Living with compassion for all isn’t just good for animals and your health—it’s also good for business! Vegan products are hotter than ever, and more animal-friendly companies are popping up every day as a result.

For the latest installment of our PETA Prime series about compassionate CEOs, we spoke with Aidan Altman, CEO and cofounder of Fora Foods, the company behind the first-ever Michelin-star chef approved dairy-free butter, FabaButter. Aidan and his partner, Andrew McClure, have put their talents together for the good of animals and the environment.

What inspired you to begin working with vegan foods?

My business partner, Andrew, and I met at the University of Michigan and soon moved to Chicago together after graduating in 2015. Andrew began working in food mergers and acquisitions at Houlihan Lokey, and I went on to launch my first food startup brand (as you recall, Spice Foods). Being highly involved in the food world, we both began to care more and more about sustainable food systems. This led us both to decide to go vegan just over a year ago. We realized that the most pressing cause of global warming results directly from the factory farms developed to fit our outmoded industrial animal-agriculture model. We began to feel that we had an incredible opportunity (maybe even a burden) to couple our respective backgrounds to bring a new product to market that could help in the collective mission to fundamentally shift the paradigm of how we view food through a more sustainable lens. And so our first product, FabaButter, was born. We believe that by providing the first-ever delicious 1:1 replacer to dairy butter and leveraging our respective networks in the food industry to launch at mass scale, we truly have an opportunity to make a difference.

Tell us more about Aquafaba. How does FabaButter’s main ingredient make it unique?

Aquafaba is the water leftover from cooking chickpeas. During the boiling process, the proteins, starches, and other soluble solids migrate from the seed to the water. Its job in our FabaButter is two-fold: (1) It acts as an emulsifier to blend the oils and fats, and (2) It’s an all-natural flavor and mouthfeel enhancer. We buy our Aquafaba from a handful of hummus manufacturers and save this magical liquid from being poured down the drain!

So far, what is your favorite meal prepared with FabaButter?

Our favorite FabaButter treats are definitely the crispy croissants baked by our awesome vegan chef and adviser, Terry Romero. They are so delicious that we’ve even had Michelin chefs tell us how much they love them.

You’ve begun a Kickstarter campaign. What are you hoping to accomplish with the funding?

In order to launch in stores nationwide, we need to make FabaButter on a mass scale. Our Kickstarter campaign will help fund our 10,000-pound trial run at our manufacturing facility. Backers of $35 or more will get exclusive access to trying FabaButter first and letting us know what they think months before the product hits shelves. Their feedback will be used directly in fine-tuning our recipe, which will lead to the final formulation!

One of the benefits for the top backers of your Kickstarter campaign is a trip to Los Angeles to join acclaimed Executive Chef Scott Winegard at the Venice restaurant Plant Food + Wine for an exclusive and private FabaButter set-menu dinner. Can you tell us what he’ll be preparing? We’re dying to know!

We are so excited to have Scott on board—he is such an innovative chef on the cutting edge of the culinary world. We do not yet have our set menu for the night, but Scott has already done some initial FabaButter recipe development for us, including his delicious “roots and saffron FabaButter dish” with kohlrabi, carrot, radish, and beets.

How have consumers and retailers embraced your product?

We’re so grateful for the incredible feedback we’ve already seen. We received huge acclaim after launching our FabaButter at the Fancy Foods show and have very exciting plans to launch our product in stores and restaurants nationwide soon after our Kickstarter campaign.

How do you share your compassion for animals with those who aren’t animal-friendly?

We know that it can be difficult, and often frustrating, to get people to be more compassionate to animals, their own bodies, and the planet. By supplying the perfect alternative to the ubiquitous household staple that is dairy butter, our FabaButter has the power to become a gateway into getting the masses to make more sustainable food choices.

What vegan food trend are you most excited about in 2018?

We feel honored to be a part of the exponentially growing vegan/plant-based sector. Together, with all the other delicious vegan brands already on the market, we have the opportunity, collectively, to have a huge impact. We’re most excited to see companies going from their “Vegan 1.0” roots to a newer, more modern approach. We hope to see more companies release products with better branding and, most importantly, even better-tasting foods that will inevitably become adopted by larger and larger consumer bases!

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Check back next month for another inspiring interview with a compassionate CEO, and in the meantime, check out the FabaButter Kickstarter here.