Podcast #38 Andrew Speaks to Jennifer Côté about using mammary cells to create milk without the cows.
Big Idea Ventures has launched our very own podcast “The Big Idea Podcast: Food”. Each week Big Idea Ventures Founder Andrew D. Ive will speak with some of the most innovative minds in the food space and talk about the exciting projects they are a part of.
To listen to the episode click the links below!
Podcasts
- Sticher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-big-idea-food-podcast
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/57TBllxq5CjpdVzzhNGjBp?si=u0hbKJqVQqqpkmyAv28ETg&dl_branch=1&nd=1
- Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZC5jby90aGUtYmlnLWlkZWEtcG9kY2FzdC1mb29k
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-big-idea-podcast-food/id1564457496
- YouTube: https://youtu.be/yZJtd2L_lR4
To learn more about Opalia check out the links below!
Opalia Foods: https://www.opaliafoods.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opaliafoods/
Episode Transcript
Andrew D Ive 00:01
Welcome to the Big Idea podcast where we focus on food. Today we’ve got a great conversation with another co founder of a company that’s doing amazing things in alternative protein. Today’s company is called Oh Polya foods, O P Ali a foods. They’re based in Canada. And the co founder we’re chatting with today is Jennifer Cote. She’s doing just some really mind blowing things in the alternative dairy space. So let’s get into it. Let’s have a conversation. I’d love to get your feedbacks or questions or comments through either the website or through YouTube or wherever you’re hearing this podcast. Many thanks.
Andrew D Ive 00:48
Bye. Hello, Jennifer, welcome to the Big Idea podcast where we focus on food. How are you?
Jenifer Cote 01:03
I’m great. Thank you. How are you?
Andrew D Ive 01:05
I’m very well, thank you. I’m normally you know, normally we can chit chat a bit and stuff. But you know, people aren’t here for that. So, Jennifer cote tell us who you are. Tell us what you do.
Jenifer Cote 01:17
Yes, so I’m Jennifer and I’m the CEO and co founder of Opalia Foods, previously known as Buttermilk. We are based in Montreal, Canada, and we make whole milk using mammary cells. More specifically, we use the mamory cells of the cow to make regular dairy products. So what I mean by whole milk is that we are able to make all of the functional components of milk.
Jenifer Cote 01:41
That being said, proteins, milk fats, the sugars also produced, rather than only being able to produce simple one or two proteins, for instance. So that allows us to have the full functionality of dairy and to then include our milk in all kinds of dairy products in the food industry, like yogurt, cheese, ice cream, but also in lesser known industry, like the cosmetics or even pharmaceutical products. So that is pretty much what we’re doing. We’re a b2b company, and we partner with companies to give them our milk so that they can do all sorts of good stuff with it.
Andrew D Ive 02:22
So previously called Bettermilk.
Jenifer Cote 02:25
Yeah.
Andrew D Ive 02:26
Now called Opalia Foods. Could you spell that for me? Because Buttermilk I can probably figure out for myself. Opalia? I’m not sure I can. And if anyone’s sort of wanting to go check you guys out. Hit us with the spelling of the company name.
02:48
OK it’s really simple. O P A L I A
Andrew D Ive 02:54
Opalia?
02:57
Yes. On social it’s Opalia foods.com or Oplia foods on LinkedIn? Twitter? And yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Andrew D Ive 03:06
And so you left a Butter milk brand behind because there were like seven of them or something?
03:12
Exactly. Yeah. So we wanted to differentiate with a whole new name, whole new brand, and we’re really excited about it, we’ve been getting a lot of good feedback and it’s really like a whole new era of milk, of food and of the company.
Andrew D Ive 03:30
Fantastic. Just before we get into the business, specifically, why Opalia? Is that like a middle name of somebody? Or does it mean something in a particular language? Or where did that come from?
03:43
It actually comes from a festival in Roman antiquity, that celebrated the goddess Opus, who was the goddess of abundance. So this festival was all about thanking the gods for having a good harvest. It was usually at the end of fall before the winter and this goddess Opus is also called Raya in Greek antiquity and Raya is actually the goddess of milk and of fertility and of goodness and time.
Jenifer Cote 04:18
So we really wanted to capture like the whole essence of milk, abundance and success and we just really like the way it flows. We also didn’t want to have anything related to milk or dairy because we’re so much more than milk. We want to be able to have fully functional products in all kinds of categories. So it was really less limiting in that sense.
Andrew D Ive 04:47
Awesome. Now I’m going to come back to the what’d you do stuff, where you mentioned that you are using the mamory cells of cows to create milk Take us, you know, talk talk to us about that a little bit. Now, I’m not a scientist. So you know, for my sake, keep it simple.
Jenifer Cote 05:12
Yes, so what we actually do is take cells from the cow that normally make milk in the cow. These cells or robots are allowed, they’re immortalized, which means that they’re gonna live on forever, and produce milk forever. And then the cells are grown into a bioreactor to have high numbers of B cells.
Jenifer Cote 05:36
We then induce lactation using a hormone called prolactin, which is the hormone that is normally produced inside of the body in all mammals that secrete milk. So then lactation is induced in the bioreactor and we have milk flowing out of the cells, like within the cow, and then we can take this milk, and purify it to make sure there’s no abnormalities or smell inside, then we can dry them and ship them into all different kinds of partners to be introduced in, in all of the dairy products that we know and love.
Andrew D Ive 06:12
So that sounds nothing like how you would make milk with a traditional cow, you say, you know, like you do with the cat. Nothing you described there sounded like, you know, how you would make milk? So one question in terms of the output, the milk itself, if I took your milk, and I put it under a microscope, would it be identical basically, to regular cow’s milk? Would I be able to see any kind of difference, either dramatic or nuanced?
Jenifer Cote 06:54
There is a slight difference, of course, because we don’t have all of the interaction that are inside of the body normally, but all of the functional components, meaning all of the components of the milk that normally produce the melting of the cheese, or the frosting inside of the milk, all of these components are present in the milk. So the the proteins domain, casein, and whey, which are the two main proteins in milk, and milk fat interact together to get that functionality.
Jenifer Cote 07:25
That is fully present inside. So in terms of functional properties, they’re all similar. But of course, there are some tiny, tiny ingredients that are present in milk that don’t really have an effect on products. So they are not really important to add that we probably have in small quantities, but not dramatic quantities.
Andrew D Ive 07:45
Okay, so in terms of all of the components that are needed for it to be a regular meal that can do all the things we want it to do. They’re all there.
Jenifer Cote 07:56
Exactly.
Andrew D Ive 07:58
Yeah, I had this discussion with some other founders, I wonder about how this how you get there, is as important as what you get at the end. Because obviously, how you get there is very different than putting a cow in a field or a cage, feeding them, and then, simulating pregnancy, etc, to make them give milk, and then milk them every day. I wonder and that’s seen as the sort of natural or normal way of doing things.
Andrew D Ive 08:35
I wonder whether the fact that you guys don’t do any of those steps, but still end up at the end result, whether that makes it? I mean, you know, some people are gonna be like, Oh, it sounds so different. I don’t I’m not sure I feel comfortable. So it does it does it matter that should should it matter? Is this actually more humane than the traditional methods as far as you’re aware? Or is that not even something that you want to get into? And it’s not really a question that should be part of the discussion?
Jenifer Cote 09:10
I think it is a question to be asked because of course, many people don’t feel comfortable with this technology yet, because they’re not aware of it. And you keep saying that it’s different from the process, which it is from the outside, but inside the bioreactor that I mentioned earlier, it really mimics the inside of the cow udder and terms that temperature and then the pH in terms of oxygen and also in terms of structure, meaning that inside of the cow the way that the cells are kind of attached to the other is in kind of a grape like structure that are called alveoli.
Jenifer Cote 09:52
And these alveoli are replicated inside the bioreactor. So the inside structure of the cow udder is the same thing as in the bioreactor than it is inside the cow, is just the cow that is not there. So the outside of the cube there,
Andrew D Ive 10:09
One is called a cow one is called a bioreactor
Jenifer Cote 10:11
Yes he name changesI
Andrew D Ive 10:15
it’s kind of different, right? But to your point, the end result is the same-
Jenifer Cote 10:21
The end result is the same and you don’t need to implicate the animals, so you don’t need to implicate the water and feed. I mean, you need so much fields to produce the feed for these cows, then you take all of that out of the equation and they also, I mean, the cows don’t fart anymore, they don’t produce any methane. So we’re clear from that also, and when you’re using the bioreactor the process is different, but similar, but the end product is the same.
Andrew D Ive 10:52
So, as you say, less land use, you’re not feeding that cow for, whether it’s a year, two years, three years, whatever the life of a regular domestic milk producing cow is, you’re not using the trucks to move the grain around from a feed perspective, you’re not taking up land to make the feed feeds the cow. So yeah, I see the from a sustainability and and global warming climate change footprint perspective, I see the upside for sure. Do we know how much LD you know rather, what quantity of milk is produced across Canada or Canada or the US today, you know, I’m trying to get a feel for size of milk.
Jenifer Cote 11:50
I don’t know the number of litres per year that are produced but I do know that a cow can make approximately between 35 to 60 litres of milk per day. So if you multiply that to the number of cows that are in Canada, or the US or even the world, that’s a lot of milk being produced every day inside of rather small animals. . So they’re very efficient at what they do.
Andrew D Ive 12:18
Very cool. Where are you guys at from a company perspective? So when did you start? Who started the company? How many people did you start off with? And how many people are you growing to? And from? And that’s also if we can talk a little bit about product? Where are you at in the product process?
Jenifer Cote 12:39
Yeah. So it all started with me and my co founder. We started September 2020. So a year and a half ago now. We started because we were frustrated by the current alternatives that are on the markets, and I think many people are, they’re doing a good job at sustainability but unfortunately, not yet a good job for taste and functionality. So we wanted to help people to have that face and functionality in their products and not have them change your diet completely to get a more sustainable option.
Jenifer Cote 13:15
So that’s when we started looking at the alternative protein industry and on what kind of technology could allow us to have that full functionality. And then we looked at the fermentation using micro organism to produce proteins. And they’re able to produce only one or two proteins at a time. So for us, we wanted to get that full milk. So we shifted towards using the mammary cells that I’ve been talking about.
Jenifer Cote 13:43
So it started just me and my co founder, the two of us. And then we hired scientists that are really good at growing the cells , the medium optimization, and all of that. So now we’re four people in the team and we’ve done the proof of concept. So making milk with mammary cell is check, we also have proven that we’re able to make the proteins and fats inside of the milk. So kind of a proof of complexity , that is also checked.
Jenifer Cote 14:16
We right now are working on increasing the milk production. Because our goal is mainly to produce enough milk so that we can collaborate with companies that can then test functionality in all kinds of products in the food space to begin with. And that’s where we’re at today really about increasing the capacity that our cells can produce and the volume that we can produce per day. Still very small scale as of today, but hopefully with this upcoming raise, we’ll be able to purchase the bigger bioreactor and have more kind of pre scale volumes to get us towards the actual scaling of this technology, which is going to be a challenge.
Andrew D Ive 15:49
So in terms of scale? Do you have particular goals over the next, let’s say three months, six months, 12 months? From a volume capacity perspective? How? How are you sort of thinking about that? I know you mentioned that your head scientist is grappling with this one.
Jenifer Cote 16:12
Yeah, absolutely. So right now, it’s all about getting the right number of cells to grow. Meaning that we need space for these cells to grow and we need a bigger size bioreactor for that. So as many cells as possible can make as much milk as possible. In that sense, we want to be able to make a few samples in the upcoming year for companies.
Jenifer Cote 16:35
So we should be able to make in the liters volume, so that we can give samples to companies and hopefully with those, that kind of production will get a good sense of functionality, nutrition and taste of our product. And with that, we’ll be able to scale the production in order to be closer to go to markets and do all kinds of testing for the regulatory side of things. So we’re going to be pretty busy in the upcoming years in terms of scaling and growing the company.
Andrew D Ive 17:07
So that probably brings us to business model a little bit. You’re using, you’re sending samples to companies, you mentioned. How did they fit into the picture, what account what role are these companies having in the development of your company.
Jenifer Cote 17:28
So in our business model, we partner with companies so that they can make different products. So they’re crucial when getting to market because we are producers of milk, and we make whole milk so that they can incorporate this milk in their products. So partnering with them to kind of have a wide variety of different product, obligation is important because they can each test the functional components that they want in their products.
Jenifer Cote 17:57
So let’s say a cheese company buys our milk, and then they do some testing around it to have that good melting cheese that also bakes in the oven. So they’ll do all these kinds of tests, so they’ll look at the casein protein more and more closely and then the ice cream company is going to buy raw milk, and then they’re going to do all kinds of experiments to see how it creams and how it’s freezes and the taste after it’s freezes.
Jenifer Cote 18:23
So they will be looking at the whey protein mostly. So all these kinds of companies are going to give us information about how our product functions. And also we’re going to be able to bring different products to market and then get feedback from customers about what products is the best and what kind of application is works the best for milk. And then we’ll go from there and probably take all of that in and build our own line of products eventually, in a couple of years from from markets.
Andrew D Ive 18:56
Got it. So I was talking to another company recently who who managed to achieve from a technology perspective, something that was bio identical. So basically identical to the original. If your product is, and we’ve already discussed this identical to milk what what are the advantages or benefits of that is relevant to these companies.
Andrew D Ive 19:29
So for example, you’re talking about an ice cream company, and you talked about a cheese company if you guys are basically making milk, and yes, it’s another way of getting there. Still at the end of the day milk, what’s the value proposition for them? Is it a cost reduction? Is it the fact that they can tell their consumers that it’s made in a different way and more beneficial way from a climate perspective? I mean, so why are companies engaging what’s important to them about what you do?
Jenifer Cote 20:01
The more important thing is, of course, that we don’t use any animals and that our environmental footprint is lower than the traditional industry. And I think especially in the last years, people have been kind of having a growing awakening of climate change in how we, the food that we consume is impacting the environment. So for them, I think it’s going to be a good marketing aspect to have that kind of the labeling, saying that it’s the same milk, they don’t have to compromise on taste or texture. But it gives them an added value of being better for the environment better for the animals.
Jenifer Cote 20:40
And also, you mentioned price, our goal is really to be at price parity, when we launch and gradually build towards a lower price, then we have all kinds of intellectual property around ways to reduce our costs. And that’s kind of what is the competitive advantage of our company in this landscape of milk companies that also have products that are functional.
Andrew D Ive 21:05
It’s interesting, when I think through how you do what you do, versus a traditional dairy. I’m like, dairy is a been optimized over so many decades, and our acceptance feel that they can produce milk at a very, you know, arguably low price, because they’re doing it in such volume. But they still have to have the animal, look after the animal, they’ve got land use vet fees feed that needs to go into the animal, you know, etc, etc, that all adds to cost. So I was like can these guys really get cost competitive parity, this early on in the development cycle?
Andrew D Ive 21:56
I wonder, I’m not sure. I haven’t done the math. But it sounds really feasible when I actually start to unpack the domestic theory, you know, business model, as it currently stands. But even if it’s 10%, more expensive, or 20% more expensive as an ingredient. If it has that lower footprint, then I think there are companies out there that are going to be prepared to source from you guys. And then let their customers know that this is a far better, more sustainable approach.
Jenifer Cote 22:31
Yeah, absolutely.
Andrew D Ive 22:34
Are you finding different parts of the market to be more open to sort of experimentation, so cheese versus milk versus ice cream, etc, etc?
Jenifer Cote 22:46
Yeah, cheese is really in demand right now when it comes to alternative milk. Because the grand plant based cheese options are not really doing all the functional things that we’re used to with traditional cheese’s and current applications that are working on casein have had trouble producing it.
Jenifer Cote 23:07
And for us, it’s casein is really easily produced from the cells because they’re been engineered by nature to make this milk. So they’re used to making these kinds of proteins. So we are seeing an interest from the cheese companies because they know that we’re able to make casein which is the main component of cheese and the main components they’re interested in.
Andrew D Ive 23:29
How did you find your co founder?
Jenifer Cote 23:33
My co founder is actually my life partner. It wasn’t really hard to find him he was right there. We share the same values when it comes to sustainability and animals. We both quit dairy a couple years ago. So for us, it’s really personal and developing these technologies really, what what we are interested in when we got we wake up in the morning dreaming about having that dairy, we miss to use the original cheese. So one day, we’ll wake up and have that cheese that we made from cells, no animals, and that will be like the best day and I’m really looking forward to it.
Andrew D Ive 24:16
Okay, and then the other team members,
Jenifer Cote 24:19
The other team members, we are all PhDs in their respective fields. One we found they’re all from Canada. So we’ve hired them through posts that we published on different kind of websites, and they’re all equally passionate about the mission also. Yes, it’s all about pure interest. Changing the future of food is really what keeps us going.
Andrew D Ive 24:46
Fantastic. Starting a company whether it’s a world changing company or any company, how’s that experience been for you? What are some of the lessons learned for getting started in a new company?
Jenifer Cote 25:02
How much time do you have? I have learned so much in just one year and a half that I can’t wait for what I learned in the next five to 10 years and even more. I mean, as a young woman in this field, there’s so many things that you have to learn to get good audit and to be proficient and to also succeed in this field and for me, I took the widest dip into this market. I wasn’t from this background at all, I read about it, and just fell in love with it.
Jenifer Cote 25:40
And I actually think that I’m really lucky to have this job because I get to work on the future of food every day and that’s not something many people can say. My friends and family thought I was crazy to start this, and they still do. But it’s been life changing and I really appreciate everyone who’s helped me get to where I am today and appreciate people who will get me to the end goal someday of making that milk.
Andrew D Ive 26:09
So I wonder if there’s one thing that either came as a surprise, or you maybe should have been told before you started this thing. And I’m sort of wondering about people who are listening to you who are like, I want to go do something that matters, I want to go do something like this. And you know, what’s the one thing you’d tell them? If they were about to set off on a similar journey?
Jenifer Cote 26:35
I would say do it. I mean, I hesitated for so long doing this, and I just jumped right in and it is really hard and you have to keep at it. But just doing it without overthinking it is really I think the solution, because once you do it, there’s no going back, you’ll just get carried on by the flow, and everything will happen. And you’ll be really happy you made that jump.
Andrew D Ive 27:00
Now, you mentioned that I think did you say four? Are you for PhDs? How many PhDs are in the company right now?
Jenifer Cote 27:09
Two PhD, one PhD candidate finishing his PhD?
Andrew D Ive 27:13
Okay, so if you’re not a PhD, if you’re a regular, you know, if you’re not a superhuman, but you’re actually a regular person. Should I go find a superhuman PhD to work with? Do I need that to start my company that’s going to change the food system? Or, you know, or do I? Or can I start it on my own and kind of pull the pieces together as I go.
Jenifer Cote 27:44
I mean, we me and my co founder are not PhDs in biology. And we kind of found the people who got the technology of it together, I think, when you have drive, and you have passion for the mission, and for what you do, it’s really easy to get a hold of people who will share that passion and will help you build that company. So I think it’s just a matter of getting the right people to build this with you.
Jenifer Cote 28:10
Because it is teamwork, I wouldn’t be able to do it alone. And yeah, I think it’s just starting it without a PhD is good. You can do it. And then building your team is crucial. So I do think that it is important having people with the right expertise following you along the way.
Andrew D Ive 28:30
As you were speaking, I was thinking, you know, there’s probably a bunch of PhDs out there who have all of the smarts and some of themé know how to get a lot of these questions answered and a lot of these things done. But they don’t start it, they don’t have the courage. They don’t have the necessary pieces to just get going. And then, you know, there are people who don’t have those PhDs who have that courage and that tenacity in buckets.
Andrew D Ive 29:01
So, you know, somebody needs to start these things, somebody needs to get going and bring the pieces together. I often think of it as a sort of a jigsaw puzzle. And the funny thing is, the business you start out with, in the beginning, when you start your company is very rarely the business that you end up with. Because as you evolve, talk to more customers, consumers as you start thinking through the different applications of what you’re doing to the market.
Andrew D Ive 29:36
You know, some things change, you adapt, you evolve. And so you know you could write a business and that says that, you know, better milk is doing X on the first day and 18 months later. Opalia foods is doing something somewhat different than you envisioned on the first day.
Jenifer Cote 29:55
Absolutely. That’s the beauty of being human. I mean, we make mistakes and change course along the way, but keeping that focus on what you envision the company to be, it’s important to kind of help you follow along the journey in the past. But yeah, I, I love change, and I welcome it and I think that it’s great to have the chance to do that. Yeah.
Andrew D Ive 30:20
So given that the day, the first day that you envisioned may not be the way you are today, and therefore, anything you tell me now is probably not correct. Where would you like to see Opalia Foods being in let’s say, five years time, if everything goes to plan, if things go well, what is it doing?
Jenifer Cote 30:52
In the perfect world, Opalia would be on the markets, selling their milk products, all around the world, hopefully, and then being on the path to change the whole dairy industr. I think that we’re at a point in time where we’re kind of at a crossroads, either keep doing what we were doing and lead to the end of our planet, or swift shift course and then go towards sustainable alternatives that still give you the taste and functionality that you’re used to.
Jenifer Cote 31:28
And I think that’s really where the future is, and what this whole industry is about, in the alternative protein sector giving you all kinds of incredible products that you wouldn’t have dreamed of a couple years ago, fish, steak, lather, I mean, milk, everything is being produced from organisms. And I think there’s so much beauty in what’s coming and people are not prepared.
Andrew D Ive 31:55
There is so much happening, we are really at the beginning of some major transformations. Do you see a Parlier foods being a sort of a, you know, on a two liter carton, a target somewhere that people buy on a daily, weekly basis for their cereal? Or do you see it being a product, which is behind? Or the sort of driver of major cheese brands and major ice cream companies, etc? What’s What’s your sort of five year horizon in that regard? Is it a brand on the shelf? Or is it a ingredient in multiple products? Or all of the above?
Jenifer Cote 32:38
That’s a good question. I think my ideal=answer would be all of the above. Because, yeah, we want to be able to have this product in as many hands as possible in all kinds of ways. And that’s what we pride ourselves on is really the functionality and flexibility of our product to be able to capture all these kinds of markets. So yeah, the best answer would be everywhere.
Jenifer Cote 33:04
But the most obvious answer is probably going to be with a lot of help from different partners. And then we’ll see how we evolve. As we said earlier, what I see today is probably going to be different in a week from now and two weeks from now, and then a couple of years from now. So I’m really excited to see what the future holds.
Andrew D Ive 33:24
Perfect. Where, if anyone’s listening, what kind of help does Opalia foods need over the next 6 to 12 months. And obviously, that could be anything, it could be people to join the team, it could be fundraising, it could be all sorts of different things.
Jenifer Cote 33:44
All kinds of help is needed. At the moment, we’re still super small. So we need all the help we can get. Of course, the main help right now is on the technical side of things. We need more scientists more brains to accelerate this research and to grow. So we’re looking at partners who can help us scale our technology and get closer to markets.
Jenifer Cote 34:06
But we also need help from regular people who can talk about the value and the good work we’re doing and try to excite people about what’s coming in terms of the future of dairy products, participating in all kinds of classes. I gave a university lecture a couple of weeks ago and got some students excited about the field. So yeah, anyone can help and I welcome the help us of anyone who wants to help.
Andrew D Ive 34:33
Is there an ideal customer right now that would for example, partner with you on taking your small samples of ingredients and determining how to work with you to manufacture something you know, in larger quantities, whether that’s in terms of the production side, or even the taking of the ingredient and using it within the product side or which of those would be an ideal partner right now.
Jenifer Cote 35:06
Ideal partners would be people in the dairy industry who’ve been working on this for years, who have knowledge about dairy science and who are aware of these kinds of products. It’s really helpful for us at the moment, either academic or corporates to be good partners. Yeah. Anyone who’s worked with dairy is really the kind of people we’re targeting for technical and for commercialization.
Andrew D Ive 35:35
Okay, what about the fundraising side, you have all the money you can handle? And you’re not interested in talking to anyone about funding? Or will you be the opposite?
Jenifer Cote 35:48
I think there will never be enough money for this technology to grow. Like I said earlier, we have so much things to figure out. So we need help financially, also. So we’re raising at the moment, and if anyone’s interested, you can contact me and we can talk about how we’re building the future of milk. And I’ll be excited to have you join us on this journey.
Andrew D Ive 36:12
Fantastic. Where will people reach out to you if they wanted to discuss either being one of the brains that helped build this or being a partner that helps scale it or being a an investor that can, you know, grow with you.
Jenifer Cote 36:27
You can reach out to Opalia food.com. We have a website and we have contact box on the website and an email so that you can reach us and we are also quite available but public on LinkedIn. So you can message me on there too.
Andrew D Ive 36:46
So I’ve got LinkedIn on in the background here. OPALIA foods on LinkedIn. It didn’t come up.
Jenifer Cote 37:03
LinkedIn. It’s probably just Opalia wthut the foods
Andrew D Ive 37:07
Okay. Actually you did come up as a participant in a conference coming up soon, which is the future food tech in San Francisco. So you’re attending that and that’d be a great place for people to meet you. And if I type in just a Opalia, there we are. Opalia biotechnologie, Montreal, Quebec, and lots and lots of followers Look at that. Okay, so if anyone needs to get hold of you on LinkedIn, Opalia and apart from that, Opalia foods.com, etc.
Andrew D Ive 37:42
Jennifer, thank you so much for your time today. I’m sure there’s hundreds more questions I’d like to ask, but maybe we’ll leave those until the next time. All right. I’m going to press pause. And then thank you so much.
Jenifer Cote 37:58
Thank you. It’s a pleasure.
Andrew D Ive 38:00
All right. Thanks for coming along to the conversation today with Jennifer Cote from Opalia Foods. This is the big idea podcast where we focus on food. So again, my name is Andrew. I’m the founder of Big Idea Ventures we find invest in and support food innovators and innovators around the world to make the world a better place. So great conversation today. Really enjoyed it. hope you did too. By all means, reach out to me via our website, big idea. ventures.com. via YouTube, via LinkedIn, wherever you want, really just find us reach out if you’ve got something that is relevant to us. Alright, many thanks. Look forward to it.
Andrew D Ive 38:44
Bye bye.
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