Justin Mackee is neither vegan nor vegetarian.
He takes care to emphasize this otherwise unremarkable fact. It’s an obvious assumption to make about someone who has just crowdfunded Cocono, a plant-based, small-batch coconut yogurt venture. But his reasons for starting the company weren’t complicated.
“It blew my mind,” says Mackee of the first time he tried coconut yogurt during a 2018 trip to Australia. “It was a very instant feeling of, ‘I wish I could have this in Japan. Why can’t we have this in Japan?’”