Hardware Podcasts

Reimagining seafood production with Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck of Wildtype (2022)

How I Built This · 29 Jun 2023 · 42m

What this episode covers

Aryé Elfenbein and Justin Kolbeck, co-founders of Wildtype, explain how they pivoted from cultivating foie gras to growing cultivated salmon to address global seafood scarcity and contamination. They detail the technical challenges of scaling cell culture, including designing custom bioreactors and overcoming contamination setbacks that caused months of delays. The founders discuss their strategy to secure FDA approval and partner with high-end restaurants before scaling to broader retail, emphasizing the urgency of creating a third source of seafood to protect ocean biodiversity.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Wildtype, Momofuku, Whole Foods, Costco
Also
Aryé Elfenbein, Justin Kolbeck, Dr. Mark Post, FDA

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