Matías Muchnick is the current CEO and one of the founders of NotCo, a Chilean food-tech company that produces plant-based foods. Founded in 2015, the company became one of the fastest-growing startups in Latin America. The organization is partly owned by one of Jeff Bezos’s investment firms, linking NotCo to one of the world’s most influential tech figures.
Muchnick serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. On the brand’s official website, he explained that his main task is “to keep the ship sailing at all times,” and that his work involves clarifying and expanding the mission and vision of the company so that everyone fully understands NotCo’s purpose.
To reach this position, Muchnick dedicated much of his youth to academic training, entrepreneurship, and overcoming financial setbacks that shaped his path. This long process led him to co-found NotCo with several partners.
Muchnick’s academic background and his first venture
In Chile, he graduated with a degree in Economics and Business Administration, consistently ranking among the top students. He then deepened his studies in the United States, attending Harvard, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, where he absorbed knowledge in innovation, technology, and biosciences.
It is no coincidence that he went on to found NotCo—a company born through artificial intelligence and aimed at reinventing the food industry. “Eggles Company” was his first startup, which lasted only two years before he sold it. With that capital, he and his partners launched NotCo, a company described as a “reinventor of the food industry” through proprietary technology and “an algorithm capable of learning infinite combinations of plants to replicate animal products—with even better taste.”
Giuseppe: the technology Muchnick built into NotCo
Giuseppe is not a person—it is the algorithm central to NotCo’s business model. It replaced the old laboratory model of human trial-and-error, enabling faster, more precise food development.
NotCo’s most recognizable products—burgers, milk, and ice cream—are all plant-based. In interviews, Muchnick has said that his time at Berkeley, where he became interested in biosciences, was the turning point that pushed him to build a food-tech model based on science and data—an approach he believed was missing in the industry.
Giuseppe helps the founders identify optimal plant combinations and replicate flavors. As Muchnick explained, the idea is to “represent a product through data and parameterize that data to design the food.” In simple terms, Giuseppe functions as an advanced food engineer simulating human decision-making.
In another interview, he emphasized that NotCo “still has a long road ahead,” where science, technology, and innovation intersect to positively transform the food sector. The constant challenge is to create plant-based foods that taste identical to traditional ones.
Partners and colleagues: Muchnick’s key factor
Muchnick’s achievements were shaped by the network he built through his studies, where he met several of his future co-founders. Many of them were classmates in the United States, each deeply involved in their own scientific or technological research.
Besides surrounding himself with people driven by the idea of “changing the world,” the entrepreneur believes that NotCo will be present in at least 20% of households within the next five years. Muchnick and his team aim high, betting on technology and artificial intelligence to reshape food production.
“The idea of finding answers among the more than 400,000 unexplored plant species in the world has always been exciting,” he said. He works alongside a large team passionate about discovering the best solutions and alternatives for plant-based food development.
NotCo’s milk, burgers, and ice cream are already recognizable on supermarket shelves. Without slowing down, Muchnick hopes that 20% of households will adopt these foods—with the same taste and texture as traditional products, but with one fundamental difference: they are unprocessed, 100% natural, and entirely plant-based.
