A team of social entrepreneurs are striving to create an alternative protein source out of cricket flour with their venture Gryllies. In the summer of 2015, the Gryllies team entered the Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College summer entrepreneurship incubator called Queen’s Innovation Connector (QIC) Summer Initiative Pitch Competition. Gryllies won the first place prize of $30,000 to help make their aspiration of introducing insects into the western diet via a cricket-based replacement for ground beef, a reality.
The Gryllies team states that the pitch contest made it easier to get started and reach out to people because it gave them more credibility in the entomology sphere. One of the team members Amelia Zheng explains:
“It was working with a close team and with such an easy access to advisors that made the program very valuable.”
The 3 month Launch Lab incubator was extremely valuable for the Gryllies team and they mention that the best part was working with a team and having advisors.
Gryllies are now in the midst of finalizing recipes and doing market research. They are also finding out what the most comfortable way to introduce eating insects to the general population by working through their supply chain and gaining partnerships along the way.
Gryllies also explains that cooking with crickets helps them redefine meat and their recipes are gluten and soy free, have more protein than steak, and are more sustainable than soy.
Ultimately, the secret ingredient to Gryllies’ successful start-up is re-imagining an ancient food custom and using markets to solve a social problem.
You can follow the latest updates on Gryllies here.
[box] A New Chapter of Storytelling
Increasingly, we are seeing that some of the greatest advances in social entrepreneurship and social innovation are coming from students. These stories are being lived, but they are rarely told. As a result, RECODE and the Trico Charitable Foundation are collaborating to survey and interview leading examples of Canadian post-secondary students who are developing social enterprises (for profit or not for profit).
This work seeks to build on RECODE’s survey activities with Emory University in Atlanta, and the insights from the Scaled Purpose and Mount Royal University report “Where to Begin: How Social Innovation is Emerging Across Canadian Campuses”.
It is hoped this research will inform our efforts to help Canada’s post-secondary institutions lead the way in supporting student social entrepreneurs and social innovators. But more than that, it will lead to a series of blogs capturing the students’ journeys. These stories will “reveal how process and purpose can converge to power a new economy for social and ecological impact” and, hopefully, inspire and inform social entrepreneurs within and beyond our Universities.
Stay tuned for updates on RECODE and Trico Charitable Foundation. [/box]