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Concrete That Works With the Ocean, Not Against It
Seventy percent of marine infrastructure worldwide is concrete, and almost all of it is harming the ecosystems around it. Dr. Ido Sella has spent 14 years trying to change that.
His company, ECOncrete, tweaks the composition of concrete so that marine larvae — oysters, corals, barnacles — can actually settle and grow on it instead of being repelled. The result: 7x more carbon sequestration per square foot, reduced invasive species, and infrastructure that gets stronger over time as biology builds a protective crust on its surface.
ECOncrete has deployed across 50+ projects in more than 30 countries and 10 seas, all with a team of 40 people. Time Magazine named it one of the top 100 inventions in the world in 2019. In Staten Island, their breakwaters are bringing oysters back to a waterfront that was once known as the oyster capital of the Northeast.
In this conversation, Ido talks about the science, the business, and what drives a marine biologist to build a company in one of the most conservative industries on earth. He also talks about co-founding ECOncrete with Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, losing her in 2021 — one month before their Series A close — and the decision to carry the company forward in her name. Every investor, without coordinating, gave the same answer: "If you're going forward, we're investing." They closed the round three weeks later.
He shares what the wilderness has taught him about leadership, the story of closing a funding round from a makeshift chair in the Desert with Leonard Cohen on a Bluetooth speaker, and the one line that now defines how he handles every setback: "It's not a crisis until someone is dying."
(00:00) Introduction
(01:57) What Is ECOncrete?
(04:07) The Biology Behind the Technology
(07:14) Discovering the Solution by Accident
(08:47) From Research to Global Deployment
(12:48) Global Scale and Business Model
(14:08) Why Clients Pay for Ecological Infrastructure
(19:09) Growing Up in Jerusalem
(22:43) What the Wilderness Teaches
(29:52) Solitude and Entrepreneurship
(31:33) Protecting Time in the Desert
(35:09) The Struggles Behind the Story
(40:52) Losing Shimrit
(44:51) It's Not a Crisis Until Someone Is Dying
(46:59) Signs of Recovery in New York's Waters
(52:08) The Tottenville Living Breakwater Project
(55:27) Retrofitting vs. Building Right
(57:11) How to Get Involved
(1:03:48) Barclays as a Partner
(1:05:21) Closing Reflections
(1:07:20) Next Episode Preview
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By Unreasonable GroupSeventy percent of marine infrastructure worldwide is concrete, and almost all of it is harming the ecosystems around it. Dr. Ido Sella has spent 14 years trying to change that.
His company, ECOncrete, tweaks the composition of concrete so that marine larvae — oysters, corals, barnacles — can actually settle and grow on it instead of being repelled. The result: 7x more carbon sequestration per square foot, reduced invasive species, and infrastructure that gets stronger over time as biology builds a protective crust on its surface.
ECOncrete has deployed across 50+ projects in more than 30 countries and 10 seas, all with a team of 40 people. Time Magazine named it one of the top 100 inventions in the world in 2019. In Staten Island, their breakwaters are bringing oysters back to a waterfront that was once known as the oyster capital of the Northeast.
In this conversation, Ido talks about the science, the business, and what drives a marine biologist to build a company in one of the most conservative industries on earth. He also talks about co-founding ECOncrete with Dr. Shimrit Perkol-Finkel, losing her in 2021 — one month before their Series A close — and the decision to carry the company forward in her name. Every investor, without coordinating, gave the same answer: "If you're going forward, we're investing." They closed the round three weeks later.
He shares what the wilderness has taught him about leadership, the story of closing a funding round from a makeshift chair in the Desert with Leonard Cohen on a Bluetooth speaker, and the one line that now defines how he handles every setback: "It's not a crisis until someone is dying."
(00:00) Introduction
(01:57) What Is ECOncrete?
(04:07) The Biology Behind the Technology
(07:14) Discovering the Solution by Accident
(08:47) From Research to Global Deployment
(12:48) Global Scale and Business Model
(14:08) Why Clients Pay for Ecological Infrastructure
(19:09) Growing Up in Jerusalem
(22:43) What the Wilderness Teaches
(29:52) Solitude and Entrepreneurship
(31:33) Protecting Time in the Desert
(35:09) The Struggles Behind the Story
(40:52) Losing Shimrit
(44:51) It's Not a Crisis Until Someone Is Dying
(46:59) Signs of Recovery in New York's Waters
(52:08) The Tottenville Living Breakwater Project
(55:27) Retrofitting vs. Building Right
(57:11) How to Get Involved
(1:03:48) Barclays as a Partner
(1:05:21) Closing Reflections
(1:07:20) Next Episode Preview