Jasmijn Rijcken, Sander Breedveld and Dave le Roux jointly launched the Soilmates start-up, with the idealistic goal of contributing to the improvement of the retail and food chain. They are now looking to involve others in this goal.
Last summer, Soilmates released a healthy cooking oil made from ugly avocados that would otherwise have ended up in the bin, called Healthy Oil.
“Developing and marketing Healthy Oil was a total no-brainer for us”, explains marketer Jasmijn. “A cooking oil made from rejected avocados was a novel concept. After several conversations it was clear to us that this oil would be much healthier than other cooking oils, was easy to heat, and had a neutral smell and flavour. Another advantage is that it helps upcycle the huge mountain of rejected avocados. And now it is up to Dave, Sander and myself to introduce people to this product. All three of us have different areas of expertise: Dave is an avocado connoisseur, Sander is our expert on cooking and I know how to market a product. We are a perfect match, and a lot of decisions are made based on what feels right to us. But we do not claim to know it all and we also believe in complete transparency. Which is why we are experimenting with publicly-accessible Zoom meetings. The first one is scheduled to take place on Thursday 7 October.* I was never one to believe in the dividing line between company and consumer. By working together we can come up with better ideas, inspire each other and ultimately make the chain more sustainable. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but together we can do it.”
*Find the link on the Soilmates social media channels/newsletter. Soilmates is a virtual member of the VU Start Hub community.
For more information about Soilmates, please also read the VU magazine article from June 2021.