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Start free trial →Protein Production Technology Podcast · Alternative Proteins · November 2026
Asked how often he worries the company might not make it. Five and a half years in and just launched in retail, he describes himself as a realistic founder for whom the odds of failure are the daily motivation.
Is there, can you repeat?
Has there been any points where you wondered whether Oshi was going to make it as a company?
So unfortunately, every day. Every day, really, I'm coming up in this morning and I say, might fail in a few months unless we A, B, C, D, then you start to work, right? I am too much realistic, founder, okay, which is for the good and for the bad because I am optimistic. I'm waking up and I'm still fighting the fight, but I'm telling you, since we started the company till this day, I'm thinking to myself, most of the chances will fail. The reason I'm still here because there is a chance we will not. And I'm not, and I never said to myself, most of the chances will win. No, and I'm still not there. I believe there will be a point and I believe it will be after from one side, we will close the gap in the supply, which we currently have. And on the demand side, it will be enough time to justify, okay, we're not only now. We started retail in March. So far, so good. We're still on each, most of the stores still having us, and the velocities look great, but it takes time. Okay, now there is a lot of trials. A lot of people are wondering, hmm, how does it taste? It will only take me from today, like six months, to really understand does the product do better than the other products in the category? Is it a lifetime product for each store? Or is it just, you know, a…
Well, we're going to come on to Whole Foods in a moment because I know that's a huge, huge milestone for you. Before we get there, though, but what's been the toughest conversation you've ever had to have as a CEO? I know you've passed part ways sometimes with co-founders and employees who became…
Wow, yes. Too many tough, tough conversations. When starting the company, I couldn't imagine. I imagined I already made fires before. Yeah, separating from my co-founders, each one of them was very tough. We were four co-founders and I'm just, it's just me now. And yeah, each one, you know, I'm…
Does experience make those conversations any easier, or is it does it just make you recognize sooner when you need to do it? No,