I build, advise, and invest in companies at the edge of possibility.
Ferment builds companies.
Ferment works with visionary founders to incubate, fund and launch new companies that rapidly translate biology into products that solve problems across sectors including energy, agriculture, materials, and consumer health.
Arcaea is moving beauty into biology, away from chemistry.
Arcaea is a company that bridges biotechnology with creativity and product development excellence to create new experiences in beauty—we call it expressive biology.
Allonnia is extracting value where others see waste.
The ability of microbes to breakdown substances is remarkable. Allonnia uses biological starting points and joins them with advanced remediation systems in order to clean up waste and pollution. We develop novel microbial and enzymatic solutions that target hard-to-treat contaminants in water, soil, and solid waste to enable a world where nothing is wasted.
Motif makes food ingredients from fermentation.
This helps the transition to better plant based and animal free foods. Motif creates nutritious, sustainable, and delicious ingredients, which broadens food options for mainstream consumers. If you wonder what the ingredient tool kit for the next generation of food developers will be like, follow Motif's work.
Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company.
Ginkgo taps into earth's most sophisticated manufacturing technology: biology. Ginkgo has built an automated and highly efficient platform for constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world. Our genetically programmed cells make compounds useful to many industries, from fragrance and flavor, to food, nutrition, chemicals, materials, medicines and more.
Bioscentric
Biology enabled innovation has resulted in a next generation of ingredients and products that offer better functionality, more sustainable footprint, and true benefit for consumers. Bioscentric specializes in leveraging these developments for the benefit of clients in consumer products and ingredients. We focus on developing novel strategies, sensory experiences, and engaging stories.
Octant
Octant holds out the promise for better understanding how to design scents, medicines, or any molecule that interacts with the human body. Octant is mapping the interactions between human biology and chemicals by using genome engineering, next-generation DNA sequencing, and computation to measure the activity of thousands of receptor pathways in human cells, including those governing smell and taste.
Givaudan
I had my dream job at a Swiss flavor & fragrance company called Givaudan. My colleagues were perfumers and flavorists. We made scents and tastes for products that billions of people have encoded into their most intimate memories. Our customers ranged from global consumer brands to niche products. From designer fragrances to toothpaste, from sweetness replacers in soft drinks to the shimmering green citrus notes in fresh orange juice.
I WORK IN TECHNOLOGY BUT MY BACKGROUND BEGAN IN ART.
I went for a PhD in art history at Yale, but realized in the final phase I wouldn't make a great professor. I spent a few years in New York as a curator and artist before going to law school, and then practiced mergers and acquisitions law before going into business.
EXTINCT FLOWER
My favorite project of the last five years is the revived of scent of an extinct flower we did at Ginkgo with artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. Starting with a tiny sample clipped from a dried specimen of mountain hibiscus that had gone extinct in 1912 (Hibiscadelphus Wilderianus), Ginkgo sequenced the DNA of the plant and was able to reconstruct the genes responsible for producing aromatic compounds. We then ported these genes into yeast, analyzed the aromachemicals produced by the cells, and worked with scent creators to render this into a fragrance. The scent was on display at the Pompidou Center in Paris and is at the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design through Dec 2019. And then in 2023, we launched an entire line of extinct flower fragrances called Future Society, available in Nordstroms and online. Arcaea was the company behind this new brand. Scientific American did a great article on the technology here.
MILK SCARVES
One of my favorite personal projects was designing scarves made from milk fabric with a Japanese textile maker. The fabric, woven from casein, a protein in liquid milk, is actually an old but forgotten technique popular in Italy in the 1930s. It gradually disappeared after the development of petroleum-based synthetics. To make the silk scarves, I worked with one of the last mills running this process, Clerici Tessuto, and a dye specialist. When worn, they look and feel just like the image. It is strangely reminiscent of recent efforts to make proteinaceous fibers through engineered microbes, such as what Bolt Threads and Spider are doing.
A HISTORY OF ART
There are several art project and shows I participated in under the moniker JEQU either as curator or artist from 2002 - 2014. These were in collaboration with friend and curator Howie Chen. I owe thanks to galleries like Dispatch (NYC), White Columns (NYC), FSPC (Miami), IMO (Copenhagen) art fairs like the Independent, museums like the Whitney, Queens Museum of Art, the New Museum, Yale Museum of Art, and publishers like Primary Information and DIS Magazine for giving me great opportunities. Artforum, the New York Times and other publications reviewed some of these shows.
I TALK WITH PEOPLE ABOUT SOLVING PROBLEMS AND MAKING BETTER PRODUCTS WITH BIOTECH.
Request for Problems
Here's Ferment's manifesto on how we think about new company creation--be problem focused, product specific, and integrate biology with other complementary technologies. Read the full manifesto.
Ferment Everything
Karl, Erum and I spent time on the Grow Everything pod exploring what Ferment plans to build with entrepreneurs joining its $20 million Studio Fund for launching new bio-enabled companies.
In Retrospect, It All Makes Sense
I chatted with the legendary Dr. Drew Pinsky about my path into biotechnology and why Ferment created Ayana, the company that ferments plant cells to make bioactive molecules for nutrition.
Building Companies on Bio-Platforms
Simon and I spoke about the economies of scale that automation and platform companies in biotech (eg. Ginkgo and others) make available, and how startups can tap these for a running start.
How to Brew Animal Proteins
"Future food: health and sustainability," a conference held by the Royal Society in London, brought together a wide range of experts from industry, government and the scientific community to share cutting edge research and technology about the future of food.
WWD Beauty CEO Summit
At the WWD Beauty CEO Summit, I addressed an audience of beauty and retail executives, who wanted to learn how biotechnology was impacting the options for cosmetic ingredients.
MORE TALKS
Company Creation on Bio-Foundries
Boston Consulting Group hosted a panel where I described Ferment's process for building new synthetic biology companies with talented entrepreneurs, corporate strategics, financial investors, and Ginkgo. Check it out here.
The Space Frontier Foundation
At the invitation of John Cumbers and the Space Frontier Foundation, I spoke about the potential applications of engineered biology for the space industry. Check it out here.
Notes on NGS
I sometimes have a chance to speak to audiences about how developments in genomics and industrial biotech are relevant to the food, nutrition, personal care and beauty industries. Download PDF.
Cracking the Olfactory Code
This helps the transition to better plant based and animal free foods. Motif creates nutritious, sustainable, and delicious ingredients, which broadens food options for mainstream consumers. Download PDF.
Biology is Strategy
I gave a talk on behalf of Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism design company, at the WWD Beauty CEO Summit in Palm Beach, Florida. Download PDF.
Notes on Multiplexing
If you've spent time around technologists these days, you've probably heard the phrase "design, build, test." The main idea behind this mantra, borrowed from engineering disciplines, is that technological progress is made iteratively. Download PDF.
Rewiring the Memory of the Public Markets
In The Wide Lens author Rod Adner explores a question that has dogged entrepreneurs and investors for decades: why do some innovations replace their predecessors rapidly while others only grow gradually? Download PDF.
Do You Have a Biosecurity Strategy?
The pace of technological evolution in the biological sciences in the last two decades, or even the last several years, has been astonishing. Download PDF.
Can Synthetic Biology Bridge the Protein Gap?
You've probably heard the numbers before, which usually play on estimates from the U.N. that call for the world's population to grow from roughly 7.4 billion today to nearly 9.7 billion by the year 2050. Download PDF.
Don't Ask What It Costs, Ask What It Saves
We are now witnessing the beginnings of a fundamental shift in how ingredients are made by engineering biology. Download PDF.
More and Better
Leveraging biology to produce natural ingredients that power everyday life and replacing less effective ingredients with better, more economical alternatives promises to usher in the next generation of consumer products. Download PDF.