This is Adam Yee's Face
Adam Yee is a food scientist, a serial entrepreneur and a podcaster. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Cal Poly. From humble beginnings waking up at 4am to start the line at a granola bar factory, he's worked up the ranks and over time, has founded multiple startups such as Better Meat Co which raised $27 million and Sobo Foods which raised $2.5 million.
He’s also worked for a variety of food technology ingredient startups such as Motif Foodworks, which raised $345 million dollars and recently had to cease operations. His podcast, My Food Job Rocks, which interviews over 270 food industry professionals is known throughout the industry as a resource to inform people about the opportunities in the food industry.
Adam is currently working on multiple innovations in the food industry which he houses in his consultancy, Umai Works. From AI to chili crisps, Adam is interested in it all.
Testimonials From Startups and Small Businesses
Adam was a integral part of The Better Meat Co since before we had a company (or even a name).
Not only did he create the prototypes that helped lead us to start The Better Meat Co together, but Adam went on over the next 17 months to create plant-based formulas that worked so well they ended up in products on 7,100 US grocery store shelves.
— Paul Shapiro, Cofounder of The Better Meat Co
The moment I decided to create a new line of snacks, I knew Adam was the key to making it happen. His expertise in food science and his knack for innovation was exactly what I needed.
His input was invaluable and his tenacity for helping turn my dreams into a reality is truly inspiring
— Dina Shi, Cofounder of Tochi Snacks
Adam helped me create new products without any benchmarks that were approved by my food service customers.
He's also willing to do deliveries and events with me which is an added bonus for someone who's starting from zero to one and was one of my first believers when it came to building my business
— Luiza Vilella, Founder of Unclassic Foods
Can Fit Into Any Organization and Solve Any Problem
During a crunch time for our team, Adam was able to come in and rapidly prototype new
product form factors using some novel hydrocolloid approaches and unconventional ingredient sourcing to let us evaluate a new product concept in
about a month without disrupting the primary workflow of our team.Adam was very professional about information reporting as well as the confidentiality of his work. Also, the reports were very well structured and detailed and really let me focus on other things while he independently evaluated these new product
concepts/methods.— Josh Nixon, Co-Founder of Prime Roots
[On Novel Ingredient Application]
Adam has been invaluable to our multi-disciplinary team, bringing his unique food science expertise to evaluate AI-generated food formulations and confirm they're viable for production.
His collaborative spirit and great sense of humor make him a joy to work with, and he has opened doors to game-changing partnerships by strategically connecting us with key industry players who provide the critical insights that drive our innovation forward.
— Caroline Cotto, Managing Director of Nectar/FSI
[On AI Research with Stanford and Bezos Earth Fund]
Collaborating with Adam on our product development was an outstanding experience. His deep knowledge and experience in food science helped us achieve vibrant, stable icings without compromising on flavor or clean-label standards.
Adam was thorough, timely, and easy to work with—he provided straightforward direction
and his input made a huge difference in our final product. I highly recommend working with him if you're looking to elevate your innovation and research solutions— Renel Sun, Director of R+D at Miss Jones
[On replacing artifical icing with natural and tracking the changes]
My Food Job Rocks
My Food Job Rocks! is a career advice podcast first and a food science podcast second. If I can showcase a unique job and how to get there, then maybe someone will be inspired to take the same path they went on.
With over 300 episodes in the span of 8 years, this podcast has inspired many to get into the food industry. From students to professionals to even investors, this podcast is a wealth of knowledge for anyone who wants to get into food.
On a personal level, the podcast allows me to not only connect with experts smarter than me, but I’m able to share them with students and young professionals smarter than me. Understanding how each and every episode influences the food system allows me to understand my role systematically, and has made me valuable in my job.
Food Products FAQ with Adam Yee and Brian Chau
This is a podcast collaboration with my friend Brian Chau who owns the consultancy Chau Time. We've known each other for over a decade through rival collages. In this 10-part series, we will be diving into the technical realm of creating food products. This is a great podcast for people curious about what goes into a food product and the technical challenges we face as consultants when it comes to building a food business on the product end.
Enjoy our episodes here
Maybe Food Maybe Tech Podcast
A podcast where an entrepreneurial food scientist and a tech product manager explore the variety of ways our world affects the things we care about. Join Adam Yee and Kai-Hsin Wang on a chaotic, ENTP-coded hour interview where we share our thoughts on current events, dive into the companies in food and tech (or both) and share some personal insights on life in general.
Enjoy our episodes here
