Tyler Mayoras

Crop Diversity and the Future of Plant-Based Food

Listen Now

Eat For The Planet is available on the following platforms

About This Episode

Tyler Mayoras is the Cofounder and CEO of Cool Beans. Tyler has spent more than 20 years in private equity investing and consulting, focused on sustainable food and agriculture. After adopting a plant-based lifestyle and seeing the incredible health benefits, he wanted to continue helping to create a sustainable future of food and worked with partners to create the 100% plant-based taste adventure that is Cool Beans.

Prior to founding Cool Beans, Tyler was a principal in the Advantage Capital Food and Agriculture Fund where he led transactions involving Shenandoah Growers, Navitas Organics, Farmhouse Culture and Snaxsational Brands (Snack Pop and Pasta Chips). In addition to leading Cool Beans, he continues his support of other plant-based brands as an angel investor and mentor for Simple Mills, Spero Foods, Atomo Coffee, Lavva, Renewal Mill and Tiesta Tea. He’s a board member of Naturally Chicago and ACG Chicago, and an avid speaker on plant-based food and sustainable agriculture, appearing in the media and on podcasts.

Tyler lives in the Chicago area with his wife Sasha and their two daughters. Tyler received his BS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Topics covered on this podcast

  • What is Cool Beans and why Tyler decided to focus on building a food company with beans at its core.

  • The challenge of building a new category based on the philosophy of using simple ingredients with minimal processing and with no oil and sugar added.

  • Why taste matters and how Tyler and his team formulated the products to be packed with flavor, without compromising on their efforts to stay minimally processed.

  • Shifting the mainstream food media narrative from biotech to beans.

  • The problem with monocultures and why we need more crop diversity in our food system.

  • Why soil health matters for our health and the environment.

  • Transforming the conventional American food culture of convenience and burgers to include beans.

  • Are alternatives proteins just the first wave of plant-based products?

  • Why Tyler believes healthy, whole plant-food based products is where the market is heading.

Tyler’s previous appearance on the podcast:

#113 - Tyler Mayoras: Impact Investing and The Future of Sustainable Foo‪d‬