Taurine, Traceability, and Tenacity: Inside the Minds of Visionary Entrepreneurs

Jordan Tyler: Hello and welcome to the first official episode of Founders in Focus. This new podcast is a collaboration between Plug and Play, a global startup accelerator supporting entrepreneurs across various industries and BSM Partners, the largest global pet care consulting firm. Over the next seven months, we're getting up close and personal with four entrepreneurs currently going through Plug and Play's AgTech and Animal Health accelerator program, which will culminate with a pitch event in Topeka, Kansas, in June.

In this inaugural episode, we’ll introduce the founders behind three different startups currently going through the Plug and Play Topeka program, learn more about their businesses and backgrounds, and otherwise set the stage for an exciting season.

In future episodes, we’ll learn more about their experiences as part of the Plug and Play program, their struggles and successes, and what they’re learned through participating. There will be inspiration, and there will be controversy, and we’re taking you behind the scenes of all of it.

In June, two winners will be chosen from these programs, one for Agtech and one for Animal Health. But the story truly lies in the journey of each of these entrepreneurs as they seek market acceptance of game-changing technologies and concepts that aim to change the way we feed and safeguard food for all animals, our pets included.

I'm your host, Jordan Tyler, and this is Founders in Focus.

Before we dive into our fascinating conversations with these founders, I want to make one point. This podcast isn't just about startups. It's about the people behind them, their unique paths to entrepreneurship, and the groundbreaking solutions they're working hard to bring to the world. Each founder we’ll feature this season is tackling complex challenges, reshaping industries, and ultimately, working toward a more sustainable future, where all animals, humans and pets included, can truly thrive.

So with that, I'm pleased to introduce our first founder—or I should say, our first team.

Dr. Daphne Preuss is the chief executive officer of Nataur, and has been working for several years already on a platform technology capable of leveraging microbes to produce more natural, bio-based sources for taurine through fermentation, among other essential and widespread nutrients that touch our food, our pets’ food, our health and beauty products, and much more.

Taurine is an essential nutrient that supports cardiovascular health, skeletal muscle, vision, and proper nervous system functioning. While it's naturally occurring in animal products like meat, supplemental taurine, which crops up in a myriad of products—from commercial pet food to infant formula to shampoo—has historically been manufactured using a petroleum-based process, which involves hazardous compounds and known carcinogens, and is really not great for the environment.

The presence of supplemental taurine in our foods has risen as more and more people, and pets, take up a more plant-forward diet, meaning they probably aren't getting all the taurine they need from those plant-based sources and rely on additive or supplemental taurine in such products.

Thus, finding a way to produce taurine without using petroleum-based methods is crucial, not only for the health of the planet, but also for the health of all living things that need taurine to thrive, which includes us, our livestock, and our pets.

Dr. Preuss works closely with Francesca Gallucci, strategy and communications expert on the Nataur team, to identify commercial applications for this technology in a broad array of markets, including in animal health. We’ll be hearing from both of them today, starting with Dr. Preuss, a PhD biologist and biotech entrepreneur with more than 20 years of agribusiness experience.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Well, I started my career in research and initially worked with microbes and fermentation. So Nataur is kind of bringing me full circle to those early days. After that time, I migrated to crops, agriculture, spent some time in academia. I was a professor for several years and then spun out a company. So now over two decades in entrepreneurial business focused in the food and agriculture space.

With respect to this company, we launched about three years ago. It was an intensive R&D effort at that stage, and now we're moving into the commercial stage and I'm spearheading a lot of the activities as CEO. We also have a very sound research team, and they're making great headway, and our two founders, Kathy and Frank, have just been there from day one and, and super helpful.

Jordan Tyler: I was going to ask if you are a serial entrepreneur or if this is your first rodeo, but it sounds like you've got some experience under your belt.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Oh yeah, I ran the company I mentioned that spun out for 11 years and we grew from around five people at launch to around 200 people. We were selling seed products to distributors that sold to farmers. We were doing that around the world. So, we ended up with operating sites in about 13 countries. So it was kind of a big daunting, you know, enterprise by the end. Sold that company, and then after that, I have just been so excited to help entrepreneurs get their companies launched, grow through difficult growth spurts.

It's tough to go from startup to bigger. And, you know, I often say, when I was doing it, I learned a lot of things the hard way. And so, hope to help people avoid some of those mistakes. Of course, you always make new ones, but, you know, there's some basics that I find a lot of technology founders just don't know because they've never been exposed. And so, a lot of times I can step in and help them with, with that journey.

So that was what I did with Kathy and Frank about three years ago when we launched this. I also advise other companies, I'm on boards and, you know, try to help others get to where they want to go with primarily food and agriculture.

Jordan Tyler: That's really cool. And I think it gives you a unique perspective and a perspective that some of the other startups or early-stage companies that are going through the program may not have that person in-house that's kind of done this before and maybe knows what to what to do and what not to do. But like you said, I do appreciate you saying, “You don't make the same mistakes, but you make new ones.” That's funny.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Yeah, it always seems there's something to screw up, you know, as you do these and we often say, you know, like fail little, fail fast, get past that, you know, so then you can grow.

Jordan Tyler: Kind of coming back to Nataur and the platform technology that the company is using. And so, I was hoping you could kind of walk me through the technology specifically, how you're kind of leveraging it for the non-petroleum based taurine ingredients, and what gaps are you filling in the market with this product?

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Almost every molecule we find in nature can be made in a microbe, but a lot of times the microbes don't always have the machinery to do that. And now, because we understand a lot about genetics across many, many species, it's possible to take genes from here and there and put them in your favorite microbe and turn it into a factory to make what you want to make.

The founders started working on this process for molecules that contain sulfate. And sulfur, it's a core mineral that you need for life. It’s present in a lot of the ingredients we eat. It's present in flavors, fragrances, antibiotics, and pharmaceuticals. There's just a huge number of molecules. But for various reasons, it's been a little bit tough for biologists to figure out how to harness sulfur in these factories, in these microbial factories, and really make the ingredients they want to make.

And so, our founders started working on that about seven years ago. And it was a long process, you know, figuring out how to take a microbe that does one job and convince it to do a different job. Twenty-six genes were compiled from all over and optimized and adjusted to do the work. And now they are really effectively making taurine from these microbes, but also with just a little tweaking, we can make other sulfur-containing molecules.

Historically, these have been made from petroleum and with chemistry that sometimes is very caustic, environmentally hazardous, makes a lot of contaminating molecules in these that are carcinogenic. Sometimes you see heavy metals along for the ride. So, you know, getting stuff made in microbes is a much cleaner way to do it, using just the tools of biology.

So, we're excited about the platform because it gives us a chance to make a huge number of things that people have been wanting. And taurine was our first. We looked for something that was a major market player, something that was needed in a number of industries from health to personal care to food to various kinds of chemistry. So we like that opportunity to, you know, chase a variety of markets.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, that's really exciting. And as you were kind of explaining the technology, you know, it does sound like you have endless opportunity to extrapolate it to other things and add value in other ways. So that's awesome.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: That's right. All of that is because the DNA sequence of so many different forms of life is known now and not only known, but we know how to decode it and understand what the various pieces do. So, and then, picking and choosing from that menu and putting them together is something that people have really learned a lot about recently, and that's a field that people often call synthetic biology. So, to take the pieces of biology, rearrange them, and make something slightly different.

Jordan Tyler: Very cool. Let’s turn now to Francesca Gallucci. We met with Fran at the Silicon Valley Summit last fall, where she shared more about her background and how she got into the startup world—and this story might surprise you!

e on the oil and gas floor in: 2003

In 2020, I left for the startup world. I was really inspired by the technology that I saw coming online, and I'm very interested in supply change. So, coming from that energy space, I knew how to get electricity from the ground to somebody's light switch, but I didn't understand how consumer finance worked or how food systems worked. And the startup world has given me a way to feed my curiosity, my hunger for understanding how systems work.

And I'm interested in those supply systems that we need to bring us from where we are today to this faster, more modern world. So as decision making is getting faster, as the precision that we understand what we need, what are these bridges, what are these systems that get us there?

So, I was really interested in fintech and consumer finance, how our data and our access to finance was changing. So, I got to do that for two years. And now, when I found Nataur, it was, for me, this intersection of human and animal health. Also, again, back to my earliest career understanding how the oil industry affects everything that we do. So changing from a petrochemical process to a natural fermentation process was this supply chain innovation that I'm really excited about from my own personal career path.

Jordan Tyler: Such a fascinating background. So we talked a bit about sustainability being one of the key benefits of making bio-based taurine versus petroleum-based taurine. Francesca shared with us when we sat down with her that per ton of bio-based taurine produced, Nataur has achieved an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the emissions that would come from producing a ton—so the same amount—of petroleum-based taurine. Which, an 80% reduction is absolutely astounding and really highlights the opportunity for this platform technology to make a truly positive climate impact.

But I am curious, Dr. Preuss, are there any other salient benefits you might want to communicate to a consumer or a company that’s seeking to buy bio-based taurine? Let’s say you're selling to a pet food company—do you have like data or any anecdotal information on how a more natural source would be better for the animal?

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Chemically, they should be identical. It's really going to differ in the contaminants. But there's a business reason that's kind of front of mind I think for a lot of people in the current climate.

So I mentioned that these petroleum-based processes are pretty messy, pretty harmful for the environment. They're mostly happening in China and most of the supply is controlled by just a handful of companies in China. And so, people around the world who need to source taurine end up talking to those companies and trying to figure out, you know, how to get shipments organized and all of those things.

In a world where all of the trade relationships are being reevaluated, differentiation of a supply chain is much better for business. So we can, you know, build these fermentation capabilities. There's already existing facilities in a lot of places, but you can also build new ones without a lot of costs, completely less costly than a petroleum refining facility or something like that. Right? It's very small.

And, the other thing is, there's kind of a desire to make a product on demand, you know? So, in the current supply chain, people have to think about their orders well in advance. They try to fix pricing. The pricing goes up and down with petroleum pricing. So, you know, they're constantly trying to predict where they'll be. If you can have a differentiated supply chain, then you can have a lot more flexibility of ordering just in time or just before you need it, or waiting for the prices to be what you need them to be.

So that's a big advantage. You know, not necessarily about, you know, what the product is, but more of how the whole business works.

Jordan Tyler: So as we're talking about this, it dawns on me that this is a pretty science-y topic. And I think you've done a fantastic job, Dr. Preuss and Francesca, of breaking it down so it's really easy to understand.

But, you know, personally, I never realized there was petroleum in supplemental taurine. So, maybe it's not an issue everybody really realizes today. So, I'm wondering, Dr. Preuss, how do you get the message across, and what's the general sentiment you hear from people once they learn that supplemental taurine is not only unsustainable but could actually be jeopardizing our health?

Dr. Daphne Preuss: I often explain what I'm doing to my mother. She's a great sounding board, and a good barometer for how a general consumer will respond to things. And so, she was asking me about what products contain taurine.

And you mentioned pets. I mean, people are very sensitive to what their pets eat. They really, really focus on that. But the other one that got my mom spun up was it's in infant formula. And she just paused for a moment and said, “You mean we're feeding petroleum to babies?” It's like, yeah, kind of, sort of, mom, that's sort of what's been going on, you know, and not just taurine, but a lot of ingredients.

And she just was so outraged. So, you know, I think people, once they realize where food comes from, where ingredients come from, they're starting to be a lot more thoughtful about the sourcing.

ack to the melamine recall in: 2007

Dr. Daphne Preuss: That's right.

Jordan Tyler: Just the sheer chaos in the market that ensued as a result of that, company's going out of business.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: That's a perfect example. I mean, and the outrage when you realize that, you know, someone could be so careless with something that ultimately impacts lives you really care about.

Jordan Tyler: Absolutely. Yeah. And this recall was super widespread. It resulted in more than 100 pet deaths and around 500 cases of kidney failure. And you mentioned earlier that most supplemental taurine comes from suppliers in China. Well, that’s where a lot of this melamine came from, too.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Yeah, there have been a lot of issues. Right, right. So, yeah, you know, for us, our first target is not selling to infant formula because we want to have a lot of testing and make sure that everything is perfect. But we ultimately think that we can be a supplier for that market too.

Jordan Tyler: Tell me about some of the other use cases for this microbial taurine.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: Something that may be a surprise to you is shampoo, you might not have thought about, right? So detergents are molecules that can solubilize grease and water. So, they manage to—I mean, you know this when you wash your dishes, right? You get, the grease moves into the water and you, you can clean your dishes, your pots and pans.

The kinds of detergents that we've been using in personal care products are somewhat caustic. They dry out your skin. They sometimes cause irritation. And what the industry has found is taurine is a great substitute, and it is less harmful to your skin. It's much more gentle. And so there's a movement now to replace harsh detergents with a more biological kind of detergent. So there's another one.

The other application we should make sure that everyone's aware is the health benefits of taurine. I think most people know proteins are made of amino acids. We all saw this in biology class, and there are 20 standard amino acids.

Taurine is not one of the standards, but it's a big part of our body weight. It's about 0.1 kilograms of mass in every person, so that's a lot. It's absolutely essential for core processes like cardiac, brain, other healthy, you know, things that we need. Gut health, for example, it's really good for that. It's good for keeping balanced metabolism. So we all need it, and one of the things that happens as you age is that you have less and less of it in your body. You can, when you're young, make a little bit, but for most people it comes from diet, and the natural source of it in your diet is meat products or dairy products.

So, if people are deciding to be vegan and only plant-based, then they don't have enough taurine and they really need to supplement that. So, it's becoming a big part of the supplement industry as well.

I mean, there's a reason it's in infant formula, it's helping for early development, also for, for aging and longevity. There's a lot of literature now, long studies of human populations to look at this. So, you know, it's ultimately, we kind of come full circle. Plant-based diets are great as long as it has all the things you need, and if it's missing some key ingredient, you know, and dogs being kind of from the, you know, the wolf, the coyote background, right? They ate meat and you try and change something fundamental. You probably need to make sure they're getting all the key nutrients they need.

Cats are also huge, huge constituent of you know, pets that this country has, many countries. It's actually, um, mandated by the FDA that taurine is in cat food, so they seem to have gotten even further along than the dog story.

Jordan Tyler: It's interesting too because dogs can synthesize taurine from other essential amino acids like cysteine and methionine, but cats can't do this as well, so they really have to rely on dietary taurine and supplemental taurine to thrive.

Dr. Daphne Preuss: They have to have it. Yeah. So like if they're eating something like tuna, um, which my cat loves, the manufacturers can do a measurement of the amount of taurine naturally contained in the tuna, and then they can report that.

Uh, but if they're eating something that's not, you know, derived from a meat, then they have to say that this taurine is an additive. So, we learn more all the time. One of our partners has said to us, this is kind of like vitamin B or vitamin D. At some point it's just going to be in so many of the foods that we eat that we just don't even think about it because it's that essential.

Jordan Tyler: So, I bet you didn’t know we could use microbes as mini taurine factories, did ya!? Super fascinating concept, and I look forward to learning more about the platform and how they traverse the Plug and Play program in future episodes.

Let’s move now to another founder, an Irishman, a rugby player, and a dedicated dad of three—Barry McDonogh.

Barry McDonogh is the chief executive officer and founder of Hinalea Imaging, a startup offering intelligent food inspection solutions as a service through its AI enabled hyperspectral imaging platform. This technology was spun out of Barry's first startup, TruTag, which is pairing secure edible barcodes—yes, you heard that right—with consumer-friendly mobile applications to tag, track, and trace pharmaceutical drugs and other consumables.

Barry's journey to becoming an entrepreneur was not typical. Although that's sort of the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship—it truly looks different for everyone. We sat down with Barry at the Plug and Play Silicon Valley Summit in Sunnyvale, California last November to learn more about this story.

Barry McDonogh: Well, I'm Irish, born in Ireland to a big Irish family. So, there's five of us in the family. My dad worked in insurance and my mum was a teacher.

So brought up in the: 1980

You know, in terms of my movement towards being an entrepreneur, it's sort of had sort of several stages. So first of all, I was in doing that M&A advisory work. Interesting because you got to see a lot of companies, but then you never really, sort of the deal happened, and then you never really saw what happened thereafter. So, I went from that sort of the M&A advisory role into then industry was my next step.

So I moved into a big Irish company. So that was sort of gave me more experience of sort of the operational side of things. So, I got to actually see when you had a strategic plan, you got to go and see it through. And I worked right across the world with them for about five years.

I was in that role for about a year when I came across a particular company that we brought as an acquisition candidate to that company. It wasn't a great fit for that business. The multiples were a little bit high, and I was relatively young at the time, and I decided then I was going to take a risk and move from a large PLC into a small business. And then after I wrapped up with that business, I kind of really went from, took my next step, which was actually into a true startup, you know, so a pre-commercial business. And that was my last role before my current role today. It was my first startup. And then from that startup, I actually founded my own startup within that particular business.

So, I took a technology that they had, formed a new business unit within that business, and last December we spun that business out into its own separate entity.

Jordan Tyler: So TruTag is also your startup, and Hinalea is spun out of TruTag.

Barry McDonogh: Exactly, yeah. So TruTag was the initial company where this technology was born and developed. They were using it for a different application. And when they stopped using that technology for, they digitize medicines—they were using it to sense particles on a particular medicine—and when they stopped using it for that application, I said, “Okay, well, there's use for this technology in other markets.”

So, we had this sort of internal business unit that I founded, and that's been sort of growing slowly, and we got to a point then last year that we, we spun that out and capitalized it.

Jordan Tyler: Interesting.

Barry McDonogh: I would say I'm not the classic entrepreneur, you know, I sort of migrated towards that role over time. So, my risk profile kind of increased over time.

Jordan Tyler: So, you had a pretty dynamic and progressive career path prior to becoming an entrepreneur. What inspired you to take that leap?

Barry McDonogh: I wanted to be more involved in the decision making. So ultimately in advisory, you're not involved at all in a big company. You are a part of that, but you know, that's a huge company.

I wanted to sort of be able to have my imprint, I guess, on the business. I had that more so when I went to a smaller business and then ultimately when you become CEO of a startup. It's, you know, it's very much oriented around, and it's not that I'm a control freak in any way, but it's nice to be able to be in that position to know that, you know, a lot of the decisions that you make with your team are driving the strategic direction of the business.

Jordan Tyler: I would also imagine it comes with a lot of pressure.

Barry McDonogh: It's dreadful. It's absolutely dreadful. It is really, really lonely because, depending on how the business is doing, you know, if you're doing well, you share all the accolades, but when it's doing poorly, you know, you have all of that pressure. You know, a lot of people look at the CEO role and startup life and think it's sexy. You know, it's not, you know, for every startup that's success, there's several hundred that fail.

And, you know, when you compound that with the capital environment last year and this year, still, that's incredibly difficult. There's just so many startups that have gone under. And, you know, so there are absolute positives. You know, you get to meet amazing people. You’re in charge of the strategic direction of that business. And there's, if it works out for you, there's massive upsides. But at the same time, there's significant downsides too.

I played rugby my entire life. So, it's the ultimate team sport. And my leadership, I always see that I've got to be in the trenches with the team, right? So, I’ve got to lead from the front.

If people are getting canned, you know, I need to be in a position where, you know, I'm, I'm hurting too, right? So maybe I'm not taking salary for a year, you know, that's my leadership style. I always think I'm all about the team first and myself second, because that's what I've learned through rugby.

It's a fantastic sport. So, I kind of, that's what I model. I try to model my leadership style on is that always just sort of put the team first before yourself.

Jordan Tyler: I think that's a really excellent analogy. You know, having to really build a team and take up that leadership role, you know, growing a business similarly, it takes resilience, it takes emotional intelligence as well as, you know, the industry savvy that you've obviously built up over time, but just because you have had those experiences still doesn't mean that starting your own company is going to be a be a piece of cake, right?

Barry McDonogh: Yeah, exactly. You know, I think particularly with some of the businesses, although I've sort of come in and it's a startup business, you also, you're dealing with some of the challenges that were made in the past. So I think there's probably a difference between inheriting a role as a CEO and a business that has started from scratch, and one that you are sort of inheriting some of the decisions that were made in the past.

So, I think that is a big thing that I learned for Hinalea, because Hinalea was one that sort of we'd done from scratch and. A lot of the mistakes that I've seen in other places, I have made sure we don't make for Hinalea.

Jordan Tyler: So tell us more about your businesses, and let’s maybe start with TruTag since that’s where the technology for Hinalea first originated.

Barry McDonogh: So TruTag, as I said, it's digitizing medicine. Of all the businesses that I've been part of, it's the one that has, I would say, the highest social good. So they are essentially trying to give patients the ability to pick up a tablet in your hand and with your cell phone, authenticate that tablet. Nothing else, just your hand and your cell phone being able to know that that medicine that you're about to take is a real medicine.

And in the US right now, there is something called a Fentapill. It's probably the biggest problem in the US that people haven't been hearing about. So what's happening is that the cartels are manufacturing medicines that look like Xanax or Adderall, but they're lacing them with Fentanyl. And they're coming into the market, they're being resold on, on Snap or on Facebook, Instagram. And they're being resold and marketed as valid medicines to teenagers and to young adults.

Michael Johnson: This is really a thing.

Barry McDonogh: This is really a thing. And there's thousands, I think it's about four to five thousand kids a year are dying from this.

There's a wonderful charity, it's called A Song for Charlie, and there's a family who lost their son. And it's very sad. But they had a, just a normal child who was studying and wanted to, you know, took a painkiller and thought it was a painkiller and died. One tablet. Because you've got fentanyl as, it's a legal painkiller, but this is synthetic fentanyl. It's very, very powerful. So even a microgram too much and you die.

So these are not people who are trying to take—and I'm not distinguishing, I'm not saying that anyone deserves this—but they're not trying to take heroin or anything like that. They're literally trying to take medicines. And it's a huge issue in the US right now, and nobody, very few people know about it.

In: 2023

So, TrueTag, you have the ability to actually pick up your medicine and authenticate that medicine. I would give anything, I would give up every piece of equity I have in that business for the industry to adopt this technology. I really don't care. It's not about money for me. It's a technology that the industry should have. And unfortunately, because the drivers are not there for pharmaceutical industry to adopt it, it'll only happen if it's driven by legislation.

So the only way this will be adopted is if the politicians in Washington decide that this is something that, you know, controlled substances in the US should have so that people should be able to essentially pick up a medicine and authenticate it, not from a packaging perspective, because the challenge is if you have it on a package, people can—and it's happened—they can take the package, take the medicine out, and put the new medicine in, and you, this has happened and has been in stores in the US, in retail stores.

So it's, you know, it has to be from a central perspective in the US now. You know that, unfortunately, the political parties can't agree on what color the sun is, let alone something like this. So, I think the chance of that happening is low, but maybe in time.

Jordan Tyler: That is truly harrowing. I had no idea this was happening.

Now, Barry mentioned A Song for Charlie and we've linked that website in the show notes for listeners who want to learn more, but I encourage everyone to check it out.

Moving on to Hinalea Imaging. At the Summit in Sunnyvale last fall, Barry was offered up a surprise opportunity—to pitch his company to an audience of investors and partners on the Summit stage. One of the founders who was scheduled to pitch dropped out last-minute, and Barry was more than willing to take their place. Let’s hear a snippet of his pitch now.

Barry McDonogh: Hello everybody. My name is Barry McDonough. I'm CEO of Himalaya. Our company works across multiple industries. We are officially in the animal health intake this year. But we also work across food, ag, tech and some industrial applications as well. So I'm here today to talk to you about intelligent Imaging. Our company, Hinalea.

It's nearly lunchtime, so I'm going to ask you all to close your eyes and think about your favorite lunchtime snack. So it could be a salad, it could be a pizza, it could be a quarter Pounder with cheese. For me, it is a beef swartzy from Primo Hoagies. I don't know if there's anyone from the east coast. If you're here, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's a fantastic sandwich.

I'm not going to be talking to you about sandwiches for the, for this presentation though. I'm going to be talking to you about food safety. So think about that particular snack that your preference for a food and now think about that coming being served with a side of food pathogens—Salmonella and the likes of that. I had my last bout of Salmonella earlier on this year. I lost about 20 pounds after and it was terrible. It hit me like a bus. So not a pleasant scenario.

But unfortunately this is something that on a yearly basis about 4% of the people in the room will go through. So hopefully you were not one of those 4% from a food safety perspective, two of those delicious treats that I mentioned—Quarter Pounder from McDonald's and the Beef Swarchy, which is beef from Boar's Head—in the last six months have had a major outbreak of a food pathogen: Listeria in the case of Boar's Head and E. Coli in the case of McDonald's. Now the impact of this food pathogen is really severe. So, you know, we're talking about 125,000 hospitalizations a year. People are dying from this. So it's a really huge impact, both from a social perspective but also then from an economic perspective.

So, how does that fit into what Hinalea is trying to do in the market? Well, we're essentially trying to rapidly identify food safety and food quality issues in the supply chain before they get to market.

Jordan Tyler: I had the pleasure of catching up with Barry after his pitch, and he mentioned he received around 15 to 20 solid leads from the Summit, some of which were a direct result of people hearing his pitch and wanting to learn more. So, just goes to show the power of jumping at unexpected opportunities, and the power of networks!

Now, we also sat down with Barry during the Summit, where he shared more about the specifics behind the technology and the various use cases it can be applied.

Barry McDonogh: We have a really interesting solution. So there's two parts of the solution. One is a sensing component, so it's an imaging component that has about a hundred times the spectral sensitivity of your eyes.

So we can look at something, look at a, you know, could be a piece of meat or a strawberry or whatever it is, and we can see things that your eyes can't see. And then we take that data and we couple it with machine learning to solve a specific problem. So we can look at a strawberry, we can tell you how ripe that strawberry is. We can look at a piece of meat, we can determine whether, you know, what the fat content is, what, you know, the freshness of that meat, all of these different things.

When you couple it with microscopy, you can identify if food pathogens. So, we're all about essentially taking tests that happen in a lab today and moving them earlier into the supply chain so that you're able to identify these issues sooner and you've less chance of those making their way to a consumer and somebody getting sick.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, that's fascinating. And also super timely because it, it does seem like we've had an increase of high profile recalls involving food pathogens over the last year or so, and they've not only been widespread, but also fatal, which is really serious.

Barry McDonogh: I think what's happening in the industry is that there's so much pressure on reducing costs. There's increased automation.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, it seems to be, like, becoming more of a problem, or maybe it's just becoming more apparent, more covered.

Barry McDonogh: Yeah, I think it's probably a combination of both. You know, it's like everything—there's a bigger microphone for things when they go wrong. And, you know, consumers are getting more and more powerful because they share those stories. But the damage to individuals and to brands is huge. It's absolutely huge.

Jordan Tyler: So, taking kind of a turn here, but I have to know—where did you get the name for the company?

Barry McDonogh: When we was first launched, it was launched as, essentially as a business unit within TruTag Technologies. And TruTag Technologies was founded and has its primary manufacturing base in Hawaii. So, a number of the founders are from Hawaii. So, when were looking for a name for Hinalea—based on the intelligent imaging work that we do, everything is about color, so spectroscopy, everything is about measurement of color. And that's the basis of how we develop our intelligence. So, one of the members of the team suggested that we need something that was linked to Hawaii and that represented color. So, they chose Hinalea. So Hinalea is a very colorful fish. It's a type of a wrasse. If you Google, you'll be able to see, but a really, really colorful fish. It's from that we just, we determined we take the name Hinalea.

Jordan Tyler: Wow, they are really colorful! That’s awesome, I never would have guessed so appreciate that explanation. Getting back on topic here, but obviously, all the use cases for this technology are really cool in their own ways, but I'm curious to know if you have a use case that you're most passionate about or excited about on a personal level?

Barry McDonogh: I like to think anything that benefits individuals. I feel anything that helps the health of people is where I'm most passionate. You know, food safety, medicine. There are applications for this technology in defense—does not interest me, you know, unless it's the side of defense that's looking at landmines and things, identifying landmines. That's something I've got an interest in. But, you know, so, things that benefit society as a whole, or largely.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, the greater good. I love that.

Barry McDonogh: Yeah, I don't know, that sounds a little bit trite, but I mean it.

Jordan Tyler: No, I think that it's authentic, and especially based on your background with, with TruTag, and the stories that you were sharing earlier. Obviously, you have a deep, you know, personal connection. And, you know, anybody that has kids.

Barry McDonogh: Yeah.

Jordan Tyler: Would have a personal connection. That's really scary.

We have one more founder to get to know today, and he's focused on offering dog owners science-backed, high-quality supplements that address common canine health concerns like skin and coat health, joint care, and gut health.

Sebastian Doyle is the founder of Medipups, but this isn't his first rodeo. Sebastian started his career as a musician in the United Kingdom before starting his first e-commerce business, which soon became many e-commerce businesses. Medipups is his latest venture, and when asked how he would describe himself, he says he's a founder through and through.

Sebastian Doyle: Mainly, I've been in the e-commerce space for about seven years now, always kind of ran everything myself initially. Now I've got, I've expanded to having more of a team.

But I started selling products, very, very generic kinds of products back in the day. And, you know, I've been doing stuff all the way from activewear for women to canvas portraits to crystal water bottles. I've really gone and done as much as I can in the e-comm space to kind of refine my niche. And now I'm in the pet space, and the cannabis phase, but really the pet space is my main thing.

Medipups is my life. That's, that's what I do all day. And I've got a Goldendoodle, which he's right next to me right now on this call. He's actually part of the meeting as well. He's actually one of the reasons why I started this.

My main passion is, is music. So, I started off as a musician in the UK. I formed a rock band, indie rock band. It was kind of like The Strokes and Kings of Leon have a UK baby. You know, it was eye-opening to do that. I was in the band for about four years, and we were a five-piece rock band. So as you can imagine, it was very intense. We lived together, three of us worked together as well, so we saw each other 24/7. It got intense, but that's kind of where I got my, I guess my branding skills and understanding of how to kind of package something and sell it because we really had to package ourselves as a band and sell it to our music and really do that.

So the band failed, sadly, we didn't do too well. We did some great stuff. Really, we had a great career. It was my passion, but then I decided to focus on my branding skills and what I learned from those experiences into something that can correlate with also making money because I dropped out of university, I didn't have really anything going with the band anymore. So, I looked at e-commerce as a viable option and it really was.

And I set up brands and I've been doing it ever since. And I absolutely love it. It's been a fun journey for sure. A lot of failures, in fact, a lot of failures, especially in the e-commerce space. So now I'm here with Medipups, it's been a long journey, but yeah, I still make music. I'm still doing that. But right now I'm all, I'm really in the entrepreneurial spirit and that's really what I do mostly.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, I think your background really lends itself to your unique story and the fact that you're so young and you already have all this experience running startups. And it's funny also that you mentioned your musicianship. You know, they say 90% of startups will fail before they're five years old. And now I'm wondering what that statistic looks like for bands and independent musicians, because I would kind of imagine it's also pretty high. Like there are a lot of bands out there and probably most of them fail.

Sebastian Doyle: I think it's extremely high. Yeah, it is because it's expensive to run. It's almost like having five founders that you're all kind of like, together, all have to be completely aligned, and if you're not, then it's a problem. But yeah, definitely the percentage for bands is extremely high.

Jordan Tyler: So I actually looked this up after our conversation, and we were right on the money—the internet seems to think around 90% of bands and independent musicians never make it big. So there really is an interesting parallel here. And it's also clear that Sebastian likes a challenge.

So you mentioned you're kind of a serial entrepreneur, especially in the e-commerce space. And I know you mentioned kind of a broad range of products that you've worked with in the past, but I'm wondering, have any of your other ventures in the past been kind of focused on pets or maybe serving pet owners or pet parents?

Sebastian Doyle: Yeah, I got into the pet space, it was actually about three years ago, but it wasn't supplements. It was mainly selling dog beds, dog toys. And also I started selling customized dog beds where we had designers and did an illustration of your dog, put it on a dog bed and sold that.

It was very manual, but it was a lot of fun, but it just, you know, it made me realize people love their dogs, and if you can have a personalized custom approach, then it will do well. It did very well. We had a lot of supply issues with that, scaling that up was very, very tough, but I realized that niche is very, it's very fun as well. I really enjoy branding it. Medipups is not my first pet venture, that's for sure.

Jordan Tyler: Let's kind of move on to Medipups, your focus right now. Tell us a little bit about Medipups and the gap that this new company is trying to fill in the market.

oyle: Yeah. So, I launched in: 2022

So I created MediPups, but I also created the manufacturing and distribution. So we're vertically integrated, which was extremely expensive, but it was something I did so I could keep control of the quality of the products, because I looked at a lot of our competitors that are out there in the direct-to-consumer space, and you know, their branding is great, their marketing is amazing, but they're white-labelings all from the same companies, all the same products. And the product is good, but they have not seen enough innovation in the product itself.

There's a lot of really good marketing, but really my main focus was, okay, let's make something that is really good, and that is science-backed. So we just, actually with the program, managed to actually back our chews, our Probiotic and Calming Chews, with scientific research. We had a full lab analysis and validation by Kansas State University, which kind of fills the gap of lack of transparency, which was really something I saw a value with Plug and Play, really helping brands and validating the products.

So, yeah, my main thing is affordability, transparency, quality, and, you know, we want to give pet owners peace of mind when they're giving their pets the very best without busting the bank. Doing all that, at the same time, it's very hard. So we're getting there. We're still, you know, we're still working to get better and better every day, but that's what Medipups is all about.

My main issue really with that brand has been scaling up because all the manufacturing operation costs and everything that comes with it. It's extensive, but yeah, that's the story with Medipups so far. And it's gone well. We've done some great revenues. We've got some great customers. It's been amazing.

Jordan Tyler: Awesome. I'm happy to hear that, especially since you mentioned. You know, the supplement space is really saturated and it's also kind of a, kind of a black box. You know, they're not very well regulated and there's a lot of smoke and mirrors kind of out there. And so being able to discern, you know, really true quality and science-backed ingredients and efficacy is, I think, top of mind for any pet owner that's buying supplements for their pet.

Sebastian Doyle: Absolutely.

Jordan Tyler: One of the things that I found really interesting was you started talking about, in some of the previous ventures that you've explored and gone through, you know, for better or for worse, you mentioned a lot of the success—obviously, you need to be in the right place at the right time, meeting the needs of people in the right market, yada, yada—but another piece that maybe people might not be thinking about is the people that you partner with along the way and how that can also make or break an early-stage company. So, I was wondering if you could speak to that a little bit based on your previous experience.

Sebastian Doyle: Yeah, it's, it's, you know, having the right partners is extremely important. And going back to what I was saying with, you know, with my band, and we were all great friends, you know, but you all have to really be on the same page, and it translates the exact same with the company.

Your values have to be aligned, and you also really have to trust each other. So, okay, this is your role. This is your role. And as founders, if you're partnering with the wrong people that don't exactly either trust you or believe in what you do, it can really break the company because there's just, you're focusing more on arguments with each other than actually the why of you're an entrepreneur and the company.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, absolutely. I never considered the parallel of all of that between, you know, starting a company and being in a band. I just think it's like such an interesting insight that I never would have put together, and I'm a music person too, right? I love music, but I never would have made that analogy.

I don't want to put you on the spot, but when we were talking in Topeka, your age came out and it just strikes me as you're just a really young guy. Would you mind sharing your age?

Sebastian Doyle: Yeah, I'm 28, just turned 28 in August. But yeah, it's been, uh, it's been a great journey and I love it. But yeah, I'm definitely young. But I got in pretty early, fell flat on my face a few times, but you know, I'm still doing it. Still falling flat on my face, but less hard, so.

Jordan Tyler: Right, and the reason I ask is because I'm also 28, and I get that all the time. “Oh, you're so young,” and sometimes it can feel like a backhanded compliment, right? Like, “what do you know?” But I appreciate you sharing that because I think it adds another element of uniquity to what you're doing. You know, you've tried and failed and tried and failed already so many times, but you're still so young and you still continue to get up and try again.

I just think that speaks to the fact of being an entrepreneur. It's not easy. It takes a lot of resilience and you better be prepared to, like you said, fall flat on your face a few times.

Sebastian Doyle: Yeah, absolutely. You have to.

Jordan Tyler: So coming back to Medipups, tell me more about the range of products you have currently and what you're targeting with those products. Is it four formulas that you have right now?

Sebastian Doyle: Yeah. Four formulas right now. Probiotic Chews, Calming Chews, Skin and Coat, and then Joint Care Chews. So that's the product line right now. I want to expand into the dental market and food toppers, maybe even food, get into that, but right now we're really just focusing on supplements and scaling that. We're already facing challenges, scaling it up. So, I'm focusing on those, perfecting every side of the business.

But we actually already started developing the, doing R&D for the dental stuff, where we've got a dental stick that has no nasties and there's a gel that we put on top of it. So, we've got that product that's pretty much ready to go. We're not going to release it anytime soon though. I want to really, really perfect it, but there's a lot of cool stuff we're working on, but right now I really want to focus on this scaling it, bringing it to a pretty good level, and just keep on speaking to mentors, vets, and perfecting everything we've got going on right now.

Jordan Tyler: I think the dental health category for pets is, is huge. It's a huge opportunity right now.

Sebastian Doyle: It is. Yeah, absolutely. And there's also a powder formula we started developing as well that you could put on your dog's food. So there's a lot of exciting stuff. We see everything's still in the works. We're still in R& D phase, but this is another great side of us running and owning the manufacturing. I can come up with any formula that's my own and that's novel to Medipups that is not the same as 10 other companies are selling on the market. It's our own stuff. So that's another reason going back to what I was saying about owning the manufacturing, I can pivot very fast and I can work very fast on that. It's just money. You know, it's just, do you have the cash to be able to do this and this? And sometimes it's a struggle. Sometimes it's great. But yeah.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, I totally get it. I don't think I could be an entrepreneur, actually. The more I talk to entrepreneurs, I'm like, Y'all are crazy. I don't know if I could ever do that.

Sebastian Doyle: You have to have some sort of delusion, I think. You know, you have to. You really have to, like, set some high goals and expectations if you want to get there.

Jordan Tyler: Across all these conversations, there seems to be a common theme—entrepreneurship is no walk in the park. The road is riddled with challenges, risks, and sleepless nights, but the rewards can be great. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a dreamer, or someone looking to be inspired, we hope these stories resonated with you and sparked your own sense of possibility. From Barry's transformative imaging technology to Daphne and Francesca's mission of sustainable touring production through to Sebastian's passion for pet health, these founders remind us that startup innovation sits at the heart of progress.

From Daphne and Francesca’s mission of sustainable taurine production to Barry’s transformative imaging technology to Sebastian’s passion for pet health, these founders remind us that startup innovation sits at the heart of progress.

By hearing their stories and supporting their missions, we strive for a world that is more innovative, more sustainable, and healthier for all who inhabit it. So, thank you for joining us on this first episode of Founders in Focus. If you'd like to learn more about Plug and Play, there's a great episode of the Barking Mad podcast by BSM Partners, which we'll link in the show notes for this episode.

You'll also want to stay tuned for our next episode of Founders in Focus in February, in which we'll go even deeper into the stories, journeys, and learnings of these founders as they navigate the Plug and Play Agtech and Animal Health program. A huge thank you to the Plug and Play Topeka team, Lindsay Lebahn, Mark McAllister, and Anne Gunden, as well as the Plug and Play team in Sunnyvale, Jacky Tsang and Allison Romero, and the whole marketing team for supporting this podcast. I'd also like to thank the founders that took time to speak with us.

Until next time, thanks again for tuning in and stay curious.