“Where Seafood businesses and Investors Connect”
A 2013 article in The Guardian titled “Fishy business: will venture capitalists embrace sustainable seafood?” talks about the first ever sustainable seafood competition that took place in Stanford, California. “Unlike many biotech and software entrepreneurs, people who start seafood companies generally don’t have relationships with venture capitalists,” the article highlights.
Five years after this first competition I am on Skype with the very person behind this event and many more that followed since then- Monica Jain, Founder and Executive Director of Fish 2.0. Jain has a background in Marine Biology and an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management from The Wharton School. She is also the Executive Director of Manta Consulting, a consulting firm providing assistance to startups and helping corporates with their sustainability programs.
Jain founded Fish 2.0 in 2013 to help burgeoning sustainable seafood ventures find the right investors. Through their competition tracks and their workshops, the organization also assists businesses in improving their pitches and communicating their sustainability goals effectively. Since its inception, Fish 2.0 participants have raised more than $60M in investments through connections made in the program. Fish 2.0 has also created this network of people who are working towards common goals- sustainable seafood, thriving businesses and cleaner, safer oceans. Monica and I chatted about all of the above, and some more.
TYT: What do you think are the biggest issues plaguing the seafood industry?
Monica Jain: It depends on which sector of the seafood industry you look at. If you look at aquaculture, I would say diseases, and also a lack of technology that helps them to be efficient. Efficient about water use, energy use, land use and feed use- basically all resources. There is a lot of work is going on to address them, but these are the more significant challenges.
When you talk about wild capture fisheries, I think there are challenges both in terms of efficient gear and proper storage. When you talk about fish feed, it depends on finding alternate and efficient sources.
Basically, each different facet of seafood is facing a different set of challenges.
TYT: “In your article, “Your relationship With Fish Is About To Change,” you paint a positive picture about the future of seafood and then write -“This scenario might sound ridiculous to people focused on the historically slow rate of change in an industry with a complex and often low-tech global supply chain. People assume that change will continue to plod along. I don’t believe that.”
Where do we stand when it comes to seafood?
Monica Jain: If you look at other industries, like the television industry or telecommunications, look back ten years, and you will see how fast the industry has evolved over this decade. We couldn’t have imagined this is how it would turn out a decade later. Some of the products have become obsolete. That’s the point we are at. In seafood, we are at the point where we cannot imagine what the future of seafood will be. The seafood industry is ready for that kind of change. There is so much innovation around, and I think at some point there will be a magnitude of change as we have seen with these other industries. Who knows, ten years from now we may be sitting with a whole new situation in place.
TYT: But why are we not there, yet?
Monica Jain: I think a change of that magnitude happens when a lot of different innovation comes together at the same time. You also have to have a number of innovators out in the field who are already working on the right technologies, waiting for an opportunity. We all know it’s time, and it will happen quickly.
TYT: Let’s talk about this year’s competition tracks. Fish 2.0’s 2018-19 competition tracks include Australia, Pacific Islands, US Aquaculture and California. The competition also has global tracks which include Global Aquaculture Innovation, Global Traceability and Transparency and Global Tuna. How is this year’s competition different from previous years?
Monica Jain: This is the first year we have had so much aquaculture in Fish 2.0. I am very excited about that because especially where you are in India, entrepreneurs have been asking for an aquaculture track. We now have one for them, and I do hope they get involved. Also for the first time, we have a track around a single species, our global track for tuna.
This year we have been able to focus on a market like Australia. We haven’t done a track in Australia before. I would like to add that I am very impressed by the level of entrepreneurship I see there. People assume that there are not many Australian ventures on the Fish 2.0 network because there is not much going on there. That is absolutely false. There are many businesses coming up with exciting products, and I feel that is probably the case in other places as well. In India also, for example, I am sure there is a lot happening in the seafood sector, which we don’t hear about outside. That is why I feel these opportunities are important. We understand so much about how these markets are evolving.
TYT: Why is it important for you to encourage businesses that address traceability and transparency?
Monica Jain: Traceability and transparency help address issues at various levels. One thing that is really important, at the most fundamental level, is getting rid of illegal fisheries. It helps no one. When there is a lot of illegal activity, it cannot be accounted for or monitored. It undervalues resources in a supply chain and therefore hurts all the companies that do things legitimately.
At another level, I would say we live in an era where we are really interested in food safety. Having good traceability and transparency helps address that because we can pinpoint the source.
At a third level and on the more positive side, there are a lot of great producers, and right now we treat seafood as a commodity. We don’t need to though. At present, there is not that much incentive in a lot of markets for people to work harder on quality and sustainability because their product is going to be mixed in with other commodity products. With traceability, this scenario will change.
TYT: Fish 2.0 has also built this network of people working on similar goals, caring for similar objectives. Looking back at some of the previous winners and participants, how do you think this experience has been?
Monica Jain: We have seen some great innovations here. The thing about working in innovation is that everything is a surprise. This is something I really like about this process. We had a company last year, and they are creating a new fish feed from carbon dioxide, using bacteria. Another company is doing frozen products in groceries. They came to us three years ago, and now they are in grocery stores across the US. They are one of the more popular products. What’s exciting about them is that they decided they would focus their products on all farmed fish. A few years ago people thought that would be impossible because people don’t like the idea of farmed fish. But they source sustainably farmed fish, and people love their products. Not to leave out, it tastes great.
We have also managed to build some really good friendships, make introductions which have proved useful at some point or other. There are businesses that now work together worldwide, who would have never known each other if not for this network. There are ideas being exchanged, and investments being made. People have also found employees, and gone through legal hurdles by knowing whom to approach. It’s not just one thing, it truly is a community of like-minded people with similar objectives coming together.
TYT: In one of your interviews you mention that people usually see a lot of bad news about seafood, but it is important that they hear the good news, something that Fish 2.0 helps communicate. Why is that important?
Monica Jain: I think about that a lot. I am not going to be working on a dying industry, which is what everybody seems to think. We do have fisheries in trouble, we are not denying that fact. But people need to know the whole story. We need to celebrate all the innovation happening around us, and read about people working towards solving the issues. That story doesn’t make the news. Anyone who works in fisheries will tell you that there are a lot of businesses making good money, and creating relevant products. We cannot take that for granted.
TYT: What role can consumers play in bringing about change?
Monica Jain: It is important for consumers to ask questions about the seafood they are buying. For traceability and transparency, it is important to know that all the intermediaries in the marketplace care and appreciate good systems being in place. People need to be interested in what is happening with their seafood just as they are interested in what is happening with their other food. This is the role that consumers can play.
I would also like to add that in a place like India, where many people know their source of seafood, consumers can encourage good practices. If they know someone who is doing something innovative encourage them to participate and connect to this broader network. India is an important market. People are eager to know what is happening there as well. It is important to add their voices to the rest of the voices in this world.
If you are a seafood business looking for the right opportunity, visit the Fish 2.0 2018-19 competition tracks to know more about how you can participate. Fish 2.0 is also organizing the Global Innovation Forum which will be held in Oct/Nov 2019, in California. For more information visit https://www.fish20.org/.
Featured Image Courtesy: Fish 2.0 Facebook Page
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