Plantbased Business Hour

Make It or Break It: Scaling Food Manufacturing with David Ziskind

Founder of Mach Global Advisors, David Ziskind, joins CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour, and discusses the pros and cons of building out food manufacturing or going with a co-manufacturer, and how to keep it all sustainable.

Specifically, they discuss:

  1. What are some of the challenges faced in food manufacturing?
  2. How do you scale manufacturing, particularly with smaller budgets?
  3. How do you right-size a manufacturing facility?
  4. Does contract manufacturing play a role in bridging the gap?
  5. In this capital-constrained environment, how can you prepare for future growth? How do you make do with what you have and do more with less?

Below is a highlight clip and transcription from their long-form conversation.

Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/make-it-or-break-it-scaling-food-manufacturing-with/id1512473843?i=1000673442530

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Elysabeth: I bring on my guest, David Ziskind, who is the Founder of Mach Global Advisors.

So the question I was going to ask is, how’s AI going to change manufacturing?

David Ziskind: That’s a good question. You know, it’s interesting to see the push from an AI standpoint. I think we’re seeing, especially on the corporate level, people saying we need to put AI in here. From an engineering and design side, we need AI. From the manufacturing side of things, we need AI. I think we’re already starting from a pure manufacturing standpoint. That machine learning piece like predictive analytics.

We’re starting to figure out, “Hey, can we predict when something’s going to break before it breaks? Can we better predict what demand might be? Can we better see where some of those challenges may be?” I’ll call it more of a low tech application of AI, if that makes sense. It’s interesting because I hear some people talk about AI synthesizing new flavors and new foods and ways to do things, which I think is an interesting point.

I think where we’ll see that adoption and use is really on those things that can be used right now. While you’re manufacturing, how can you make sure that a motor doesn’t break down or a gearbox doesn’t break or whatever the case may be? That, to me, is where there’s the most power and quickest return in application, I would say, on AI and manufacturing.


Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest, the advisor to the VegTech™ Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV. She is also the founder of Plant Powered Consulting and the Host of the Plantbased Business Hour.

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