From a “zero base” to green innovation: Sea Forest’s Sam Elsom on how to turn industry skills into sustainable startups

Success looks different between startup founders. For Sea Forest co-founder Sam Elsom, it looks a bit like a new catamaran.

The 21-metre Sea Captain, launched in November, is custom-made to farm asparagopsis: a kind of seaweed that can dramatically reduce the methane emissions of cows and sheep when added to livestock feed.

With the launch of Sea Captain, built by Tasmania’s Lyndcraft Boats, Elsom says Sea Forest will reach its next goal of farming enough asparagopsis to feed 500,000 head of livestock.

Elsom is a particular kind of founder, chasing a very specific form of emission-busting innovation.

But, speaking to SmartCompany Plus in the days after Sea Captain hit the water, the former fashion industry figure shared lessons for other sustainability-minded founders — no catamaran required.

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Sam Elsom’s insights for sustainability-minded founders

1. Be curious

2. Ask the stupid questions and embrace the uncertainty

3. Build connections, build the business case

Be curious

On any well-made garment, the hidden stitches are often the strongest; you need to know where to look to understand how the pieces fit together. The same is true for Elsom’s career in fashion and his turn as Australia’s most famous seaweed farmer. Here, curiosity is the common thread pulling disparate parts into a cohesive whole, and the element which allowed him to transfer his technical skills to a vastly different endeavour.

That curiosity first manifested in 2004, when Elsom launched an eponymous apparel business focused on the social and environmental impacts of the clothing supply chain. While ESG consultants and rating systems are becoming more common in Australian fashion, Elsom’s firm was one of the first to ask if better environmental accountability standards were possible in the fashion industry.

“We had to develop relationships with primary producers, sewing factories, textile manufacturers, in order to develop not only the reporting but also create a better supply chain,” he said. “And then through that, we were also involved heavily in innovation around textiles.”

That innovation even included dabbling with fibres derived from casein, a type of protein found in dairy milk. Elsom was the first to admit those experiments foreshadowed Sea Forest’s focus on cattle methane emissions.

“That kind of portion of the journey, or component of the business, is very similar to what we’ve had to do at Sea Forest, where we’ve had to innovate from a zero base in terms of making fabric from milk,” he said.

Elsom’s curiosity led him deeper into the world of biochemistry, as worsening reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) intensified his focus on real solutions.

“Part of the communication from the IPCC is that we have this window where we can do as much as we can to reduce emissions to curb that exponential rate of change,” he said.

“And so this is where I became charged to sort of look at what solutions exist. How can we go about trying to commercialise and getting these [innovations] at the scale necessary to create meaningful environmental impact with the hope that we could taper off that curve?”

That commitment to new solutions drove Elsom to repurpose skills he had already developed in the fashion sector, where brands are often “only as good as your last season”, he says.

“There’s no such thing as long-term uptake agreements,” he said. “It’s a very nimble, dynamic industry to be working in. It also, I think, instils in you a lot of resilience.”

Looking back on his transition from apparel brand leader to seaweed innovator, Elsom says inquisitiveness — the factor which allowed him to sew his expertise onto his greater passion — is the “first and foremost” attribute for sustainability-focused founders.

Ask the stupid questions and embrace the uncertainty

Curiosity is only the first step, and knowing how to act on it is essential for any tangible outcomes. For Elsom, that process first involved reaching out to experts in the field of climate change for their insights on how to best combat Australia’s greenhouse emissions.

“I would say that education in the first instance is absolutely critical,” Elsom said.

“Make sure you have all of the information at hand [and] also have mentors or experts in the field that are providing you advice.

“I think that’s the nucleus to get started. I think that’s absolutely the most critical ingredient.”

His work with the Climate Council brought him shoulder to shoulder with environmentalist and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, who exposed Elsom to the early-stage CSIRO research on asparagopsis.

Energised by the methane-busting potential of that seaweed — and pointers from one of Australia’s foremost climate communicators — Elsom started his own “desktop research” by reaching out to experts with specific knowledge.

The science behind it is complex, but starting those conversations was as simple as making a phone call.

“I picked up the phone, and I think this was kind of the real catalyst: speaking to the scientists involved in the work and really getting an understanding for what is the mode of action, what is involved, what knowledge is known around the seaweed itself,” Elsom said.

Doing so connected him with Professor Rocky de Nys of James Curtin University, an expert on algal biomass who would eventually become Sea Forest’s chief scientist.

“Rocky was very generous with his time with me in particular, [and] we established that where the knowledge gaps were,” he added, with that research serving as the catalyst for crucial research projects commissioned at three universities.

“Surprisingly, many academics, particularly if they’re at universities, their contact details are online. So I didn’t have any connection to any of these individuals before I made those phone calls.”

Despite his earlier involvement with projects like milk-based textiles, Elsom says those early discussions, delving into the specifics of seaweed and ruminant digestion, “was not something that I really understood”.

The process of picking up the phone to speak with leaders in the field may be daunting, but, “you have to be okay with asking the stupid questions, or those questions that you might think seem really silly,” Elsom adds.

“And just be prepared to be surprised, so if you do happen to encounter an academic that doesn’t necessarily want to speak to you, because you don’t speak the same language or you don’t understand some of the terminology that they’re using, then just call the next person.

“Don’t give up.”

Although simply giving the experts a call is Elsom’s key advice, other avenues exist for startups new to the university partnership scene. The CSIRO last month launched its Online Collaboration Tool, giving early-stage founders an idea of their preparedness for academic partnerships, and the steps they can take to improve their viability.

Build connections, build the business case

The initial asparagopsis research was conducted in 2016 as a partnership between the CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australia, and Professor de Nys’ James Curtin University, and Elsom’s proximity to that research allowed him to put himself forward as a potential commercial partner.

Ultimately, a commercial arrangement was brokered: the tripartite group would license the specific asparagopsis IP under the private FutureFeed banner, with Sea Forest officially launched in 2018 as one of just three Australian licensees.

For founders hoping to build a business on the products of CSIRO or university research, Elsom says it’s vital to get started, even if the specific business case emerged later down the line.

It’s important to stay engaged and build strong relationships, but “don’t let that hold up your progress”, he says.

“I would suggest getting on with it, and then working on accessing the IP in parallel.”

Of course, a handle on the IP and a clear vision weren’t enough to turn Sea Forest into a real, live venture.

Elsom says Sea Forest was boot-strapped for the first two years of its operations, with the core team putting immense faith in the project before building a business case capable of drawing major outside investment.

“That journey between concept to having methods developed for cultivation was two years,” Elsom said.

“So we didn’t really know if we had a business model until sort of two years time down the line.

“We had the world’s leading experts, we had a strong understanding, and also we had conviction from those individuals, that this was something we were going to be able to solve.

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A savvy capital-raising strategy, and the strategic use of government grants, were vital to support Sea Forest as it championed its seaweed-growing operation.

An initial capital raise of $5 million helped Sea Forest establish marine infrastructure, hatcheries, and ponds in Tasmania, allowing it to showcase its commercial viability.

Then came Sea Forest’s successful application for a $1 million Accelerating Commercialisation grant through the Entrepreneurs’ Programme in 2021.

The process of securing a government grant was gruelling, Elsom says, but validating, as the thoroughness instilled confidence in the organisation’s mission.

“It was a very long process, but it was due diligence done by the government, and the assessors on the grant into our business, which I think was a helpful process,” he said.

“It encouraged us to ask the difficult questions on our business model, on our processes, on our IP, and really demonstrate that we had something significant and special, but also that we were at a stage of commercialisation.”

Clearing that early hurdle gave Sea Forest the legitimacy to chase even bigger investment in the private market, resulting in a successful $34 million round in early 2021.

The investment landscape has changed considerably since then, given big-picture fears for the global economy.

Even so, Elsom says investor scepticism could be a “good thing” for environmentally-conscious founders, as it will encourage company leaders to build even stronger green business cases.

“I think the excitement and the huge inflation of valuations have definitely been backed off,” he said.

“But I think the appetite to invest in clean or or enviro-tech type businesses remains, I think it’s still there.

“It’s just that if you’re chasing institutional funding, for example, you need to be at a significant stage of commercialisation in order to be able to attract that.

“I think, certainly in ESG, there are still a huge number of opportunities to create technology. And I think that it’s a very exciting time.”

The commercial challenges facing today’s startup founders are minuscule compared to the consequences of climate change, meaning there are still opportunities for those with the capacity to change the ways we function.

“Start from where you’re at, educate yourself and try to stay passionate, and also don’t give up,” Elsom said.