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I had this crazy idea of, you know, developing a greenhouse. We can bring life in space. We can grow plants on the moon and Mars in the future. Um, I was introduced to NASA, knocked at their door southeast of San Francisco, and they just gave me a desk.And that’s how it started.
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Howdy y’all. I’m Elizabeth Gore. Welcome to The Big Idea from Yahoo Finance, the show that navigates the world of small business and entrepreneurship. As the co-founder of the small business funding platform, Hello Alice, it has always been my mission to help ensure entrepreneurs have the tools they need toSucceed. So let’s cowboy up. Today’s big idea question is, what does it take to turn an impossible idea into a real business? Our industry focus will be space tech. My guest today is Interstellar Labs founder and CEO Barbara Belvii. Let’s welcome Barbara.All right, Barbara, welcome to the Big Idea. We’re so excited to have you.
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Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to join you today.
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And you’re in Paris right now.
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I am in Paris today,
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yes, amazing. Well, our big idea today, question is, how do you turn an impossible idea to a real business, and I don’t think there’s anyone more who could talk about this. I mean, you’re extraordinary. Uh, I wanna start with you, uh, showing up at NASA basically with a suitcase.
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Exactly, though that’s literally what happened, um, uh, you know, uh, probably it was like 8 years ago, um, I left Paris, uh, actually I was living very close to where I am right now.Um, and just with two suitcases, one full of books and the second one full of clothes, and I just sold all my furniture and, you know, pretty much everything, um, and I had this crazy idea of, you know, developing a greenhouse so we can bring life in space, we can grow plants on the moon and Mars in the future. I was introduced to NASA, knocked at their door southeast of San Francisco, and they just gave me a desk.And that’s how it started.
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And what was, what was your, I mean, you’d had multiple jobs before that. What took you to that idea specifically?
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Well, the previous company I started was a VC firm where we were focusing on helping entrepreneur, um, transform the ID into products, and we were doing a lot of great things, a lot of robotics, and, and a lot of, it was very, uh, at the time, internet of things was very trendy.So there was a lot of gadgets, and, and, and I wanted to do something that was much more meaningful for the earth. Um, so my grandparents were farmers in Poland. I spent a lot of time in their farms, so I started working on a greenhouse concept, but it was for Earth, um, you know, a, a greenhouse that will inside a bubble recreate the perfect condition for plants to grow.And I was, as I was going through through the internet trying to train myself cause I’m not an engineer, but I got had some, you know, background um um in plants and understanding how they grow and what they need, and when I was doing this work, it at the same time that SpaceX proved the reusability of their boosters.And so the childhood dream of becoming a multiplanetary species kicked back, and I was torn between Earth and space. What do I do? Do I develop this greenhouse for Earth, or do I, you know, try to bring this greenhouse in space, because there is a new space area that is starting with, you know, SpaceX, just reducing the cost of access to space. And, um, and well, that’s, that’s how the idea came, and I was like,Like, OK, there is this, maybe there is an option where we can develop the system for space, and we can spin off this technology to benefit the Earth. And this was this crazy idea that I was introduced to NASA and knocked at their door, and they were like, well, we like your concept, we worked on similar concepts for many, many years. We need an entrepreneur who has a financial background to build a company.And that’s, I think that’s why they provided
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help. So tell us now, fast forward to Interstellar Labs. Tell me about the company.
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Well, we grow, we are around 40 people now, so we’re still a small company, we’re a startup, um, uh, raised 15 million, we build multiple prototypes, uh, you know, and from this original greenhouse concept that we developed for a lunar and a Martian base, then we did a couple of iteration.And we actually developed two prototypes for NASA on how they can produce food inside vehicles. So we adapted our initial design into a food production system that can be plugged in and integrated within the space station. Uh, so there are 2 prototypes at Kennedy Space Center, and since then we signed agreements with new private.Uh, space station companies, companies like Vast, companies like, you know, Axiom and Voyager, uh, but Vast is the one that we’re working, uh, the closest with. So that’s on the space business, and we’re flying next year with VAST. We’re going to bring our first system into orbit around the Earth. Amazing it’s, it’s gonna be a big year for you, for us, and for you guys as well, because it’s, it’s gonna be a pretty unique mission.Um, and then in terms of, you know, our main business, uh, we develop the technologies which can be adapted on Earth and we’re working with large cosmetic and botanical companies so they can use the farms that we developed that are very energy efficient and, you know, closed loop system, fully automated farming, um, greenhouse system where we really optimize the quality of the plants that are growing inside and we work with cosmetic company L’O’Oreal, being our number one customer.Um,
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so tell me what you’re making for L’Oreal. That’s so exciting. Well,
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we’re, we’ve been, we’ve been working on, um, uh, flowers and plants for, um, you know, perfume and cosmetic purposes. Uh, more specifically, we very recently announced in New York during Climate Week, uh, that our technology, which is called Biopod, this is how we call our farming system, uh, has been used, uh, for the development for the growth of a specific plant called Santela.Santellaiatica that is used in one of the LaRoche Po creams, Cicaplast. It’s a very well known cream that is used for psychization of the skin. And so typically what we really specialize is we use our, you know, bubble. They look like we are basically selling, you know, spaceship full of plants to cosmetic companies. This is, it’s amazing our business, if I, if I, you know, oversimplify, but, but, but it’s pretty much what’s happening now and so.And we’ve proven that we can use this initially designed for space greenhouse back on Earth to really accelerate the growth of the plants, optimize the composition of the plants.And you know, and, and we found customers like L’Oreal and like other groups as well that are using our biomass uh in, in their products. So LaRoche Po, then they have other brands, Gerasas, Lancome, uh, Pradaun, and, and others. So uh we’re very, very excited about this.
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So, I mean, this is, this is an impossible dream. I mean, it’s so incredible andI, I’d love to, for you to break down for a big idea question for this, for the business owner who’s sitting here thinking, I have this insane idea, but I just know in my gut it’s gonna work. Tell me a few pieces of advice for that entrepreneur.
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Yeah, uh, well,I for me, it was really about, you know, I had this like very big vision, which is bold and seems unrealistic and impossible to reach. Um, so, so then it goes back to how do you build the plan, so you want to reach your vision and your goal, uh, and my first advice is to be very flexible on the plan.But never flexible on the vision. So you keep in mind and in, in, you know, where what you want to reach, but the way to get there is going to change because you, you, at the beginning, you lack information and data to know exactly how to build a plan. But the most important part is to get into action. So it’s, it’s to stop overthinking.And just jump into building it, because then you will get enough data, so you can, you know, you can change the direction, not the direction, you, you know the goal where you want to go, but you change the path. You can be like, OK, this is not, this one is not right, so I, so I need to change, so.So, when, um, because otherwise you can, you can think a lot about the idea and the concept and how to get there, uh, but you really need to get very quickly your hands dirty. And for us, what it meant, it meant, for me, it meant recruiting engineers, starting working on the hardware, building the prototypes, trying to meet with the people.And you know, and it’s really about like building the product, meeting your customer, and, you know, you or potential partners and understanding they need, um, and, and how they can you, how they can help achieve the vision, but it’s a, uh I hope it’s clear,
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it is,so, so you’re saying, you know, you’re thinking, but you need to start taking action.And the second thing I wanted to pick up on, you just said, and, and this is, you know, goes back to your story of knocking on the door of NASA. Tell me about the critical nature of partners early in the journey.
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Um, well, um,Let’s, let’s talk about the first customer, you know, like, um, um, uh, L’Oreal, DSM and, and Robertson, the, the Earth customers, um,
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I, by the way, let’s just, I love that you have Earth customers and space customers. So go ahead, that’s like I wanna see your files and your tabs. It’s like, OK, my Earth people, my Martians, yeah, OK, go ahead. Your Earth customers,
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the Earth customers, um, well, very quickly it was important to be in touch with them.Because otherwise you build a product without having the feedback of the, you know, the, the, the one that are going to use it, um, and so initially we had the intuition, uh, that cosmetics were going to be the first one to be interested in our product because of the high value crops we can grow inside our greenhouses, um, and we met them.Before the product was ready. I did a lot of, you know, TV and outreach and visibility during conferences, and that’s how L’Oreal learned about us. And so the director of the Green Science, Anna, she actually came, she came to me at a, at a show, and she’s like, we’re very interested in what you’re developing and your vision on where you want to go.Do you have the product ready? And at the time the product was not ready at all. But we started meeting them, we started meeting with the team, they started visited, visiting our lab, uh, see, you know, the first prototype, the first results that we had on the science and how to grow the plants, and thanks to their feedback and as well as other customers, we made a couple of iteration and design choices in the product that we didn’t thought of in the beginning.And it’s so, so it’s very important in the, you know, many funders are very um um.Afraid sometimes of talking about their ID and their business to meet customers and partners because they’re afraid, er they’re gonna get their ID stolen.Uh, but the truth is to be successful, it’s a question of execution, and so, and to execute well, you need the feedback from the market. So my advice is don’t overthink, do first advice, second advice, go get me your customer, potential co-customer or partner to get the feedback as soon as possible, because you’re going to avoid making, you know, mistakes that will cost you a lot of money if you need to change them when you get the customer feedback. All
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right, y’all hold that thought, we will be right back on the big idea.Howdy, welcome back. We’re here with Barbara on The Big Idea. Let’s do talk about um protecting yourself when you do walk into those stores, um, whether it’s patents, you’re protecting your IP, what kind of NDAs. Can, can you break that down for our business owners?
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Hello, uh, so in, in our cases,So 111 advice I will give is like don’t share uh PDFs, um, and, and, uh, you know, they, they can be forwarded, um, and, uh, and, um, I, I, I can be a bit paranoia of like people just, you know, copying idea and everything. I know you have to be out there as an entrepreneur, but also I know, you know, people forward a documentation and information.So I’ll recommend sharing, always using, uh, sorry for naming the company, but I use Docscent, you can use, uh, you know, a lot of other tools, um, but that’s, that’s number one recommendation, why I’m saying that because sometimes it’s hard.Uh, to get groups to or, or people to sign NDAs, and so it’s a good way to track the information you’re sending over and to make sure it’s not spreading all over because then you can just turn off the link, you know, it’s very simple, but I, it’s a, it’s a, you know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a
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great, really important advice. I appreciate that
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and, and, um, and then well IP, I think it really depends. In our cases, the IP is so complex, change all the time.Um, we have a lot of upgrades, especially in terms of the, you know, both hardware and the software. So sometimes, you know, filing patents is more expensive and takes more time than just doing the, uh, the innovation iteration.Um, so I’m not a big patent fan, a fan, but sometimes they can be helpful. Again, it really depends. In our case, we have patent pending, we’re not sure we’re gonna fire them, to be honest, so,
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understood. Well, we have to, I like that you take risks, you get out for that customer feedback, but you also protect yourself and your IP in the meantime. So, um, on our show we talk about dirty unicorns. So these are big mistakes we’ve made in business that we can all learn from.Can we, can you share one of yours with our listeners?
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Yes, um.I think the biggest mistake I I made was to um um.I was it was a, it’s a hard one is um uh was not to let go of people sooner, um, and, um, cause I’m a, I’m a big believer in, you know, in second chances, and, and, uh, and I, and I want to empower the team, and, and I want people to grow, um, but sometimes the truth is when you know, you know, and, um, and, and when umWhen a team member, an employee, you know, is, is not a fit for the company, uh, keeping them in the company can be more harmful than than letting them go, and, uh, and it happened in that it happened a few times, and it took me a few times to learn, but it’s better, uh, you know, it’s it’s better for everybody, it’s better for the employees, it’s but it’s better for the company.Um, because when people are not happy in the work environment, that it can grow and it can slow you down, um, and, um, and, and, you know, it’s, um, a lot. So, so my advice is, you know, it’s, it’s important to give people second chances, but don’t be too optimistic on the, you know, on the, on the transforming, uh, um, employees’ willingness to contribute to the greater vision.
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We had um.Uh, Kim Perrell on the show, and she said it was PPP perfect on POP perfect on paper, the amount of people that just look perfect, but they’re just not the right fit. And so I appreciate that we, we have heard that a lot, um, and to, to do it as fast as you can, but I also, you’re, you’re such a visionary, and I could see that you have belief in people, you have a belief in space. I mean, I could see how that’s incredibly hard.Um, so I wanna go to next year you’re headed to orbit, which is so exciting, but, but tell me what the future holds for you all.
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Well, so next year, next year we’re going to orbit with vast, uh, so we’re gonna have our small plane growth chamber inside FNO, uh, their first, uh, the first American made private space station.Um, and so we will be in the space station orbiting the Earth for 3 years. There’s going to be 4 crewed missions. Uh, during those 4 crewed missions, there’s going to be 4 different experiments, uh, that the astronauts will bring, uh, so we’ll test different plant species, how they’re growing in space. Uh, there is one specific mission that is very, um, precious to our heart, uh, which is Mission Little Prince. Um, so we, we’ve been working with, uh, I don’t know if you know the book. Oh yes, absolutely.So we’ve been working with the family of the author, um, to, to, so we have an agreement with them to bring the Rose of the Little Prince to space. Um, that’s unbelievable. It’s, it’s very, it’s very, it’s very beautiful. I’m very, uh, uh, wow, you know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s, it’s, it’s very special to me because I grew up on this book,
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and it’s one of
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the way I love space and, and wait,
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how did that come about? We, we, I gotta hear a side story here. How did that come about?Like how did you meet the family? I mean, this is, this is amazing.
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It’s the, the, so we had this, so initially we had this idea of growing uh roses on the moon, and we were discussing with the team, and we came up, you know, let’s do Michelle Little Prince, um, and we’re like, well, can we use the name and it’s, you know, it should be protected, and I don’t know. Well, let’s let’s try. We had no contact at the time.And so we signed an agreement with a company called Astrolabe to fly on board starship SpaceX to bring the little greenhouse on the moon. So we have low Earth orbit with VA, we have uh the moon with Astrolabe, um, and SpaceX, and, and, uh, and we announced it. We announced that we are going to launch Mission Little Prince on the moon with Astrolabe and, and uh, uh, and starship, and the family reach out.And I received an email, and it’s the nephew of the author Olivier, um, Oliver, and he’s like Barbara.You know, we still have the rights, and those are, you, you know, we have the rights. You cannot name a mission like this just using the name Mission Little Prince, and I was like, 00, and the second paragraph was, uh, well, actually we love what you’re doing and, um, and we want to give you the rights, um, to do the mission. So let’s talk and, um, and so we, we, he gave me his number and then we had a conversation.We laugh a lot about, you know, it was, it was a big, it was a little bit.You’re risky what I was doing, just like doing this like this without the the authorization, and, and he was like, what was your plan if I, if I would have said no. And I said, what, you want my plan was to call it, call it ion Little Princess,
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very appropriate for a woman owned entrepreneur.
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Exactly. So, um, and so now we’re very, very good friends, uh, and we’re actually extending the mission. So we started with the initially only the moon, but weI decided that the first mission should be on Earth orbit, so on the space station, so we can collect enough data and test actually how the rose is growing and behaving in a low gravity environment. The second one’s going to be the moon, and the third one’s going to be Mars. So it’s like really taking, you know, the little prince rose all around the solar system.Um, and it’s uh proceeds will be donated to the foundation, the foundation that is doing a lot in STEM education for kids and also uh cancer research. Uh, so it’s, uh, you know, as it’s helping us, making a lot of iteration.In the in the in the hardware itself, because it’s really hard to grow roses. It’s much harder to grow a rose bush than a microgreens. So, you know, if we can grow rose and make a rose flower in space, we can like 100% grow tomatoes and, you know, leafy greens and mushrooms, and uh so it’s uh, so it’s really hard. It’s a big leap in terms of science, in terms of engineering as well, uh, because we have a lot of constraints to make this rose alive, um, and also it’s a beautiful inspiration, you know, the Little Prince is the most.I translated and read a book on the planet after the religious texts, and so it touched a lot of people and my hope is that we can inspire people, so, you know, they relate to space exploration because they can feel a little bit not being part of this mission.And with this mission, we’re trying to reconnect with everybody, so we, you know, they, they can relate and it trigger something
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inside. I, Iam so inspired. I, um, and by the way, I, I have a rose garden at home and I covet it. I mean, I have 200 plants, and I, I.Deadhead everything, and I’m never gonna whine if something isn’t growing well because you’re doing it in space. It’s so next level. Um, wow, I’m so inspired. So I wanna go all the way back to our big idea question, and if you can tell that small business owner who is trying to turn an impossible idea into a real business, what, what is your one piece of advice?
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Um,I never let goYou know, um, uh.I think um it’s um.Yeah.Never let go, but also pick something you’re really passionate about, cause it’s really hard, um, and, and to, to have the resilience to make it happen.You really need to be in love with what you’re doing, um, and so, so for, you know, all those small entrepreneurs that are launching their company now, pick something that, you know, you wake up every, every day and every morning. It’s, it’s a passion, it’s passion, it’s not work, it’s passion. When it’s passion, then everything is possible.
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When it’s passion, everything is possible. Well,You are extraordinary. I am, I am, I can’t wait to watch everything you build. Um, thank you for inspiring all of us. And also, I think it’s extraordinary that you’re already doing impossible things, but then you’re giving back at the same time. I, I, I appreciate that so much, and Barbara, thank you for coming on the Big Idea and being with us. You’re just, um, uh, space and Earth are lucky to have you.
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Oh, thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure to be with you. Thank you for having me. Really, reallylove it.
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At the end of each episode, I’d like to give a shout out to a small business who is doing amazing work. Today, I’d like to shout out one of Barbara’s favorites called My Celsius. My Celsius is a wearable cooling bracelet designed with and for women who struggle with hot flashes, of which I am one.The company was founded by Maxim Crivian, and you can get all the details at mycelsius.com. Thank you, Barbara, for joining our show and thank all of you for joining us. We hope you’ve learned a lot. This has been a big idea from Yahoo Finance. You can come say howdy to me on all my social.At Elizabeth Gore USA. Please also make sure to scan the QR code below. Follow Yahoo Finance podcast or check us out on the Big Idea wherever you get your podcast. I’m Elizabeth Gore, and as my grandma always said, hold your head up high and give them hell. See you next time.
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This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.