Eshchar Ben-Shitrit On Raising $190 Million To 3D-Print Plant-Based Meat Products

In the field of culinary innovation, few stories are as captivating as that of Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, the co-founder and CEO of Redefine Meat. His journey from a childhood in an Israeli kibbutz to spearheading one of the most groundbreaking companies in the meat industry is as inspiring as it is insightful.

Eshchar’s company, Redefine Meat, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like Hanaco Ventures, Happiness Capital, Synthesis Capital, and CPT Capital.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Eshchar’s upbringing in a kibbutz fostered independence from a young age, laying the foundation for his entrepreneurial journey.
• Eshchar’s early passion for cooking, especially meat, fueled his desire to push culinary boundaries and elevate meat cuisine to new heights.
• From law to finance to product management, Eshchar’s diverse career experiences contributed to his adaptability and resilience as an entrepreneur.
• Chance encounters at Hewlett Packard led to the formation of Redefine Meat, highlighting the importance of seizing unexpected opportunities.
• Eshchar’s willingness to embrace risk and navigate challenges has been essential to Redefine Meat’s success in disrupting the meat industry.
• Eshchar’s unwavering commitment to building the world’s largest meat company drives him forward, even in the face of uncertainty and adversity.
• For Eshchar, success isn’t just about reaching a destination—it’s about embracing the journey, embracing risk, and continuing to innovate and evolve.

 

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About Eshchar Ben-Shitrit:

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit is the Co-Founder and CEO of Redefine Meat, a leading startup in the alt-meat industry using proprietary 3D printing technology to produce animal-free meat with the same appearance, texture, and flavor as animal meat.

Following his military service, Esh received his Bachelor of Laws and an MBA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem after which he served as a law clerk on the Israeli Supreme Court.

After his time on the Israeli Supreme Court, Esh joined HP Indigo, where he spent 4 years as a Product Manager focusing on the Industrial Digital Printing segment.

Prior to starting his own company, he joined Highcon, an industrial digital printing startup, as a VP of marketing. In 2018,

Esh founded Redefine Meat, and ever since, he and his team have grown the company to over 20 people and raised over $6M in venture funding

Connect with Eshchar Ben-Shitrit:

• LinkedIn
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach
• F6S

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty hello everyone and welcome to the dealmakerr show. So do today we have a really exciting founder a founder that has been building scaling you know and and doing everything that you can think of with he is very innovative business. You know a real rocket ship. You know they are. Doing something extremely unique and then we’re gonna be walking through this story in detail. So I don’t want to wait make anyone wait any longer because I think we have a very inspiring conversation ahead. So without further ado. Let’s welcome our guest today as car ben streetrit welcome to the show. Thanks.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: I Kind of very happy to be here.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born there in Israel and you grew up in a kibbutz. So how was life growing up, give us how and walk through memory lane.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Kibbut for a kid is is paradise you live in a country club. You have complete independence you do at the age of 4 things that the kids in a city. Don’t do until they’re 16 you have your own bike and you can ride around. You eat with the kibbutz so you don’t eat with your family you spend time with friends and and you become very independent you you become very very confident in your ability to do whatever you want from a very young age and you’re surrounded with natures with nature animals. All the fun thing. That that you want as a kid as as a grown up. It’s more difficult because you don’t have a lot of freedom. You don’t have the assets. It’s a it’s a modern version of communism so you might get trapped. But as a kid. It’s paradise.

Alejandro Cremades: So I guess say you know for you, you know like you also experience at ah at a young age. You know the whole thing you know the whole food you know industry. You know you got into restaurants. So how how was that for you.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: So that that was my my passion and even before that my mother worked in the dairy farm and my father worked in the turkey farm. So I really saw this side of this industry but I enjoyed cooking from a very young age and especially meat from the age of 9 I started reading cooking book especially about meat. And try to cook fancy meals to my family and then by chance my uncle had a restaurant in Tel Aviv and I decided to go work there in the weekend basically volunteer I wasn’t get paid I did it for for fun for excitement and to learn how to cook and it was focused on meat. The the area that I was really interested is how you elevate cooking meat to this fancy level of of high-end culinary like art.

Alejandro Cremades: So Then in your case you know it was very interesting The blend that I saw on the way that you guys or that in your case you know, actually at ah at a personal level the way that you have combined finance and then also a law. You know what? an interesting combination. You know like. It sounds like you were already into the whole restaurant and meet you know, but it took you a tiny bit. You know to get back into it. So Why finance a law Why that combination.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: You know when when I interviewed to an internship as a lawyer I had to write an essay and my essay was that I was supposed to be a chef and actually I’m going to become a lawyer and it’s really really doesn’t make a lot of sense but it’s very israeli you you search yourself. You don’t choose 1 thing you choose like. Experiences and for me studying law and studying finance was an experience I never thought I would be a lawyer or a banker with a suit but I thought let’s do it. Maybe I can choose my path later on and the real story behind law I was very bad at math as a as a high school student. Very bad I thought I had a problem so I chose where I can study without doing any math law is the only place that you can study in Israel without doing statistics and maths and I was actually quite good in in the law studies I had good grades and I was accepted to Mba directly during. Law studies I also did my and Mba.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then let’s talk about you know what happened after this because you know like essentially you know for you, You know you did a little bit of law clerk and you know and other stuff you know in in the in in in parallel. But.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: She says.

Alejandro Cremades: You know it sounds like it was very pivotal when you ended up joining Hewlett Packard because actually that’s also where you made your co-founder so Helett Packer you know it’s quite a different you know thing from what you’re doing today.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: It sounds all over the place right? A lawyer then Hb then three d printed the meat and and it’s true. I’m not a person that that wants to commit to something I want to to do a lot of things and my my thought process and my way of work is very very scattered. And actually it’s by chance everything that I am doing in life even redefine me, it’s it’s by chance. But I think the chance has some destiny or faith behind it as you said I I came to hp by chance. But I met my cofounder there actually a very close relative of mine told me that I need to be a product manager. Because a product manager is a potential ceo and he told me I think you should become a Ceo but but the journey will start from being a product manager and then by luck there was this a advertisement in the newspaper. We’re looking for a product managers without experience because you need experience. For a digital printing presses and when I was a kid in the kibbutz I never thought I never imagined that my career will be becoming a product manager of printing presses industrial printing presses but I went to an interview and I met some really smart people and and I wanted to be those people. They were very smart. Very sharp, very analytic, very clear about what they need to do and how much they have passion to developing this technology for industrial printing presses. So I just did it I finished my internship.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: And a day later I started working in Hb I didn’t take one day one day off and the best thing a lot of things happened I met both my cofounder and the chairman of redeffined me there but but the best thing that happened is that Adam my cofounder taught me how to to work in excel. And we we got bonded because I didn’t know how to work in excel before that.

Alejandro Cremades: So then what were they sequence of events that needed to happen for you to um you know take the take the jump. You know the Leappo faith with redifying meat. You know what? what? what needed to happen.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: I’ll tell you the real story. It’s it’s the first time I’m telling that because I’m hoping founders are listening to this story I quit hb because I wanted to be a founder and I said I’m thirty years old I’m in Israel I can’t be in a corporate I need to be a founder in a company. But I didn’t have any idea and any any passion I didn’t put like a a purpose behind that. So the first job offer that I got I took and then I spent four more years in a great company but I wasn’t a founder of a company so it was am I going to miss this destination and I went to a startup. And I saw that you can become a founder and you can raise money and you can work with investors and boards and customers all over the world and it’s not something that you need to be Superman to do an average person a mediocre person like myself. You know I’m not I’m not outstanding in anything can change the world. Why because it’s just a matter of courage. It’s just a matter of understanding that everything in life is tough. Everything is a risk every venture that anybody ever started had a huge amount of uncertainties and even the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. They had the guts to start and they were extremely lucky. This is what I studied in this company hicon with an amazing resilient spiritual person that is the founder there and that impacted me to to take a jump and then when I knew what is my crusade. What is my destination or or.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: What is the thing I’m willing to take the chance on I quit that job and I started really fun meat.

Alejandro Cremades: So tell us about you know what was saying that moment where he became clear that you know it was it was time for you to get going.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: I started to develop an obsession and and you really need an obsession an obsession that you feel slowly takes over all of your personality. What happened in my first job in Hp I became a father and I stopped eating meat. So after 30 years of being a carnivore and passionate about meat. I stopped eating in meat and I thought this is my my life-ch changinging thing. But then I became obsessed of meat alternatives this desire of of people that stopped eating meat or steal it in meat to eat something that looks like meat and taste like meat. It was my my hobby son was my hobby. And I was very disappointed with with what I was able to achieve and I became fascinated with the possibility first that that there will be a company that will solve this issue I said probably it would be amazing. Some really smart people probably from the Usa they will they will solve this and then I thought maybe maybe maybe. I can be a part of this and I started sending I sent an email to to impossible foods telling them that they should work on 3 d printed meat and if they want to have a conversation I would be willing to have this conversation. They never replied so I started a company instead but but the the thing in this kind of journey. Suddenly you think about it all of the time you really say how would this company look like how would the first pr look like how would they raise money all of the thing is ah as somebody who’s looking from from the side and then you need to develop this courage to say I will be that person.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: If anybody can make it. It’s me or if anybody is willing to try and maybe fail. It’s me because it’s going to be very interesting and then I chose a deadline a deadline of myself instead having this obsession hobby reading in the night talking with people. What is the deadline that I will give it a chance myself and that was the day of the birth of my second son I told my boss I told him I’m going to quit this great job and this great relationship. We have to start my own thing when my second son will be born. And then then I send him a text message I have a son and bye bye and he was very very kind about that and and he told me that this is what I should do I have some nice quotes from from him and other people that told me go and make your dream come true. Not other people dream come true and if anybody can do it. It’s you. Or if anybody can be a lawyer with an Mba that is working on 3 d printed meat. It has to be you. It wasn’t easy I had one one very tough year. Emotionally that that you feel your failure because when you have a career you want to be quite good right? You want to succeed you want to to have a feeling. That on you’re track when you’re an entrepreneur. You’re constantly failding constantly and it’s it’s brutal. It’s personal and it’s quite painful and the first year was really a year of of not succeeding at all.

Alejandro Cremades: So then at what point do you realize you know that you guys are turninging a corner and I guess before you and get there. Why don’t you just share with the audience. What you guys are exactly doing at ready find meet so that they get it. What’s the business model.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: So we are a meat company today. We’re a meat company. We’re developing producing and setting new meat products in 10 different countries. New meat is the the next generation of meat because it has the same texture flavor. Nutritional composition is animal meat but it’s made using technology and that technology is the technology that we developed it didn’t exist before reddefined meat that allows us to basically recreate the massive structure of an animal when you eat meat today. It doesn’t matter what meat you eat you eat the the structure. Of the tissue of an animal the muscle of an animal and we develop plant-based tissue engineering so we engineered the tissue from plants to recreate steaks pool. The meat burgers. We developed those products and technology few years ago about two years ago we launched them into the market. Now we are producing new meat in Israel in the Netherlands and sending it to restaurants to food service operators and to retailers across many many countries some of them are vegans and vegetarians. But most of them are flexitarians people that that still eat meat but want to reduce. That usually never participated in what is called plant-based meat for example, steaks were the first company in history that launched a steak a to food service that is made from plants and not from animals and we’re continuing every three months to introduce new better products to more and more consumers and more and more.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Dying in occasions based on technology based on an in in incredible brand that addresses what meat eaters want which is a lot of fun and a lot of challenges as well.

Alejandro Cremades: So well, you’re talking about challenges you were saying that the first year was not easy. So at what point do you guys realize that you’re turning a corner around that ah you, you’re into something here.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: To be honest, it’s when you raise money because when when you don’t raise money you feel first that you’re a failure. You’re constantly getting rejected but you’re also you’re not progressing so you have a vision. You have an idea you have a story you even have a team with a small team of people. That they either work for free like my co-founder and I or we pay them ourselves when we started meeting with angels in Israel and we got the initial $200000 and we went into an accelerator and we won we had recognition. We had some external people that said. You’re not idiots and you’re not going to waste time and then go back to your day job. But we also had money to get a lead for example instead of working from my parents’ garage we had an ability to pay advisors that knows a little bit more than us on food technology. So it took 1 year so so it’s imagine spending 1 year with no money with no external proof that what you’re doing is going to work beside your own belief that you have to do it and then suddenly you come to a lab and you have 10 people and we’re building machines and we have investors that are bringing their friends and. People are writing about us in in the news I think the second shift happened when we tasted something and then I didn’t sleep the whole night I tasted something that said. Okay, one day it will be amazing. It wasn’t amazing. But I understood how this can become meat.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: And before that you didn’t have any way for me emotionally physically to taste the future literally to understand it will all be okay and today we have a lot of these moments that things are tough and you’re quite in the plans change or the reality in the face. And then we taste something and we say okay, if we have that if it’s really in our mouth today. The rest would be easy. The rest will figure it out.

Alejandro Cremades: So you were talking about raising money How much capital have you guys raised to date and how has it been the experience of raising the money.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: We raise one hundred and ninety million dollars which is an amazing amazing number. It’s incredible. A lot of responsibility a lot of money a lot of responsibility and a lot of people that are brilliant that are smart that had a lot of options and put their faith and their money. In our hands because they think they can trust us. So it’s really really critical to respect that for me raising money is is not something I like to celebrate. It’s not a milestone It’s not an achievement but it’s critical. You cannot do what we’re doing deep technology. And we have a lot of patents a lot of smart people building factories building a brand without money but our experience and and this industry experience of raising money is very very different in the timeline we started raising money where it was extremely difficult. The industry that we are in was not sexy, not trendy, not in Hype. People told me you quit your job to do fake meat for vegans somebody even told me once you quit your job to make a falafel and and I told her we’re making meat we’re going to change the world. And there was no benchmark. No other company in this space raised money. It wasn’t clear if it’s going to be a big market and in that period of time we raised $6000000 that was the most difficult money we ever raised as a company based on an idea based on smart people.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: That believe in in a mission that are working like crazy without industry experience without a ph d without technology that I think was was the most difficult and it took us the longest time. So the amount of time that it took us to raise a third $ $6000000 and by the way they’re the most transformational for a company. What we achieved from zero to the $6000000 is incredible and and I think a lot of time I reflect back and and I I said I say it’s amazing what you can do at this stage of a company but but most most people give up before they raise the first 6000000 and then. We. We had some nice things to show and we raised additional $29000000 always always always the investors that invested in 1 round participate in the next round including the angels including the small investors including the family offices. It’s really important for us that they continue to do and then when we were ready to have a business. We started to raise more serious capital. So. It’s very different because when you have a business we’re setting products we have customers and we have customers that really like us we have numbers to show. We have. Actual proof that what we’re doing is not just a dream then it’s easier to raise money. It’s easier, but it’s a completely different experience. Your skill set is not my storytelling and the vision. It’s what you’re actually doing in terms of execution.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: And and it’s a completely different way of approaching and on top of that now we have a business by the way we have a great business. We’re growing in in massive pace like a software company but we’re a foot company. We have amazing customers. But the industry is is less trendy now. So the discussion is not with investors that are interested in an industry and fell in love with the notion of saving the planet. It’s with people that are looking for a great business and they can look for a software great business and ah and a foodtech great business. But I think. Today where it’s more more difficult to raise money for all investors but especially for food tech investors I have this memory of of the first $6000000 that were in a completely different age than the twenty twenty one years of of invest of raising money.

Alejandro Cremades: So when it comes to vision then with with racing money because that’s something that they’re really betting on you know and vision. Obviously you know it’s applied to to customers to employees all across the board if you were to let’s say go to sleep tonight and you wake up in a world. Where ultimately you know the vision for the company you know is fully realized what does that world look like.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Wow first, it’s a very very nice question because I wish that I could never answer this question. A lot of people they look at their startup or or the business as ah as a destination that they want to achieve. For me, it’s a journey and and imagine in a world where where I completed my journey and redefine meat as a person as a company as a mission is is very depressing. So basically I want to die working for reddefined meat I won’t I know it won’t happen and I hope it will. It will be a very very long time from now. but but the story that we have. That is guiding me from day one is building the world’s largest meat company and it’s very good because it helps me with the challenges that I talked about just now bidding the world’s largest meat company is a journey of the next twenty years so we put it roughly 2040 and that day we did what we intended to do. And we thought is impossible in every element of making it impossible developing the technology developing the products building the culture that will enable it to scale to 10 countries then making it profitable in 10 countries then expanding to every place around the planet developing more technologies reaching more consumers. Impacting more the planet and it will never end because the world’s biggest meat companies today are fifty sixty some of them one hundred years old so maybe my kids will work in really fine meat but this is this is more the romantic view I think.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: If you look six years back what we thought we can achieve we achieved much more. So so we achieved more than what we actually thought we’re going to achieve but it was a lot of things that we didn’t even consider that were were random and 1 thing led to another and we were naive and and. Things that we thought will be really tough turn out to be easy and things that we thought would be easy turn out to be really tough. We thought we’ll have a 3 d printer in a butcher shop. We we didn’t do it so we don’t have a 3 d printer in the butcher shop but we’re selling to hundreds of butcher shops. That we never thought would be realistic to sell to hundreds of buter shops. But but for me seeing our products in households as an everyday brand you’re in New York right that we we walk around the streets of of New York with a t-shirt of redfined meat and people stop me and say wow.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s right.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Really like your product that’s for us a symbol of of we’ve arrived we have it in Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv you walk in the street of Tel Aviv with a t-shirt of redefine meat. You will have somebody come into you and say redefine meat. You really made them impact on my life. But we need to do it in New York and in Sao Paulo and in Tokyo and in basically everywhere around the world. So it would take a long time.

Alejandro Cremades: So I I know that you know there’s obviously a lot of risk you know building a company like this on building any startup. No so I think especially for the people that are listening. How do you think about risk levels and how to deal with it. You know in business and in life.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: I think I’m addicted to risk I think I’m a person I don’t do extreme sport but I like to be in so a status of risk of being very afraid of a result a lot of people. They want this confidence that I’m making the right decision. I’m not doing the risky thing and I believe for some reason they’re always delusional There’s always a chance that what you think is the right decision will blow up in your face. You know I’m also in israeli so we have this reflection of tomorrow might be the best day in my life. And tomorrow I might die so it’s extreme and and the reality is somewhere in between so I choose to put myself and the company at the status of risk a lot because I think incredible things can come out of it and we have this way of of living with this fact because people in in our supply chain in production. They can’t live in this in the level of risk that I can but I try to take on myself all of the risk all of the risk of the company as much as I can to enable the company to do things that seem impossible while allowing a lot of failures. So. It’s not 1 thing that is very risky that might fail or might succeed and then it will kill the company. It’s a lot of things. It’s a lot of risk that we take but because all the companies that I know I don’t know a lot of companies you interviewed more companies than I then I know.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail and I don’t think there is a system I don’t think there is an algorithm I think that if you do an interview about a company that is successful and I follow what I hear in this in this interview. It’s like me following the footstep of somebody that won the lottery. They wo a red t-shirt the day that they won the lottery I won red wear a red t-shirt but they took a lot of risk and some of the amazing things they tried to achieve manifested in reality because we we have a stakee that is served in restaurants I never thought it’s possible. And we had to take a risk. We had to take a risk. We had to hire a person and give him a chance to develop something we had to launch a steak in a restaurant before the steak was ready. We had to give people samples of a product that wasn’t good. We had to commit to deadlines and then figure out out how we we’re going to meet them. And every time we did it when things didn’t work. We said. Okay, it’s a part of life when they worked there was this moment. Okay, we are. We are jumping ahead 10 years in a day and only risk can get you that but you know entrepreneurs israelis first and Israel entrepreneurs There are people that decided to take risk in life and and to live with risk to live with a high level of risk in in my last jobs I never had the risk of of failure or or making a huge mistake or being afraid of something and today I have it.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Today not every day in the beginning it was every day but once a week I’m doing something that I I’m afraid of doing.

Alejandro Cremades: So then imagine now that I put you to a time machine and I bring you back in time and I put you you know next to that they you know is sure that they was thinking about taking a leap of faith in and doing something of your own and let’s say.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Okay.

Alejandro Cremades: You were able to give that younger self one piece of advice for launching a business. What would that be and why given what you know now.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: I would say don’t be hard with yourself because this is the problem the problem we as entrepreneurs we we beat ourselves a lot and and we don’t have anybody telling us it’s going to be okay, we’re the people that is is telling everybody imagine people that are founders ceos. They’re telling their employees their wife they’re bored. They invested. It’s going to be okay, but but then you you don’t know if it’s going to be okay and then you really you lose a lot of years of your life. You lose a lot you lose a lot of hair as you can see you’re under huge amount of stress you you become. Not yourself in many other aspects of life like with your kids with your family with your friends with your with your parents but but it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, the second thing I would do much more so had I known where we are today I would just do much more because. You you need in the beginning to have much more faith. A lot of people told me that that you cannot as a founder have any doubt of your success. You cannot have any even even speak in a way that implies that in your mind you think you’re not going to succeed and it’s so true because. We’re not I’m not trying to cure cancer I’m trying to build the world’s largest meat company. It’s tough but it can be done. It definitely can be done somebody can do it I can do it. There is no doubt about that. It might be hard. It might take longer than what we thought there might be a lot of of even years that are seemingly.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Things are going to the wrong direction but it can be done So Why not wake up in the morning and just say I got this why say I’m doubting myself am my good boss am a good co-founder is my board happy with me is my employees are do my employees feel the energy that I bring to them yes because. It’s going to Happen. It’s going to be amazing and everybody around along the way is going to have a journey that they’re going to tell their grandkids about and books will be written about that and and that’s that’s the life that you need to to bring to to the job every day This is your job and you cannot. I Didn’t do it in the beginning.

Alejandro Cremades: Reminds me of the quote of Nelson Mandela it always seems impossible until it’s done so that’s in so for the people that are listening that will love to reach out and say hi. What is the best way for them to do so.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: So in email. My email is very simple. It’s esh at reddefined me dot com es h a Linkedin facebook I’m very accessible I love to hear ideas opinion and the most interesting thing that I like people reach out to me about. Is what thing in meat they want redefine meat to develop because we we can do we can do basically anything we just need to decide what it is that makes sense and some people brought up some nice ideas along the way only in meat. We don’t do fish and we don’t do cheese but meat from across the world. I don’t know a like handda what is your favorite meet. Okay, and this we already have in in progress and and ready to launch but I’ll get 1 to you soon.

Alejandro Cremades: I Love phillaminion.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing! Well hey, ashar, it’s been an absolute pleasure and an honor to have you with us and thank you. Thank you so much for being on the dealmakerr show with us today.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit: Um, thank youjado.

*****

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