Timestamps: 1:34 - Over 100 years of family entrepreneurship 11:40 - Why start foodyoung? 17:34 - Changes in the food industry 29:12 - Expanding to the US 35:42 - European and American investors About Abouzar Rahmani: Abouzar Rahmani is the co-founder and CEO of FoodYoung, a consumer food innovation company developing high-quality, clean, and sustainable food solutions. He is originally from Iran and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from UBI Business School, Brussels. He worked for a few years at Mani Foods Industry LLC, his family’s business (which was founded in 1877), before starting FoodYoung in 2012. Abouzar created FoodYoung for two reasons: firstly, because he wanted to provide entrepreneurs with the resources and support that he thought were lacking, and secondly because Abouzar himself saw a significant improvement in his health through a change of lifestyle, having lost 35kg. FoodYoung develops and commercializes food solutions that are inflammatory oil-free, have no refined sugar, are additive free, non-GMO, gluten-free, organic, plant-rich, made with fairly traded ingredients, and packaged sustainably. Throughout his years at FoodYoung he has found that food trends tend to happen in reaction to overconsumption patterns: gluten-free is trendy in Italy, meat-free in Germany, dairy-free in Switzerland, and sugar-free in America. At FoodYoung Abouzar works with 3 types of customers: Big food retailers and large corporates looking for innovation, but without the inhouse capacity to develop it Scaleups in the food space New startups with revolutionary ideas In the case of this last group, FoodYoung takes equity through their venture studio and helps them build their business. With the first two groups, there is an amount paid for FoodYoung’s services. In no case do they take a cut from the sales of their customers. Resources Mentioned: Remarkable notepad Think again, Adam Grant Zero to one, Peter Thiel The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.
