The Live Green Co

Within a quarter of closing our 8Mn USD fundraise in Jan 2022 (at The Live Green Co), our team was 75 people in size (up from 6-7). Today, we are only 25! However, the work we are doing is 10X more technical, intense and results oriented. How/Why? Initially, we too believed that VC capital is to hire more people and get more done, much faster. However, by the end of that year, we realized that that's not necessarily true. In fact, more often than not, it is counter productive (especially when you are not running an ops extensive biz) - due to culture/language differences, insecurities, and if you hire from corporates, egos, and lack of the 'urgency' culture and the 'get shit done, now' attitude. Since early 2023, we have been following the Elon Musk way of running companies (video attached) and it has been working out great for us. 1. Build small efficient technical teams 2. Dont grow team size for the sake of growing 3. Don't hire / don't hesitate to send off culture & energy misfits 4. No middle management (no bureaucracy) 5. Vibrant and energetic/passionate atmosphere, which anyone who walks in can see. (If not, why are we even working?) We first optimized 75 to 45, then to 35 and now to 25. And where needed, we started working with agencies for short durations on specific tasks. Sometimes, as a founder, you know these things - you’ve heard them, read about them, but you let your guard down. It’s good this change came when it did, because lessons learned through our own experiences become like scars that never fade, molding us forever. By focusing on lean, high-performing teams, we’ve not only unlocked our true potential but are also able to reward everyone more and well. #productivity #efficiency #performance #startups #scaleups

My research journey with #Postbiotics #ActiveFunctionalIngredients The Live Green Co

Exciting things are brewing! At the Agri-Food Tech Expo Asia in Singapore on Nov 19th, our Chief Commercial Officer, Adrian M Odgers, will be diving into our Precision Fermentation journey and sharing our vision for the sector ?? What started as an emerging tech is now a game changer for the future of food. Precision Fermentation is key to sustainably feeding our growing global family ????? As we look ahead, it's clear that this innovation will help transform our food systems and enhance food security for generations to come. Tune in for some eye-opening insights into this exciting revolution and Live Green's evolution as an enabler with proprietary Tech and unique GTM ?? #PrecisionFermentation #FutureOfFood #Sustainability #FoodInnovation #GlobalImpact Kelvin Ng ?? Farah Fami Stephanie Chan Terence Ho Agri-Food Tech Expo Asia

Building our company culture at The Live Green Co is more than just a checkbox—it's a passion. We're dedicated to creating a small but mighty team driven by the values that matter most. Our aim? To empower every team member with the guidance, challenges, and support to grow into C-level potential. We believe learning happens through aha! Moments, inspiring activities, and meaningful conversations. We’ve recently started sharing our values in fun and unexpected ways—like our movie workshops! Together, we watch inspiring films that offer powerful lessons, followed by thought-provoking discussions and assignments like: https://lnkd.in/ghutHMiM - Could a movie be made about your life? - Have you taken risks, been persistent or carved your own path? - What were the game-changing moments for you? - How do those moments resonate with our team’s core values? - If you were the protagonist, what would you have done differently? It’s not just about watching movies, though. It’s about exploring how we at Live Green embody the core traits that help startups like ours thrive in industries dominated by giants—traits like: - Communication - Initiative - Self-awareness - Reliability - Resourcefulness But we don’t stop there! We also bring in real-life inspiration. Take Naved Ahmad, CEO of Ecosys.Earth, for example. Fifteen years ago, he left a high-profile media career in Dubai and returned to India to turn barren land into a thriving food forest with over 3,500 trees. He’s now helping marginalized communities build climate-resilient livelihoods. His journey is a true testament to taking risks with purpose. We also learnt practical tips from Manjeesh TG,?who taught us how to stay energized, focused, and motivated daily and avoid the dreaded overanalysis. And now, we’ve introduced internal board meetings where management shares key business updates transparently with all team members, answers questions, and takes input. It’s not just about building a company—it’s about building a culture of growth, understanding, and purpose.

Don’t play it safe: One of the key barriers to producing Nobel-level research in India is the lack of a strong culture of risk-taking and innovation. Scientists are often encouraged to pursue safe, incremental research for the sake of securing research funding, rather than bold, high-risk projects that may lead to revolutionary discoveries. The Live Green Co Priyanka Srinivas Kavish Kumar Jain, PhD Adrian M Odgers Ashutosh Srivastava Juan Andrés Hurtado Ravi Udipi ANA MARIA DIAZ MIRANDA Dr. Goutam Mohan Pawaskar Chandu AGS, Ph.D Rahul Gopalam, Ph.D. Sahana N Gayathri Bhat Saket Shrivastava Vedanth Gowda vimala kunchapu Nagarjuna Akula Siby Isac Dhanusha shree G Srilavanyaa kathiravan Shekinah Roshan IRFANA SATHAR Shilpa S Kugunavar Sahithya M. Subha Radhakrishnan P Ambika Abinaya Soundararajan Madesh S Fathimath Shabeeha

Do not let your #vision of the world be distorted because of the ugly, the cowardly in those who have never achieved any kind of integrity. Do not sacrifice your world because of those who are at its worst. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, and an intransigent mind that doesn't hesitate to travel unlimited #UncharteredRoads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the inevitable swamps of the politics, the greed, the comfort zone, the distractions. Do not let the hero in your soul perish due to any reason. Do not think of pain or danger or adversaries and adversities a moment longer than is necessary to overcome them. There's no greater and #TruerWealth in this world than to #OwnYourLife. Check your road. Check the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won! It exists, it is real, it's yours. Adapted from #AtlasShrugged by #AynRand #WhoisJohnGalt

I have always lived by the thought that if our #dreams don't scare us or if people don't laugh at them, we are dreaming small. I have also experienced how #manifestation works - declare your goal and go after it without an iota of doubt, and it will happen. Hence, I am putting this out there in writing: I want Team The Live Green Co to aim higher - I want us to win a Nobel prize in medicine. Or at least lay down the foundation for Live Green's next generation to be able to do so. Only 6 Asians have won a medicine Nobel (1 Chinese & 5 Japanese) - out of 227. What say, #team? In the last year and a half, you have done some phenomenal pivoting (from being a plant-based food tech co) to becoming a top-notch #Biotech Co. You have synthesized dna-identical human breast milk fat in the lab, built a unique co-fermentation process to make the top 7 science-validated postbiotic metabolites in one go, and made animal-free collagen precursor from microbes and plant extracts. I am extremely proud of the metamorphosis, and am amazed at how you have achieved this, that too with 5X cost efficiency compared to industry standards. So, let's #StayHungry #StayFoolish PS: Did you know? Professor Youyou Tu who had discovered Artemesinin to cure Malaria did this using Chinese #ancestralwisdom, and it was only 9yrs ago in 2015. This is one of the things we do at Live Green using our #PlantDBs

Our #PrecisionFermentation derived human breast milk fats - GreenTAGs? - are turning heads and setting new standards (in #health, #foodsecurity and #sustainability)! We will be at the invite-only 2024 NutraIngredients (#NIAawards24) Asia awards night (Sept 18th, Bangkok) as a finalist in the Infant and Child Nutrition Category. Dr. Kavish Kumar Jain, PhD and his team will represent us at the event. They will also be at #Vitafoods Asia 2024 on the 18th and 19th. If you’re in the world of ingredients or consumer health care, let’s catch up! We would love to share about our prioneering work in #InfantNutrition, #SeniorHealth, #GutHealth, #HealthyAgeing & #AdditiveReplacements, and explain how we can help your company not just keep up with industry trends, but also set them. Just shoot us a line at [email protected]. Here's some scoop about our GreenTAGs?: Human breast milk fat supplies 40-50% of the energy needed for infant development, with additional benefits like nutrient absorption, neuro development support, boosted immunity, gut health and overall wellbeing. Triacylglycerols (TAGs) make up 98-99% of human breast milk fats, and at Live Green, we used precision fermentation to develop the main TAG, called OPO (Oleic-Palmitic-Oleic). Our yeast-derived lipids mimic the unique composition of human breast milk fat, unlike traditional infant formula that relies on vegetable oils devoid of short and medium chain fatty acids. Innovative alternatives are being developed in the industry through enzymatic interesterification reactions, but they don’t typically contain optimal levels of OPO, or are challenging, inconsistent and expensive to manufacture. Our innovative solution not only provides infants with essential nutrients that are crucial for their development, but also addresses the shortcomings of other formulations by mimicking the unique composition of human milk fat. Also, our patentable engineering techniques help increase the TAG molecules in the produced fats, increase the amount of fat by altering the genes that divert the flux of carbon towards the fat instead of other biomolecules in the cell, and prevent the degradation of the fats produced via the deletion of the responsible genes. So, we are able to address not only quality issues, but also issues related to scale and commercial viability.

We're #hiring a new Production Scientist - Food/Beverage/Supplements Manufacturing in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Apply today, or share this post with your network.

Eight AI startups revolutionizing the food industry! ?? On the cutting edge of technological advancement, these #AI startups are transforming food production and addressing significant challenges in the #Agrifood sector. From creating plant-based alternatives to optimizing agricultural practices, these eight companies are reshaping the future of food: NotCo, AgrodatAi, The Live Green Co, Proppos, MOA foodtech, Ajinomatrix, Trigo, Impossible Foods? Investment in AI-driven food technology has been rising steadily, reflecting a growing interest in innovative and sustainable solutions in the food industry. Learn more about their transformative solutions here. https://lnkd.in/dMyw4PhK #ArtificialIntelligence #Startups