Beau Wangtrakuldee, Ph.D., is a scientist, entrepreneur, and founder of AmorSui, a modern protective apparel company redesigning personal protective equipment (PPE) to empower women with greater function and protection in lab and medical settings. She’s tackling two massive problems: one that traditional PPE hasn’t taken into account diversity and the needs of women and marginalized groups, and two, that an enormous amount of waste is generated by an industry that has traditionally used single-u...
Feb 14, 2023•50 min
Darius Mora is the CEO and Co-Founder of Vitality Therapeutics, a start-up using artificial intelligence to solve mental health problems. You might not know this, but machine learning can be used to detect patterns in our speech that can help us diagnose mental health issues like depression and burnout faster. In a world where therapists are scarce and expensive, applying AI to the massive mental health problems facing our society today is an incredibly exciting frontier. We discuss the implicat...
Feb 10, 2023•52 min
Andrew Amann is the CEO of NineTwoThree Venture Studio, an award-winning software design and engineering studio. His company helps launch start-ups and products, developing apps, IoT devices, and software. They’ve built several clients to over a billion-dollar valuation, and they’ve been featured in the Inc. 5000 two years in a row. I’m a digital agency owner myself, and for me, Andrew represents someone a few steps further in the process. In this episode, we’re going to talk shop about how you ...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min
Olugbenga Olubanjo is the founder & CEO of Reeddi, a Nigerian start-up that seeks to bring power to the 70+ million Nigerians who don't have reliable access. Over 600 million people in Africa lack access to reliable power, but how do we solve the problem? Olugbenga created the Reeddi capsule, a rechargeable power bank that people can rent for just 50 cents per day. Olu has already impacted thousands of people with his work, and his product was featured in The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by T...
Feb 03, 2023•48 min
Saoud Khalifah is CEO, CTO & Founder of Fakespot, a tool that seeks to eliminate fraud and fake reviews in ecommerce. Have you ever tried to buy a supplement online with thousands of 5-star reviews only to find out that it’s actually sawdust capsules? That’s exactly what happened to Saoud, and this experience led him to understand that online reviews cannot and should not be trusted. Between bots, paid fake reviews, and influencers, it’s harder than ever to trust what you read online. Often ...
Jan 31, 2023•54 min
Kathy Hannun is the co-founder and president of Dandelion Energy, offering affordable home geothermal energy solutions. We spend so much money heating and cooling our homes, and in a time of uncertainty surrounding natural gas and oil availability, getting off of fossil fuels in our homes has never been more important. Kathy left her job working at Alphabet’s prestigious X Lab to start her company, and they’ve raised over $130 million to date for the project. By homes switching to residential ge...
Jan 27, 2023•56 min
Mike Pappas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Modulate.ai, a start-up using cutting-edge machine learning to to make voice chat safe. In case you don’t play online games, there’s an entire universe of people out there who play games like Call of Duty, League of Legends, etc, and they use in-game voice chat to communicate with each other. The problem is, like other digital avenues, these spaces can be made toxic by bullies, trolls, and hateful people. For years, this toxicity has been seen as an unsol...
Jan 24, 2023•58 min
Anna Luisa Beserra Santos is the CEO of Sustainable Development & Water For All, a Brazilian organization bringing water and sanitation to people who lack access. Proper water and sanitation have the power to reduce the number of deaths from waterborne diseases by as much as 65%, and Anna and her startup have already benefitted more than 15,000 people in 15 Brazilian states. Anna founded her startup in 2015 at the age of 17, and in 2019 she won the UN Champions of the Earth Award. She was al...
Jan 20, 2023•52 min
Carrie Chan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Avant Meats, the first cultivated fish company in Asia. What is cultivated fish? If you assumed it meant fish that’s refined and well-educated, you’re wrong, but hey that’s what I thought, too! Instead, it means that they are able to create real fish using the cells in a process that’s not dissimilar to brewing beer. They can take the fish cells and multiply them in a controlled environment, bringing you real fish without the animal killings, without th...
Jan 17, 2023•57 min
Shiloh Johnson is the founder and CEO of ComplYant, a digital tax assistant platform that’s raised over 10 million in funding to date. Shiloh’s personal journey is incredible, which you’ll soon find out, but the upshot is this: in her time as CPA, she noticed that many—most?—small business owners were making the same mistakes. She soon realized that there was a gap in the market and got to work building a platform to help business owners such as myself be a little less stupid. Ok, the stupidity ...
Jan 13, 2023•54 min
Stefan Ytterborn is the CEO & Co-Founder of CAKE, a Swedish tech company making light and totally silent off-road and commuter electric motorcycles. They’ve raised over $70 million in funding so far, and their ambitious goal is to create the cleanest dirt bike ever—striving to approach that magical “completely fossil-free” goal. CAKE was listed to Time Magazine’s 100 most important inventions award in 2021, and they’re reimagining electric transportation from the ground up. ➡️ https://rideca...
Jan 10, 2023•51 min
Tessa Callaghan is the CEO and co-founder of Keel Labs, makers of a seaweed-based yarn they call Kelsun. In case you didn’t know, the textile and fashion industries are a mess, and they contribute enormous amounts of waste to our planet. Tessa and her co-founders set out to create a fully functional yarn with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional fibers. They’re harnessing a biopolymer from kelp to achieve this, and kelp is one of the most regenerative organisms on our ...
Jan 06, 2023•54 min
Susan Stone is CEO of Ubiquitous Energy, the world leader in transparent solar technology working towards a goal of helping solve climate change by creating truly transparent renewable energy for every surface across the globe. Ubiquitous Energy has developed transparent solar cells to create its ClearView Power windows, a kind of “solar glass” that can turn sunlight into energy without needing the bluish-grey opaque panels those cells are generally associated with. Ubiquitous Energy’s patented ...
Jan 03, 2023•56 min
Krishna Manda is the Co-founder and CEO of Etho Inc., a start-up building augmented reality hardware and software for motorcycle helmets, including a voice assistant, navigation, and riding information displayed right on the inside of the helmet Soon you’ll be able to keep your eyes on the road as you ride and have access to more information than ever before. With 68% of daily commuters admitting to using their phones to navigate to places, these distractions can be fatal on motorcycles where ev...
Dec 23, 2022•54 min
Sahand Dilmaghani is the Founder & CEO at Terra Kaffe, a coffee tech company that’s raised over 14 million in funding so far. Sahand has a remarkable story that led him down the path of entrepreneurship, and his company is making more eco-friendly coffee and espresso machines that look and taste incredible. Sahand made Forbes Next 1000 in the consumer tech category, which is good for him but bad for me, as I had to settle for 1,001, failing to make the cut YET AGAIN. Come on Forbes! In serio...
Dec 20, 2022•45 min
Paul Gross is the Co-CEO & Co-founder of Remora, a start-up that captures carbon emissions directly from semi-trucks as they drive. This tech, called a “mobile carbon capture system”, is the first of its kind to be commercialized anywhere in the world. Remora’s system can be retrofitted onto existing diesel trucks, capturing and storing their carbon. And this is a big deal, because there are over 2 million semis in the US alone. They’ve raised millions in funding, and they’re already working...
Dec 16, 2022•51 min
Dinesh Tadepalli is the Chief Spoon Seller & Co-Founder of Incredible Eats, a start-up that’s attempting to replace single-use plastic cutlery with edible alternatives. How does that work? You might be asking. Well, they need both sweet and savory options (think ice cream vs. hot soup), and their products perform better than paper alternatives. Edible cutlery is something that’s never before been implemented at scale, and the company was featured on Shark Tank where they received multiple of...
Dec 13, 2022•57 min
Kevin Martin is the CTO and Co-Founder of unspun, a company making bespoke “3D printed” jeans. Using scanning and robotics technology, unspun creates personalized jeans just for you, and way way way faster than the traditionally wasteful pipeline of today’s fashion. Unspun has raised over 10 million in funding so far, and Kevin himself has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30. The company was listed on TIME’s best inventions and Fast Company’s World-Changing Ideas. Unspun is a truly brilliant approa...
Dec 09, 2022•52 min
Mark Herrema is the CEO and founder of Newlight Technologies, a company with an out of this world solution to climate change. By using nature as a guide, they’re able to pull carbon and greenhouse gasses straight from the air and create a physical, plastic-like material they call AirCarbon, which can be used to make everything from cutlery to straws to clothing and just about anything else plastic can make. There’s one huge difference… AirCarbon is biodegradable (even faster than paper), and is ...
Dec 05, 2022•56 min
Ellen Windemuth is the Founder and CEO of WaterBear Network, a free environmental content streaming platform that Fast Company called “Netflix for the Planet”. Ellen is well known for producing My Octopus Teacher, a documentary that one this year’s BAFTA and Oscar for best documentary feature. WaterBear has impressive partners, with over 100 charities and NGOs taking part, including WWF, Greenpeace, and more, they’re shining a spotlight on the most critical issues facing the planet today. Beyond...
Dec 02, 2022•52 min
Jacob Flood is the founder and CEO of Eno, makers of Enophone headphones—headphones that can monitor your brain data just by wearing them. These headphones help you become more focused and productive, giving you a deeper understanding of how your mind actually works during the day. If you’ve been working from home, you know how important productivity is, especially when there’s no one to keep you on track but yourself. Jacob has spent over 10 years in the mental productivity space, and he’s the ...
Nov 29, 2022•57 min
Eduardo Del Signore is a 2020 Grammy-nominated and Award-winning Musician and the founder of the A Call 2Peace Foundation. He leverages technology, science, and music to spur climate action. Through The ClimateMusic Project, Eduardo uses data visuals from climate scientists for his musical interpretation of the fight against climate change. He just got back from a performance at the World Economic Forum, and we discuss the clarity of vision he had that brought him to this highly unusual and rewa...
Nov 25, 2022•55 min
Taylor McCarten is the Co-Founder & CEO of BinBreeze, a Dragon’s Den success story start-up. The idea is this: BinBreeze is the world's first all-natural and non-toxic indoor composting powder that is on a mission to reduce the impact of food waste. Their innovative and sustainable product reduces wood waste that’s currently burned for lack of a better alternative while improving customer composting abilities at home. It’s a win-win that’s now in over 500 retailers in Canada. Today we talk a...
Nov 22, 2022•56 min
Jacob Pechenik is the co-founder of Lettuce Grow, a company he co-founded with Zooey Deschanel. The idea is profound: they’ve created a device that lets people grow a significant quantity of produce either inside their home or outside, with a self-contained hydroponics system that’s basically foolproof. This system represents one of the easiest ways to dramatically improve the quality of home produce while greatly reducing the carbon footprint of getting leafy greens and veggies. As we love on t...
Nov 18, 2022•59 min
Raffael Jovine is the founder & chief scientist of Brilliant Planet, a company unlocking the power of algae as an affordable method of permanently and quantifiably sequestering carbon at the gigaton scale. Brilliant Planet has raised tens of millions in funding from major partners like Toyota Ventures, and when you hear his innovative solution, you’ll understand why. But beyond that, Raffael’s personal story is so incredible—learn how he made massive changes in his personal life and career t...
Nov 15, 2022•59 min
Tom Green is joining us today, and he’s the CEO of Project Vesta. Project Vesta is harnessing the natural power of the oceans to remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere. The Earth has long sequestered carbon through the oceans, and Tom has found a way, based on decades of prior scientific research, to accelerate this process using a common mineral. Tom Green has a BA from Oxford and an MBA from Harvard, and his personal career journey is remarkable. Today Project Vesta has received millions in fun...
Nov 11, 2022•54 min
Erick Went is the CTO of Genesis Systems, and he’s together Dr. Venkat Kode, a research scientist on the team. I’m not going to lie, Genesis Systems is one of the most exciting product ideas I’ve ever become aware of yet. Genesis Systems manufacture the world's first and only sustainable air-to-water systems that can carbon (CO2) capture. That’s right, they are generating fresh-water from air using integrated technologies never before conceived. They’ve received several grants from the US Air Fo...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr
Max Rye is the co-founder and chief strategist of TurtleTree, the world’s first sustainable lactoferrin made with precision fermentation. Don’t know what any of that means? Great! Because I didn’t either! Essentially they’re able not just to emulate real milk but actually produce identical proteins—the ones that give cow and human milk its nutritional value. We’ll learn how Max decided to embrace the kind of change he wanted to see by founding this futuristic company that has the potential to ch...
Nov 04, 2022•50 min
Anthony DiMare is the CEO & Co-founder of Bedrock Ocean Exploration, a vertically-integrated ocean exploration company that’s built proprietary robotics and software to explore the oceans quickly and cheaply. Basically, none of the world’s seafloor is mapped, and this knowledge has far-reaching implications for weather predictions, global shipping, and many other things vital to our survival. Learn the multiple businesses and models Anthony has pursued, how he’s gotten millions in funding, a...
Nov 01, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Phoebe Gardner is the co-founder and CEO of Bardee, a truly novel solution to climate change. Well have ya heard of composting? It’s a neat idea to take food waste that would otherwise generate methane gas in landfills and repurpose it for fertilizer. The trouble is, it takes a long time to do it. Bardee has taken that process one step further. They use Black Solder Fly larvae to turn food waste into a usable product in just seven days, while actually being carbon positive. Honestly, it’s a rema...
Oct 28, 2022•55 min
