#15: Nordic SeaFarm with Simon Johansson - Cultivating and using sea lettuce and dulse, disrupting the food industry, reaching product-market fit, developing food products and a downstream market.
Listen now
Description
Simon Johansson is the CEO of Nordic SeaFarm and has been working in the aquaculture industry for 5+ years and has a strong passion for the ocean. With a background from Management Consulting and working in the Middle East, North America and Europe he has acquired strong knowledge from various cultures and companies now being applied to scale up Nordic SeaFarm to become the pioneering seaweed company in Europe going forward.  * Check out the ⁠Inside Seaweed Newsletter⁠! Just one short email per month, no spam and you can cancel at any time. Would you like to get a super short email from me every month, with three actionable insights for your seaweed business? I will search the seaweed industry for the most important lessons, the most useful conclusions and relevant actions, condensed into a half page that I will share with you, each month. It's easy to sign up and just as easy to cancel. If you'd like to give it a try, head over to ⁠insideseaweed.com ⁠ * [1:05] Seaweed home-made pesto recipe. [3:12] The global food crisis and how the ocean can play a role. [6:10] Problem-solution fit, what is the problem we are trying to solve? [8:50] Developing a downstream market for seaweed-based food products. [15:40] Beyond taste, using seaweed as a functional ingredient in food products. [21:20] Changing public perception about a new crop. [23:00] Disrupting the food industry with innovative seaweed products. [29:20] Vertical integration Vs. Specialisation. [33:15] Product innovation and focusing on the customer. [35:35] Growing other species of seaweed beyond kelp. [36:20] How to enter the seaweed industry and have positive impact. [37:00] Pursuing product-market fit. Testing, metrics and product development. [42:20] Need for expertise in developing tasty but industrialised. [43:45] The importance of lowering price and the risk of making seaweed a commodity. [46:50] Collaboration and competition [47:50] Opportunities in growing and using high value species such as sea lettuce and dulse * Useful Links: Simon Johansson on LinkedIn Nordic SeaFarm: Website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram * Inside Seaweed's host is Fed DeGobbi, get in touch on ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Twitter⁠, or directly via ⁠email⁠. Please send in your feedback: what do you want to hear more or less of? any suggestions? Would love to hear what you think!
More Episodes
Harry Wright is the Founder and Director of Bright Tide. Harry studied law and practised in the private sector for ten years. It was there he saw the potential to harness the ingenuity and resources of the private sector to help solve global conservation issues, inspiring him to launch Bright...
Published 05/14/24
Published 05/14/24
Sachi Singh is the Founder and CEO of Rootless. With a decade of experience in international climate change solutions and a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale University, Sachi is well aware of what we’re collectively up against. In seaweed, she found hope! Seaweed is one of the most...
Published 04/16/24