This year’s list highlights up-and-coming superstars from the worlds of restaurants, farming, packaged food, alcohol and recipe development.
By Chloe Sorvino, Kristin Stoller and Maria Gracia Santillana Linares
Growing up fourth-generation farmers, Hayley and Stephanie Painter were desperate to figure out how to preserve their family’s Pennsylvania farm. In 2020, the idea of an organic, American-made skyr yogurt brand hit, and stuck. Their yogurt brand Painterland Sisters now sells across nearly 2,000 locations at grocery stores including Giant, Whole Foods, Sprouts and Gristedes, and expects to close out the brand’s first year at retail with more than $1 million in revenue.
The Painter sisters are among this year’s stand-outs on the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 Food & Drink list, which highlights up-and-coming superstars from the worlds of restaurants, farming, packaged food, alcohol and recipe development who have persevered despite the odds. There’s a better-for-you banana bread mix startup, a fast-acting, caffeinated gum, a pasta brand and a line of probiotic trail mixes. Their game-changing work should be watched.
Another stand-out? Josh Belinsky, the 28-year-old who’s got milk —minus the lactose. The Boston-born entrepreneur grew up chugging chocolate milk after basketball practice, but when he became lactose-intolerant, he switched to alternative milks. Frustrated by the fillers and synthetic additives in milk substitutes, he and cofounder Manny Lubin created Slate, hawking zero-added-sugar, high-protein milks and lattes—without added protein powder. “The way I describe it is you put milk through a Brita filter,” he says. Cows are still involved: Slate simply skims the milk, then filters out the natural lactose sugars.
The startup launched in 2019 after a popular Kickstarter campaign and an appearance on Shark Tank. Since inception, Slate has sold more than 15 million cans of milk at more than 12,000 locations, including Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and Wegmans. Backers include the cofounders of RXBar, Halo Top and Drizly, as well as OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder, who cumulatively have poured in $25 million.
To compile the 13th annual list, judges and Forbes reporters convened in-person to taste samples and discuss the candidates. Candidates were evaluated by a panel of judges featuring Under 30 list alumnae Ayesha Curry, chef, cookbook author, wine founder, cooking show host and founder of Sweet July, and Maya French, founder of MAD Projects. There’s also Randall Lane, Forbes’ chief content officer, and Lee Brian Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. To be considered for this year’s list, all candidates had to be under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2023, and never before named to a 30 Under 30 North America, Europe or Asia list.
The restaurant industry is back, and four restaurateurs are featured on our 2024 list. That roster includes one pastry chef nominated for a James Beard award: 29-year-old Camari Mick, the executive pastry chef of The Musket Room and Raf’s in downtown Manhattan. In addition, there’s the duo behind New York City’s East Village omakase sushi spots Moko and Shiso – Angel Zheng, 24, and Max Goldberger, 27. There’s also 27-year-old Nick Nanakos, whose The Food Company owns Ziki, a chain of food trucks in Austin, Texas serving Greek-Mexican cuisine while operating other test kitchens.
Rounding out the restaurateurs is Joseph Linzon, 29, who started a Virginia-based fast-casual empire. After founding Roots Natural Kitchen in 2015 and Corner Juice in 2017, the restaurant developer launched his own consultancy called Warren Road, which incubates restaurant concepts. Roots Natural currently has 13 locations and Corner Juice has two.
From the competitive world of tech that powers restaurants, Raghav Poddar and Vamsi Gadiraju of Superorder earned a spot this year. Poddar grew up in Nepal before studying computer science at Columbia University. He came up with the idea for Superorder while in the Y Combinator accelerator. In 2019, the now-27-year-olds launched an all-in-one software platform that focuses on profitability from delivery and takeout. Superorder now powers the operations of more than 1,000 restaurants in 30 states and 180 cities, and its tools — including one of the world’s fastest AI website builders for restaurants — have attracted big investors, including Y Combinator, Slow Ventures and angels including the cofounder of AngelList. In all, Superorder has raised $12.5 million.
Harnessing emerging technology to sustainably and healthily feed the world’s growing population continues to be popular. Adam Ahmad, a 29-year-old first-generation Muslim, Indian-American founder, started Kea to introduce artificial intelligence into restaurant phone calls, triaging incoming calls, transcribing orders and sending them directly to restaurants’ processing systems. Kea charges between 5% to 10% in commission from orders and is currently servicing over 600 restaurants, including Blaze Pizza. The company has received nearly $30 million in funding from Xfund, Streamlined Ventures, and SoftBanks’s AI fund Deepcore, among others, at a $50 million valuation.
There’s also 25-year-old Louis Stenmark and his Windfall Bio, which uses microbes to transform the harmful greenhouse gas methane into organic soil nutrients. Orlando-based Windfall has raised $9 million, including from investors Breakthrough Energy, B37, Bessemer Venture Partners, Baruch Future Ventures, SOSV and Cavallo Ventures, and the MCJ Collective Dairy Farmers of America. In addition, there’s Ricky Cassini, 28, an immigrant from Argentina who cofounded and runs Michroma, a food tech company that makes natural food colors from fermenting fungi to provide alternatives to additives such as Red 40, Red 3 and Yellow 5. Michroma has raised more than $7 million in funding, including from Supply Change Capital.
This year, we have one creator on the 2024 Under 30 Food & Drink list. Las Vegas-based Keith Lee has been going viral all year as he posts food reviews for hundreds of independent, neighborhood restaurants. The former professional fighter only takes money and brand deals from “big brands” that can afford it, he says, like Chipotle, Pepsi and Hyundai. Lee, a 27-year-old father of two, has amassed nearly 15 million followers on TikTok alone, and his food reviews have collected 630 million likes. He estimates he’ll earn $4 million this year.
Plus, in a first for our annual Food & Drink list, there’s a food safety honoree: Meet 29-year-old Tyler Williams, who rose from a manager for support services to the chief executive of food safety auditing and certification company ASI Food Safety in seven years. In December 2022, the company was acquired by Dutch testing and certification company Kiwa Group, which is when Williams took over as CEO. In his tenure, Williams has implemented the global food safety standards for new industries, predominantly cannabis, and conducts over 3,000 audits a year. The company expects to make $6 million in revenue in 2023.
That’s just a taste of the young food entrepreneurs who are building companies that will define 2024 and beyond.
This year’s list was edited by Chloe Sorvino, Kristin Stoller and Maria Gracia Santillana Linares. For a link to our complete 2024 Under 30 Food & Drink list, click here, and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2023/11/28/30-under-30-food–drink-2024-meet-the-entrepreneurs-changing-the-future-of-food/