HAPPY PLANET

What can Sea Urchins teach us about Boat Anti-Fouling? We ask Bernard Hidier.

December 07, 2022 Abigail Carroll Season 1 Episode 5
HAPPY PLANET
What can Sea Urchins teach us about Boat Anti-Fouling? We ask Bernard Hidier.
Show Notes Transcript

In this week’s episode of Happy Planet we meet Bernard Hidier, Co-Founder of Finsulate.  The serial impact-entrepreneur shares his story of how the sea urchin inspired his company’s totally unique approach to marine anti-fouling. 

Bernard is a French-born entrepreneur living in the US. He’s a brilliant, energetic serial entrepreneur who is as philosophical in his approach to business building as he is pragmatic. And that combo seems to be working. 

In this podcast we’ll learn:

  • What is biomimicry?
  • How sea urchins inspired Finsulate?
  • How the French used to think "innovation" was heretical and how - fortunately - that has changed.
  • How they are going about rolling out this business?
  • What’s different about startups in France and the US
  • How Finsulate is raising capital.
  • What advice Bernard has for other entrepreneurs.



Finsulate
Bernard Hidier
New England Ocean Clusters



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HOST VO: Welcome to Happy Planet an impact economy podcast where we speak with entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders in search of profit and planetary health. I am your host Abigail Carroll. 

 

Today we’re speaking with Maine-based entrepreneur, Bernard Hidier. Originally from France, Bernard joined a Dutch startup called Finsulate, with the aim of rolling it out in the American market. 

 

Finsulate provides a completely novel anti-fouling solution to boat-owners. In case listeners don’t know, antifouling is the practice of treating the bottom of a boat in order to keep it clean and free from the buildup of mussels, algae and other organisms that can create drag, increased fuel usage, and environmental degradation.The market standard today is anti-fouling paint but this treatment requires annual application, a big burden to boat owners, and more importantly most anti-fouling paint is toxic and filled with plastics. Finsulate, as we will hear, takes their inspiration from nature and addresses both operational and ecological concerns.

 

I’ll let Bernard explain the rest. 

 

Abigail (01:04):

Good morning, Bernard. Thank you for coming to the podcast today.

Bernard (01:08):

Good morning, Abigail. It's great to be with you. So thank you for having me.

Abigail (08:28):

Interesting. So I have your, uh, business card here, and I don't know if listeners can hear that, but I'm rubbing my fingers against the back of it. You have put the Finsulate solution on the back of the card, and I'm a seamstress. To me, this is like a low flush velvet cotton velvet, and I'd kind of like to make a dress out of it or maybe maybe make you a vest out of it for your sales calls. Um, so I mean, it's just to, to, to the, uh, new observer like me, it seems absolutely antithetical that you could put this on the, or you could or you would put this on the bottom of the boat and this would help at all with anti fouling, But so, so how does this work? 

 

Bernard (09:13):

Um, it works because, uh, so the one you've got here and which is, uh, more like uses for like, um, it's a short fiber and for, uh, boats going at, uh, higher speeds for bigger boats and, uh, heavier boats, uh, especially dis displacement, House [?], uh, we've got a longer fiber, so that's a different product. And we also developed, uh, an even longer fiber, which is extra length, and that's for actually static, um, infrastructures. And that's also a very interesting market because, uh, when you, when you think about docks for example, or you think about offshore wind, uh, all these structures are, uh, heavily impacted by, uh, by marine fouling and finding a solution that grants them, uh, me tenure or even more because again, we are still discovering the extent of the, uh, of the life lifespan of solutions. So to come back to, uh, to the one you have, this is a short fiber.

Bernard (10:13):

The, the fiber is applied on, uh, uh, poly written, uh, uh, wrap, which is, uh, with, with a special glue with two elements, but it's a water based glue and, and then fibers are actually flocked on it. So it's called, uh, electrostatic, uh, flocking, which is a technology that's widely available and been used in the car manufacturing industry. So in that sense, uh, the idea of Rick was, and that's where I actually spent a lot of time from the observation in nature, seeing the sea urchin next to the crab on the lobster and seeing that the sea chin doesn't get fouling, but the other ones do. And then saying, Well, how do I replicate that and how do I replicate that in a way where I'm not stuck in this, um, dreadful cycle of paint, repaint paint, well actually scrape or paint, pollute, scrape harm, repaint, pollute, rescrape, et cetera, et cetera. 

 

Rick is very qualified, is um, is got, got a PhD in coercion[?] and a PhD in, uh, fouling. And years ago around 2007, uh, he started because he's interested in sailing, but also he's diving, he got interested in how can we, you know, address this problem. And basically I think it's his line is like, how crazy is it? If I was going on the dock and pouring a pot of paint in the water, I could be actually sued for that, but as long as you put it at the bottom of the boat, there's no problem. So, uh, obviously fouling is a big issue. It's a billion, billion dollar issue worldwide, uh, because it affects everything that floats in the water and even more everything that moves in the water by slowing it down and increasing fuel conception. Nevertheless, the idea was to try to find something else to do with, uh, to deal with it. And, and this solution was coming from nature and Rick found that, um, the, uh, the sea urchin had found a strategy to avoid fouling. 

Abigail (06:58):

So let's get into that a little bit. So there's a topic called biomimicry. What does biomimicry mean and how does that pertain to Finsulate?

Bernard (07:10):

Okay, so biomimicry, um, I can't tell you exact definition from, uh, the dictionary, but it's basically trying to find what nature has already solved that can provide you a sustainable, you know, solution to, um, to, to your problems. So, um, in this case, um, the sea urchin has, through evolution has actually developed this spiny structure on its envelope that makes it actually unwelcome. Um, well un helpful or, um, I

Abigail (07:42):

hostile

Bernard (07:44):

Well, hostile I wouldn't use that word actually, because this is exactly the contrary of what the toxic antifouling paint do. They are hostile they are kill the growth, and also they end up contaminating the, uh, the environment on the, on killing biodiversity as a reason result. In this case, it's not that it's kind of a nice brush off, it's like, um, uh, because of the spiny structure on the sea chin and that we've replicated on the finsulate wrap, actually the growth and the biofouling doesn't, uh, stick to it and it just like moving, moving away from it. So it's definitely like a, a soft approach and a gentle brush of, of the fouling coming on the structure. 

Bernard (11:13):

So basically trying to have something that can last. So today we are, we are providing actually a warranty for five years on those, uh, wraps, as long as they're installed by people we train. So they are Finsulate certified installers. Uh, but we have boats in Europe who, uh, which have been using the same initial wrap, uh, for seven years now. So it's kind of a discovery process of, uh, seeing where, how, how long can it go. Uh, the good thing too is at the end you remove the wrap, uh, you remove the wrap as you remove wallpaper. So you need heat and uh, and, and vapor steel and uh, and you can recycle it back in production when we reach like, uh, sufficient volumes.

Abigail (12:00):

So I can see a great advantage to having a long term situation, having had an oyster farm and having had to, you know, repaint boats, you should, you know, I think even even put this on the gear. Um, and, and I have to say that, you know, we tried to go with some of the, uh, more environmentally correct anti fouling paints, but we didn't find them very effective. 

 

Bernard (12:30):

So even even the more like, uh, bio, uh, friendly paints, uh, are still a problem because of plastic pollution, cuz basically the paints are designed to dissolve in the water. So now we've got data, uh, more data than ever. And the, the recent data that was collected in the Baltic Sea, uh, during the 2021 by the, uh, University of Oldenburg, uh, German University, they went into the deep sea and uh, sequence the, uh, different types of plastics that were contributing to the plastic pollution in the water. And they found that Antifouling paint were responsible for 20% of this pollution, which is already kind of a big, you know, eyeopener because we all think about the bottles and the packaging. Uh, but when they went to the costal areas and specifically to estuaries, in some places, 80% of plastic pollution was resulting from Antifouling, which makes total sense because that's where boats are idle and waiting and just bleaching the paint is leeching through the process.

Abigail (13:36):

That's, those are incredible statistics and so this is an urgent problem that we absolutely need to resolve right now. Um, so tell me just about how this works, you know, uh, is, does this, does this slow a boat down, you know, how, how does that work? You, you'd think that with this friction it would, it would slow the, slow the boat down

Bernard (13:56):

So it, it, it's gonna depend of every situation and you need to have the, which actually I really enjoy is having the talk with the owner and, uh, the talk with the owner would be about, first of all, you, you'll try to understand what, what the boat is and what the governments of the boat is. And when you're talking about planing boats and people going for high speeds, yes, they will be loss in terms of top speed at the end. And this is where the discussion with the boat owner is key. You need to understand whether they are like aiming at having a better performance or keeping their performance, which means that they're gonna have to push the RPMs and having more fuel conception or whether it's kind of a, you know, uh, um, a will from them to move to something that is, uh, less cumbersome because nobody likes to scrape and repaint and they're ready to give up on that.

Bernard (14:46):

But when you talk about displacement homes, you talk about sailing boats and you talk about the whole range of, uh, deep sea shipping, et cetera. There's absolutely no consequence in terms of, um, of, uh, of speed while of speed. But there's actually a positive side on fuel conception, uh, especially when you look at bigger boats, um, you know, container ships, et cetera. Why? Because, um, during the five years we, we warranty the, the, the wrap, but again, we go further at the moment and we don't know how long it goes. You don't need actually to, um, dry dock the boat, uh, and you don't need to have the maintenance done on, on the Antifouling paint. And the other reason you have is like, because you paint and repaint the boats, uh, you've got full efficiency as soon as you repaint the boat, but this paint will dissolve over time.

Bernard (15:40):

So we see that, uh, and we've tested three sister ships, uh, in the, in the, uh, North Sea and with one one equipped with Finsulate. And we could see that after over three years not having to paint and repaint and scrape, um, we were able actually, the, the owner, um, actually identified 10 to 15% fuel efficiency. But we still, you know, um, now there's much more, um, IOT and equipment that will allow us actually to, uh, actually measure that. But yes, you have less maintenance, so it's less operational cost and better fuel efficiency over time. So that's the idea.

Abigail (16:21):

Well, I think the operational cost savings is, is a huge one. For us as a small farm with many boats getting, you know, have, having the time to pull the boats out even in a, in the winter when we ran all year round was a huge distraction and disruption and it took many people to get the boats onto a platform and then we had to paint it and it was, it was really something that we really did not look forward to.

Bernard (16:45):

And, and that's exactly what I was mentioning before. The, uh, one of the best part of the job is to talk to the owners. So you sit down with, um, oyster farmer or mussel farmer and you talk about the boats and what the boats, uh, you know, range is what type of boats, what we can do, what we can, you know, provide on what is the adequate product for the boat. And, you know, after a while, talking about their day, talking about what they do suddenly like more concerns come, more issues come and you've got a question about nets. What do you do about nets? And you're gonna ask your mussel farmer, why on earth are you talking about nets? You're not fishing your muscles with nets that's, uh, you know, are deep. I went into ya- knowing what muscle farming was, and yes, they have nets around their food because they have a problem with birds diving to catch the muscles.

Bernard (17:40):

And these, these deaths actually are actually a very, very big, um, um, you know, source of fouling and they closed, which as a result of, um, uh, I would say stopping the, the, the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the lines. But more importantly because they get loaded and they become almost solid when there's a bit of stormy weather, they actually can't hit the lines and they lose protection[?] to the bottom. We are able to do the, you know, um, to take, um, um, nets and, and put the fiber in the same fibers into the nets to make them less friendly. And we've tested them in, uh, in Turkey actually in aqua, um, aquacultural pens, open pens in the sea, and we see the results. And then you talk ropes, and then you talk about ducks and you think about, yeah, 

Abigail (18:30):

Well we could certainly have used that on the oyster farm. We had, uh, wild muscle spawn covering our gear. It was invisible cuz the gear was a black, shiny sort of pe uh, plastic, and then the muscles were black and shiny and teeny and tiny. And, and it took a while to realize they were even there and then you could wipe them off with your hand and you'd have a handful of baby, uh, muscle seeds. So if you could have, you know, put this velvety topping on our, on our muscle, on our oyster bags, it would've been a huge, huge help to us. So that is fascinating. You could truly cut down the time to aquaculture people in, uh, in their line maintenance and their gear maintenance. That is unbelievable.

Bernard (19:12):

One of the interesting thing as you refer to, um, oysters and, uh, sector, you know, very well, obviously, uh, it's hatcheries. And, uh, and they are actually the biggest like source place where they've got, um, they've got a lot of, uh, bio founling Marine by bio founding, and obviously they can't put paint like next to anything because it would actually kill the, the growth and kill actually the oyster babies. So, um, so this is really what we are looking also to, to be, um, kind of, uh, multi service, uh, to, uh, the aqua agriculture and fishery market. And that's been actually, uh, for maine and maine being the center of our, you know, a strategy for the US we've decided to go, um, uh, and focus on Aquaculture and fishery. Why? Because we think these people are very sensitive to, uh, cost effectiveness. And, and also by getting, you know, these kind of confirmation of the value of what we are doing, uh, from these hardworking and passionate people, then we will be able actually naturally to go, um, into other sectors and, uh, especially the recreational boats that we already very active in in Europe.

Abigail (20:27):

That's amazing, Bernard. I mean, we had a, we were not a hatchery, but we had a, an upweller and this was a real concern for us when we went to figure out how to defoul the, the upweller because we had to the paint the, the, the bins where we put the tiny little larval oysters and, and that was, you know, we were never confident that the anti fouling paint that we were putting in there as even though it was sort of bio and eco-friendly, that that wasn't a nuisance to the little critters we had in there. So it's just really, truly amazing all the applications that you can, you can create from this. So what most strikes me is that such an out of the box solution to such a common problem. And I know this space because of the environmental issues that you mentioned is getting a lot of, um, new entrance. Is there anybody that's come up with anything remotely as, as sort of original as this in the market?

Bernard (21:28):

I mean, obviously people, uh, I think the first, um, move that was done by, uh, a lot of paint, uh, producers was to adjust to what the IMO um, regulation started putting at the international level. And this IMO Regulation started prohibiting zinc and limiting copper. So, um, so they started actually, you know, lowering and finding other, you know, other components. Um, nevertheless, again, I'm pointing now to the plastic pollution and that doesn't solve the plastic pollution because the paint goes away, uh, every year in the, in the world hundred million liters. So that's, let's say 25 million gallons of paints of Antifouling paints are sold. So it's going somewhere. Okay. So that's the first thing. The second thing is people have been using ultrasound, and I've been trying to find different, you know, uh, strength and, and, and structure to paint, but again, it's um, it's, it's not proven to be, um, not harmful to the organisms, you know, affected by it.

Bernard (22:34):

The good thing with Finsulate is there's no harm. It just brushes away and, and makes, uh, you know, unwelcoming to growth, but, but there's no action to, uh, to growth. So we see also like people like doing quite a lot of research into, uh, um, organic processes that will, uh, kind of, um, you know, um, prevent, um, organism to come. But we don't know the long term consequences of that. Again, with us, it's, it's definitely out of this box of, um, you know, harming or, or deterring, uh, growth. But by, you know, having a direct action on the on, on the, on the medium, on the on, on the, on the target, I would say. So it, it's a very different approach. It's a mechanical anti fouling. Just, Just

Abigail (23:25):

so it's an approach that has also gotten you, uh, quite a few accolades recently. That's true. Tell me about Top Gun.

Bernard (23:33):

Yeah, so Top Gun is actually, uh, I would say the top of the iceberg. Um, so, um, yeah, I was very fortunate to be selected for, uh, Top Gun, um, the, um, um, main center for entrepreneurs here in the Maine. And, um, it was also following the fact that last year, um, I was selected as one of the three, um, Maine companies participating to Cleantech Open, uh, Nationwide. Um, I really enjoyed that program with the Maine center of entrepreneurs because it's a small cohort. We were 26, uh, companies and there was, uh, you know, it's 15 weeks. Um, you connect to, uh, uh, you know, a lot of mentors based in Maine. Um, and basically we are still in touch. So despite the fact that one, and obviously some people are disappointed, uh, it's, we still be in touch and we, some of them actually we collaborate directly because some people are in Aquaculture, um, on, on fishery sectors. So this is a natural collaboration, but even people, uh, wider than that. So that was what happened last month. And, um, at the same time or two weeks before, uh, in France, we got actually a bigger aard. Um, it's, it's a competition that's called, uh, Ocean Pitch Challenge, and it's co-organized with by, uh, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, which is based out of the West coast and the French ministry for the Sea, because yes, we have a French ministry for the Sea

Abigail (25:00):

<laugh>, of course you do

Bernard (25:00):

Yes. That's right So, uh, Mario was the one, uh, representing Finsulate there and we won the, uh, the big prize. So it was 86 competitors, so that's a big one. But also there were special prizes this year, and we got two out of three, which were biomimicry and, um, and biodiversity. So this is a big boost for us. But going back in time, uh, Rick was awarded, um, uh, European Inventor of the Year by the, um, European Patent Office, uh, in, back in 2019. So yes, it's a area of our world. Yeah. 

 

VO: It’s not surprising this idea has been recognized so widely and I’m sure there’s more to come. We’ll continue my conversation with Bernard  in just a moment. 

 

BREAK: Spark no 9 & Maine Venture Fund

 

VO: Welcome back to to Happy Planet. 

Abigail (01:12):

Bernard, you are a French entrepreneur living now in Maine, the state that most resembles your home province of Brittany. Can you tell me a little bit more of how you ended up here from France?

Bernard (01:25):

Yeah, so first of all, I need to make a slight correction. So, um, originally from south of Brittany and the area is called Vendee and people are very, you know, picky about that. <laugh>. But Yes. Britanny [fair enough] Yeah, Britain is really the place where, um, I've been developing business for the last probably 12 years, uh, in different sectors. And, um, and the reason I'm landed in Maine in a way, uh, four years ago is not linked to the business I was involved in, which is, um, uh, actually biofuel, uh, biogas from, uh, from waste and, uh, and building, uh, circular economy systems, but it's more linked to my family history. And, um, I lived in the US at the end of the nineties, met my wife, uh, then took her from her family and, and we spent 17 years in, in London, UK. Uh, the four years ago, uh, my in-laws, uh, faced some, uh, difficulties, health problems, and we decided to pack up and come here and build a house and put three generations to the same roof. And despite the, um, uh, prognosis that was not so good for, especially for my mother-in-law, uh, we are still all together. So basically we've got, uh, parents, grandparents and, uh, and, and grandchildren, uh, altogether in, in Maine, in Yarmouth. And that's the reason I came here. And the thing I heard when I came here four years ago is BYOJ bring your own job. So that's what I've been working on.

Abigail (03:04):

<laugh>. Well, uh, that's a, that's a, I I've heard that too about Maine. People from who come from away need to generally bring their own job, but then there's people like you are creating jobs. I think Maine has some exciting things going on right now that you're tapping into.

Abigail (26:02):

That leads us to our next question. How are you gonna roll this out? And are there any bottlenecks? 

Bernard (26:09):

There are bottlenecks. Um, just to give you an example, we did the first, uh, boat in Aquaculture, um, like, uh, probably a month ago, uhbut then we faced the fact that we got demand for our next one, and, uh, we couldn't find people to do the, the sun blasting, solar blasting for removing the paint. So I think in every sector, uh, you face the same problem with, uh, availability of qualified staff. Uh, however, the first boat gave us the opportunity to train people that will be, uh, Finsulate installers. So we go step by step. What we are looking at to do at the moment is actually, um, strike some, um, partnerships with Boatyards and Marinas because this is the natural partners to be able to have one among the different offers they have as services to have the Finsulate wrap as a service, as well as having any other service they provide to their, uh, clients.

Bernard (27:12):

So this is where I think we'll be able to, um, tackle on this issue of, uh, what we see everywhere in the supply chains or in the, in the work environment, is the lack of people at the time you need them. And especially when you deal with aquaculture, uh, you need to realize that these people, uh, need to minimize their time of getting the boat out of the water and being able to put it back when they want. And this is where we need to be, uh, good at serving them. Uh, but in Maine, again, uh, we've got a lot of boats in leisure boats and, uh, that will get out of the water in November December for the winter. And, uh, we hope, and we are building everything at the moment to have a efficient website, a full team, able to answer questions and, and, and study every case, uh, by probably early September, uh, to be able to book on this work during winter and use facilities that would be, uh, winterized, so where we can do our installation, uh, in the perfect way.

Abigail (28:12):

Amazing. So is this gonna be a self-funded project or do you fundraise? How, how do you create the, the capital that you need to do this rollout?

Bernard (28:21):

Yeah, we, we will raise the money when we decide to do it. Um, I'm very, um, I I've got a lot of interest from people, uh, because they love the idea. Um, it's, it's very important for us to, at the moment, really like to group after having won this, uh, very, you know, important, uh, award with the, um, with the Top Gun program. Uh, and now we are actually building the structure, um, uh, hiring people and making sure we can start something and getting the structure right and, and being able to have the service that we, uh, we can deliver. And so, um, I think the next two, three months for every three months, yes, we will be back and, and start raising capital based on

Abigail (29:06):

<inaudible>. I'm sure you're gonna have good luck with that. Um, so, you know, I've heard you speak on many different times and you, you, you speak very thoroughly and interestingly on the topic of innovation. So I was kind of curious today, can you tell our listeners what you think makes a good innovation? Um, specifically you mentioned the French philosopher Gabriel Tarde and the social responsibility that goes along with, with, um, innovation, just talk about a bit about that.

Bernard (29:41):

if you look at the history of the world, it's quite striking. It's like up to the 16th century, being an innovator was someone who was actually almost a heretic and someone breaking from the system. Um, I must say in some of my activities, I'm not talking about Finsulate, but in France, at times I feel like heretic, especially when, uh, you know, I allow like farmers to break, uh, from, uh, the system where they have to get their fertilizer from imports and, and they can produce their own energy. Um, it's not always welcome. So probably we at sometimes we are like back before the 16th century, um, since then it has been seen as something new, uh, but in a positive way. Uh, but it's true, like, um, there was this window in the 19th century, uh, when this philosopher described it as something that needs to be for the common good.

Bernard (30:39):

Um, I think the 20th century and, um, I would say the, I mean the development of, you know, market economy and capitalism has made it more something that you see through like the same kind of canvas. Now that everyone has an mba, um, it needs to go through, um, the selection of the Excel spreadsheet. But, but, but this, you know, uh, common good, uh, aspect is kind of at times lost in the picture. what really drives me is to be able to do something where I think we, you know, that's something, uh, impactful. Um, I want, I don't think at, uh, individual level you can change the world, but we can all do something, um, at all level at, uh, and everyone can be an innovator, and that's really my conviction. It's, yeah, I think it shouldn't be coined as something, you know, where you need to be, um, at MIT or having a degree of anything. It's everyone can have an impact on the people around them, and that can be just saying hello and smiling to people and ask them how they doing today. You know, it's everything is, you know, important.

Abigail (32:05):

Well, I appreciate that sort of global perspective on, on innovation and entrepreneurship. So you, you touched on something that I'm really interested in because I've been working with startups in France and the US and working with investors in, in both, uh, in both continents. And I'm wondering, do you feel like there's a difference in attitudes in, in entrepreneurship and startup culture in Europe and the United States? And if so, what could they be?

Bernard (32:38):

I think France has progressed, um, uh, spectacularly over the last 10 years in terms of, uh, I would say mimicking what's going on in, in the US. Um, however, uh, France remains a very different, um, you know, um, context in terms of, um, support to, um, you know, companies tax system, et cetera, etcetera. There are like important efforts, um, done in order to promote, um, you know, the, the emergence of startups. Uh, I think the big problem probably for France is to be able to keep them in France. Uh, what I mean by that is, uh, France has become a very attractive, uh, economy, uh, for investment. But, uh, when you dig up a bit, uh, you realize that actually a lot of that money is, um, is coming from outside

Bernard (33:46):

it's that people, um, are able to, um, to understand that they're taking a risk, but being okay with it, which is not in the kind of natural European culture, and probably even less in the French culture. So basically it's like, okay, we think we have an idea, we might fail, but that's okay. Fail failure is not such a big issue in the US context. I think in the US culture. In France, it can mark you for life.

Abigail (34:35):

For Sure. And I've seen a lot of encouragement around this notion that failure is okay in France, and I think that's, it's very refreshing and it's very liberating.

Bernard (34:45):

Yeah. it seems that the new generation has understood that actually what, what, what's there to, to lose, You know, what, what's the big deal? You know, go for it. You've got an idea, go for it. And yeah, it's emerging now, but, uh, but it, it's a big evolution compared to, I would say 10 years ago even. Yeah.

Bernard (37:47):

Um, I mean, again, it's, uh, you know, America is always the, um, the leader on, on show the way in good and bad, uh, I mean in terms of habits, consumption, database cetera. So I think France is definitely, you know, aiming at, um, you know, replicating what's being done in the US. Uh, um, however, would think on, on on the side, I would say there is at the local level. But this is also what I find in Maine, which I find interesting, uh, interest for, uh, long term investing for, um, uh, projects or companies that would have, uh, you know, uh, systemic impact and social benefits for an area. 

Bernard (39:11):

But, uh, but otherwise it's also, um, you know, like look at Maine, it's, uh, how many banks do you have in Maine, because it's coming from this, uh, mutual kind of, you know, small community building a bank to help each other. My my parents, my grandpa, my parents, my father were head of the local community bank in my village, and people would, uh, put their money together to help, uh, you know, someone finance a newborn or, and, and so this is still, I think, ingrained in the, in the, in, in, in the mentality of Maine.

Bernard (40:08):

And that's why you still have like a network of so many different, like, uh, banking institutions. So yes, so there is that, and I hope that this in a way needs obviously to be optimized and, and but, but the, this quality of, uh, contact and approach between, uh, finances or investors and the companies that, uh, they, they will, you know, help, uh, grow is very important. You need, we need not to end up into a, you know, a big system. And, uh, I've, I've seen that done somewhere else, and it's not the perfect way. I think this proximity is very important.

Abigail (40:47):

Yes, I do think that Maine has a particular interest and, uh, appetite right now for investing locally and building long term companies that are gonna create jobs so that not everybody has to bring their own job to Maine, as you mentioned earlier. Yeah,

Bernard (41:01):

no, I think it changing,

What advice would you give to fellow entrepreneurs who are looking to be entrepreneurs or who are getting, getting their hands dirty in the entrepreneurial sector?

Bernard (44:02):

Yeah, my advice is, I don't have advice, just, just go with your guts. Um, I think it's, um, you know, you have an idea, especially if you're in the US you'll find support and if you are in Maine, you'll find even more support. Um, I'm positive about that. There's such a fantastic structure here of, uh, institutions and, uh, and organizations to help you to provide value support and, um, and score and, and chambers of commerce. Uh, and then again, uh, Maine center for entrepreneurs. Um, I'm with the New England and Cluster, which I have been actually fantastic people, and I'm so happy to have been, been with them from the start, from the onset. Um, I mean, again, name it, there's so many people around this great, um, pool of mentors, uh, in all these competitions like I was mentioning, like the Top Gun and the others.

Bernard (44:55):

This is people who are ready like to talk to you and give you an advice and see how it goes. 

 

CONCLUSION

VO: It was a pleasure to chat with Bernard and I am very happy to report that since we spoke, Bernard has landed several clients and is now starting to raise money to hire new sales people. I unexpectedly ran into Bernard at the Newport International Boat Show in September - he had a Finsulate booth and was making quite a splash. For more information about Finsulate, check out the links in our show notes. I certainly wish him great success so that we can put an end to toxic and plastic laden antifouling methods.

 

Thank you for listening. Please follow the Happy Planet Podcast wherever you listen and leave us a rating and review - it really helps new listeners discover the show. 

 

Happy Planet Podcast was reported and hosted by Abigail Carroll. I am the Executive Producer. The talented Dylan Heuer [hoyer] is our producer and editor. Composer GEORG BRANDL EGOFF created our theme music.

 

Learn more about my work and get in touch by visiting happyplanetcapital.com.