Greg Johnson is the Co-Founder and CEO of AquiPor Technologies. His company offers groundbreaking tech for porous concrete, meaning the sidewalk can collect and capture rain water! AquiPor promotes a new type of material technology intended for urban stormwater management. We will investigate the effectiveness and environmental impact of their products, including their permeable concrete and low-carbon technology claims. The discussion will also cover AquiPor's approach to infrastructure solutio...
Mar 22, 2024•45 min
Welcome to Future Optimist! I'm Ross Palmer, founder of aloa.agency, and together we're going to explore the world of the future in all its good and bad glory with the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are building the world of tomorrow. I hope you’ll join me in becoming a Future Optimist! ➡️ Watch these episodes on YouTube ➡️ My agency Aloa®...
Mar 15, 2024•1 min
Wow – 200 interviews in the bag! So what’s next? In this mini-episode I’m going to be telling you three things I’ve learned from the 200 interviews I’ve conducted for the Beat the Often Path podcast. I’m also going to be going into more detail about an exciting change that’s coming up – the name of the podcast is changing to…*drumroll*… Future Optimist! We’re going to explore the world of the future in all its good and bad glory with the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are building the world o...
Mar 15, 2024•9 min
In this very special 200th interview, I’m joined by Deniz Kent, the Co-Founder & CEO of Prolific Machines, a biotech company at the forefront of sustainable and healthy food. Starting his career with notable research in cancer immunotherapy at the University of Bristol, Deniz has been recognized for his contributions to science, including winning the award for “outstanding contribution to research” while at GlaxoSmithKline focusing on asthma. Deniz is a key player in cell production for agri...
Mar 01, 2024•49 min
Lin Kayser is the co-founder of Leap 71 – a Dubai-based company pioneering the emerging field of Computational Engineering. Lin started coding as an 8-year-old and is a serial entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in building high technology ventures. His software was also pivotal in the roll-out of the original Matrix movie, still one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. ➡️ https://leap71.com/ ➡️ https://rosspalmer.com/lin-kayser ➡️ Follow me on Instagram: @therosspalmer ➡️ Subscribe ...
Feb 23, 2024•55 min
Gastón Paladini is the CEO and Co-Founder of Moolec Science, a crazy tech company that is literally turning soy into pork. Can plants be more like meat, no really? In this episode, we're spotlighting Moolec Science, a trailblazer in the food industry harnessing the power of Molecular Farming technology. Not sure what that is? Great! Because neither am I. At the helm (and joining us today) is CEO and Co-Founder Gastón Paladini, who brings a wealth of experience from his 20-year tenure at Argentin...
Feb 16, 2024•45 min
Niklas Kluger is the co-founder and COO of InPlanet, a brilliant eco-company with a quadruple+ bottom line. We’ll learn how this GreenTech pioneer, with a rich background in environmental engineering and tropical agriculture, is revolutionizing carbon dioxide removal. From scaling urban farming globally to pioneering something I had never heard of called “Enhanced Rock Weathering” in Brazil, Niklas is at the forefront of combating climate change and regenerating tropical soils. Their rock powder...
Feb 09, 2024•44 min
Saman Farid is the CEO and founder of Formic Technologies, a company at the forefront of revolutionizing automation in manufacturing. With a passionate commitment to boosting productivity in U.S. industries, his company Formic, specializes in offering cutting-edge robotic solutions that elegantly simplify automation. These versatile robots not only streamline the packing and palletizing processes but also contribute to the production of a diverse range of products, from delightful chocolate chip...
Feb 02, 2024•48 min
Paul Shapiro is the CEO of the Better Meat Company—a company on a mission to reinvent "meat". They’ve got plug-and-play mycoprotein formulations that quickly and cost-effectively enhance (or even replace) meat products while improving nutrition, flavor, and yield. He's also the author of the best-selling book, Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, and the host of the Business for Good Podcast, a podcast that I might add closely mimics what we're do...
Jan 26, 2024•46 min
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about Blue Oceans and Red Oceans, a concept talked about in Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne, W. Chan Kim. Broadly speaking, a “blue ocean” is uncontested market space—something that no one else is really doing, like Cirque Du Soleil when they first started. Compare that with a “red ocean”, or a supersaturated market in which you’re unlikely to succeed, like me selling you my NFTs of my head spliced onto Ryan Reynold’s body for the low low price of j...
Jan 19, 2024•51 min
Today we’ve got an AWESOME episode for you. Joining us is Matt Rogers, whom I believe we can accurately call a tech legend. Matt's career began at Apple, where his talent and dedication led him to build the software team responsible for ten generations of the iconic iPod. As one of the pioneering engineers on the original iPhone, his influence extended through five generations of the device and into the creation of the first iPad. His remarkable contributions to these groundbreaking products hav...
Jan 12, 2024•49 min
Fabian is a six-time serial entrepreneur with a 33-year history in technology innovation, holding over 100 patents in software, electronics, and photovoltaics. He has led diverse teams on four continents and launched numerous technology products globally. As the Co-founder and CEO of Solaires Entreprises Inc., a Canadian cleantech company, he's pioneering the development of perovskite-based solar cells, aiming for higher efficiency and sustainability in solar energy. If you're wondering what it ...
Jan 05, 2024•52 min
Ryan Field is the CEO of Kernel, a neurotech company that's raised over $150 million revolutionizing neuromedicine. What if a brain scan was a part of our regular checkup? What if we could detect and prevent diseases like dementia far in advance, with non-invasive tech? Something as simple as just putting on a bicycle helmet? Could we accelerate treatment discovery? Improve patient outcomes? And transform neuromedicine? Joining us today is the CEO of Kernel, a company based here in Los Angeles t...
Dec 22, 2023•53 min
Today's episode feels like pure science fiction. What is a digital twin? How could this help us make better and faster pharmaceuticals? And why is that important? We know that there is so much data about us and our bodies and soon, our brains. Is there a reality in which we can use data to remove human testing from the process of finding new drugs? How can we use machine learning and artificial intelligence to better understand the data that we have? If this feels like something with massive, pr...
Dec 15, 2023•49 min
Tom Frazier is the co-founder and CEO of Redivider, a company that is making sustainable & responsible edge computing. But first, what is edge computing? You might not realize it, but every single device you use and every single platform you interact with is storing massive amounts of data somewhere. And the farther away from you physically these data centers are the more inefficient and unsustainable they become. Edge computing is the idea that we should keep the source of our data closer t...
Dec 08, 2023•47 min
Travis Rosbach is the creator and founder of Hydro Flask, and a brilliant 600x MoM serial entrepreneur. Do you know those water bottles you've seen everywhere? Every single time you go to the airport, it seems like every single person has one? Well, it turns out that that's called the Hydro Flask, and it was invented by Travis Rosbach. Today we are going to discuss the unlikely journey and strange path of a true entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. Prior to founding his first company, Travis was a SCUBA...
Nov 30, 2023•59 min
Robin Simsa is the CEO of Revo Foods, the first company to sell 3D printed, vegan “salmon” filets – already available all over Europe. They're making 100% plant-based seafood to reduce overfishing and relieve pressure on our marine ecosystem. Robin himself has a PhD in biotech from the university of Gothenburg and Tufts University, and he was also nominated to Forbes 30 Under 30. 3D printing food is one of those exciting or terrifying ideas depending on your perspective, especially if “it's peop...
Nov 24, 2023•53 min
Nicki Driscoll, PhD is a post-doc researcher at MIT, and CTO of NeuroBionics, a company that has developed a new kind of neural interface using microscale, flexible, bioelectronic fibers that seamlessly integrate with the body. Have you ever seen a fiber optic cable? Imagine a tiny strand that is as thin as a human hair. Each fiber integrates a range of functions, such as electrical, chemical, and optical capabilities to sense and modulate the biological environment. This gives us unprecedented ...
Nov 17, 2023•41 min
Viraj Mane is the co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Lactiga, an award-winning, venture-backed biotherapeutics company treating and prevent infections using an unusual but genius method…human milk. That’s right, Lactiga uses human breast milk to battle even the world’s most dangerous pathogens. It turns out, some people would benefit tremendously from what’s found in the breast milk of other humans, and if done right, the power of this novel approach is astounding. Viraj has a PhD in H...
Nov 10, 2023•54 min
Guanhao Wu is the Co-Founder and CEO of Exovolar, a company making personal flying jetpacks (finally!). Exovolar aims to augment our main mobility tool, the legs, to make flying as simple as walking. The combination of jet engines, exoskeleton, and their patented thrust vector nozzle design allows the legs to fulfill their destined duty – to support and move our body – like a certain heavily trademarked action movie franchise character. You know, what’s his face. I love it when someone attempts ...
Nov 03, 2023•44 min
Amber Rivas is the President and CEO at Aviva Family & Children's Services in Los Angeles. She’s dedicated her life to solving the complex housing issues facing major metropolitan areas like LA. Amber has worked for non-profits her entire career, helping women, children, and local communities with mental health and crisis intervention. She’s engaged with the most vulnerable parts of society—tackling issues head on that most of us choose to ignore. Today we’ll learn how her selfless journey h...
Oct 27, 2023•47 min
Have you ever gone from just a few dollars in your bank account to a thriving business? Or maybe you have less than you’d like in the bank right now, and you’re feeling lost, hopeless, or unsure if there’s any way out for you. Well today’s guest Candice Smith was there, just three short years ago. Today? She has a thriving PR business, and she’s been featured in Glamour, Good Morning America, Forbes, and a lot of other places that are a lot cooler and more influential than this show. Umm. But pl...
Oct 20, 2023•45 min
Morgan Mercer is the CEO of Vantage Point, a VR product that’s being used by big companies like Ikea and Hyundai to teach soft skills and also to offer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as Sexual Harassment training. It turns out, Morgan’s major insight is that VR is an unprecedented tool for “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes”, which means that it’s an ingenious way to teach empathy. She’s been featured in over 150 major publications and Vantage Point’s tagline “While technology can ...
Oct 13, 2023•55 min
Martin Schichtel is the CEO of Kraftblock, an energy storage system that is able to decarbonize industries like steel, glass or ceramics. Martin leveraged unique industry insight to build a business that captures the enormous amount of waste that so many industries blast out without giving it a second thought. He patented energy-storing blocks that can store 1.2MWh of thermal energy at a temperature level of up to 1,300 °C. This means that we can store the heat byproducts of tons of heavy indust...
Oct 06, 2023•40 min
Johnny Palmer is a tech entrepreneur, the founder/co-founder of companies, and activist in the UK who has accomplished an incredible amount in both business and activism. He’s built a virtuous cycle with his businesses and greater mission, proving that money and resources used well can be the path towards building a better, more sustainable future for us all. His career is at the intersection of money and meaning, and his north star is evident in all of his many ventures. We’ll learn how seeming...
Sep 29, 2023•50 min
Khatantuul Zorig is an Investor at Innospark investing in AI/Robotics companies. She led/co-led investments in Neurable, Javelin, Encora, and she’s been an MIT-backed CEO/founder herself, all as a 1st generation Mongolian immigrant. In short, Khat is one of the coolest, most inspiring people I’ve ever met. She’s actively shaping neurotech, AR/VR, and even fashion, by merging her native Mongolian culture with the tech of tomorrow. She’s a fashion designer making wild, futuristic east-meets-west c...
Sep 22, 2023•52 min
Pablo Navarro is the co-founder of a $26 million VC fund in Colombia, and his latest project is cocora.io. Pablo's life story is remarkable, coming from a humble beginning to being heavily involved in the start-up scenes of both the US and South America. In this interview, we discuss Pablo's strategy for investing in LatAm startups, his advice for young entrepreneurs, and more. Today he is building Cocora, a platform that connects leaders in Latin America to coaches, and he’s passionate about tr...
Sep 15, 2023•52 min
Joining us today is Mike McFall, the Co-Founder/Co-CEO of BIGGBY Coffee. Mike’s story is truly fascinating: in 1995, he and his friend decided to make a coffee chain, and their simple agreement has blossomed into one of America’s largest coffee chains, a franchise operation with over 350 locations. It’s clear that Mike is an “entrepreneur’s entrepreneur”, and in this episode, he tells me something I’m truly envious of: that he doesn’t suffer from crippling anxiety at 3am and rather has an innate...
Sep 08, 2023•53 min
John Walsh is the Founder & CEO of Endera, a company pioneering a sector of the electric vehicle market you probably haven’t thought much about: shuttles and buses. No, they’re not JUST for pub crawls, although it is Friday, so why not green up your booze tonight? Rather, it’s a sector with profound implications anywhere short-distance travel is needed. Their EVs have exceptional performance and range, and they represent a huge potential benefit for a wasteful and important part of our socie...
Sep 01, 2023•38 min
Jhillika Kumar is the Founder & CEO at Mentra, a neurodivergent-friendly talent platform that intelligently matches neurodiverse individuals with employers that value their strengths. Traditional talent and employment platforms tend to prioritize a certain kind of candidate, which can leave many highly-capable people without meaningful work. As our world changes, we have to realize that neurodivergence is not a weakness, but rather a strength for many mission critical roles. Mentra puts recr...
Aug 25, 2023•44 min
