. 60% of people who died of bird flu, who got it. It’s a very, very dangerous situation to have as growing chickens at enormous volumes and intensified animal agriculture. If we haven’t learned our lesson from COVID or swine flu, maybe we’ll let[?] it from bird flu. But we need to replace the chicken industry on a large scale right now.

John: So, what I find with people[?], and it’s an overused term, disruptive[?]. But I call them innovators like you, you’re an innovator, is they love to take on the biggest problem. And if now chicken, is the biggest meat consumed in the world, good for you. You actually chose so well in that, of course, no one can predict swine flu would happen and pigs would get wiped out. But you really were choosing what was one of the biggest meat-based products, animal-based products, in the world to replace. How’s that journey been going? Where are you now with your product? Shameless advertisement, where can our listeners and viewers taste your great food? By the way, I love your tagline, no harm, no fowl.

Christie: No fowl. Yeah.

John: That’s such a great tagline.

Christie: At Rebellyous, we make three types of products. We make chicken nuggets, tenders, and patties. They’re for sale at grocery stores across Washington, Oregon, and soon to be California. Also online at GTFO It’s Vegan, it’s an online site that I highly recommend.

John: Right.

Christie: Yeah, we’re doing great. We launched our mainstream retail product on February 1st of this year. This week you can find them in Safeway and the Pacific Northwest. We’re pretty excited about that. Yeah, we’re just seeing a lot of good responses to the products and just continuing to ramp up as quickly as possible. The products also won an award recently. We got a Sofi award from this, a Specialty Food Association for being best new plant-based meat product which is [crosstalk] [inaudible]

John: Oh, I can’t wait to try it.

Christie: Yeah, it’s really good.

John: I’ve seen photos and that’s one thing that’s been missing. I’ve never had real good plant-based chicken. I love the meat products out there like you said, Tofurky, the Field Roast, Ethan’s food at Beyond, Impossible’s food is great, and I love Gardein. I love them all for different reasons. I’ve never had good chicken though so I’m so excited.

Christie: John, you got to check it out.

John: I’m so excited.

Christie: You can get it on GTFO It’s Vegan.

John: Okay.

Christie: That’s the only way to get it.

John: But it’s coming to California soon you said?

Christie: Yeah, we’ll probably be in California before the end of the year. I know that seems like a long timeline but it’s always hard to predict, especially in post-pandemic.

John: Right.

Christie: But yeah, we’ll be in California fairly soon.

John: How exciting. So, it just started selling in February in the Pacific Northwest and how did you get it out? Did you do tasters at supermarkets? How did you get people to start sampling it? Because that’s always the beginning of the flywheel.

Christie: Yeah. So, because it was a pandemic, we couldn’t really go out and just hand out samples and things like that.

John: Right.

Christie: That exactly what we’re not supposed to be doing.

John: Right.

Christie: What we did is we shipped all sorts of people, all different people of all walks of life, of all backgrounds, all interest, we shipped them the care packages, and have them video themselves trying the product.

John: Wow.

Christie: If you go to our YouTube channel, the Rebellyous YouTube channel, you’ll find our tested by all, approved by all campaign. It’s super fun. You’ll get to see all of your favorite friends. People you know, people you don’t know, and families, kids, enjoying our product, people of all ages. It’s super fun. But that was our solution to getting our word out. We run an aggressive social media campaign because we’ve got these great videos. We even have one with the chicken trying our plant-based chicken. I think her name is Flor[?].

John: [inaudible]

Christie: You got to check out that one too. She gobbles down that nugget like it’s really good so…

John: Oh, I can’t wait. I’m going to buy some online then like you said. I can’t wait till it comes to California. So, things are going well with the rollout.

Christie: Very well.

John: Congratulations because that’s no easy feat. Now, explain to our listeners and viewers, Christie, the connection between plant-based eating especially when it comes to meats like your product, the chicken products, and climate change, and how we really get to know[?] and make ourselves healthier by eating cleaner and better, but also we do get to participate in making the world a better place when we vote with our pocketbook and our decision-making on eating your great food products.

Christie: Yeah. A lot of people don’t realize that animal agriculture is one of the largest sectors of emissions for greenhouse gas emissions. It’s actually even larger than transportation. Within the animal agriculture’s emissions group, beef is about half the emissions of the entire industry, which is why a lot of environmental investors like to invest in beef replacement companies. But the other half is chicken, pork, and I guess a little bit of turkey because the chicken industry is so big even though on a per pound basis, it’s a lot more product. With pork, it actually puts out as much greenhouse gas emissions as beef does. We understand that it’s really important to really replace as much meat as possible whether it’s beef, chicken, pork, turkey, whatever. Because these have enormous emission consequences and on a per-person basis, it can really, really add up. So, the more you can choose it to be your every day, choose alternatives to meat, like plant-based meat or just plant-based eating in general, the more you can make a really big difference in essentially[?], the temperature of our planet, and we need even more like public support in doing so.

John: Right.

Christie: So, being able to go into a cafeteria and asking for something that’s plant-based also makes a big ripple effect. We see that a lot from our customers.

John: Buzz[?]. It does. Even going to your supermarket manager or your local store manager and just saying, “I’d like to have more plant-based options.”

Christie: Yeah. Exactly.

John: Christie, there’s a lot of young people that are entrepreneurs and waiting[?]. They’re in college now, they’re in high school now, they’re getting out of college or grad school, and they want to be the next Christie Lagally. Share a little bit about how they can be involved in starting an impact business, and getting involved with climate-focused startups, or other startups like yours, that make a true impact to make the world a better place.

Christie: Yeah. I mean, I think, first of all, it’s really helpful for people to understand what they love, what they’re passionate about, what they like to do because as much as it is important to care about the mission, it’s also important to like what you do. At the end of the day, it’s really hard to do a job you hate even though it’s something you’re working towards that you love.

John: Right.

Christie: I really encourage people to find their passion from both perspectives. But a really good way to get started and it was something that I still do today is actually just to volunteer. If you can take the time away from work, or your family, even just doing an hour a week or something like that of volunteering that gets you involved in meeting other people, that are part of the world that you wish to make a difference in. Whether that be climate activism, or animal activism, or just whatever social justice issues. For me, it’s voting rights. For me, it’s women’s rights. For me, it’s animal rights. It’s also climate change and human health, and all of those things matter a lot to me. To this day, I still volunteer on boards and volunteered to do political advocacy, and things like that, because those really helped me refine my passion. So, I really encourage people to do that. Even if it’s just an hour out of every week to you know, imagine, you’re just not watching television that day, you’re writing[?] your senator[?], getting involved in a political campaign, or volunteering for a voting rights advocacy group, or something like that, makes a really, really big difference. For me, I volunteered with the Humane Society of the United States and they really helped me understand the various different ways I could address meat production and that was really, really valuable to me. That actually led to me starting Rebellyous Foods.

John: That’s a great message. Instead of just taking, you’re saying be of service. Be of service.

Christie: Absolutely.

John: It’s so wonderful.

Christie: Absolutely.

John: Not said enough and I’m glad you said it that way, and I’m glad you talked about the importance of that. Share a little bit about your vision. Where can this go? I mean, first of all, when I interviewed Ethan, originally, I asked him, I think it was off the air. Originally, I asked him, who are some of your investors? And he says, the first two people he mentioned were Bill[?] Stone and Bill Gates. I said, “Whoa. Whoa” and he explained to me how this hit. Like as you said, a lot of their initiatives were important to them. Climate change, famine, and just making the world a better place overall, and it was such a big opportunity that’s why they invested. Is the response, and you don’t need to give away any secrets source[?] or names, but similarly speaking, because they’ve been down that path before, and as you’ve said, others have been as well, has both the institutional and private backing for an adventure like yours, woman CEO, a very important topic in this world today, plant-based eating, a very important topic in climate change, very important topic, you’re eating a lot of macro trends that I can see a lot of people getting behind. But a lot of entrepreneurs say, “Hey John, it’s still hard to raise capital.” Share a little bit about the macro trends behind your back but also, how’s the fundraising gone to expand on your vision?

Christie: Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to lie. Fundraising is hard. It’s really hard to make sure you get all the right information in front of an investor so that you know that they know everything you know and that they can make an informed decision about putting money behind your company and supporting it. But I think more than anything else, it’s really finding something that makes a difference in something you’re passionate about and you have to find other people who are passionate about it. For example, I’m passionate about plant-based eating. I’m a vegan. I’ve been passionate about that for a long time, but I’m passionate about engineering and I’m passionate even more about putting the two together and making a substantial difference in the meat industry by scaling the plant-based meat [inaudible] [crosstalk].

John: Right.

Christie: And so, that’s a very refined set of investors that understand how, that first of all, understand the problem and then really, really want to work on that particular solutions. When it comes to investing, it’s finding those other people. It’s finding the match in the card game, so to speak.

John: Right.

Christie: But also care about out that small little area and you can always narrow it down by talking to a lot of investors, maybe agtech[?] investors, or climate investors, [inaudible] [crosstalk] understand these things.

John: Right.

Christie: But I think a lot of investors won’t and don’t be discouraged by that because you know 90 plus maybe 95 per all of all investors I’ve ever spoken to, did not invest in our company so you got to talk to a lot of them. It’s definitely a numbers game.

John: Number’s game.

Christie: Yeah.

John: Just talk a little bit about your vision. How scalable is this? You’re up there in Seattle, you’re starting in, of course, Oregon, and Seattle, and Washington, which makes sense, coming down to California and also online. Eventually, soon you’ll be all across North America. But how big can this grow?

Christie: Yeah, I’m really glad you asked it that way because what you identified was the geography of our CPG products, right?

John: Right.

Christie: It’s obviously part of our vision because that’s exactly what we’re doing. But it is not our ultimate vision. Our ultimate vision is to convert chicken processing factories into plant-based meat production factories. We are developing and have already developed technology that will be fully ready on June 28 for investors to visit, that is actually capable of removing a couple of pieces of equipment from a chicken processing facility and convert it into a more efficient and more high-margin plant-based meat processing facility. That is what I think will move the needle on how much plant-based meat is available to stop thinking about it from one company and one like[?] getting bigger to thinking about as[?] injecting our technology into the industry, the chicken industry, and transforming it into the plant-based meat industry.

John: That being said, is it out of [inaudible]? If the question is too specific or too private, please don’t feel bad. I’m pushing back. But then, if that’s the case, if both, you know, you’ve invented this company, and your vision, both with your taste buds and your stomach, but also with your mechanical engineering in mind, because that’s the secret sauce you just mentioned, is your engineering side of you coming out? Then, that would to me, if I was in your board meeting, I’d be saying, “Well then, we’ve got to get a strategic investor like one of the biggest poultry companies to come in next.” because that’s the next step of where you’re really going with this thing. Is that true[?]?

Christie: Absolutely.

John: Is that in the wind, hopefully?

Christie: That is in the wind.

John: Okay, great. Well, good. I want you to go back on this show when you’re ready to announce that. I’ll be one of the platforms that you make that kind of announcement on because that– [crosstalk]

Christie: I would love to do that.

John: That would be such a happy day. That’s a happy day. You’re inventing a company that know[?] when you’re starting, the right way like any other innovator who starts a company, or entrepreneur who starts a journey one step at a time, Washington, Oregon, California, then North America. But because of the engineering side of you, this is a worldwide opportunity that you’re creating at Rebellyous Foods.

Christie: Yeah, it’s a worldwide opportunity. It’s also an opportunity to direct the future of the chicken industry into something more sustainable. This is a really big problem because as more and more people decide to eat chicken, as they replace pork with chicken, there are a lot of people investing in bigger and more expensive chicken processing facilities. We want to give them an alternative, a viable alternative, a manual that we can hand them, that says, instead of doing that, you can make chicken nuggets much more easily and much more cost-effectively this way, if that’s all you want, it’s[?] chicken nuggets, patties, and tenders, we’ve got a better solution for you from an industrial perspective.

John: Wow. That’s exciting. Is it going to mostly stick with chicken and expand on the chicken products or will you also then morph into other plant-based foods as well as time goes on?

Christie: Yeah. Rebellyous is definitely going to continue to expand. We focus on bread, battered, fried, products because those are the area that we focus most of our technology development on. So, the other thing that we bread, batter, and fry, in the United States are chicken or fish sticks. We bread, batter, and fry, all manner of chicken. Chicken pieces, chicken wings, chicken, whatever.

John: Right.

Christie: And we can make those types of products for plant-based too. But fish sticks is our next conquer because that’s another area that we can do a really good job of replacing processed fish products.

John: Well, I can’t wait to come back on Impact to announce a strategic partnership hopefully, with a big chicken producer, and also, I want to try your products. Also, fish sticks sound really good. For our listeners and viewers, to find Christie and her great products, please go to www.rebellyous.com, R-E-B-E-L-L-Y-O-U-S. Christie Lagally, you are making truly an impact in making the world a better place. Thank you for what you do and thank you for joining us today on the Impact Podcast.

Christie: Thank you for having me.

John: This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loop’s platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular[?] economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com