#189 Sustainable Building Materials, Mycelium, Scaling Production, Navigating Market Acceptance & More w/ Ilya Gindin (COMU Labs)

Mycelium is an emerging decarbonized building material due to its sustainability, biodegradability, and strength. It is cultivated by growing fungal networks, also known as mushrooms. Mycelium-based products can be used for insulation, bricks, and packaging. Today, we have a ClimateTech Entrepreneur making waves with Mycelium. Ilya is CEO & Co-Founder of COMU Labs, bridging the gap between sustainability and affordability in furniture materials. They utilize fungi to transform agricultural waste into robust, machinable and fire-retardant material that looks and behaves like plywood.Some of what we chatted about:**How Mycelium can be pressed into high-density boards **Why their material is substrate agnostic (and what the heck that means 🤔)**Challenges that still exist with market acceptance**Building a sustainable and healthy company culture & more. 🍄---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube 🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey 📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox 🌐 Join the CleanTechies Slack Channel----- Topics:**01:31 Intro**02:49 Discovering Mycelium**09:09 Advantages of Mycelium as a Building Material**11:43 Common Misconceptions about Mycelium**20:31 Scouting New Talent**24:58 Challenges Ahead for Comu Labs-----Links:**Ilya Gindin | COMU Labs**Connect with Somil on LinkedIn | Connect with Silas on LinkedIn**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X **This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.Support the showIf you're gonna change the world, you're gonna need a world-class team. Partner with ErthTech Talent to help you do that, for less.70+ Placements5+ Years (exclusively in CleanTech)The Lowest Fees in the Market (12-15% of first-year salary)90-day placement guaranteeIt's really hard to say no to that. Wait?! -- The best service is also the cheapest? Seems too good to be true, but it's the entire reason we started this company. We believe that Climate entrepreneurs are doing important work, and there should be a firm to help them find the best talent, without it breaking the bank. Reach out today for a free assessment of your hiring process. [email protected]