Interview: Female founder on launching a plant-based food company

Amelia Jones 

Cardiff-born entrepreneur Elin Roberts, co-founder and CEO of plant-based food company Better Nature, has built an international business with a mission to change how people think about protein.

For Roberts, encouraging people to “give chicken the night off” by choosing more nutritious plant-based alternatives like tempeh is about improving both human and environmental health.

Although she now lives in London, Roberts remains closely connected to Wales. Welsh was her first language and is still what she speaks with her family, with all four of her grandparents also Welsh speakers. After spending part of her childhood abroad, she returned to the UK to study at the University of Oxford and later worked in Cardiff before launching her business.

On International Women’s Day, Roberts spoke to Nation.Cymru about her journey into entrepreneurship, the challenges of building a food start-up, and why Wales continues to shape her outlook as a founder.

What led you to co-found Better Nature in 2020?

A drive to get people to eat better protein. I come from a family of fitness fanatics – my sister is a personal trainer, my Dad is a multi-time marathon runner and my mum does every fitness class under the sun.

However, I struggled a lot with gut health issues in my late teens and was also thinking more and more about the wider health and environmental impact of the protein I was eating. I realised that the proteins I’d seen as “standard” weren’t really serving me and I needed better options.

I learnt all about tempeh from my co-founder Ando, who’s from Indonesia and has been eating tempeh since he was a baby. He’s done a PhD on its impact on human health and has set up a charity to promote its consumption. I realised it was the answer to a lot of my challenges.

What has surprised you most about building a food brand in the UK?

Before starting Better Nature, I thought brands had been set up just before I noticed them on the supermarket shelves. Little did I realise that most of them had taken years just to get to that point. For us, it took 3.5 years from our first meeting with Tesco to get on the shelf.

If you want quick wins, food is not the industry to go into. However, there is something very special about seeing your product in your local Tesco, knowing your grandma adds it to her weekly shop.

How do you balance commercial success with social and environmental impact?

Unfortunately you can never be perfect, as much as you want to be. That’s been a hard lesson for me as a recovering perfectionist.

I think what’s critical is deciding on your non-negotiables and negotiables. For us, our mission is to encourage people to give chicken the night off through supercharged protein: tempeh. With that in mind, our products have been and always will be high in protein, high in fibre, gut-friendly, 100% natural, made of whole plant foods and low carbon.

We’re also a proud B Corp and we donate a percentage of our revenues to an Indonesian not-for-profit that tackles childhood malnutrition.

You’re part of the Buy Women Built community — what does that network mean to you?

I feel very grateful. It offers community and visibility to amazing women building brilliant businesses. Most recently, we’re taking over the windows of the flagship Whole Foods in London with our photos and videos for a whole month to celebrate International Women’s Day – it felt very surreal!

The stats are pretty depressing – 81% of young people can’t name a single female founder. For me growing up, the names banded around were always Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Never a single female founder. This did impact what I thought was possible for me and I really hope this changes for the next generation.

As a female founder, what challenges have you faced in building your business?

As a female founder, generally I’ve found it’s harder to be taken seriously. I’ve been ignored, assumptions have been made that I couldn’t be a co-founder/CEO, I’ve been assumed to be the girlfriend of my male co-founder (despite us being at a networking event!), my looks have been commented on vs what I’m actually speaking about…

I also put a huge amount of pressure on myself to be the very best I can be at all times, to be likeable and to always get things right, which I think is a result of how we are socialised as women. It’s a generalisation of course, but I notice that women feel they need to be perfect to feel like they have earned their space in the room.

There’s lots of work to be done and tough conversations to be had.

What advice would you give to other women in Wales who are thinking about starting a business?

My main pieces of advice are:

Take your time to build and validate your plan. Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve and how you’ll do it. Really understand your numbers – how and when will your business make money? Will you need funding?

Once you’re 90% confident, jump in. You’ll never be 100% confident and you’ll figure so much out throughout the journey. However, by getting your ducks in a row before you spend lots of money or time on it, you’ll put yourself in the best position to succeed.

Be prepared to fail. Failure is a natural part of building a business and is how you learn, if you allow yourself to. If you let every failure knock your confidence, it will be a tough ride. Focus on building your resilience, your ability to learn and your ability to enjoy the growth that comes with it and you’ll have a more fun and successful time.

Back yourself! In the early days, you usually have a vision with very little to back it up. Listen to people’s thoughts but never let it dull your spirit and belief. That’s what will get you through the early days. Picture what success looks like for you and let yourself believe it can happen. If not you, who else?

What’s next for Better Nature?

More and more people giving chicken the night off! That’s our north star. We want to expand into more retailers and restaurants and widen the reach and impact of our marketing. We’re doing all we can to make it as easy and delicious as possible for people to give chicken the night off.

You can find out more about Better Nature on their social media page.