Meet Sarah Richardson, Maggie Brown, & Jeff Anderson of MicroByre

Invest in startups like MicroByre alongside Climate Capital here.

Founders: Sarah Richardson, Maggie Brown, & Jeff Anderson

Motto: Micro.Bio.Tech.

Year Founded: 2017

Stage: Series A

Location: Berkeley, CA 

–

Climate Capital: What made you want to solve this problem?

Sarah: The chemical industry is responsible for 2 Gt of greenhouse gas emissions a year - and as demand for materials shows no sign of abating, neither does expansion of chemical production. It is the largest consumer of oil and gas. Although they only use about 3% of the oil refined, they generate a third of the profit per barrel. Switching the chemical industry to biomass feedstocks would simultaneously reduce the emissions from petroleum and emissions from the unused biomass that would otherwise rot into the atmosphere. It would have a knock on effect of reducing the profitability of oil barrels, which would complement the drive towards electrical transportation by reducing the overall demand for oil by up to 12%.

Climate Capital: What are you building?

Sarah: We're building a platform for the domestication of bacteria. Our company is leveraging high throughput robotics and a keen understanding of data science, chemistry, microbiology, and molecular biology to generate and harness a machine learning dataset of unprecedented breadth. This engine lets us harness bacteria no one else has been able to press into industrial service.

Climate Capital: What is next?

Sarah:  I'm hardheaded, pessimistic, and I can't stand when "why?" is answered with "because tradition". There's a haze over recent biotechnology history that makes it hard to understand what has and hasn't worked --- what is and is not working. There's a reluctance to fund orthogonal ideas. I've been told 200 times that what I'm doing is either unnecessary or impossible. But no one has been able to point to proof of that. So I'm going to try to prove myself --- or them --- right. Just because it has to be tried, not dismissed out of hand. The rewards are too critical to armchair theorist our way out of trying.

Climate Capital: How do you foster growth and career development for your employees?

Sarah: Respect personal boundaries. We are not a family. We are a group of skilled professionals drawn together by a shared vision of how to improve the world – while making enough money to take care of our families. We will be friendly and care for each other’s well being while maintaining a professional working environment.

Be intellectually honest. Be clear with your colleagues about what you do and do not know. Tell your coworkers when you are guessing, what you base your assumptions on, and what data you use to make decisions. Be open to the possibility that you are wrong.

Challenge assumptions. Confront ideas. Question tradition. Examine biases. Make sure you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. Make sure your colleagues understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Admit to errors and be gracious about mistakes. Treat your mistaken colleagues the way your embarrassed inner child would want to be treated. Approach all mistakes as opportunities for improvement, not as sins to be expurgated. Help us make innovative and pioneering mistakes and then help us learn from those, too.

Lean into communication. Confrontation is not always comfortable but it is often necessary. Getting on the same page as your colleagues is worth taking the time to talk it out. Getting on the same page is not the same as agreeing.

Dissent, then commit. We all bring different skills and perspectives to the table. When you are a part of a discussion, your input is desired. You will listen to your colleagues, and they will listen to you. You will not always agree, but our biggest strength is your honest engagement. No matter what decision is made, commit to carrying out your part.

Climate Capital: What are the key challenges as you scale your company?

Sarah: We cannot produce chemicals ourselves. No biotechnology startup, as far as we can tell, has ever succeeded producing commodity chemicals. The global petrochemical companies are much too massive to challenge --- they have to be subverted. This takes a long time! Some of the failures of biotechnology may be due to capital's lack of patience in this arena. The return times are not on a SaaS or retail time scale. But neither are the challenges or rewards.

Climate Capital: What have you learned that you want to share with other founders?

Sarah: 

Don't start a company

Don't start a company alone

Don't start a company with a professor

Don't take dumb money

Use a recruiter

Take cyber security seriously --- start early

Climate Capital: How can the broader climate community help you on your mission?

Sarah: We're raising a B round (pray for us) we could use help preparing and networking.

We're also always seeking connection to companies with problems we can solve in chemical, enzyme, food, agriculture, and mining spaces.