Failed Nodule Investment Teaches

A story about how Pat Brown's company spent $1 million pursuing a failed idea to extract heme from soybean root nodules, but ultimately found value in the experience.

"The first year of the company we spent probably more than half of our startup investment pursuing this idea of extracting heme from root nodules. We made multiple trips to Texas and Minnesota soybean farms, amassing giant piles of soybean roots and developing root bulb contraptions to recover the root nodules and extract the leghemoglobin.

After more than a year, we realized this was a ridiculous idea. We'd spent about $1 million discovering that. But it wasn't a waste of time for a couple reasons. First, the only way we could learn this wasn't the best way was to try it and realize it was terrible. Second, it was a great way to build a team. There's no better way to build team bonds than working on this kind of ridiculous project where you find yourself with your small group of colleagues at 4 AM mopping up the floor of some godforsaken pilot facility in South Texas.

We eventually figured out a way to produce heme using yeast instead, which enabled our R&D team to establish what we'd suspected - that heme is the magic molecule that makes meat taste like meat."