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In our new interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders.
Stephanie Dorsey is a Founding Partner at E Squared VC.
What future food technologies most excite you?
I’m really excited about how AI can improve agriculture and food systems, especially in agtech. One of the biggest problems in agtech right now is that different software systems don’t work well together. This creates a lot of headaches – like having to enter the same data multiple times or not being able to share information easily. But new AI capabilities like LLMs, could help fix this. These tools can understand messy, unstructured data like photos or handwritten notes and make it easier to build connections between different systems.
Imagine if farmers or agribusinesses could just type a question into a chat box and get the answers they need, instead of clicking through confusing menus that don’t quite work. LLMs could make software faster to build and easier to use, helping companies focus on creating new features instead of just fixing old problems. For farmers and ag professionals, this means smoother, more intuitive tools that save time and effort.
What are three future food verticals you are actively looking at for 2025?
SAAS solutions across the value chain, supply chain tech, and cybersecurity.
What do you consider the food tech sector’s greatest achievement in the past five years?
From my perspective, the most significant achievement in food tech has been the rapid advancement and scaling of precision fermentation technology for creating animal protein alternatives. This technology has allowed companies to produce real milk proteins, egg proteins, and other animal-derived molecules without animals, leading to products that are virtually indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts. The breakthrough wasn’t just in the science, but in bringing production costs down dramatically from hundreds of dollars per kilogram to just a few dollars in many cases.
If you could wave a magic wand, how would you fix plant-based meat?
If I could wave a magic wand to fix plant-based meat, I’d address the misinformation campaign orchestrated by the animal agriculture industry. But at the present moment, the plant-based industry isn’t just fighting for market share–they are fighting for the truth. For quite some time now, the animal agriculture lobby has been waging a strategic war of misleading nutrition claims and anti-competitive legal tactics designed to slow plant-based innovation.
The reality is that plant-based meats offer significant health and environmental advantages: lower saturated fat, zero cholesterol, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically lower water usage. These products aren’t just alternatives; they are solutions to some of our most critical global challenges.
I would use the wand to cut through the noise and let the products speak for themselves.
By clearing away baseless legal and marketing barriers, companies could redirect resources from defence to development, accelerating innovation, improving product quality, and offering consumers real choices that benefit both personal and planetary health.
What’s the top trait you look for in a founder?
I’m looking for a true entrepreneur – a founder with a compelling vision, the mental strength to push boundaries, and the tenacity to see opportunities where others see roadblocks. I call it having a “healthy disregard for the impossible”. They imagine solutions to real problems, creating what the world needs but doesn’t yet have, and they stop at nothing to turn that vision into reality, no matter the obstacles. They possess the sheer force of will to persist, pivot, and push forward where others would give up.
This type of founder is self-aware, humble, and acts on facts rather than emotions. They have rigour in their reasoning. They have good decision-making hygiene that helps them reduce the noise and bias around the decisions they make. They’ve done the inner work to understand themselves and others, which enables them to read people and opportunities with precision. They understand their gaps and blind spots, and actively seek feedback and weigh options carefully. They deeply understand human nature, and therefore have the ability to inspire their team with purpose and focus, while also staying adaptable and laser-focused on what truly matters. This type of founder is obsessed with optimizing their time and energy and has the ability to cut off low-ROI distractions without hesitation.
The best founders are contrarians – they think differently, challenge assumptions, and question conventional wisdom. They don’t follow the herd. They take bold, calculated risks and are unafraid of being misunderstood or making unpopular choices. They don’t cling to conventional wisdom or traditions. Most importantly, they question their social conditioning, the truths that ordinary people cling to, and the hardwired biological defaults we’re all subject to.
‘The One That Got Away’: tell us about the deal you wish you had gotten into, but didn’t.
It’s still too early to say – we invest at the early stages, and it usually takes eight to 10 years for companies to go public or reach their full potential. Ask me again in a few years, and I’ll let you know.
What do you consider your most successful future food investment so far?
Vori is emerging as a revolutionary force in the $1 trillion grocery industry, positioning itself as the vanguard of vertical AI in a massive, legacy sector. The company’s innovative VoriOS is an all-in-one, AI-powered operating system for supermarkets, combining a cloud-based point-of-sale system with a supplier-integrated back office suite. This platform is designed to level the playing field for independent grocers, empowering them to compete against retail giants in an increasingly challenging market.
Vori’s solution addresses critical issues such as inventory management, pricing optimisation, and supply chain efficiency, while also tackling broader industry challenges like food waste. With its cutting-edge technology and a world-class diverse team described as the “avengers of software, hardware, and fintech,” Vori is poised to transform the entire food supply chain. The company’s rapid growth and expansion into major US cities signal its potential to become a market-defining force in grocery tech.
What do people get wrong most about VC?
People don’t understand that our default is to say no. Venture capital involves saying no far more than yes – it’s just the math of the business. When a VC passes on your company, it’s not personal, even though it can feel that way at the moment. Our decisions are based on a mix of factors, from market fit to timing, and a “no” doesn’t mean your idea isn’t great or that you won’t succeed elsewhere. It just means it wasn’t the right fit for us at that time.
What is the most ‘future food’ dish or ingredient you have eaten this month?
For me, it’s been Prime Roots’ pepperoni! It doesn’t taste like a substitute at all – it’s just as good, if not better, than traditional pepperoni. Prime Roots uses this amazing ingredient called koji, which is basically a fungus that’s been used for centuries in Japanese cuisine to make things like sake, miso, and soy sauce. But Prime Roots has figured out how to use it to create these incredibly realistic deli meats and pâté. It’s a perfect showcase of how food innovation is rewriting the rules, turning something ancient like koji into the cornerstone of what could be the future of meat.
Where is your favourite climate-forward restaurant/dish/place to eat anywhere in the world?
Breads on Oak in New Orleans – it’s truly in a league of its own. From their organic sourdough artisan bread to their premium plant-based desserts, every dish is thoughtfully crafted with the planet in mind and absolutely mind-blowing in taste. Their plant-based sausage biscuit (the “Biscuit Tower”) is, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever had – truly a perfect blend of comfort food and innovative culinary craft.
What’s your ‘why’? What motivates you to do what you do?
This isn’t just a job or career to me. I really love the art of investing. I am obsessed with food, health, animals, and nature. So, I feel incredibly lucky that I get to merge these personal interests with my professional life, and work on the most pressing challenges of our lifetime: the health of people and the planet.