Aug 05, 2013 8 Questions With: Ento
Innovation is an area that we strive to highlight through our Imprint Culture Lab content. There are a number of food concepts that capture my attention, but Ento is one idea that is bold and intriguing. In this interview with Aran Dasan, he describes how his team developed the Ento business idea and how they plan to implement a sustainable food solution that incorporates edible insects worldwide…one that is low in fat and cholesterol, high in protein and iron, and with low greenhouse emissions.
How did you come up with Ento as a business concept?
We came together at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London whilst doing the Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc course there, where one of the final design projects is conducted in a group – and we formed our group between us – Aran Dasan, Jacky Chung, Julene Aguirre and Jon Fraser – out of a common interest in sustainability and a common love of food – so we decided to design for food security. We came across insects as a possible solution to the problem of food security in a TED talk. But we found that whilst the science of entomophagy (insect eating) is well researched, there was no research into how people may come to terms with eating insects in a meal – the big question was: How might we introduce insects to the western diet, as a delicious sustainable food of the future? And thus Ento was born.
Where do you hope to take Ento in the near and longer term future?
In the near-term we have some exciting plans in the works – a crowd-funded campaign where we hope to push our products out to early-adopters, and a regular series of supper clubs, hosted in our own design studio / experimental kitchen space, that we’re looking into making a reality. In the long term, our goal has been, and always will be the mainstream acceptance of insects in the West as a delicious sustainable food. When we see insects for sale in supermarkets, we’ll know we’ve got there!
Where do you see the sustainable food landscape headed?
As with all complex problems, the problem of food security and sustainable food will be solved by a diversity of small solutions – of which insects plays a small but important part. Other bottom-up efforts like local growing, polyculture, urban farming, aqua-culture, synthetic meat etc. will all play a part together, along with entomophagy, to secure our future food supply, tied together with a larger overall strategy, perhaps supported by top-down legislation.
What does your current work day look like?
It differs for each of us! We all put in one day of our time into developing ento whilst we work at our ‘day jobs’. At the moment I am negotiating prices with apiaries for insects, whilst looking up wood finishes for the benches we are constructing for our upcoming pop-up restaurant and playing with folding napkins into insects. Julene has been working hard specifying all the fittings and decor for the pop-up and developing our website, Jacky has been ordering large amounts of insects in preparation for our next event, and Jon is busy organising meetings and thinking about our upcoming crowdfunded campaign. It’s a really diverse day for all of us!
What are some of the accomplishments you’ve achieved thus far in your brand/enterprise?
Winning the Green Design Competition in Amsterdam was a fantastic moment for us – it gave us the money and confidence to carry on – and meeting Dieter Rams at the Braun Prize awards ceremony was a very special moment. On the horizon, the opening night of our pop-up restaurant will be massively important – it will be a major milestone on our 10-year strategy for getting insects into supermarkets.
What are some lessons in entrepreneurship you’ve learned to date?
Some great advice we were given about startups (you may have heard this before) is all about teamwork and having a diverse set of skills available to you – expressed like this: you need 3 H’s: a hustler, a hacker and a hipster – or in other words, someone who has a good head for business and striking a good deal, an engineer to work things out, and a designer to make everything look and feel great. I think we’ve got all 3 in Ento, but we all shift roles quite a lot!
Where do you find personal inspiration?
In the countryside, out and about town, in each other’s adventures and stories.
If you weren’t being a first mover in this arena, where would we likely find you?
The four of us would likely be still working together, finding other interesting problems to solve (in fact, we are starting to do this now, by starting a design consultancy between us!). So if you have any design strategy, product design or interaction design projects, and you like our work – let us know!
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