You Can Buy a Piece of the Mycelium Revolution: Joanne Rodriguez and Mycocycle Are Literally Turning Trash into Treasure

Joanne Rodriguez: [00:00:00] Sometimes when you're hitting the wall, you're like, Oh, it's impossible. I can't do this. Something that resonated with me was that you, you know, when. Born, we don't know how to walk and you have to take those first steps. You're gonna stumble. You just have to kind of get up. And when you're born, you have no fear.

You know when you start to walk, you've already made that commitment to figure it out cuz you see other people doing it.

Paul Shapiro: Welcome to the Business for Good podcast to show where we spotlight companies making money by making the world a better place. I'm your host, Paul Shapiro, and if you share a passion for using commerce to solve many of the world's most pressing problems, then this is the show for.

Welcome friends to the 63rd episode of The Business for Good Podcast. Now, before we get to the episode at hand, and trust me, it's a cool one and in fact a startup that as you'll hear it for yourself, you yourself can invest in it. Wow. Did we get a lot of feedback on the last episode with philosopher Peter Singer?

Many listeners were intrigued by the conversation we had and offered very positive. But a few had critiques of [00:01:00] my side of the conversation. That critique was summed up fairly in my view by one listener, John in Maryland who said that he liked the episode, but thought I appeared a bit too dismissive at times of the good that animal welfare reforms like egg producers going cage-free have done in the world.

So, to clear up any misconception I may have implied during the interview, I am enthusiastically in favor of making farm animals lives better, including, of course ending the cage confinement of egg weighing chickens. The point I was perhaps in art fully making was. While animal advocates inspired by Peter Singer's writings have succeeded in reducing the suffering of some categories of farm animals.

In some countries, the total number of farm animals used by humanity, including generally speaking in those countries as well, has skyrocketed as per person. Meat consumption has steadily risen and that food technology seems to offer a more realistic path to reversing those numbers than do ethical arguments alone.

In the meantime, rest assured that I do think it's important to improve conditions for animals who will certainly be used for food. Okay, so with [00:02:00] that response, just some of the feedback from the last episode out of the way, let me tell you a bit about this idea that is so cool that you may just wanna go online and buy a piece of this episode's company yourself.

Landfills are well. Filling up, we are running outta places to put our trash in. The trash that we've landfilled. It won't decompose for centuries, but what if we could take a lot of trash, seed it with fungal cultures that would eat it and render it no longer toxic within just a few weeks, rather than having to wait for centuries.

That is exactly what Myco Cycle is planning to. And we've got their ceo, Joanne Rodriguez, on the show to talk all about it. After a decades long career in construction, Joanne started my cycle and with her team has been training fungi to eat construction trash, especially asphalt, and plan to not only sell that service to municipalities and landfills, but then to take the fungal MyUM that they've grown and sew it as biodegradable packaging material.

Pretty cool, huh? [00:03:00] What might be even cooler is that you, yourself can invest in Joanne's company, Microcycle. Right now, normally startups on the show are seeking funding from deep pocketed venture capital firms, but Microcycle is taking a different approach, seeking to raise their first round from hundreds of individuals just like you via startup engine.com, with a minimum investment of only $262.

If you like what you hear on this episode and you wanna own a piece of Microcycle as an early investor, you can see the link to their investment campaign in the episode page on our website business for good podcast.com. So take a listen to the company and the MyUM that Joanne is growing and if you like it, go and invest.

It's an impressive story and one that might even involve. Joanne, welcome to the Business for Good podcast.

Joanne Rodriguez: Thanks for having me, Paul.

Paul Shapiro: Hey, it is really, really great to be with you. I have read so much about what you and your company are doing. It's really cool. So it's a great honor to be chatting with you.

Let me just get right to the point, Joanne, and I want [00:04:00] to ask you, what's the problem with landfills? I see you're trying to solve this issue, but, you know, putting things in landfill seems like a pretty efficient way to get rid of the waste that we don't want. So why can't we do it that way?

Joanne Rodriguez: Oh, I mean, I suppose we can do it For decades we've been doing it, um, the same way.

Right? And, uh, we've relied on two methods of dealing with waste. We've either dumped it or we've burned it. Unfortunately, it's become a bit of a shortsighted approach because not only is it contributing to human and environmental health issues, cuz materials sit there indefinitely. 400 years, uh, in the us uh, landfills are now at an 85% capacity rate, and they're, they're losing space because of bans in, uh, of China taking our trash and, and other initiatives that have impacted how we handle our waste and where we, where we send it and store it.

Paul Shapiro: Sure. So when you talk about bands in China, just explain what that means. [00:05:00] So, we used to send a lot of our trash to China, but now they won't take it.

Joanne Rodriguez: Yeah, they won't take it anymore. They're like, No. I mean, they're running out of room. This isn't just a US issue. This is a global waste issue. Um, landfills around the world are operate differently, and many countries don't even have landfills.

They just burn their trash or they just dump it into big piles. Uh, but China said, Yeah, we're not taking it anymore. And so what happened effectively? Uh, when we would talk about recycling programs, a lot of the things that we would take into recycling bins like hardboard, Paper plastics were actually being sent on large boats to China, and China was left to deal with it, and now they said no more.

And so we have to prioritize what goes into landfill space and, and those items have to go someplace. Sure.

Paul Shapiro: So this is something that you have not just learned about since. Starting your own company a few years ago, but you really have an illustrious background, Joanne, in the construction industry prior to becoming an entrepreneur.

So tell me just a little bit about what you've been [00:06:00] doing for the decades of your life prior to starting Microcycle then in the construction field. Sure,

Joanne Rodriguez: sure. Yeah. I mean, like you said, I, I've worked for 30 plus years in an industry that created materials for the built environ. So, uh, the, the last 16 plus I was at a manufacturer of commercial roofing and building products, super glamorous.

Um, and I, I had the opportunity to lead sustainable and strategic initiatives for them. And, and in that time, that's when we really started to see this emergence in the last 10 to 15 years of. Of waste related to the construction industry and the materials that we manufactured, um, the, the carbon impact of construction and of buildings in total.

And so it, it, it just kind of came to a culmination for me. To say, you know, wait a minute, we've gotta figure out how to solve this. And the industry itself was also looking at this, uh, in, not in isolation, but [00:07:00] specific to like asphalt shingles. They were looking at how do we develop recycling, um, parameters around this.

So there were a few things that were evolving, um, in and around, uh, 2014 to 2017 that predicated this thought process of starting a new.

Paul Shapiro: So what led you to take that jump, Joann? I mean, I mean, you've had a multi-decade career working at large companies. I mean, a lot of the people who are getting around that point in their career are thinking about retirement plans, not starting their own new company and, and acting as an entrepreneur.

So what was it that led you to think. I'm not looking to, you know, go into the sunset of my career. I'm looking to actually start some new chapter entirely.

Joanne Rodriguez: Yeah. You know, Paul, I think it was a couple of things. I mean, when you look, when you work for corporation, there's a lot of, uh, positive, um, interactions.

There's a lot of positives, but there's also a lot of frustration, right? You can't [00:08:00] turn a huge ship on a dime and, um, I was just kind of worn out. I, I, I didn't enjoy it anymore. And for me, I felt. You know, I had been putting a lot of time and investment into them, and so it was time to maybe try to solve a problem from the outside in and put a lot of investment into me.

And so, uh, this is my midlife, midlife crisis, Corvette, right? to invest in me to start a new company. Um, I affectionately joke that I want to write a book. You know, who let the 50 year old in the startup sandbox because there aren't a lot of people that look like me doing this, although I am seeing more.

That encourages me. So yeah, it was, it was frustration and need to try to solve it and really solving it from the outside and seem to make a lot more sense.

Paul Shapiro: That's really great. So first, congratulations on taking that leap. I know that it can be daunting, um, having done it myself and I, I think that it's a, a very noble pursuit that you're engaged [00:09:00] in.

So my hat is off to you for it. So let's just talk about, you know, you mentioned Joan, the idea of solving this problem of waste from the construction industry, from the outside. Now what you have chosen to do is basically use mycology to. Try to bioremediate, and we'll get into what that means, some of this waste.

But your experience is construction, not mycology, right? So what led you to think or to even know about the potential for bio remediation and to say, ah, there's an entire company here in this. Is this something that you read? Was it some interview, saw a movie? Like what was it that, What did you think? Myo is the answer,

Joanne Rodriguez: right?

Right. Yeah. Mushrooms could solve all the problems. I left, uh, I left the company I worked for in June of 2017, and I decided to just kinda take a, a power down. I took a sabbatical and, um, in, in my career, one of the things I was really focused on was green infrastructure in the built environment, which is fancy for like vegetated [00:10:00] roofing and on structured vegetal.

And biomimicry and design. So looking at what nature shows us, um, can work and how to green our footprint, um, in the built environment space. So I decided to put my money where my mouth is and take a class in permaculture design. This is probably where it gets really tree huggy, but um, to really start to learn what I didn't know.

Where I learned from Oregon State University about the power of fungi and the, the power of mushrooms and the natural remediation. Um, and that's how I also came to get recommendations on my colleges. And I learned that fungi were the only known remediators of, uh, carcinogenic class known as pah. They're heavy hydro car.

That and a lot of the materials. And so that, that's what led me down this path to consider mycology as a solution.

Paul Shapiro: Joanne, there are a lot of smart people who listen to this podcast, but for a stupid person like me, what's remediation? ? [00:11:00] Uh,

Joanne Rodriguez: when, when you clean or neutralize toxins out of something, you're remediating

Paul Shapiro: it.

Okay. So you're talking then about essentially applying fungal cultures to the trash to remove the toxins from that trash By growing mushrooms

Joanne Rodriguez: on it. Is that. Pretty much, yeah. We've trained mushrooms to eat trash.

Paul Shapiro: Now, did you have to train them? I mean, I know that there are now, I just wanna, actually, I wanna make a point.

Whenever I hear Mycologists talking, they always say fungi, right? They'll say fungus, they'll say fungal, but they say fungi. And I don't feel like I'm cool enough to do that. That's why I say fungi, because to me, if it's fungal, and it's fungus. I say fungi, but so I believe both are accepted among the, among the class of psychologists.

Once you get to a certain level, you, it's cool enough to call them fungi. Is that right? Do you think? Yeah,

Joanne Rodriguez: I mean, I go fungi. I, I don't know that I'm cool enough to call them fungi yet either I'm an equal opportunity offender. It's kind of like, I think of Martha Stewart when she says caramel. [00:12:00] I'm still kind of a caramel girl.

Paul Shapiro: Yeah, I could see that too. Um, , I could see that too. I, I also, I'm, I'm not sure of this. Maybe a listener will correct me, but I also think there may be like a British and American. Difference there that the Brits say fungi, but maybe I am not right about that. No, you're correct, Paul. Oh, okay. Yeah. It reminds me of one time I was in London and the waiter at this restaurant asked me if I wanted on my pizza any alberg.

And I said, I was like, I probably have no idea. And he was like, What do you, You want me to come back after you make up your mind? I said, No, I don't have any ideas. I dunno what you're asking me. And he is like, Well, if you would like halberg or not, that's I'm asking. I'm like, Is it an animal or is it a plant?

He's like, It's a purple plant. I was like, Oh, okay. I loves a me plant. Um, but anyway, so the Brits have a different way of doing things, but I'm gonna use fungi because that's the, the status I think of that low status here. So, um, you know, let me ask you, you say that you've trained these fungi to eat toxins, but my understanding is there's a lot of fun guy who are quite happy to do that already.

I mean, [00:13:00] they're a fun guy, growing. In the, There's like radio trophic fungi growing in the Cherno ruins who are eating literally radiation. That's what they're consuming on their own. Nobody had to train them to do it. So is this something that you, you know, selectively bred fungi to do? Or did you just find fungi that happened to be particularly good at this task of consuming toxins?

Joanne Rodriguez: Uh, we have selected, uh, fun fungi that are really good at remediating, um, this grouping of toxins. And when I say that we've trained them, we've actually created an environment that, um, might take, uh, months. And months in nature. You know, if you look at trees being decomposed, they don't decompose overnight.

You might see the mushrooms pop up overnight on a dead tree, but it, it takes some, takes some effort to break it down. But in order to commercialize or scale something like this, we really need to create an optimum environment. So we take a process that might take, you know, [00:14:00] Years in nature or even, um, if we use our example in landfill 400 years, uh, we achieve it in four weeks or less.

Wow. So that's where the training comes in. We, uh, speed.

Paul Shapiro: So you, you know, it reminds me a little bit. We had on, um, a fellow startup called Coral Vita in an earlier episode where they essentially have found ways to train Coral to grow at 50 times the speed at which they would grow in nature so that they can graft on coral to dying reefs and essentially rehabilitate them.

Um, it's a pretty cool, uh, thing that they've done there. But how did you do it? Like, I mean, did you have the background in psychology? Did you team up with a psychologist? Like how did you actually selectively breed fungi in order to get them to be so much more, uh, ravenously, consumptive of these toxins?

Joanne Rodriguez: Uh, yeah. I started collaborating with someone way smarter than me in this space. I'm, I'm not the scientist. Um, I am collaborating with a Mycologist [00:15:00] Peter McCoy. He is a long time practitioner in Applied Mycology. He authored, um, an 800 page book called Radical Mycology. It really is a manifesto of, of mycology and, um, serves as a leading resource globally for my colleges who want to practice in this arena.

And, uh, we were able to start to. Work across different formulations, um, and thought processes to develop a patent pending process that allows us to remove these toxins from, uh, targeted waste materials.

Paul Shapiro: Wow. Cool. So I, I, I have read your pending patent, um, and I see that you're using, it looks like two species.

You're using pro oyster and Turkey tail. Um, are those the only two species that you have trained to do this, or do you think this is something that you could do across a wide range of fungi?

Joanne Rodriguez: Uh, it's, it's much wider than that. Um, and we actually just got our final patents filed on Monday of last week, [00:16:00] so congratulations.

Thank you. Yeah, very exciting. Um, and it's a much more expansive classification than that. Um, but yeah, those are, those are great remediators, uh, and they're well known, um, in practice to do this. And if you even look back at Paul Stama, who's kind of like the grandfather of Mycology, um, he has used.

Strained within the pearl oyster to tackle petrochemical, contaminated soils out in nature and, and clean up water. And so, uh, those were natural go-tos. It's what we fed them and the environment we controlled that, uh, fed into the

Paul Shapiro: patent. Cool. Yes. Uh, so we've talked about Paul STAs and his book, My Cilium, running in past episodes of this podcast as well.

But for those who aren't familiar with bio remediation, Joanne, just what is the basic process here? So just, you know, you're talking about asphalt. Let's start with the very beginning. For people who don't know what asphalt is first, what is it? And then [00:17:00] what are you doing to it to render it into some safe material for some other use?

Sure.

Joanne Rodriguez: Absolutely. So asphalt is a byproduct of the. Petrochemical refining industry. So if you think about like, you know, uh, oil refinery, there's multiple levels where you have like the super pure grade and you keep working your way down. Um, a lot of the asphalt containing materials are actually, um, considered to be called bitman.

Um, and so that's the classification, um, as part of our beachhead strategy that we went after. Um, and so we grind those material. Uh, we mix 'em with the fodder we, you know, pretreat and inoculate it with, with the fungal species, with the blend. And, um, I don't wanna say set it and forget it, but we do put it into an environment where, you know, there's the, the optimum condition for their growth.

Then in four weeks, uh, we have an outcome where the materials have been, um, cleaned up. We've been able to neutralize the toxins and so the fungi, [00:18:00] uh, release these enzymes and grow throughout the materials. It's pretty fascinating. If you've ever watched any of those videos of, of MyUM, that's the root structure of the fungi grow.

Um, it, it's pretty cool and, uh, they then can be harvested. Taken and regrow into new materials at that point in time or just put back into the ground. Um, we've taken those toxins.

Paul Shapiro: Are the mushrooms that are grown on the asphalt safe to eat? Like you're saying that they are consuming the toxins. Does that mean that the mushrooms themselves then have those toxins in them, or have they converted into something else that you could then sell those mushrooms for human

Joanne Rodriguez: consumption?

Well, so these aren't really, the mushrooms are gonna put on pizza. Uh, we don't get to that fruiting body, which is the mushroom. So a little anatomy of the fungi is, uh, that's the. The name of it and the mushroom is the cap that you see, which we see in grocery stores, and we put on our food. The My Illium is the root [00:19:00] structure and is the workhorse for us.

That's what we rely on. So we never really get to a point where we're growing an actual mushroom, but two year, two year question. Um, Some of these toxins that we're going after, like these polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the PAH that exist naturally, um, in, uh, partially fired, um, petroleum processes or fallates, which is a whole classification, a redless chemical.

It, it, it takes them from a complex and toxic. Um, uh, I'm trying to figure out the best way to describe this, but it's a, it's a complex being and it neutralizes it down. It distills it similar to like photosynthesis. It converts it into something that's not harmful to nature. The only thing that would exist that nobody can get rid of is, um, heavy metal.

So toxic heavy metals are always present. In, in, uh, the, the, my illium or in the mushroom. You can sort them. You certainly, to [00:20:00] your point, could take those byproducts and do an additional bolt on treatment that would maybe extract that for a whole nother industry, um, maybe be safely, um, burned. Uh, for, for bioenergy biofuel, uh, there are multiple applications we haven't explored.

Paul Shapiro: Okay. And, uh, yeah. So, uh, you know, normally people eat mushrooms, like you say, the fruiting body, but there are a number of companies that are commercializing illium for human consumption now, and one of them, uh, corn, Q U o n, has been in existence for decades. So, um, if you didn't have those heavy metals, uh, would you be able to eat that illium?

Joanne Rodriguez: I mean, I, I suppose, um, because we're taking 'em down to acceptable levels. I mean, I hate to say it, but the reality is even anything being grown in nature has a level of toxicity to it. It's just the nature of the beast. Um, you know, we've got rain that's contaminated, air that's contaminated, soil that's contaminated.

So yeah, I mean, I would [00:21:00] presume that you, you might be able to, uh, the, the, with, with the right extraction, let's.

Paul Shapiro: Okay. Uh, so if food consumption is not high on your list of commercializable ideas, how does my cycle end up making money? So I understand the technology you're talking about, which is essentially applying your proprietary fungal culture to asphalt and other construction waste materials that you can render them safe, but then presumably you have to sell that product for something, right?

Or sell the service for something. So how is it that the company is going to make.

Joanne Rodriguez: Well, I mean, we really are focused on transforming that 1 trillion waste management industry. That's one of our primary target markets, and our vision is twofold. The first one is focusing on utilizing micro remediation to remove the toxins out of those landfills.

And so there's value in that. If you talk to, um, somebody who operates a landfill municipality, and let's [00:22:00] just say, let's look at what's happened. In Texas with, with the energy shorts there and there were pipes that burst. And so you had all this property damage and people are having to, you know, rebuild interiors.

And so all of that, um, material's gonna go to dump. They don't have time to really sort this out. Or if you had a hurricane or natural disaster, same thing. These landfills that might have had 50 years of space left and that's considered air. Now might only have 30 years of airspace left or 20 years of airspace left.

If we could get them 10 years of additional airspace, that is money because, uh, they're not issuing more permits to grow landfills. You have to replicate yourself in the industry. So that's one way. The second. So,

Paul Shapiro: so just so to interrupt you, Joanne, so just to be clear, the first method of revenue generation would be landfills paying you to buy or remediate for them?

Joanne Rodriguez: Landfills, municipality, um, uh, waste transfer [00:23:00] stations. Uh, we really do look at the construction and demolition waste industry. There are, uh, everybody I've. They're already accustomed to handling and sorting these waste streams, so the material recycling facilities. Um, and, and so the benefit to them is okay, diverting this from landfills.

Uh, but the second phase of this would be the opportunity to sell the remediated or cleaned up. Biomass, uh, the cleanup materials of MyUM mushroom based products into new applications. So manufacturer of, uh, packaging, of building materials, of, um, drainage components. Uh, there, there are a lot of applications we've not even recognized, but the second phase really is working with, uh, manufacturers to re.

Um, in a decentralized waste management fast, they're, they're industrial manufacturing waste, so they can go circular in their process [00:24:00] and reenter into some format. So they're lessening their

Paul Shapiro: footprint. Well, that's very cool. We've had an, a past episode, Ecova, one of the like OGs of. MyUM space. And you know, as you probably know, they do a lot of MyUM packaging for various companies rather than having those companies using styrofoam.

So maybe there's a play, uh, maybe even in conjunction with them. Who knows?

Joanne Rodriguez: But we would love that, that, I mean, as we look at that, where if in collaboration we can get there faster, then let's go for it. And, you know, we've got Ecova, I've been following them for, um, over a decade. I actually had even recommended the company I work for to consider.

Looking at their production of new materials, but green chemistry wasn't so cool. Then , it's, it's definitely cool. Now you have Mogo, uh, Mogo out of Italy. Um, you have bio out of the uk. Um, you have these sectors that are manufacturing with lab grown. My Illium, um, the [00:25:00] proposition we bring to the table is, Hey, let's use all of this waste as a resource and, and enter that into new material.

Paul Shapiro: Yeah. Yeah. One of the biggest things I think happening right now in the MyUM world is the, uh, deal that bolt threads inked with Adidas, that they are going to be making Adidas shoes that are made from a leather that's made from MyUM. That bolt has grown. Yeah. And that is, uh, just a really impressive feat for, uh, for Bolt and, and for the.

Um, space of trying to commercialize Myo here for, uh, helping to reduce humanities footprint on the planet. So, um, I, I do wanna ask you, um, Joanne, you mentioned that, you know, municipalities might become the customers of my cycle, and I know that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had, uh, created this entity called Startup Chicago and that you are in the inaugural class of it.

So first, congratulations. Thank you. But you know, you are going down an [00:26:00] unconventional path of trying to fund your own startup here. So just tell me a little bit about Startup Chicago and what they're doing, and then let's talk about the way that you're trying to fund my cycle here to actually launch into your not only pre-revenue, but into your post revenue startup phase.

Joanne Rodriguez: Sure. I mean, start Chicago's great and I appreciate, um, Mayor Lightfoot support of the um, Entrepre. Uh, eco structure here. There's a lot of activity. I had the good fortune of coming through, um, an incubator, my first taste of a startup and entrepreneurship, um, at 1871 through the Latinx cohort. Um, and so I think it's really a nod and recognition, the lens support and exposure to about a hundred plus companies, um, under that umbrella to start to bring more.

National and global recognition to the companies that are starting here. Coming from all facets in internet of thing. Um, you [00:27:00] have. You have Bitcoins and you have apps, you have, uh, med health, and you also have clean tax sector. Um, and one of the things that Startup Chicago has done for us has gotten us more, um, aligned with World Business Chicago.

Where we will be actually, um, in discussions with them to be introduced into Poland. We actually are expanding. Uh, it's kind of like running and walking at the same time. Um, expanding into the eu. We're working on that right now. Um, and we've got a great deal of business, um, interest. In Warsaw. So, um, I'm working across a few entities, so they're working in that manner to facilitate those discussions so we can accelerate those efforts and, and be aligned with, uh, solid partnerships there.

Um, in terms of funding, uh, we are. Democratizing investment. We've really, uh, adapted to this dialogue of equity crowd funding. Um, we [00:28:00] decided the be November 30th, December 1st to launch on start engine.com. Uh, looked at a lot of the platforms around the equity crowd fund. Um, it's kind of a new and up and coming thing, and people look at it like it's a, a Kickstarter GoFundMe, and I'm not, I'm not diminishing the impact of either of those, but these are actually S E C Regulat.

Platforms. So we had to go through, you know, the whole, uh, health and fitness for the business and the finance, um, to even be considered on that. They also have to. You know, comply with regulations. And so what's really cool and the timing of this, uh, I don't know if you realize this, Paul, is that uh, there were new regulations that go, got voted into place last November, I believe.

And, um, they take place on uh, March 15th. And so you'll see a lot more activity. Around this, uh, equity crowd fund platform. There are multiple, um, options out there and it is a growing market. [00:29:00] Um, you've got Start engine, you've got Republic. Uh, I know I'm missing a whole slew of them. Um, but it is a great way to allow everybody to have some social impact, um, to investing and, uh, to have their voices heard in, um, who they want to invest in.

Paul Shapiro: So why go this route, Joanne? Like, you know, you have an attractive idea for a company. You have the science down, you're already getting interest. It's a popular space right now using my, why not just go the conventional route of finding some early stage venture capital funds. Uh, why go through the route of getting hundreds of individuals to invest a few hundred dollars at a time in the company via a start engine?

Joanne Rodriguez: Because I think that it's important to. Expand the reach. I kind of, this will maybe be a little cheesy, but I, I look at the networks that my cilium, establi in collaboration and [00:30:00] nature. Um, they don't do it alone. They do it with a team. They work in symbiosis. I feel really for our business model to be regenerative that our first offer, I mean, we certainly were in a lot of discussions with different funders.

It just made more sense to me to kind of go this direction. It expanded our reach globally. Uh, we've, we will have probably over 500 investors by the time this is done. Um, I think for Mushroom Tech, we're able to expand this discussion, um, around nature based solutions and, and we're not a consumer facing brand, but I think that it also we're able to, Uh, prop up and support mushroom tech and the consumer facing brands and really drive demand for this.

So there were multiple aspects to this outside of just raising the money. Um, we really wanted to expand the [00:31:00] awareness and I believe that, that doing it in this manner, we could, we have done it more efficiently. Efficiently, a different way for sure. But, uh, for us it just really made sense.

Paul Shapiro: Okay. So you mentioned a potential of 500 small investors in this first round.

Does that mean 500 people in your cap table, or does is Startup Engine the investor and then those people are invested

Joanne Rodriguez: through them? Yeah, they'll, they'll be the fund manager. It'll, it'll be consolidated. And um, that was something we were sure to vet through with them because we know, um, with a company that's venture backable, you know, going.

Such a large market space, uh, there's some liability to have to take on, you know, all these individual investors.

Paul Shapiro: Nice. All right. So for folks who might be interested, you know, a lot of the times, uh, startups come on the show early stage, and, uh, individuals don't really stand much of a chance of getting to invest in them, uh, because they're really, you know, have a minimums that are in the six figures.

But here the minimum is only, what, $260 to, to get in [00:32:00] on this,

Joanne Rodriguez: right? Joanne? Yeah. It's 2 62 and

Paul Shapiro: 50 cents. Okay. Sorry. So I shorted you by two 50. Okay. Two 60. Two 50 is the, uh, minimum we'll include in the show notes how people can invest in the company, but for some of the fundamentals, um, what does that get you?

What's the total valuation of the company? How much have you raised so far, and how much more do you have to go in this first round?

Joanne Rodriguez: Well, because we are SCC regulated, I have to be, uh, aware of what I state, and so I. Always would just refer everybody back to the platform. It would be start engine.com/microcycle.

And, um, but it, it gets you, it, it gets you an equity, um, investment. And, um, our valuation sits at 7 million. Um, we've had some great activity, uh, large and small investments across the board. So, uh, it does end. The end of April. Uh, we are considering some additional opportunities in that, but um, I [00:33:00] just would like to put everybody to start engine.com and not get myself in trouble with the

Paul Shapiro: cc.

You may be limited in what you can say, but I'm not limited. So I'll just say that, you know, you're trying to raise around $900,000 and it looks like you're nearly halfway there, so there's still, you know, four or 500 grand left that is available to. So if you're interested in Microcycle, we'll include again, that link to the, uh, start engine in the show notes here, and you can go, uh, make that determination for yourself for sure.

But, You know, Joanne, you mentioned that you're coming at this late in the game, and I'd imagine that there was a lot when you started this company three years ago that you really didn't know about. So imagine you've learned an enormous amount, probably about running a startup in the last two years. So for anybody who is thinking about getting into the game themselves, And they want to maybe start their own company.

Maybe they're interested in ecology or maybe just entrepreneurialism in general. Have there been any resources that were helpful to you that [00:34:00] you would recommend to others?

Joanne Rodriguez: Uh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't know what you don't know as a ceo, I'm sure you've realized that as well, Paul. And being in business for, you know, 30 plus years doesn't mean that you know how to start a business.

Uh, there's infrastructure in place, so I, I would say seek out, um, The entrepreneurial communities and, um, e even look it up, I have to say, I, I give a tip of the hat to, um, Evan Bayer, CEO of Ecova. I talked to him, uh, back in 2018. Um, Just to kind of feel him out. And he's the one that kind of keyed me into this whole kind of, you know, incubator accelerator space.

And that's what got me, um, down the right road cuz I really had, I, I remember him asking me for a pitch deck and I was like, what's a pitch deck? And then I'm googling pitch deck and like, what are the components of a pitch deck? These are, it was a [00:35:00] language I didn't speak before, so, Like I said, I, I went through the Latinx incubator.

I won that showcase. I went directly into the Clean Tech, Open National Accelerator. I spent most of 2019 honing my, my chops on this and figuring out how to speak a language. Um, that wasn't, I mean, it was parallel to what I had been doing, but was much more focused on the return on investment, um, adding value to the organization.

Um, mindful growth and strategy, uh, to, to even be able to talk to investors. So I, I would just say for folks looking at it, um, go in that direct. And, uh, there wasn't like a book or a thing I read, but I will say that in January, end of January, February of 2019, I was at the, the Waste Management Sustainability Summit in Arizona, and I had the chance to see Mick Ebling.

He was a keynote there. Uh, he's with Not [00:36:00] Impossible Labs, and he was telling Daniel's story, if you look that up. Um, he really talks about technology for the sake of humanities. So sometimes when you're hitting the wall, you're like, Oh, it's impossible. I can't do this. Something that resonated with me was that you, you know, when.

Born, we don't know how to walk and you have to take those first steps. You're gonna stumble, you just have to kind of get up. And when you're born, you have no fear. You know, when you start to walk, you, you've already made that commitment to figure it out cuz you see other people doing it. And one of the things he's known to, to be quoted as saying is, commit.

And then figure it out. And so that's what I would say to people going into the startup space, commit and then figure it out and, and solve for one problem. That was another thing. So Mick really served as an inspiration as well for me.

Paul Shapiro: I love that. Uh, I, I love that so much. And we will include a link in the show notes to Daniel's story, which is a reference to a, a boy in South [00:37:00] Sudan who lost.

Both of his arms and, uh, not impossible brought this prosthetic lab to him basically. And, uh, it's a poignant story and we'll include the link to, uh, view the whole thing. But I love what you're saying, Joanne, about commit and then figuring it out because nothing gets you to figure something out more than having publicly committed to it.

Exactly.

Joanne Rodriguez: If you say it right, . , I. There's intention with this. It may seem chaotic, you know? And there are people that will say, Well, you don't seem focused, Joanne, You're going after too much. Or they'll say You're not going after enough. And, and so, I mean, it is a double edged sword, but we're committed to figuring this out and surrounding ourselves with.

People that are good, that have the skill sets to do this. And, um, I, I think that's super important. And I think also using your network, I'm the fortunate beneficiary of having 30 years of networking under my belt. And so we have great advisors that are coming at us from all facets of people coming to us and saying, How can we help you?

[00:38:00] What do you need? And I think, I think you really can't underestimate the power of the ask.

Paul Shapiro: Right? Yep. I am totally with you on that, Joanne. Uh, you really almost never are gonna get something that you don't ask for. And so, um, I remember even starting my own company, The Better Miko, a few years ago, I was thinking, How are we gonna raise money for this thing?

Well, you know how you ask people. That's, that's really the way to do it. We just started asking, and, uh, one thing led to another. And, uh, so, uh, I, uh, I hear you on all of that. And, um, I know it's a very difficult thing to do, to start something from nothing. And so my hat's off to you for doing that, Joanne.

And, um, it's, uh, certainly something that I, I hope that you'll have great success in. But obviously, you're committed to microcycle and you're seeking to bring bio remediation to a, a new level altogether here. But I'm sure Joanne, as an, as an entrepreneur yourself, that you have lots of ideas for companies that you think could [00:39:00] solve some serious problem in the world.

So for other people who are looking at, again, getting into the game themselves, is there something that you wish existed that doesn't yet exist? Or maybe something that you think, Ah, somebody else ought to start this company.

Joanne Rodriguez: Uh, yeah. So here's, I, I knew this question might be coming and, um, I thought I had a great idea and apparently I wasn't the only one thinking of this.

Um, . I, I think wherever we can, especially when we're talking about the environment and climate change and sustainability, and, and that's really where, uh, my focus is, how, how can we create a better earth for tomorrow, not just for today. And so, I thought about interface and how, um, Buddy Hay, their sustainabilities are really started to change climate and reduce their footprint and operations by, um, operationalizing, um, Uh, climate [00:40:00] change, you know, put putting CO2 metrics into the line item.

So it wasn't a nice to have, it was a need to have, you know, It actually, we had a financial tie for the company and so I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could do that for individuals? Like, bring this, bring greater ownership. To the consumer spend and um, and how, how we have a direct impact, individually driven, climate change impacts.

And in researching, there's a company called Yazi. There are a couple of other apps out there too, but you actually can kind of. Chart your own individual footprint through your spend. And, um, that would've been my idea, . Um, but somebody else had it. And, and I say bravo to them, but I mean, I think that there aren't enough platforms or maybe enough awareness about what we as individuals can do, you know, uh, to really start to impact our climate footprints.

And if we start to act as individuals, it really starts to drive a collective environ. . [00:41:00]

Paul Shapiro: Yeah. And uh, I, I think it's an excellent point and I would only supplement it by saying, you know, it's a big world out. And just cuz somebody else maybe has an idea or is doing something doesn't mean that there isn't room for somebody else to do the same thing.

So, I mean, you know, there's enough room for McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's, right? Even though they're all just selling fast food burgers, right? Um, but there's enough market that all three of them can exist together. Um, and the alternative protein space, there's enough room for both beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

And lots of other companies, you know, imagine if Impossible had thought, ah, you know, beyond us already doing a plant-based burger, we don't need to do it. Um, so just cuz somebody else is doing something doesn't mean that it's not a good idea for you to do as well. Um, you know? Right. Yeah. Apple has a really awesome smartphone, but, you know, so a lot of other good smartphones out there too.

Joanne Rodriguez: Well, yeah. How do, how do we improve on it? How, how do we, how do we drive something next gen? How do we create, um, more adoption and ownership and make everything more accessible? So, um, I would agree with, [00:42:00]

Paul Shapiro: Yeah. Yeah. Very good. All right. Well Joanne, I am really excited about Myco Cycle and I will be promoting your start engine so that folks can buy some shares in your company and get a piece of the bio remediation pie here.

So I look forward to following what you're doing. Again, I'll be rooting for your success and I really appreciate everything that you're doing to

Joanne Rodriguez: make the world a better job. Oh, thanks so much. And thanks for doing this podcast too, because I think like I. I believe you really have to highlight these emerging technologies along with the science of, of industry, and, um, you're doing a great job of doing that and so I appreciate you, uh, getting the word out.

It's very kind

Paul Shapiro: of you. Thanks, Joanne. Thank you. Thanks for listening. We hope you found use in this episode. If so, don't keep it to yourself. Please leave us a five star rating on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. And as always, we hope you will be in the business of doing good.