Mewery 2024: Growing Meat With Love!

In the dynamic world of entrepreneurship, few individuals stand out as markedly as Roman Lauš. With a robust portfolio that includes founding and co-founding companies such as Global DTP, Global Elearning, and Home Institute, as well as making strategic investments in various startups, Roman has carved a niche for himself as a visionary leader. Since 2017, he has been steering the Future Port Prague as its Program Director, where his foresight into exponential technologies has made a significant impact. Roman’s journey is not just defined by his business acumen but also by his profound adherence to Buddhist values, which guide his endeavors with a compass of compassion and mindfulness. This unique blend of spiritual grounding and innovative thinking has culminated in his latest and perhaps most ambitious venture, Mewery. At Mewery, Roman is pioneering a revolutionary approach to food consumption, aiming to transform how we produce and consume meat. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, Mewery aspires to create a sustainable future for sentient beings and our planet. In this Delivery Rank’s interview, Roman Lauš delves into his entrepreneurial journey, the inspiration behind Mewery, and his vision for a future where technology and compassion converge to reshape our world.

What motivated you to transition from organizing visionary events like Future Port Prague to founding Mewery, and how did your background in exponential technologies influence this decision?

First of all, Futureport Prague and exponential technology actually sowed the seeds for founding Mewery.

I've been part of the founding team since the beginning of Futureport Prague, and we always wanted to make people in our region understand that the world is full of opportunities. Of course, there are challenges, but new technologies are bringing amazing tools to everyone's hands, and we are getting equal opportunities to start new innovations and businesses. It's not only in the hands of huge corporations anymore. With this idea to show the positive impact of exponential technologies, the building blocks of Futureport Prague were set. This actually led me to the idea of starting a very bold and challenging startup on my own.

I served as a program director for Future Port for many years, and I was privileged and very lucky to meet great people and speakers from around the world at this event.

Since I was studying exponential technologies in the U.S., I came across alternative proteins and the emerging market of food alternatives. We invited companies at a very early stage, which brought prototypes of cell-based meat to our event. When they came to Prague, I was completely fascinated by the idea that we could create meat without killing animals. At that time, I only wished to be somehow part of this movement or technology, but having no science background or a large amount of money to start a tissue engineering or molecular biology company seemed impossible.

Nevertheless, when COVID hit, we couldn't continue with this large event in Prague. I was figuring out my next move. Although I have a background in IT and a functioning IT business that pays my bills, I felt the need to do something out of the box, probably because I was so energized by organizing Futureport Prague for so many years and motivating other people. I decided it was time to make a bold move on my own.

The right conditions came together because my life partner Kristyna is a scientist and clinical biologist. We started studying all the science papers and I contacted everyone I knew in the U.S., Europe, and the Czech Republic to gather the best practices and understand how to start.

Overall, studying exponential technologies and motivating people to understand that you can create a global startup from anywhere today were the driving forces behind making Mewery possible. Networking and contacts from the event enabled me to gather the best scientific and business talents in our country to create the great team we have today, with experts in tissue engineering and molecular biology, bringing innovation and patent-pending technology to life.

How has your international business experience shaped your approach to investing in startups, and what do you look for in a potential investment?

In my case, I wouldn't really consider myself an investor thanks to the experience with a real two investment rounds with Mewery. I would rather say that I helped a couple of friends start their businesses or supported a good cause.

Some of my investments didn't work out, but in one of the companies where I was a co-founder, we managed to have an exit in two years. It was not just an investment but also my involvement in the company. That exit happened very quickly.

Some other investments are still in place. I invested in a very advanced deep-tech company changing the world of hydrogen and gas in the US. However, it wasn't really an investment in terms of finding the best companies and aiming for high returns. It was more like investing in friends' companies that I have been believing in.

What challenges did you face when starting Mewery, and how did you overcome them to position the company as a leader in the alternative protein industry?

Starting Mewery was really challenging. I had no background in this field, so I had to study everything from scratch. I probably asked really “funny and weird” questions about labs and cell cultivation to different people and institutions at the beginning.

I would say that my determination and drive brought the right people into the equation. It took us about eight months to figure out how to start. I believe there are no accidents; you are planting the seeds for your future. Through our activity, the right people clicked in, and we started cooperating with the Academy of Science on a contractual research basis. And then gradually through different networks, we started to connect with the right scientists.

I literally asked one of the best science speakers we had at Future Port to source the best talent in the country and help me bring the right people together. Thanks to Mendel University and its professors and teams, we built today’s team, with many members having studied there. Our CTO has had many PhD students over the years, picking the best ones to offer them jobs in our company.

We also managed to rent our own labs and offices on the university campus, putting us in a really lucky position.

We had to overcome the unknown because nobody had ever done this in our region. Even people with years of experience in tissue engineering in academia or business didn't know how to start. It was really a case of learning by doing.

Thanks to this out-of-the-box start, we have managed to combine the worlds of cell and microalgae cultivation and developed a unique worldwide patent-pending method of co-cultivating these two types of cells. Thus, we created a new category of fortified cultivated meat within the industry, and we are 70% cheaper than known cultivation methods.

As Program Director at Future Port Prague, you brought together hundreds of speakers. Can you share a memorable moment or speaker from these events that had a significant impact on you?

I've seen amazing minds throughout the years of organizing Future Port. We always tried to bring people who aligned with our vision and spirit. It was like bringing together very like-minded individuals. Imagine the excitement of meeting one or two friends you really like and having an engaging evening. Now, imagine bringing dozens or almost 100 people like that together. It was a feast of joy, intellectual exchange, and visionary, positive views towards the world.

If you ask me about the best moment, it's really hard to say because the whole experience changed and influenced me enormously.

However, if I had to pick one or two, it would definitely be Vitor Santo from Eat Just at that time. He brought the first cell-based chicken nugget prototype to Prague. I was completely blown away when I saw it on stage. This was when my wish to be part of this movement came about. I talked to Vitor a lot. He was not only a great mind and scientist but also a great person. He was one of the people who helped me greatly before we officially founded Mewery. I interviewed him a lot and asked him about his experience, as he served as the head of science for one of the biggest cell-based meat companies for many years. He was a great inspiration for me.

What are some key lessons you’ve learned from your entrepreneurial journey, from co-founding Global DTP and Global Elearning to launching Mewery, and how have these experiences shaped your business philosophy?

When you start a few companies, build or dissolve a few, you get real-life experiences you can't learn anywhere else. There are many techniques and methods on how to run a business, make your team grow, make them happy with your company culture, be effective, etc. There are great methodologies and systems for how to build and run companies. But at the end of the day, it's more about who you are as a leader, your vision and character, and how the people you attract align with this vision, especially when you build startups. Every single person significantly influences the team at the beginning. The bigger you get, the more people you have, the less family-like the company becomes. But in smaller teams, your sincerity and honesty are crucial, especially today.

People want to work in an environment where they feel heard, where they can make mistakes, and where they can be creative. My experiences in IT, real estate, and event business were somewhat similar but still different. Running a scientific or biotech startup requires reprogramming how you lead teams. Scientists need trials and errors, and for them, errors or failures are actually successes because every result is valuable. Yet, they need a practical and business view, in other words, real application of their discoveries. It is a very challenging process that brings in the end enormous fulfillment and meaning to one’s work. That’s why deep tech startups need visionaries and business-oriented leaders as scientists most often can’t do both at the same time.

I had to learn that while you might want to speed things up and claim results quickly, you need to be patient and wait for validation before making any public announcements. 

We've done many business plans for several of my companies before and hardly any were fulfilled as expected. With this perspective, I try to be realistic in front of investors and careful with how we spend investors' money which is certainly different if you start your first company.

My business philosophy is to respect the people you work with, keep learning, and ask the right questions. This approach should surround you with the right people who want to engage in the always bumpy journey and help to achieve the vision together.

To read more about Mewery, please visit https://mewery.io/