Ep 100: Bill Brady, Co-Founder & CEO of Kula Bio
- Author
- Bill Brady, Jason Jacobs
- Published
- Mon 20 Apr 2020
- Episode Link
- https://www.mcj.vc/media/podcast
In today’s episode, we cover:
- What is Kula Bio, its mission, and what it has developed
- The importance of nitrogen as an ingredient in fertilizer and agriculture
- The drawbacks and consequences of the Haber-Bosch process
- Kula Bio’s unique fertilizer and how it addresses carbon emissions
- The microbial process of developing the proprietary fertilizer
- Profile of customers, to which Kula Bio is catering
- Kula Bio’s value proposition to farmers
- Benefits of organic nitrogen-based fertilizer vs. synthetic
- Origins of Kula Bio’s technology in the Harvard Labs
- Kula Bio’s commercial traction and milestones
- The adjacent opportunities and long-term vision of the company
- Bill’s perspective on scaling and financing Kula Bio
- Insights and learnings derived from speaking with hundreds of farmers
- The impact on climate change of Kula Bio’s technology
- Bill’s reflection on his long-career as an entrepreneur and operator
- Bill’s view on making impact vs. profits
- How the economic viability of a climate solution is critical
- Why impact is an important motivation for entrepreneurs
- Bill’s retrospective on “Cleantech 1.0” and where it stumbled
- The role of family offices as a source of long-term financing for clean tech ventures
- How investor attention now focuses on specific milestones and pragmatic considerations
- The importance of education and the need to improve STEM as a solution to address climate change
- Bill’s perspective on nuclear as an important solution that should be scaled
- Bill’s recommendation on finding purpose-driven opportunities, regardless of your background or stage of life
Links to topics discussed in this episode:
- Kula Bio: https://www.kulabio.com/
- Haber-Bosch Process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process
- Carbon sequestration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
- Prof. Dan Nocera of Harvard: https://chemistry.harvard.edu/people/daniel-g-nocera
- Samuel Bodman, CEO of Cabot Corporation and former Energy Secretary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Bodman
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
