Daryl is currently an Investor at Trihill Capital, investing in early-stage startups across South-East Asia & Founder of The Next Batch.
He was previously at Hypotenuse AI (YC S20) and Deskimo (YC S21), wearing multiple hats across Growth, Product, Partnerships, Marketing and Analytics.
Guest Author: Daryl Lim
🙌 Welcome back to Startup Wednesdays, featuring #VCs, #founders & #operators here in South-East Asia. For this week, we have Fengru L., Co-Founder & CEO at TurtleTree
đź’ What inspired you to start TurtleTree & focus on lactoferrin as the primary ingredient in milk production?
TurtleTree was launched to create more sustainable & ethical ways of bringing nutritious food options to the world. I was inspired to start the company after my cheesemaking hobby led me to discover the harsh realities of milk production. While we originally aimed to produce whole milk directly from cells, the short-term economics didn’t make sense. We adjusted focus based on customer feedback & honed in on the most sought-after & valuable milk ingredients. Top of the list is lactoferrin, noting its high retail price & significant benefits for immunity, digestion & iron regulation. We are now making this powerful milk ingredient at scale, providing a far shorter path to revenue & real-world impact.
đź’ What is your favourite book and why?
I found Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO” so enlightening that I shared it with the TurtleTree team while only halfway through it. Bartlett’s principles for charting an unconventional & audacious path toward building something great resonate deeply with our entrepreneurial spirit at TurtleTree. One particularly resonant lesson I found explores the Kaizen principle. This concept, highlighted in Toyota’s collaboration with General Motors in the ’80s, emphasizes continual improvement & the value of empowering front-line employees to identify & solve problems swiftly. Quality, is an ongoing pursuit of refinement at every level rather than an end-state. We’re actively curating workshops to uncover additional lessons from the book that can propel collective improvement on our innovation journey.
đź’ How does TurtleTree approach the economic feasibility of its products, considering the cost of precision fermentation?
The unit economics of manufacturing a valuable ingredient like lactoferrin are highly favorable. With the protein currently trading at $750 – 1,500/ kg, we’ll have a healthy profit margin from launch that will only increase as we continue to optimize our processes. This strategy sets us apart from other precision fermentation-focused companies that are producing commodity proteins like casein or whey, which trade at US$13/kg & $1/kg respectively & may face challenges in achieving profitability.
đź’ What role do you see TurtleTree playing in shaping the future of alternative milk production?
By unlocking access to the most powerful proteins in milk & making them without the animal, we are giving plant-based dairy companies a way to add functionality to their products, bridge the gap with traditional dairy & boost consumer adoption. Furthermore, TurtleTree is transforming the food & beverage industry more broadly, enabling an array of everyday foods to be fortified with lactoferrin like never before.
#foodtech #biotech
