Insect Protein Startups: Y Combinator to Mississippi Bug Farms — Ovipost

Discover how Trina Chiasson and Ovipost scale alternative proteins with automated insect farming, crickets as the “gateway bug,” and a winding founder journey from tech to entomology.⭐ My guest today is ⁠Trina Chiasson⁠, Founder and CEO of ⁠Ovipost⁠, a VC-backed insect protein company creating automation hardware and software in order to scale alternative proteins.Previously, Trina co-founded and sold a tech company, Infoactive, to Tableau Software. She wrote a juggling pattern notation app and used circus arts to teach physics to low-income students. And she rode her bicycle more than 4,000 miles on a self-supported adventure from Maine to Oregon to raise money for a nonprofit.So, yeah, she’s pretty cool.---🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:- The kind of person that wants to work with insect protein (The answer? “Fanatical, insane people. We weren’t built for normal life. We hate being bored and we love adventure. As a result, each of us wove a weird, windy path to Ovipost.”)- The surprising fact that 80% of cultures around the world eat bugs- How finishing her undergraduate degree in two years relates to her path as an entrepreneur- The amazing growth rates of her bugs – 50x in 5 weeks- How she pivoted from a pure tech company coming out of Y Combinator to a bug farm operator in Mississippi and Florida- The reasons they focus on crickets (the “gateway” insect) and superworms (yum!)- Why there is no “single bug” solution to insect protein- How I relate to her work (Hint: Thai-flavored cricket legs washed down with coconut milk soup) - Why her commitment to vegetarianism for 25 years is not at odds with insect protein- And lots more---🙏 Hope you enjoy it!📣 And give Trina and Ovipost a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.---👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.---🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: ⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: ⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.