When Gavin Schneider and his three co-founders started Maia Farms, they planned to sell gourmet mushrooms.
Instead, they focused on mycelium, a plant-based protein that's got a lot going for it: It's high in nutritional content, low in bitterness, and has a "superior taste and texture," Schneider tells the CBC.
That led them to apply to a program at the University of Calgary called Creative Destruction LabRockies, which helps science- and tech-based startups get their ideas off the ground and into a market where they can make money.
"What the Maia team experienced in the program was evidence that the right support, network, knowledge, and access to a marketplace for judgment could take an idea and turn it into a scalable solution to real-world challenges," Schneider says in a press release.
What they ended up with, after six to eight weeks of intense work with mentors, was a new name: Kinoko Farms, and a refocusing.
"We actually changed our name and completely changed the identity," Schneider says.
"We were able to really dig in and refine our vision as a team."
What they ended up with is CanPro, a protein they've created using mycelium, and they
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