Delivering Dairy Differently
For Jacob Conway, the passion of living a whole foods plant-based lifestyle hits close to home. Having quit dairy in college and watched the diagnosis and recovery of his brother from cancer, he made the changes he believed were needed to live more healthily. Reflecting on his experience on campus however, he soon realised that the decision to choose plant-based diary wasn't easy for students: there were no alternative options readily available. Packing his bags he moved across the country and joined Kevin Eve as co-founder of New-York based startup Uproot; with a mission to make plant-based dairy more accessible, the pair are bringing sustainability to food service. We chat more with Jacob about their unique approach using dispensers and the reactions they have received so far from customers. We also discuss some of the challenges that have arisen in his entrepreneurial journey, Uproot’s recent launch of single serve cartons and how to differentiate in a market where large players currently dominate.
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Image of Uproot’s single serve milk cartons (left: oat milk, right: pea milk). Sourced from their website.
Before meeting Kevin, Jacob had already been on a path of health and sustainability. With his brother’s diagnosis of thyroid cancer in 2015, he began to do his own research and after coming upon plant-based endurance athletes such as Rich Roll he made the push to commit to a fully vegan lifestyle.
But what inspired him to pursue a journey of entrepreneurship?
Jacob: “I loved that environment. I loved the control we had over how the company operated and what our goals were every single day. That autonomy is something I really enjoy.”
Jacob: “Once I had had a taste there was no going back for me.”
Now a co-founder of early-stage startup Uproot Milk, Jacob is able to bring passion and purpose together in his work. But starting a business, in particular a plant-based dairy business is no easy feat. We wanted to delve deeper into Uproot’s differentiation and how Jacob and Kevin are approaching the challenge; namely in their unique approach with food service. It starts with their experience in college.
Jacob: “I would have to go up to the chefs and ask them to bring out a carton of soy milk for me for my cereal, or just forgo these things in your dining hall that other kids were enjoying. But we knew that there were plenty in retail; in Wholefoods you could walk in and there were so many options for plant-based milks.”
Jacob: “Once we went down that road we learned a lot more about the food system in the US in general and food services and came to understand that these spaces are often the last to get the good stuff.”
Jacob: “To us that didn’t make sense. There’s so much opportunity in these places, in these everyday interactions where people are consuming other traditional dairy products to fill in with delicious plant-based options.”
This led to the idea of developing a plant-based milk dispenser.
Jacob: “Being two young people that are passionate about sustainability and myself being so passionate about veganism, that’s what a lot of food services are looking for. They’re trying to keep up with these trends.”
The idea of a plant-based milk dispenser isn’t entirely new, with some companies providing single milk options. The issue? These pigeon-hole the consumer meaning if they are allergic to or don’t enjoy the taste of the single option available they may not be willing to make the switch. It’s for this reason that Uproot has gone for a multi-variety approach, with their current options including oat, pea and soy milk.
Jacob went on to talk about the reactions, with the pair receiving positive feedback from consumers.
Jacob: “They knew what the machine was, they knew how it worked, what came out of it. It was just some light education about plant-based milk and what our offerings were.”
Being large machines, we were also interested in learning about the logistics behind providing the dispensers.
Here’s a brief rundown:
Uproot provides the dispenser to the customer (e.g. school), under the agreement that Uproot will be served from the dispenser.
Uproot ensure that they will check in and handle any maintenance.
The actual milk will be available through one of the customer’s preferred distributors. sometimes larger corporations will develop their own dispensers to make them more defensible in the market -> there is potential for Uproot’s future but at this point in time this relationship works well
Jacob mentioned that sometimes larger corporations develop their own dispensers to make them more defensible in the market (an option they’re not ruling out for the future) but for the moment this relationship works well, especially given that they are working at a relatively small scale.
Jacob: “There’s also a nice opportunity to brand it and add some marketing. We use it as an opportunity because it is such a great engagement point in that environment, their (consumer’s) eyes are directly on it.”
Jacob: “We want people to feel empowered about their decision to choose plant-based milk over dairy.”
Another large part of Uproot’s journey has been the transition from spending 9 hours in the kitchen making plant-based milk by hand, to working with a co-packer.
Jacob: “It worked well for us because of that special relationship. We were the ones dropping off the milk at schools, they knew our faces, they knew who we were so that was a great foundation for us and helped with word of mouth when they talked to colleagues from other universities.”
Jacob: “Once we started getting expressions of interests from other schools we knew it wasn’t scaleable because we were spending so much time spending milk we didn’t have time to focus on any other aspects of the business.”
That then led to their decision to take a short break from the business, in which time they moved from Providence to New York, and in which they also strove to find a suitable co-packer.
Jacob: “Being a part of Big Idea Ventures was a huge help, they helped us get in touch with the right people and we were able to secure a relationship with a co-packer.”
As for many businesses however, COVID-19 soon struck, resulting in the cease of foodservice.
Jacob: “Once that food service business went away and there was no clear indication of when it would come back, we knew we needed to make some sort of pivot.”
They landed on producing single serve 8 ounce cartons of the same milk, providing a safer way for food service to cater to its customers.
Jacob: “A lot of them are doing to-go meals, and even if you’re not you don’t want a dispenser that everyone is coming up to and touching.”
This development allowed Uproot to continue serving their customers, as well as gave them an extra opportunity to branch out in new ways, for example supplying to hospitals.
Jacob: “Hospitals have a large demand for plant-based milk but a dispenser doesn’t really make sense because patients are in their beds a lot of the time, there’s a lot going on and meals can be at weird hours.”
Jacob: “These single-serve cartons work perfectly. You throw them on a tray and now you can include them in every patient or visitor meal in the hospital.”
With a convenient and portable option, the food services they were supplying to would also begin to sell them in their retail spaces, increasing brand awareness. As a result, their presence in retail has extended beyond service with Uproot now working with niche spaces in NY as well as being available to purchase on Amazon.
Jacob: “Retail is not Uproot’s end goal but it doesn’t hurt to have something to connect those two worlds.”
As mentioned earlier, starting a plant-based diary business is no easy feat, with dominant brands such as Oatly having a large presence in the market. We asked Jacob how he views competition in the space.
Jacob: “At the end of the day trying to have a one-size fits all approach to consumer palettes, especially when it comes to plant-based eating, is not going to work.”
Jacob: “Our hope is that we can fill those spaces but also meet people where they are.”
Jacob went on to talk about how people aren’t looking for new plant-based milk, they’re looking for new places to drink plant-based milk. Despite the fact that a lot of companies have this dominant hold over retail, there are many places where people come into contact with dairy products outside of this space that could benefit with a healthy plant-based option.
Jacob also mentioned that going from retail to food service can be a difficult hurdle for companies to overcome.
Jacob: “When you walk into a cafeteria, working with cartons isn’t going to fit the bill when you have thousands of kids coming in and out each day. That’s a lot of packaging waste, a lot of restocking fridges… there’s a lot of considerations that go into it.”
On the other hand if you start in foodservice you can develop close relationships, get people to become familiar with your product, receive brand recognition and feedback which all serve as a good launchpad to go further in the future.
Aside from providing milk directly into spaces that are currently lacking readily available options, another large part of accessibility is how affordable a product is.
Jacob: “We don’t want to be expensive. We want it to be accessible to people. Whether that means making it affordable enough so that it can be in a public k-12 school or it means when we have retail products making them more accessible to those who are in the most need of plant-based products.”
The pair also donate to communities that may be in need of plant-based milk options, with some schools in New York switching to vegetarian meals for children providing a lot of room for opportunity and potential collaboration.
We also spoke with Jacob about some of the challenges and vice versa rewarding moments in his journey so far; one of the latter being the friendship and strong teamwork that’s formed between the two founders.
Jacob: “My dad and my brothers told me more than once that it doesn’t matter if you think it’s actually going to succeed. The question you need to ask yourself is can you work with this person every day all day.”
Jacob: “They were so right because I gave that a lot of thought and Kevin and I get along really well… which has been really rewarding.”
To learn more you can head to Uproot’s website, or follow them on social media @uprootmilk.