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The Startup CPG Podcast

#240 - Introducing Startup CPG's R&D Radio with Adam Yee

The Startup CPG Podcast

Startup CPG

Business, Food, Entrepreneurship, Cpg, Beverage, Startup

4.9 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Host Daniel Scharff introduces the newest addition to the Startup CPG Podcast family: R&D Radio, a brand new segment hosted by food scientist, serial entrepreneur, and podcast veteran Adam Yee. Going forward, Adam will be interviewing product developers, formulators, and R&D experts to bring emerging brands deep into the world of research and development—without requiring a technical background to follow along.


Adam brings 12+ years of food science experience, having founded two food businesses (Better Meat Company and Sobo Foods), hosted 300+ episodes of the My Food Job Rocks podcast, and built his consultancy UmaiWorks around helping people turn ideas into real products. In this introductory episode, Daniel and Adam talk about what R&D Radio is, why it exists, and what brands can expect from upcoming episodes.


Listen in as they discuss:

  • Why Startup CPG launched R&D Radio and what it aims to do for emerging brands
  • Adam's background as a food scientist, entrepreneur, and podcast host
  • The launch of Startup CPG's first-ever Product Developer Directory—and how it was built
  • What makes a great formulator-brand relationship, and why personality matters as much as technical skill
  • The different ways product developers work: from 0-to-1 concept development to co-packer navigation to hands-on lab assets
  • Adam's own "passion ingredient" focus on Asian flavors—and why finding a formulator who's excited about your product changes everything
  • What brands should pay attention to as they listen to upcoming R&D Radio episodes

Episode Links:


Adam Yee – Food Scientist, Entrepreneur & R&D Radio Host 

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsmeadamyee/ 
  • UmaiWorks: https://www.umaiworks.com/


Startup CPG Product Developer Directory: https://startupcpg.com/product-developer-directory


Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.


Show Links:

  • Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
  • Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
  • Follow @startupcpg
  • Visit host Daniel's Linkedin 
  • Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
  • Episode music by Super Fantastics

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I just really like bringing ideas alike from zero to one.

0:12.4

The tagline for the company I made called Umayworks is we help people with just an idea.

0:17.7

And I think that is for me, I love doing that. I love working with people.

0:22.1

And some consultants are done because they might not deal with coaching and the teaching of like food entrepreneurs.

0:27.3

Because as you know, it's totally different when you start versus like when you kind of are in the weed.

0:31.1

But for me, I felt the sort of passion for it.

0:36.4

Hello, everybody. You know that saying no new friends?

0:39.2

Well, yes, new friends, because you're about to make a new one, which is my friend, Adam Ye.

0:44.2

Adam is a very experienced food scientist, product formulator, R&D Pro,

0:50.1

and he is also a very experienced podcast host, and he is joining our team to take you deep into the world of R&D in a new segment that we call R&D Radio.

0:59.6

And it is a gentle introduction. You don't have to be super technical to understand what's going on, but our goal is for you to really learn a lot about the world of ops.

1:08.9

It's so important. It can make or break a brand,

1:11.4

especially bringing your product dreams to life. He's going to be interviewing tons of his friends

1:16.8

and experts from the R&D community. I'm so excited for you to learn all about it and him. So I hope

1:22.6

you enjoy this episode where you will get to know him and why I am such a big fan of his. All right.

1:27.9

Here we go.

1:32.6

Welcome, everybody.

1:33.6

I am so excited to introduce all of you to one of our new podcast hosts.

1:38.6

It is a man who doesn't need an introduction, but we will do one anyways.

1:42.1

It is Adam Yeh.

1:43.5

Adam, welcome. Do you mind then doing an introduction, please?

1:47.4

Yeah. Hi, everyone. I'm Adam Yee. I'm still figuring out the tagline, but I generally call myself a food scientist, a serial entrepreneur, and a podcast host. And I'm glad to be part of the start of CBZ team to really dive into research and development.

...

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