Food People #003: Jennifer Stojkovic & Vegan Woman Summit

Jennifer Stojkovic is a food-tech leader, founder of Vegan Women Summit (VWS), author of the bestselling book The Future of Food is Female, and General Partner at Joyful Ventures.

In the first part of our conversation, we discuss her path from public charity work to tech, and how becoming a bestselling author merged her remarkable career in tech with her passion for improving the future of food and how we eat. And how that set the stage for her to launch Vegan Women Summit and Joyful Ventures.

In part two, we talk hot dog casserole, daily eating habits, food feelings, and where to find the best deals for natural and organic food.

When you're finished reading, don't forget dessert. The conversation continues on our social channels with rapid-fire questions about the foods Jennifer loves (and doesn't love) and other fun food questions.

Bon Appétit! - Read Time: 15 Minutes

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Part I: Business

Lex: Describe your path to working in food.

Jenny: My path to working in food was extremely atypical. I had absolutely no food experience. 

Scratch that. I had a little experience but a completely unrelated path.

My first career out of college was public charity. When I entered the working world and moved to America at 21, I oversaw grant programs at the United Way and administered several million dollars a year to charitable programs. More than half of our programs were food assistance.

My first experience working in food was with food banks. We supplied children's lunches, national school lunch programs, and food stamps. We also served free and reduced-price lunch kits.

Then, I moved to San Francisco and became a Silicon Valley lobbyist, completely changing my career path to a totally new world. For half a decade, I worked for a man named Ron Conway, the godfather of Silicon Valley. I was able to build a really exciting and interesting career there, working with Google, Facebook, and all the top tech giants. But privately, I had a personal passion for food and changing how we eat.

In 2018, I started to see innovation intersect with food.

That's when you started hearing a lot about the Impossible Burger, Just and the concept of cultivated meat. And so, that was really my segue into, hey, how can I take what I do for a living and move it towards something I am more passionate about? That's where I got the impetus to create my first platform, Vegan Women Summit (VWS).

The goal was to inspire women to participate in changing the way we eat. We started with 250 women in a room. We now have over 100,000 women professionals across six continents, including about 20% male professionals. As a result, we've become the biggest food innovation summit in the world.

I'm finding a way to marry what I do in the tech industry and bring that spirit of innovation to the way we eat.

You said 100,000 people, that's over 50% growth, from what I read, was 40,000 women worldwide last year.

That's about a year and a half old, but yes, we have now more than 100,000.

We held our first conference, and the lockdown happened a month later. So, 2020, yay. The virtual platform allowed us to connect with many more professionals. It was also a time when, to be totally frank, we had so many people reaching out every single day saying, "I'm sitting at a computer all day," "I'm worried about the fate of the world," "I've got my baby over here," "Why am I a cog at Meta?" "What can I do to do something more inspiring."

That was a big reason why our growth accelerated so much. Men and women from all over the world came to us and said, “I want to do something that's actually going to help the planet and help my kids.”

So many millennials are now reaching that professional level where you are close to a midlife crisis. And we have many midlife crises headed our way.

So, for better or for worse, we grew quite a lot.

I feel that. I love how you made that change happen. I also had no experience with food before switching into it, but now I love it so much.

I feel food has the most potential for individuals to impact the world. We eat every day and multiple times throughout the day.

How do you see your role impacting what people eat?

Well, that is a very big question, depending on which hat I'm wearing for the day and what my hair looks like.

I work really hard on thought leadership around moving towards what I consider to be sustainable protein. Moving away from industrialized animal agriculture—I think we can all agree that anywhere from 15 to 20%, depending on whose classifications you're using, will be impacted by animal agriculture. 

So if you want to make a difference, I think we need to have strong thought leadership there. We do a conference on it. I do tons of media and write lots of articles on it. I also wrote a book, The Future of Food is Female.

It's the first book about women changing the food system. It became a number-one bestseller last summer, which was very exciting.

And I also launched a fund to invest in the next generation of food products, Joyful Ventures.

It depends. I'm trying to tackle this from all angles.

Congrats on becoming a number-one bestselling author.
How has your life changed in the last two years since it came out?

I've built my career using a multi-prong approach. I knew I wanted to be a published author, an entrepreneur, and a venture capitalist.

The book served as a way to solidify my authority in this space.

Not having a traditional background in food, it was really important to show some legitimacy and validation.

I've spent these last few years on the ground, learning as much as I can. I don't have a formal education, background, or training in food. Writing the book was my way of establishing authority, particularly regarding the future of food.

It's such an early space, so you have to be at the forefront of it. There's not much to catch up on because it's evolving daily.

What would you say is the most cherished highlight of your career in food?

There are small moments that are part of a larger tapestry of change that I've been able to be a part of. I get messages every other day; many are on LinkedIn, some are on email, some are from my website form, and some are from Instagram. 

I get notes from women or men who have heard a podcast I did about three years ago. They'll say, "Hey, Jenny, I heard your podcast and started a company," or "Hey, I came to your conference last year, and I've completely changed what I do for a living," or "I've totally transformed the way that I eat" or whatever it might be. The small ripple effect of these stories matters the most to me. 

That's what makes it worth doing. I don't think it's one specific moment. It's these small ripples that add up to the change we need.

It is the perfect way to change the world. One person cannot do a lot, but with what you're doing, you're igniting this little spark in thousands of people, and that change and impact compounds.

You are changing the world because you're changing how people think about changing the world. That's impactful.

To add, 93% of consumer food purchases are made by women. So when people ask me why I focus on women, I say it just makes sense from the bottom line.

You know? You're a founder. You're building a food brand. You know who your consumers are, you know who's buying the product.

By identifying and targeting that head of household, you're reaching the decision-maker who influences the entire household. That one person could lead to four people eating differently or purchasing differently.

That's how you can impact the most change.

That's very true. I inherited so much of my taste from my mom. It's all influenced by what she bought and fed us growing up.

When I speak to single or unpartnered guys, I ask them, "What detergent do you buy?" or "What X do you buy?" And I can always find that through line to their mom within 30 seconds. That impact can be from your mom, partner, sister, or whoever lives with you. It's undeniable.

There's something about men's inherent satisfaction with the status quo versus women's seeking to improve/nurture their families. I think this might explain why women-run startups statistically outperform their male counterparts.

Well, statistically speaking, women founders return a 63% higher exit. A large part of that is related to the fact that women don't get as much funding. Because of that imbalance, we tend to be better with money. 

All the statistics also show that women founders are more efficient and effective with fewer dollars. I believe women inherently think of leadership differently than men. 

Both leadership styles have a lot of value, and the world needs both styles.

Many people believe that there's been that imbalance because, at least in food, 70% of food executives are male—super ironic because they're mostly selling to moms.

How can we better represent women regarding these food choices with that imbalance? There are entire categories where you can see that unconscious bias. A big one is the infant and toddler category. We've barely innovated on baby formula in 50+ years.

If we had more women at that helm, we would have likely changed baby formula much sooner.

And that's a whole other conversation, too, but many babies are born with a dairy allergy. No one has worked on high-quality alternatives for that need. 

If we had had more women leaders in this industry, they may have focused on this sooner.

What's the most surprising success you've seen in food tech recently?

Financial success, consumer success, or...

However you define it. What's something that's genuinely surprised you?

I was a food expert for Fast Company's food innovation list. What I found really interesting is Bonza. It's not a particularly new innovation, but I think Bonza is one of the most fascinating CPG stories of all time—certainly in modern CPG history—because they haven't raised in years. Their exit is going to be a great one.

I love Bonza so much.

What they've been able to do to take that amount of shelf space next to all the major 100-year-old pasta brands, especially with a more expensive product, is incredible. It started with a gluten-free trend, but now it's more of a high-protein product. 

Protein diversification is one of the most untapped CPG categories. There's that Equii bread. They use a proprietary fermentation technique to make bread with a super high protein content. The ability to take staple foods and turn them into high-protein alternatives for the masses is super interesting. 

It's a great example of how a niche category like gluten-free can become a really big dominant piece. For instance, it's become the center of plate protein for me. 

If we can get people to diversify their center of plate protein, we can meaningfully impact people's diets and move them to a more sustainable and healthier diet. 

I credit a lot of this change to Bonza.

I completely agree. Part of the solution for the future is for meat eaters to consume less meat rather than converting all of their meat to plant meat.

Bonza is a great way to convert some of that meat protein into plant protein through pasta, waffles, and other foods. 

I bought a new cereal yesterday, and it is literally the same idea. It's chickpea flour and pea protein—Three Wishes cereal. I never thought I'd be eating cereal again, but suddenly, it's like, oh my God, this bowl of cereal has more protein than my protein bar and less sugar. Incredible.

I haven't bought bread in a decade, but the Equii team sent me theirs a few months back, and I found myself eating it because it was high-protein. 

The problem in the United States is this protein obsession. Scientifically, we all know that we don't need this much protein, but let's say the consumer wants it anyway.

If we can start to pick apart the functional aspects of food a lot more, we have a better chance of reducing meat in people's diets. If you're going to eat fast food, you can do a good enough job with plant-based or mostly plant-based.

If it's junk food, nobody is noticing a difference.

I'm also a big supporter of blended [meat and plant-based meat]. There's a lot of opportunity to reduce the amount of meat in the product. 

So, junk food is great. Every few months, I may have a burger, but for my main staples Monday through Friday, what am I going to eat? Protein is such an important element in other ways.

Somebody is making higher-protein pasta sauces. I spent some time in London with a brand that offers this novel high-protein flour ingredient to make pasta or waffles.

I use Vega Sport in the morning to diversify where I'm getting my protein; it's like 4-5 different types.

For gut health and biome, so many studies connect to the importance of the diversity of your protein and your fruits and vegetables. When it comes to satiation, this is the name of the game everyone's talking about. We're in the ozempic craze right now, and how to keep people full longer. That is a huge aspect of it.

Let's talk about Vegan Women Summit. What would you say has been the most significant impact of the Vegan Women Summit?

Last year was our biggest year yet. We had over 1,200 people in New York City and conducted 300 on-site media interviews. We had over 150 pieces of media coverage, including full segments on Good Morning America, MSNBC, and all kinds of major outlets that otherwise haven't covered something with the word vegan in it.

The most important piece is our impact on changing the cultural narrative. 

Our audience is about 60% non-vegan. The majority are vegan advocates, sustainability-minded, vegan-curious, etc. I firmly believe that if I can create a 360° view of what our future could look, feel, and taste like, even just for one day, we can impact how consumers think about their daily purchasing.

If we show you a better, cruelty-free, or plant-based version, and you experience it firsthand and see that it can be everything you need daily, you'll go out and start buying it. And if I can do that with fashion and beauty, we don't only cover food. We cover the future of food, fashion, beauty, biotechnology, sustainability, and wellness.

If I can show you a better version that is kinder and more sustainable, that's how we can truly make a difference. It focuses on that cultural impact. 

A lot of food events are business-oriented trade shows. I consider VWS to be the South by Southwest of our industry. Nobody's really focusing on consumers for these events.

With VWS, we're creating a place where entertainment, innovation, consumers, and activism can come together around a shared focus.

It's like talking with people rather than talking at them. One of my goals with Salt & Main is to bring together consumers and people working in food to bridge these conversations.

It's important for people to understand their buying power can make a difference.

These large conglomerates rule the entire food industry but rely on startups to grow. Consumer demand proves the concept, and that's when they absorb them and expand those concepts.

It's really on us as consumers to prove by buying what we want. You vote with your dollar and show the larger industry that there is a demand for these better products. 

Most consumers don't think that their purchases make a difference, but they really do make all the difference in the future of food.

I read the annual report that VMS published a few years ago and saw that harassment is the most pressing challenge/concern that women face in food. Is that still true, or is there a greater challenge now?

There's bias and discrimination, which can lead to harassment. I've been harassed multiple times today already. It's like that all the time. You would be surprised at the crazy messages people send. 

I'm so sorry to hear that.

The reason why we're receiving harassment is because of discrimination. I also think that discrimination can be an unconscious bias. It rolls up to this larger conversation of, we have not redefined the entrepreneur to look like everybody. And that's not just women. 

Black women have the most discrimination of all, and older women and gay women, there are so many different lenses of being a minority. When they compound, it becomes really difficult.

But it's not just the unconscious bias at face value. Because of that bias, the networking that they have as a result of their lived experience or lack of networking makes it really, really hard for them to fundraise. 

Very few women I speak to have the pedigree or the network to access VC, and that's a problem. That's why I make myself super accessible. I've already heard four pitches today. I'm very accessible. You can pitch me on my website, Joyful.vc. We make Joyful's intake form public, and we look at every single one. 

You don't need some crazy referral. We don't have one of those VC sites where you're guessing how on earth you'll ever get to them. We're trying to help combat that challenge and make funding more accessible. I think that is ultimately the biggest challenge women face today.

I believe it. Just two years ago, I entered the food world without prior experience. Everything that has come to me in the form of business success has been from networking, just showing up, and being in the right place at the right time with the right people. My business wouldn't be where it is now if not for all that. And I realize how much of a privilege being in those spaces can be. That is a considerable challenge to overcome.

It's a very big challenge if you are not born into a world where you get access to people like that or if you're not in a white-collar family; in my family, I'm the first to graduate high school and college. My parents have a 10th-grade education. For me, the concept of a venture capitalist was never within the wheelhouse of what someone like me would grow up to become.

Most people I knew became teachers or mechanics, and they work at the local Honda plant. That's pretty much everybody I grew up with. It's really important to create representation and access to find people. We don't have a solution yet, but we can make investors more accessible.

We're running short on time for part one. I have two more questions; I'll let you choose which one of the two questions. Who are the women in food that have inspired you throughout your career? Or who are the young women that give you hope for a better future in food?

The person who comes to mind at this moment is my friend Heather Mills. For folks unfamiliar with Heather, she's one of the toughest people I've ever met. She was married to a beetle and went through the second-most public divorce in UK history.

Divorcing Paul McCartney, the level of vitriol she endured publicly while running one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the UK, and having to keep that going while going through literally one of the worst tabloid-fueled experiences a person can ever imagine is just totally incredible.

A few months ago, her board actually voted to try and liquidate the company while she was flying on a plane, and they knew she wouldn't be available for the board vote. So she had to fight to get her company back. She'll be talking about this at the Vegan Women's Summit.

Whoa!

Yeah, she owns six factories all over the UK. I didn't even mention the fact that she's a Paralympian. That's actually how she got into plant-based eating when she lost her leg. 

The life she has led is unbelievable. If I hadn't seen it for myself, I would not believe this could be one person, but it is. Folks unfamiliar with Heather should hear her story at the Vegan Women's Summit. She's also in my book.

My goal with what I do is to create that representation because so many Heathers out there don't get the credit they deserve.

I, for one, would love to read about all the Heathers out there.

PART II: Food

Describe your childhood in food.

Um, hot dog casserole.

What is hot dog casserole?

What do you think it is, Lex? I was raised by a stay-at-home dad; my mom worked. To compound that, my dad is blind. So, for the majority of my childhood, I ate a lot of very readily accessible, simple meals. My dad had a way of inventing a new casserole every week, typically with spam, hot dogs, and whatever kind of cheap protein we could get our hands on.

To be honest, I did not even consider how I ate until I was in my 20s. I was probably the last person on earth you would ever expect to go vegan, but here I am.

What were some of your favorite food traditions growing up?

Well, my mom is British. She was born in London. We always had Sunday night dinner. That was probably my favorite food tradition. No matter what, we always had Sunday night dinner together.

When I was younger, it was often a roast or something similar to a cottage roll, usually some center meat with potatoes and things like that.

It was really special to me because my mom worked every day except Sundays. The one day we always had as a family was Sunday night dinner.

I love that so much. I had a weekly family dinner for a very short period of my life. It's a special memory.

How would you describe your current dining habits/rituals today?

I work from home, so I eat most of my meals at home. I don't even have the Postmates app or anything like that. I cook 90% of what goes into my body.

It typically is function over taste, especially on weekdays. My husband and I often meal prep. There are about three pounds of seitan in my fridge right now that will get sliced up night by night.

Every plate has 50% vegetables, and I'll add 25% protein, typically tofu or sometimes a vegan chicken tender like Gardein. The other 25% of my plate is either rice or a plant-based protein pasta like Bonza.

What feelings does food invoke in you?

There are two ways to look at it.

As a person who has been vegan for over a decade, food can be a very troubling and difficult topic. It brings a lot of history and emotion.

When people hear that you don't eat animals, confrontation can occur. I am at the point where I am comfortable eating plant-based, but there was a time when it was extremely difficult.

It was very isolating in the early days to take on a diet that was so counter to the standard American diet. But over the years, I've created a strong community. Society has also changed a lot. 

So I would say that food is very positive for me today, but it was not always.

How do those feelings change when it's weekday versus weekend food?

A Sunday roast dinner is a good weekend meal. I make the same roast my mom used to make, but I use Meati cutlets on mine. I will just do what you do with a roast, but I throw meaty steaks in the middle, which makes it tastes almost identical. I try to get more creative, and I see it as more fun and less functional on weekends.

During the week, I work way too much and don't find myself having the joy of cooking, so I reheat or eat something I've meal-prepped.

My weekday food is just eating something quick, and I feel how some of the joy is lost.

I'm trying to bring some joy back now. I just started eating Siete potato chips because they have super clean ingredients, and they bring a little joy to my plate. But I still weigh out exactly 1oz each time. Not as joyful as eating from the bag.

That's what a good sauce or spice is. If you open my cupboard, you will see that I love trying new flavors and spices.

My latest one, this spice I found called holy garlic, is like black garlic salt. There will be no vampires coming here because we've had holy garlic everything in the house for the last few weeks. It's really good.

Okay, I've got to get my hands on that.

I found it at Grocery Outlet; my name dropped for this talk. That's where I get so much food and where I find so many new brands.

Wait, is that a store?

Yeah, you've never been to Grocery Outlet, and you live in LA?

Writing this down. I have not heard of it.

You have to go to. It is one of the fastest-growing grocery stores in America right now. It started as more outlet-y back in the day, kind of like Costco, but now it's small, like a regular grocery store, and they have the regular staples, fruits, vegetables, whatever. 

It's where products that aren't selling at Erewhon or Whole Foods end up after. They have this section called nosh—natural organic specialty foods.

I find stuff for about 90% less than what Whole Foods or Erewhon lists them.

If brands are changing packaging, if there's a typo, or if it's getting a little old, they send everything to the grocery outlet. 

You can find some of the nicest, highest-quality food products for pennies. That is my secret.

I had no idea about this.

I have secret Grocery Outlet threads with other friends in the industry. And we send each other updates when there's a super awesome deal.

Final Question. What was your last great food adventure?

I had a really great food adventure in Mexico City. That was the best. 

I tried this place called Los Losers. I really recommend it to anyone going to Mexico City. It is a restaurant where everything is based on mushrooms.

It's this really interesting husband and wife team. They make all the food for you. It's a very well-known but kind of small spot. And it's so creative. 

I'm not even a huge mycophile, either. That was probably the last time I had a really interesting food adventure. Overall, Mexico City had really, really good food.

I'm not a fan of mushrooms, but I am intrigued.

I am not a mushroom person, but what they did with them was just so cool and unique. Totally worth visiting.

This issue of Salt&Main is brought to you by

Part III: Dessert

This interview continues with rapid-fire questions on TikTok and Instagram. Follow @SaltAndMain on TikTok and @SaltAndMain on Instagram and don’t miss the rest of the conversation including Jennifer’s favorite dairy-free milk, vegan nuggets, and popcorn flavor; which recent food she disliked, her top international snacks, the perfect sandwich, and which food people would be most surprised she loves.

Connect with Jenny

• Follow: @jennystojkovic (IG)

• Follow: Jenny on LinkedIn

• Follow: @veganwomensummit

• Read: The Future of Food is Female

• Invest: Joyful.VC

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