Interviewee
Carissa Campeotto, Co-Founder and CMO at Trendi, the company using robotics to rescue food, joined us today for an interview. She has devoted a decade of her career to launching and sustaining brands in emerging industries such as plant-based foods, cannabis and food tech.
Transcript
Carissa Campeotto: Yeah, thank you so much for hosting myself and Trendi, we're very excited to be here today. Trendi was a combination of my experience and my partner Craig's experience. Back in 2016, I was operating a cold press juice and smoothie bar as an operating partner. And you know, we were using organic produce at that time and it was very expensive and every week the product was fluctuating in price, often to a point where, you know, the price of our juice was getting so high that people couldn't afford it. And I was, it really bugged me because I wanted to be able to provide health and nutrition to everyone, not just those who could afford it. Right. And so my mentor at the time, Christine er, who was also the president of Trendi now, she said to me, Krisa, what if you were to try using misfit fruits and vegetables in your juices instead of conventional ones or organic ones? And, you know, you could probably save a bit of money doing that, but you know, you have to do a bit of legwork in building your, your buying group, right? Who are you gonna buy from on a consistent basis? So I had this little white bulb that went off and I said, oh my God, I have to try this. So I started calling people and I'm like, Hey, you haven't missed the bananas and fruits and veggies.
They're like, yeah, oh yeah, come by my place. I have some stuff over here. And within one year we were able to rescue 40,000 kilos of otherwise wasted produce and reduce the cost of our product by 40%. The best part about that was clients at, at the Juice Bar were then able to enjoy that cost savings as well. So the product became more affordable to them, which was our goal at the very beginning. So in this situation, I learned about cycling through a business problem, and that was when I was introduced to it. After that, I took a bit of time off work and I was really, you know, feeling this pressure of the corporate world and just like, go, go, go, go, go. Always, always, always, always, always.
And I didn't like the way, you know, people were communicating and, you know, this dictatorship of business, you know, I was really like, and that was when I was like, I want, the next thing that I want to do is to build a business that is an example of the future, not of what we continue to bring terrible things from our past to the future of our businesses. A place that would be inclusive, the place that would, you know, support not only the nine to five schedule, but to support single mothers so that they could participate and work at different times of the day when needed. And you know, I think we've done a really good job at Trendi doing so, and that's really, you know, aside from the robotics and the upcycling, I would say that has been one of the most interesting journeys so far at Trendi, is really cultivating and in building this community of like-minded individuals. And so my partner, and just to get back to finishing the story here is Craig, he was in commercial kitchens and building them out across 17 different countries and 400 concepts.
So from commercial kitchens to restaurants, food trucks, large scale resorts and hotels. And he had been implementing food waste reduction programs in his kitchens for 17 years. And so when we connected, we, you know, started talking about this idea of automating smoothie bars, and that's what we did with Smoothie Machine. But when Covid hit, we had, you know, we had to go back to the drawing board because foot traffic for our vending kiosks wasn't going to come back anytime soon. And so we started looking at what would the rescue and capture of otherwise wasted food at the farm level look like? How could we automate that problem? Could we automate the problem of food waste or food loss at the farm? And so that's where BioTrim was born during Covid. And, and ever since then, you know, trending has grown. We scaled our business from two to 50 people in less than a year, and that's not inclusive of our international independent contractors. Yeah. And you know, we've raised over 10 million this year to ensure that the future of trendy is the same and, and, and house the, the, the foundation that it needs to, you know, attract global attention because we wanted to build a solution that would be, you know, one day accessible to other countries so that we could impact this on a global level.
Elisa Muñoz: Wow. I think this is a really interesting story, how you started, congratulations on that. And I also wanted to ask, like, I know that you guys were just invited to this Smart Kitchen Summit this year and you have been nominated for different kinds of awards. What would you say this means for Trendi?
Carissa Campeotto: Yeah, I, you know, awards are amazing, right? They, especially in the startup phase when your company is young, getting awards at that time is a really great way to showcase that business. Business is making progress, right? And is getting to the next level. And it's, it's, it's important. It really helps the conversations with investors, you know, institutional groups love these conversations and they like to, you know, better understand the reasons behind these awards, right? And Trendi continues to win Innovation Awards. We have a total of four this year. So I think that Trendi has, you know, this has been really great for Trendi, it's really definitely helped push our story further and has helped give us some credibility in areas where, you know, as a new company, people are wondering, oh, do they know what they're doing?.
From commercial kitchens to restaurants, food trucks, large scale resorts and hotels. And he had been implementing food waste reduction programs in his kitchens for 17 years.
Elisa Muñoz: And what would you say it has been the biggest progress you have made since you started the company?
Carissa Campeotto: Oh boy. Well, the team has made a big progress, right? That's something that is always growing and adjusting and refining and, but I think from a tech, from a technology perspective, you know, trendy has phenomenal engineers and you know, our engineering team is working day in and day out. Not only the projects that you see on our website, but there are a lot of projects behind the scenes that we were not able to speak about at this point, right? Because it is, they're very large scale projects. And, and what I love about our team, and I am just speaking specifically about the engineering team, because I feel they never get enough credit.
They're generally behind the scenes. They're not often in the press releases, although they're really the, the minds, you know, constructing the solutions right. For the future. And, and so yeah, I think they have made phenomenal progress when I see what we, you know, when I hung up with them, we put our bio mobile unit in the field in August and we launched it this fall to the community here in Vancouver, and they were so excited. They said, you know, I started at Trendi when this was not even a blueprint yet. And for them to be standing in front of it and playing with it and showing everybody how to use it, you know, it was, it was so awesome to see that.
And so, yeah, I really appreciate them. I think they have really, their strong foundation has really allowed trendy to progress and to consider larger projects than we would have maybe projected at this time last year. So that's one area, but also I think we're progressing in how to deal with the problem, right? So when we first started at Trendi, we were looking at this concept of mobile processing, right? Which we're, we've executed and we're currently certifying and testing here in Vancouver. And so I think what Trendi has done a phenomenal job of is identifying that the problem was bigger than what we thought it was.
And we started innovating solutions behind the scenes to solve those problems and work very closely with select partners. And because we've, we've done that, we've changed our model in a sense that, you know, originally we're thinking we're just gonna service one business or one farm, or one processor with a mobile unit or a small unit for their facility. And quickly we looked at a more inclusive and collaborative approach. And this is called our macro processor. And so our macro processor, you know, can have hundreds of thousands of kilos of processing capacity if needed because our data is linear to a certain threshold, right? And, and so being able to process that amount of capacity means you can process for an entire community.
So instead of us just working with one group, we now have 10 or 15 farms sending all their otherwise wasted materials to this unit. And because we have more space in these units, we don't only look at one dimensional processing, it's like, let's turn this apple into Apple powder and sell it to the culinary world, right? We're able to fraction, let's call it a tomato, right? And we take that tomato and we separate it for its skin, its seeds, its flesh and its vines. And we're able to then put them through different processing scenarios and having four different outputs instead of one. And providing solutions not only for the culinary industry, but textiles, papers and pops, massive industrial applications.
So we're very excited about our macro capabilities and our projects. And we'll be launching our first one in Ecuador in Q1 at the end of Q1 of 2023. So we're very excited about this. Trendi has invested in this project. This is a corporately owned facility. And we'll also be launching our smoothie vending machines back into the market for the second time. In Vancouver. Yes. So we'll have 25 machines circulating in Vancouver by the end of January of 2023.
Elisa Muñoz: I mean, that was actually my next question, like what's next for Trendi? You just answered, wow, this is really exciting. And also you have the dates. I mean, January is like tomorrow. Congratulations on that. You're expanding, you're growing, you're launching, your relaunching.
I wanted to ask like, what would you say is the biggest piece of advice you can give for future entrepreneurs who are starting on this path?
Carissa Campeotto: Startup life is not easy. Don't expect it to be, and don't be afraid to make adjustments when you realize something isn't working. Because doing the same thing that isn't working every day, it doesn't get you in a better place, right? And if you're an innovation, you know, innovation, it can eat us alive if we don't set our boundaries. I'm a big supporter of mental health awareness, and I myself have been sick in the past due to overwhelming amounts of work stress.
And so what I tell my friends in innovation is that if you're innovating, make sure that you're innovating for your future and for your business, but you're also taking the time to take care of yourself. Because innovation can all lead us all alive if they're not careful.
It can. And you know, we've faced so many supply chain issues, not just Trendi, but the whole world. But you know, I, I think our investors at Trendi are always there to support us during times that are not so easy because without them, money is fuel for innovation, right? And that is an important part. And respecting money through the process is equally as important.
Elisa Muñoz: Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for taking the time Carissa.
Carissa Campeotto: Thank you so much for having me here today and for our lovely discussion.
