Arturo Elizondo On Raising $240 Million To Develop Biotechnology To Produce Animal Protein Sustainably

Arturo Elizondo, a founder with a remarkable story, has built a transformative company that addresses a critical global issue. Growing up on the Texas-Mexico border, he witnessed stark income disparities and developed a deep awareness of the broader world.

His venture, The EVERY Company, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Temasek, Wheatsheaf Group, SOSV and TO Ventures.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Arturo Elizondo grew up on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, instilling in him an awareness of global disparities and a passion for making a positive impact.
• Witnessing factory farming cruelty at 16 sparked Arturo’s interest in transforming the food system to reduce reliance on animal proteins.
• Despite initial ambitions in government, Arturo shifted focus to food tech after realizing its potential for large-scale impact on global food security.
• Arturo’s journey to San Francisco was driven by a desire to tackle food production issues despite his initial lack of experience in startups and biotechnology.
• Arturo co-founded The EVERY Company, leveraging biotechnology to produce animal proteins without animals, securing over $240 million in funding.
• The company’s mission is to create sustainable, animal-free proteins for the food industry, reducing environmental impact and improving food security.
• Arturo’s perseverance and growth as a leader are fueled by his belief in technology and its potential to revolutionize the food system.

 

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About Arturo Elizondo:

Arturo Elizondo is the CEO of The EVERY Company, a company for EVERY human, EVERY animal, EVERY being on the planet. Arturo has held this position for 8 years.

Prior to this, they were a board member for Forbes, representing the San Francisco Bay Area and supporting the 30 Under 30 community.

Arturo was also a founding member of the Newsweek Expert Forum and a Person of the Year for the National Hispanic Institute.

Arturo has been recognized by GreenBiz Group as a 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leader and as a Fellow by Leaders In Tech and Unreasonable.

Arturo has also served as Chambers of the Honorable Justice Sonia Sotomayor for The Supreme Court of the United States and as Investment Banking/Prime Brokerage for Credit Suisse.

Arturo began their career in public service as the Office of the Administrator for Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) at the USDA and as Constituent Services for Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) at the U.S. House of Representatives.

Arturo Elizondo received their undergraduate degree from Harvard University in government and comparative politics. Arturo then went on to earn their SLELP Scaling Excellence Fellowship from Stanford University.

Finally, they completed their education at the School for International Training in Geneva, Switzerland, where they studied international studies and multilateral diplomacy.

Connect with Arturo Elizondo:

• LinkedIn
• RocketReach
• Crunchbase
• TheOrg

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today we have an amazing founder, you know a founder that has a remarkable story, you know very inspiring. you know You’re going to find how he found a problem, and he found every single angle that he could educate himself about it you know before he actually took the plunge. But remarkable journey, a rocket ship that he’s built, and obviously a first name and a last name that the origins are from Spain. so You know, from a long time ago, but hey, you know, I’m a little bit biased. I like, you know, like those people that eventually, you know, they’re coming from the same country. Why not? Even though we’re all here in America. But anyhow, without further ado, brace yourself for impact. Brace yourself for the for this super interesting conversation ahead of us. So without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, Arturo Elitondo. Welcome to the show.

Arturo Elizondo: yes yeah Thank you for having me, Alejandro. Great to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: It’s such a pleasure. so So give us a walk through memory lane. So obviously you you grew up in the border. So um tell us, how was life growing up for you?

Arturo Elizondo: yeah I’m one of six kids. I grew up on both sides of the me Texas-Mexico border. and um

Arturo Elizondo: And I think it really from a very early age, just given that the texas the US s-Mexico border is the the border with the highest income disparity of any two countries in the world, um and being on both sides of it made me very aware of the like just how life might how different my life would have been and having a perspective around around like that there’s a much bigger world around me than just my, you know, my neighborhood or my city. And, um but also growing up in I was I’m one of six kids, we grew up in a very Mexican American household and you know, like any good Texans, we had our barbecues every Sunday, like any good Mexicans had our two extra breakfast every morning. And I never thought about where ah for my food came from. um It wasn’t until many years later, but

Arturo Elizondo: um that that animal protein was a huge, huge part of my life. And it still is now, but just from from from a different source.

Alejandro Cremades: So obviously, you know in your case, really spectacular. You land in in Harvard, you know out of all schools you know all the best schools, one of the best schools in the world. And I guess that was your segue to start starting to get involved with like government and and and how you eventually you know found yourself exposed to agriculture.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, I think ultimately i I think growing up on the border and seeing like I remember going going across the border with my with my dad on the weekends and I remember seeing little kids my age who had no shoes and were selling gum on the street. And I thought you know I didn’t do anything to deserve what I did. like I just happened to be born you know a few miles north of the border and and and to parents that had resources.

Alejandro Cremades: you

Arturo Elizondo: But I didn’t really do anything to deserve this. And and that that really marked me when I was very little. and And it kind of put in me this idea that if I you know that if i could help ah improved a lot of others who weren’t as lucky and didn’t win the lottery of life, then my life would have been worthwhile. And I thought, well, how can I make the biggest possible impact? Even growing up, I was like, oh, I’m not really sure what that it looks like. But then I thought government was going to be, you know, maybe government is how I can how i can make a difference.

Arturo Elizondo: And I thought, well, if I can change one law, even in one small way, I could impact the lives of millions of people. And that idea of scale always fascinated me, even from a little when I was younger. And that’s why I decided to go to Harvard and study government, thinking, OK, I’m go to go into you know going to go work at the UN or become a senator or a congressman. and and change laws to help you know help as many people and as many beings as possible. And then you know the more I learned about government and then the more I learned about our food system, that quickly that quickly changed.

Alejandro Cremades: So what was about the food system that really sparked your interest?

Arturo Elizondo: So I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the factory farming videos, um but

Alejandro Cremades: I remember food ink. It was say pretty disgusting, to say the least.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, it’s one of the things we’re like, I wish everyone in the world could see this because I think if if we all knew what we were eating, we would have a very different food system. um And I remember being 16 and someone posted a video online of a factory farm. And you know I i had never thought about where my food came from. And then I see it was a video factor of like of ah of workers inside a factory farm and this guy who grabbed two chickens by the neck and smashed them against the wall. and And then these chickens were in these cages on top of each other. And i my immediate reaction was,

Alejandro Cremades: you

Arturo Elizondo: There’s no way this is what I’m eating. like There’s no way that this is or this is like this is the norm. This must be an exception. This should be that this is illegal. like that we need to you know these These people need to be in jail. um and And then the more that I looked into it, the more I realized that this is not the exception, it is it is the norm. um We slaughter over a million animals every single hour, just in the US, to feed less than five percent of the world population. And that what I saw in that video is not the exception, it is how we produce animal protein at scale today, because that is the most efficient way of feeding people.

Alejandro Cremades: so Obviously, you know after this, you started to see the problem from many angles, not only government, but then also you did a bunch of internships, for example, in banking. so What would you say was what you needed you know for you to be like, okay, you know it’s time for me to take action. I’m packing my bags and I’m going to San Francisco.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, I mean, the number one piece was understanding the scale. Like, you know, I thought, okay, I want to do scale and I want to do impact that scale and I want to do good for the world. How can I spend my time in this earth doing the most good that I can? And i and when i and i used you know that video I watched when I was 16, but the more I kept doing my research and and then I interned at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and then I went to the United Nations and I start i did my research on global food security.

Arturo Elizondo: um and ah more and it just The more I learned about our food system, the more it blew my mind. And i just like it was one crazy statistic after another where like i i I was like, how is no one talking about this? you know i I had no idea that animal agriculture and animal protein production is the number one cause of deforestation on Earth. It is the number one cause of extinction on the planet.

Arturo Elizondo: Three out of every four emerging infectious diseases, like COVID, like SARS, are are zoonotic. They’re traced back to animals in a relationship to the natural world. um it is a number one Animal protein production is the number one cause of ah freshwater pollution um because of the of the waste runoff from these factory farms. and And our diet, very rich in animal protein and fat and animal fat is animal you know processed meat is a level one carcinogen out there with with with asbestos and cigarettes by by the World Health Organization.

Alejandro Cremades: Okay.

Arturo Elizondo: And so it just you know antibiotic resistance, 70% of the antibiotics in the world today are fed to animals, not to humans. And so I just, like the more I learned, the more shocked I became and really the more angry I became. I was like, how is no one talking about this? We need more people to be focusing on this issue. And and then I came across, when I was studying global food security, I came across these different technologies out there and I thought, well, are there ways that we can actually solve the problem? Because I fundamentally didn’t believe that we were gonna market our way into a better food system, that people will magically wake up and say, hey, you know what, I’m going to,

Arturo Elizondo: You know, I I’m going to go vegan or vegetarian because I love animals or because of the planet I just didn’t think that that was realistic and my parents, you know, they still eat meat almost every day in Texas so I knew that that was a long time coming but I knew that I given how big the problem was in terms of its scale and and how neglected this problem was, that I realized that there was no more you know no better way for me to spend my time on this Earth than to tackle this problem.

Alejandro Cremades: So 2014, that’s the year where everything changes for you.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: So what what happened in 2014?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah. So I graduated from from college and I went to DC. I was interning for Justice Sotomayor at the Supreme Court and thinking, okay, maybe I should still stay in government, fine. I was already on down that path and I didn’t want to let it go. But you know food kept calling me, but I was like, look, I have no experience in this in food. I don’t have any expertise in biotechnology or in food technology. I just have read a lot about it and I’m very passionate about it, but I don’t have any real skills. um And then I get a job in the a job offer to join the Obama administration as a political appointee and I called one of my my boss from Credit Suisse actually my boss is Boston Credit Suisse and And he was he had been a mentor of mine and I was so excited. I was like look I I got this job i I’m gonna you know, it’s a great, you know a great launching pad for my career um And he

Arturo Elizondo: his reaction so it was, what are you doing? you should be why’rant You should be in San Francisco working on food tech. the way that like Working on food, the way you’ve been telling me for the last 18 months you’ve been wanting to do, as you’ve been doing all this research, like why why why aren’t you doing this? ah And it was completely shocked me because I thought he was going to be like, oh my God, that’s amazing. Congratulations. You should take it. And I wanted someone to validate ah my my choice. um And so for him to say to say that made me realize, um you know what, I made me like take a step back and say, man, like, what am I doing?

Arturo Elizondo: And I i realized, as the more I thought about it, that I was scared. I was scared to go down a path that I didn’t know what it would look like. It was this big question mark. like i’ve never you know i’ve I don’t know anything about startups. I don’t know anything about venture capital. I don’t know anything about these things. um And and and and i was I was scared to make a ah leap. But I think being aware of that fear helped me identify and say, hmm, maybe I can find a way to still make it work. And I said, let me get myself six months and see I can make it bigger something out. And so the next day after that call, I booked a one week ticket to San Francisco. I had no job. I had no place to stay. But I thought, you know what? I don’t want to be on my deathbed saying like, what if, what if I had tried?

Alejandro Cremades: So what happened next?

Arturo Elizondo: So I posted on Facebook asking if anyone knew of any dog sitters or cat sitters of any couches that I could stay on while I was in San Francisco until I found something and ah a couple of friends are um offered and I stayed with one of my friends and started networking my ass off, emailing every person I could. And I was like, look, I’m gonna I have six months to see if I can make this work. And I was still interviewing at other places just to yeah be on the safe side and like to to to to to to keep some options open. But I emailed everybody I could and i I grabbed coffee with all these impact investors. I thought maybe if I joined venture capital, I can do something that I can learn about the space, build some skills and then jump into something

Arturo Elizondo: that where I can like jump into a startup. And and one of I met this guy who started another food tech company and I was like, hey, I really want to be a part of this. You know, what what can I do? And he’s like, come to this conference with me. You know, it’s one of the first ever food tech conferences. Because 10 years ago, food tech wasn’t really a thing. There were probably two companies in the world really doing something in it, ah Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek at the time. And it was before Impossible Foods or others had had had even even like had commercialized or existed in any in any real way. And I show up to this conference.

Arturo Elizondo: And ah that day he doesn’t end up going to the conference so I find this empty chair and the only table with young people in it. I sit down and little did I know I’m sitting next to this molecular biologist who had this crazy idea of making eggs without chickens and proteins without animals. and And a couple of other folks and New Harvest, this nonprofit, Isha from there, brought him to that conference ah to help kind of see the space and and learn more about it. And she brought us together and we we went to coffee shop and started cranking out a business plan.

Alejandro Cremades: So that’s how you know all the good stuff happened. So the everyday company he is born at this point. So I guess what what ended up being the business model of the everyday company? How do you guys make money?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, so the the core idea was you can use biotechnology is an industry that has been primarily, is a technology that has been primarily employed in pharma. So almost every protein based drug therapeutic vaccine is made using a fermentation and technology through but using fermentation. The philosophy was we’ve made all these animal proteins through fermentation for pharma, which is a very, you know,

Arturo Elizondo: You can use a very sexy technology to make these products at very, very high prices. But the question was, can we democratize access to this technology and optimize it so that we can make other kinds of animal proteins at scale, at cost levels, where we can start selling into the world’s biggest food companies that are using billions of dollars worth of animal proteins as ingredients? And that’s where the that’s that was the net that that was a basic idea is can we use this fermentation technology to make all kinds of animal proteins, not just for medicine, but for food. And we raised 50K in cash and they gave us three months of lab space through IndieBio, which is a biotech accelerator program. And the business model was we’re gonna make these proteins really efficiently using yeast instead of

Arturo Elizondo: chickens or pigs or cows instead of using animals and then ferment them and then sell them off to big food companies and help them have a much more efficient and de-risk supply chain with the same but the same kind of functionality and quality of products that they already use in their hundreds of applications. You look at you go to any grocery store and you look at the back of the label of almost any food product out there and on the back it says you know they have egg protein. Right or dairy proteins or other or different kinds of animal proteins like you know Guinness Wasn’t was the beer company was still using fish splatters to filter their beers up until 20 until seven years ago and And so you see this huge use of animal proteins um throughout the food system and that no one even knows about. And so we could replace them using much more efficient um protein factories and animals like microorganisms, then we could really make a difference in decarbonizing our food system and also working with the world’s biggest food companies to make them more sustainable.

Alejandro Cremades: So obviously, you know, a business like this is a capital intensive. um So how much capital have you guys raised to date and what has been the experience of going through the different rounds?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah. We’ve raised over $240 million dollars of capital. um And we have used that over the course of of eight plus years. so um The first six years we’re developing the core technology. And at that time, and you know in the beginning, because we don’t have you know we don’t have the same metrics that software companies have, and we’re much more capital intensive before you see any revenues, but we’re not really a pharma company. It’s you know it’s confusing to a lot of investors. like How should we look at you? um Because you’re not a software company and you’re not a pharma company. You’re kind of in between. You’re very capital intensive. um and And so the a big part of it for the first several years was selling the the the vision. Like, hey, like it’s this is

Arturo Elizondo: This is how it’s going to work. This is the problem at hand. This is how big the opportunity can be. And and then really working, like especially like finding ways to de-risk the technology. like Can you actually get a yeast to make animal protein? more efficiently than an animal can make it. And so we had to make a lot of technology progress there. And then on on this at the same time, we had to sell these you know work with these big food companies and share with them you know what we were doing. and then And fortunately, a lot of big food companies are trying to get rid of those ingredients because

Arturo Elizondo: They do this. They’re inconsistent. theyre theyre The pain points are very, very high. And so we we were able to tell that story um you know for the first several years until we really were able to prove ourselves. And now you know we have all the regulatory approvals. you know We got our products. you know, have been in the hands of, you know, at 11 Madison Park, that’s where we launched our egg.

Alejandro Cremades: you

Arturo Elizondo: it’s the It was voted the best restaurant in the world. We got it in the hands of probably arguably the world’s toughest food critic, Florence Fabricant of the New York Times, um with the very positive reviews. And we have now some of the world’s biggest food companies saying, you know, when can we get our hands on it? And so now we’re starting to to start scaling the business. So we’re at that inflection point today.

Alejandro Cremades: My God, so how do you do it being 10 years in it you know until you finally you know come out of the desert? What do you think kept you guys going for so long?

Arturo Elizondo: I think what kept us going, um I mean, as probably a lot of people relate is, is I mean, for for me, like this is very personal. I started the company when I was 22. And I’ve grown a lot as a leader. i’m you know I wouldn’t have hired myself you know eight years ago when I, um just by virtue of how much like how much growing up I needed to do, but I realized actually, um for me at least, what has kept me through has been,

Arturo Elizondo: like this needs to exist, and it and it will. The technology works. like and And I think what has kept us going is every week or every you know every month and every quarter, there’s like something big like that’s happening where we’ve has fundamentally changed and given us more conviction.

Alejandro Cremades: you

Arturo Elizondo: So even though it’s ah it’s ah it’s a long haul, um It’s been really powerful to see, oh, like we got the FDA approval. Oh, like the world’s, you know, like the world’s largest, you know, whatever, like winemaker, like loves a product though. You know, the, um, we’ve got, you know, that this restaurant loves it. And, and now you know we, we, we, we, we exceeded this yields, we scaled the technology to this level. So every little milestone, I think for me. goes allows me to underwrite the business in a much deeper way in a way that in the beginning I was selling a vision like I you know I was like I was kind of scared to pitch because on the on the one on the one hand I love what we’re doing but on the other hand

Arturo Elizondo: like We don’t have the proof. like We don’t know if it’s actually going to work. And to pitch that is is is really hard. um And now it’s like, OK, we know it’s going to work. Now it’s a matter of just having enough time and capital to ensure that we can that we can that that we have the ah the resources to take this company to where you know to to domination. But like it works. The products work. The technology works. It scales. like And that, that I think has helped, you know, has made me, and I think a lot of our team members um continue believing in what we’re doing because now we have proof.

Alejandro Cremades: So talking about vision there, let’s double click on that. Let’s say you were to go to sleep tonight, Arturo, and you wake up in a world where the vision for the everyday company is fully realized. What does that world look like?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah. It means that The foods actually look very similar. um a lot you know a lot you know A lot of products are like looking much healthier, but ultimately is that when people where people don’t have to turn their brains off when they’re eating, but they have to say, I don’t want to think about where this food is coming from. I just want to enjoy the food. is that we can eat these foods um and and celebrate where they’re coming from. um Our vision is a world where we’re not using factory farms to make food, ah to make animal protein, where we don’t have to stack animals on top of each other and have them suffer in ways that are just

Arturo Elizondo: unimaginable and yet we’re doing it at the, you know, in the quantities of billions and our planet is dying because of it. um The vision is that that is no longer needed. We have better, we can make protein from breweries instead of factory farms.

Alejandro Cremades: It’s incredible how um you know obviously you guys have been at it now for about 10 years. you know As you were saying, you know like everything that you’ve learned along the way, you were talking about like even not hiring you know your younger self. so Let’s talk about that for a second. let’s let’s Let’s go a little bit deeper here. Let’s say I was to put you into a time machine and and we arrive at 2014, that moment where you’re maybe at a Starbucks you know like crafting that business plan together you know with with with with your co-founders.

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah. Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Let’s say you had the opportunity of um showing up right there and sitting down with your younger self and and perhaps you know with with your other colleagues. and You had the opportunity of um giving that younger self one piece of advice before launching a business. What would that be and why, given what you know now 10 years in?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, man, I that’s a that’s a That’s a very deep question. um And I’m very conflicted because there’s a part of me that’s like, I don’t think of anything like, I don’t know if I would have believed anything that I would have told myself then because I ah i was, um just because I needed to like see it, to believe it. and And like all, I got so much advice, but it like, you know, I had to like, I wasn’t like embodying it. um I think the piece of advice would be to do psychedelics earlier.

Arturo Elizondo: they like And because ultimately, for me, the the big piece that I’ve been working through is ultimately owning my power and like believing in it. um And I think for like several years, like i just I felt like, man, I’m selling this vision and I And I couldn’t underwrite it with the proof. It was selling this dream. And i and like it it was like very mentally taxing because i’m I’m taking investor money. And I don’t know if um if I’m going to be able to to to return it and like you know and and and and make it work. um So I think the advice that I would have given myself as number one is,

Arturo Elizondo: go to therapy as soon as possible, get an executive coach and work with psychedelics as early as possible and like do the work on yourself so that you can be the best leader you can to lead this company um and and lead it with conviction.

Alejandro Cremades: So that’s amazing, very profound. So for the people that are listening, that would love to reach out and say hi, what is the best way for them to do so?

Arturo Elizondo: Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn. um My email is also arturoarevery.com. um Yeah, and also but the the one thing that I would, um that I think, you know, that that I would have loved my younger, younger self to know is i you don’t have to compromise, like to say, hey, you can you can do good in the world. and get the professional development and have the job of your dreams both professionally and also doing good. You don’t have to work at a nonprofit. You don’t have to work in government exclusively. There are incredible ways that business can be a force for good. And I think early on, I just demonized business. I demonized the private sector. I was like, oh, I don’t want to be a sellout. And I think I realize that for me in my life now,

Arturo Elizondo: this working, working using technology. um is the, for me, the the best and most impactful way that I can make a difference in the world. And I would urge everyone to like, that we live in a world where we don’t where you don’t have to sell, where you don’t have to um um compromise and sell out that you can um that you can do really well for yourself. Doing good for the world and the biggest problems in the world are are going to be also the most lucrative.

Alejandro Cremades: I love it. Well, Arturo, I have to thank you really, you know, for being with us. ah Such an honor to have you today on the Dealmakers podcast. And dan yeah, thank you so much for for being here.

Arturo Elizondo: Thank you, Alejandro. Appreciate it.

*****

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