Ryan Bethencourt

Wild Earth Inc

Wild Earth is challenging the status quo with complete, sustainable, plant based protein pet food made cruelty free.

Sustainable Food Ventures

We back early stage founders building leading food companies that are:  • Plant-based • Cell-based • Recombinant. SFV will not invest in any companies involved in animal agriculture.

Managing Partner

BABEL.Ventures

I am the lead biotech investment partner for Babel Ventures, a pre-seed/seed stage fund focused on investing in emerging biotech companies in Seed and Series A.  Our current portfolio includes, Blue Land, Occamz Razor, Nebia, Vitagene, CUE, Forever labs, Zbiotics and Finless Foods.

Partner

Jellatech

Board Member

Tiamat Sciences Corp.

UMANA

UMANA, Inc is a multi-family office based in San Francisco, CA, that focuses on serving HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals) with a net worth of $10M to $300M. UMANA serves some of the world's most powerful, influential, and misunderstood individuals. From Silicon Valley Tech Founders to Influencers, Conscious Athletes & Celebrities, with the mission of creating and redefining wealth.

UMANA is home to a caring and pioneering team that deliver the united capabilities of wealth management, trusted advisor, house of funds, and venture studio.

We are redefining the meaning of wealth, forming the most influential, caring, and awakened family in the world. A family by conscious choice.

Founding Family Member

UCSF Health Hub

UCSF Health Hub is a non-profit Growth Studio supported by donors. UCSF Healthhub connects ideas and companies with the people, expertise, and capital needed to grow and scale breakthrough healthcare solutions.

Advisor

InterVenn Biosciences

InterVenn Biosciences combines AI/ML, glycoproteomics & LC/MS for biomarker and target discovery in Oncology and other disease indications.

Provectus Algae

SOSV

I co-founded IndieBio (an SOS Ventures backed accelerator and early stage seed fund) to focus on accelerating biology, through investment, mentoring and a wetlab (located in Downtown San Francisco) to assist scientists in becoming world changing entrepreneurs. I funded and built 68 biotech companies with my team running the gamut of biotechnology, food, green biomaterials, consumer goods, medicine and diagnostics. 

Our aim was to fund and build breakthrough companies with the aim of solving some of the world's most intractable problems, to help all of humanity's 7+ billion people. Some of our most notable alumni include, Clara Foods, Pembient, Ranomics, Zymochem, Orphidia, Ava Labs, Blue Turtle, New Wave Foods, Memphis Meats, NERD Skincare, Koniku, Girihilet, Geltor, Amino labs, SyntheX, QIDNI labs, Mycoworks, Miraculex, Ardra, Amaryllis Nucleics, Jungla, Knox, Catalog Technologies, Neuroqore, Ravata, Viaex, Bioinspira, Pure Cultures, Animal Biome, Venomyx Therapeutics, Ravata, Scaled Biolabs, The NotCo, Prellis Biologics, Bioaesthetics and many more!

Co-Founder, Program Director and Venture Partner (IndieBio)

I'm the CEO of Wild Earth, we make Healthy and Sustainable Plant based Pet Food.

My aim, through my work is to positively impact the lives of billions of people, animals and our planet through applied biotechnology.

In addition, I've invested in over 180+ future of food, biotech and technology companies as an angel and venture investor over the last decade.

Today I'm birthing into the world a new, updated paperback edition of Clean Meat! (More technically Simon & Schuster is birthing it.)

The book still tells the inspirational stories of the entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors all racing to commercialize slaughter-free meat. But I've updated the paperback edition to include recent major debates and events in the still-nascent industry, from nomenclature to regulatory approval to scaling challenges, and more. I'm told it's a page-turner, and I'd be grateful if you ordered a copy and encouraged your social circle to as well. 

Yes, that's a portrait of Eddie looking over my shoulder wondering why you haven't ordered the new paperback Clean Meat yet!

https://lnkd.in/g3Pn7MTY

Congrats to Doug Grant, Trevor Ham, and everyone at Atlantic Fish Co on the successful creation of their first product! Last week with the assistance of NC Food Innovation Lab, Doug and his team tasted for the first time the worlds FIRST cultivated black sea bass. 

Excited to try it myself! 

Very excited for Peter McGuinness, CEO Impossible Foods talk on the Future of Food here at the Duke University Alt Protein conference!

"We have just begun and the world is getting more and more plant based, today only 6% of consumers have even tried plant based products, we still have 94% of the market to grow into"

We got to try some of their great new products here at the conference too 😋

As we head into day Day 2 of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week at American Underground today, I am still buzzing after the panel on Founder Failures. A quick shout-out to our amazing panelists:

Mark Saad | Sherpa Collaborative
Ryan Bethencourt | Wild Earth
Christina Marie Noel | better made easy
Preet Mankad | CED (Council for Entrepreneurial Development)

These incredible leaders shared failures large and small (and lessons learned), experiences with founder mental health, and ways they've learned to scale organizations. 

One fav quote from the session I snagged from Ryan Bethencourt: "Be a Missionary, not a Mercenary." 🚀 

Thank you to everyone who attended The 2024 Duke Alternative Proteins Conference yesterday! The Duke Alt Protein Project was thrilled to hear from some incredible industry professionals, including our keynote speaker, Peter McGuinness, CEO at Impossible Foods who sat down with club Co-President Caitlin Mason for an insightful discussion. 

Thank you to all of our speakers! 
John Ahrens, CEO at Reel Foods
Aryé Elfenbein, Co-Founder at Wildtype
Trevor Ham, Chief Science Officer at Atlantic Fish Co
Michael Lynch, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University
Noga Golan, Founder and Managing Director at Alt Protein Careers
Rachel Lichte, Head of Product Strategy and Brand at Orbillion Bio (YC W21)
Ryan Bethencourt, CEO at Wild Earth
Mariliis Holm, Co-Founder and Partner at Sustainable Food Ventures
Zoya Biglary, Founder of FYSH Foods, Inc.
Maddie Segal, Director of Memberships at Plant Based Foods Association
Kelsey Joseph, Vice President at Barvecue
Harish Vemuri, Senior Manager at Bain & Company

Special thanks to Impossible Foods, Duke Capital Partners, Duke MBA Marketing Club, and The Good Food Institute for your sponsorship. 

Most importantly, a BIG shoutout to Alt Protein Club Co-President Caitlin Mason and conference organizers Daniel Shapiro, Faisal Anees, Ashleigh Waterman, and Tom Grosse-Katthoefer for putting this together and pulling off an incredible event held at Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business.

Superb Raleigh Durham startup week here across the American Underground coworking space over 2,000 attendees across the Triangle

We're rocking Bryan Johnson's "Don't Die" ☠️campaign and Balaji's Network state swag today at the Wild Earth office with Nikita Michelsen 

Two awesome movements building humanity's future!

Who is headed to Raleigh-Durham Startup Week next week!? 

I am pumped to see many of my founder, ESO (entrepreneurial support organization), and investor friends! 🙌

Then, related: how honest do you think I should be on this panel on failure… ? 😂
 
While it can be humbling to share about the (many) times I’ve fallen flat on my face and how I approach deciding when it’s time to pivot, getting comfortable with handling ‘failure’ and building resiliency is key to success as a founder. 

👉 If you’re planning to be in Durham on Tuesday afternoon, I’m particularly excited for this conversation with Preet Mankad, Mark Saad, & Ryan Bethencourt and hope to see you there. 

#founder #startups #rdsw2024 #yalltech

Great panel on Building, Growing and Operating Companies in the #AltProtein space at the Duke Alt Protein Conference.

The power and importance of building a distinctive brand in highly competitive food markets.

With Zoya Biglary, Maddie Segal, Kelsey Joseph, Harish Vemuri, Daniel Shapiro and Faisal Anees

Industry perspective on Cell Ag (Cultivated Meat) with Doug Grant at Atlantic Fish Co  Adrien Langeard at GOURMEY and Heather Hudson at Believer Meats and Bill Aimutis at NC Food Innovation Lab 

TLDR the Future of Cultivated Meat is still coming fast (even through the difficulties) and many companies are still building and scaling here in the Triangle (the broader Raleigh Durham metro) 

Sustainable Lamb, Chicken, Seafood and Foie Gras without the animals is scaling!

We're hiring! Apply if you'd to run Cell Valley Labs and our incredible community and facilities! 

wild-earth.breezy.hr • 1 min read

Lab, Facilities, & Community Manager at Wild Earth

Excited for the kick off of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership Conference focused on Alt Proteins and Cell Ag at North Carolina State University with Bill Aimutis

Our Post Human Future will be mind boggling! 

futurism.com • 2 min read

Scientists Splice Material From Creature That Can Survive Outer Space Into Human Cells

Why all of the Interest in Alternative Proteins? with Bill Aimutis and Rohan Shirwaiker 

Beyond Health, the Environment and Ethics it's also about feeding Humanity's Future 🌍

Tomorrow is the beginning of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week! 

Powered by a team of founders, entrepreneurs, and support organizations dedicated to highlighting the thriving community in the Triangle. 

I look forward to seeing Mark Saad, Ryan Bethencourt, Jason Caplain during their panel discussion. 

Drop me a note if you are also attending! 

raleighdurhamstartupweek.com • 1 min read

Raleigh-Durham Startup Week | April 9-12, 2024 - Durham, NC + Raleigh, NC

Great talk from Rohan Shirwaiker about transforming Alt Protein biomanufacturing and scale up here at North Carolina State University and building interdisciplinary work forces to scale advanced manufacturing with non-profits, commercial partners and universities

Come listen to industry experts Noga Golan, Ryan Bethencourt, and Rachel Lichte discuss which expertise is in demand in the alt protein space and how to effectively position yourself to enter this growing field during our conference from 1:45-2:30pm on Friday, April 5. Check out our website (https://lnkd.in/dVN-mBjT) to register and learn more!

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