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OR Ofek Ron Ofek Ron On Protein Production Technology Podcast

“I thought that by getting the smartest people in the room to work for you, you will solve the most difficult problem. And I found out that it's not about how smart you are, it's about the discipline. If you have employees who might have only a first degree in food science, but they have the discipline to try again and again and to learn, and they have more practical experience, they can deliver even better than the top-talent PhDs that you have in your country.”

Protein Production Technology Podcast · Alternative Proteins · November 2026

“I thought that by getting the smartest people in the room to work for you, you will solve the most difficult problem. And I found out that it's not about how smart you are, it's about the discipline. If you have employees who might have only a first degree in food science, but they have the discipline to try again and again and to learn, and they have more practical experience, they can deliver even better than the top-talent PhDs that you have in your country.” — Ofek Ron, Protein Production Technology Podcast

Context

Asked about misconceptions he held when starting Oshi, this was the second one he listed. It explains how he now hires.

Transcript

Protein Production Technology Podcast Around 15:44 into the episode
Ofek Ron

…I only commit one thing, I'm gonna do my best. So I remember that first call with Yaron committing to that. And I remember why I'm doing what I'm doing, which is why I care about it. And I just continue. And believe me, if I wouldn't do anything vegan, I would say give up 20 times along the way.

Nick Bradley

What was the biggest misconception you had about the seafood sector before you got into it?

Ofek Ron

I will tell you the misconceptions I had on various things. Okay, first of all, I thought that I'll come up with a new plant-based fish, and a fish lover will come taste it if he likes it. And if it's cheaper, they'll change. Big mistake, unfortunately. And growing up, the company, I found out that I'm a very interesting, that we're a very interesting company and product to people that are already vegans and vegetarians. Okay, now, of course, it's a pity, right? Because in the end, I really hoped that, you know, once someone who is a fish lover, and we met those fish lovers and they loved the product and they say, yes, it's great. But in the end, you know, we look who buys the product, who goes to the restaurants. Mainly people that are all vegans or vegetarians, or not vegan or vegetarians, but they're already familiar, they eat beyond meat, they eat impossible, you know, they're already there, which is still good. We help them to have better experience to maintain to eat less animals, to stay vegans or vegetarians, to have more sources of protein and excite them. It's okay, I'm still very happy. But I thought the world would look different now. Okay, I thought that people will stop eating meat as they were eating a few years ago and that all…

Nick Bradley

Well, let's talk about, you know, that technology now. Solving whole cut fish meant you ended up tackling something else that you probably hadn't envisaged when you started the company, and that was building the equipment to make it. Again, you said something in our prep call that rather sums up…

Ofek Ron

So I think from the beginning, it was the pitch that we're going to build a machine that will create a fish. The only thing that had to change is the machine itself. Okay, so we started a company thinking we will be a 3D printing company and we had a very A cool prototype that shows how we have a…

Nick Bradley

You've admitted there are engineering decisions you'd make very differently today without giving away anything proprietary. What did you learn about building machinery that you simply couldn't have known when you started?

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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