Ep. #912 - The Future of Food

00:01.92

Andrew Morgans

What’s up, Hustlers? Welcome back. This is Andrew Morgans, founder of Marknology. Here as today’s host of Startup Hustle covering all things e-commerce, Amazon startups, entrepreneurship—honestly, anything under those buckets we’re talking about here. Today’s title is going to be The Future of Food. But before I get into telling you more about that, what that title exactly means, and before I introduce today’s guest, I want to give a shoutout to our sponsor for today’s episode, FullScale.io. If you’re hiring software developers and having a hard time, Full Scale can help you build a software team quickly and affordably. And they have the platform to help you manage that team. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. Today’s guest is Ryan Bethencourt. Welcome to the show. Yeah, nice to meet you. Founder of Wild Earth, Inc. and someone that is a fellow pet brand owner.

00:43.85

Ryan Bethencourt

Thanks, Andrew. It’s a pleasure to be with you.

00:57.94

Andrew Morgans

Okay, ah, you know I’ve been doing it for going on 7 years um with my co-founder Ben Bellenson um it can be a little bit difficult, so I’m super excited to hear your story and honestly hear like how you’ve gotten to where you are um with the success that you guys have had. Ah, just for my own curiosity, much less our listeners, so I’ll try to make it useful for everyone. Um, but I love getting started, just kind of like, um, I want to know your story, and I want to know the origin story not just you know, not just the future of food and not just what is Wild Earth Inc. But um, you know Ryan. And um, you know how did you get into this space of owning a brand that has to do with pet food and um, you know have you been an entrepreneur. Let’s start with this one: have you been an entrepreneur like, um, you know, since you were a kid? Is it something that you always thought you’d be doing, or is this something you kind of found so?

01:47.94

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, no, no, I would say I became an accidental entrepreneur. So I’ve always grown up with science, right? So I would say I was like a frustrated scientist. Um, I even remember I have. I don’t know if you remember those as kids. Some of us had like chemistry sets and things. So.

01:55.18

Andrew Morgans

You got it.

02:06.14

Ryan Bethencourt

Did you ever have one of those chemistry sets you could make like little crystals you put like different lotions and potions together, and there were like these little cool little like labs that you could get, and I remember I would make these little crystals different colors, and I would try and sell them to people right? and you know I Love the science I Love creating it but then I would.

02:19.22

Andrew Morgans

Okay, okay.

02:24.75

Ryan Bethencourt

Try and sell it. I’d be like, hey, I made a crystal. Do you want to buy it, and most people are like, you know this? This is not a crystal. You can do anything with um, but that was my favorite early days. I’ve always loved science, and I became a frustrated scientist because I wanted to become an entrepreneur. And I saw a lot of my friends in the text base were becoming entrepreneurs, and very few scientists were, and so I kind of started. Um, yeah yeah.

02:50.51

Andrew Morgans

Ryan Bethencourt, not to interrupt, but I don’t want you to skip this part. Okay, so I want to go into this. You said you always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but you kind of fell into it by accident. Um, because you were a scientist, right? So did you.

03:00.76

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah.

03:06.63

Andrew Morgans

Were your parents like business owners, or were they entrepreneurs? What was the glimpse of entrepreneurship that you saw? Yeah.

03:07.50

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, but yeah, but yeah, so the – glimpse of entrepreneurship were my parents, so they started one of the – ah solar water ah solar heating companies in Florida. So.

03:20.96

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

03:22.90

Ryan Bethencourt

But my parents were Cuban refugees. They came to Florida. I was born in Miami. Um, they started a solar water heating company. I mean, this was, you know, years forty years ago um and so um, you know, the kind of showed me that you could actually build something. At the time, that was pretty advanced, like they were putting solar panels on people’s roofs to heat their water and all sorts of stuff and so that was really yeah, go ahead.

03:44.70

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, and it was something that was something that you like ah because I meet some that are inspired by that and want to do that and then others that are like I’m doing anything but business ownership like my parents. It was a struggle they hated. You know they fought all the time. We never had money. Um, it was something that you were like, I want to, and I want to just like invent stuff.

04:05.27

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, it was. It was a mixture because that is why that company failed. So my father’s long story is like we go back real. My father left us when we were six years old and he took all the money, right? He had a midlife crisis. The company failed. My mother had to lay off 12 employees.

04:16.17

Andrew Morgans

Um, okay.

04:24.86

Ryan Bethencourt

With no money so he basically took payroll and so she had to lay them off and it was a horrible time. We became pretty poor at that time. Um, and so it was like this very mixed thing where I saw them build something amazing and then I saw it all fall apart and and and so for me, you know the 1 thing that um.

04:26.70

Andrew Morgans

K.

04:38.64

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

04:44.41

Ryan Bethencourt

Really kind of kept me engaged with science right? So I was like I was a scientist, but I had this like I wanted to build stuff I wanted to move things quickly. Um, and I only realized later that I loved selling things that I love the idea of building businesses and and I just. I Never really I’d never seen anyone that built a science based business right? So for me that was kind of New Tech I Guess solar solar heating and whatever that was a bit technology focused. Um, but it was actually when I was in the lab so I became a scientist I dropped out of my Ud um.

05:17.58

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

05:21.59

Ryan Bethencourt

Because I was so frustrated how slow everything was moving um and and all my you know all my professors at the time were like well if you if you if you’re no longer scientists. We don’t know what you’re gonna do. You know, like getting a job somewhere like being a lab manager or something and I was like wow that doesn’t sound great to me but ah, right, It’s like I literally drop out because things move so slow and I have to like.

05:22.29

Andrew Morgans

Yeah.

05:34.62

Andrew Morgans

Sounds horrible. Yeah.

05:41.24

Ryan Bethencourt

Run the lab instead or something because then I would do some business stuff I guess, and so I kind of went out into the wilderness and started in pharmaceutical sales and I learned how to sell there right? So um, you know it was going door to door selling you know back in the days with Pfizer in New York and and then I was still like I kind of.

05:48.61

Andrew Morgans

Yeah.

06:00.11

Ryan Bethencourt

Started to learn how to sell bigger and bigger ticket items and then um and I stumbled across like back in 2008 there were a whole bunch of biotech companies going bust I moved to California a bunch of biotech companies were going bust and myself and a couple of friends. We started to buy used lab equipment for like pennies on the dollar and we started to make labs. Like our kitchens in our garage, I didn’t have a garage I had a kitchen right? So I had an apartment so I was um but we were making labs where we lived and we’re doing science and I was like this is this is interesting right? It was like I was like maybe we could do low-cost biotech like maybe that’s possible.

06:28.36

Andrew Morgans

Cool.

06:36.60

Ryan Bethencourt

And so that started what’s now called the biohacker movement and it was right. It was like a bunch of like a dozen plus people who were doing this ah both in California and New York and a bunch of other places. Um, and then it gave me this idea I was like well how do we help scientists become entrepreneurs because I was really frustrated right? like I love science.

06:37.75

Andrew Morgans

Um, okay.

06:56.17

Ryan Bethencourt

You know I’d never heard of anyone starting a company a science based business for like ah 50 k right? or – k but ah, you know I knew all these people that started like software businesses with like nothing a computer and like some software. Um, right? and so I was like how do we? How do we do low cost science and low cost? Ah, biotech and and and that started me on a journey to figure that out I started a biotech accelerator totally by accident. Um, first a biohacker space then then ah, a co-working space that I started funded with my own money and a few other people that came in with me. Um, where basically scientists could. Evenings and weekends they could do science because I was like let’s let’s build this shared space and that eventually like I was trying to raise money and eventually led to me meeting a guy named Sean O’Sullivan and and a few of his partners at this bench capital firm in San Francisco and they were like yeah let’s do this and I was like let’s do what. And they were like well let’s do this accelerator thing and I was like okay we need money and they’re like well we have it and we’re gonna deploy it and so I was like oh and so I became like this accidental investor. Um, but I was helping scientists build businesses which was the thing that I absolutely loved and so you know yeah.

08:03.92

Andrew Morgans

Can we stop there for a second, Ryan, because one um I think whenever you’re building anything to solve a problem. Ah you know it’s a good idea or it’s like a lot closer to being a good idea than one that’s not right? and then when you’re just providing value for people because.

08:15.22

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah.

08:22.42

Andrew Morgans

Something that you would appreciate or that you liked and you’re solving that for you and you’re like you know what this is going to help others along the way I think that’s something that’s pretty powerful and something that I can relate to is um so I have a bachelor’s of science in computer science. So you know not a scientist in that sense. But um, did.

08:33.34

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah, your computer scientists will sign. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh wow.

08:39.94

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, exactly right? Yeah exactly and you know when I was a kid my parents were missionaries to Africa so I’m kind of an immigrant in a different kind of sense too I moved back from Africa when I was 16 to here to the Us. So it’s like I’m an American immigrant and it’s you know a different kind of way just like I just really didn’t understand America.

08:49.44

Ryan Bethencourt

But while.

08:59.45

Andrew Morgans

How it worked, um but I was always tinkering, right? like I was hacking our internet satellite in Congo and to get faster speeds and like you know, hacking software to get access to it to fix things you know and.

09:05.25

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, oh wow yeah, buttery mad. That’s not that’s not a normal story. I was hacking our internet satellite in the Congo right? like that is not a normal story which just kind of shows that that’s. That really made you think differently, right? yeah.

09:23.66

Andrew Morgans

It did make me think differently. It made it did make me think different I was I was doing that not because I thought of how big it was or what it was it was I wanted faster Internet speeds to do this other thing ah that I was trying to do right and I was trying to get American culture to my computer at the time I was trying to play video games.

09:34.79

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah.

09:43.12

Andrew Morgans

And I just like doing things like that. Well that scientist parted me Well then I came back to the real world and ah needed to make money and needed to survive needed to go to school and come from a poor family and you know so then I started bartending I started selling you know I started selling asso I became a musician went on tour sold our music sold our.

09:55.89

Ryan Bethencourt

3

10:02.85

Andrew Morgans

Merch sold our tour to venues that sold, you know, sold all kinds of things. Um and you learn to sell yourself along that way too right? So it was like it was interesting and I think it’s since I dug into your store. We’re getting a little bit more because it becomes how do you become like you know, branding marketing and selling a product when you’re. Ah, data person or a scientist person and I think it comes like you’re like well I meet all these makers all the time that are amazing. They’re creative. They know how to make something they’re like they’re bringing it out of nothing like that’s just absolute genius to me someone that can bring an idea that doesn’t exist out of nothing. Um.

10:20.69

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah.

10:39.98

Andrew Morgans

But Also when I was playing music I lived at home I didn’t I couldn’t rent a studio and I was like you know how amazing would it be to have this place where you just have all these instruments like these different rooms that people can come in and rent them out and have band practice and you know everything’s set up because it’s not. Easy to just have all that gear and all of that equipment somewhere and really practice if you’re trying to make it sound very familiar right? I didn’t have I wouldn’t say that I had a lot of friends around me that were entrepreneurs or doing the thing or like kind of showing the roadmap that was that was kind of.

10:57.33

Ryan Bethencourt

Here.

11:14.27

Andrew Morgans

More delay in my life because I just had people that were going after like I want to do good work and value and it wasn’t like tied to money which was a hindrance because I could have moved faster if I saw it as a business you know, but it was providing value trying to solve these problems trying to do these things. Okay, now I’m selling to survive Oh Wow I can. All these different skills I have now when I’ve actually found something which was like e-commerce and digital marketing and and that kind of Discovery and shell-blazing was like oh I have all these skills I can pull from from all these other things before and I just wanted I just wanted to like give a couple notes on just like you know the knowledge you just dropped there around. Well I wasn’t even really thinking of it as a real business I was doing it for myself. You know and then then I had some backing and then you know and then I was like okay I was um, getting to the core of things like and maybe that was motivated by um, well you know why did dad leave or why did this not work or why did Mom’s business fail or why did.

11:54.29

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah.

12:08.12

Ryan Bethencourt

Me.

12:12.72

Andrew Morgans

You know, um, you know what’s the next thing next to solar Whoever knows what that motivation is, um, it’s cool to pull it all the way back around.

12:18.29

Ryan Bethencourt

But I think that you hit a really important point which was like this kind of falling into selling right? selling is like a trial by fire right? At -. It’s really hard and it’s very uncomfortable and it never fully goes like selling is never like this totally comfortable thing that you’re just like oh I Love selling all day long. But. Eventually, you learn to love to sell but it’s like it’s this one skill and I would say you know between what you know with your story in mind. We both had to learn how to sell, right? And like when you learn how to sell, you don’t realize at the time, but you’re actually learning a skill that is absolutely crucial for an entrepreneur.

12:38.57

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, yeah.

12:55.74

Andrew Morgans

Yes.

12:57.86

Ryan Bethencourt

This ability to sell like I wish I could go back in time and tell myself like when I was so stressed out about targets that I had and like early morning meetings and like walking cold calling and I would get butterflies in my stomach like literally walking into a doctor’s office and like trying to sell. You know I never met them. They didn’t want to speak to me. They just viewed me as an annoying salesman like um if I had gone back in time and said hey all these skills all of these experiences and like honestly pretty scary experiences sometimes that you’ve had will be valuable in the future right. For you as an entrepreneur for you as a builder for you as a salesperson for you to to train other people right? Um, but you know you like rarely does anyone ever tell you that right? like right.

13:43.80

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, no, no, no one’s like look I know you this is like your vision for where you see yourself and like this year this two years right now are like going to be crucial for whenever you launch that business to be able to handle rejection to be able to like you know if like – thing I realized was I don’t. I actually loved to sell. I hated selling religion as a kid. That’s what I didn’t love right? you know, and it was like what was pushed down my throat was just like you know door to door Sunday school or you know and I have faith like to an an extent right? but it was not like selling religion. But if I’m selling something that I actually believe helps people.

14:04.13

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, ah yeah, yeah.

14:12.90

Ryan Bethencourt

Ah, yeah, yeah.

14:21.20

Andrew Morgans

And I I do know that religion helps some people. Okay for everyone listening but like for me if I believe that something helps someone like let’s say it’s um, hiring Marknology to help someone on the Amazon the right brand or it’s um, you know so working with products that are good once we are selling them I’m like I can sell the crap out of them because.

14:21.34

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah.

14:39.23

Andrew Morgans

You know I really do believe that you working with us will give you the best chance at success and I believe that it becomes super easy and I think for most people at least me I was like bullied I was a redhead that’s like African on the inside I was like it was not an easy like assimilation for me into American culture. And for me like I didn’t see a lot of value in myself like you know for my young 20 s probably and things like that you know self-confidence and esteem and stuff like that. But it was like what this thing that I do or this thing that I’m selling does have value.

15:02.50

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah.

15:14.90

Andrew Morgans

So it was like if I was selling myself as a service like you know, hire me to do this or choose me to work here like I was pretty timid you know or shy. But if I was selling something like um, you know a product or a service or my team or a company I found that I liked.

15:22.39

Ryan Bethencourt

Are.

15:32.60

Andrew Morgans

Pretty bold and outgoing and like confident and so that was – thing that I just tried to do to kind of hack my confidence early on when it came to like rejection and like getting in there and then tying that to my scientist self of saying I know that if I talk to – people I’m going to close – it’s the data. The data says like I talked to a hundred. It’s the numbers. You know I’ll get – of them to say yes or.

15:51.95

Ryan Bethencourt

And by the way, that applies to everything right? It applies literally to everything from getting customers to getting partners ah hiring Um, ah, raising money right? like raising money is a numbers game. Like it literally is numbers game and it’s like what’s interesting to me is how few people you know, talk about how even raising money is a numbers game like you you literally put together a targeting list and you go down the target list and by the way most of the investors you talked are gonna tell you no, you’re an idiot. No one wants this. No one will ever buy this, and you just keep going, right? and you feel terrible like you do and then you just reset and then keep keep going and then actually some of the most successful entrepreneurs who’ve raised incredible amounts of money. Get rejected the most right like you know, but they just keep going.

16:42.93

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, that’s why I’m here and I’m like I have a lot to prove so you know I feel like you know, just getting started. But for me, I was someone that early on in life just faced a lot of rejection, whether that was school or companies or people. Um you know, but I feel like. I really do look back at those failures and I’m just sharing that because like I look back at it now at 35 I’m like for 35 I’ve lived a ton of life and I’ve learned a lot of lessons that a lot of people don’t even learn. You know, um in a lifetime and those have really set me up to be like.

17:12.37

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah.

17:17.32

Andrew Morgans

To be the most refined you know if I can sell to my dad was a genius that like an Iq Genius that would always see the opposite side of something or like always see flipside as a kid. It was the most frustrating thing in the world. Um to be wrong. Even if you’re right because that person can argue better like you know, give you a perspective that’s different. Um. But if you’re like ah if you can essentially as a scientist like give the whys to something that you’re selling to the objections. So for every objection that’s out there. You have a why or you have a solution to it. So you’re selling essentially to an intellectual customer right? and then like you can sell to anything below that.

17:42.81

Ryan Bethencourt

So.

17:50.72

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah.

17:56.33

Andrew Morgans

Um, and I do believe that So it’s like you know I spent a lot of time learning the other side of something. Ah so that whenever I got to those knows I would I would have a reason you know or something to sell to them that I thought you know they might bite onto. Um and I know we’re not here to talk about selling.

18:11.93

Ryan Bethencourt

No, no, but it’s critically important like it’s. It’s literally for I’m sure for everyone. That kind of listening or watching the podcast like selling is what actually can make entrepreneurs and companies just incredible. The ability to sell and it’s something that.

18:13.98

Andrew Morgans

But it’s just like that.

18:25.70

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, yeah.

18:30.80

Ryan Bethencourt

You know the founder, the CEO, like the leader of the company has to be able to lead by selling. You can’t hang back back and like expect oh let me hire a great salesperson and let them sell it. It’s like that you just have to get good at it. Even if you’re not good at it. You have to get good at it.

18:33.89

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, yeah.

18:43.52

Andrew Morgans

Because that salesperson they’re salespeople They don’t really have roots and there’s going to be a matter of time until they’ve proven. They’re worth it and they’re going to go get more. They’re going to go get paid somewhere else more you know and I’ve seen that over and over and over again. So like if the founder is not the one selling it.

18:54.40

Ryan Bethencourt

Yes, yeah.

19:01.45

Andrew Morgans

Um, and as far as the story goes and the brand goes and all of that is like if the owner doesn’t believe in it. What are we talking about right? so.

19:05.19

Ryan Bethencourt

But yeah, yeah, I mean it sounds like you have to say I can’t sell anything I don’t believe it right? Like I literally you know I’ve had people approach me with all sorts of incredible opportunities and I’m like yeah but I don’t care right? Like you know, ah you know I could have started a fintech company. But I don’t care about fintech like I literally couldn’t care less. It doesn’t drive me so I would be terrible at it.

19:29.58

Andrew Morgans

You’re like I’m going to wake up every day. I have to force myself to work and force myself to care about this thing because it’s not natural. It’s not authentic and like my motivation inspiration is like the next level like I’m just a very motivated person and um I’ve worked hard my whole life. But whenever I lose that because I stop caring about whatever I’m going after, like let’s say it’s a goal achieved or let’s say it’s like I shouldn’t have done that anyway, or I lose respect for the thing I’m working on or I lose interest. It is just so difficult. It’s like uphill for me, you know, um, and so once you realize that you kind of have that magic power or you have like this.

19:47.95

Ryan Bethencourt

That is so.

20:04.34

Andrew Morgans

Unlimited amount of like motivation if you’re aligned right? You’re like I’m never doing anything that I’m not aligned with because it’s so hard in comparison.

20:09.65

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah Matt you become unstoppable, right? Like if you’re an unstoppable entrepreneur right in in many ways because of that um and and and and – thing that I thought might be interesting is the interlinking like you know in terms of the future food side. Um. You know what I thought might be interesting for us to talk about. So um, you know I love it. I think it is super interesting. Ah, the indie bio which I mentioned I started and we co-founded and we built for about 4 years that for me was an education in helping.

20:27.88

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, bring it.

20:44.38

Ryan Bethencourt

A lot of entrepreneurs build a lot of really interesting companies. About a third of those companies were really future. A food company. Some of them were like Gene therapy companies and cancer therapeutic companies but some of them were like the – cell-based meat company, right? Like this mind blowing thing which seems like science fiction but you can actually make reality right. And and and honestly it sounds like you you might read some science fiction or enjoy some science right? Ah I Love Science fiction. Absolutely I devour any good sci-fi and by the way always looking for good recommendations for good sci-fi Um, but like that that for me the idea that we could actually help make that a reality and we did right? ah.

21:06.30

Andrew Morgans

Yeah.

21:14.60

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

21:23.62

Ryan Bethencourt

Ah, the company’s called upside foods where the investor upside foods and I worked with uma the founder and Ceo to build and scale this company. Um, I really unlocked this idea in my head. It was like oh wow, like there’s a whole range of new companies and so we’ve seen that with like impossible foods and beyond meat of all these kinds of future food companies. There’s so much more if food is technology right? which it has been. You know ten thousand years ago our ancestors said hey you know what’s cool instead of hunting and foraging. Let’s create. This new technology is called farms right? and we’re gonna grow.

21:56.13

Andrew Morgans

I Don’t want to leave this waterfall is perfect and like this valley’s perfect and I don’t want to leave and I don’t want to chase the food. So let’s figure out how to stay here.

22:04.19

Ryan Bethencourt

Exactly and then you know I know you’re in Kansas like Kansas has lots of these you know relatively new technologies called farms right? like these technologies right? A farm ten thousand years ago had the idea of taking a similar approach. Like monocropping right? similar plants planting them artificially irrigating the fields with water keeping all the pests out and all the animals that would eat it like to eat that food and then eventually creating enough food so that we were not attached to the land right? that we could attach to our meaning like. Humanity’s creative energies could go outside of just surviving and getting enough to eat, right? like all of these things are like mind blowing things, right? and this is kind of I guess our segue into entrepreneurship but also like really the future of food. Our ancestors ten thousand years ago started this journey domesticating plants and animals. Um, you know, ah you know like corn originally started. You saw what teocente it’s like almost inedible and now everyone enjoys corn right? like it’s kind of.

23:15.40

Andrew Morgans

Yep.

23:15.74

Ryan Bethencourt

Cool thing but it is a plant that would not necessarily exist in nature the way that it does in our farms we have evolved it. We have selected for it sort of optimizes for the production of food and so that was really an inspiration around the future of food. And what started my journey with food because, you know it is just I just find it so hard to believe that there are still today I think it’s like a billion people on this planet that go hungry like crazy. We have the ability to grow food for them. Like why is that you I mean you were in Africa right? Like you saw this firsthand, hunger is still a very big problem in Africa. It’s a problem in the US too. By the way, right? Not as much of a problem as it isn’t developing countries but still a problem. Why can’t we feed everyone right?

23:58.70

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah.

24:11.36

Ryan Bethencourt

Like enough so that they’re like they’re good right? And and.

24:14.10

Andrew Morgans

It’s because the world is run by people that think of us as products and you know it.

24:17.53

Ryan Bethencourt

But how do we unleash creative energies? Because there are people that grow food. There are people there who are entrepreneurs out there that could serve the local needs of everyone. Like there is like this is and this is where this is.

24:29.48

Andrew Morgans

Yes, yes.

24:36.46

Ryan Bethencourt

Future food and entrepreneurship combined together. You know I know we both work in the pet category but like you know, feeding all of us right? and I include our pets in that as well like that is doable. We just need to unlock the entrepreneurial energies of people. Even you know. One of the most interesting things to me is like the bottom billion like how do we feed the bottom billion people like people who survive on a dollar a day how do we? How do we feed them right? How do we and and and and I think we can do it economically and so that yeah.

25:08.25

Andrew Morgans

I think some of it is releasing people like myself and you that you know come from Humble beginnings where we had to at least me like I’m still in that path of providing for my family. My mom and my dad and my sisters and.

25:23.55

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, Hidden area.

25:25.92

Andrew Morgans

And we’re taking care of people in the hierarchy of needs right? We’re taking care of some of those Baseline needs of security and safety and um, you know, just some of the minds of the world that can solve these problems are tied up doing things. They shouldn’t be doing it right? and so you know I feel no guilt.

25:28.49

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, see yeah.

25:44.56

Andrew Morgans

Whenever I’m taking Brands digital and you know getting rid of some jobs um or creating other jobs right? or like what else are you going to do with your brain space I don’t know how to solve hunger like you know there’s like so many other things we can be doing outside of like you know, bagging groceries or.

25:49.34

Ryan Bethencourt

Still.

26:01.67

Andrew Morgans

You know driving a truck or like some of these things that are getting automated. Um, you know because everyone has this potential I’m nobody I’m just someone that’s passionate about whatever I’m doing you know and I.

26:02.92

Ryan Bethencourt

Um.

26:10.90

Ryan Bethencourt

We’re all at the end of the Grand scheme. We’re all nobody but somebody right? like we’re all important because we’re people right? but we are like there’s you know we there’s a say what was it. Everyone has to put their pants on in the morning right? Like we’re all really the same.

26:24.95

Andrew Morgans

Like I’m I’m I’m different in that I grew up in a war-torn Congo and saw crazy things. That’s honestly like a sci-fi movie. Ah Ryan, honestly like it’s I don’t need to explain to people until my thirties because I just didn’t know where to start, you know? And um, so.

26:26.84

Ryan Bethencourt

Um.

26:32.99

Ryan Bethencourt

Are.

26:43.50

Andrew Morgans

You know what I bring to the table is literally perspective like I can see stuff from a different perspective and a different angle. Ah, and maybe outside the box you know coming to the table if I am sitting in a room with a bunch of scientists that might be my one contribution is I just see the problem from a different angle than than the other minds you know and I’m like.

27:01.79

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, and and by the way, I understand where you’re coming from because it’s like you know when you’ve experienced some level of like you know challenges right? in 1 way or another um, sometimes for people who haven’t experienced similar challenges.

27:01.89

Andrew Morgans

But something that all of us can do. It’s free. So.

27:18.79

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, it can be shocking for them right? like so you don’t talk about it right? You’re like hey you know I lived in this really rough neighborhood in Miami like the Miami vice days I grew up in the time when there were like you know dead bodies floating up because of the you know the drug wars that were happening in Miami and it’s like you know. People just can’t comprehend. You know they viewed it as entertainment like something you’d watch on Tv right? and and you see you know Yeah and and there are people and and and we’re relatively speaking in great shape like there are people who you know like like you were saying people in the Congo like people who were.

27:39.37

Andrew Morgans

Their life hasn’t been threatened like that. Yeah.

27:52.54

Ryan Bethencourt

Part of these Civil Wars right? like who are like I mean really had it really really hard and and what I find really interesting is sometimes unfortunately you know these really traumatic things break people right? but sometimes it makes people really really strong right? And so.

28:07.10

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, take a break here right.

28:11.88

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, and the sad part is like I’m sure you and I both have people in our lives that have been broken by Traumatic experiences. It’s one of the hardest things when you have people in your life that have been broken by Traumatic experiences. Um, but you know the flip side is those of us that. Maybe they have been broken but are able to continue moving forward or rebuild themselves or whatever we want to phrase it. Um, it’s what we can add and how we can help others right? and that’s it’s like how we serve right? others.

28:37.98

Andrew Morgans

Right? Beauty Yeah I love it I’m ah I’m gonna stop you because I want to read I want to give a shout out to our sponsor and I want to ask a few more questions about this I might get a little bit more direct with my questions because I think we’re jamming and ah.

28:46.97

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah, a f yes.

28:54.70

Andrew Morgans

We’ve just had some fun and I think this stuff is amazing like honestly to our listeners. Um, if you’re trying to be an entrepreneur or a founder or a business leader any of this. It’s all about your mindset and it’s all about your intentionality and you know finding what you do best and just leaning into that so it sounds like simple things. But it’s really not. Ah, you know, but when you’re able to act on those things and be able to pull from your past failures or whether it’s just in business or childhood or marriage or whatever the case you pull from those, maybe your strength moves forward to help others. It’s like you can do some, you know, amazing things. So shoutout again to our sponsor episode to today’s podcast. Finding expert software developers doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you visit FullScale.io. They can build a software team quickly and affordably. Use the Full Scale platform to define your technical needs and then see what available developers, testers, and leaders are ready to join your team. Visit FullScale.io to learn more. So Ryan, we’ve talked about things you’ve done in the past, we’ve talked about things that have gotten you here. We’ve talked about like you know, passion and interests and covered some of the background and I think I don’t have nearly as much as I want but for the sake of the podcast and the listeners here. we’re talking about Wild Earth Inc. and we’re talking about the future of food.

29:51.35

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah.

30:03.51

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

30:08.45

Andrew Morgans

What are you doing now with Wild Earth, Inc. and um, you know what are you guys doing that’s special in regards to um, innovating food for animals as someone that has a Doberman downstairs on a big am.

30:16.51

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, oh we’ll send you. We’ll send you some Wild Earth, Inc. Well definitely a goodie of lots of goodies little goody bags. Yeah.

30:26.12

Andrew Morgans

Okay, I’m ah I’m a huge dog person I’m honestly like a little bit of a Tarzan that’s living in real life society here. Um, but you know, talk about what you guys are doing talk about like you know what project you’re on now. Um like what you’re what you’re working on.

30:36.40

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, so I was really inspired by you know, having worked in kind of the future food space for us humans. Um, you know I’m also a huge animal lover. I grew up with dogs and cats and. You know it sounds like you may have had experience with other animals. I also had like a bunch of like you know birds Lizards snakes you name it I Just love animals I love them in every way I find them endlessly fascinating. Um, and so ah, but particularly I love dogs. So my dog lady, you probably might have heard some noises.

31:01.51

Andrew Morgans

Yeah.

31:13.54

Ryan Bethencourt

She was crying. She came in here crying because she wanted some attention. She’s a 13 year old german shepherd um, ah, but she you know like I really wanted to transform food for our best friends, right? like that was really something that really resonated for me I was like you know what? if I’m going to spend another decade of my life doing something like it.

31:16.93

Andrew Morgans

Okay.

31:32.91

Ryan Bethencourt

You know animals bring us such joy for those of us that have animals. We know like there’s just this connection in this bond that you have with your dog or you know for some people for if they’re cat people with their cats. Um I Love both But I’m a dog guy I Have to admit, um, and. It’s like I wanted to do something for them and I really wasn’t happy with the type of food that I saw. I mean most people know that the idea of eating dog food sounds absolutely disgusting. Why like why does it sound disgusting because we know it’s not good and so and it’s like it’s just such a known thing that people are like oh. Pet food and dog food are terrible stuff. Don’t eat it. It’s toxic for humans and it’s like wait wait a minute toxic for but our animals are like our dogs are Animals. We are animals if it’s bad for us isn’t it bad for them and so you know I started to read. And you know the scientists side of me started reading these ah FDA inspection reports and things like that like there’s Euthanasia drug in dogs food. There’s melted plastics. There’s all sorts of horrible stuff in there. I’m like how does this get in there because their supply chain is. Often contaminated. So the meat itself ends up in the supply chain. It’s not good. Meat. We all know that but it turns out somehow Euthanasia drug gets in there. Some people think it’s because there’s like euthanized horses in their food. Um, and it just blew my mind and so I was like okay well. This is absolutely horrible. I mean the FDA Inspection Reports I’ve read. It talks about like roadkill being thrown in you know, ah rats that have been killed in the rendering facility where they where they render the meat that comes in when the rats are killed that’s meat so they just throw them in there right? or or like when um.

33:18.36

Andrew Morgans

Um, from my guy.

33:19.76

Ryan Bethencourt

When the meat goes bad like you store you know you know like the beef is wrapped in plastic with a little styrofoam where does it go when it goes bad. It goes to the rendering plans for our pets. Well, guess what they do the Fda has found that sometimes they don’t take the wrapping off because it’s biohazards it’s like meat that’s gone off they throw it into the renderer which heats it up and turns it through. It melts the plastic and so the plastic, which we know is a known carcinogen causes cancer ends up in the food and in the meat like meld it in there melted in there and so I was like this is insane that it’s it’s insane that it’s legal right? It’s insane that this is you know this is allowed to pass as food. And so you know I’d kind of been going plant-based. I’ve gotten into this healthy thing where I was like okay I’m gonna try and eat healthier more plants all this sort of stuff and so I was like what if what if what if I made a plant-based dog food. It sounded like I was like 1 can dogs eat plant-based um and it turns out there are omnivores like us. Right? So they can um and then two I was like is it healthy for them. It seemed fine. Um, but then I started when the more research I started doing I started to meet all these really old like plant-based vegan dogs right? like and when I mean old, it’s like. I was used to my dogs living at around 10 years of age right? like none something like that something like that something like that something like that something like that something like that something like that.

34:44.00

Andrew Morgans

Ryan Bethencourt is still with me.

00:00.00

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, and so you know as we were talking about like ah plant-based plant-based dog food and dogs living a long time. One of the things that was kind of mind-blowing is that I started to meet like these dogs that were on plant-based diets so were living much longer than most of my other dogs had, right? I was used to having big dogs like ten-ish years of age. Um, and I was meeting these big dogs that were like 15-16-17-18 years old. I didn’t even know that dogs could live that long and so it made me start thinking. Well maybe there’s something interesting here. Um, and and you know at the baseline I was like well at least if their food’s cleaner at it as a starting point. Without all the nasty stuff we know is already getting into dog food. Maybe that’s enough um you know, and so that was kind of the journey that I began. I was like okay they can survive and they seem to be able to do well on a plant-based diet. So let’s see.

00:42.41

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, yeah.

00:55.48

Ryan Bethencourt

I wonder if I could start a company doing this I wanted to feed my dog plant based so I was like okay, great I was eating mostly plant based at the time and you know ah I’m 100% plant-based now and um and so so I started Wild Earth Inc. like that was really my mission I wanted to help those that gave us such joy and love our best friends? um. And so um, you know, kind of fast forward to today you know today you know Wild Earth Inc. we went from an idea to um, we’re now the leading plant-based dog food company in the Us. Ah, we’re actually working on some lab- grown meat. So some cell-based meat. We’re making cell-based chicken too. So we’ve got plant-based which is our product that’s out we have – products in the market. We have dog food. We have treats and we have supplements. Um, ah the ah the most fun part on this journey is I was able to go into Shark tank. Um, you know I closed Mark Cuban at the time with all the other sharks. Thought it was absolutely crazy. We didn’t have a product. We were still in the r and d stages. Mark came in and he actually cut us a large check actually – of the largest checks on that episode. He loved the idea of cleaner, healthier proteins for our pets. Um, and at the time it was still kind of an idea. And the other sharks made fun of him for investing because they were like this is crazy. You know vegan dogs are nuts. Um, and of course you know Mark, I don’t know if I don’t know if you have a favorite on the tank. I don’t know if you watch Shark tank at all.

02:20.26

Andrew Morgans

Well I have um I have worked with the mark Cuban brand twice before ah on on and on Amazon so like they found you know they came to me and they were like a mark Cuban brand and then you know like helping them on Amazon. So yeah, that’s what kind of Mike.

02:26.40

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, oh I didn’t know that I did amazing. Okay, great. Great on Amazon.

02:38.90

Andrew Morgans

Connection. So yeah I’m a Mark Cuban fan app to pick one.

02:39.89

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, Mark Mark is like I was before going on the show. I was a Mark Cuban fan. I love the other sharks too. And honestly I find Mr Wonderful hilarious right? Like he is always trying to get these like you know these royalty deals and whatever else I find those I find hilarious but like. You know, really like sharks I’d like to work with always Mark you know I always found whatever he had to say absolutely fascinating so going on the show that was my hope that I was able to to to kind of close Mark I knew he liked some of these alternative proteins and like healthier plant-based protein products. Um. And we started working together and he really helped me, you know, get very practical about how you know how we reach consumers. How do we make a practical product? How do we launch? How do we? Retail sounds like you know you’ve worked with a lot of people you may not know, but Mark Cuban has the Mark Cuban companies like that’s his like one of his companies. And it’s a great group of people that work for Mark in Mark Cuban in the mark Cuban companies company. Um, and and so they really help they really help the entrepreneurs that they back on Amazon and bunch of different ways you retail all this sort of stuff and so so.

03:46.79

Andrew Morgans

So.

03:54.15

Ryan Bethencourt

So I think one of the most interesting things and we’ve been growing really fast recently is actually the last I would say this year. We’ve been growing our revenue 10% month on month which is a lot um is that ah and actually earlier this year two studies came out that shows that the. These are peer reviewed published studies. You can kind of Google them that dogs on plant-based diets have lived between 1 to 2 years longer on average than dogs on conventional meat-based kibble diets and these were 2 separate studies done by – veterinary professors and so now. I think people are waking up to this idea of like oh it’s not that you want to be vegan or that you want your dogs to be vegan. It’s actually that you want your dogs to be healthier and live longer plant-based diets are really good for them better than conventional meat-based kibble and that I think has woken up a lot of consumers to the idea of like oh wow.

04:41.10

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah.

04:51.49

Ryan Bethencourt

Course I want my dog to be healthier. Of course I want my dog with me for longer and so we’ve really seen the benefit of that and I think I think we’re going to be seeing more data around plant-based diets and how it can be healthier for dogs. Um, and so I think you know this year Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty two has really been a game changer for us because for years we’ve been, you know, looking at the data. We’ve been getting from our customers talking to our customers seeing the health improvements, but we haven’t had peer reviewed data published papers and now and now we’re starting to see them. We’ve already had to this year um and but.

05:27.12

Andrew Morgans

I’ve heard that there’s like there’s definitely like a a quieting of any type of companies that try to come out that are like you know, not using um that kind of speak out to like the Fda like findings and how bad the food is and like you know there’s just like there’s a lot of companies that.

05:40.17

Ryan Bethencourt

Um.

05:45.00

Andrew Morgans

Um, the government you know, whatever is not really making it easy. Um, you know to get that information and publish it and like so I think that’s amazing. Um, and I grew up in.

05:52.77

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, and by the way the vet school’s Matt exactly what you’re saying like even the vet schools. So a lot of people like oh well, what does my vet do? What do my vets say? The vet schools, a lot of people don’t realize this but a lot of the big food companies that we all know. Ah, you know there’s like top 4 top food companies mars nestle general mills a you know, couple of other smaller food companies. Um, they make, they’re the leaders making pet food, and they pay a lot of people who don’t know they pay for the kitchens and a lot of the nutritional information. And our vets get it in vet school and veterinary school and so the vets are basically being told like all this mass market stuff with all these health issues and problems their education is coming from the companies that make those products i.

06:37.79

Andrew Morgans

Right? Exactly think about our public school system but we won’t go there. We won’t go there.

06:43.47

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, we yeah we we? Yeah,. We definitely don’t need to go there but it’s like it’s one of those things where it’s like there is an alternative and so you know for us now that we’re starting to get this data now we can start to really put it out there and what we’re finding is. We’re Finding. It’s helping a lot of people with like it’s not necessarily that people are like oh I want my dog to live forever. Some people like that I you and I probably would be like yes I want my dog to live for very I want my dog to be with me for literally as long as I’m alive. Um, but also you know they’re dogs with skin allergies.

07:15.14

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah, just like humans just like humans and you know.

07:17.14

Ryan Bethencourt

All of a sudden they switch to a plant-based diet and suddenly their skin allergies are yeah, just like human way better way Better. They’re feeling healthier. They’re feeling better or less itchy. Suddenly the itchy paws go away, or the diarrhea is gone or like, and it’s just switching their diets. Let food be Thy Medicine right? We know that. And so now we’re finally starting to see that with our you know with better and healthier food and so um, so that’s honestly been something that I’ve absolutely loved you know and I get pictures I’m sure you do as well with your you know with with your company too. I get pictures from our customers and that’s like my favorite thing are these smiling dogs that are like happy you know either eating the food or you know being sneaky and going into the bag and eating the food and and so I just absolutely love it like I you know every business has challenges right?

08:03.18

Andrew Morgans

But I do well. We’ll definitely have to wrap you know after the podcast I feel like I just had some marketing ideas for you. Why were you talking? So I’ll be ah get I’ll give I’ll give you some free ideas.

08:08.44

Ryan Bethencourt

It’s something that brings me joy every day.

08:15.35

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, oh I Love that I Love marking ideas. Yeah yeah, yeah.

08:21.84

Andrew Morgans

Um, you know, just also what’s been working for us. What hasn’t been working for us. You know we have just a really high customer retention rate. So you know it allows us to go out there and get new customers if you’re keeping close to one out of 2 customers that find us, um, you know, and the user-generated content is just like you know it’s amazing. Ah, they’re trying to get in the box. It’s come in the mail you know and they’re trying to like they know what’s in there you know and they’re excited about it and these are like supplements so they’re they’re thinking of them like treats you know I know that they’re they’re packed full of vitamins and stuff so you know it’s good for them and um with that.

08:51.30

Ryan Bethencourt

But it’s a good math thing. Well it’s good stuff right? They’ve had it. They smell it. You know they can smell so much better though. So the package is closed, but they can still smell the product right? so.

08:59.93

Andrew Morgans

Yeah, and we know what’s good for us. You know, like even humans like you know we’re eating Mcdonald’s or Taco Bell and we know it’s not good for us and you know, but once maybe you get to this elevated state. We’ve got a little bit more money than we talk about budget and it’s like you have to change habits and just adjust and get healthier and be able to afford. You know, for us like I think some things are hard, it’s like it’s difficult and it costs more to be healthy like this kind in this country right? You have to go to separate stores. You have to think more critically and you have to like to order your items separately. There’s nothing that comes that way, especially if you’re not in these, like bigger, more advanced.

09:21.50

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, it does? Yeah yeah.

09:34.21

Andrew Morgans

Cities like l a and New York that have these types of restaurants specifically to that in Congo there wasn’t dog food so we legitimately made chicken and rice and things like that for our dog every single day you know they really were we were we were eating the same thing and like that’s how I grew up.

09:41.47

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah, the dog ate the same thing you were eating right? like that’s I mean that? yeah.

09:53.96

Andrew Morgans

Um, you know they weren’t just leftovers from us. It was like we made a separate meal for them and I had a Belgian shepherd. So um, super super-intelligent dog that you’re just like he needs to be fed that Anyway, you know they felt like a human with their intelligence level. But you know this is common sense stuff, and it’s just like you know, um.

09:59.82

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah, it is great if.

10:13.71

Andrew Morgans

I think it’s awesome that companies are, you know, built around just doing better for others. Even if that means like man’s best friend you know and um, incredible work and so like I definitely want to talk about what you guys are doing. Maybe we will do an awesome collaboration. The owner of my co-founder um is amazing.

10:19.66

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, yeah.

10:25.59

Ryan Bethencourt

Push girls for sure before.

10:32.31

Andrew Morgans

He was at Disney and Espn and some you know some very high level exact stuff and he had a sickness um doctor said he had he couldn’t do that job anymore. He used to take it easy and you know he had some animals that helped him through that.

10:41.30

Ryan Bethencourt

Oh wow. Um, yeah, but by the way that’s amazing. That’s an amazing story map because I think that’s like when you really connect like.

10:47.86

Andrew Morgans

You know through that through that and um, you wanted to give back to them you know and so that’s that’s the company that that is waggedy and and what we’re doing and um.

11:01.57

Ryan Bethencourt

You know, a lot of people say oh you know your dog can’t talk to you. It’s like yes they can, they talk to you through how they move through their eyes like for those of us that have dogs that love them. They love us back and you have a truth. It’s a special connection you have with them, especially through the hard times right? So it sounds like your co-founder. Um.

11:16.98

Andrew Morgans

Um, yeah.

11:20.69

Ryan Bethencourt

Experience that right like the connection that really took him through the illness. Um and he was you know his best friend was there for him and his best friends? yeah.

11:26.66

Andrew Morgans

Yes, I mean it’s authentic. It’s true and like the products that were made were not made as a business but it was also made like um, you know with them in mind and so you know quality ingredients and quality stuff like that I love it. Um, we’re coming up on time.

11:36.31

Ryan Bethencourt

Um. What.

11:43.30

Andrew Morgans

And I like you know I just feel like some of these conversations just go in the left field when you’re really just jamming and you’re aligned and I could bring up sci-fi but I won’t because I know we’d be here forever. But this no but this has been absolutely amazing and um.

11:50.26

Ryan Bethencourt

Yeah, and we will. We’ll be here for hours talking about sci-fi, right? So.

11:59.85

Andrew Morgans

It’s super cool to see innovation in food, and I know the uphill battle that you have, so that’s where I’m leaning on my resources. If there’s anything I can do, um, anyone listening wants to support a good cause, I know we got a lot of animal lovers on the show. So you know Wild Earth Inc. I’m looking forward to getting my treats or a bag of food. Um.

12:17.66

Ryan Bethencourt

We’ll get you all of it, Andrew. That’s interesting. We’re also on chewy Amazon Walmart wherever you shop we’re online, and we’ll be coming out retail soon. But right now, we’re still primarily online, but we are one of the fastest growing dog food brands in the US, and our focus is really on making healthier, better plant-based products for our best friends.

12:34.90

Andrew Morgans

I love it. I absolutely love it, and we’ll have to do it. We’ll have to get you back on the show to see where things are, um, you know, a few months down the road and then circle back up as you’re, ah, I know you’re developing a new product around chicken. I’m not going to try to speak to that in scientific terms. But you know we’ll love to know how that’s going as you release a new line and.

12:50.78

Ryan Bethencourt

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:59.20

Andrew Morgans

See where you guys are. One more time, shout out to our sponsor, FullScale.io. Do you need to hire software engineers, testers, or leaders? Let Full Scale help. They have the people and the platform to help you build and manage a team of experts. When you visit FullScale.io, all you need to do is answer a few questions. And let the platform match you up with a fully vetted, highly experienced team of software engineers, testers, and leaders at Full Scale. They specialize in building long-term teams that work only for you. Learn more when you visit FullScale.io. Ryan Bethencourt, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. And getting to jam with you about your passions, Wild Earth Inc., and everything that you’ve been up to. Thanks again for your time. And thank you, Hustlers, for your attention. We’ll see you next time.