When Unattainable Meals introduced that CEO Peter McGuiness would step down after practically 4 years, the corporate framed the transfer as a transition “from a place of energy.” For Rachel Konrad, the previous head of communications at Unattainable Meals, it felt extra just like the inevitable endpoint of an extended strategic detour.
“I’d by no means have moved my complete household again from Europe to go to a CPG veggie burger firm,” Konrad mentioned this week on The Spoon Podcast. “I went to hitch a radical, uncommon, category-busting biotech juggernaut.”
Konrad joined Unattainable in 2016, figuring out the corporate was stepping right into a struggle. The truth is, these fights had been what her former boss, Pat Brown, employed her to assist struggle.
Instantly after Konrad began at Unattainable, Pat Brown forwarded her an e mail from somebody “very extremely positioned within the ag sector.”
“It mentioned there was a limiteless finances to destroy this foolish little firm referred to as Unattainable Meals, seemingly funded by the Cattlemen’s Affiliation. Take it down primarily based on propaganda, concern, uncertainty, and doubt.”
That stress marketing campaign was actual, however Konrad doesn’t consider that’s what finally weakened Unattainable. “The most important mistake startups make is that they get just a little traction and immediately resolve, ‘Now we’re enjoying within the massive leagues,’” Konrad mentioned. “They overhaul the corporate and undertake the incumbent playbook.”
That often means typical branding, massive promoting spends, and competing instantly with legacy giants.
“In the event you’re a startup, you’ll by no means out-advertise Nestlé or Unilever,” she mentioned. “When you undertake the chessboard of the incumbent business, you’re lifeless. It would take a 12 months or two, however you’re lifeless.”
Konrad sees Unattainable’s pivot underneath McGuiness, explicitly positioning itself as a tech-enabled CPG firm, as precisely that entice. She believes early traders like Vinod Khosla would have by no means jumped on board in the event that they thought Unattainable was going to be one other CPG model.
“Vinod didn’t put money into a silly CPG veggie burger firm,” she mentioned. “He invests in issues that change the trajectory of humanity.”
Konrad advised me that what made Unattainable completely different wasn’t branding, however its expertise. She felt that the corporate ought to have aggressively pursued a B2B technique by which Unattainable was the platform for next-generation meat alternate options, somewhat than attempting to beat the world as a consumer-facing model.
“It’s a category-defining biotech firm that makes heme,” Konrad mentioned. “Why didn’t Unattainable license heme? Why didn’t it go into dietary supplements? Why didn’t it turn into a serious B2B participant?”
After I requested her if the corporate pushing out Pat Brown and going with McGuiness was a mistake – declaring Brown’s infamous prickly perspective – she mentioned sure, pointing to the instance of Steve Jobs.
“Apple solely grew to become Apple as a result of Steve Jobs got here again and mentioned, ‘F**ok that—we’re not doing SKU administration,’” she mentioned. “Unattainable wants a Steve Jobs second.”
I agree with Konrad that Brown is a novel visionary, the type who is typically wanted to beat huge obstacles, however I nonetheless surprise if the general headwinds in opposition to plant-based protein had been an excessive amount of for any chief.
Konrad doesn’t undergo from these similar doubts and nonetheless believes Unattainable has an opportunity to turn into a long-term success story. “My hope – for the planet, for folks, for animals – is that Unattainable goes again to that unique imaginative and prescient. With out that, it’s going to be very laborious to show this round.”
It was a enjoyable dialog and you’ll take heed to it under.
