Vegan entrepreneurs who will inspire you in 2026!
These plant-based business owners started from scratch and developed a great vegan product.
They worked hard to get it out to the masses. Check out their inspirational stories!
Nix & Kik
Coming at ya from London Julia and Kerstin met on an airplane and developed a friendship that turned into business partners. They were on a mission to come up with a vegan business idea that was healthy, and unique.
They did heaps of experimenting and decided to launch a healthy soda pop. Watermelon hibiscus, cucumber mint, peach vanilla, and mango ginger are all flavors they use in their drinks.
A hint of chili is added for that extra kick hence the name Nix and Kiks! Not sure if people would take to cayenne in a soda they tested the soda pop out at the farmer’s markets.
The drinks did extremely well and the rest is history. There was a lot of effort that went into creating the drinks. It’s not easy being a vegan entrepreneur, It’s often a slow and steady effort.
There were times when it felt like it wouldn’t work but they continued to hustle and went on to sell them all over the UK in big chain stores like whole foods and the other well-known markets. Nix and Kik’s showing us how it’s done!
Moving Mountains
Simeon Van Der Molen CEO of Moving Mountains had the vision to create the best meat-free burgers and hotdogs. He is at heart an environmentalist and wanted to put his time and energy into creating a plant-based food product that was good for people and the planet.
He was on a mission to develop a vegan burger that replicated a real burger, and he made it happen!
It wasn’t easy coming up with the product according to him, he spent many years testing and retesting the product until he got it right. It was a big project but he kept the faith and made it happen!
Plant-based burgers are super popular and sold at most restaurants across the UK. People who are starting out and want to open a vegan business, have to go in it understanding that the first few years are the hardest.
Product refining is time-consuming and can be frustrating. This is the stage where a lot of vegan entrepreneurs will give up.
Vegan companies that are successful keep working at it until it starts to work for them. It’s a long road, so just as long as you have the understanding that success doesn’t happen overnight, and there is a lot of grind and grit involved, you won’t get blown out of the water!
MatchaBar
Graham Fortgang and his brother are CEOs of matcha bar. They were tired of the crappy energy drinks that were loaded with chemicals and sugar, so some friends decided to create a healthy energy drink alternative using high-grade matcha. Matcha is a powder used from the green tea leaf.
They went on a mission to find the best Matcha in the world and traveled all the way to China to source the best matcha.
Soon after in 2014, they opened up a matcha cafe in Brooklyn. At that time matcha wasn’t as popular as it is now, so they spent a lot of time and energy promoting Matcha.
The MatchaBar was doing really well, so they started hitting up stores and festivals to see if they would be interested in partnering with them. They got a warm reception to say the least and you can now find the drink nationwide in wholefoods etc. Big up MatchaBar crew, ya’ll killed it!
Slutty Vegan
Pinky cole started out selling vegan comfort food out of a food truck in Atlanta. She wanted to introduce people in her community to vegan food. Her vegan restaurant is well known in Atlanta and sometimes people are waiting in lines for as long as five hours. Wow, the food must be amazing!
She offers everything from vegan Philly cheesesteaks to cheeseburgers and sandwiches. Pinky was surprised by the success and is blown away by her loyal following.
She went on to open a brick and mortar and is planning to open up more vegan restaurants in the future. Slutty Vegan
Green Street
Green street is a vegan food truck owned by Matt Korsky of Long Island NY. He is an athlete who went vegan to help with his training.
He felt so amazing after he transitioned to a plant-based diet, and was so passionate about the lifestyle he quit his day job as a teacher and decided to open up a plant-based food truck to help others have easy access to vegan food.
Believe it or not, Green Street is the only vegan food truck on Long Island! He is doing a great service to the people of his community by providing plant-based options to people that otherwise might not come into contact with healthy food choices. Very cool story!
Seabirds Kitchen
Owner Stephanie Morgan of Seabirds KItchen used to be a financial broker in NY. She was tired of eating foods with chemicals in them, so she began her journey to a plant-based diet. She eventually left her job, but not without asking her boss for a $30,000 loan for the food truck business she was planning on opening.
She launched Seabirds food truck and it has been very successful. Fast forward to the present she went on to open brick and mortar have locations in Costa Mesa, and Long Beach.
The Happy Pear
The Happy Pear came to life by two twins who wanted to share their knowledge of a plant-based lifestyle with their small hometown community of Ireland.
They started out with just a small vegetable stand in their community and then overtime opened cafes, a farm, and also offer online courses to help people on their health journey.
Check out their youtube channel, they really do make it fun to try out vegan recipes and they have great fun personalities that will put a smile on your face.
Sri Mu
Julie Piatt founder CEO of Sri Mu is a plant-based cheese company. She is also an author of The Plant Power Way and This Cheese Is Nuts, she is just an all-around good soul!
She created the plant-based cheeses as a homage to the dairy cows because they are often treated so badly. She spent countless hours perfecting her products and just recently launched her business to the world.
Mandala Chocolate
Operating out of North Carolina, Mandala Chocolate CEO Rob Lenfestey developed his passion for making chocolate over time. Opening a chocolate company wasn’t something that he pursued, it was a serendipitous engagement. It found him so of speak.
With a background in permaculture and eco-forestry, Rob was able to develop an amazing sustainable product that is good for people and the planet and taste amazing!
What’s even more special about the chocolate is that some of the ingredients that are sourced for the chocolate come out of the forest close by, pretty awesome!
Wicked foods
Vegan chefs and entrepreneurs by trade from New England and CEO’s of Wicked Foods Derek Sarno and Chad Sarno are pretty big game changers in the food industry.
They have been leading the way for grocery stores to break out of their traditional mold of being giant polluters. Derek helped create and spearheaded a sustainable paradigm for the big grocery chain Tesco in the UK.
Tesco is focused on sustainability and cutting down on food waste which is unheard of from giant grocery chains, this is the way forward for the future if we want to have one. I hope other big chain grocery stores will take heed and understand the importance of force for good business practices.
Spice Box
Grace Regan coming at ya from the UK, was once a vegan street food stall vendor in London, now a vegan restaurant entrepreneur.
She is working on opening up her second restaurant that serves vegan Indian food. From a vegan street food vendor to a full-on restaurant owner, she never gave up on her dreams.
The journey to get there was full of hard work, determination, and a heartfelt mission to share healing foods with people.
When Grace was first starting out, she set up shop at her home and put a sign-up outside to let people know she was selling vegan curries.
She lived on a busy street, so it worked out quite well. At that point in her business, she was cooking up a storm and trying to figure out which recipes were working well amongst her customers.
After honing in her cooking skills and doing the hard work of creating a product that she knew people were pleased with, she decided to expand a bit and started vending at the local vegan markets. It turned out to be a success and attracted a loyal following of fans who loved her vegan curry dishes.
Keep in mind being a vegan entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Setting up shop at the markets every week is extremely hard work and tough, to say the least.
It often includes getting up super early to set up shop before the customers start coming in, and braving the elements is something that is not easy to get used to.
I was a vegan vendor on the Big Island of Hawaii and for those of you who don’t know, the big island has rainy seasons. Rain or shine we would show up at the market roughing it through the day in our duck boots.
Don’t underestimate all the work that goes into being a vegan food vendor or cafe owner, it’s a 24-7 ordeal.
The amount of prep time to get everything together is a huge endeavor. It takes mad commitment, consistency, and dedication to develop a great food product and get your business off the ground, and to keep it going.
Grace Regan is a success story who had a vision and kept at it even though it was a struggle. She went on to open up a brick and mortar restaurant and is in the process of opening up another one. Very inspiring story! Check out her shop Spicebox
Compton Vegan
Lemel Durrah is another vegan food entrepreneur representin South LA.
South LA is basically a food desert because there are around a million residents that live there but only 60 grocery stores.
You won’t find whole foods or any kind of organic market for that matter, instead, you will find heaps of fast-food joints; which we all know is an antithesis of healthy vegan food. In order to get fresh food one must travel out of the area for decent food choices.
The main reason Lemel started a vegan food business was that finding healthy food options in South LA is practically non-existent, and he wanted people in his community to have access to vegan food.
If you grow up eating unhealthy food it is very difficult to make changes to eat healthy on your own, so it’s very helpful to have people in the community that are leaders to be an example and set the tone for people.
I grew up in a meat-eating household and had heaps of health problems as a kid. I hardly ate any fruits and vegetables, hence the reason I had health issues.
I didn’t know anyone who was vegetarian or vegan. I wanted to take care of myself and eat healthily, but I had no idea how to do it. It was pre-internet times, so I wasn’t using Google to look for healthy food recipes. I had no idea where to start.
The first healthy meal that I ever cooked for myself was green beans and rice. It had no flavor what’s so ever, I had no idea what I was doing. Luckily soon after that, I met some people who were vegetarian and gradually learned from them.
Don’t ever underestimate how powerful it can be to use your skills to help people. We often take for granted that we know something that others may not know.
To be an ally in a person’s physical and spiritual growth is the best kind of service you can do for another. Shout out to Lemel Durrah for being an ally and inspiration to the people of his community. Compton Vegan
Suprmarkt
Wow, talk about doing good thangs, Olympia Auset founder of Suprmarkt is an organic grocery pop-up that serves low-income communities in South LA.
It is really challenging to buy healthy food in urban areas and Olympia understood what the need was and made it happen.
She sets up shop in different parts of LA in areas that don’t have access to fresh food and offers organic produce at an affordable price.
Helping people in her community to live healthier and feel better is what is needed and necessary to keep the movement moving! Mad props Olympia for having a vision and leading with heart!
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