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posi2ive

posi2ive

Written by: Zecca Lehn
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 A Podcast on Venture Scale Positive Impacts© 2022 Zecca Lehn Economics
Episodes
  • Mark Huang_E24: Rise of BlueTech [2/1/2021]

    Mark Huang_E24: Rise of BlueTech [2/1/2021]
    Feb 1 2021
    EPISODE24: The Rise of BlueTech Mark Huang, CoFounder at SeaAhead in Boston [2/1/2021]Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.INTRO:1:00 Shares background in military, cleantech, and naval architecture. Discusses the cost-curve of Lithium-Ion, LED Lighting, and Sustainable Food sector. Introduces BlueTech, and how they believe it will lead to venture scale transformation. Also highlights passion for economic development and creating good-resilient working-class jobs.SECTION1: Bluetech7:00 We discuss the OECD’s report on the Ocean Economy (see link below), and how it ties into BlueTech (startups focused on ocean technologies). Mark shares the rise of the middle class, creating more demand as wealth grows. Draws an analogy of shipping and silos, which may have limited global innovation tied to startups. Mark makes the same analogy with Bluetech.9:00 Talks about the four legs of the SeaAhead platform. Talks about urban innovation inspiration starting with Boston first. Discusses networking, mentoring, incubation, and how they are leveraging venture for Bluetech – getting technologies out of the lab. SECTION2: Tragedy of the Ocean22:00 Mark shares distinguishing focus on venture based innovation – which can be STEM based. Talks about innovation, as a driver to act as a bridge to ocean sustainability. Mark addresses questions from the posi2ive community. Shares ideas about eco-tourism and reefs, pointing to hotels and economic development driving some market based solutions that capture parts of the true value of an ecosystem.27:00 Mark talks about precedent regarding cleantech, big food, and land based investments, as a case for the investment opportunity of BlueTech. We discuss policies that may benefit the marketplace and ecological systems at the same time. Mark sees true cost (‘Social Cost’) is internalized; we’ll see additional positive impacts. We discuss grants, and partnership approaches for startups, and the public sector and mission-driven foundations.SECTION3: Local Communities36:00 We break into community-based sourcing with the example of SeafoodCollab (see links below). Points to US economic zone as a highly regulated zone. Talks about locally sourced seafood. Gives a shoutout to Neptune and another Akua, sourcing sustainable seafood. Breaks out the certified versus tracible labeling – and how audits may tie into sustainable sources. Points to blockchain and other solutions which may help in this area. Talks about the New England example of buying from regulated fisheries, and how it ties into low carbon protein. Talks about the offshore wind energy dynamics, is often driven by arguments that are not always rational.SOURCES:-Mark Huang [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-huang-14519a59/-SeaAhead: https://sea-ahead.com/-BlueSwell [Their first cohort]: https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno/stories/news/2020/10/28/blueswell-2020-cohort-startups-bluetech-incubator.html-OECD Ocean Economy: http://www.oecd.org/sti/the-ocean-economy-in-2030-9789264251724-en.htm-Katapult Ocean [Norway Accelerator]: https://katapultocean.com/-Double Bottom Line [Wiki]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_bottom_line-Leed Certification: https://www.usgbc.org/leed-BCorp Certifcation: https://bcorporation.net/-Poseidon Principles: https://www.poseidonprinciples.org/#principle1-Monterey Bay Certification: https://www.seafoodwatch.org/-Marine Stewardship Council [MSC label]: https://www.msc.org/home-Akua [Startup]: https://akua.co/-Neptune Fish Jerky [Startup]: https://www.oneforneptune.com/-SeafoodCollab: https://www.seafoodcollab.com/-MaritimeBlue [Wa State Fund]: https://maritimeblue.org/-Pier71 [Accelerator Singapore]: https://www.pier71.sg/-PortXL [Accelerator Norway]: https://portxl.org/-BlueHatch [Accelerator in Hawaii/Singapore/Bergen]: https://www.hatch.blue/--------------------------------------------------Song Credit: The Croft – By Joakim Karud[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
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    47 mins
  • Ben Hassler_E23: Levers of Eliciting Change [1/18/2020]

    Ben Hassler_E23: Levers of Eliciting Change [1/18/2020]
    Jan 18 2021

    EPISODE23: Levers of Eliciting Change

    Ben Hassler, GP at Polymath Capital, dialing in From the Cloud [1/18/2020]

    Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.

    INTRO:

    1:00 Shares background of their Remote-First, and Operator-Led fund, along with their thesis in Longevity, Community, and Fintech.

    SECTION1: Intellectual Curiosity

    3:00 Ben introduces his personal journey breaking into venture. Highlights his background in Psychology, Biology, and Finance. His systems thinking started from an early age. Sees the intersection of these three topic areas as useful in venture. Talks about gauging earliest stage Founders, as an approach in psychology.

    5:00 Talks about inspiration for tech, and how he cold emailed VCs to add value. Led him to internship and eventually becoming a VC Analyst. We break out into how to add value to VCs, and alternatives to landing a great role.

    12:00 Talks about the realization of capital as the levers of eliciting change.

    SECTION2: Polymath Capital

    15:00 Talks about inspiration point for launching their $10M fund. Discusses passion and focus for longevity and biotech. Discusses therapeutics, and diagnostics verticals.

    16:00 Draws inspiration from healthspan and lifespan, and increasing both.

    17:00 We talk about Dr. Sinclair’s book LIFESPAN, and Ben’s belief that things like cancer don’t need to be here. The regulation component needs to catch up, according to Ben. Shares a spin off from an EIR who started a biotech company.

    19:00 Talk about spacetech, longevity, climatetech, and sustainability.

    20:00 Ben shares his view on Polymathic Scrappers – and traits they are looking for in Founders. Examples include, natural obsessions for the problem they are trying to solve. Talks about people with intellectual curiosity, and drive, outside of status-quo. Shares Fintech focus, and borderless frictionless experiences as democratizing.

    SECTION3: Community

    22:00 Shares their new Community Club Fund, co-managed with Mac Reddin at Commsor (see link below). Talks about rise of Social Currencies, and creator platforms.

    28:00 We talk about the evolution of physical and digital communities. And discussing Lunchclub and Clubhouse.

    30:00 Ben shares experience with gaming communities and moderation difficulties, especially in gaming. We talk about the tradeoffs of oppressed voices, and enablement of members to dictate moderation. Talks about the tricky topics such as trolling, and sarcasm – and how they don’t necessarily lead to better automated moderations.

    SOURCES:

    -Polymath Capital: https://www.polymathcp.com/

    -Ben Hassler [Twitter]: https://twitter.com/benhasslerr

    -Polymath Capital [Twitter]: https://twitter.com/polymathcp

    -Lifespan [book]: https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age_and-Dont-Have/dp/1501191977

    -Aubrey De Grey [Google talk]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXJzvo0Jekc

    -The Longevity Economy[AARP]: https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/home-and-family/personal-technology/2013-10/Longevity-Economy-Generating-New-Growth-AARP.pdf

    -Community Club Fund [Rolling Fund on AngelList]: https://www.community.club/fund

    --------------------------------------------------

    Song Credit: The Croft – By Joakim Karud

    [ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
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    35 mins
  • Nick Cooney_E22: The Clean Meat Hurdle [01/04/2020]

    Nick Cooney_E22: The Clean Meat Hurdle [01/04/2020]
    Jan 9 2021
    EPISODE22: The Clean Meat HurdleNick Cooney, Managing Partner at LeverVC in NYC [01/04/2020]Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.INTRO:1:00 Talks about interest in ethical foods space for 20 years – starting first with ethical foods, then sustainability. Began working in the space for 15 years in alternative protein space—starting with NGOs, then family office. Starting investing in the space 5 years ago, with being an investor and participating in over 50 deals.4:00 Shares entry into Good Food Institute, along with strategy for authoring three books on the plant based foods, social impact, and persuasion science.SECTION1: Meatless Origin13:58 We break out into various studies about consumer behavior, exploring sustainability and health reasons, along with ethical motivations (see links below for graphics)16:00 We discuss the Twitter poll from host.17:30 We break out into Life Cycle Analysis of cultured meat, and clean meats. Studies point to large savings from land use, Co2, and water use (see studies in show notes)Wiki Clean Meats [30+ samples]:-Cultured meat prices [$15 - $3000/lb]Ecological LCAs [Good Food Institute]-Feedstock of culture 1.3kg feed/kg cultured meat-2-7kg Co2e/kg cultured meat-4-35kg Co2e/kg20:00 Take questions from community listeners, regarding consumer demand, price parity, and large corporate buyers. Nick sees the alternatives presented by cultivated meats, give brand halos, taste parameters, stable supply chain, and partner alignments.SECTION2: Consumer Motivations24:00 We discuss the win-wins from the side of corporations integrating plant and clean meats integrated into the products themselves, for price and health reasons.26:42 We break out into the GMO topic regarding cultivated and fermented meats, and nuances of labelling. The studies below, namely the USDA report give a background on the state of GMOs in animal products, which is also quite informative.SECTION3: Meatless Future29:00 Discuss plant based labeling policy fights being fought in some states in the US—e.g., using “milk”, “almond”. Nick notes that US courts have struck down most of these fights in the US. However, he notes that EU puts more stringent patchwork labeling laws. Internationally, the labeling issue has not been a major movement. On cultivated “higher tech side”, the companies will need to go through a regulatory pathway in the US.33:00 Talks about interest in alternative proteins being 30%-50% in EU, and higher around 70% in Asia. LeverVC is looking at companies globally.40:00 We discuss opportunities surrounding clean meats, carbon credits, and climatetech. We both see opportunities for CVC investors that may want to offset emissions.SOURCES:-Nick Cooney [Twitter]: https://twitter.com/nickcooney2-Nick Cooney [LinkedIn]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickcooney1/-Nick’s Personal Website: http://www.nickcooney.org/-LeverVC: https://www.levervc.com/-Lever China Food Accelerator: https://leverfund.cn/en/-Good Food Institute: https://www.gfi.org/-Veganomics: The Surprising Science on What Motivates Vegetarians, from the Breakfast Table to the Bedroom Paperback [January 2013]: https://www.amazon.com/Veganomics-Surprising-Motivates-Vegetarians-Breakfast/dp/1590564286-Clean Meats Poll on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Zecca_Lehn/status/1341612307286147073-Clean Meat Questions from @posi2ive Community: https://twitter.com/Zecca_Lehn/status/1341611193681625088-Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change [Dec 2010]: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Heart-Psychology-Spreading-Social/dp/159056233X-Environmental Impacts of Cultured Meat Production [2011]: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es200130u-State of the Industry Report Cell-based Meat [Good food institute, 2019]: https://www.gfi.org/non-cms-pages/splash-sites/soi-reports/files/SOI-Report-Cell-Based.pdf-NIH Bringing Cultural Meat to Market [2018]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078906/-Life Cycle Cultured Meat [GFI, 2019]: https://www.gfi.org/images/uploads/2020/01/Cultivated-Meat-LCA-Report-2019-0709.pdf-Co2 Impacts of Meat: https://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/climate-and-environmental-impacts/-EWG: Climate and Environmental Impacts: https://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/climate-and-environmental-impacts/-McDonalds introduces the McPlant [Nov 2020]: https://www.eater.com/2020/11/9/21556647/mcdonalds-plant-based-burger-is-the-mcplant-chicken-sandwich-wars-2021-Taco Bell adds Plant Based Meat [Feb 2020]: https://www.fastcompany.com/90468750/taco-bell-was-always-good-for-vegetarians-now-its-adding-plant-based-meat-Inside the GMO law: What needs to be labeled and why it matters [Fooddive, 2019]: https://www.fooddive.com/news/inside-the-gmo-law-what-needs-to-be-labeled-and-why-it-matters/545120/-GMO Crops, Animal Food, and Beyond [USDA]: https...
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    44 mins
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