Group Lead, Ved Krishna
Hello, hello! This is a very special episode – as we have are first in-person interview – straight from the headquarters of Notpla in London – it’s their Co-Founder and Co-CEO Pierre Paslier! We’ve been huge fans of Pierre’s for a long time, so having him on the show is such an honor. To hear him t
0:00 – Introduction to Notpla and the Seaweed Packaging Mission
Pierre, co-founder of Notpla, explains the company’s mission: replacing single-use plastic with packaging made from seaweed, a material that is abundant, fast-growing, and biodegrades in weeks without leaving microplastics.
10:00 – Creative Thinking, Architecture, and Unconventional Problem-Solving
Pierre’s architectural background and his co-founder Rodrigo’s similar training shaped Notpla’s culture. They approached packaging as a design problem rather than a chemistry problem, starting from first principles instead of looking for incremental improvements on existing formats.
20:00 – Open Innovation and the Unexpected Origins of Notpla
Notpla grew out of a period of open, crowdsourced experimentation that produced the Ooho edible water bubble. Pierre explains how that spirit of sharing findings publicly and iterating with a global community has stayed with the company.
30:00 – The Science of Seaweed as a Packaging Material
Seaweed has naturally film-forming properties that make it well suited for packaging. Pierre explains the chemistry, the processing challenges, and the performance properties of seaweed-based materials. The question isn’t whether it works, it’s whether it scales.
41:00 – Seaweed Is Already Everywhere — From Beer Foam to Toothpaste
Seaweed-derived ingredients already appear in hundreds of consumer products, from beer foam to toothpaste. Pierre explains how that established industrial use validates the feedstock’s safety and scalability for packaging applications.
51:00 – Scaling Seaweed Packaging Manufacturing
Moving from prototype to factory is the hardest challenge for any novel materials company. Pierre explains where Notpla sits on the manufacturing journey and why the supply side of seaweed farming matters as much as the processing technology.
61:00 – Surviving as a Deep-Tech Startup — Waves and Timing
Deep-tech startups live and die by timing. Pierre talks about navigating multiple funding cycles, shifting market conditions, and what it takes to keep a long-term vision alive when short-term pressures push in different directions.
71:00 – Policy as a Lever for Seaweed Packaging Adoption
EU legislation defining plastic broadly, including bioplastics, has created market pull for genuinely natural polymer solutions. Pierre explains how certain regulations are actively driving demand for Notpla and why policy is one of the company’s most powerful commercial catalysts.
Let’s come together!
