Author: Anjali Patel , Vegan Women Summit
Natasha Dhayagude comes with a secret guide to nailing entrepreneurship. She is all things fun and all things wise but what makes her truly inspiring is her unique perspective towards life.
Natasha immigrated to Canada at a very young age. Growing up, she longed to choose a novel path. While everyone around her was pursuing traditional roles, Natasha was determined to use her knowledge to solve a real-world problem creatively.
Chinova Bioworks is the brainchild of Natasha and her co-founder David Brown. They aim to answer the unending quench of society for clean-labeled food, beverages, and cosmetics. While mushrooms are a great alternative protein source, she and her team explored the protective qualities of the most commonly produced white button mushrooms. They discovered the potential of upcycling a fiber from the stems of mushrooms and the impact it can have to improve the freshness, quality, and shelf-life of food and, beverages naturally. Chinova is going back to the basics- using nature to protect food.
Growing up, entrepreneurship was never a part of the plan for Natasha as she considers herself to be risk-averse. Before venturing onto this journey, she actively worked with a start-up incubator. She supported upcoming startups with the resources for growth. This job essentially played a huge role in her life to understand the mindset of a CEO and nurtured her to eventually pursue the journey.
Natasha also credits her father for subconsciously building the foundation of entrepreneurship in her life. He never followed a traditional path and always taught her to put on various hats to make her vision of life come true. On the other hand, she saw her mother transition into a new country and environment and quickly adapting to the new norms particularly different from the traditional values back home. This also added to Natasha’s resilient personality.
Natasha speaking at Future-Food-Tech in San Francisco.
The pandemic era has provided Chinova Bioworks a platform to cater to the consumers demanding clean-labeled and sustainably sourced alternatives. Consumers are increasingly demanding a safe and continuous supply chain. Being an ingredient company, Natasha acknowledges the challenges her clients are facing due to the pandemic. Therefore, she and her team came up with the idea of providing in-house food safety R&D trials for her clients to help them develop their products successfully. This makes Natasha truly unique as she looks beyond business and highly values her relationships.
Being a woman entrepreneur herself, she has had her fair share of challenges in the initial days of the business when some investors would look to her co-founder for the final decision on key matters. However, she prides on her co-founder’s support who always gave the reins back to her. She now has a team wherein 90% of it comprises women in STEM who hold decision-making roles. She also values all the mentors and people from within the industry who support her constantly.
Natasha and her women-majority team.
“Be humble, reflect on yourself, and identify your weaknesses to become a better version of yourself each day.”
Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield has had a strong influence on Natasha’s life growing up. She is in absolute awe of how he created a career path for himself that was practically non-existent in Canada. This is where Natasha draws her inspiration to do something novel and make a positive mark in society. She strongly believes in being over-prepared as it helps her alleviate fear and be more assertive in life and she credits Chris Hadfield for having this attitude toward life.
Natasha strongly believes in learning from experts in the field and not viewing them as competitors. Early on in her journey, she learned to define her measure of success by celebrating all achievements big and small but not comparing herself to her competitors. She clearly remembers selling to her first client as a pivotal moment for Chinova Bioworks and her excitement for the company is equally high five years down the line.
Natasha’s life outside of work is equally exciting. She is the social media manager of glampcamp in New Brunswick. An initiative run by her family, it is an ideal vacation setting with geodesic dome accommodations as a perfect means of glamour and camping. She is learning all things Gen-Z while trying to handle the social media for it. Apart from this, her life is taking a pivotal shift as she is also planning her wedding which is to happen later this year.
“Sweat the small things and be overprepared in your journey to alleviate fear.”
She believes in perfecting the minor details but coming across as the most composed and calmest person. Ask her how she would title a book about her life and she immediately says “Learning to swim like a duck”. She frequents the thought of being overprepared without letting the effort seep onto the surface.
She is assertive and determined to address the challenges faced in the food and cosmetics world. Atypical yet relatable is how one would describe Natasha as her vision towards life and entrepreneurship is different but much needed in today’s day and age.
About the Author: Anjali Patel is a food biotechnologist specializing in sustainable and nutritious food alternatives. Connect with Anjali or learn more about her story here.
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