Grevivals: Hi Alana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. We’ve been impressed with Cajú Love, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do?

Alana Lima: In short, we turn cashew fruit into a plant based meat alternative and call it Cashew Fruit Meat. 2.2 million tons of cashew fruits in Brazil alone are being thrown away yearly as a byproduct from the cashew nut industry. Our mission is to help divert this food waste and share a plant based meat option with the world that is both environmentally friendly and a clean healthy option. 

Grevivals: We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Alana Lima: There are always challenges that come along with any new venture and things don’t always go as planed or expected. These last few months, we’ve been working to developing a system to make this project viable and there have been bumps along the way for sure. I think the most important thing though, is normalizing the challenges and focusing on how to move forward when obstacles come our way instead of focusing so much energy on what went wrong. Problem solving is a huge part of entrepreneurship and theres always 2 ways to look at a situation. We choose to look at everything, the good and the bad as an opportunity to grow. 

Grevivals: We have heard that one night, you ran into the idea of using cashew meat when you weren’t sure what to use for making a traditional Brazilian dish which usually requires seafood as the base. Our audience would love to know more about this exciting story from you!

Alana Lima: Yes! My parents were visiting my fiancé and I in town and we wanted to make my fiancé ( Felipe the other Co-Founder) a traditional dish from our country that he had never tried. It was called Casquina de Siri. It’s usually made with crab meat. However, I’ve been vegan for 5 years and Felipe has been mostly plant-based, so I really wanted to find something to substitute the crab but didn’t know of any alternatives in the market. After doing some digging on this family recipe, I found out that in specific regions of Brazil some people used cashew fruit meat. I was intrigued, as a vegan from Brazil never knowing about this. Coincidently, I remember spotting a cashew tree a few months back on the island we live in Hawaii and the next day I went to the tree to pick up some fruit. Lucky for me, it was in season. I cooked with it as was sooo impressed with it’s properties in the kitchen. Then I did some research and uncovered the sustainability aspect of it. I genuinely felt this was something that could create a positive impact in the world and peoples lives. Long story short, Felipe and I partnered up to bring this product into the world. 

Grevivals: What is the core philosophy of Cajú Love? What are your mission and vision?  

Alana Lima: It’s no coincidence our brand name has the word “love” in there. Our mission is to use the power of business as a force for good. 

We want to spread more love and compassion to the world through our products. By sharing products that are good for the people and planet. We dream about making cashew fruit a new plant based meat staple that can significantly help us, as humans lower our carbon footprint. 

Grevivals: It is incredible that your company is helping to divert biowaste and reduce water and land use for food supply. We would love to know more about it!

Alana Lima: As a byproduct, cashew fruits are currently being thrown away. When we aggregate value to this fruit, we close this food chain loop with a 0% food waste. Since we are not planting new trees to create a new food item, there is no additional irrigation or land needed to produce this food option. This significantly helps reduce our exploitation of land and preserve resources. 

Grevivals: Your three love pillars are – good for the environment, focused on impact, and good for the people. Right? It would be great to know more about these pillars. Which one is the most important in your personal opinion? And why?

Alana Lima: All three create our circular business model, so I would say all of them are equally as important. Like I mentioned above, it’s so important for us as individuals that our business is aligned with our ethics. We wouldn’t want to create something that would in someway harm others or our planet. 

Grevivals: What are the nutrition facts of Cajú Love? 

Alana Lima: Aside from it being a organic, gluten free and soy free product, it is also super high on fiber which helps lower cholesterol, promote healthy heart health, ease digestion , lower blood sugar and nourish the body.

Grevivals: There are several recipes one can prepare using Cajú Love, such as Taco Carnitas, BBQ Sandwich, Smoked Tuna, Chicken Nuggets, etc. Which one is your favorite? Any new recipe ideas for our lovely vegan friends?

Alana Lima: We have new recipes coming out weekly on our Instagram @cajulove.co ! Our favorite right now is probably an asian fusion lettuce wrap that we will be sharing soon! 

Grevivals: What are you most proud of or excited about Cajú Love? What do you want the world to know about you and Cajú Love?

Alana Lima: I’m proud of what we stand for and our determination to do good and make things happen. I want people to know we genuinely care. We want to share good products and we want to do good for all involved and impacted through our business. When we put this first, all our decisions are made very mindfully and we believe the more we grow, the more we can do for others. 

Grevivals: What is the future plan of Cajú Love?

Alana Lima: There are so many dreams and some exciting things coming for 2022 that I can’t share yet, but in vague terms it’s to scale our impact. We want to keep getting better and doing better for the world. We also plan to establish a social project the gives back to the world through Caju Love. 

Grevivals: As a founder of Cajú Love, could you please briefly explain your strategy for reaching your target customers/clients? 

Alana Lima: We just had a soft launch this October, so the strategy so far has been mostly doing a lot of market research to understand peoples relationships to our product as well as what our customers want. We ran a press release that reached quite a bit of people and right now we are in the process of getting all the feedback we can so that in early 2022 we can have a clear understanding of our audience and consumer base. 

Grevivals: What is the most challenging situation you have faced while working as a founder?

Alana Lima: I don’t know if I would say most challenging, but something that i’ve had to work on is  trusting myself and intuition when making big decisions. There is no roadmap to what decisions you should make in your business and a lot of times it comes down to following your gut on a daily basis. Trusting yourself is a huge part in my opinion of being a strong leader and I really do believe it is a skill that we build through experience.

Grevivals: Being a part of an environmentally conscious community, what kind of suggestions would you suggest for the new/upcoming “Green” startups/SME’s? 

Alana Lima: I find that creating a strong framework with your company values in the beginning is so essential to make aligned decisions as you grow. This will always guarantee you stay true to your mission and commitment with the world. 

Grevivals: Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role? 

Alana Lima: My dad Rodrigo Lima. My dad has played a huge role in helping us navigate building a foundation for our company. As en entrepreneur himself, he’s been able to assist in ways I am forever grateful for. 

Grevivals: Is there something you would like to add?

Alana Lima: I’m really grateful for the opportunity to share our story and mission. We would love to invite people to reach out if there is anything they would like to see next from us. We love connecting with our community.