Mitchell Scott & The Better Butchers: From Backyard Barbecue to Plant-Based Pioneer

Mitchell Scott is an entrepreneur passionate about one thing: removing animals from the food chain. For over ten years, he has been deeply immersed in the plant-based meat and consumer packaged goods space, building brands that are better for people and better for the planet.

He co-founded The Very Good Butchers, which became The Very Good Food Company, the top-performing IPO globally in 2020. Under his leadership, the company grew sales from one million dollars to three million dollars to ten million dollars in just three years, building one of the most recognized plant-based brands in Canada.

It was a wild, humbling, and incredible journey that taught him everything about building a purpose-driven brand from the ground up.

Now he is back at it with The Better Butchers, crafting animal-free butcher shop meats using a unique blend of oyster mushrooms and pea protein.

This new kind of ingredient delivers incredible taste, texture, and nutrition without any of the compromise. He believes you do not have to sacrifice flavour to eat with a conscience. The best food should be good for you, good for the animals, and good for the planet, and that is exactly what he is building toward.

mitchell scott, the better butchers meat, plantbased protein, vegan, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, chfa

THE BUSINESS.

The Better Butchers is a plant-based meat company on a mission to make animal-free eating delicious, sustainable, and accessible. Crafted from a unique blend of oyster mushrooms and pea protein, the company’s products deliver the taste, texture, and quality one would expect from a traditional butcher shop, without any of the animals.

What sets The Better Butchers apart is the commitment to clean, wholesome ingredients. The product lineup is naturally high in protein, iron, and fibre, with no added flavours or artificial colours, just authentic seasoning with herbs and spices.

Whether someone is fully plant-based or simply looking to eat less meat, these products make the transition easy and satisfying. From ground meat in Natural, Italian, and Chorizo varieties to the showstopping Better Beast plant-based roast, the company offers something for every occasion and every craving.

The Chorizo recently took home Gold at the BCFB Product of the Year awards, proof that plant-based can truly compete with the real thing.

Available online and coming soon to retailers across Canada, The Better Butchers is redefining what it means to eat well, for your body, for the animals, and for the planet.

mitchell scott, the better butchers meat, plantbased protein, vegan, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, chfa

IN HIS WORDS.

“I first recognized my entrepreneurial spirit in my early twenties while working for a company in Whistler called Snowboard Addiction, a business built around instructional freestyle snowboard videos. Watching what the founder, Nev Lapwood, had created up close was genuinely eye-opening. Here was someone who had taken a passion, built something entirely on his own terms, and turned it into a thriving business.

It made me realize that the traditional path, work for someone else, climb the ladder, collect a paycheque, was not the only option.

Nev pointed me toward a few books that completely shifted my mindset. The one that hit hardest was The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. It challenged everything I thought about work, business, and lifestyle design. That combination, seeing a real-world example of entrepreneurship done right and then having the frameworks to start thinking like a builder, was the spark. From there I was off to the races. It planted a seed that eventually led me to the plant-based food space, and everything I have been building ever since has been rooted in that same belief: that you can create something meaningful entirely on your own terms.

Honestly, I did not have the classic entrepreneurial childhood, no lemonade stands or teenage side hustles. My journey really started after Whistler, when I moved to Japan and got a crash course in everything: marketing, sales, and business development. I was thrown in the deep end and loved every minute of it. By the time I came back, I felt like I had the skills to build and market something. I just did not have the killer product yet.

That all changed at a family barbecue. I had grown up eating mediocre veggie burgers, you know the ones, and had pretty low expectations for plant-based meat. Then, James Davison, my sister’s brother-in-law, handed me a burger he had made from scratch. It stopped me in my tracks. The taste, the texture, the ingredients, it was unlike anything I had ever tried in the plant-based space. I knew immediately there was something there.

We decided to partner up, and that was the beginning of The Very Good Butchers. It is funny how the best ideas do not always come from a boardroom or a business plan. Sometimes they come from a backyard barbecue on a summer afternoon. That moment changed everything.”

“There is one memorable business experience that will stick with me forever. It was 2017, opening day of our very first The Very Good Butchers shop in Victoria, British Columbia. We had worked incredibly hard to get to that point, but nothing could have prepared us for what happened.

Over one thousand people showed up. The lineup stretched for blocks and lasted over eight hours.

We were completely overwhelmed, in the best possible way. Standing there watching that, I felt this rush of emotion and adrenaline that is hard to put into words. It was the moment I knew we were truly onto something special.

The flip side? We were absolutely not prepared for that kind of turnout. We sold out of everything. Every last product, gone. We actually had to shut the doors for a full week just to restock and catch our breath.

Looking back, it was equal parts exhilarating and humbling. It taught me an early and important lesson about scaling, that demand can outpace your supply faster than you ever expect, and that you need to be ready to grow quickly.

mitchell scott, the better butchers meat, plantbased protein, vegan, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, chfa

My entrepreneurial journey has evolved significantly through key challenges and opportunities. Our biggest early challenge was scaling production to meet demand. James came from a chef background and I was a jack of all trades, handling sales, business development, and marketing. Neither of us came from the consumer packaged goods or food production world, and we did not have the budget to bring in someone who did. We made a lot of costly early mistakes, but we learned an enormous amount along the way and eventually built out our own production facilities, which was incredibly hard to do.

As the business grew, so did the complexity. We went public, uplisted to the NASDAQ, raised significant capital, and tried to scale as fast as possible to justify our valuation. In hindsight, we grew too quickly.

When market conditions shifted overnight, from valuing growth to demanding profitability, we were caught exposed. Eventually, I was let go and the company went into receivership shortly after. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life. That experience is exactly what I am bringing to The Better Butchers, a leaner, smarter, more sustainable approach to building a brand that is genuinely built to last.”

mitchell scott, the better butchers meat, plantbased protein, vegan, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, chfa

“Mentorship has played a huge role in shaping who I am as an entrepreneur, and I try never to take that for granted.

The first person I have to mention is Nev Lapwood, (Snowboard Addiction). Watching what he built in Whistler was the spark that started everything for me. He pointed me toward books that completely rewired how I thought about business and life.

Then there is Jack Momose, founder and president of Degica. Jack took a chance on me when I was young and relatively inexperienced, and gave me an extraordinary amount of freedom and latitude to build something within his company. That trust was transformative.

At The Very Good Food Company, bringing in Ana Silva as president was one of our best decisions. She brought a level of operational rigour and leadership that pushed me to grow in ways I had not anticipated. And on the reading side, Zero to One by Peter Thiel is another book that fundamentally shaped how I think about building something truly different.

mitchell scott, the better butchers meat, plantbased protein, vegan, helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, chfa

The advice I would give to aspiring entrepreneurs starts with this: be prepared to do everything.

In the early days of building a company, you will wear every hat, and that is okay. Embrace it. But also recognize early on where it makes sense to delegate and bring in people who are better than you at specific things.

For anyone specifically entering the consumer packaged goods world, I cannot stress this enough: velocity and margin are everything.

It is tempting to chase distribution gains and get your product onto as many shelves as possible, but if you do not have strong product market fit and proven velocity first, you are just accelerating a problem. Nail that before you scale. As for how my definition of success has evolved, it has changed profoundly. Success means building something sustainable that will still be around in twenty years. Something with real purpose behind it.”

MITCHELL SCOTT, CO-FOUNDER

THE BETTER BUTCHERS

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Collaborator: This story is created in collaboration between Helen Siwak and the featured subject. As the founder and publisher of Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, Helen works closely with entrepreneurs to share their paths of innovation, resilience, and growth. Each story in this series is co-developed through interviews and first-person insights, blending authentic voices with Helen’s editorial expertise to highlight the remarkable individuals shaping British Columbia’s business landscape.