Ep 75 | The Sweet Side of Starting a (Dairy-Free) Ice Cream Company: Aylon Steinhart & Eclipse Foods

Business for Good Podcast

In 2019, two friends were both working in the alt-protein sector, one at the Good Food Institute and the other at Eat Just. Even though Aylon Steinhart and Thomas Bowman were both doing great things to advance the animal-free protein movement, they wondered if they should try their own hands at co-founding a food tech start-up that would put cows out to pasture and mimic dairy with plants. After serious deliberation, they both left their secure jobs to team up and found Eclipse Foods.

A couple years and $15M of investment later, Eclipse is expanding, is now in Northern California Whole Foods Market locations, and is pushing the boundaries of what counts as great dairy-free ice cream. They’re pushing so hard, in fact, that as you’ll hear in this episode, a recent blind taste test of more than a dozen people at The Better Meat Co. found that a plurality preferred Eclipse over two other brands: Oatly and Forager.

It’s a compelling tale of how two friends banded together to create something out of nothing in their effort to build a more humane and sustainable food industry that’s just as sweet—without relying on the exploitation of animals.