Increasing adoption of plant-based & alt protein options – especially in the Global South
- commitment
- 2 hrs/week
- format
- Research and writing · Creative project, product design, and entrepreneurship · Field-building, outreach, and coordination · Project scoping and preparing grant applications · Other
- topic
- AI’s nearterm impact on animals · Macrostrategy, philosophy, and cause prioritisation · Other topic within Sentient Futures scope
- open to mentee proposals
- Yes, with the right mentee
The project
Each of these initiatives contributes progress to our primary objective. A lot is being done manually now and incorporating AI tools can help increase operational efficiency dramatically. Please read detailed descriptions here.
- Fundraising: Develop a tool or workflow to help search and fill out applications for relevant grants in the alt protein, environment, agriculture, or similar space.
- Research & Communication: Develop a tool or workflow to help establish an Evidence-to-Policy and Investor Translation Document Hub based on cutting-edge news in science research, economic research, policy research, or similar.
- Market Insights: Conduct consumer research of alt protein perception or products with deliberate oversampling of rural, immigrant, ethnic, and low-income communities to build a dataset that doesn't yet exist.
- Social Media & Storytelling: Develop a tool or workflow to build an alt protein narrative where at least half of the people or topics featured come from under represented groups
- Event Planning: Develop a tool or workflow to help organize 2-3 in-person events per year. (at least 200 guests)
- Graphics Design: Develop a tool or workflow to help streamline the creation of marketing assets for website, social media, and print media.
The mentee's role
Full ownership to complete a milestone objective. We develop the work plan together. You execute with guidance from mentor.
Who I'm looking for
Must haves:
- Ability to articulate ideas
- Communicate openly
- Not take things too personally
- Entrepreneur drive
- Results driven
- Task/Goal oriented to make forward progress
- Iterative improvement mindset Nice to haves:
- Direct domain experience
- Field research experience (living in a Global South country)
Questions for applicants
- What motivates you about the intersection of AI x Animals?
- What are your success metrics for this project incubator?
Support offered
- Strategic Planning
- Project Management
- Eval value proposition
- Develop data collection methods
- Design experiments for market testing
- Operationalizing work (OKR, WBS)
- Domain Expertise
- Networking
Matt Tom
Global Forum
If you regularly enjoy products from Kite Hill, Impossible, Eat Just, Ripple, and others worldwide, Matt commercialized and scaled up into full scale manufacturing their initial products for nationwide retail launch. Matt believes in transforming the food & ag systems via alt protein with a global scale focus. Reducing demand of animal ag products can have a huge impact globally. AI adoption allows us to do this faster at many points along the value chain.
While Matt does not have the most technical depth of AI development and implementation, he has great experience bringing both novel technology and novel products to the marketplace. For this program, Matt provides the strongest guidance in areas of entrepreneurship, market analysis, product design frameworks, product market fit, commercialization, senior & executive leadership, and culture building. You'll benefit from his experience in mentoring programs worldwide for orgs such as ProVeg, BIV, Carbon13, Brinc, CIA, CFIN, and more! Read some testimonials here.
Last year, Matt also co-founded a new nonprofit, Global Forum For Plant Based And Alt Proteins, to address systemic gaps in the alt protein sector that persist to this day. Without deliberate inclusivity, the global protein transition risks reinforcing existing inequalities, especially for women, minorities, and remote communities. Global Forum responds to this challenge by embracing and celebrating the rich food cultures of the world, empowering and amplifying the voices of the under served, and providing affordable and accessible training and education to drive strategic partnerships, and stimulate trade and investments with a focus on the Global South. Read more here.