For Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya, the impetus to start their company in 2014 really came down to cheese.

Gandhi, now 25, was trying to cut back on meat and dairy for sustainability and animal welfare reasons, but he desperately missed pizza. Pandya, 24, was experimenting with veganism but one incident in particular gave him pause: He bought a bagel slathered with dairy-free cream cheese that was so sad and soppy that it dripped all over his leg.

“It’s asking a lot of someone to become vegan,” says Pandya. Cheese is only the beginning. As he puts it, “you have to shift your entire identity.”