Heath Fletcher (00:14)
Hello, welcome to another episode of The Healthy Enterprise. My guest today is Yuliana Mihaylova She's a biotech executive with expertise in leading R &D teams, overseeing scientific product development from inception to launch, and biotech and pharma management consulting. She is also the co-founder and CEO of OliveBio, which is a company that creates scalable and affordable bio plastics through sustainable bio manufacturing. Very interesting.
and looking forward to this conversation. let's get started.
Uleana, thank you for joining me today for this episode. I really appreciate you ⁓ coming on the show and sharing your story with the ⁓ listeners. So let's start with that. Let's start with, you know, tell us about yourself and who you are and what you're doing.
Yuliana Mihaylova (01:12)
Yeah, thanks for the invite. I'm very excited to be here having seen all the other guests. ⁓ Yeah, so my name is Yuliana Mihaylova as we've established the pronunciation. I am a scientist and entrepreneur. I have a PhD in genetics, ⁓ but I've had a very meandering path to get to where I am today. And where I am today is I'm the CEO and co-founder of OliveBio, which is ⁓
Los Angeles based company focused on solving the plastic pollution problem. And how do we do that? We're trying to figure out a better way to manufacture alternatives to petrochemical plastics. So alternatives that can degrade faster and not pollute the environment in doing so.
Heath Fletcher (02:01)
So you, like you said, you started in a science background and then at some point you transitioned. And what was the motivation for this shift in you? Cause was this originally where you wanted to go with your career or were you on a completely different track?
Yuliana Mihaylova (02:20)
No, I was many times on a variety of different tracks. So I think as I look back, it does have a continuity, my career, or maybe it's the stories we tell about ourselves that it all had meaning.
Heath Fletcher (02:36)
Yeah, there's a thread. There's a common denominator here. Yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (02:40)
I'd like to think so, but it was definitely not a very obvious path. So after high school, I actually thought I wanted to be a psychologist. So I did my undergrad in psychology, decided, no, that's not for me. I actually really love biology and I want to focus on that. So that has been a long lasting passion, definitely not moving away from biology, but.
Within biology, I did my PhD in genetics and then I thought I wanted to stay in academia and be a professor. Then I decided it's not quite for me. And I wanted to break into the biotech industry. And I did so initially through biotech and pharma consulting, which was also another maybe not so obvious jump, PhD trying to do business. ⁓
Heath Fletcher (03:26)
Right?
Yuliana Mihaylova (03:28)
But I had a great time there. I learned a lot about biotech and pharma businesses. And then after that, I joined a biotech startup in the pedogenetics field, joined it with my husband. We've always worked together on a bunch of different things. So we joined that startup together. He was the co-founder there and I was part of the executive team. We saw this startup all the way from beginning through acquisition.
And then after that, you know, we wanted to do something that we haven't done before, something that we deeply care about. we're very, you know, something that matters a lot to us. And that was tackling plastic pollution. And, you know, it's been something that specifically for me, it's been in my head for a very long time. you know, during my lab days when I was doing my PhD, I
became very conscious of all the plastic waste that's generated just in a day's work of a scientist's work. it's just mind boggling. It's like this full, massive trash of just plastic pipette tips and Falcon tubes and everything. And you've used it for such a short amount of time, and then it persists after you for such a long amount of time afterwards. So yeah. And that was maybe around, when was it?
Heath Fletcher (04:48)
Great. Yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (04:52)
2016 was when I graduated and I started thinking about it more seriously. And then in 2020 we had a child and I was again confronted with like the ubiquity of plastics in, you know, in childcare and like, you need something for your baby. Here you go. Plastic, plastic, plastic. It was just, yeah, it just struck me again. And it was, guess, the second push.
Heath Fletcher (05:17)
It's amazing how our frame of reference changes, you know, from whatever phase of life we're in and where we recognize things like this, where you're, wow, there's an abundance of this plastic, you know, that you didn't see before because you weren't really in that, that stage of your life. You know, like we talked about this before. My wife had a, had a health situation a year ago and where we spent, you know, she spent four weeks in the hospital and I went there every day as well.
And the daily, when you brought up the plastics, it reminded me of that, like the daily usage of plastics. mean, just that I saw on a day-to-day basis is happening with every patient. know, it's like plastic is, there's an abundance of it. So, well, so explain what OliveBio is then, because this is a really, this is a really cool solution that you've come
Yuliana Mihaylova (06:15)
Yeah, so as I mentioned, we focus on producing alternatives to the traditional type of plastics, also known as petrochemical plastics. And we focus on one specific material class called polyhydroxyocanoate. Last time I say this word. ⁓ In short, it's PHAs. Let's just refer to them as PHAs. It's a class of, you know,
Heath Fletcher (06:34)
To what?
Yuliana Mihaylova (06:42)
biopolymers, they're basically derived from renewable sources. And what's really cool about them is that they degrade in pretty much any environment you put them in, and they do so really rapidly. So you put them in soil, they degrade in soil, you put them in marine water, fresh water, in a composting facility, in your home composter, and they degrade much, much more quickly than pretty much any other type of bioplastics. depending on the environment, we're talking about
few months or like a year or two, which is ridiculous when you compare it to petrochemical plastics, which persist for like hundreds of years. Another cool thing about them is that when they degrade, because of the specific way in which they degrade, they do not leave microplastics behind, which is something that's probably everyone's heard about microplastics at this point, how we're finding them.
Heath Fletcher (07:19)
Yeah, yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (07:38)
in our brain, our bloodstream and placentus, and pretty much anywhere we look, we find a lot of microplastics. So we love PHAs as a potential solution to that problem.
Heath Fletcher (07:52)
Okay, so the first question that comes to my mind is, what triggers a decomposition process? Like if you're using this plastic as a vessel for a product, mean, do you use it for things like juice or like fluids or anything like that, or is it only solids? Like what prevents the breaking down, I guess what prevents it from breaking down while it's in its specified use?
as opposed to when you actually introduce it to your compost. Like how does it know when to not start composting?
Yuliana Mihaylova (08:27)
Yeah.
Yeah, you don't want it to compost while you're drinking your juice.
Heath Fletcher (08:32)
Exactly. Yeah, that's my question. How does it start? How does it know?
Yuliana Mihaylova (08:37)
It's a great question. So, PHAs, know, their natural product, like they were not created in a lab, like they did exist in a, you know, originally they exist in the environment and they're actually bacteria food. So some species of bacteria make them within their bodies during stressful conditions, ⁓ you know, and during stressful conditions when there's not enough food around for bacteria, they actually
eat that up, eat that accumulated PHA to just, you know, have more energy and keep on going. it is PHA is bacterial food. You can think about it in this way. it's, you know, in our, in our everyday applications, ⁓ you can think about it this way. Like if you have a very bacteria rich environment, like, you know, your trash bin or compost, ⁓ or soil or whatever, then this would trigger decomposition. ⁓
Yeah, in the day-to-day use, hopefully it's not so ridiculously bacteria rich that it would trigger decomposition as you're using it. ⁓ That said, there is more of a shelf life concern with PHAs than there would be with petrochemical plastics. Because it's an interesting problem. You want it to last long enough, but not too long. So there's different tweaks you can do depending on what materials you mix PHAs with to kind of prolong that or shorten that when you put it composition.
Heath Fletcher (10:01)
So maybe less of a situation to use for consumables like food products or things like that, and maybe more applicable to packages, packaging for items, things.
Yuliana Mihaylova (10:16)
You could use it for both. can. Yeah, could. way to regulate, for example, the speed of the composition and the shelf life through the thickness of the material. if you imagine if you have a cup made out of PHAs, if you have something that has thicker walls, it will last you a lot longer than something that has very thin walls. But generally speaking, for everyday use and... ⁓
You know, for a single use plastics, PHAs is getting increasingly more and more incorporated into different things.
Heath Fletcher (10:51)
So there's really no limit what you could use it for.
Yuliana Mihaylova (10:55)
⁓ it's still, I'd like to say that there's no limit. Yeah. ⁓ but unfortunately it's not currently, it's not the most perfect drop in solution for petrochemical plastics. It's getting there and it's like gradually, like people are figuring out more and more applications for it, ⁓ in different processes and different final products. But, ⁓ you know, I'd like to imagine a world one day where PHAs are used in.
every single aspect where plastics are used at. But it is currently more suitable for those applications where you want it to degrade eventually. Say, for example, if you have a household mixer, you don't want that to be made of PHA necessarily.
Heath Fletcher (11:40)
Right, right, right. That makes sense. Yeah. So definitely like out of the gate packaging is probably a one. Right. Okay. So where, how does olive bio fit into this? How do you, what, what, what do you do? What does the company actually deliver?
Yuliana Mihaylova (11:42)
Yeah.
Yeah, so we're still at an R &D phase, ⁓ but what we're aiming to achieve is basically reconfigure the redesigned production process for PHAs. So if I take a step back, ⁓ PHAs are currently produced through, I mentioned they're bacteria foods. So people produce PHAs through a process called bacterial fermentation. So basically you grow a ton of bacteria in a big vat.
somewhat similar to like beer brewing if you have that image.
Heath Fletcher (12:30)
Okay, yeah,
or wine.
Yuliana Mihaylova (12:33)
Yeah, similar looking equipment to some degree. so basically you have this, you know, large amount of solution full of bacteria and you know, you're doing different things to them to induce them to produce PHA and accumulate PHA within their bodies. And, know, after that, after like you're satisfied with the level of accumulation of PHA, you basically want to open the bacterial cells.
open them up to take the PHA out of it, out of the cells. And then you do a lot of purification and a lot of downstream cleaning up. And that's the standard process. So it's a very labor intensive and somewhat costly. So bacterial fermentation is very often used for, it's a great process for stuff like pharmaceuticals where it's a high value, but low abundance.
sort of thing. Well, for bioplastics, you the way we see it at least is that fermentation does present some potential challenges for commoditizing that, you know, that material. So making it something that's highly abundant and not so expensive. ⁓ Because bacteria are, you know, kind of like a black box a little bit. And, you know, they're very finicky, you know, they're influenced a lot by pH, by salinity, by different nutrient environments.
Every fermentation batch is a little bit of a cross your fingers sort of thing for the optimal result. what we're trying to do is actually get away from bacteria as much as possible. So instead of using the whole bacteria, we're actually focusing on specific enzymes. So enzymes are types of proteins basically. And we're using enzymes, not only from bacteria, but from around the living world really. We're using some human enzymes too.
We're focusing on enzymes that we can put together and they, you know, give them what they need and they produce PHA outside of the confines of bacteria. And why that is promising ⁓ is because you have a much more precise level of control in the process. Like we're basically sampling at every, at every single moment of the process, what's happening. We can observe it very well, time everything very well and respond accordingly.
I'll mention the amazing AI term. We do have an AI component to that where we're able to respond in real time to what's happening in the reaction and have that really very precise level of control. And then the nice thing about not having bacterial cells in your production process is that also you don't have to break them open and try to separate out the PHA out of the bacterial debris. So it's a much more straightforward purification process as well.
⁓ and yeah, we're building our system right now. ⁓ and yeah, going towards proof of concept, like finalizing our first proof of concept later this year.
Heath Fletcher (15:35)
Wow. Congratulations. Good job explaining that without blowing me away with scientific terminology because I actually got it. I got it. I understand. Good job. Very cool. That's very exciting. ⁓ And so once you get to that stage, where does that take you then after that point?
Yuliana Mihaylova (15:57)
Yeah, by the end of this year, as I mentioned, we're kind of aiming to have that first prototype version of our system where everything is hooked up together. We're putting the starting materials in and we're getting PHA out and we're like, there you go. And the next step is to start iterating on that and optimizing it further. So say for example, the enzymes we're using.
We want to further engineer them to make them even more efficient and even more stable in this ⁓ environment that's outside of bacterial cells. know, enzymes typically function within the cells, right? So if you take them outside of the cells, there's specific tweaks that you need to do. ⁓ And you need to poke them and prod them a little bit so that they're happy in the cell environment.
There's going to be a lot of that going on just to kind of increase the efficiency of the process and bring the costs further down. And starting to think about scaling that little prototype, scaling it into something bigger, expanding our lab operations and starting to do pilots with some partners that we're already talking with, ⁓ which is very exciting.
Heath Fletcher (17:11)
That's great. So that's where you can actually use this and actually apply it to create something for specific use. ⁓ that's really exciting. Cool. All right. Tell me about the name of the company, Olive Bio. I'm curious. I love it though. I love the brand. It looks really cool. I really appreciate it, but I'm curious about the name.
Yuliana Mihaylova (17:34)
Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you like it. There were no designers involved.
Heath Fletcher (17:41)
Good job.
Yuliana Mihaylova (17:43)
So the name of the company came from, so I mentioned I'm working with my husband. We've been married for long time now. We've worked together for 14 years and we have a son together. And our son's name is Oliver.
Heath Fletcher (17:58)
⁓ nice.
Yuliana Mihaylova (18:00)
So Olive Bio is another thing we care deeply about. And we saw the connection between the two. being the fact that Oliver was a little bit of a catalyst for that company as well, with us being exposed to all the plastics, we thought it's suitable.
Heath Fletcher (18:21)
It's perfect. It's your you're you're doing things for for the next generation. Next generation of people. That's cool. Wow, that's really great. I like I like that connection. ⁓ So you how did you ⁓ how was it in morphing yourself from being in science to being an entrepreneur? Has that been a
easy transition for you is did you did you not did you even know you had a little entrepreneurial spirit inside you?
Yuliana Mihaylova (18:53)
⁓ I think I did, but it took me a long time to gain the confidence to get there. ⁓ So my parents are actually entrepreneurs. So I kind of grew up in that environment. They're actually chemical engineers, although they, while I was alive, they rarely ever worked as chemical engineers, but that was their background. ⁓ But yeah, so I kind of saw, you know, growing up, saw what it is like to have your own business, the type of
things you care about and the type of, like what your day looks like. So I was familiar with that, you know, with that side of things. But, you know, then I went into academia and I wanted to be a professor and all that. But then I guess I mentioned earlier, I'd like to think that there was an arc to my whole experience and there was some kind of driving force that was semi-conscious. And I think, you know, it had my
All of my experiences have kind of taken me to the entrepreneurial space. Specifically, well, I managed to take something out of all of my experiences along the way. So during the PhD, I think I took something very valuable for entrepreneurship, which is things are going to fail a lot, like so much. They're going to fail all the time. And you just have to be okay with that and just think critically about what's happening and just, you know, pigheaded perseverance.
So that's something you've mastered during a PhD. Good point. think that's the main thing you mastered. And then when I was part of that pet genetics company, I really saw firsthand how things start being built from zero and to get it to the point where our team managed to get it in the end to be a nice buttoned up company that got acquired by actually the largest animal farmer company in the world.
It was a great journey to see, I kind of like learned so many things along the way. And I think that some of the most important things I learned were that there's no point and no use thinking about, you know, I can't do this or, I'm not the best, most suitable, perfect person to do this. It's more like, okay, we need this. There's no resources. There's nobody else. You go do it.
Heath Fletcher (21:17)
Ha ha ha
Yuliana Mihaylova (21:18)
And I think, you know, I think that was very valuable because it helps you build confidence because the first time you're mortified and you're like, I can't possibly do this. And then you realize, well, it wasn't so bad. So next time you're even better. And that happens in all aspects of things when it comes to entrepreneurship. I think, yeah, gradually through these experiences, you kind of learn trusting yourself a little more and seeing that, well, I mean.
Things will go wrong inevitably, but as long as you have a plan and a goal, it will hopefully work out.
Heath Fletcher (21:53)
Yeah, it's kind of like parenting. At the beginning you think, I can't do this. I have to take this brand new baby home and look after it. And you know, you kind of look at it like a very monumentous opportunity. And it's like, it's just day by day, step by step, you get a little better at it. And then, and then you decide to have another one. So there you go.
Or have multiple businesses, right? Instead, you brought up AI ⁓ not long ago. ⁓ are you guys taking advantage of some innovative technology, AI or automation or anything like that? Is there anything you're tapping into at the moment?
Yuliana Mihaylova (22:36)
We are, yeah. You know, as anyone else who has a business right now is tapping in in one way or another.
Heath Fletcher (22:42)
Somewhere, yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (22:44)
We've been utilizing it in a lot of different ways. So from one aspect, it's built in in our system. So it's like an AI controller on top of our system. As I mentioned, we're training the system on different conditions and the AI is able to respond to changing reaction conditions in the most appropriate way in order to maximize PHA production. So that's the overarching kind of goal.
⁓ But then in our day-to-day operations, we also use AI tools a lot. So my husband, actually, he's also a scientist. He is a data scientist and bioinformatician and biologist. So he's been tinkering with machine learning, which was formerly what most AI used to be called. ⁓ So he's been tinkering with that sort of thing for a long time. ⁓
He has been really impressed actually with the capability of a lot of current tools to kind of alleviate some of the coding work that he has to do on a daily basis. So he's been saying, wow, like this is like, it saves me like instead of hiring two junior developers and just, you know, spot checking, I'm just spot checking what the AI tool is producing. And it's pretty much the same. It's maybe controversial to say that, but that's what his takeaway was. ⁓
Heath Fletcher (24:06)
Yeah, I think that's a, that's a pretty common experience right now is that it is, it is the, it's the, the speed and the accuracy that is, you know, is really, ⁓ taking the world by storm. And, and it's, ⁓ everyone's saying, you know, it's just learning to adapt to using, utilizing this tool, but still using people to, to proof it, to test it, to ensure, but
The speed of that and accuracy of collecting so much data and getting some sort of result from that is what's really happening in most people's areas.
Yuliana Mihaylova (24:45)
Yeah, for sure. That's our experience as well, that you use it to do the grant work, but you still need a competent human checker at the end of the day. ⁓ And I use it for more trivial things like polish my writing here, or what do you think about this slide? What else should I add? ⁓ I've been enjoying myself with that.
Heath Fletcher (25:09)
Yeah. And that's helpful too. It has, kind of reaffirms what you're thinking and provides that little bit of extra support that you need. Yeah. So, ⁓ next stage is now, have you, how have you found this sort of, ⁓ journey in, in, with the business? Have you had any, I mean, obviously challenges come along the way and, and have you had any sort of major hiccups or things that you've
push through in this process? I mean, I know you're not to market yet, ⁓ anything that you've kind of that you've learned through this process of this stage?
Yuliana Mihaylova (25:51)
I personally have faced ⁓ maybe a recurring challenge in olive bio, similar to what I faced through all my other career transitions, ⁓ of which I've had a lot. ⁓ I think that challenge is really ⁓ when you enter a new field, kind of establishing that network, that relevant network of people who can help you and support what you're doing. ⁓
I think it can be a little hard to kind of make those initial connections and that can slow things down in the beginning. ⁓ So that has been, sorry, that's not necessarily, think that's velocity. I don't mind keeping him in the...
Heath Fletcher (26:36)
That's velocity,
Fine,
it's totally fine.
Yuliana Mihaylova (26:42)
Yeah. So, you know, that is something that, you know, I kind of have always, you know, spent a little bit of time to pick up when I change a field. ⁓ Other than that, you know, like, it's not specifically a specific hiccup, but something that has, you know, it's something we always keep in mind when we, you know, when we think about developing our system and designing our processes that
Biomanufacturing is insanely expensive. so the first challenge in everything we think about is like, okay, we can't afford this. How do we this cheaper? So to give you an example, you know, for prototype stage things, instead of buying something off the shelf that's offered by, you know, a very well established molecular biology company.
or a robotics company, we're like, okay, well, this fridge on Amazon costs 200 bucks. Let's break it apart, take its compressor and it does what we need it to do.
Heath Fletcher (27:46)
⁓ smart. Okay.
Yuliana Mihaylova (27:48)
I'm doing a lot of this sort of thing. ⁓ And obviously there's challenges associated with that. What we want to do at this point is we want to put the pieces together and show that it works rather than being preoccupied about spending thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for something that might not pan out. So ⁓ I think that's more of a mindset ⁓ rather than a specific challenge. it is always like, OK, this is the obvious thing we could buy.
What else can we buy that's actually 10 times cheaper than this and does the same thing?
Heath Fletcher (28:21)
Well, I mean, it's a philosophy that is in line with your whole business with, you know, reduce, reuse, recycle, right? Like you're using things that already exist rather than buying something new at a large, at a high price. it does, it's interesting. does fall into lines completely with your values of the company anyways, that you're, you know, said it's bootstrapping by
by using things that already exist, I think it's kind of a cool, kind of part of the story, you know?
Yuliana Mihaylova (28:55)
Finding new life for things that exist.
Heath Fletcher (28:57)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yuliana Mihaylova (29:00)
Yeah. He wants to be part of everything.
Heath Fletcher (29:05)
Yeah, he's actually we had a cat look just like him actually his name was ferocious
Yuliana Mihaylova (29:11)
That's great.
Heath Fletcher (29:13)
Okay, when you know, well, when you've been ⁓ building this business, did you? What do you see if you were to kind of like, go fast forward a little bit into the future? What do you what's it? Where do you see as far as how what the uses are going to be right now? Like when you're when you're thinking as like, Okay, I could see this working for this particular product or this industry or where are you seeing it?
Okay. Velocity is gone. We've lost our velocity. He's no longer there. Okay. My question was, yeah. So from where you're at now, or even before you, when you started the company, where did you see this being used? Mostly? mean, cause you said, Oh, you saw plastics here, plastics there. But for right now, where, where do you see it probably being used first, you know, in the near future?
Yuliana Mihaylova (30:07)
Yeah, so it's definitely a growing field, but so far what has been the most prominent in terms of use cases has been packaging, as you mentioned, different types of packaging. Also single-use plastics like cups for events and festivals and things like that, ⁓ like cutlery, like the plastic type of cutlery that you use. ⁓ Basically single-use plastics. It's been picking up... ⁓
pace in 3D printing filaments, actually. It's been increasingly used there as well. Something that I'm very excited about also is actually agricultural applications because there's so much plastic that goes into agriculture that the end consumer doesn't even see. We think, okay, this is wrapped in plastic in the store. my God, there's too much plastic. It's actually 10 times more. We just don't see it.
Heath Fletcher (31:04)
Wow.
Yuliana Mihaylova (31:04)
during the whole agricultural process. something that PHA has a great potential for, and there's already some budding applications in that ⁓ particular space, if you imagine like mulch film that you use during agriculture, so you just cover the ground ⁓ with this mulch film to protect from different things. And it's typically made from... ⁓
think it's polyethylene, like low density polyethylene. So a traditional petrochemical plastic that does not degrade. And how farmers typically get rid of it is, well, they have to actually take it out and organize proper disposal to a landfill and all that, which is associated with extra costs. If you make this with PHA, you could, you know, it does degrade into the soil. So you don't need to have that extra expense of organizing, you know, pickup and disposal.
And apart from that, if you have that made out of PHA, I mentioned earlier, PHAs are bacterial food. So as they degrade into, as the material degrades into the soil, you're actually enriching the microbial diversity of the soil, which has potential benefits to growing your crops. So it is one of those applications where it's not just a sustainable replacement of something we currently use, but it does provide its own unique benefits.
Heath Fletcher (32:25)
Mm-hmm. Almost multiple use. Yeah. Yeah. Plastics. Interesting.
Yuliana Mihaylova (32:28)
And
actually, mentioned earlier, the medical setting, ⁓ PHA is already used in like some suture materials, for example. Yeah. So that's also a great application because again, the grades and it's biocompatible and non-toxic.
Heath Fletcher (32:45)
Right. So they actually make the sutures out of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Talking about timely. So obviously, I mean, you're not to market yet, but you've had to somehow you've branded yourself, you, you, you're marketing your company to, to somebody. What, what, process are you in in that? Is it, is it investors? Is it partners? I think you mentioned partners. How do you.
Yuliana Mihaylova (32:49)
Yeah, some switches.
Heath Fletcher (33:13)
How do you market OliveBio to find who you need to find right now?
Yuliana Mihaylova (33:18)
Yeah, so, ⁓ yeah, as you mentioned, different stages require a different audience. So right now we are ⁓ talking to two main groups of people, ⁓ know, marketing ourselves to two groups of people. ⁓ One is potential partners and potential customers down the line. So discussing, you know, particular applications, a particular
⁓ know, material properties that will be important for them for this specific application. So having those conversations ⁓ across different industries, it's been something that I've been enjoying a lot because I'm learning a lot about different fields. And the other ⁓ audience that is very obvious for a startup is, you know, we're starting to kind of get a little bit more involved with investors. ⁓ So far, we funded everything ourselves, but we are, as we are approaching the
final point of that first prototype. We're also approaching the point where we want to start bringing some more people in ⁓ from an investment perspective. those are the two main ⁓ sort of audiences. But, you know, there's been something also that I've been thinking a lot about ⁓ and I would really like to focus more on this ⁓ in the near future and kind of build from there. And that's specifically this approach of, you know,
B2B to C sort of marketing. ⁓ So, you know, in our previous company, ⁓ the pedogenetics company Basepost, it was a direct to consumer company. So I really got exposed to this, you know, how important and fickle and fruitful the final consumer is as a, you know, as a marketing target.
So I think the field of sustainability is also uniquely suited to influence that end consumer and to maybe then help drive demand for your product further up in the supply chain. ⁓ Yeah, there's many examples like that. One that I particularly like is, I don't know if you're a cyclist, if you like cycling. ⁓ There's this Japanese brand Shimano that make bicycle parts.
And you know, the end consumer doesn't buy Shimano parts, they buy bikes and but their brand is so strong that the end consumer is going to the bike store and saying, well, do you does this bike have Shimano parts, I want something which Shimano parts in it. this is kind of like the blueprint that I would like to follow also.
Heath Fletcher (35:56)
Yeah, the buyer has, has major power in that process. Just, just by doing that, by asking about certain products. mean, pharmaceutical companies take advantage of that. You know, right? mean, that you, what, when do you not see a, ⁓ mad for a med for a medicine or a treatment for a disease or an ailment and say, ask your doctor. you know, you go around and you're, you're, you're targeting end user.
Yuliana Mihaylova (36:06)
Sure, yeah.
Heath Fletcher (36:24)
but through the providers or like you said, through the supply chain. So yeah, it's a great model. Absolutely. think that's smart because then you'll have people asking for your product. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great way to do that. Uh, and growth wise, when you're looking at the growth now, do you see yourself? I mean, is the desire to see it through to the end? it merging?
Yuliana Mihaylova (36:34)
Mm-hmm.
Heath Fletcher (36:49)
mergers and acquisitions for you or what's your vision of ⁓ you and your husband in this?
Yuliana Mihaylova (36:57)
I mean, things change obviously, but from where we currently stand right now, want this to be something that we build and it lasts. So we're not necessarily rushing to consider the first acquisition offer. ⁓ We want to build this into something big and something that solves the real problem rather than it just being absorbed into a bigger machine of somebody else. And maybe they don't make the best use of it. ⁓
Yeah, that's how we're currently thinking about it.
Heath Fletcher (37:31)
I appreciate that. That's, I mean, it's, it is something you, you built it from a heart centered place, you know, like you, I'm sure you want to see it to, to at least a certain point where, know, it has got, you've achieved your goal of actually making a difference in the world and having an impact on the environment and perhaps, and making a change for the next generation. Yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (38:00)
Yeah, that is the goal. I mean, as I mentioned, know, things change if we notice, you know, if we notice that somebody can actually make this a lot, like make a lot better use of this than we can at that point. And it can really propel its impact and, know, obviously something to consider.
Heath Fletcher (38:18)
Yeah, sure. If there's a point where it's like it would just go from zero to a hundred. Yeah. And it's not able to do that. But ⁓ and how big is the company now? Just the two of you.
Yuliana Mihaylova (38:30)
No, so two of us and we currently have three people in the lab. have a molecular biologist who's our lead scientist. We have an environmental engineer, our lead engineer. And we also have a lab technician who helps with the molecular biology ⁓ routine tasks. So yeah, five people right now.
Pretty manageable. ⁓
Heath Fletcher (39:02)
that's great. Well, this has been a really interesting conversation. I, I really, I, you know, we had an initial chat previously, but, it already piqued my interest, but it was been a really great to be able to ask questions and, get more info about olive bio and what your vision is. And, it's very inspiring. I'm really, ⁓ thank you for, for doing this. I think it's, you know, these are solutions that the world needs. ⁓ and so.
Yeah, thanks for doing this. is there anything, last thoughts or things you'd like to mention before we close it up?
Yuliana Mihaylova (39:43)
⁓ Yeah, thank you. Thank you for a nice conversation and thank you for not minding velocity. ⁓ And I think any last words? ⁓ You know, I would maybe say if I, you know, if I could be so bold as to offer advice to people who are trying to do something new, ⁓ I would probably say something like just
It's important, like if you're trying to do something new, it's important to listen to people that could help, but only up to a point. You know, it's very important to kind of find that balance of like filtering out the naysayers versus those that can be, you know, constructively helpful. And sometimes that is a very hard line to figure out. And I would say like when you're in doubt, you know, just try it out and like think, think from first principles. If somebody's.
tells you, OK, you can't do it this way because da, da, da, da, da, like for 20 years it's been done this way. You can't possibly do it this way. And I mean, just think about, well, why not? Let's think in detail. Why not? And what are the hindrances? And can I solve them? Is it worth solving them? What will it give us if I solve them? So I found this sort of mindset to be very helpful and also just to keep in mind that we're teachable when we learn throughout all our lives.
I find it very irritating when, example, okay, I have a PhD and like people put me in this box, like, okay, you're a scientist. You can't possibly know anything other than science. You can't possibly ever learn anything other than science. You your learning stopped when you were in your late twenties, you know.
Heath Fletcher (41:27)
Yeah.
Yuliana Mihaylova (41:30)
So I think it's important to recognize that this is not the case. ⁓ And if you want to learn something and do something, just go do it.
Heath Fletcher (41:38)
Yeah, I think that's good advice. mean, we never stop learning. I mean, as soon as you stop learning, you're dead. I mean, that's it. I mean, we were learning every day all the time. You know, it's, really important to stay on, to, to stay in that mode. I mean, it's a mindset, ⁓ learner's mindset and entrepreneurialism is very much about that. It's about, ⁓ you every day, something new, ⁓ comes up. And, and, I think that's really good advice is that, and there is no, I think you also said to like,
It's not bad to question status quo. Right. It's, think it's actually good to, know, yeah, sure. Things have been done the same way for a very long time because they work, but that doesn't always mean that they'll always work that way. And somehow, somewhere, sometimes someone has to question something and go, why are we doing it this way when we could possibly do it this way? Maybe is another way that AI is, is changing the way we think about things is because
Yuliana Mihaylova (42:11)
Yeah.
Heath Fletcher (42:37)
AI can actually give you several theoretical options ⁓ in about 13 seconds. then you can consider all the options by throwing it at that. But that's just an example of how, you know, I think there are ways, there are more, there's always more than one way to do anything. And so I think that's good advice is to question the status quo in the process.
Yuliana Mihaylova (43:03)
And ask child GPT.
Heath Fletcher (43:12)
Yeah that's another one yeah. Well awesome thanks to you Leanna for your time today and sharing your story. It was fascinating to listen to and I look forward to seeing where you go with all of bio.
Yuliana Mihaylova (43:28)
Thank you. Thank you. I really enjoyed the conversation.
Heath Fletcher (43:30)
Yeah, me too.
Okay, that was a really cool conversation with Yuliana. I enjoyed hearing about her journey as a PhD in genetics into becoming an entrepreneur and founding Olive Bile while focusing on creative alternatives to petrochemical plastics. I mean, the environment is something most of us are concerned with and it's great to hear about these potential solutions that are emerging. They have a fundamental ⁓ belief and value in
in reducing and reusing and repurposing. I mean, they used innovative solutions to repurpose existing materials, ⁓ to save costs in these early stages of development. ⁓ And, you know, I think they've infused this sort of continuous learning as a vital part of not only personal, but their professional growth. And ⁓ so that was really cool. I look forward to checking back in with Yuliana in the future and
⁓ seeing where things are at in the coming months. ⁓ yeah, thanks for listening to another episode of the Healthy Enterprise and stay healthy and ⁓ have a great week.