1. I do not believe the tops down approach to working with big brands will create the system-level change that many folks are seeking. Big fan of working in a more bottoms up way with independent brands and designers. Much more to unpack here, but will leave it there.
2. Creating a D2C brand is very time intensive (and increasingly more capital intensive). Consumers are living in a world of more than abundance. I think D2C can be an interesting route if you have team members that can build this capability and create a way to acquire customers with little to no CAC. If a startups is product focused, they need to build direct distribution in a way that bypasses the incumbent wholesale distribution model.
3. At the core, we need more engineers and scientists working on different ways to design, engineer, manipulate and refine algae in a way that opens up new markets and novel applications. We need more invention and funding going towards this part of the stack if we are going to create biobased textiles that compete with incumbent materials.
All of these problems are solved if Seaweed Textile 2.0 can find crafty ways to generate revenue earlier in their development cycle.
A few comments:
1. I do not believe the tops down approach to working with big brands will create the system-level change that many folks are seeking. Big fan of working in a more bottoms up way with independent brands and designers. Much more to unpack here, but will leave it there.
2. Creating a D2C brand is very time intensive (and increasingly more capital intensive). Consumers are living in a world of more than abundance. I think D2C can be an interesting route if you have team members that can build this capability and create a way to acquire customers with little to no CAC. If a startups is product focused, they need to build direct distribution in a way that bypasses the incumbent wholesale distribution model.
3. At the core, we need more engineers and scientists working on different ways to design, engineer, manipulate and refine algae in a way that opens up new markets and novel applications. We need more invention and funding going towards this part of the stack if we are going to create biobased textiles that compete with incumbent materials.
All of these problems are solved if Seaweed Textile 2.0 can find crafty ways to generate revenue earlier in their development cycle.