Sep 28, 2023 · 38m · how-i-built-this
When your dinner is printed with Eshchar Ben-Shitrit of Redefine Meat
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of How I Built This Lab, host Guy Raz interviews Redefine Meat co-founder and CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit about utilizing proprietary 3D printing technology to create whole-muscle plant-based steaks and revolutionize the global meat industry.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 41% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 3.4 Guest teaching 2.6 Guest disagreement 0.9 Guy pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 35:35 Eshchar rejects the ten-year profitability timeline
Eshchar firmly pushes back against Guy's assertion that profitability is ten years away, stating Redefine is already unit profitable and only two years away from overall profitability.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 35:13 Guy challenges capital burn and path to profitGuy presses Eshchar on unit economics and capital requirements, pointing out the nearly $200 million raised and questioning when real profitability will ever be achieved.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 30:57 Eshchar educates Guy on meat benchmarkingEshchar reframes Guy's simplistic question about indistinguishability by explaining that meat equivalence depends entirely on the culinary tier, from average cuts to premium Wagyu.
Guy holds their own ▶ 16:53 Guy anticipates precise plant-based formulationGuy shows deep technical preparation by accurately listing pea protein, wheat gluten, and coconut fat layering, prompting Eshchar to ask in surprise how Guy knew all his secrets.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Career at HP, Meeting Adam Lahav, and Moving to Highcon | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Guy Raz sets up a friendly biographical exploration of Eshchar's early career at HP and Highcon. The dialogue is collaborative, with Eshchar candidly recounting how risk-averse he was before founding the company. | |
| The Turning Point: Becoming Vegetarian and Quitting Corporate Life | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Guy brings substantive environmental data into the conversation, citing specific carbon emission comparisons between beef and poultry. Eshchar agrees and builds on the point with data on water and feed consumption. | |
| Mid-Roll Break & KiwiCo Sponsor Message | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mid-roll break and sponsor messaging. Monologue segment with zero interaction between host and guest. | |
| Pitching 3D Printed Meat and Early Syringe Experiments | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Guy demonstrates strong domain knowledge by accurately guessing the exact protein and fat composition Eshchar used in his early syringe prototypes. Eshchar is genuinely impressed and asks how Guy knew the secrets. | |
| Assembling the Team, Lab R&D, and the Original Hardware Model | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Guy inquires about technical recruitment and the initial business concept of selling 3D printers rather than meat. Eshchar explains the Israeli hiring strategy and exploratory R&D phase. | |
| Seed Funding, COVID Launch, and Pivoting to a Meat Company | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Guy tracks the progression through seed funding and the Alt-Steak launch. Eshchar details their strategic pivot from hardware manufacturing to becoming a direct meat producer after meeting with a major beef corporation. | |
| Mid-Roll Break Transition | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Guy includes third-party validation from chef Marco Pierre White and shares his own tasting impressions. Eshchar emphasizes the necessity of chef and butcher criticism over blind praise. | |
| Benchmarking Against Premium Beef and Retail Expansion Strategy | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | When Guy asks when printed steak will be indistinguishable from animal steak, Eshchar reframes the entire premise around culinary benchmarks, explaining varying regional standards from Wagyu to French steak dishes. | |
| Unit Economics, Capital Requirements, and the Path to Profitability | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | Guy presses Eshchar on financial viability, citing massive capital expenditure and suggesting profitability might be a decade away. Eshchar directly dismisses that timeframe, correcting Guy by asserting individual product unit profitability and projecting company-level profitability within two years. | |
| The Ten-Year Vision to Disrupt the Global Meat Industry | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Guy invites Eshchar to share his long-term vision. Eshchar delivers an ambitious summary of replacing animal-derived meat among the world's top meat suppliers before closing warmly. |
Statements from this episode (17)
Guy Raz: 1kg of beef produces 100kg of carbon emissions
“For every kilogram of beef, a hundred kilograms of carbon emissions are produced. And you know, for poultry, it's about 10 kilograms.”
Ben-Shitrit: Global cow population consumes more food and water than humans
“Most of the food around the world goes to cows and not to human beings. The water, the cows basically are one billion population of one billion. That eats more food and consumes more water than all of the human population.”
Ben-Shitrit: Impossible and Beyond ignored early 3D printed meat pitches
“So I actually emailed both impossible and beyond and told them you should start working on three D printed meat and I want to be the guy to do it. And they didn't answer.”
Ben-Shitrit: 3D printing is the only food tech capable of replicating steak complexity
“A steak is the most complicated food product that we eat, and there is no food technology that exists that can reach to this level of complexity, and three-D printing has a lot of disadvantages, a lot, but complexity is the number one benefit. There's no added…”
Redefine Meat originally planned to sell 3D printers to restaurants
“And we thought that that's it. That's our job is done. We filed a patent for that. And we thought that's easy. Now, only thing we need to do like six more months in the lab, and then we will sell a three D printer to every restaurant around the world.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat partnered with Givaudan to engineer steak juiciness
“We found a collaboration with a flavor company that's called Jivodan, an amazing strategic partner, and we were able to develop this gush of blood that when you put in your mouth tastes like what comes out of steak.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat will become the world's biggest meat company
“We started saying to everybody, we're going to become the world's biggest meat company. This is what we're going to do. And if you're the world's biggest meat company, you're not selling the technology. You're selling meat.”
Marco Pierre White: Redefine Meat is kitchen's cleverest development in 45 years
“I thought, this is genius. And I did say, it's the most clever thing I've ever seen in my 45 years of being in a kitchen.”
Ben-Shitrit: Beef is not a single product but diverse culinary cultures
“So meat is not a single product. Beef is not a product. Beef is a world of different cultures, different supply chains, and they are all complicated, and they're all tasty. And all have different consumers that want them.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat will match Wagyu beef quality within three years
“We believe that in three years from now, we can also provide a Wagyu beef with the same level of marbling, the same level of tenderness and richness of flavor.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat is sold in basically every store in Israel
“In Israel, we're already there. So in Israel, you can buy a range of our product in basically every store.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat will launch European retail rollout by late 2024
“Somewhere next year, a year from now, we'll start rolling out to more retailers in Europe with the products including our steaks, and then gradually grow until we reach also to the USA and then follow the same path.”
Redefine Meat can be cheaper than animal meat at small scale
“As we grow with that, we will become cheaper in our production and we can lower the price and we can easily become at small scale cheaper than meat.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat is profitable on a per-unit basis
“So we're actually selling, and on the individual level product, we are profitable.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat will reach profitability in two years
“So it's not 10 years, it's two years from now.”
Ben-Shitrit: Redefine Meat will dominate European food service in five years
“In five years from now, we're already a big meat company. We have a presence in Europe in basically every restaurant that you can imagine, because food service is a market that we dominate, and we are in all the nationwide retailers with our means range and ou…”