The Venture Capitalist Who Wants You to Donate More to Charity
Release Date: 04/15/2025
Vedge of Glory: How Two Plant-Based Restaurateurs Have Survived for Decades
Business for Good Podcast
In the restaurant world, infant mortality is the norm. Nearly two-thirds of new eateries shut down in their first year. Only one in five lives to see its fifth birthday. So when a restaurant—not just any restaurant, but a plant-based fine-dining spot—thrives for decades, it’s not just impressive. It’s almost mythic. Enter Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, the married duo behind , the acclaimed Philadelphia restaurant that’s helped redefine what plant-based food can be. With nods from Bon Appétit, GQ, Food & Wine, and the James Beard Foundation, Rich and Kate have built more than a...
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The Venture Capitalist Who Wants You to Donate More to Charity
Business for Good Podcast
Nick Cooney is one of the most prolific investors in food and ag tech. As the founder of , he’s helped deploy nearly $80 million from his first fund and has now toward his second $100 million fund. He’s backed companies across the spectrum of sustainable protein—plant-based meat, cultivated meat, fermentation-derived proteins (including, in full disclosure, my own company, ), and more. But despite his deep roots in venture capital, Nick’s latest project is about something very different: giving money away with no expectation of any financial return. In his new book, , from Simon &...
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No Palm, No Problem: Fermenting the Future of Fat
Business for Good Podcast
Palm oil is everywhere—from food to cosmetics to biofuels—but its production is a leading cause of deforestation, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions. What if we could have all the benefits of palm oil without the downsides? Enter , a Dutch biotech startup using fermentation to produce a sustainable alternative to palm oil—without the need for palm trees. Instead of chopping down rainforests, they’re upcycling agricultural waste, feeding it to their specialty yeast, and brewing a fat with the same characteristics as high-end palm oil in the process. The company’s...
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Turning Air Into Butter: Savor’s Revolutionary Approach to Alternative Fats
Business for Good Podcast
What if the fat in your butter, cheese, or even burger could be made without animals, without plants, without fermentation, and without agriculture at all? That’s exactly what is doing. Using a groundbreaking process that transforms compounds like CO₂ and elements like hydrogen into rich, animal-free fats that can mimic what animal fat does, this California-based startup is rethinking how we produce and consume one of the most essential ingredients in food. In this episode, I sit down with Kathleen Alexander, cofounder and CEO of Savor, to dive into the science behind their...
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Cleaner Air from Better Plants: The Neoplants Story
Business for Good Podcast
We spend about 90 percent of our lives indoors, yet the air inside our homes and offices is often far more polluted than the air outside. Volatile organic compounds—better known as VOCs—are constantly emitted by furniture, cleaning products, and even the very walls around us. Formaldehyde, benzene, toluene—these chemicals sound like something you’d find in an industrial park, but they’re actually in the places where we eat, sleep, and work. Well, what if nature could give us a hand here? What if plants, and even microbes, could be supercharged to clean our air at a level that...
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Helping Alt-Protein Startups Survive the Winter: Ahimsa’s Consolidation Approach
Business for Good Podcast
It’s no secret that the alternative protein startups are struggling these days. A combination of lower revenue, intense competition, and less available venture capital is leading to a contraction in the sector, with countless alt-meat and dairy companies conducting layoffs, declaring bankruptcy, and even folding altogether. Enter , a newly formed investment group acquiring promising but distressed plant-based brands. This isn’t charity, though. Ahimsa's belief is that, with their consolidation strategy and pooled resources, these brands that are built on a strong underlying product...
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Subtracting the Bean from Coffee: The Minus Story
Business for Good Podcast
Did you know that it takes 140 liters of water to make a single cup of coffee? Turns out that coffee, as far as plant crops are concerned, has a fairly heavy footprint on the planet. And it’s getting harder to farm, with climate change altering where and how many coffee beans can even be grown. You’ve heard of making meat without chickens, and milk without cows. Well, you can also now get coffee without beans. This episode’s guest is the CEO of , a startup reimagining how you enjoy your daily brew. Minus has developed an innovative way to replicate the rich flavor, aroma, and experience...
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Can a Problem as Big as Climate Be Solved by a Solution as Small as a Microbe?
Business for Good Podcast
In this episode we’re diving deep into the fascinating world of carbon recycling with a trailblazer who’s reshaping how we think about waste and sustainability. Our guest is Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of —a company on a mission to transform our biggest environmental challenge into an economic opportunity. LanzaTech is pioneering a process that takes industrial emissions—the kind of harmful gases that typically contribute to climate change—and recycles them into valuable products like fuels, fabrics, and everyday consumer goods. The concept might sound like science fiction, but it’s...
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From Harvard Business School to Rural Africa: Nicole Poindexter’s Journey to Advance Clean Energy Access
Business for Good Podcast
In this episode we’re taking you on a journey to some of the most remote corners of West Africa, where energy access is scarce, and innovation is changing lives. Our guest is Nicole Poindexter, the founder and CEO of , a company that's bringing clean, reliable solar power to off-grid communities in countries like Sierra Leone, Benin, and Liberia. Nicole and her team are doing something extraordinary: building solar mini-grids that provide electricity to tens of thousands of people who otherwise rely on polluting and expensive energy sources—or have no power at all. And, impressively,...
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From Korea to the US: UNLIMEAT Puts its Signature on the Plant-Based Meat Movement
Business for Good Podcast
Most plant-based meats in the US have centered around American staples like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and sausages. But there’s a world of meat consumption out there, and some of the most popular meat dishes are ones many Americans may have never even tried. In recent years, South Korea has seen great success exporting its culture around the world, with mega-popular K-dramas like and , K-pop like , and yes, K-food like . Now, South Korean plant-based meat player is bringing its twist on K-meat to thousands of US supermarkets. Already, the company’s Korean-style alt-meats...
info_outlineNick Cooney is one of the most prolific investors in food and ag tech. As the founder of Lever VC, he’s helped deploy nearly $80 million from his first fund and has now closed more than $50 million toward his second $100 million fund. He’s backed companies across the spectrum of sustainable protein—plant-based meat, cultivated meat, fermentation-derived proteins (including, in full disclosure, my own company, The Better Meat Co.), and more.
But despite his deep roots in venture capital, Nick’s latest project is about something very different: giving money away with no expectation of any financial return.
In his new book, What We Don’t Do: Inaction in the Face of Suffering and the Drive to Do More, from Simon & Schuster and Regalo Press, Nick challenges the reader with a bold moral argument: it’s not enough to simply avoid doing harm—we have a responsibility to proactively reduce suffering where we can, including suffering we didn’t cause. That includes using our time, our talents, and yes, our money, to help others—especially those we’ll never meet.
So how much should we be giving? While philosopher Peter Singer proposes 10% of your income as a moral benchmark, and Jesus went even further, telling his followers to sell everything and give to the poor, Nick stakes out a middle ground somewhere between Singer and Jesus of Nazareth: give until you feel it. Not until it hurts, necessarily—but enough that it makes a noticeable impact on your life. Because that impact could be life-changing—or even life-saving—for someone else.
In this episode, Nick and I dive into the ideas behind What We Don’t Do, and why our inactions—what we don’t do—may be among the biggest sources of preventable suffering in the world. We explore the psychology behind why it feels easier to forgive inaction than harmful action, and how we can train ourselves to think differently.
We also discuss the current state of the alt-protein industry, Nick's analysis of why venture capital has cooled off on the space in recent years, and what it’ll take to bring investors back to the table.
It’s a rich and rewarding conversation with one of the most influential thinkers in the future of food. I found What We Don’t Do to be both thought-provoking and motivating, and I think you’ll feel the same. Whether you're a founder, a funder, or just someone who wants to do a little—or a lot—more good in the world, this episode is for you.