Neoplants' Lio Mora & Partick Torbey: "A houseplant that eats carcinogens"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Patrick Torbey and Lio Mora about engineering plants (3:45), the age of biology (6:15), their $180 houseplant (11:25), indoor pollution (13:45), meeting at a startup incubator (17:30), founder dating (20:55), raising money (24:30), spending four years developing the first plant (27:25), the market education problem (33:00), why certifications is more difficult than it seems (39:30), the maintenance challenge (41:45), and their worst day (47:05). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
18 Marras 202251min
Obvious Ventures’ Andrew Beebe: “Do stuff that matters”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Andrew Beebe, to talk about “world positive” investing (4:00), the dotcom boom (5:30), zeroing in on climate years ago (10:10), how a cold call to Google worked (12:10), how he met Twitter founder Ev Williams (16:00), investing in the downturn (19:10), screening for world positive companies (23:45), how he coaches founders (28:20), climate tech whiplash and why this time is different (32:000), and his worst day of work (40:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
11 Marras 202244min
Mayfield's Navin Chaddha: “The best companies get bought, not sold”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Navin Chaddha of Mayfield Fund, to talk about the future of work (3:10), and Silicon Valley (9:50), managing $2bn with seven people (13:55), his first startup in the dotcom boom (18:00), the importance of timing (22:50), holding his nerve at the recent peak (28:10), the other two companies he started (33:10), the lessons from he took from them (38:10), the current downturn (42:05), how he made it here from India (46:50), going through the IIT system (50:00), and what he’s excited to back (55:05). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
4 Marras 202259min
Blackrock Neurotech's Marcus Gerhardt: "An inflection point for brain-computer interfaces"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Marcus Gerhardt, chief executive of Blackrock Neurotech, to talk about his boarding school days in Wales (4:00), his dotcom adventures (10:00), pivoting to brain-computer interfaces (16:00), the “Utah array” (18:40), how in 2006 the first person sent an email with his thoughts (20:30), starting the company (23:00), the state of the technology today (26:40), targeting tetraplegics (33:00), getting investment (38:15), going to market (41:30), and reaching an inflection point (47:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
28 Loka 202254min
Checkerspot’s Charles Dimmler: “Using algae to make skis”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on co-founder and chief executive of Checkerspot, to talk about using algae to make skis (3:55), what he leaned at pioneer Solazyme (8:30), naming the company after a butterfly (16:10), how synthetic biology is like computers were in the 1980’s (18:00), starting out as an investment banker (21:15), switching to biotech (27:00), and then to Solazyme (28:30), algae oil skis (32:15), convincing investors (36:30), the rise of climate tech (42:00), and his worst day (48:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
21 Loka 202251min
Finless Foods’ Michael Selden: “The tuna roadster”
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Michael Selden, co-founder and chief executive of Finless Foods, to talk about growing tuna in a lab (2:45), getting the price down from $300,000 to $150 per pound (5:45), a publicly available bluefin tuna genome (8:45), replacing fetal bovine serum (11:30), using plant based material for the flesh “scaffolding” (14:20), scaling up (16:10), aiming for the mass market (19:55), why almost all American seafood is imported (21:20), the problems with seafood (22:40), the hardest moment(s) (27:30), the challenge of turning “clean meat” into an industry (32:00), and the science that is yet to be figured out (35:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14 Loka 202242min
Charm's Peter Reinhardt: "Turning plants into barbecue sauce"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Peter Reinhardt, co-founder and chief executive Charm Industrial, to talk about a different approach to carbon capture (3:30), overshooting our emissions (7:25), starting the company after a career in software (11:35), finding the Tesla roadster of CO2 removal (14:30), the potential (16:55), scaling up (19:40), attracting investors (22:00), and the CO2 scoreboard (24:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
7 Loka 202225min
Source Water's Cody Friesen: "Turning sunlight into water"
The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Cody Friesen, founder of Source Water, to talk about using solar to solve the water problem (4:30), the messy energy transition (9:15), our reliance on “dino-juice” (11:00), how its panels work (13:00), improving performance (22:00), starting the company (24:55), luring investors (27:00), going from scientist to founder (30:50), creating a battery company (38:00), scaling up (40:00), and solving problems for seven generations hence (44:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
30 Syys 202247min
