Future Optimist

Olugbenga Olubanjo is the founder & CEO of Reeddi, a Nigerian start-up that seeks to bring power to the 70+ million Nigerians who don't have reliable access.

Over 600 million people in Africa lack access to reliable power, but how do we solve the problem?

Olugbenga created the Reeddi capsule, a rechargeable power bank that people can rent for just 50 cents per day. Olu has already impacted thousands of people with his work, and his product was featured in The 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by TIME. This is a remarkable tale of taking matters into your own hands.

➡️ https://www.reeddi.com

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/olugbenga-olubanjo

Saoud Khalifah is CEO, CTO & Founder of Fakespot, a tool that seeks to eliminate fraud and fake reviews in ecommerce.

Have you ever tried to buy a supplement online with thousands of 5-star reviews only to find out that it’s actually sawdust capsules? That’s exactly what happened to Saoud, and this experience led him to understand that online reviews cannot and should not be trusted.

Between bots, paid fake reviews, and influencers, it’s harder than ever to trust what you read online. Often there are money dynamics at play that influence every facet of online discourse. Well Fakespot is a free extension and phone app that uses AI to analyze millions of reviews and detect fraudulent reviews, meaning it helps you make purchases more confidently online. 

Fakespot seeks to bring trust to the internet, and he’s raised over 5 million dollars for his company, which is already being used by nearly 6 million users today around the globe.

➡️ https://www.fakespot.com

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Kathy Hannun is the co-founder and president of Dandelion Energy, offering affordable home geothermal energy solutions.

We spend so much money heating and cooling our homes, and in a time of uncertainty surrounding natural gas and oil availability, getting off of fossil fuels in our homes has never been more important. 

Kathy left her job working at Alphabet’s prestigious X Lab to start her company, and they’ve raised over $130 million to date for the project. By homes switching to residential geothermal—heating and cooling their home using the earth below them—they can reduce their CO2 output by as much as 80% while cutting their energy costs in half. It’s a huge win-win.

Kathy’s been named to MIT Technology Review’s 35 Under 35, she’s a TED fellow, and the recipient of the C3E Award from the US Department of energy. In short, it’s an honor to have Kathy Hannun with us today.

➡️ https://dandelionenergy.com

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Mike Pappas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Modulate.ai, a start-up using cutting-edge machine learning to to make voice chat safe.

In case you don’t play online games, there’s an entire universe of people out there who play games like Call of Duty, League of Legends, etc, and they use in-game voice chat to communicate with each other.

The problem is, like other digital avenues, these spaces can be made toxic by bullies, trolls, and hateful people. For years, this toxicity has been seen as an unsolvable problem.

Mike and his co-founder have created a product called ToxMod that is a significantly more effective and cheaper way to moderate voice chats, creating a better experience for the vast majority of players who aren’t bullies or jerks. 

They’ve raised over 30 million in funding and recently made TIME’s list of the 100 most influential companies. It’s a brilliant solution to a problem you might not have thought about.

➡️ https://www.modulate.ai

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Anna Luisa Beserra Santos is the CEO of Sustainable Development & Water For All, a Brazilian organization bringing water and sanitation to people who lack access.

Proper water and sanitation have the power to reduce the number of deaths from waterborne diseases by as much as 65%, and Anna and her startup have already benefitted more than 15,000 people in 15 Brazilian states.

Anna founded her startup in 2015 at the age of 17, and in 2019 she won the UN Champions of the Earth Award. She was also the youngest Brazilian graduate in Leadership for New Enterprises from MIT at the age of 18.

➡️ https://sdwforall.com

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Carrie Chan is the Co-Founder & CEO of Avant Meats, the first cultivated fish company in Asia.

What is cultivated fish? If you assumed it meant fish that’s refined and well-educated, you’re wrong, but hey that’s what I thought, too!

Instead, it means that they are able to create real fish using the cells in a process that’s not dissimilar to brewing beer. They can take the fish cells and multiply them in a controlled environment, bringing you real fish without the animal killings, without those yummy microplastic seasonings that we all love so much, and without toxic heavy metals like that mercury that gives fish its healthy, wholesome taste. 

Carrie has raised over 13 million dollars for her idea so far, and in my opinion, it’s the future of fish and meat.

➡️ https://www.avantmeats.com

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Shiloh Johnson is the founder and CEO of ComplYant, a digital tax assistant platform that’s raised over 10 million in funding to date.

Shiloh’s personal journey is incredible, which you’ll soon find out, but the upshot is this: in her time as CPA, she noticed that many—most?—small business owners were making the same mistakes. 

She soon realized that there was a gap in the market and got to work building a platform to help business owners such as myself be a little less stupid. Ok, the stupidity part just applies to me, but everyone could use a little help.

This episode is great for anyone who’s thinking about starting a business or bringing an idea into the world. 

➡️ https://complyant.co

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast 

Stefan Ytterborn is the CEO & Co-Founder of CAKE, a Swedish tech company making light and totally silent off-road and commuter electric motorcycles.

They’ve raised over $70 million in funding so far, and their ambitious goal is to create the cleanest dirt bike ever—striving to approach that magical “completely fossil-free” goal.

CAKE was listed to  Time Magazine’s 100 most important inventions award in 2021, and they’re reimagining electric transportation from the ground up. 

➡️ https://ridecake.com/

Tessa Callaghan is the CEO and co-founder of Keel Labs, makers of a seaweed-based yarn they call Kelsun. 

In case you didn’t know, the textile and fashion industries are a mess, and they contribute enormous amounts of waste to our planet. Tessa and her co-founders set out to create a fully functional yarn with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional fibers. They’re harnessing a biopolymer from kelp to achieve this, and kelp is one of the most regenerative organisms on our planet. 

They’ve raised tens of millions in funding for their concept, and I’m excited to see what comes next. Here’s Tessa Callaghan of Keel Labs.

Susan Stone is CEO of Ubiquitous Energy, the world leader in transparent solar technology working towards a goal of helping solve climate change by creating truly transparent renewable energy for every surface across the globe.

Ubiquitous Energy has developed transparent solar cells to create its ClearView Power windows, a kind of “solar glass” that can turn sunlight into energy without needing the bluish-grey opaque panels those cells are generally associated with.

Ubiquitous Energy’s patented technology, UE Power™, is the world’s first invisible electricity-generating alternative to traditional windows. 

It’s something I can’t wait to see everywhere all around us, it’s just amazing stuff!

➡️ https://ubiquitous.energy

➡️ Highlights: https://rosspalmer.com/podcast