#8: Steaks derived from wood, competition with the petrochemical industry, CEO turned CTO - Florence Gschwend

Venturing Women

Can we go cold turkey and move away from the crude oil dependence? Will we one day start making food from non-food grade sources like cellulose? How about pasta with a wood-derived Bolognese sauce? Yucky or yummy?

Together with Florence Gschwend, co-founder and CTO of Lixea, I’m looking into how biochemistry may help solve the problems of food scarcity and accelerate transition of our civilisation to zero waste.

Topics we explore:

• Why is it so hard to develop new sustainable technologies competing with the petrochemical industry? What makes it difficult to move away from oil dependence?
• How can we capture value locked in waste wood and agricultural residues like rice straw instead of simply burning them?
• Is switching roles from a CTO to CEO a demotion? Why did Florence do that?
• Public funding plays a significant role in financing innovative technologies whilst venture capital often shies away from them. Why is this the case? And how can the governments make high-risk investments into brand new technologies more attractive for the VC firms?

About Florence Gschwend:

Florence Gschwend is co-founder and CTO of Lixea. During her PhD at the Chemical Engineering Department at Imperial College London, she co-invented a process which uses an environmentally friendly solvent to treat waste woody biomass. This process separates different components in wood and agricultural residues. These components, in turn, can then be used to produce new chemicals and materials, shifting our reliance away from petroleum. Florence is based in London.

About Darya Kamkalova:

Darya wears many hats: she is podcaster, a data industry professional, a co-founder of Manifest Taproom (a craft beer bar in Berlin), startup evaluator and mentor, an investor, and a speaker.

Her experience in the data industry spans 10 years, five continents and such domains as data monetisation & acquisition, data product development, strategic partnerships as well as data marketplace business operations.

Darya has been driving or supporting various projects empowering women since 2013. She is based in Berlin.

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