MyCoFutures NA will Revolutionize Sustainable Materials for Fashion

Stephanie Lipp 

I have. It’s great to be back on Tech Uncensored. 

Hessie Jones 

Thanks. I’m so happy that both of you are here with me this time, OK? Let’s start a little bit about your backgrounds, because I will. I want the audience to really understand where you came from, so maybe we’ll start with Steph. Me a bit about. Where you started in the fashion industry, in digital marketing and then we’ll get to. 

Stephanie Lipp 

So I’m from Mississauga, born and raised, and I was fortunate enough to go to an arts high. I entered as a drama Major, graduated as an art student, but I was really exposed to art and creativity every single day alongside all the other regular. Subjects and so it really gave me a sense of. How I wanted to be creative every day of my life, and that led me down the path. Going to college for photography at Chariton. But I did take a year off between high school and college to do a coal program, which. Led me to being a photographer’s assistant at what a Toronto biggest commercial photography studios and I got to work with not only the photographers, but the owner of the studio, the producers, the digital artists, and really just got to see a whole a whole big world out. Of what it meant to work in a creative field. And so I, as I moved on from assisting, started taking out my own customers. I expanded into graphic design digital marketing. I had a lot of small businesses like selling vintage. Pop styling and event styling. But I guess with all of these, I really led with my, my passion and things that I was naturally good at and looking back now, I never really focused in on the actual business side of it. But I do think I was always drawn to the fashion industry, doing fashion photography, writing the fashion show in high. So there were these inklings of what was to come, but I think there wasn’t really any crystal ball that would have put me where I am today. 

Hessie Jones 

Interesting. So, so, Leo, before you met Stephanie, what was your, I think, passion or what did you go to school for? And did you end up pursuing that in your career? 

LeoGillis 

No, not at all. I went to high school in Brampton and you know, I’ve always been interested in being out in nature. I’ve worked in a lot of warehouses and logistics and. A lot of that type of environment, so. Very different than what I’m doing now. 

Stephanie Lipp 

It’s just given the opportunity. I fit in pretty well so. 

Hessie Jones 

OK, so you so maybe we could talk about how so you had a detour to nonprofit housing, but I think in between you guys actually met. So maybe you guys could talk about how how you met and how that? How you actually journey towards the next milestone in your relationship? 

Stephanie Lipp 

Yeah. So we actually did mean while I was working in non profit housing and that was also again kind of a a bit of a zig and zag in my career. Was supposed to be a temporary job, but it I I got an opportunity to do full time and I really couldn’t turn down a steady paycheck. And benefits. And so for the first time in a long time, I did the same thing every day, and it was actually my first. Foundation to business because I actually was writing a business of of providing housing. So I learned how to review budgets. Financial statements I was. Are audited. I presented to a board and so actually in an unexpected way, gave me an intro to those really fundamental operational aspects of business. And then it was also one of the first times I really got into impact because housing is so important and in non profit housing it’s very linked to mental illness. Socio economic injustice. But in the end I was very ill equipped to, you know, kind of handle all of that. I’m really grateful for that. But it was then that Leo and I met. And yeah, we, we. Started a relationship and moved in really quickly. But then I guess about a year into our relationship, we. Move it in together. Started going to a farmers market nearby and Leo was really interested in the mushroom vendor. Kind of dabbled in eating and cooking gourmet mushrooms in the past. I famously hid in mushrooms. Refused to eat them. But Leo’s a really good cook, so I gave him a chance. 

LeoGillis 

Believe those were the yellow oysters we had, and they were delicious fried up with soy sauce, actually very good. 

Hessie Jones 

So were you in Newfoundland at the time or like the this whole thing about, like mustard, how did that, like, how did you do get you to Audi? 

Stephanie Lipp 

This is the new land part came in a little bit later, another year after we had moved it together. We had visited Leo’s hometown and we thought maybe one was beautiful. Leo hadn’t lived there for over 20 years. It was really small and we living in Mississauga, you can have everything but. We learned how inexpensive houses were there. And you know, there’s a housing crisis and crazy prices in the GTA, so. Truly, as a joke, I googled moving to Newfoundland, thinking I find a blog about someone who had done, you know, the city to real life, and I didn’t quite find that blog. I did find articles about Bon Vista, the town we ended up moving to. It was. Experiencing an entrepreneurial renaissance after the cod moratorium of the 1990s. Effectively shut down the economies of rural towns. Because that was what was most heavily relied on for the people of. So, you know, people had to move away. These towns kind of died out, but Buana Vista was bringing back young people, businesses and really had a vibrant local community and a lot of tourists. So with our interest in fungi, a house we can afford by the ocean. In our desire to address food insecurity that we learned about on the island, that’s kind of how this whole idea came together. So in December of 2018, myself, MY2 best friends visited the house. And then we moved in May of. Next year. 

Hessie Jones 

OK, OK. So tell me about it. Yeah. I mean, you’re plunging in to, like, a a brand new venture, not really knowing enough about mushrooms, apart from the fact that you don’t like them. So So what was? What was the the business opportunity at the time when when you had decided to do that? 

Stephanie Lipp 

So we pretty much like I learned how to grow mushrooms from, like reading books and just making a bunch of mistakes. And like learning. And that we like pretty much like Dove right in when we got the new planner, our friends built us a laminar flow hood, so we can work cleanly and we just really dived in when we moved there. And where do that? Delivering mushrooms to people and. Take them to the farmers market and selling them. 

Stephanie Lipp 

So there’s like a captive local audience, a town 4000 people and another 4000 along the peninsula, the Bonavista Peninsula, that had a farmers market at the end. There is also lots of tourists and. Newfoundland has a really strong food culture, but it’s also heavily reliant on imported food, so we want to really bridge that gap. Of outside food ideas and food culture, but also renewing the interest in local food culture and educating around self-sufficiency nutrition. You know bringing in cooking classes, bringing people together through food while you know growing. Something that can be done year round, so it didn’t matter if it was a hurricane, if it was raining, it was. Any any of the elements that you could find on our peninsula, you know, we were kind of sheltered from it and we can provide at least one one you know food source. Throughout the year, which was, you know, something that was really hard to come. There. 

Hessie Jones 

So I would assume that you engage in a lot of like community events. To to raise awareness for, for your, for what you’re selling. And you had your integral or integrated into into those communities. 

Stephanie Lipp 

Yes, we we certainly did whatever we could. Yeah, community sales. We really try to get to know the other, you know, well known business owners from there and it really helped going to the farmers market because we just really got to talk to people. Some of these people had either grown up never eating mushrooms or eating like the Gray slimey canned mushrooms, or here in horror stories of like foraged mushrooms. We were literally starting from scratch to explain to people how to cook them. What they were the first fish market we ever did, we only had lines made which looks. Kind of like white coral or. Fluffy pom poms like people did not know what it was, but we still managed. 

Leo Gilllis 

Pom. 

Hessie Jones 

So. You actually learn about the mushroom industry because obviously this is you dove in. But from your perspective. You’re educating local people about about it and selling it at the same time. Where do you have time to actually understand? More about the industry itself, and especially from a food perspective. 

Leo Gillis 

YouTube was really. There’s, there’s a lot of great content, creators of armours, and the one of the great things about the mushroom community is that it’s very grassroots. 

Stephanie Lipp 

Very community driven. So from foraging to like mushroom cultivation, there’s all these very. Cottage industry people who just immerse. There’s lots of amazing academics and researchers, but it’s such a. There’s all kinds of people doing things in their backyard, doing experiments in their kitchen, and so we really. Leaned into that to feel part of. A very DIY. Yes, citizen science community, which is continued to be really cool and useful to us to learn new things. 

Hessie Jones 

So how long were you cultivating your business before? You started learning or or even thinking about this dramatic pivot that happened. Maybe you could talk about that. How did that even happen? 

Stephanie Lipp 

From this start, we had always been. Looking at other merchant companies and amazed at what you could do with mycelium. The innovation and we have been looking at gourmet mushrooms and nutraceuticals as a exportable, you know something that could travel. We never thought that we could do. We’re like, that’s that’s super cool. We support them. But we didn’t know what startup was, and we’re like, we’re happy to be the fans until one day. 

Leo Gillis 

Yeah. So we’re composting some of our mushroom blocks. Outside the house and. I was trying to break them apart with with a shovel and I couldn’t get them to break apart so I was mowing the lawn one day and I got a bit frustrated and I hit the block with a with a lawnmower and a lawnmower. Never started again after. So we knew that we had a strong material. That had good mechanical properties that. 

Stephanie Lipp 

And at the same time, we ran. Pre accelerator. That had gone virtual because the pandemic that was based in. John’s, which is 3 1/2 hours away, but thankfully those are the first cohort they did virtually, and our advisor encouraged us to kind of dig in more to. Materials because nutraceuticals were a little bit saturated already and we didn’t have the physical space to scale like other companies did. So we started doing research about what it would actually mean to. Have a materials company, but we were. So in three months, Leo created our very first prototype. Was like just this big, very tiny. But it was a flat, flexible piece of material comprised only of the root system of fungi. And that won us our first pitch competition, which was in November of 2020. So we had cash confidence for winning a pitch competition and we started talking to customers and doing discovery and we found that even though there was a really well known famous company. There was a lot of makers who felt very strongly about adopting you materials that weren’t able to access it, and that really is what was the catalyst for us to put our hat in the ring to try to bring mushroom my ceiling material to market. 

Hessie Jones 

So did you know of any other company or early stage or otherwise that was using mushrooms for materials? 

Stephanie Lipp 

Yes, there are a couple. So microworks there, you know, the one of the original companies doing that. There’s some double threads that has since ceased production under my ceiling material and ecovato, which is one of the original mystery innovators they do packaging, they do phones. Bacon and mushroom myths and leather alternatives. So there are companies out there like doing amazing things. And then there are other companies doing other alternatives from Cactus, Pineapple, kombucha, all kinds of alternatives. But we still knowing what we know about fungi. We we thought that this would be like the best. Method to to create an alternative. 

Leo Gillis 

Well, because fungi grows naturally intertwined, so it does resemble cow leather a lot closer than other types of Leathers. 

Stephanie Lipp 

Mm. And it’s so and it’s abundant. It’s not something that that it that you know will go away anytime soon, correct? This is a yeah. 

It’s completely. We take in waste products like sawdust. Did agricultural waste, and so we can grow as much of it as we need to or want to only based on the food source. The food source isn’t a rare. It’s a it’s a part of the waste stream of agriculture so. You know, we’re able to see how this fit into ideas about circular economy. I’m sure. 

Hessie Jones 

So you what did you notice about the textile industry when you started working within your mushroom business? Obviously it started to. It grew you to to actually develop something for that specific industry, so. What? What were you doing at the time? And what were you researching? 

Stephanie Lipp 

Absolutely. And I mean as as everyone gets taught in accelerators and doing startups, you have to be passionate about the problem, not just your own solution. 

And so we really became passionate about how much waste there was in the fashion industry, not just in leather, but just across the board. And no one solution can tackle all of it. We just decided to pick our lane, our little slice of it. We thought how much greenwashing and misinformation there was about what sustainability is. That word is almost complete. Lost meaning at this point because. People you know can say whatever they want to say, and very few consumers are able to dig deeper. And what that means. For us, the solution to that is data and you know evidence of of what you’re doing and lots of transparency. But we did. The hope and the attempt to search for new solutions and that brands were making the effort and. Strongly believe in progress over perfection. But there’s certain things that are not viable long term, and using plastics, even recycled plastics, we just don’t believe that that’s viable long term. And there were brands doing cool collaborations and like, if we can work with creative brands making beautiful things that appeal to people, this is the way in to showing that this is a viable solution going forward. 

Hessie Jones 

OK so. Let me see here my salon in place of leather. I know you talked about a little bit about it earlier and how it’s regenerated. It’s durable, but tell me a little bit more about the properties. Of it and and why people should consider it as as the durable alternative for their purses or their wallets. 

Stephanie Lipp 

With some of the things we described of having a complex root system being, you know, able to grow on a waste product, the actual way it grows, we grow like a scan on top of the food source and we can actually grow it quite dense. And so I. A piece here. It it can create a lot of body and thickness and when people touch this it really does feel like leather. Because because it was previously alive. It does carry that kind of intangible experience of smoothness, of something that isn’t just plastic. 

Leo Gillis 

Is. It has been dead for millions of years, and so it doesn’t have that same visceral response. When people feel our material, especially in our prototype bag like they just. Have that that. Memory of what leather is, and I think that’s something that’s really nice when you don’t have to use backing. So you. Have to use plastic coating. 

Hessie Jones 

So in terms of. Volume of material compared to. I guess the development of leather from cowhide, like what is there is a proportionate amount of material that you need or or my feeling that you need to use to actually develop. Let’s say the sort of the same bag that you would have for leather. You talk a little bit about the production. 

Stephanie Lipp 

What’s great about how we grow it? That the. Size of the end piece is only limited by the shape of the container. So if we want a sheet that’s 6 feet long, we just have to have a six foot long container and have the food source to fill it. To the mycelium, it doesn’t know the difference between. Tiny box or a huge long bin like that’s that’s kind of the cool part. We can actually customize our sheets. For our customers and if you have a furniture designer who needs something really long with no without seams, we can make that for them. But that kind of puts us in the middle of like a cowhide, which you know is irregularly shaped. Different. There’s holes from damage, which makes it hard to use up all of the material consistently. There are benefits to how synthetics come on a roll, but having something on a big tube can actually make shipping really hard. Can’t ship a long thing, so we can actually have a lot of flexibility in terms of logistics. And making sure that the way our customers patterns are laid out are cut out really efficiently with as little waste in the in the negative space. 

Hessie Jones 

That’s really cool. So what? So what have you produced today in terms of like your material? What are you prototyping as? Say your first products. 

Leo Gillis 

So we do have a travel bag that we are launching with sheer text. There’s a pre sale right now and there is 3000 available. There, we partnered with them. 

Hessie Jones 

Yeah. Can you tell me about a little bit about that partnership and how that came about that? So exciting. 

Stephanie Lipp 

Yeah. So we’ve been working towards finding a way to scale up and we called it our room scale. Something you know bigger than our lab, but not quite a full pilot yet. And you know, we’ve been fundraising for a while, talking about what this means to it’s like a proof of concept, the ability to churn out material, make it. Consistent. Predictable. Of a size, it was really hard to do that when we were using storage totes in a basement like it just. Wasn’t usable, so this SRT X series X opportunity came really at the perfect time and. Very unexpectedly, I was invited to. We were invited by University of Toronto to participate in, like a mini market of some of the UFT startups that actually physically made products, but part of the event was a farsight chat with the CEO of sharetex, Catherine Hamm. And the CEO of Danby Appliances and the theme was move fast and make things as a plan move fast and break things. And talking about the importance and significance of manufacturing, especially in North America. And Catherine had also spoken at my Mars Limited clean tech explor graduation the. Before, but I hadn’t had a chance to speak to her. And so I asked for an introduction to her to see if we could meet up before this event. And despite her busy calendar, she just say yes to leave at. At Soho House, which in itself I thought was so fancy. And I told her what you know, we were doing. Had seen our deck. She asked. Like. We’re looking for and I thought maybe she’d give some tips on fundraising or how to sell people on a novel material, but we walked out of that call having. A purchase order for $100,000 with the material. A launch of this physical products that we’d have the B2B traction and the B2C traction. And and being the first company to be incubated in their SRT X Origins Incubator, which comes with the space that we’re now in their factory in Montreal. Access to the incredible minds and expertise on the SRX team. And it’s just been. So this is really giving us a huge leap frog into actual production and somewhere across the ocean, probably in the Pacific, we have custom 1 by 1 square meter trays and custom racks. So we’ll finally be able to grow our 1st 200 square meters of material when before we were making. You know, just smaller sheets at a time and this is, you know, our opportunity to. So put this process into like a larger scale and then go from there. 

Hessie Jones 

That’s. I’m so happy for you. OK, so, but before this, you know, you’re growing your company. You’re learning the cleantech space and so, like many other cleantech founders who are trying to find alternatives that that haven’t yet been, I’d say legally even adopted in Canada. It has to go through. Some kind of physical, some kind of testing? Aware about what the demands were for clean tech founders in Canada and and more important, actually developing a company like this. And trying to grow it to, you know, I I’d say the vision that you wanted to be. In an industry that’s still emerging, like what were your thoughts in the beginning and how did that? How did that play out? So. 

Stephanie Lipp 

At the beginning, you know, clean tech is used. Like for us at least, it was with something great like clean tech. It’s something. And I mean, we generally still believe that, but there’s just so many flavors of clean tech we didn’t realize, like how subdivided from energy. Carbon capture materials and then so much sauce and you know, rocking it off the sauce. But sometimes, you know, it was surprising how heavily focused funding investment was leaning on. Digital problems to physical. So that was something surprising to us. Also, along the same lines that we thought OK by virtue of being cleantech, everyone must be like on board with this it must be an automatic. Yes, awesome. Let’s get it going. But we realized that cleantech was really just a. It wasn’t a virtue signal, by any means, and dollars and cents really still are the drivers of investment adoption, things like that. And then learning that our type of clean tech and materials was not really a major focus in Canada. And I mean, there’s so much amazing innovation, so much amazing cleantech. You know the Canada is a great, very ambitious. Umm. Building ground for this, but just we couldn’t always find specific support for us funding for a space for us to use so. We realized just by virtue of wanting to do something good for the environment. That didn’t automatically mean there was like a easy path ahead and just knowing so many other founders. I just happened to most of them are in cleantech or impact startups and yeah, we all have similar stories of how it’s just really hard. Again, there’s no category where it’s ever easy to build a business or anything disruptive, but we robably didn’t think it was gonna be this hard. 

Hessie Jones 

Yeah. No, I I remember speaking to you before. I know you’re talking about how. How there is a lot of buzz about, you know, more clean technology in in Europe and how like it just it just seemed to be like a hub for for that kind of innovation. Is that is that especially considering the you’ve taken now, what do you what do you think compared to Canada? 

Stephanie Lipp 

I do think it’s a it’s a different ecosystem, especially the more you got to know it. Maybe they’re just as risk averse, if not more risk averse in some. But I think in terms of general understanding of the urgency with which we need to deploy tech. I think Europe is is doing a great job and. And I guess having so many countries and infrastructures so close together really allows you to feel like you can grow quickly because here in Canada we only really have one option and we can see how fast things change there. At least in Europe, it’s like the European Union, but it’s like all these decentralized governments. And customer pools really that you can look? So I think there’s still a lot of value to looking at expansion and including the European market in, in clean tech adoption. 

Hessie Jones 

1. Leo, I want to ask the next couple questions to you because you’re more of a technical guy in the in the team. I assume that the the leather that you created wasn’t something that you could manufacture overnight or even just perfect overnight. You talk about how you actually develop. My silium leather like the the the perfect. Texture in the perfect combination of ingredients. And and also talk about the, I think there was something that I read about your struggle in generation 1 by 1Meter material.

Leo Gillis 

Sorry, can you repeat that last? 

Hessie Jones 

Part. Yeah, the 11 by 1M. So the material that was one of the challenges, I believe. 

Leo Gillis 

So yeah, of course, with growing mushrooms, you always deal with a certain level of contamination from the beginning, especially when you’re learning and starting. Out any competing fungus or bacteria will definitely thrive in an environment that you’re trying to grow the mushroom in. And until you have everything to be sterile and clean and sterilized and treated, that’s like impossible to grow the strain you selected. And then just working with the same species of fungi for like the past three years now, it’s been pretty incredible. How much you can learn just by like watching something grow for three years. Like watching grass grow. So you know, like what buttons to tweak and what to hide. And you kind of just figure it out slowly and just make a bunch of mistakes and make note of it. And then the tanning process, which was, you know, like. I don’t know how much. I can say about it. It’s was just pretty much a process that came together pretty easily for me. Yeah, I don’t know how to explain it really without saying too much, right? 

Hessie Jones 

Yeah. Yeah, without divulging any. Of your. But I assume because like Eagle said, like this is not something that. This is not an industry that you knew well, and so even like who would have known that you would actually have to look? At understanding the tanning process, the leather at some point in the future of the. So you know, the fact that this is a lot of this is is self-taught and it’s learning from experts who understand. You know mycelium and and its properties and how to. Use. I mean that’s that’s pretty impressive. That’s pretty impressive. 

Leo Gillis 

Yeah. It’s just for like, how many decades people have been growing mushrooms like indoors in controlled. It’s it’s pretty impressive because people have been trying to learn how to grow morale since the start of this and. I think they finally figured out how to crack it in China after something like 40 or 50 years of people growing mushrooms even longer. Properly and they finally cracked it. Figured it. And it’s like if you look at the process to grow more elves, it’s it’s like completely difficult. Like, it’s very, like, finicky and it’s like. 

Hessie Jones 

By this time, this is where you’re educating me because I have no idea. 

What is the challenge in growing it? 

Leo Gillis 

Because they like low nutrition like they will pop up when areas that flood and like that had fire damage. They’re very fast to grow. But they need a certain stage of like, just no nutrition and like, no like anything for it. Like you gotta give it like nothing to get started and get it to become strong. And I’ve seen people like throw an apple core like next to the pile, and it’s like this will help it grow. Oh, reach for this nutrition. And reach for that across like the barren kind of, like desolate. Grow area that they’re growing it in in soil and it will like reach towards that Apple and it’s the only way to get it to do that it’s you need that barren soil like you need that flood or that burn. Something. It’s just a weird, mysterious mushroom pops up at weird times. Yeah. 

Hessie Jones 

That’s interesting. It sounds. It sounds fascinating. 

Leo Gillis 

When I like to put it for people, is that you know, you see mushrooms growing on your lawn in the forest, there’s mushrooms growing on the metal reactors in Chernobyl. As soon as you bring them indoors. You try to control them. Become like little. They’re so hard and that’s. I think it’s hilarious because they have this complexity to go everywhere. Hold our forest. They hold our crops in the field together. But as soon as you, you know, bring them indoors that well, I call them Divas. Hope that’s not derogatory, but. They just have to be baby. It’s really funny. 

In that way. Like the health plan will go outside or outdoor plant will grow outside, but as soon as you bring it inside and it’s like look, you have a controlled environment, you should love it here. They’re like, I don’t get enough water. I’m gonna just die. 

Stephanie Lipp 

Hard. Kind of. So it’s like mushrooms are very similar. 

Hessie Jones 

That they’re not meant to be controlled. You’re saying, right? 

Leo Gillis 

Throw. That’s for sure. 

Hessie Jones 

1. So tell me stuff. Was there a moment? When you felt that you’re onto something. What was? Was there a catalyst when you and Leo kind of looked at each other and said I, you know, I think that we’re going to make it? I think that there’s something about what we’re doing that’s change.

Stephanie Lipp 

I think we’ve had these little moments, like when Leo first discovered we had this fungi, which was like when a how and he made our prototype when we won our pitch competition. There’s all these little milestones, but I think the thing that made. Most. Concrete for us was when we made our. So this, you know, our little bag of this because it turned. A material just a flat piece and. Inherently it needs another step to make it useful or make you know the reason for it existing. So turning into a 3D object that people can understand and they can see that you know my things are in. It was really a turning point, not just for us. For our reaction to it, because we understood all this stuff behind the scenes. You don’t really see that when you see the sheet. When you can explain to someone that you do all these steps you like, baby them, you learn about them. And then it turns it to something. You put your objects in, and you can have it hold. That was, I think. Really special and just the feedback from the brand designer who made it saying this was like leather. I love working with it. Was edifying. And then you know the big one. When we finally, you know, got this purchase order and got the space going. It was like a next level like oh, this is what really it’s like to actually go and work to have somewhere to go everyday have all you know. Cookers. Have these racks coming that were custom made for us and that was a big culmination of just like a lot of planning and talking about it. Now we’re actually doing it. 

Hessie Jones 

Yeah. No, that’s that’s great to see. Do you point to, let’s say, some significant moments or milestones in the last five years that you think? Helped you get to where you are today. 

Stephanie Lipp 

That’s the countless milestones like everything’s almost a milestone at this point. If you think back on it, it’s like everything kind of for a reason, like the lawn mower. The move to Newfoundland. 

Just everything was like a combination of things that all led to this one thing really. 

Also being in a lot of the accelerators has helped in you know each one is kind of like a level up. We’ve been Creative destruction lab. Were, you know, able to do all the accelerator and asset readiness, which is super helpful and really got us and kept us in touch. With, you know the altitude community one of. Are really. Cool moments was when our bag of material was on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Vienna. We never expected that and it was just amazing to see that alongside some other incredible innovations from like the last 200 years of history in Europe. Yeah. So there’s all these, you know, moments that have pushed us forward that have proved traction that have got us in front of people who got us in ribs with certain people and groups and I think. Umm. In the startup, there’s never really ever going to be one thing, but it’s how you pick up the pebbles along the way and and carry them with you to be useful later. 

Hessie Jones 

That’s amazing. Now I’m going to. In a little bit of AI, don’t know. I’m not sure this is a prognostication because there there is going to be hope for the industry. Want you to talk a little bit about that for you your company, but I’ll also. From the perspective that we may have a little bit of a government change in politics and and So what does that mean for you? Does that mean for the industry? 

Stephanie Lipp 

Yeah, I think. There’s always this apprehension when there’s big government changes, but I think it’s our job as founders to just stay agile, prepare for any eventuality, not have anything to intrinsically link to a government. Just have to have our own way of moving forward. You know independence of that, but we hope that. Whoever is there and who’s ever helping to make decisions will really have this push towards mass adoption of next year materials. And create that incentive for that. Legislation is one thing, having laws to follow, but it shouldn’t only be because. You don’t want to get. There should be some extra added bonus. You know, I think a lot of other industries that might. A bit more extractive. Have always been bailed out. Been propped. They’ve been incentivized and I think it’s time for a shift in the other direction. And then also, you know, have more framework around brainwashing and data and transparency because as I said, that’s the best way to combat. Misinformation in green washing is to just have the data and. I think having ways to collect that ways to share that is really important. And I think in general, we need better infrastructure for recycling, reuse, upcycling. And we really want to always look at that circular economy rather than anything linear. And I think that should also come in in like drastically reducing plastic use. So I I’m also we’re also in a clean tech. So we need all the other companies trying to do better menstrual pads to reusable medical equipment. Like all these cool things. Then I think I would say, you know, the proverb of the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago. The second best time is today. All. These things have been needed for last 10. We’re just getting to this critical tipping point of climate change now and realizing, oh, no, we’ve, you know, waited too long. And I just hope there’s this general push of cooperation to. You know, ship and adopt and. Take these things that will all working towards the same goal of reducing consumption. Making life on Earth better for people and animals, and I knew on this along because I don’t think our thing is be one solution. I truly believe in this cooperative. Collaborative view of reversing climate change. 

Hessie Jones 

I I agree with that as. I also like I always compare this to almost like Noah’s Ark. And how he warned people for. And yes, it is maybe a fable to some people, but we’ve known about climate change. I remember the whole reduce, reuse recycle when I was. Gosh, 1986, right before I started university and it took more than 20 years to even get that program up and running. Are still cities within Canada that don’t have it. So I’m hoping that this is a tipping point that things start to change and that yeah, we are at a point where we have to. To to do something about it. And it’s not about fun innovation. Try to get, you know, tried to capitalize on this stuff. This is about survival. In the. 30 to 50 years. So OK, I won’t be too morbid. One last question. 

Hessie Jones 

When we loaded absolutely. OK. So one I want you to impart your wisdom to entrepreneurs. Who are looking to innovate in this space, or even just to to try to change the world in the in, in their own way. What would you say to them? 

Stephanie Lipp 

I would say again, these are might start becoming like, you know, cliches of the startup world. But I think you truly need to be passionate about the problem, not just your own solution. It’s not about. It’s about the impact of other people’s problems and and how you’re and how. You can bring that value to solve them, and maybe you can’t, and that comes along with customer discovery. So we don’t need more stuff on the planet and then you know something for us really, we can only do this if we’re doing it the right way and we. Our values. In terms not only creating a product that has, you know good end of life, but also how are we going to treat the people that work for us? Are we affecting communities where products are made? Are we? You know, that’s sounds idealistic, but that was the only way that we could justify it to ourselves to, like, make something else on this already saturated planet. 

Having a really strong why having strong values. And also not thinking that it’s like a get rich quick. I mean, there is this AI and I know you work and advocate so strongly for AI, there’s definitely a place for it, but it’s not the answer. 

A tool it’s it’s. It’s a part of, you know, making things happen so. Think innovating in clean tech is no. It’s so hard that you’re willing to fight the good fight because. In the it’s. Disheartening to know that no matter how good your intentions are, money is the. And so if you don’t have a good case for that, if you don’t have a good plan for it, you know it’s going to be climbing over us. 

Hessie Jones 

Absolutely. Well, the good thing is, is that I think even even VCs are starting to see that there, there is need to be made a in a clean tech world, which is great. I know it is a little bit more of a hurdle, but they see it I. I think the whole impact investment side. Starting to creep up a lot more in the these days, and even in the next decade. So thank you so much. Steph and Leah, you both had. Amazing things to say, and you’ve given a lot of inspiration and wisdom. To to people who want to innovate in this space and to entrepreneurs as well. So thank you. Thank you for coming. 

Stephanie Lipp 

You hessie for having me. 

Hessie Jones 

No problem so. I think we do need a lot more founders. We do need a lot more. Founders for. And and thank you for for being the inspiration for for many female founders. For our audience, if you have topics that you want us to explore, please e-mail us at communications at excelaltitudeaccelerator.ca tech uncensored. Powered by altitude accelerator. Hosted on Spotify. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts until next time. My name is hessie. I invite you to stay curious and to be inspired.