Portrait No. 001
Virj kan
Founder & CEO
Primitives
Im also a scuba diver, so I've had first hand experience diving in sea urchin barrens - and my love for restoring nature is why i'm working on this problem. I want to live in a world where I can escape this concrete jungle and not be enveloped by it. Additionally, I believe I was spiritually guided to heal and rewrite the mendocino social & environmental story by my ancestors who were once in Mendocino 170 years ago during the chinese exclusion era.
In her words
“I want to live in a world where we can escape this concrete jungle and not be enveloped by it. My love for nature is why I'm working to redirect the materials economy into a system that restores nature.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
As a female founder of color, I had never previously thought that part of the journey of being a founder, engineer and environmentalist would be to were to advocate for feminism and anti-racism. Having had over the last decade of experience working in materials science, a background in materials engineering and architectural design from MIT and have previously held roles at leading innovation labs like NASA Jet propulsion, MIT and Samsung Innovation - I still get quite a lot of doubt and micro-agression from investors or industry veterans that have never seen a technical person look like me. One time, I attended an industry event and approached an academic speaker to ask a question regarding the integrity of bioplastics. Their response to me: \"If it wasn't for petroleum, you'd still be human trafficked right now\"
Chapter II
Your vision.
Primitives MARBLIS turns destructive organisms into low-carbon architectural surfaces that drive large scale nature and ecosystem restoration. Our vision at Primitives MARBLIS is to turn Urchinite into a California’s major interiors stone products export and to convert the materials economy into a platform for nature regeneration. We aim to become a category defining company - pioneering a new wave of high performance Biocalcite surfaces on the market. The successful rollout, adoption, and impact of Urchinite will enable us to use it as a proof point to expand globally - as a new model for environmental action where nature restoration meets a circular economy.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
I want to make measurable greenhouse gas reduction and kelp forest regeneration. By 2031, we aim to restore 300 acres of kelp forest, sequester 800 metric tonnes of CO2 per year through our products at Primitives MARBLIS.