Portrait No. 001
Pam Marrone
Executive Chair & Co-founder
Invasive Species Corporation
Raised — 4.2Million for current company. Total in my career $300 million
This is my 4th startup. The 3 previous were sold to larger companies and I also took the last one public on NASDAQ. Why again? There are massive invasive species problems to solve and we have the experience to have an impact. The new tools of AI/ML, genome mining and precision fermentation allow us to do it faster and more capital efficiently. Finally, each time we work on creating the \"ideal\" culture of how we want to treat people and align around our vision, mission and values.
In her words
“Impacting the planet in a positive way through biological solutions to control the worst pests”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
At my previous company, Marrone Bio Innovations (NASDAQ: MBII), our COO abruptly resigned (one year after the IPO). Then a customer informed us that their VP did a side deal with our COO that was not reported to the auditors and like fraudulent. We informed the board and this triggered a long, painful investigation and restatement. The stock went from $10/share to $0.79. He was arrested and jailed for fraud. My President and CFO (now my co-founder and CEO of the new company (Invasive Species Corporation - ISC), restructured the company, changed the board and management and had 5 years of sustained high growth (never a down quarter in the company's history) and we grew the gross margin from 5% to 60%. We \"retired\" from the company and when our non-competes expired we started up again as ISC.
Chapter II
Your vision.
Our vision is to \"regenerate nature with nature.\" We are obsessed with transforming stodgy, toxic chemical industries with safe, environmentally friendly natural products in agriculture and water. Succeeding means: 1) Defending agriculture from chemical resistant weeds, thus increasing farmer productivity, 2) Replacing just 1% of chemical herbicides globally would remove 45,000,000 pounds of toxic chemicals, 3) Minimizing CO2 emissions caused by Invasive Species: Reduce Carbon emissions by >4 Gigatons of CO2 equivalents by 2050; 4) Reduce ghg emissions from production of synthetic chemicals by 80-90% via fermented microbial bio-based manufacturing; 5) Ensure aquaculture productivity & growth: Protect farmed salmon (and other fish) from sea lice; Restore biodiversity of impacted ecosystems: Control invasive mussels in water infrastructure.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
By being a bioag entrepreneur way ahead of my time, I have paved and continue to pave the way for other female entrepreneurs to succeed. I mentor and advise several female-founded companies. I tackle tough technical problems others find too difficult. I want to be the first to disrupt the $34 billion chemical herbicide market with safer, effective, cost-effective natural product solutions.