Parendi Birdie

At Carnéa, we add depth, richness, and passion where ordinary meat falls flat. We celebrate the artistry behind great food by creating a harmony of meat and plant-forward ingredients for unique products such as Truffle Mushroom Meatballs, Roasted Red Pepper Italian Sausages, Lemon Chicken Cauliflower Cutlets, and Bourbon Bacon Artichoke Links. Crave more from your meals. The Massive, Untapped Opportunity – Everyone wants to eat better. Everyone wants to eat a bit more plant-forward. Our approach is simple: rather than making plants taste like meat, we use them to elevate meat. The result? Products that deliver the authentic taste of meat, the plant-powered benefits consumers crave, and the cultural and psychological familiarity of meat—a winning combination for widespread, daily adoption. And it works: in blind tastings, big meat-eating Texans preferred Carnéa 2-to-1 over Tyson. The Team – Carnéa was founded by Parendi Birdie, who has helped build three successful startups from the ground up (GOOD Meat, Mission Barns, Lawrence Montessori School) and has been at the forefront of alternative protein since 2013. She is joined by Eric Hedstrand, a CPG industry veteran and former Director of Product Development at Impossible Foods and Director of R&D at NotCo. Completing the founding team, Tom Lynch brings 15 years of cutting-edge R&D experience, including his role as Head R&D Chef at the acclaimed two-Michelin-starred restaurant 42 Grams and as one of the earliest Food Technologists at Beyond Meat. Together, they’re supported by a stellar group of advisors and investors behind some of the world’s most successful CPG companies. Transforming a massive market requires partnering with the very best—and if that’s you, let’s talk.

Helped build Mission Barns from the ground up by establishing and leading multiple functions—including R&D, marketing, strategic partnerships, and product development—securing tens of millions in VC funding and closing a partnership with one of the world's largest meat companies.

Helped shape the vision and strategy while serving as a hands-on operator leading the development of the world's first cultivated meat products.

Co-founded and ran my family’s Montessori School to $1M+ in annual revenue and a successful exit.

Isolated hematopoietic stem cells from the blood of multiple patients with SCD and conducted RT-qPCR to determine how the expression of SALL2 correlated to improved response to Hydroxyurea Differentiated hematopoietic stem cells to erythrocytes and measured SALL2 expression by RT-qPCR to understand expression trends Published “Genetic modifiers of severity in sickle cell disease” in Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation

Designed 21 synthetic multicopy plasmids using SnapGene with various inducible promoters to increase protein expression, cloned plasmids in E.coli, co-transformed constructs and helper factors into yeast, analyzed 1,100+ colonies, revised and designed new experiments to increase yields Helped optimize high-throughput screens with Tecan liquid handling robot, LabChip GXII, spectroscopic analysis, and SDS-PAGE to analyze the most productive protein expression Isolated a high performing strain producing titers 30X greater than previously characterized strains and isolated 15 additional strains producing 7x more protein than initial highest producers of that protein

• Shirzabel Academic Excellence Award • Fali Chothia Scholar • Student of Distinction Award • Student Leadership Board Member • Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) Academic Grant