The Ocean Age

#8: The Seaweed Company with Joost Wouters - Stepping up professionalisation, building a company as a platform, true collaboration Vs. secrecy, and going from corporate career to seaweed entrepreneur.

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Joost Wouters is the Founder & SeaEO of The Seaweed Company. We started our conversation by unpacking the milestones of his journey from a corporate career to becoming an entrepreneur “hooked on seaweed” and on a mission to “make seaweed visible”.

Among the many topics discussed on this episode, here are some that you might find really interesting:

  • The need to step up professionalisation in the industry to get out of the “hobby” area, appreciating the value that you are providing to help grow from a cottage industry to establishing a competent and credible industry.
  • The mindset of starting a company as a platform, open to true collaboration and to partnering with like-minded people that want to work with seaweed.
  • The value of cooperation to grow hand-in-hand. Evolving the market rather than blocking the speed of innovation by protecting IP. Changing the attitude and learning to share failure.
  • Biorefining and how this area may develop in the future.
  • Biggest challenges to overcome, such as producing seaweed biomass on shore below a certain price.
  • Scaling production in a way that works with nature.
  • The benefits of using biostimulants and animal feed supplement.
  • Reconnecting with the source and the other living beings around us, removing the barrier between human being and nature.

Useful Links:

Joost Wouters on LinkedIn
The Seaweed Company: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.

Joost Wouters' Bio:

Joost started his professional career in the corporate world, working at Proctor & Gamble first, to then join the management team of PepsiCo. Following the urge to become more independent, he decided to start a management consulting firm, working with the leadership teams of large and small companies such as Danone, Unilever, Heineken and Reckitt Benckiser, in places all over the world. After a year spent travelling in the USA with his family, he moved to Spain, where he built a house and Leadership Centre at the Mediterranean. Ten years later he returned to The Netherlands to continue his journey to contribute to a liveable future for the generations to come by implementing carbon positive seaweed solutions with The Seaweed Company. Farming seaweed all over the globe to support the health & wellbeing of humans, animals, crops and soils.

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The Ocean AgeBy Fed DeGobbi