How Solugen is Saving the $5 Trillion Chemical Industry (Co-founders Gaurab Chakrabarti & Sean Hunt)

21 snips

Nov 15, 2023

Guest

Gaurab Chakrabarti

Guest

Sean Hunt

Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt, co-founders of Solugen, discuss how they are revolutionizing the $5 trillion chemicals industry with their plant-derived substitutes. They touch on topics such as the challenges in the industry, their manufacturing process, meeting over a game of poker, the first wave of Cleantech startup failures, the importance of logistics and supply chain, and their strategy for scaling the business. They also share interesting stories about their homemade metal catalyst reactor and building their first factory on the site of an exploded wax distillery.

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Introduction

00:00 • 4min

Introducing Solusian: Replacing Petroleum-Based Products and the Importance of the Chemical Industry

04:28 • 18min

Achieving a Negative Carbon Impact in the Chemicals Industry

22:40 • 6min

Identifying a Market Opportunity in the Water Cleaning Industry

28:19 • 20min

Finding a Facility for the Chemical Plant

48:04 • 2min

Company History, Hiring Sprints, and the Startup Experience

49:53 • 2min

Accelerating Development of Products and Molecules

51:48 • 12min

Decarbonizing Chemicals and Building a Strong Business

01:03:24 • 3min

Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt are the Co-founders of Solugen, which replaces petroleum based products with plant-derived substitutes without sacrificing affordability or performance. They met playing poker in college, kickstarted the company with $10k from an MIT pitch competition, and have since scaled the business to over nine-figures in revenue.

Solugen has raised over $642 million from investors like Fifty Years, Lowercarbon Capital, Founders Fund, Refactor Capital, and Cantos Ventures.

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Topics discussed:

How the chemicals industry touches 25% of US GDP
Why the industry is like real estate: fragmented and focused on asset utilization
The reason chemicals companies have terrible NPS scores
How Solugen’s manufacturing process converts plants and C02 into chemicals
Meeting over a game of poker while getting their PhD’s
Winning $10k from an MIT pitch competition to capture 10% of the float spa market in Dallas, Texas
Why the first wave of Cleantech startup fail
Why logistics and supply chain are the biggest problems in Chemicals
Their framework for thinking big, but taking little steps to get there
Running their homemade metal catalyst reactor at YC Demo Day
Launching, scaling, and selling a CPG wipes company to prove their chemicals worked
Building their first factory (the BioForge) on the site of an exploded wax distillery
Their strategy for getting large, multinational companies to try their products

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Referenced:

YC Application video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tItLPnLIH4o
Solugen - The First Carbon Negative Molecule Factory: https://jeffburke.substack.com/p/solugen-the-first-carbon-negative
Solugen - The Century of Biology: https://centuryofbio.com/p/solugen

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Where to find Gaurab:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gaurabc
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurabchakrabarti

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Where to find Sean:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TungstenSeanide
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/huntsean

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Where to find Turner:

Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

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