Freelance Scientist on Kolabtree helps Entrepreneur bring “Vegan Eggs” to market

With more scientists available for hire on freelance platforms, businesses and entrepreneurs can obtain on-demand expertise with minimal fuss, perfect their innovative ideas and kickstart their projects.

And, one budding entrepreneur even achieved her crowdfund target in record time to start business operations on her novel ‘vegan eggs’ recipe, which she perfected by hiring a freelance scientist on Kolabtree.

The general consensus by now is that the coronavirus-induced remote working has indeed resulted in increased productivity levels. However, for recent Stanford design and engineering graduate Grace O’Brien, it’s even provided an opportunity to introspect and innovate in order to solve one of her biggest sources of discontent – continuing to incorporate eggs into her meals despite making the rest of her diet completely plant-based.

Although there are several vegan alternatives to eggs in the market right now, Grace identified key problems with these options in terms of texture and taste. Armed with $3000 of her own money, a desire to solve this conundrum and quite a bit of free time, Grace went about chopping and changing to hit upon the ideal ‘vegan egg’ product.

However, there was still one stumbling block. Although highly motivated by sustainable living and possessing massive domain knowledge, Grace still needed a scientific mind to help her experiment with the product and get a viable vegan egg mixture over the line. That’s where Hugo Lisboa from Kolabtree came in.

A chemical engineer with a PHD in polysaccharides, Hugo Lisboa worked in material science for a few years before making the switch to teaching, making him the perfect link between business and academia. In fact, Hugo puts it succinctly when he tells Kolabtree “Whilst businesses are understandably more concerned with the final product, academics and scientific experts can provide crucial insights on how to optimize the product so that it stands out from a generic prototype”. 

This, he believes, is the most significant aspect of making sure the product is technically excellent, adheres to compliance and regulations, and stands out in the market successfully.

The ‘Vegan Egg’ Conundrum – Hiring Expert Assistance

When Grace was stuck trying to replicate the texture and precise egg taste in her vegan alternative, she turned to the internet for expert technical help. The primary concern for businesses and independent entrepreneurs like Grace is taking their products successfully to market, so Kolabtree’s blog on that precise subject proved to be an invaluable read. This inevitably led her to the freelancer platform itself, where scientific and subject matter experts on a diverse range of knowledge areas are available for on-demand hire, and even witnessed a surge in demand amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Small businesses, in particular, have been heavily disrupted by constant lockdowns. Their operations have been completely halted, and they have a lot of pending projects hanging in the balance due to frequent lockdowns. With remote working growing in popularity, it presents the perfect opportunity for business owners to solve these issues by experimenting with agile and hybrid workforces, scouting for the best additions to their teams irrespective of geographical barriers and kickstarting pending projects.

The appealing combination of cost-effectiveness and value-addition when it comes to hiring a freelance expert makes it handy for companies to secure instant guidance and insight, getting an expert on board for a few weeks or months to either kickstart projects or plug in gaps in the workforce brought about by the pandemic.

Project Completion and Raising Funds

According to Hugo, however, independent entrepreneurs are also leveraging the power of freelance experts amidst this lockdown, using the lockdown to finally get working on business ideas and dreams they’ve been sitting on for ages, like this vegan eggs experiment. In fact, Hugo says “The pandemic has seen young and budding entrepreneurs put the lockdown free time to effective use by re-inventing their ideas and following their business dream”.

In the vegan eggs project, Hugo’s advise on how to test and develop the product further proved to be the final piece of the jigsaw, enabling Grace to tweak and perfect her concoction. Through the power of viral internet marketing, Grace eventually managed to raise funds via a Kickstarter campaign that will likely go towards a professional manufacture and distribution unit for Peggs.

With collaborations between science and business becoming more common as we enter the “Expert Economy” age, experts like Hugo on Kolabtree can help turn brilliant ideas into viable business propositions by offering out-of-the-box suggestions and perspectives rooted in technical expertise, crafting meticulous documentation adhering to regulatory compliance standards and ensuring there are no hiccups in its journey from conception to market.

Have an idea? Looking for expert help with a science or business innovation? Post a free project on Kolabtree and scout experts across diverse domains.