What was originally a boozy idea between two friends is now a sustainable food start-up with big plans. Here you can find out the somewhat different founding story of Vetain.
The origins
It all started in the 2019 summer vacation shortly before graduating from high school. At that time, we were at the gym super often and didn't really think about sustainable nutrition.
The more we thought about training, the more we realized how important good nutrition is. A few documentaries and reports later, we realized that the routine post-workout shake (consisting of 30g whey and half a liter of milk) was perhaps not so good for our bodies and, of course, for the environment.
We delved deeper and deeper into the subject and were shocked. Dozens of tons of whey are produced every day in the cheapest possible way. You can imagine that the milk for this doesn't necessarily come from the happiest cows!
We had to suddenly change our attitude and, above all, our diet. We no longer wanted to be partly responsible for the exploitation of animals and the environment. We were also fed up with the feeling of fullness and the negative effects of whey on our skin and body.
The enlightenment failed to materialize
So we set off in search of vegan alternatives. The result? Pure disappointment.
Thevegan proteins we ordered were all subterraneanly bad. They tasted artificially sweet, were difficult to mix and left a sandy mouthfeel. Coincidence? Hardly. We tested almost every vegan protein on the market at the time - always with the same result!
In the end, we were so disappointed that at some point we simply said: "Why don't we just make our own protein that's really good? It can't be that difficult!".
Incidentally, at the time we only wanted to produce the protein for ourselves. The idea of selling the protein on the Internet came much later.
"We can do better than that"
No sooner said than done. A few weeks later, we were holding our first prototype in our hands. Without a registered business and no experience in product development. And lo and behold, our first prototype was good. It wasn't great, but it was good. Not too sweet, good solubility and a pleasant taste.
In the following year and a half, we tried over 400 other raw materials, sat down with a laboratory, sports doctors, nutritionists and contract manufacturers and developed our vegan protein from thebest ingredients until we were 100% satisfied with the taste and quality.
Now all we needed was the necessary small change for the first production.
In March 2021, we launched a crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter and were able to raise over 16,000€ for our idea within three weeks.
The rest is history.
What's next?
Now we want to tackle the entire food industry and campaign for a more sustainable and fairer way of doing business. High-quality products for a fair price. The environment should be able to recover and farmers should have a voice.
Let's break new ground together and become part of our journey!
