#184 Plastic Replacement, Natural Fibers, Drop-In Materials, Toll Mills & More w/ Jesse Henry (Heartland Industries)

Jesse Henry is the CEO and Founder of Heartland Industries, a company that produces drop-in pellets made of hemp fiber.

These pellets are used as an additive to plastics. They reduce the weight and cost of the products, improve strength, and lower scope 3 emissions.

It's a quadruple-benefit product.

Today, Jesse tells us his story - how he started Heartland - how he's the 3rd generation to work in the fibers industry - how they landed BASF as a partner and investor - and he gives a lot of other insights. Including our favorite, how they produce huge volumes of pellets without owning a milling facility.

Enjoy today's conversation!

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Topics:
**2:15 Intro
**2:55 Jesse's Background & Heartland's Mission
**10:06 The Challenge of Developing Reliable Supply Chains
**13:33 From Powder to Pellets
**16:47 What it Means to be a ClimateTech Entrepreneur Today
**22:03 Partnering with Wood Pellet Mills for Scale and Cost Reduction
**28:34 Run Jesse's Playbook
**31:16 The Finance of Materials Companies
**34:00 The Power of CVCs
**41:10 Opportunities in B2B Marketplaces
**43:27 How to Pick the Right CVCs
**47:02 Next Steps for Heartland 
**54:58 Process Technologies and Software Solutions
**56:11 Focusing Beyond Carbon
**57:46 Takeaway
**54:51 Using Infrastructure to Skip Building
**56:16 Reducing Risk with Each Fundraising Round

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Links:
**Jesse Henry 
**Heartland Industries
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