A journey that began in 2017 when two co-founders, Kaline and Marjolein, ran into Jack while on vacation in Asia. Since then it’s been quite a ride! Wait – who’s Jack, you ask? Let’s find out.
“When I started eating vegetarian a few years ago, I missed some really tasty street food. Everything kind of tasted the same,” Marjolein Pleune shares. “After discovering the benefits of jackfruit, a new world of possibilities opened. Kaline and I set out to create our own guilt-free product line of guilty pleasures such as the Dutch bitterballen or Indonesian rendang dish. Since then, we’ve been on a mission to convince people it’s not necessary to eat meat to indulge your carnivorous cravings.”
While they started out with loads of energy and ideas, combined, they had a little experience in food or entrepreneurship. And so they entered the Business Model Challenge, run by Impact Hub Amsterdam, where they were able to transform ideas into a concrete business plan in a matter of months. “There was one distinct moment during demo day – we pitched our plan on stage and won the vote of jury and the audience award. That’s when I thought, let’s go for it!”